The Bones of the Dragons

There weren’t always dragons in the valley. In those days, the raids were frequent. Several times a moon, we heard the warning drums. We prepared to lose children. The morning after a raid, people would emerge from their homes with furtive, searching eyes. They looked to see who mourned, who was missing. Who was left. 

I had just turned of age when the raid that changed my life came. I was thirteen for all of two days when we heard the drums. My mother dropped her basket of vegetables in the garden, grabbed my hand, and pulled me along with her. We ran to our home, smashing through the door to the startled eyes of my father.

“The raid,” Mother said. “Elandra.”

My father stood. His chair tipped and fell to the ground with the force of his movement.

“Hide her.”

“Not here.” Mother turned to me. Her eyes were wild and unfocused. “Go. Get your pack.”

When I didn’t move, she shoved me in the right direction. I ran to get my pack while she raided the cupboard for bread to send with me.

My father peeked outside the door and then motioned us through. We ran to the edge of the forest.

“Go,” he said, with a brief kiss on my forehead. “You can hide in the forest better than any child in the village. They won’t find you.”

My mother pushed me again, this time toward the thick underbrush. She didn’t speak, but I heard her tears as I ran away. 

The forest was quiet. Even the birds grew solum when the raids came. I went deep into the growth, looking for the cave my friend Jarel and I had liked to hide in as children, avoiding their chores. They had taken Jarel in a raid two months ago. Just a month after he had turned 13. His father still could not look upon me without weeping. 

I found it well hidden behind ropey vines. I carefully stepped through them, pushing them aside and letting them fall back into place once I had passed. The Raiders wouldn’t find me here, I thought. Still, I went all the way to the back of the cave before sitting. I pressed my back into the cold stone and drew my legs up as I waited. 

I must have fallen asleep, though I don’t know how it was possible. Voices startled me awake. Angry voices that growled in a language I had never understood. Raiders. They were close, maybe just outside the cave. I covered my mouth with both hands to stay silent. 

A light flashed. Probably the lantern they used to see into our homes and under our bushes. They refused to leave a single stone unturned in search of the newly of age children they needed. When the light cast itself into the cave, I pushed my back tighter against the wall. I made myself as small as possible.

The light moved across the cave floor, not reaching all the way to the back. I prayed they didn’t look closer. The light retreated, rewarding my devotion. I watched it move out, illuminating the corner by the entrance. I remembered there being a bed of rocks there, but this time, as the light moved, something glowed. 

I stared. The Raiders were moving on, taking light went with them. Darkness consumed the cave again. Except the glow was still there. Afraid to move, I stayed curled up in my ball. I watched the glowing rock. It was slowly fading, returning the corner to darkness. Curiosity got the better of me and I scrambled towards it.

When I reached the rock bed, I stopped. I crept over the rocks, making my footing carefully. I didn’t want to hurt myself by falling, but I really didn’t want to make enough noise to bring the Raiders back. Spots formed before my eyes, interrupting my vision as I held my breath. I gasped for air and continued my careful progress. 

The glowing stone was right in front of me when I noticed the patterns. This was no rock, I realized with a start. I tentatively put my hand out, hesitated, and then gently touched it. It shook as my skin met it and I jerked my hand back. I lost my balance and fell down hard on the ground, cutting my leg on a jagged stone. 

My hand was wet with my blood when I took it away from my leg. A fission of fear snaked through my body, immobilizing me. The Raiders had left, but what if they came back and smelled the blood? My mind spun out with the possibilities. One mistake could end me.

Tears leaked down my face. I put my hand on the glowing object again. Once again it shook, then stilled. A warm heat moved down my arm and body. It made its way down to my leg where it grew hot, then pleasant. I reached down again, and the wound was gone.

I gasped. As children, we had been told the stories of the days before the raids, when the dragons protected our valley. The elders teaching us about the powers dragons possessed even inside their eggs. But the dragons had been gone for centuries. 

Dragons in the valley would change everything. If this egg hatched, it might mean the end of the Raids. We could save our village. 

“Would you allow me to put you in my pack and keep you safe?” I picked the egg up reverently and stared at it. The glow shifted, coming from inside. Now I could see the silhouette of the beast. It was looking at me. I placed the egg carefully in my sack and wrapped it up with the clothing I had inside. 

When I left the cave, I stuck my head out first, tentatively. The coast seemed clear, but my heart thumped in my chest, a steady cadence leading me home to the village. I stopped just outside, hidden in the bushes, and watched. I was checking to make sure the Raiders had left, but what I saw took my breath away.

My parents stood in the center of our village, surrounded by our neighbors. They hung their heads and cowered as people I had known my whole life shouted at them. Rage pinched the faces of the villagers. Rage they focused on my family.

I stepped out from the bushes. I wanted to run down the remaining feet between us and free them from whatever was happening. My mother raised her face and found me. Her eyes widened, and she shook her head. I skidded to a stop. My father looked up, too. He mouthed one word to me. Go. 

“Where is she?” Jarel’s father stood inches from my father’s face. Spittle flew from his mouth as he shouted. “They were looking for her. If she hadn’t hidden, the others might have been safe. They’ve been looking for her all along!”

I felt my mouth drop open, and I quickly covered it with my hand. The Raiders had been looking for me. The revelation almost dropped me to my knees, but Jarel’s father was still speaking and his next words chilled me to my bones.

“Tell us where to find her so we can turn her over.”

“No,” my father said. “You cannot sacrifice her.”

“We should sacrifice everyone else’s children instead?”

“You don’t understand.” My mother’s face was pleading. “You don’t know who she really is.”

“We know that if the Raiders have her, the Raids will end. Our families will be safe. If you had turned her over yourselves, Jarel might be here today. That is enough information for me. Hand her over or face the consequences.”

“We cannot,” my father said.

Jarel’s father plunged the knife into my father’s neck before I even saw him take it from his shirt. My mother screamed, but the knife of Jarel’s father quickly found her neck, and she abruptly fell silent.

Now the scream that echoed through the village was mine. The villagers turned and found me in the forest growth. I scrambled back, but it was too late. A roar went up as they all came after me as if they were one.

I turned and ran as fast as I could.