My husband sucks…

There weren't always dragons in the Valley. The myth though… that always existed. But why where dragons such a shocking concept? Was it because of their sheer size we couldn’t fathom them in our finite minds? We always new werewolves existed. We never questioned the existence of pixies. Heck we even bury our dead with chains around their feet so they won’t come back as vampires. That’s why it’s so hard for me to believe how shocked I was that day. I mean… I’m a blue blooded gypsy for crying out loud! I am imbued with magical power! Not just on the surface but courseing through my veins. I should have had better discernment. I should have seen it coming. Maybe I did know. Maybe I thought it was better to deny it. Perhaps the southern Romanian soil was calling out to me… but was it a warning? What was it saying? Why was I trying to ignore it? Was it fear? Is it fear now? How can I save my family, my people, my blood? I don’t even think I can save my own neck at this point. There has to be something I’m missing. There’s something I’m not understanding. I have to try to remember how it got to this point. What is the last normal day I can remember? Think… think… think.

I suppose the last normal day was Friday the 13th. I mean at least it was justifiably normal as in the village flowed per usual routine. For me it was anything but my normal routine. Friday the 13th actually marked the breaking of my 3 year mourning period for my husband Draco. For 3 years everything I wore was black. For 3 years the only sun I felt was the tiniest trickles of sunshine my black widowed veil allowed to grace my face. For 3 years I was allowed no sweet thing to touch my lips. The only seasoning I could use on my food was salt for its purity. I spoke to no one and no one spoke to me. For 3 years I have not seen my own reflection. The village speared not a second in keeping with traditions. Removing all mirrors and reflective surfaces from my house so the dead, Draco, could not find me while he roamed to find rest. Those 3 years felt like an eternity. The sorrow and grief I felt at losing my husband began to feel like a heavily weighted burden. It was as if the chains we buried him in did not keep his feet bound to the depths. Instead those chains where a chokehold that shackled my neck. Keeping me bound to that grave with him. For so long I have hated him for dying. It was as if my freedom had died with him. But that day, Friday the 13th, my burden would be lifted. I remember waking up that day preparing my self for the bitter isolation I’d became engulfed in. Only to have a shocking relisation in my core. My morning period was over. I hurildy went to town to buy a white gown. I’d lost so much weight in those 3 years. I had lost my appetite after the first week of eating such bland food. I wanted my first new ensemble to be a stark difference from my traditional black widow cloak. In fact I never wanted to see the color black ever again. Seeing the pristine white gown sent thrills and shiver up my spine. I was so excited to taste freedom. Yet I was terrified to join society again. All these emotions made me feel uterly nauseous. I headed to the king and Queen with a light heart, qualms in my belly, and heavy feet.

When the king bellowed “state your purpose.” My heart felt like it inverted. This was the first time someone was speaking to me in almost 3 years. Besides the first week of people giving me their condolences and telling me how to properly morn. I bowed and opened my mouth to speak but no words would come out. It was as if I had forgotten how to speak. The king leaned forward in his chair. I could tell he was a man of little patients. I swallowed my anxiety and bowed lower. This time in a low but confident voice I managed to speak out. “Your majesty. My morning period is over.” The Queen clasped her hands together. Although I didn’t look her in the face I felt as if she was excited for me. The king leaned back in his chair. He turned to his consul and said regally “I have witnessed. Her morning period is over.” The Next thing I seen was the back of Queen Alana’s hand. It was so elegant and underworked yet so kind and loving. Her beautiful and heavily decorated hand reaching for my frail, black satin elbow high, gloved hand. I took her hand. Standing tall I was still not eye level to her. Yet I met her gaze and it was full of love and compassion. She said nothing but walked me proudly to another room. It was there in those walls she became another person. Almost jumping off the ground she yelled to her staff with excitement. “Okay ladies! It’s time we give this woman her life back!” Those words felt like they pierced through my soul. Their sylabuls ringing through my ears and scrambling my brain… my life back? My life back? What life? I had been married to been married to Draco for ten years. He was my life. I had been in pure isolation for 3 years after that. I began to sob. “Oh no no, we will have none of that” the Queen said sturnly. “Your mourning period is over… now it’s time to be happy! Who knows what awaits your life now!” She went on so gleefully. I disrobed while the staff prepared the ceremonial cleansing bath. The smell of the bath water was all most enchanting. So floral and yet so woodsy. The color was mind boggling a beautiful array of pinks and purples. The bath appeared to have a small river like stystem of gold running through it. It was as if fairies there self had ran this bath for me. The warm temperature were so inviting… unlike the harsh scrubing I was enduring. Six ladies with stiff brushes scrubbing every inch of my body. I tried very hard not to focus on the intense scrubing and more so on the beautiful look and smell of the water. I had forgotten that Queen Alana was even watching me until she asked if I had brought a change of clothes. Sense I could no longer wear my morning clothes. I told her yes that I had a white gown in the dark sack cloth bag I had brought in with me. She pulled out the garment explaining what a perfect choice I had made. While the staff pulled me from the water drying my freshly cleansed body. The Queen herself helped be get dressed. While my morning clothes where taken to be burned. After I was clothed she stood me backwards in front of a full length mirror. She asked me if I was ready. To which I nodded in agreement. She turned me around and I staggered back. Astounded by what I seen in the mirror. Deep dark haunting circles under my eyes. I was so thin it looked like my skin was barely holding my joints together. How did I let my self get like this I thought. I looked like death. My thoughts where quickly pulled to a halt when I heard the Queen say “you know what happens next right? We have to give you a hair cut!” I’d almost forgot. Alothough it had been 4 years sense I last cut my hair, my hair had not actually grown that much. Probably do to lack of nurshment. She assured me that they could just do a small trim of the ends. As it’s not actually about receiving a new hairstyle it’s about cutting away the old life and anything that could hold you back. The staff came back and quickly got to work. They trimmed my hair and gave me bangs.. I didn’t want bangs but I also didn’t care what they did. It’s hair it can grow back. Then they did my makeup. A new face for a new life they said. After the most amazing pampering session I had ever received they gave me somthing to eat. It’s customary to never let a guest leave with an empty stomach. Then they sent me on my way home.

After coming home from that event, even though it was very short, it felt weird. I stood in my front yard looking at the doorway to my home. “Had it always been this small?” I thought.

As I neared the doorway a very heavy lead like uneasiness settled into the depths of my soul. I took a deep breath and walked into the door. The first thing I did was remove the black mourning curtains from my windows. Letting the warm sun in. Such a small thing felt so freeing. Setting them on fire in my yard brought me so much joy. I almost felt guilty to my once beloved Draco. I began to clean the house from top to bottom. Cheerfully dusting away after being forbidden from dusting for three years. Before I realized the sun shining through the windows was replaced with moon beams. Although it was dark I didn’t mind it. I had not had the company of a full moon in so long. I made me some tea. I sat drinking it in the largest windowsill upstairs, in my small empty home. Exhaustion from the eventful day began to overtake me. I placed my kettle and cup in the sink and then prepared for bed. I nelt down beside my bed saying my nightly prayers and thanking the lord for restoring my freedom. I went to sleep with a small smile on my face. All was calm. All was right. All was normal… and just like that… it wasn’t anymore.

I was jolted awake by a monsters howl. I began to shake… no not I, my bed? No! It’s the house shaking. I quickly bolted outside as fast as I could while being thrown left to right. Only to descover it wasn’t just my home shaking but the entire earth that it stood on. It was as if the entire earth was about to be split open from a seam. I could barely keep my head up much more then stand. Once I could finally catch a wave of balance I looked up. I looked at my home swaying like a blade of grass. I seen what I wanted to be a shadow in the windowsill. I quickly looked down. Trying not to fall to my knees. The blood in my body pooled to my heart. I thought I was going to have a heart attack. I wished I was having a heart attack. Waves of cold where pounding in my body. I fought the instinct of wanting to throw up. My brain began to rationalize eating grass. “All you saw was a shadow” I tried to convince my self. Then the shadow called out to me and the earth stopped shaking and I could pretend no more.

“Hello sunshine! Aren’t you going to look at me?”

“DRACO!” I yelled out. Before bile began to spew from my mouth. In one swift move he had jumped down to my side. Now supporting me, with his hand around my back clenching my side and my other hand in his hand, he leaned in and whispered. “How you doing there lady? You feel alright?” I was to stunned to speak. “Aren’t you gonna answer me?” he giggled. I shook my head no. I couldn’t answer him. For all I new he was dead… was I dead to? We sat in silence for quite sometime. Until I was able to gain the strength to shake his body off of me. It was dark but I could see his silhouette in the moonlight. I stepped back. “Where are your chains?” I cried out. “Oh those old things, yeah I found a better use for them.” He laughed. “ are.. are you upset with me?” I sqeeked out. “Upset? No no how could I be upset. It’s not like you where trying to forget me. No… on the contrary you have no idea how long I’ve waited to be reunited with you…my princess.” He claimed all of this quite proudly and very as a matter of fact-ly. But I began to get hung up on the word princess. Although he has…or rather did always refer to me with terms of endearment, he had never once called me princess. I figured though it was best to go along as best I could though I had no way to know what was going on. “ hopefully not to long” I joked. He laughed back “oh no, not long at all, but it has felt like an eternity.” “What are your plans now that you have me my prince?” He laughed with a deep rumble “ prince! Haha, not for much longer. Now that I have you back I plan to be king. With you my princess as Queen.” My eyes grew wide. Was this some type of demon I was entertaining? I tried to focus all my energy into my feet in hopes that I could run to find help. As soon as I turned my body we here face to face and nose to nose. He then slowly stood straight. My nose pressed against his chest. He smelt like a smoldering campfire. He wrapped me in a tight embrace. And soothingly yet maniacally said “now now princess you wouldn’t try to run from me? Remember you’re still my wife, right?” Yes I muttered out spirit broken. While he swayed me left and right. “Till death do we part aye pumpkin?”

I must have been crazy to follow him. We walked hand in hand to the edge of the woods. I fought to resist the urge to run; thinking he would kill me if I did. As we neared the edge of the woods I seen a glowing beacon of sorts. It was red and yellow like fire. I’d figured he’d left a lantern to mark the area he wished to return with me to. As we moved closer in I realized the lantern was flashing, perhaps dying out. A warm heavy breeze flowed through the tress. A smell of sulpher and campfire growing ever stronger. Maybe it was a campfire flashing I thought. Then it hit me. Nope that’s not flashing. It isn’t even fire. It’s an EYE! And it’s BLINKING! I shriked. Sinking into Dracos arms. “Oh how I missed this!” He exclaimed. In my soul I knew I had also missed this feeling. But he felt so cold even with how unusualy hot the air was. “Don’t be afraid my love. This is like my pet.” “Meet Deirdre… my dragon”

The last thing I remember where the tremors shaking my body to the core from the very soles of my feet to the top of my head. Like my very existence, my soul, was leaving my mouth as I screamed “DRAGON!” And passed out.