Weirdwyrm

There weren’t always dragons in the Valley. Rumors persisted for decades that something strange had settled there. These were dismissed, of course, by adults who “knew better” and told their children “it’s just an alligator or two.” Neighborhood kids made a game of it. Groups of two or three or more would work up their courage and hike to the outskirts of town, following the paths of their mothers and fathers before them. Each time started the same, where they would coax the youngest or most impressionable child to go down alone, afraid as they were to join them. One day, their games made their parents take note.

Alex struggled to keep up with her older brother Jared and his friend Josh. Nine years old, she wore her hair in a thin brown pony tail that bounced at the middle of her back, swishing against her yellow “Daddy’s Little Princess” shirt that went well with her beige shorts. She hated the ickiness of her sweat, and hated more that they wouldn’t wait.

She ran along, only hearing them careen through the trees ahead. Alex dodged a lot of the lower hanging branches they had to push through, but tripped often enough on hidden roots and creeping weeds. She’d lost track of the number of times she’d fallen, her pride bruised as much as her hands and knees were dirtied.

“Jared, come on! Wait up!” She called out to them. “Slow down Josh!” Their laughter came back at her, but it only irritated her.

“Keep up, piglet!” Jared taunted. “Let’s find some truffles!”

She hated her brother’s nickname for her, which had nothing to do with her appearance, but had instead been earned at the dinner table. Never a picky eater, she’d happily finish off someone else’s leftovers. Often everyone’s, and never gained a pound to show for it. Since Jared was a bit stockier, he took his annoyance at her metabolism and threw it in her face every chance he got.

“Shut up, Bumper!” She taunted back, her own epithet coming from how he looked like one of the bumper cars at the county fair. More chuckles from up ahead.

The trio was headed to “The Valley,” where rumors of dragons and other strange beasts had passed into the local folklore. No one ever saw anything, but the legend had grown until it almost rivaled Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster. She didn’t believe in it of course, but since their parents were both at work, she had to tag along with her brother and his friend. This wasn’t exactly what she’d expected to do on spring break.

Teachers often mistook Jared’s friend Josh as a brother, their general size and demeanors being roughly the same. As such, Alex knew they’d slow down soon. While they had stamina, it would only go so far. She had enough energy to catch up and pass them. Even so, she hadn’t been this far into the woods on her own, and it made her uneasy that she’d lost sight of them. All she could do was follow the worn trail and look for their signs of destruction.

Alex picked up a stick to help her move up the steeper incline as they got into the furthest hills. “Alex, we’re stopping for a break up ahead. Hurry up!” Jared called to her. She could pick them out among the trees, Jared in his red sweatshirt and Josh with his backwards ballcap and the canteen of water he took with him everywhere. Encouraged, she picked up her pace.

Only a couple of minutes later she caught up to them, both winded but laughing and joking around. She appreciated where they stopped, a wide clearing granting a panoramic view that swept north to south across the Valley.

“Yo, where they at? Josh asked. “Thought you said they’d be here by now.”

“Dunno man, maybe they got lost?” Jared replied.

“Who?” Alex chirped up as she caught her breath. “Bumper, I’m thirsty.”

Jared rolled his eyes as he took off his backpack. “We told you, Sarah and Clarice were gonna join us.” He offered her a bottle of her fruity water. “Guess you weren’t listening. Anyway, I guess we wait.”

“Yeah,” agreed Josh. “You think the rumors are true though?”

“Yeah man, my dad saw it when he was a kid, swears by it,” Jared affirmed. “Bet it eats little girls,” he joked, poking Alex’s shoulder.

“Dad never said no such thing, Bumper. What’s down there anyway? What’s really down there?” Alex couldn’t help but be skeptical about the rumors.

“Maybe he never said anything to you but he mentions it all the time. The Dragon.” Jared kicked at some dirt and looked at his watch. “Sarah always shows up on time, she couldn’t live with herself if she didn’t. I wonder where she’s at?”

“Yo man, she probably just forgot her purse or something, you know? I bet she chickened out,” Josh said. “She didn’t want to come anyway.”

“She said she would. I trust her. Come here, piglet,” Jared said, beckoning his sister. Alex came close and he picked her up to put her on his shoulders. “See anything down there? Or back where we came from?” He turned slowly, but she couldn’t see much, not at first.

“Bumper, wait,” she requested, leaning forward to look back out into the Valley. “There’s like smoke or steam or something over there,” she said, pointing.

“No cap?” Josh asked, digging some binoculars out of his backpack. “Here, Alex, see if you can get a better look.”

Alex took them and twisted the lenses, trying to focus on what she saw. Not only was the smoke twisting and rising, it seemed to be moving slowly away from them. She felt Jared squeezing her ankles as he leaned backward.

“Hey, hey, piglet, you’re gonna make me fall,” he warned.

“Sorry.” She saw something then, a light, or perhaps a glimmery reflection. Alex couldn’t tell. “Something’s glowing down there, I think.” Jared set her down. “Hey Bumper, where were Sarah and Clarice supposed to meet us?”

“Here, around noon. I told her this would be the best place to go down.”

Alex handed her brother the binoculars. “That’s in like half an hour still. I can backtrack and see if I can meet them halfway? I’d be quicker and you know it.”

“I doubt they’re lost, Alex,” Josh said. “She’s like a wizard, always shows up when she means to.”

The light taunted her out of the corner of her eye, even as Jared turned the binoculars out that way himself. “Please, Bumper? I know how to get here, and as long as you guys stay here I-we’ll find you super easy?”

“Oh, alright, piglet. But be quick, okay? We’re not far from town but I don’t want you to get lost. You have your phone on you?”

“Yep!” she said, holding it up. He nodded.

“Alright, go on and find them.” She smiled, hugged his waist, and began to backtrack. “And be careful!” He called after her, but she wasn’t listening.

Alex looked over her shoulder a few times until they were out of sight once more. I can’t believe I’m doing this, she thought to herself. She only had a few minutes to skirt around her brother and Josh. Keeping an eye back where she came, Alex looped far around and began to descend into the valley alone.

She wanted to see what was making that light for herself, and wanted to get there first. Jared would definitely be upset if he knew she was going without them, but she could be quick. The hill sloped downward, and she followed it at an angle away from their vantage point, keeping to the trees.

When Alex could barely make out either of their shapes she turned to go straight down, half sliding as she went. As she descended, she felt the temperature get warmer than it should be in late spring. Humidity rose, and her profuse sweating brought no relief as it clung to her clothes and soaked her through. She was glad she thought to bring the water bottle with her, but it would soon be used up if she didn’t ration it.

Insects buzzed and chirped all around her, their mating calls bouncing back and forth across the Valley. Birds hopped along from branch to branch, before swooping away, and curious squirrels peeked up from where they hunted seeds to see who approached. Alex smiled and waved at one before it rushed up the side of a tree.

Fog began to obscure her vision, and she hesitated, trying to backtrack. She glanced up the hill but saw nothing but fog, and as she retreated, the ground seemed flat. Alex cocked her head to peer through the mist that enveloped her, waving her hands frantically to bat it away.

She didn’t want to yell, even as her fear grew. If her brother was right, if her father was right, Alex didn’t want to draw a dragon’s attention. But she wanted her brother right then, and her phone remained forgotten in her back pocket.

“Come on Alex, keep it together,” she told herself. “They’re just stories, just stupid stories.” Gripping her stick in one hand, and the water bottle in the other, she continued onward.

The ground became swampy and murky, a perfect complement to the fog. Mud sucked at her tennis shoes, and Alex regretted disregarding her brother’s insistence she wear boots. It wasn’t like she had some in the first place. She grimaced and trudged forward, thankful at least that she’d retained the stick. A few more looks back and she could tell she’d lost all sense of direction, with only the sun getting high above her through the gray mist.

“Never gonna find that light like this. Stupid, stupid, stupid.” She chided herself. Alex slipped several times, before long finding herself quite muddied. “Mom’s gonna make me do the laundry for a month,” she sighed. “I’m never getting through this.”

She clambered up onto a dry patch of dirty ground, sickly reeds and low scrubby grass, dotting here and there in tufts. Alex breathed easier, as the air felt less thick and oppressive. At last she could see a path, so after resting a moment, she began to follow it. A clear stream flowed beside her, and up ahead something larger scampered away from her on the opposite side.

Alex rinsed her muddy hands, and felt her back pocket for her phone, finally remembering it. Gone, lost somewhere in the fog and the mud. She sniffled and wiped back a tear.

“I really should have just gone back for Sarah and Clarice like I said,” she complained. “Okay, think. Bumper and Josh are in that clearing, right? I can climb a tree and see if I can find that clearing!” Keeping her spirits high, she found a tree that had low enough branches to grab, and made her way up as far as she trusted herself. What she saw didn’t help.

Instead of the hills sloping up as she’d expected, she just saw more trees, and more fog. Higher up, the sun burned reddish through the mist, leaving a rainbow as she looked around. Nearby, she spotted the glimmer again. “Didn’t think I’d come down this far,” she muttered as she descended, doing her best to keep her sense of direction oriented to the light.

Alex picked up her pace as the fog thinned, allowing her to navigate the woodland floor a bit easier. Before long she could see the light ahead of her, bright even in the mid-day sun which continued to shine a darker red as the fog vanished completely, casting the land with a crimson shade as the air grew ashen around her.

“That’s not right,” she commented, setting her walking stick and bottle aside and squinting up through her fingers. Something obscured the sun, like a partial eclipse. Alex couldn’t make sense of it, how everything felt like late evening but the sun was up there, not sunk below the distant horizon.

She resumed walking in the direction of the light, which shimmered and pulsed, varying its intensity unpredictably. Shadows grew and shrank as it passed among the trees. Shattered stumps and rotting logs began to clutter her path, and Alex noticed they all had fallen the same direction: Towards her.

She pressed forward into a clearing filled with the detritus of a shattered forest, and above it floated a glowing substance, silvery and golden in hue. It appeared to be some sort of mercurial liquid, but Alex couldn’t tell what would make it float at the height of the forest’s trees. It gushed out of itself, then pulled back in, never keeping any discernable shape other than “blob.”

“Jared’s never gonna believe this,” she whispered, half crouched behind a log, staring up at the sight, mesmerized. The liquid pulsed to the sound of her words, then she heard her voice repeated back to her.

“Jared’s never gonna believe this,” it said in a layered, resonant echo. Alex cupped a hand around her mouth and looked away, slinking down behind the log to hide herself.

“What is that?” she whispered even softer, only to hear that repeated back as well. “What is that?” Her voice became softer, less deep, affecting a lighter tambor. Alex risked one quick glimpse back at the shimmer.

Silvery golden strands stretched out, flowing to the ground. Seeking, searching, they writhed about like ever-growing tentacles, coming closer to her as she felt pinned by both the unmistakable terror and bewildering wonder she experienced.

Alex wiped tears from her eyes, but refused to look away. Forgotten were Bumper and Josh. Forgotten were Sarah and Clarice, lost somewhere in the forest, maybe. Forgotten was her phone, sunk in the murk of mud, lost forever.

Red sunlight reflected off those liquid tendrils as they snaked up her leg and around her waist, icy cold to the touch. They tightened around her chest enough to be uncomfortable, merging together in a flowing band. Stretching up to her face, they wiped away more tears even as she pulled away.

“What are you?” a voice asked, decidedly female now. Alex did not respond.

Each tendril withdrew, thickening into limbs as the main glob of liquid lowered itself to the ground, distending outward in a sinuous tail. Alex watched as it grew into a large snake-like being, two forelegs nestled beneath, with two wings held close to its back. It shook, and splatters of light fell away like droplets of water, vanishing into the eerie gloom. It worked its jaw, bearded with fleshy tendrils that flapped with its motion.

Alex could make out scaly flesh, but it flowed, never remaining fixed in any one spot, and it seemed to just continuously drip that mercurial liquid. “You’re a dragon,” she said, feeling stupid at the declaration.

“If that is what you’ve made of me,” the creature replied.

“Have you got a name?” Alex asked her.

The creature snaked its head back and forth, mesmerizing her. “I’ve never needed one before.”

“What should I call you?” the girl asked as the creature coiled in a large loop around her, leaving a trail of slimy light to evaporate in its wake.

“What use is a name?”

“Just trying to be friendly, sheesh. I’m Alex. That’s what you can call me, if you’d like.”

The creature hissed, “Alexsss,” trying it out. “This is acceptable.”

“What is acceptable?” Alex asked, confused. “You’re weird.”

Silver and gold pulsed, swirling through the creature’s flesh, not quite solid, but not quite liquid. “Some things are weird in their nature, others are weird in their behavior. Do not confuse me one for the other.”

Alex touched her finger tentatively to the creature’s forearm. “You feel like an earthworm. You know what that is?”

“Yes.”

The girl smiled. “I think I have the perfect name for you then.”

Curious, the creature looked down at her. Alex did not feel frightened anymore. Something about the sensations zinging through her finger and arm put her at ease.

“Come close though, I want to whisper it to you, it’s a secret,” she demanded coyly.

Acquiescing, the liquid mercury head lowered itself before the girl. Alex leaned in towards what she thought was an ear.

“It’s…” She whispered into the creature’s ear, smiling all the while.