Keydra

There weren't always dragons in the valley. At least, that's what she'd been told. She'd never known the valley to be dragonless, nor could she picture it. Nor, even, did she want to. Sure, the dragons were ferocious and terrifying, and living near them was, in a sense, taking your life in your hands. And yes, they had hot tempers and even hotter breath and were the reason that the forest that had once flourished here was now very nearly extinct.

But when they danced... When they soared and tumbled in the sky, full of vigour, nothing compared to it. The light of the sun or moon sparkling off their scales, the elaborate fireworks displays they made, it was all stunning.

That was why Keydra couldn't help them, even though she knew that by not helping, she was condemning her family to death. But were they even family anymore? She adored the dragons and everyone else wanted them dead. How could such opposites be related? And besides, they'd surely call off the plan if she wasn't there to help, so they wouldn't actually die. But they were scared. Everyone was scared. The land scarred by the dragons kept expanding, and the people had to keep moving outward, toward the coast, but what would happen when they reached the coast? That's why Denrik's foolhardy plan had been put into action. "Sooner or later, we'll have to fight them," he'd said. "We may as well do it now, on our terms." Keydra hadn't bothered to listen to the rest of his speech. She was the only mage in the family, she'd reasoned to herself, so they'd have to hear her out too. There was no way ordinary humans could defeat dragons without magic.

Except they hadn't listened to her. They'd brushed her off as a daydreamer and nothing more. "Keydra, honey," her mother had said, "dragons are just beasts. They can't talk. They're killing our land, our home." They'd told her she was either with them or against them, so she'd pretended to be with them. Soon, though. Soon she'd need to leave, before she was forced to harm a single scale on a single dragon. The dragons weren't hunting the people, after all. The dragons were, in fact, doing their best to leave them alone. That was why she couldn't bring herself to hurt them.

Lying in her bed that night, she listened as everyone else fell asleep. Being as silent as possible (which, to be honest, wasn't terribly silent at all. She'd never thought she'd actually need stealth training if she had the use of magic) she crept out of bed and across the room to her trunk. She opened it as gently as she could, but the clicking of the latch still made her jump. Picking up her travelling bag, she started haphazardly stuffing belongings in. Satisfied that her bag couldn't hold anymore, she stood up, and found herself nose to nose with Denrik.

"What's this, you goin' somewhere?" he asked, crossing his arms in front of his chest and staring her down.

Keydra took half a step back. "N-no, Den. J-just, y'know, thought I'd make sure my pack was ready in case we had to move again. Can never be too sure, right?"

"Oh, so now you agree the dragons are dangerous, but when we asked you in front o' errybody you were all," he cleared his throat and said, in a high pitched whine, "No, they's just misunderstood. They's our friends." Resuming his usual voice, he added, "What'll it be, Ked? Us or them?"

"Den, I've asked you hundreds of times, please don't call me Ked. I'm not your kid sister anymore. I'll stop calling you Den if you want. It's Keydra, or even just Key, if you must shorten it. 'Ked' sounds like you've got a stuffed up nose."

"You're dodgin' the question, Ked. Don't think I don't notice." He leaned in so his nose was millimetres from hers. "You're gonna fight. But are you gonna fight on our side or theirs?"

Keydra tried to back away, but he grabbed her by the wrists. He had a strong grip, so she dropped her bag. She almost cried out, but managed to bite it back.

"Know what? I'm feelin' nice. Chari'able, even. I'll give you the night to think it over." He put both of her wrists in one of his hands, still holding her in place easily, and reached behind his back with his free arm. "But don't think I'm stupid. I'm not giving you a night to pack and leave." He pulled a length of rope from behind his back. "Just to think." He tied her wrists together, then her ankles, and then threw her back onto her bed, and took her bag with him as he closed the door and left.

Think. Really? Like she was the one who needed to think. These imbeciles were getting ready to attack fire-breathing dragons with a bunch of pointy objects, and she was the one being told to think? Keydra was outraged. No, she was beyond outraged. There wasn't even a word in her vocabulary (and it was rather large) for what she was feeling. She rolled onto her stomach, lifted her tied wrists into the air behind her, and willed the fire to come. It seared down her arms, almost causing her to scream in agony, but she bit the pillow she was lying on and channeled it. The ropes on her wrists crumbled. Then she sat up, kept the pillow available for biting, and singed the rope around her feet. Then, with a tenacity she'd not known she had, she burned a hole in the wooden wall from her bedroom to the dark forest beyond, and left to find the dragons.