The Dragon Rei

There weren't always dragons in the Valley. Before my ancestors settled here, it was just like any other place. Lush and beautiful, but not magical. Men fought and died to claim the land on which we make our home now. It didn’t matter, in the end, which men won those long ago battles.

For we are not men. And we have never been subject to their will.

I remember my grandmother explaining this to my sister and I, when we were young. She took us to the edge of the cliff that hugged the north side of the Valley. On a crest of rock that overlooked the entire expanse, she explained in her soft, old voice that our family had been the stewards of this land for generations. That all who lived here, and everything that grew here was under our protection.

“And someday soon, one of you will become the Rei.” She said, “You will lead our people to prosperity. You will continue our legacy.”

My sister and I had looked at eachother, and then looked away very quickly. One of us. We knew that already, had been told since birth. Our family line always birthed twins. Only one of us would become the Rei. The stronger one, the one that would inherit the full weight of our ancestors power. We always knew this, but still, we didn’t like to be reminded of it.

“Look, Malik, Lia, see what might one day be yours.” With a gentle hand on each of our backs, she nudged my sister and I closer to the edge so that we might see better. “Feel the power that flows through your veins, the power of all the Rei’s before you. Feel it. Use it.”

Then she shoved us both off the edge of the cliff.

I tumbled through the air, screaming Lia’s name. I was terrified. For a brief moment, mid air, our eyes met. And I didn’t see my own fear mirrored in my twin’s eyes.

I only saw fury.

And I understood then what we were meant to do. I felt the racing of my heart as I plummeted toward the earth. Felt the rush of adrenaline that I’d previously mistook for fear. The ice in my veins, the tension in my muscles, the scream ready to explode out of me. It wasn’t fear at all. Lia understood that. She always saw things more clearly than I did.

It wasn’t fear, and we weren’t meant to fall to our deaths today. It was power. Power I would use to fly.

Wings exploded out of my back. I saw my limbs warp and change, felt the strange sensation of my body elongating, transforming into a shape that was both unfamiliar and familiar. A half remembered dream. A dream I’d been having my whole life.

And I flew. My wings caught on the air current, lifting me in the air. All of my fear and power turned to joy as I took to the skys. As I circled around, I saw Lia, red scales glinting in the sunlight. She was a dragon, my twin in these forms too. We were identical except for the color; I could see icy blue scales on my wings out of the corner of my eye. We met in the air, soaring side by side. And we loved it. No matter what it meant for our future, we felt the truth of it, the rightness of it.

This is what we were, what we were meant to be. The Dragon Rei, channeling the power of a hundred generations. Humanity was only a costume we wore. And we were destined to be so much more.

Later, when we reminisced on this particular incident of childhood, Lia remembered it a bit differently.

“That old bitch.” She would say, frequently, when our now dead grandmother came up in conversation. Somehow the filial piety that my grandparents had instilled in me had not taken in my sister. “Who does that to kids? She could have just told us what we needed to do.”

I was inclined to agree, though I might have said it differently. Lia and I were a bit of an anomaly among twins of our line. Typically, heirs were raised separately, trained from birth to inherit the title, and then sent to the battlefront to protect the Valley from our enemies, to fall or survive. Only one twin ever came back.

Our parents, however, had been against the practice. Shirking tradition, they’d raised us together. They wanted us to be a family, wanted to know their children, even if the end result would be the same.

Of course, Lia didn’t think so. She was convinced we could shirk the prophecy somehow, unwilling to accept that we wouldn’t both make it out of this.

I could never match her certainty. I don’t know if it’s possible for us both to survive. I just know that if it comes down to it, I’ll save my sister's life. Even if the cost is my own.

I suppose her theory will be tested soon. Today is the eve of our 16th birthday. Tomorrow, we will be sent to the battlefront to confront our fate.