Fire in Water

There weren’t always dragons in the valley. It was the year 1650 when they first arrived. The queen of dragons swash buckled her way from the high seas to the valleys in France. It was she who was the cause of the dragons ending up in the valley.

She who wound up washed ashore with just her dragon eggs, sword, and the clothes on her back. With nowhere left to go, she would have to stay here and forge her own path. Start over and build a new life for herself. With thoughts on what she will need to do in order to survive, she straightened her shoulders and put one foot in front of the other. She would walk a bit further inland to find a place where she could settle. A place she could claim as her own. She looked down at her eggs and had a slight moment of doubt, wondering if these eggs were even dragon eggs at all. Or had she been duped again? She had undoubtedly fallen a long way from grace. It had just been a few short weeks ago she had been a most feared pirate, which was no small feat given her gender.

She had a long walk ahead of her to get inland enough to stake her own piece of land. Her mind wandered back to the last several weeks with each step she took. The betrayal of her best friend, her first mate. The whole reason she is penniless, shipless, and marooned to this God-forsaken land. She thinks with a scowl. She shakes her head to clear her mind of those thoughts that make her blood boil with red-hot anger. She thinks back over her life so far. All that she has accomplished in her young twenty years of life. It has been a full life, she thinks with a wry smile. From humble beginnings in Ireland to a most feared pirate and then being humbled again. Yes, life was undoubtedly cyclical. She looked down at the eggs again, feeling protective of them. She was Phoenix and would rise from the ashes; only this time, she would have dragons with her.

After about an hour of walking, she finally stopped. She would settle here, she decided. It was in the valley. No one else was around. Just her and her three dragon eggs. This would be a nice place to raise her dragons, she thought to herself. Plenty of room for them to grow. She looked around her surroundings and saw wildlife that she could hunt and freshwater streams for fresh fish and water sources. Wild berries are ripe for plucking. Yes, she would do just fine here. The first thing she needed to do was make a nest for the eggs.

Once the nest was complete, she gently placed her three eggs in the newly built nest. As she set them down, she noticed a crack in one of the eggs. Was it really hatching? She closely inspected the other two eggs and realized, with much glee, that they also had cracks. All three were hatching. She watched with wonder as the cracks grew bigger and bigger. Soon a head popped out of the egg, and the smallest of dragons fought to be free of the egg. She gently picked him up to get a closer look at him and decided on the name Dante. She kissed his little head and looked over just in time to see the next dragon breaking free of its shell. She picked it up and noticed she had another boy whom she would name Blaise. Now she just needed to wait for the fate of the third egg. To keep up with the brothers, the third dragon popped her head out of the egg and effortlessly broke free of the confines of the egg. She may have been the last born and the smallest but was already proving to be mighty. She shall be named Brigit. With tears in her eyes and overwhelming feelings of maternal protectiveness, she cuddled her newborn dragons. She would be their mother. She would be the queen of dragons and once again the most feared pirate on the high seas.

Just how did she end up with dragon eggs? Through epic adventure, piracy, swashbuckling, and a fearless pirate heroine who lived far ahead of her time. So, the story goes……