Friend in the Stars.

There weren’t always dragons in the Valley, but that’s because they always knew where to hide. What rocks best matched their scales, where the clouds obscured the careless eye of a villager and the quietest part of the sky to seek refuge. Many had thought dragons to be extinct were it not for a handful of calculated appearances from the omnipotent creatures, for to be extinct would mean to accept defeat, which a dragon simply would not do. The nature of dragons was unmatched by any other creature. Not the giants, the sphinxes or the genies could match their self-interest or self-preservation, their cunning and intelligence. It has always been hard to tell if dragons would be classified as evil or good beings; some considered them an extension of the Goddess Avadi and sent here to do their will, whereas others thought they were Avadi in a new form.

This is what my friend told me the first night I met him.

“What do you think?” he asked me.

I blinked in confusion at him.

“What do you mean?” I fiddled with the hem on my skirt, brushing off some of the loose snow.

“Do you think I am an extension of Avadi, or do you think I am Avadi?” he repeated, his silvery eyes widening and glistening.

I had, and have never, seen a creature so breathtaking and awesome, yet so quiet in their demeanour. It didn’t seem like it was possible, but here he was.

Ivthrax.

“Um, I think you’re…just you,” I replied.

He mirrored my blinking confusion.

“What do you mean?” If he had eyebrows, they would have been furrowed in that moment.

“Well, I don’t think you’re an extension of Avadi or Avadi themselves. To think that you’re Avadi might be considered blasphemy, and it wouldn’t really be fair of them to ask something like that of me. Don’t you think?” I answered, my fingers gently tracing his scales.

He said nothing but bowed his head, which I took to mean continue.

“There’s nothing in Avadi’s teachings to say that’s how they want people to think of them, so it wouldn’t make sense for them to make it a test. Plus, if Avadi wanted people to talk to them, as an extension or as them, wouldn’t they want to pick something less scary?” The moonlight reflected softly off his royal blue scales. “Do they always look this pretty?” I asked him.

“Especially at night, little one,” he answered, the smile clear in his voice.

“So – I don’t think you’re Avadi at all. I think you’re you,” I said. “I’d want to be you, if I were you,” I pulled my hand away from his scales. “But I am me, so I can’t be you,” I concluded before hopping down on a nearby rock.

He nodded carefully and was silent while he processed my answer.

“It has been some time since I spoke with a little one,” he said softly, looking to the stars.

“I’m not that little, I’m twelve!” I retorted.

“My deepest apologies, I would never underestimate or undermine you,” he replied as he bowed his head.

“I don’t know what those words mean but thank you,” I bowed my head back, to which he chortled, his voice carried by the falling snow.

“Are you not scared by me?” he asked me.

I gave him a good look.

His claws were huge and so were his teeth, his folded wings were too hard to measure but I had a feeling they would be equally huge, if not bigger.

“Nope,” I said decidedly. “You could have already eaten me and flown off, but you haven’t. A green one might have, but or maybe a white one, but you seem okay so far,”.

“I do often butt heads with the green ones, so your assessment is not entirely unfounded,” my friend agreed.

We sat together for a few more minutes watching the snow fall from the stars.

“Do you like us?” I asked him.

He repeated the confused blinking.

“What a most peculiar question…it is not one I think I have ever been asked before,” he tiled his head and closed his eyes.

“Is that a big question? Sometimes when I ask questions Mama or Papa will call it a “Big Question,” and say I have to wait for the answer. You can think about it if you like,” I offered him.

“That is very kind of you, I think I may do this. It is definitely what you have called a “Big Question,”” he accepted, his eyes twinkling.

I started drawing some flowers in the snow, my gloves getting colder with each stroke.

“So…what makes you different from the others?” I asked him.

He broke out of his wistful gaze towards the dark blue night sky and lowered his huge, scaly blue head to me, his silvery eyes blending into the stars behind him.

“Because, little one, I am not different from my kind. You would do well to remember that,”.

Before I could say anything else he raised his head and inhaled before ascending from the grass we sat on and flew away in the night.

I did not see him for another year, almost exactly to the same moon shape and constellations. The stars seemed brighter that night, almost bursting with light and their corners beaming, but I couldn’t tell if that was due to the night sky being darker than it had been lately. What had once been soft shades of blues and purples had deepened to navy and magenta, the sun hesitating to rise in the morning and all too eager to set in the evening.

“I did not think you would want to see me again, little one,” he said.

“I wasn’t sure I wanted to – I came out here almost every night wanting to talk to you,” I replied, not meeting his eyes.

He did not say anything but I could feel his eyes still on me, an inviting gaze rather than intense.

“More people are talking about…um…you know…,” I trailed off, moving my gaze from the grass to my hands, which had a few more scars since last time he visited.

“Are those from the Hunts?” he asked with a slight chuckle.

“No!” I cried, my eyes snapping up to meet his, which has a slight mischievous twinkle in them as opposed to my fearful ones. “I actually picked up knitting, it’s been getting colder recently, or maybe you haven’t noticed,” I said hastily.

“Well, as a cold dragon I personally have not, although my friends who prefer warmer climates have definitely observed an adjustment. Is it significant?” he asked.

“It’s making some things harder, our food’s a bit more limited cause everything keeps frosting over and the soil isn’t as reliable for growing more, plus Papa says the cold is bad for firewood,” I explained.

Sometimes he forgets that I’m just a person and have different worries from him.

“That sounds like a lot for one person to have to go through,” he replied after a few moments of contemplative silence.

“It’s okay, I have my sister who’s really good at magic, so she can make some of that stuff easier, like make small little fires and get the soil stronger,” I shrugged.

“Do you have any magic like that?” he asked me, his head gently tilting.

“Nope. Makes sense that Levi would get it, she’s really special, Papa and Mama keep saying so. Sometimes they sound angry about it though. Here ya go,” I held my hand out to him and showed him the small leaf chain I had absentmindedly been making while we spoke.

He blinked in surprise at the gesture and lowered his head to sniff it.

“You were not looking at that at all as you spoke to me,” he observed.

I shrugged again and began fidgeting with the loose fabric strands on my gloves, the loosest falling into the cold grass.

“Why did you think I would not see you again?” he asked, almost a little too quickly.

I cleared me throat and continued to fidget with my gloves.

“I was worried you would think I joined in the Hunts. That’s why I thought you weren’t coming to visit,” I whispered.

He let out a relieved chuckle, the sound of it echoing through the Valley.

“Little one of course I did not think you joined in the Hunt. Or at least willingly,” he added.

I raised my eyebrows at him and furrowed them.

“Truthfully, I was worried you would join the Hunt not out of choice, but force,” he explained.

“Ivthrax I would never, ever do that to you!” I exclaimed.

“You would be surprised how many have said that to me over my 400 years, little one. Time and time again there are humans too scared and too fearful to defy the louder voices of their leaders, and time and time again they are not often presented with an alternative. Why do you think you have never seen another dragon but me?” he asked thoughtfully.

I looked away from him and bit my bottom lip.

“I didn’t even mean to see you,” I whispered.

“And that, little one, is the biggest difference of it all,” he whispered back.

Just like that night a year ago, he lifted his head, exhaled cold air and flew into the night beyond, leaving me in the cold snow with an incomplete grass bracelet.

Another year passed before I saw my friend again. Levi’s magic was getting better, or so Mama and Papa kept saying, but some people weren’t thrilled by this. They’d been getting more suspicious of her powers and other people like her.

Not me though. I was safe from that.

The Hunts continued and vigour of the participants grew with each night. Recent kills had expanded to hags, a banshee and one werewolf, although the last one did take out some of the people. They made a song about the werewolf and I caught the last bars of it as I snuck over the village wall to the regular meeting spot.

“And with the final blow poor Cail was gone,

Replaced by the beast of the moon

As he tore and slashed those he knew

His hatred for them only grew.

With the plunge of the silver, it was hard to tell

Who of us died first,

Was it poor violent Cail who hit the ground,

or our hearts that broke without a sound,”

Cail had been a friend of Papa’s. His heart broke when he found out what happened to him. The singing faded with me as I sank into the night with the snow softly crunching beneath my feet. My bundle of leaves made little difference in covering my tracks with snow but I’d made it three years without anyone following me, or maybe when they saw I was seeing a dragon they wanted nothing to do with me. I didn’t mind either way, but there were sometimes part of me that wanted to share my friendship with Ivthrax. Then again, Ivthrax still only saw me once a year, always on the same night with the same stars. Unlike the two previous years, he was waiting for me this time when I got there, his enormous head perking up as he heard my footsteps.

“Ivthrax!” I cried with excitement as I raced towards him, footprints be damned.

“It is good to see you too little one,” he replied just as cheerfully, his head reaching down to me when I got to him and I threw my arms around him.

“I’ve been looking forward to seeing you, I’ve got so much I want to tell you about!” I said as I still embraced him.

“This is good to hear, as I also have much to tell you. But, you tell me first,” he replied.

Then he did something he’d never done before and outstretched his claws in the same way that a human would hold out a hand to be held.

I beamed even more at him and leapt into it, where he repositioned and held me close to his face.

“Are you comfortable?” he asked.

I nodded and he smiled.

“Now then. Where to begin?”

“Well, my sister’s powers are getting better which is super cool, but I think she’s getting a little scared for her Ritual – you know, the thing where you do a bunch of tests and stuff for magic or something,” I explained.

“Yes, I have seen many successes of those who participate. I wish your sister well,” he said.

“I will tell her you said that. Or maybe I shouldn’t…I’ll just wish her extra luck. Anyway so she’s got that going on so it’s taking up a lot of time from Mama and Papa, but that’s okay because she needs them, and a lot of people are getting angry with them for using magic, I don’t get why it’s a problem now cause it was fine last year and the year before, what do you think?” I said without pause.

Ivthrax had been nodding along slowly throughout my recounts but seemed more interested about the magic use.

“Well, as you know I am rather old, so I have seen the rise and fall of many cultures and traditions. Magic has been the most controversial of them all, I remember a time when the Rituals did not exist,”.

“Really?! What would happen?” I squealed.

“Tragedy, little one. There were was not enough guidance for those who struggled or education for those who feared it. It was horrible,” he remarked, his voice the most mournful I had ever heard it.

His expression drooped and his eyes glazed with memories of past days, momentarily lost to me.

“It must be hard for you, being this old,”. I observed, “You have to see so many things happen and the same mistakes being made. Is it frustrating?”

He blinked and the corners of his mouth softly turned upwards.

“You do know how to ask the Big Questions, don’t you?” he replied.

We chuckled together at that and looked to the sky, the clouds obscuring most of the stars and the moon barely glimmering through.

“I feel more disappointed than frustrated, I think. I feel disappointed that beings as powerful as dragons can do so little in helping the lives of your kind, as we are so feared, but even more so that beings who are considered more favourable to you do not try to help either,” he answered while looking to the sky.

“That makes sense. I can see why they don’t though, we don’t make it easy for us when we go for Hunts every full moon,” I said, sitting up straighter in his claw. “I wouldn’t want to help people who keep putting bounties on my head. They aren’t even good ones!” I cried.

“It is at that point my disappointment ends and my frustration begins, however all hope is not lost,” he turned to me and the small smile he’d been holding grew bigger. “Your family are very lucky to have you, even if you don’t know it,”.

I snuggled into the claw and kept looking at the clouds.

“You often tell me a lot about your family or the other people you live with, but never much about you. Are you still knitting?” he asked.

“I knitted the scarf I’m wearing and the gloves, they’re very warm,” I replied. “Mama thinks I might be able to move to skirts soon cause I’m getting really good, but she hasn’t had time to show me how to do it,” I sighed.

“Does it upset you that your parents are so busy with your sister, but not you?” Ivthrax asked cautiously.

“Sometimes. I don’t want them to know though cause then they might feel bad, and I don’t want that. Papa’s been hanging out with me a lot more which is nice and there are loads of kids my age,” I replied, but my happiness gently dwindled as I spoke.

“That is a very mature thing of you to do. I do not think your Mama and Papa would be upset if you asked to spend more time with though,” he pondered. “They sound like good, kind people. And they must be because you are a good, kind person. For instance, you have never asked me how much my scales would sell for, or a claw, or what a reasonable bounty would be for me,” he joked.

“I can ask you next time if you like,” I joked back.

“I already know the answer – one single dragon scale is 2000 gold pieces, a claw is worth 3000 gold, so a reasonable bounty would be more money than either of us could ever imagine, even for someone as old as me,” he answered with a hearty chortle.

Stunned, I stared back at the clouds.

“I think there’s a girl I like,” I blurted out.

“Oh! How exciting! Tell me about her!” Ivthrax cheered.

“Well, she has bright curly red hair and lots of freckles, she can run really fast like me and is really smart, she’s liked the socks I knitted for her and I see her wear them all the time so I know she means it. We play together a lot,” I said breathlessly as I imagined her face. “Her name’s Vera, she’s so cool,” I sighed.

“Vera…that is not a name I have heard often. She must be someone special,” he said.

“She is special. And I think she thinks I’m special too, or at the very least likes me. I thought that maybe only I liked her, but she comes over a lot to see me too,” I gushed.

“I am glad you have found someone for you,” he said happily. “It is those connections that your kind are so renowned for developing, even creatures like dragons and giants are envious, but don’t tell anyone I said that. I would never live it down,”.

“I’m glad too,” I agreed before falling back into comfortable silence.

We sat in silence for about twenty minutes, listening to the soft blowing of the wind and the snow caressing my cheek. The clouds were still too dense to see through, their potent greys covering the shimmering sky that I knew was hiding behind it. It was comforting enough to know they were there while I was here with my friend.

“Little one?” his voice croaked through the quiet.

I turned to face him rather than speak.

“I think…I think I do like your kind,” he said plainly.

I perched up on my elbow and faced him more directly.

“I have been thinking about your Big Question since you asked it that night, but I wanted to give you a fair answer. You seemed like someone who deserved a fair answer, and I still believe that to be the case,” he continued. “I’ve seen your kind do many wonderful things, like growing herbs to help the sick and using wood to make those little houses you can keep warm in, it marvels me,” his smile fell. “But then I see the same people who make the herbs and the houses grab their swords and bows and Hunt every moon, fighting creatures for no other reason than fear. Some are valid fears of course, but the ones that have become more…desirable would not fall into that category. Some Hunts are dangerous, like that werewolf one earlier this evening,” he remarked.

“Papa knew Cail before he became that. Said he was really nice,” I nodded.

“They usually are,” Ivthrax sighed. “So, I think I like your kind and the potential, but they do frighten me. There is no greater threat to them than themselves,” he concluded.

His gaze went down to where my home was and he squinted at it, his nostrils flaring more than they had before.

“Little one, I think you should get back home,” he said sternly.

“Why, what do you see?” I asked quickly.

“It would seem in your haste to see me, your footprints made it easier to be followed,” he said even more sternly. “I will see you again my friend, but not if they catch you with me. You must go. Now!” he ordered before taking immediate flight with a speed I had never seen before.

Following I raced down the mountain and fled back in the direction of the village, following my own footsteps. I couldn’t see people approaching, which was a good sign, but Ivthrax had much better eyesight than me.

“Come on come on come on!” I instructed myself, willing for the speed I knew I had.

I felt my legs increasing their distance and my feet bouncing off the ground more quickly, my eyes fixed forwards. I was so focused on getting back that I nearly missed a glint of blue streaking above me followed by wafting clouds drifting towards me. My legs slowed down slightly as I got a more clear bearing of my surroundings as the clouds settled in.

“Crap…,” I muttered as I glanced around, my eyes catching the snow below me.

The clouds danced on the footprints and removed them as they moved along. Brows furrowed, I took two steps and watched the fog twist behind me and wipe away the evidence of my travels.

“Thank you,” I smiled at the sky, the blue streak gone from sight.

I resumed my pace of speeding home praying the fog could keep up. The few glances I stole behind me provide I had nothing to worry about in that area. I knew I was getting closer to home as I could smell the food from the Hunts and the flowing ale, the singing carrying on from when I left in a considerably happier tune. I could hear some concerned voices hissing about me, clearly frustrated about the now missing footprints.

“I’m telling you they were right here, I haven’t seen her all night!”

“Is it any of your business?” A cold voice replied.

Uh oh.

“Well, no but,-”

“Then leave it. When I see her, I’ll talk to her. Leave it alone Emrin,” the same voice said.

“Levi are you really not worried? No one has seen her all night, not even at the Hunt,”

“Nav is perfectly capable of taking care of herself. Plus she’s quicker than anyone here, if she’s in trouble she’ll be out of it before anyone’s noticed. Keep an eye out for her if you absolutely have to, but let me handle it,” Levi pressed.

A cold silence passed between them and I heard Emrin walk away as he muttered under his breath, Levi staying silent.

A few more moments passed and I heard her follow him, also cursing under her breath. I breathed a sigh of relief and climbed over the wall, landing without a sound. I crept towards the party and was just about to integrate myself when I felt my elbow tugged on and being pulled away.

It turned out Levi had better hearing than I thought she did.

“Ow ow ow!” I yelped.

“You’re lucky this is all I am doing to you – where the hells have you been?!” she scolded, still dragging me away.

“I went for a walk,” I lied.

We reached a quieter part of the gathering, the fire warming us from a distance.

“That much is obvious – where’d you go? Who’d you see? Are you okay?” she pestered.

“I wandered around the valley, I didn’t see anyone and I am fine, thank you,” I snapped.

“Are you sure?” she pressed.

“Yes I’m sure! Why, what’s going on?” I rubbed my elbow and furrowed my brow.

Levi glanced around to see how far away the nearest person was, her purple eyes illuminated by the soft fire.

“Look – Emrin thought he saw something when the Hunt was on, something big that could fly. You definitely didn’t see anything on your wander?” she asked, sounding more scared this time.

Ivthrax.

“No I didn’t. I would have come back running to find you if I did,” I answered, not entirely meeting her gaze.

She held it for a few moments, her eyes scanning my expression looking for cracks or twitches.

“If you hear anything, just…keep it to yourself, okay? Everyone’s getting a little too eager to grab their blunt swords,” she muttered.

She started to turn away but paused before turning back and giving me a big huge, her arms completely enveloping me and her head pressed next to mine.

“I’m glad you’re here and okay,” she whispered.

I simply squeezed her back with all my strength.

“Also I think Vera is looking for you, she was over there last I saw,” Levi smirked as she pointed to the food area, where Vera indeed was, her red hair only matched by the red of the flames and her laugh heightened by the exuberant energy around her.

I felt a little shove behind me as Levi pushed me towards her, giggling to herself.

“Okay…,” I murmured to myself.

As I walked closer to the fire I felt a cool comforting breeze wash past me, coming from above.

I looked up and once again saw the familiar blue streak paint itself through the grey clouds, the stars finally showing themselves next to the moon. Strengthened by my friend, and grateful for his current safety, I bounded over to Vera and grabbed her hands.

‘Hi!” I exclaimed.

She beamed back at me, her green eyes shining in the light of the fire.