Stolen Prizes

“There weren’t always dragons in the Valley, you know,” Galin shouts as his sword slams down onto Yem’s. Yem puts all of his weight behind his own blade and pushes. The high-pitched metal-on-metal screech rings in both men’s ears. Galin’s sword slides off and he jumps back as Yem thrusts forward, bringing his weapon down in an arc over his head to strike. Galin barely manages to lift his sword to block the attack.

“What’s your point? They’re here now,” Yem shouts back. Galin laughs as he jumps to the side and tries to land a blow. Yem blocks the strike and circles his friend, looking for an opening.

“I’m simply saying there must be a reason why they suddenly showed up. Where did they come from? Why now?” Galin asks as the men circle each other, swinging here and there, and blocking each other’s attacks.

“It’s not our duty to question the motives of our enemy. It’s our duty to kill them before they kill us,” Yem says, lunging at Galin while he is distracted. Galin brings his sword up a second too late. The force behind Yem’s blow is enough to knock the blade from Galin’s hands. He blinks, stunned by the loss of his sword, as the tip of Yem’s weapon lightly touches the skin beneath Galin’s throat.

Galin smiles and smacks the sword away with his gloved hand. “You win.” He walks over to his fallen sword and picks it up. “Have you ever killed one before?”

Yem sheaths his own blade and clears his throat before speaking. “Uh… no. I haven’t faced one yet. Have you?” That familiar nagging guilt pulls at Yem’s heart, but he doesn’t look at Galin. He can’t let him see the shame in his eyes.

“But you were at the Battle of Gadott,” Galin says, confusion heavy in his voice. Yem glances at the other man, silently cursing himself. Of course, Galin would know that. The Battle of Gadott was the first recorded battle between the dragons and the Valley. Yem had joined the army the year before the beasts appeared, and the battle had been on his seventeenth birthday.

“I was, but I… uh, didn’t kill any dragons,” Yem says and walks over to the bench next to the training arena. He unbuckles his sword belt and rests it on the bench. He strips off his training gear, then straps the sword around his waist again. He can feel Galin watching him.

“How is that possible? There were hundreds of them! They swarmed Gadott and burned down half the Valley!” Galin protests. Loud voices and laughter break up the silence in the training arena as a group of soldiers enter from the opposite side. They are several yards away, but Yem can still tell it’s Jasmine and her platoon. Heat rises on the back of his neck, and he looks down as he fiddles with his training vest, pretending to adjust the straps. He hears Galin chuckle behind him.

Yem turns to face his friend. “Something funny?” he asks, trying to keep his tone neutral.

“Why don’t you just go talk to her? You’ve been in love with her since she showed up here last year,” Galin exclaims.

Yem shakes his head. “No, I haven’t. I don’t even know her.”

Galin rolls his eyes. “Go talk to her. Tell her something nice about the way she looks. Tell her she looks great with a sword. Tell her you’d like to—”

Yem cuts him off by holding up his hand. “Enough… I’m not going to say anything to her,” he says quickly.

They stared at each other. After a moment, Galin shrugged. “If you don’t, someone else will.”

As if listening to Galin’s words, a soldier Yem recognizes from another battalion walks over to Jasmine and starts talking to her. Yem’s shoulders slump slightly, but he picks up his gear and walks away from Galin before his friend has time to gloat.

“We’re off duty for three days. Did you want to come with me to the village? We can find you a beautiful lady that’ll take your mind off Jasmine,” Galin says and laughs. Yem ignores him and keeps walking back to the training house to drop off his belongings.

“I can’t. As much as I want to see you make a fool of yourself, I’m busy,” Yem tells him.

“Busy? Busy doing what? What could you possibly be—,” Galin begins to ask, but Yem cuts him off with a wave of his hand.

“It’s private. And I’d like to keep it that way,” Yem says as the training house comes into view from the path. It’s a small brick building that looks as if it had stood there for hundreds of years before Yem and Galin came along. The red brick is sun-bleached and fading. The paint is peeling on the old wooden shutters on the sides of old glassless windows. Wildflowers grow in patches along the path leading up to the house. Trails of ivy grew along the sides and across the roof of the two-story house. The smell of urine and feces drifts over the wind as the two men approach. Set to the side is a small shack the soldiers use as a latrine.

Yem and Galin reach the front door of the house and Galin takes the doorknob in his hand. Galin catches a glimpse of his friend as he swings the door open. “Are you not even coming inside?”

Yem shakes his head. “Can you take this up to my cot for me?” He holds out his training gear.

Galin sighs and pulls the gear from his friend’s hands. “You’re really acting strange.”

“Just keeping things interesting,” Yem mumbles, then smirks. “I’ll see you at dinner.”

Galin rolls his eyes and walks into the house. Yem waits for just a moment before turning on his heel and walking away from the building. He starts back down the path toward the arena, but instead of going there, he stops halfway and looks around. No one seems to be nearby, and no one seems to be following him. He quickly cuts through the brush to his right and disappears into the thick foliage.

There’s no path here, but he remembers the way. In his attempt to prevent a path from forming, he often weaved in and around the trees and bushes. He always walked slowly and did his best to avoid leaving footprints on soft grass or mud. Moving like that made the journey there slow, but it was always worth it to Yem.

Finally, after what seemed like an hour, Yem approaches the cave. Looking at it without knowing, no one could find the cave. Thick and heavy tree roots have twisted themselves all around the stone, making it almost impossible to see. Vines hang down over the entrance to the cave, which isn’t a very large entrance to begin with. The hole at the base of the otherwise stone wall is roughly two to three feet tall. To enter the cave, Yem has to get down on his stomach and crawl through.

As he’s crawling, he gently pushes the vines and branches away so he can see. As he’s inching slowly through the hole, he notices a flicker of light and smiles. How did she beat me here? Yem thought as his feet crossed the threshold.

He stands and brushes the dirt from his shirt and hands. He hears a giggle and heat rushes to his face as he looks up at the beautiful woman standing before him. Jasmine has changed into a simple pair of men’s breeches and a loose cotton shirt that doesn’t hide the shape of her figure. Yem looks at her sparkling blue eyes and admires how the corners of them crinkle when she smiles. No matter where he sees her, he can’t help but marvel at her beauty.

She runs to him and throws her arms around his neck before kissing him on the lips. He leans into the kiss and sighs as the smell of her hair wraps around him. They stand like that for a moment, fully embraced. When they break away, Yem keeps her hand in his as they turn to the problem that brought them together.

Sitting in a bed of hot coals and ash is a large gold dragon egg. The light from Jasmine’s candle flickers across the metallic surface and giving the egg the appearance of being on fire. The legends say the individual scales along the entire surface of the egg make it indestructible to all weapons. Fire only helps hatch dragon eggs and water will preserve it for thousands of years if need be. The only way to kill a dragon that hasn’t been born yet is to wait for it to hatch. No one has been able to confirm that though because no one has seen a real dragon egg before. Except for Jasmine and Yem.

Something new catches Yem’s eye and looks more closely at the egg. A large deep crack is forming from the base of the egg. The crack is only about two inches long, but it wasn’t there the day before. Jasmine and Yem would have seen it.

“Did you see this?” Yem asks Jasmine.

She nods. “I noticed it right away. What are we supposed to do?”

Yem takes a deep breath and lets it out in a loud sigh. “I don’t know. It’s not like we can just give the dragons the egg back.”

“We shouldn’t have touched it…” Jasmine whispered. “None of this would be happening if we had just left it alone…”

Yem closes his eyes against the old argument. “What were we supposed to do? Just leave it in the woods? We didn’t even know it was a dragon egg when we found it!”

Jasmine throws up her hands. “Can we just focus on what we do with it now? It’s been a year and nothing. Why is it hatching all of a sudden? It’s not like we keep it in a bucket of fire.”

Yem sits in front of the egg and gets inches from the crack. His nose is so close he can feel the heat radiating from the coals. In their glow, he thinks he can see the pale skin of a dragon body move and twist through the crack on the egg. He gasps and sits back a little.

“What is it?” Jasmine asks quickly, sitting next to him and looking into the crack as well.

“I think I saw the baby move,” Yem whispers.

“Yem, what are we going to do?” Jasmine asks again as she pulls back from the crack.

Yem stays quiet for a long time, staring at the egg and holding Jasmine’s hand. What could they do? The dragons will kill them if they reveal they were the ones to steal the egg.

He lifts Jasmine’s fingers to his lips and kisses them softly. “I have no idea, love…”

The two of them sit there for a long time, staring at the egg. Waiting for something else to happen, and hoping they find an answer soon before the egg breaks completely.