The monsters chased me, their wings flapping. I knew they were dragons, it was only a matter of time before they caught me. I still ran, the fear of being taken as a royal slave overwhelming me.
The red dragon swooped down upon me, and I let out a blood-curdling scream, jolting myself awake.
I flung the sweat-soaked covers off and grabbed the jug of water from the stump beside my bed, gulping it down greedily. I heard footsteps coming down the hall and knew my mother must have heard my screams again. She liked to come in and check on me, offering what little comfort she could. She knew just how often the nightmares occurred and how badly I suffered during the day.
Ever since my twenty-first year, they’d become increasingly frequent and more realistic. Each time, it felt like the dragon was ripping me apart from the inside out. Even in the dream, I couldn’t fight him off.
The only consolation was that there were at least some good dreams to go along with the bad ones. A trio of dragons surrounded me while I fought the attacking armies with a glowing sword. Those dragons were different than the others. I was connected to them, as if I was one with them. But lately, they appeared less and less, leaving me with only the nightmares.
It never made sense to me, because why would dragons protect me—a lowly servant of the clans? Dragons only ever associated with their own.
My mom walked into the room, the concern clearly etched on her face. I must have been louder than I normally was because she usually concealed her distress. She didn’t understand the dreams, and she had no idea how to help me.
“Abby, please tell me it wasn’t the same dream?”
I offered her a half-hearted smile and pushed back my own fear. If she knew how much the latest dream affected me, she wouldn’t let me leave the house to perform my daily duties, and with her illness, I had to be able to step in and do what I could. Otherwise, we’d never be able to eat.
Usually, the man of the house would help in the day to day chores, but we had no such person. He left long before I was born, apparently. He was a pureblood and was disappointed when he realized I wouldn’t inherit the clan gene.
All dragons feel the energy of their unborn child, so when he felt nothing from me, he just up and left. No note, nothing. He left my pregnant mother in the middle of the night, and we hadn’t heard anything since.
Oh well, who needs a man anyway? Women do twice as much work without the complaining. I’d seen some of the men on the farms whine for the whole day and do half the work I did, and still they seemed proud of themselves. It was quite pathetic.
My mom’s gentle touch brought me back to the present.
“Yes, Mom. It was the same dream, but it was fine, I promise.” I couldn’t lie to her. Even though I knew it would be better for her if I did, I just couldn’t do it.
“Oh, darling, I wish there was something I could do to get rid of these dreams. You barely sleep and yet you still work to provide for us. Maybe I should ask our clan Chief for an advance in our shares,” she mused, and my heart froze in fear.
“No! Mother, please, just let me do my work. I will be fine. You know the Chief is ruthless when it comes to his gold, and I don’t wish to owe him something we cannot repay.”
I’d heard stories about the Red Clan Chief. He let people borrow what they needed, but when he saw something he wanted, he took it, claiming it was repayment for their debts. A friend of mine a few houses over had such a thing happen to her family. Her father borrowed more than he could repay, and when his daughter came of age, she was given to the Purple Clan’s Chief as payment for the Red Chief’s debt. I didn’t want that to happen to me. I’d just come of age and had already been propositioned by many young men in the village, but I told my mother I didn’t want an arranged marriage; I wanted love.
I wanted that feeling that took over your whole being when a man looked at you with nothing but pure love in his eyes. The way his touch sent tingles through your body. That’s what I imagined love to be like. Not these arranged marriages that the clans thought would strengthen their bloodlines.
Thankfully, since I still lived at home with my mother, she had the authority to deny any request for my hand. If I had lived by myself, they would have demanded I choose a man to mate with. My mother, being the amazing woman she was, let me live my life and try to find love on my own.
There weren’t many couples among the clans who had found love naturally, which made me want it even more. I knew I was meant to give my love to someone who was worthy of it. The only issue was the fact no clans were allowed to visit another without the Chief’s express permission.
There were three clans that were ruled by the King. The king took control of the clans before I was born, in what was said to have been a vicious takeover. He killed the rulers before him, and a war broke out among the clans over the change of power. The death toll was high, and while the clans fought amongst each other, the new King did nothing to help them until it began to affect the amount of gold he received.
The clans were the Red clan—the clan I lived with, the Purple clan, and the Gold clan. Each clan had a chief who reported to the King and paid taxes. Those taxes were earned from trading our livestock or skills to the people outside of the clans.
The humans knew about the clans’ existence and used to coexist with us in peace. Fear of our new King kept them far away from us, so if we wished to trade, it usually meant weeks of travel to get to the villages.
The King was very strict with the clans and limited what we were allowed to do. According to the old women in the clans, we used to be able to intermarry with humans and the other clans. Now, we were forced to participate in arranged marriages. Well, the women were. The men seemed to get more choices than us women.
From what was whispered around the campfires, dragons all had a true mate out there and many would wait a lifetime to meet them. These days, true mates were unheard of. It was hard to believe whether it was all gossip or if any of it was true, since those old enough to remember rarely talked about it. There was a law among our clans to not speak of a time before our King.
He visited once every year, and while I’d never actually seen him in the flesh, his energy alone frightened me. It had been said that those of us who didn’t shift ended up working in his castle as servants for all of his high guards, and his family. According to the rumors, he had two sons, each more ferocious than him. No one survived being their servant, so I did my best to be of use to the Clan; the fear of being sent to them drove me to be the best I could be.
My mother watched me nervously as I changed for the day into my servant’s clothes– a simple brown tunic and pants paired with boots so worn you could tell they’d been used every day over the past year. I groaned as I pulled them on, already feeling the blisters. A downside to living a life in poverty, you couldn’t afford the simple things like socks. Many of the men out in the fields had thick woolen socks to protect their feet, but unfortunately, I was offered no such luxury.
I stood up and moved past my mother who hovered in the doorway unsure of what to do. She followed me through the house, her footsteps echoing mine as she wrung her hands out of nervousness.
I grabbed a bread roll for breakfast knowing I wouldn’t get a chance to eat anything else during the day. It was always easier to do a hard day’s work with something heavy in my stomach.
As I left the house, my mother spoke, delaying my departure. “Abby, when you get home, I need to tell you something.”
I frowned back at her, confused. “What? Why not tell me now?”
“Because, it’s not a short story, my dear. Now go have fun at work, and I shall see you tonight. I will even have your favorite dinner waiting for you.” She pushed me out the door with a smile, and my mouth watered at the thought of dinner.
Pork steaks were my absolute favorite, but they were expensive in the village, which meant she planned on seeing the butcher while I was at work. I hoped she didn’t use up too much of our coin. You never knew when you would need money around here.
The long walk out to the fields was silent as usual. Men from other families walked alongside each other, quietly conversing. I heard hushed whispers among them about our Chief, but I tuned them out, choosing to focus on my day ahead.
The livestock needed to be moved, our vegetables all needed to be watered, and the soils checked to make sure they weren’t lacking any vitamins or minerals. All dragons needed a balanced diet to control the nature of their dragon, otherwise they could go rogue, attacking any who got in their way on the hunt for meat.
There were very few of us in the village who didn’t have a dragon living within them; my mother and I were included in the minority. It ended up being one out of every hundred of us that remained human. Our diet didn’t change when we shifted; we would become prone to mood swings and irritability if we deviated from our usual meals. Whether it was genetics or some kind of dud gene, no one really knew.
I tended to my designated crops, which took the better half of the day, before moving onto the fields. None of the others could really do anything out there because the livestock sensed the beasts in them. It was now my designated area because all the others gave up. But with how times had changed, I went to each field, tending to the cattle and other animals since no one else would take such responsibility.
The other servants only came out here when it was the butcher’s time to carve meat. Then, they all eagerly watched the animals run in fear.
Various cattle and sheep used to roam about freely, having shepherds watch over them and ensure they were fed. The sheep’s wool would help us in the colder months and they would continue to provide us milk all year long.
A few sheep were ill and had to be isolated in a designated sick area to prevent them from infecting any of the other stock.
I went from herd to herd, until darkness started to descend, until I only had the goats left to tend to. They were my favorite. They seemed to be durable and hard to kill, much like a dragon. They just didn’t have scaled skin.
My mother never understood my fascination with the goats or dragons. Sure, the dragons were the epitome of fearsome, and any person who couldn’t shift into a dragon would always wish to do so, but goats—they were just food.
To me though, something about the goats made me feel happy. They were loyal creatures and loved when I visited their paddock. I had even bonded closely with one particular goat that I helped birth in my fourteenth year.
I’d come across the mother struggling, with two hooves dangling from her opening. She tried to get away from me, but the pain was too overwhelming for her. When I went to the village healer for help, she told me to go get the butcher, saying he would help, then laughed in my face.
I couldn’t understand how someone could be so cruel to another living creature. Just because it was an animal, that shouldn’t have made a difference. I knew I couldn’t leave the poor goat to suffer through the birth alone. So, I ran back home, grabbing the few spare blankets I had, then made my way back to her.
My mother understood and let me do what needed to be done to help, even coming down with fresh water and food for me and to feed the goat while she lay prone. After a few hours of struggling, the baby goat was finally born. It was white, with brown markings on its feet and soft brown eyes. That moment, looking into the baby goat’s eyes, I felt a deeper meaning to my life. I wanted to make the most of my future and help those who were too weak to help themselves. I had no idea how I was going to do that, but I vowed to find a way.
Smiling like a lunatic, I entered the gate into the goat’s paddock, joy radiating from me. They all gathered around me, waiting to be fed. It was a ritual for me to feed the goats at the end of the day. I would sit down with them and watch the sunset, these animals were my only friends.
After they were fed, I moved to my usual spot and laid down on the ground.
As I rested there looking up at the sky, the goat I had helped birth came wandering up to me, trying to eat my hair. It was an old habit of his and I loved it.
“Life, stop it,” I chided, but smiled when he just dropped his weight at my side. It seemed fitting to name him Life when he gave me hope that I could better my own.
I lay there for an hour as the sun slowly set, the bright yellow turning to pale orange mixed with streaks of purple and blue as the clouds cut across the path of the sun. It was truly magnificent.
Life leapt to his feet, bleating loudly, and I stood up alarmed. He had a habit of giving me advanced warning when another villager was nearby. There were a few who liked to tease me and mock me for not being able to shift into a dragon form. Life was very protective of me.
Instead of a villager, there was no one around. The paddock next to the goats though, had cleared of all sheep. I strolled to the fence, wondering where they could have gone when a loud rumble sounded in the sky.
There weren’t any storm clouds that I could see, and as I looked over at the horizon I saw three distinctive blurs coming in fast. My first thought was that villagers had shifted and were planning to hunt for the evening. There was no way I would leave the goats behind to be eaten by barbarians. At least when the butcher took a life, it was quick, easy, and provided the animals with the least painful option.
The blurred shapes grew closer, and I noticed something out of the ordinary. The three dragons were each different colors. Purple, gold, and what looked to be blue. I couldn’t figure out how on earth there was a blue dragon. As far as I was aware, there were only three clans. What was worse, the three dragons were being attacked by two from my clan.
I shook my head, disgusted that they were attacking each other, but there was nothing I could do. I herded the goats into their shelter for the night and locked them in, knowing that the fight could spread to the paddocks. I didn’t want any unnecessary casualties if it could be avoided.
I watched in disgust as they fought each other until the blue dragon fell from the sky. A huge crack resounded as the blue dragon landed in the middle of the paddock, right in front of my eyes.
From the dying light, I saw blood gleaming off its neck as it remained motionless on the ground. The gold and purple dragons fought the two reds, and my heart raced with a primal urge to help. After another moment of stillness, I leaped over the paddock fence and ran straight for the injured dragon, unsure what I could do, but I knew I had to do something.
The gold and purple dragons managed to chase off the two reds as I made it to the blue dragon’s side. Blood pooled on the ground underneath it, and I wasn’t sure there was anything left I could do to help.
That much blood would have meant a human’s death. I wasn’t sure what this meant for a dragon, since this was my first up close interaction with one. How was I supposed to know what to do?
I reached out a gentle hand and stroked along its snout. It let loose a growl, making me leap back. I held my hands up in a placating gesture, hoping it knew I meant it no harm. Its crystal-blue eyes stared at me, and I felt something inside me urge me to move closer.
“Easy there. I just want to help, I swear,” I coaxed, slowly inching forward. The dragon stopped growling when I spoke. Instead it watched me carefully as if waiting for an attack.
All I could think was how sad it was that a creature was so used to pain that it wouldn’t let someone offer it kindness.
Convinced it wouldn’t hurt me, I reached out, gently stroking the scales on his snout when a roar split the air. I looked up to see the gold and purple dragons as they landed on either side of the blue dragon, both growling ferociously. I rolled my eyes at their show of dominance; I knew, they couldn’t help the blue dragon unless they shifted.
“Calm your farm. I’m trying to help.”
The dragons snorted. I assumed they were laughing, at my obviously stupid retort, despite the dangerous situation.
I let go of the dragon’s snout to go around and assess the wound on its throat. The blood that flowed from it was slowing, so either the dragon’s heart had calmed or maybe it had the ability to regenerate? As far as I knew though, only the originals had that power. Maybe he was from the original line? It could explain his color.
I put my hands over the worst of the wounds, closing my eyes. The moment the blood touched my skin, something snapped inside me.
It could only be described as power, pure unfiltered power. It battled within me, and I groaned as it tried to take control.
My eyes flew open and focused in on my hands, an iridescent glow emanating from them. I looked down and noticed every inch of me had the same kind of shine, and I swore if I moved my head at the right angle, it looked like I had scales. That couldn’t be possible, could it? Maybe it was the blue dragon using some kind of magic on me.
As soon as I met its shocked eyes, I knew it wasn’t his magic, but my own. He looked as alarmed as I felt.
The energy swirled within me, begging to be released. I did the only thing I could. I unleashed it, letting the power go into his wound, watching in awe as his skin and scales healed before my eyes.
Pain echoed in my neck where the wound would have been on his human form, and I wondered had I somehow managed to transfer the pain from him to me?
When the wound had healed fully, I pulled my hands away, slumping to the grass in exhaustion. My knees hit the ground, pain radiating all the way up to my hips.
I panted, feeling absolutely exhausted. The blue dragon moved, and the other two no longer guarded him. Instead, they all surrounded me protectively. The blue dragon nudged his snout toward me and I gladly reached out to stroke my hand along it affectionately. The gold dragon did the same, offering me his snout so I could give it a rub. I smiled, feeling accepted. That was until I reached the purple dragon. He looked like he was inviting me to reach out and trust him, and I wanted to. The moment I reached up though, he blew a gust of wind that pushed me back and landed me on my ass.
His purple jewel-like eyes, much like the amethysts the purple clan mined, glittered down at me and I swear he was laughing at me. “You know, it’s rude to hurt the person who just saved your friend,” I huffed, crossing my arms and turning away.
I felt a nudge on my shoulder and looked back to see a gleam of gold. I reached up, letting my hand stroke leisurely over the gold dragon’s snout, feeling a connection rising within me.
Bells rang in the distance, and my heart raced with panic. Those bells only meant one thing. I faced the three dragons, a grim look on my face. “Quick! You have to go! If they find you, they will kill you.”
The blue and purple dragons didn’t hesitate to launch into the sky, but the gold remained on the ground.
“You have to go!” I begged, trying to push him away. It didn’t do any good. It was impossible to move a dragon by mere human strength.
He moved around to stand in front of me, and I stomped my foot in frustration. I knew what the Chief of my village was capable of, and it wasn’t something anyone deserved.
“Please! You must go! If my clan sees you here, they will kill you and also me for being seen with you.”
At the threat of my possible death, the gold dragon stared into my eyes and nodded his head once. “Don’t worry about me, I’ll see you again,” I promised, knowing it was very likely a lie.
I didn’t understand why, but if something were to happen to him or the other two, I knew it would hurt me.
They were such beautiful creatures that deserved to be worshipped, not killed in pointless wars. The gold dragon took a few steps back as I heard the sound of the villagers getting closer. As they came into view, he leaped into the air, flapping his wings to propel himself forward.
I watched as over a dozen of my clan’s dragons took off after them and could only pray they made it to safety.