Her Dragons

There weren’t always dragons in the valley. There was a time where the valley was full of light and life, void of the darkness that comes with dragons.

I stand in the tree line at the opening to the valley. The cloak that covers me masks my presence, rendering me invisible. The cloak that I silently plead my father does not notice is missing from the wardrobe in his office, for his wrath is far worse than the fire erupting from the emerald green mouth I see up ahead.

Before bed, as a child, my mother would always tell me stories of when dragons were introduced to the valley. “Her dragons,” she called them.

“My son, my dragons have been turned into a picture of evil. They are called ‘the darkness’ for they are misunderstood. Fear has been instilled in people, because dragons are powerful. Anything that can be more powerful than a person, more powerful than a human, humans call that evil. Do you know what dragons are, my son? Dragons are a part of nature, and nature, when you bow down to it, will smile back at you.”

My mother talked about her dragons through out my entire childhood. I did not grow up fearing how evil dragons were. I did not see the darkness that everyone else saw. My mother taught me how to bow down to nature, and nature smiled upon me, but as she said each day, “It must be our secret.”

I will forever hear the words sung from my mothers lips, the same words that she sang to her dragons each day. Her favorite story was of the time she found the first dragon in the valley, Solus. Years after Solus was grown, my mothers sweet voice sang to me each night as I grew inside of her. The same song she learned from her dragons is the song she sang to me from the moment she knew of me. Those words now echo in my dreams years after her disappearance.

May the sun shine through each dark cloud

Bring you light

Bring you life

Create joy, my child

May the trees bring you shade

Provide air for you to breathe

May you rest in their shadows

And eat from their leaves

May your soul shine brightly

Bring light and life, as the sun

May your wisdom grow tall

as a mighty oak on the horizon

May you find joy in your pain

May you find light in the dark

Live not for yourself

But on adventures, embark

Be well my child

Be well

Spread your light to the sea

Bring your light to the darkness

Be well, and find me

Her voice and her stories carried on through my dreams; these memories are all that I have left of her. The same dreams each night, the same stories she told me through out my youth. Each day I’m able to write down a little more, and I know that one day these stories will bring me back to her.

Hidden under my cloak, I sit down in the valley and I write in the secret journal my mother had shown me before her disappearance. Written in bold letters on the front was her name, 'Dahlia'. She had been documenting her experience with her dragons, and I now keep the journal alive filling it with the secrets she tells me in my dreams.

To the world, my cloak hides me from the unwanted beasts, but the dragons know the cloak actually hides my secret. “Her dragons” are my friends. They will keep her secrets safe until I can find her once again.

I read over what I had written from my dream the night before:

"He was a dragon, yes, but oh! My son, I wish you could have seen his face the first time he looked at me. It was full of peace, and he smiled at me! He smiled, because he knew that I was his safety. Nature is a dangerous place, my son, but when you bow down before nature and make it known that you are its friend, it smiles upon you. It smiles upon you the same way Solus smiled upon me. I will teach you to bow down to nature, and my dragon will be your dragon. Solus will teach you how sometimes darkness is light, and soon you will be one of us.”

I quietly sat on a fallen tree singing the soft melody my mother shared with me each night, and as the last words fell from my lips, ‘be well, and find me’, a rustling came from the trees.

I looked up to see Solus charging toward me, he slowed as he came near, a sweet smile crossing his face. When darkness is light, it can see what human eyes cannot. My cloak does not hide me from the dragons, it hides me from the judging eyes of the humans. Solus and I lock eyes, and bow towards each other.

I am one of them now, and I know it is time for us to embark on our adventure.