Of Hearts and Minds

Oh look, another tasty morsel, must be my lucky day, Geillis thought to herself, swooping low over a small clearing.

It wasn’t the easiest feat in the world for a dragon the size of a small house to wriggle between unaccommodating woodland, but needs must in the face of the growing scarcity of food.

The bloodied scent of the deer carcass wafted its way over to her as she crashed through the trees, sending showers of bark and splinters flying in her wake. Her actions shook the wooded pillars, allowing light to break through the canopy overhead and alight on her crimson scales. It touched first at her horned brow and sliced across the deadly spikes that lined her back and tipped her tail. Vessels in the membrane of her folded wings became clear to the caress of day. She was radiant; a blood-red of shimmering perfection.

Geillis spied a small blur of movement up ahead, something else had beat her to the kill, the deer was being picked over by some other small scavenger already. Eugh, sloppy thirds. There was a time where she would have turned her nose up at such a notion, but that time had long passed.

She barged proudly through the underbrush, using her weight to counter the pronounced limp on her right side, and neverminding the branches that bashed into her skull. Breaking into the small clearing where the deer lay, Geillis planted her powerful forelegs forward and unleashed a deafening roar to scare off whatever lay before her. To her delight, she heard the thunder of tumultuous complaint from a number of birds behind her. To her dismay, she found that the creature in front of her had not moved an inch, save to take another bite. Smoke curled from her nostrils, her jaws parted and her eyes set hard into the back of the animal.

Not an animal, on closer inspection, but no less wild looking. The young girl’s greasy black hair fell long and unwashed across the back of her ragged beige dress. Her back was still turned to the dragon, seemingly oblivious to anything but the meal she was crouched over.

The audacity, Geillis boiled. She would not be ignored.

Just as the red dragon was set to unleash another mighty roar, the child stood and turned to face Geillis. She looked up with eyes of poison violet and a stony face weathered by years that were not yet her own. She spoke.

“Can I help you?”

Geillis was instantly taken aback. The voice was that of a grown woman somehow stuffed into a child. Not to mention the question itself… so brazen.

If the girl was expecting Geillis to talk back, she would be sorely disappointed. Dragons didn’t do that; they could do one better. Geillis reached out with her thoughts, directing them toward the girl. She smirked, half expecting the rabid urchin to go scampering off into the forest at the touch of her mind, as human brains were simple things compared with the cavernous complexities reserved for higher beings, such as dragons.

Doing her best to sound ominous and threatening at the same time, Geillis boomed, Leave now, or join my meal.

If the girl was in any way surprised or alarmed at the contact, or the words, she in no way betrayed it. She absently wiped her hands, still slick with innards, on her ruined dress.

When it was apparent that no answer was forthcoming, Geillis swept in close, taking in the scent of the child. There was something, off, about her, but she couldn’t place it.

Have you not heard me? Geillis warned.

“I have,” the girl replied deeply, “You can have it, I’m finished with it,” she padded barefoot off to one side, perching herself on a smooth stone.

There was no fear, none at all, why, wasn’t she doing it right?

Geillis was not amused. Her nostrils flared dangerously. This is not yours to make a gift of, child. Especially not to me. The dragon’s gaze was pinned on the infuriating little creature.

What are you even doing here? Geillis demanded, becoming increasingly less interested in her meal.

“I’m on holiday.” The flatness of her answer made the girl sound like still water, deep and unmoving.

Geillis cocked her head, knocking into yet more branches. On holiday, in the middle of nowhere? Do you even know where you are?

“Not really. Do you?”

As Geillis continued to brush against the mind of the small human, she noticed how controlled and well guarded the barrier around it was. She probed for more access but was easily denied by stalwart defences. The only other thing the dragon could perceive from their limited contact was a slow, dark melody that ran as an undercurrent, as if it were a tune playing a few rooms away.

You’re a strange one aren’t you? Geillis could feel herself starting to simmer down and her curiosity growing instead - there were more than a few odd things in this corner of the world.

“More than a little, less than a lot.” The girl continued to stare blankly at the dragon.

Hmm, and what is it exactly that you’re taking a holiday from?

The girl contemplated the question silently, staring at the ground. “My mentor has become quite tiresome. I have been dragged hither and thither at the whims of that witch. No longer.”

Your mentor, what is it that the they were teaching you?

A desperate, mirthful laugh broke the peace of the clearing and drew forth an involuntary cringe from the dragon. It was not a noise a child should be able to make.

When her fit had subsided, the child spoke, “She wishes me to be more well behaved, for the most part,” the girl giggled to herself.

Geillis was having a hard time sizing this creature up. Her presence was entirely unexpected, entirely weird, and downright confounding. An internal growl made Geillis once again aware of the needs of her body.

Well, it has been… interesting, talking with you, strange child, but I must leave you now, I have many things to be about.

“What things?”

Well, Geillis stepped noisily over to the deer, this, for one. With one practiced motion, she scooped up the carcass between her mighty jaws and set to chewing. The deer disappeared gradually, folding over itself, becoming unrecognisable as bones snapped all-the-while.

Satisfied, and with the beginnings of a growing warmth filling her belly, Geillis turned to leave. Something made her hesitate.

Do you have somewhere to go?

The girl still sat expressionless atop her stone, “No.”

Geillis sighed inwardly, She is still just a child. A very odd child alone in the woods, she rolled her eyes, Damn my conscience. Ah well, I suppose I could always save her for a snack later if she troubles me, Geillis half-joked to herself.

The dragon turned her flank to the girl.

Come with me then.

“Why?”

Do you want to stay here all alone.

Geillis moved her wing out of the way and immediately felt the girl’s eyes on her. They traced the line of a thick scar rent deeply into the shoulder muscle of her right foreleg. It was a long line that continued until it had partially cut into the thick leather of an empty saddle. The seat was tanned brown and showed a lot of hard weathering; it rested in a gap between the thorny spikes that protruded from Geillis’ spine, with several long straps that buckled under her belly to hold the device in place.

Geillis craned her neck around, It is rude to stare. Now, are you coming or not?

Without a word the girl walked over and roped her way up the straps, stretching far for the footholds. She eventually seated herself, looking comically small in a riders saddle while the oversized stirrups dangled pointlessly far beneath her bare feet. The added weight to Geillis was utterly negligible; the only reason she could tell there was someone there at all was because she still felt the girl through the tenuous mental link between them.

Do you have a name?

“You may call me El,” the dragon heard from over her shoulder.

Well then, you may call me Geillis.

And so, with the proper introductions made, the dragon pinned her wing down and began the long trample back out of the forest, with one urchin in tow.

Geillis burst into her cliff-side cave as little more than a red blur. She closed her wings as she scraped to a stop, using her claws as an anchor to catch the momentum.

El continued to hug the base of a neck spike until they had come to a complete stop.

That was fun, wasn’t it, El?

“If you say so,” El said, hopping surprisingly lithely down from the considerable height, relative to her size.

The atmosphere had rapidly cooled around them in the obscure shelter of the cave. Even the fading summer glow outside would not penetrate any further than a few feet into the opening.

Hey now, not everyone gets to ride a dragon you know, you could sound at least a little enthused.

“Alright then,” El cleared her throat, “Woo.” The small exclamation echoed half-heartedly around the stone walls.

Right, well, I suppose that will have to do.

El appreciated her surroundings, looking entirely skeptical of the view but seemingly uncaring of the cold that must have spiked up at her feet from the floor.

Geillis noticed El’s critical eye and leapt straight to the defensive, This is my cave, she gestured with a sweeping foreleg, What? You don’t like it? Every dragon should have a cave.

“I didn’t say anything.”

Hm, well, come on, I’ll show you my nest and the wall at the back I’ve been carving out.

Night soon fell, and were it not for the moon leaking streaks of pale light at the mouth of the cave, the pair inside would have been plunged into complete darkness.

Geillis was curled up quite comfortably on her ample bed of long grass, twigs, leaves, and anything else she had found that might soften her cave floor. Something was keeping her awake. She had one eye open, pointed at the little girl curled up on a patch of bedding afforded from Geillis’ own nest. The girl shivered, visibly, but without complaint, while her teeth chattered incessantly, plaguing the sensitive ears of a dragon.

Geillis sighed, Come here, child.

El, silent as ever, rolled over and sleepily crawled into the space that Geillis had propped open with her wing. She closed it again once the girl was snug against the warmth of her belly. Now she could sleep.

El did not ask to leave in the coming days, as Geillis had assumed she would. Instead, an unexpected routine established itself between the two. The pair would fly together regularly; exploring the cliffside and the river cutting at its base; hunting for food; or simply taking to the skies for the pleasure of it. At night, they would return to the cave and stare out out the stars, until sleep crept up on them and Geillis would once again share her warmth.

El proved herself an invaluable hunting partner. She had the uncanny ability to sniff out all manner of beasts. Geillis wasn’t quite sure by what mechanism the girl tracked game, but she didn’t care much, she hadn’t eaten so well in a long time.

Over yet more time, the two became companionable, in their own way. Though El was hardly talkative, she did reveal some of the things she had learned in her apprenticeship to the witch, which Geillis had originally assumed to be no more than hyperbole, but no, she was, in-fact, a witch. El spoke of strange magics and herbalism that mostly flew above Geillis’ head, but there were some things, secret things, known only to dragons and those enlightened few, that she knew to be true.

One day, El tracked a pair of young bucks and together, dragon and girl drove them out into the open for Geillis to make the kill.

While sitting around the spoils of their hunt, Geillis gave voice to an observation she had made, Humans are normally more particular about their meat, you know.

“What do you mean?”

Well, they like to cook it usually. I could… you know… if you want to.

El considered the offer for a moment. She shrugged her shoulders and began cutting of slices of meat with a knife she usually kept well hidden. She lay the meat on some flat stones nearby and retreated a safe distance.

Geillis was more than happy oblige. It had been some time since she had had an excuse to breathe fire. Now, the key was getting the distance right. She settled back a little, resting onto her haunches and craned her neck.

There was a sharp and sudden flash of blinding-blue that El came perilously close to losing her eyebrows to.

The result was maybe a little on the charred side, but not too bad, all things considered. El eagerly took to it, leaving scarcely enough time for the meat to have cooled, which Geillis took as good sign. She simply sat there, watching the girl as she ate her fill. The dragon began to hum. The sensation crept over Geillis like a forgotten memory, surprising even herself, but she eased herself gradually into the low and soothing reverberations emanating from her chest as she had not done for many moons.

You really like meat, don’t you?

“It is something we have in common,” El replied, while licking the fat from her fingers. Geillis noted that the girl was somewhat cleaner than when they had first met. At Geillis’ insistence, she had dragged the girl to a fresh pool and made her bathe, which had done wonders for her aroma.

Geillis shifted uncomfortably.

Damn.

“What’s the matter?”

Would you mind scratching under the straps? I can’t reach without damaging them. My claws, you see.

El made her way over the the dragon, looking keenly once more at the scarring that bit the saddle. She started scratching under the leather in the rough area that Geillis indicated.

Ah, yes. That’s good. Don’t be afraid to get up in there.

“Perhaps, if we take this off altogether…” El already had her free hand on one of the buckles.

Geillis’ reverie was violently interrupted when she truly heard the words.

No! She yelped, leaping several feet from the girl in a rude churning of earth, You will not take him from me! It was a desperate complaint, not the kind a dragon should make.

“I thought you might be more comfortable without it,” El said nonchalantly.

You thought wrong! Geillis looked at El with all the fear and anger of someone who had so recently had a blade pressed to their breast.

“I was afraid of this. I thought perhaps enough time had passed.” El shook her head.

What are you talking about? Demanded Geillis, angering further in her lack of comprehension.

“I know what it is that pains you,” El stepped forward, “I see buried it in your mind. You have locked it away in the hopes that it will not hurt you. This is wrong. It will grow and it will fester. It will consume you.”

Who are you, really? Geillis demanded accusingly as her dark eyes scoured the girl.

“I am one who has come to help.”

No, you have deceived me, Geillis shook her thorny skull, I know who really sent you. I hear stories, tales of what has happened in the land I left; I hear word of it carried by beating wings and in snarling teeth, she faltered,

I will not go to the mountain… not without… Geillis trailed off in a whisper of thought.

“Nobody sent me but myself. Do not fear.”

Who is afraid? Geillis stomped closer to the girl until she loomed directly over her.

I need no-one and no thing. I am a wild dragon now.

“No. You are not.” El replied quietly but firmly. “Come back to the land you once called home.” The girl reached up to place a hand on a scaly cheek.

This was all a ruse, Geillis snorted, rejecting El’s hand. She began pacing agitatedly, while El remained perfectly still. It was no accident that I found you in the forest. Was it?

After a solemn few moments of silence and expectant pacing, El spoke.

“I will help you confront that which you have been running from; to make whole again that which was broken. If you refuse to do so willingly… well, you will leave me little choice.” El posed her terms quite calmly, while many, if not most, others would question the wisdom of offering a dragon an ultimatum.

Leave.

El closed her eyes.

The thought had barely left Geillis’ head before a brutal thunderstorm railed against her mind. The shock of the assault was akin to jumping into an icy lake; it felt as though she could hardly breathe under the oppression of it.

Geillis desperately scrambled to her defenses, trying to conjure up her training; she had become regrettably lax and complacent in this particular discipline. Every single blocking thought she hurled against the invasive force was easily batted away as the foreign power inched closer to the core of her mind and being. It felt like someone was reaching under your skin.

Physically, the dragon was completely immobilised; every ounce of her concentration was poured into not losing any more ground, and it was not working.

Geillis growled. Dragons do not retreat, they attack.

Geillis battled back, with all the rage she could muster. She jabbed bolts of malice at the ominous cloud that swept through her mind. Her retaliations bounced away harmlessly. She could do nothing, not even so much as dent the impenetrable armour around El’s mind.

Geillis’ will was finally crushed.

Now what? Geillis demanded defiantly, utterly at El’s mercy.

Now, look, echoed the unnatural voice.

Unbeknownst to Geillis, the girl had sent out a tendril of thought, deep, down into a dark place, a secret place that all have but none speak of.

What she dredged up burst into dreamlike focus in Geillis’ minds eye; only it was not just a vision that was thrust upon her, it was everything - sight, sound, smells, all intricately bundled together. It was a memory.

In an instant she was transported to rich blue skies. She felt her muscles strain as she cut through the air, working to maintain a level altitude. She sucked in the untainted atmosphere and tasted of its purity. What surged in her chest was a leaping joy, where she had only ever known numbness before.

There was something else, a familiar weight on her back.

A melodic laugh filled her ears as she dove through the clouds.

Her heart leapt higher still, threatening to fall and break.

She turned, and there he was.

Partner of my heart and mind.

The images faded just as quickly as they had appeared, and before she had time to object or reflect, she was thrust back to another time and another place.

The air rang with the blunt clang of metal and the clamour of death.

She felt the crunch of bone and slip of hot flesh underfoot.

Her eyes filled with more shades of crimson than even she was accustomed to.

The strike came swift and rabid. She tried to dodge it. She did not succeed. She felt the agony of the cut to her shoulder. It was the worst pain she had ever known. It was a pain soon to be dwarfed.

What followed was a rending of her heart and the tearing of her soul. So overwhelming was the sensation that it temporarily blanked Geillis’ mind. When it returned to her she found something to be missing. Panicked, she looked inward, only to find an all-consuming void staring back, sheathed in an unbearable silence.

The images faded again.

She was instantly dragged into another memory without repast. Again and again. There were hundreds more, each one a prisoner finally set free.

The memories were as painful and precious as dragon tears.

While the red dragon contorted in a stabbing blanket of raw memories, El extracted herself from her tortured mind. She staggered a short ways away from the thrashing mass of scale and muscle before doubling over and wretching violently. She brought up most of their combined kill while clutching painfully at her stomach.

Geillis howled in agony behind El. Her claws scratched and splintered stone. She thrashed around as if trying to bury her head in the dirt. Her eyes did not open once. The sight made even El uncomfortable.

This continued long into the setting of the sun and the shine of stars; long enough for El to fall ill again; and it only came to a stop when the dragon’s muscles began to flag and her breathing slowed. El could see great eyes begin to flutter under wide lidded ovals of skin; she sighed, grateful that sleep had finally come to claim the poor creature.

Now there was little to do but wait.

In the quiet of night, El spent some time rooting around for fist-sized rocks, wood, and loose twigs. She arranged them into a campfire between herself and the sleeping dragon, sparking it to burn with a word the witch had taught her. She laid down alone on the hard ground in front of the fire, with only the crook of her elbow for a makeshift pillow.

Morning came, much as it always did.

“How do you feel?”

El had been up for some time. Sleep had mostly eluded her, so she settled for lying on her back and staring up at the stars instead. She felt the dragon begin to stir shortly after sunrise. Her breathing quickened as too did her mind.

Geillis answered quietly, unclenching her seized jaw, He’s really gone, isn’t he?

“He is, but that doesn’t mean you should go too.”

Geillis slumped her head back to the ground, sending up a small whiff of dirt.

“It is time for you to rejoin the rest of your kind.” El looked off to the horizon distractedly, “And so too it would appear that my holiday is at an end.”

Geillis looked up and blinked questioningly at the girl, before offering, Your witch has found you?

“Indeed.”

Geillis struggled to her feet and placed herself over the raggedy girl. Their eyes met as if for the first time.

For what you did, I will not thank you, nor will I curse you. I will simply say this, the dragon outstretched her chest and straightened out her form, regaining much in the way of majesty and grace, Behave yourself.

El let out a short puff of air.

With what wavering strength Geillis had left, she launched herself into the air and beat her wings mightily.

Goodbye strange child, until we meet again

“Goodbye, Geillis,” she heard faintly in her wake.

Three days had passed since the wild girl had left her life. Three days since she had reunited with memories of old. Three days since this place had stopped feeling like home.

Geillis sat in darkness, wrapped in cold and lonely stone.

With determination and surgical precision she began plucking at the straps that ribbed her belly. One by one they parted away. She felt air brush against the scales beneath. The area felt tender, like an open wound. She wavered at the last strap, her talon twitching over the treated hide.

She breathed deeply and closed her eyes.

The last strap fell away. With nothing to hold it, the saddle at her back shifted a few inches, paused a moment, then slumped to the cold stone floor.

Geillis stood and, without a backward glance, limped to the mouth of her cave and left for the last time.