Revival

The sun stood high over the mountains; its light filtered through layers of thick clouds. Dark snow crunched underfoot as Kasia stalked down the mountain.

Two massive crows shot out of the tree line, wings beating heavily overhead. She followed their path, expecting to find a deer that had fallen over the treacherous rock face where ice still clung in the shadowy crevices after the cold of the previous night.

As she came close to the first few trees, she froze, holding her foot still above the snow so as not to make a sound. Surely, she’d been out here too long. Her mind was playing tricks with the hazy midday sun.

Shaking her head at herself, she took a step forward to get a closer look at the rumpled heap that had caught her eye.

How could this be? There were no hindwalkers left. She could hardly remember the last time they had been seen.

She’d often heard tales of these frighteningly powerful creatures, and been taught not to trust them. They were clever — more clever than anyone had initially assumed. And they were determined to survive. That made them dangerous. But they had become a danger to themselves as well. And it had utterly destroyed them.

If this wasn’t a hindwalker, then what creature could this be? Few beings were as stately and intimidating as they.

A small sound proceeded from the creature, giving Kasia pause. She stood there for moments — for what felt like ages — yet not as long as she should have.

Was the hindwalker hurt? She couldn’t recall ever seeing one so high up in the mountains when she was young.

She approached with caution, but her curiosity made her feel bold and reckless.

Long hair and slender build suggested that this was a female of the species. Now that she was close, she could feel the fading warmth from the body. There was no life left.

Except that she could just hear the faint beating of a heart.

She felt drawn to know more about this hindwalker, even though she knew she should have been afraid. These creatures had nearly destroyed the earth; so many of her kind had been lost to their insatiable appetites.

Standing over the body now, she picked up the distinct scent of another hindwalker. This one hadn’t been alone.

She gingerly rolled the body over and pulled back its wrappings to reveal a youngling being sheltered in her mother’s arms. Warm breath, though weak, had created a damp spot on her mother’s chest and was now crystalizing in the chill mountain air.

How could this be? How had any hindwalkers survived the destruction of their species, and what had driven them so treacherously high into the mountains? Where had they come from? And, she had to wonder, what would become of this orphaned girl?

She never did know what came over her in that moment — call it some greater force, if you will, or destiny, or perhaps just foolishness — but she scooped the child up in one palm and soared down the mountain.

As they descended, the air became thicker and Kasia’s breathing more laboured. It had been a long time since she’d come this far down. All the dragons had moved to higher caverns and nests after the air became tainted by the hindwalkers’ machines – “metal dragons” her kind had called them, for they belched smoke and fire just the same as any living one. The hindwalkers used them to craft all kinds of goods and weapons, and to power entire cities.

Before the metal dragons, they had sometimes enslaved real dragons. But dragons were fickle and resented their captivity. The machines simply needed to be fed coal. And their hunger for coal had turned the world black.

This far down the mountain, the forests were thin and the plants that still clung to the rockface looked harsh and sickly. There were far fewer animals here than there had once been. Deer and mountain goats still spotted the treacherous terrain, but their herds were thinner, as were their bodies. Proper meals were harder to come by, and some dragons had adapted to eating foxes and other small predators in order to survive.

Kasia banked towards an outcropping and dropped down inside the mouth of a deep cave. She could rest here with the small hindwalker for now. If she didn’t get the girl some food and warmth soon, then the poor thing wouldn’t make it.

She didn’t know why she wanted to help so badly, but she was determined to do everything she could for this little girl. She laid the child on the ground then wrapped her in one enormous wing, pulling her in close to the heat in her core.

When she awoke, the child still lay below her slumbering. She still looked pale, but her heart rate had slowed and her breathing was deeper, less sporadic.

It was nearly dusk when the child stirred awake. Kasia had started to worry she never would.

The girl’s wide eyes took in her surroundings unseeingly at first. Then, gradually, a look of uncertainty grew on her face. As she sat up, she locked eyes with her rescuer. Her expression was unreadable to Kasia. Somehow, she seemed awed, curious, and determined all at once. It made her appear strong, and wiser than her years.

Kasia pushed a bramble branch, torn off a shrub near the mouth of the cave, towards the girl. She didn’t have much to offer; many of the fruits and crops that the hindwalkers had once relied on had died off in the droughts and wildfires years ago. But these brambles had always been hardy, surviving in the most unlikely of places.

The little one hesitated to take it at first, but her excitement was unmistakable. Within a moment she had mashed several dark berries all over her face. The juices dripped down her chin like the blood of a fresh kill.

Suddenly the girl pricked her finger on a bramble thorn and began to wail. Kasia wanted to help but feared she would frighten the girl more. Carefully, she wrapped her powerful tail around the girl’s back and under her arms.

The girl touched her tail, ran her hand along the scales, then jumped up and tottered forward, launching herself into Kasia’s body and throwing her tiny arms around the dragon’s massive girth. Kasia brought one wing around to cover her and waited as the child quieted.

They stayed like that for some time, and the girl eventually drifted back off to sleep, nestled in beside her.

Kasia stretched as sun shone in against the side of the cavern. As the girl sat up, Kasia couldn’t help but notice something odd. Sprouting from the ground, just inches from the girl, was a small bramble bush–little more than a twig–complete with a few bright green leaves and a single blossom. The plant should never have been able to grow in these conditions. And it certainly couldn’t have grown overnight.

She kept a cautious eye on the girl in the coming days and, as she did, she grew to admire the little creature. She was curious, and sweet, and quietly content.

Kasia looked after her as though she were her own hatchling.

The girl’s favourite thing to do was search for pebbles on the cavern floor and use them to etch images onto any stone surface she could find. They were simple, but Kasia was fascinated by them.

The girl frequently drew groups of people, most likely her family. Sometimes she drew trees and mountains.

Then, one day, she drew something a little more unique – something Kasia hadn’t seen in quite some time. Behind a portrait of herself standing with her parents, she had sketched out the Spear.

The Spear was the name for a massive tower located in the heart of the sprawling hindwalker city in the mountain valley below.

Was that where the girl had come from? She doubted it. Much of the city had been drowned when the waters began to rise. The lowest parts of the valley had been completely overtaken. But tall buildings and smoke stacks were still partly visible, like tall islands–metal and stone monuments to a fallen civilization.

There was no way that these surviving hindwalkers still occupied the city. But they must have found shelter nearby, somewhere they could start over. She was amazed by their resilience.

The girl had plenty of resilience herself. Kasia watched as this once-helpless being quickly grew, becoming stronger and more independent by the day.

She began taking the girl out to explore the mountainside to gather berries, and teaching her how to navigate the precarious rocky paths. The girl took notice of Kasia’s ability to scale steep rockfaces, observing how she gripped outcroppings with her talons, and tried to mimic her technique. Her movements were neither swift nor elegant, but she was learning to climb at an impressive rate.

On one of their rambles, they came across a swath of scorched forest. The girl stopped to consider this new sight, then stooped to touch the parched earth before inspecting a charred tree. Kasia circled the area, keeping an eye out for easy prey cutting through the dead woods.

She heard an odd sound and turned to find the girl with her forehead pressed against the tree trunk. There was a quiet humming that seemed to be resonating from both the girl and the tree at the same time. Kasia watched as a small, but continually larger area of the tree, shed the outer layer of blackened bark to expose new wood underneath.

Kasia found herself frozen in place once again, wondering if she had made a dangerous decision in rescuing this girl.

The girl stepped back and gazed up as leaves budded from the branches. Kasia watched in awe.

The girl turned to her in excitement, wondering if she had witnessed the miracle that had just happened.

She had magic. The poor orphaned and dying girl she had found way up on the mountainside had the rarest and most ancient of gifts, and Kasia wasn’t even sure that she really understood it.

One thing she did know with certainty was that it had been no accident that she had found and rescued the child. She was meant to find this girl.

And now she needed to get the girl home to her people.

Descending over the drowned city, Kasia spotted the soot-stained chimneys that had once been the gaping jaws of the fire-breathers. The tops of the tall buildings showed signs of damage from harsh rains and storms.

She circled the valley looking for signs of life. Clasped gently within her talons, the girl quietly took it all in.

It was a massive valley, and Kasia took her time scanning the hills and cliffs for possible shelters. Eventually she came upon a palatial building set into the valley wall. The main part of the structure was a massive glass and metal dome that sparkled in the sunlight.

The dragons hadn’t spent much time around the hindwalkers in the last centuries, but as Kasia came back around for a closer look, she guessed that this had been some kind of temple to their society. She could see the silhouettes of several large machines under the glass dome. Shafts cut into the mountain behind the building suggested that it had been constructed on the site of an old coal mine. The stone of the building was seamlessly integrated with the natural rock, and she figured that the halls reached quite deep into the earth where the mines had once been.

As they dropped down next to the dome, Kasia could hardly believe her eyes. The building had evidently fallen into disrepair and suffered some damage from high flood waters some time ago. But, instead of an empty ruin, this place had become a shelter.

Moving quickly through the door, the girl looked back to make sure that Kasia was following. They stepped through the dark doorway and into another world.

What she had assumed to be unused machines were purring away around the hall, but instead of belching black clouds they were hissing with steam. Areas of torn up flooring had been replaced with rows of leafy plants. And, amongst all these sights, Kasia spotted several hindwalkers moving about. Some knelt to tend to the gardens while others checked on the machines. A child walked along pulling a goat on a rope.

She had expected to find the hindwalkers hiding out somewhere dark and barren, fighting to survive, just as she had done when the storms and fires began. But this lot had managed to do so much more than just survive. They were living.

The girl smiled at her and walked forward.

“Ana?” A voice resounded through the room.

A man dropped to the ground and opened his arms as the girl ran towards him. “Ana!” In an instant, his look of disbelief turned to pure joy.

As they released their long embrace, Ana took his hand and led him back to the doorway where Kasia still stood.

The man looked back and forth between the dragon and the girl. Tears formed in his eyes as he came and laid a hand on Kasia’s snout.

“Thank you,” he said.

Kasia lowered her head and closed her eyes. The girl was home. And, for the first time in a long time, Kasia felt like there was hope.