Kaela and the Dragon

Chapter 1

There weren’t always dragons in the Valley, thought Kaela sleepily, as she watched the creatures circling and dipping above the distant granite hills. Or Masters. Kaela lay burrowed in warm blankets, watching the dragons through a small dormer window as they glided on invisible air currents. They looked like birds, she thought. So graceful. And so deadly. Or so people said.

Kaela’s Ma said the Masters appeared one day when she was a girl—settling at the base of the hills where they built large stone houses with terra cotta roofs. Or, rather, they hired men from the village to build the houses—paying in shining coins of real gold. That was the first and last time the villagers had seen so much gold.

The dragons began coming shortly after, said Ma. They came from the deserts in the North. More every year.

Kaela could hear her mother downstairs in the small cottage, making breakfast. Kaela groaned softly and rolled over, pushing the blankets away, taking care not to wake her sleeping sister. She shivered as cold air hit her skin and dressed quickly, pulling on a kirtle and a clean, worn tunic over it. Kaela was tall for her thirteen years and slim. With her dark hair pulled up, she could pass for a boy.

She clambered down the ladder. Maris took a pot from the fire and set it on a small wooden table. Kaela helped herself to the steaming porridge.

“You’ll need to be off soon. Is your sister not up yet?” Maris asked. Without waiting for an answer, she strode to the bottom of the ladder and called up. “Sri, get moving girl. There’s work to do.”

Kaela ate quickly and refilled her bowl. It was the only meal she’d get until she returned home that evening. Master Xi didn’t believe in wasting money on food for his workers.

Sri came down the ladder, yawning, and sat down next to Kaela. “You were talking again in your sleep,” she said, glancing sideways at her sister. “Did I say anything interesting?” asked Kaela. Sri giggled. “I don’t know—do you think Aaron is interesting?” she asked. Kaela mock-elbowed her sister in the ribs.

“Kaela, I didn’t get you that job only for you to lose it by being late,” said Maris, frowning at the girls. Kaela scraped her bowl clean. “And mind you’re always polite to Master Xi,” said Maris.

“Yes, Ma,” said Kaela, rising. She took her shawl from the back of the door and slipped her feet into worn leather shoes. It was an old conversation. Kaela knew how lucky she was to have work, even if it meant she always had sore arms and chapped hands from washing clothes and cleaning. She didn’t have to like it, though. She'd rather stay home, like Sri, and help Ma. But the family needed the coins she earned.

The rains fell less each year. The harvests grew smaller. Superstitious elders in the village said the dragons were bringing the desert with them. The creatures made people uneasy. The dragons stayed well up in the hills and no one in the village had seen one up close. There were rumours the Masters sometimes went up into the hills.

Most of the families in the village farmed nearby fields—maize, sorghum, and barley—but some, like her Da, were river men. They carried grains and goods on barges to distant towns, returning with pouches of copper coins.

Kaela headed along a narrow path that curved out behind the village, dipped down to cross a wide, shallow creek before it ran between dry, brown fields full of stubble, towards where the Masters lived. She hummed and kicked stones as she walked.

Ahead of her, a flock of sparrows erupted from a stand of tall, spindly reeds, which grew along the creek, and shot into the sky. Kaela rounded a bend and stopped abruptly. There, no more than a dozen feet ahead of her, was a dragon, sitting in the path, blocking the ford.

Kaela's heart pounded.

Up close, the dragon didn’t look menacing. It was the size of a pony with dun brown scales, a thick neck, short wiry arms, and a long snout. It was sitting placidly, leaning back on its tail, while it munched on cattails clutched in its talons.

The dragon saw Kaela and stared at her, burbling and whistling like a kettle coming to the boil. The girl took a slow step backwards. The dragon moved forward. Kaela stopped.

Still watching her, the creature cocked its head to one side.

And spoke.

***