“All right, all right,” Aileen whispered more to herself than to the dragon. “This is good. We’re getting somewhere.”
She gasped when the dragon turned to his left and walked away, only to reappear and walk ahead, down the corridor.
“What the…?” Aileen took a tentative step towards the iron bars. The dragon turned around, and walked to the other side of the cave again. “You’re pacing. I can’t believe you’re pacing!”
She almost laughed. It was another sign there was more to this beast. Much, much more. It acted… like a human.
“You. Are. Pacing.”
The dragon stopped, fixed her with its pale gaze, and huffed.
Aileen furrowed her brows. It looked like it had given up on the idea of roasting her, and she believed she was quite safe for now. When it tucked its wings along its back and leaned on its hind legs as if it was sitting, she understood the dragon probably wanted to hear her whole story. It wanted her to explain herself. She looked at the bottle she was still clutching in her hand.
“You want to hear about this?”
To her utmost surprise, the dragon moved its head as if to nod.
“This is insane.” As the words escaped her lips, she smiled. “Okay, I’m going to tell you… the real story. I’m going to tell you what my ancestor made sure would be passed from one generation of Callas women to the next.”
It seemed like the dragon wasn’t releasing smoke through its nostrils anymore, and not even his body sent the scorching waves of heat that could make Aileen sweat her soul out. Its broad chest was emanating soothing warmth.
“Medea is my ancestor. The powerful, dangerous sorceress of the Ancient Greeks, who traveled with Jason and his crew, who helped them reach Colchis, and helped Jason fulfill the three tasks which were supposed to bring him the Golden Fleece. The last task was to defeat the Guardian of the Fleece, you…” she pointed towards the dragon. “So far, so good. Everyone in the modern world knows this part of the story. We learn it in school, read it in books. But the second part we learn and read about is not true. The books say Medea put the dragon to sleep so Jason could kill it and steal the Fleece. There are other versions in which Jason kills the dragon without Medea’s help. None of them is true. My version comes from my mother, and from her mother. My version comes from Medea herself, and it survived through the ages because the secret was kept by the women in our family. And my version says that the sorceress, Medea, met the dragon and saw it was no beast. What she saw was a strong, handsome man, and that man stole her heart. Medea fell in love with the Guardian and saw how selfish Jason was. He only wanted the Golden Fleece so he would become king, thinking that was what he needed for the people to recognize him as their ruler. The sorceress saw the artifact and understood there was more to it. Someone was supposed to have it one day, but that someone wasn’t Jason. His goals didn’t match the real purpose of the artifact.”
The dragon was listening intently. Aileen paid attention to its every move and gesture, and she realized it was barely moving, barely breathing, completely entranced by her story.
“Medea spent days in the Guardian’s lair.”
While saying those words, Aileen looked around her cell. Even for her, everything was falling into place as she spoke. Her story made more sense than ever, and it was because it had all happened here, thousands of years before.
“They fell in love,” she continued, her voice gentler now. “The Guardian begged her to stay, but she had no choice. Jason was waiting for her. And yes, she was a powerful witch, but not even she could stand in the way of Jason and his men. She devised a plan: she would use her powers to create something similar to the Golden Fleece, and bring that to Jason. What she didn’t expect was for her lover to refuse to let her go and carry it out. The Guardian said he would imprison her if he had to, only because he couldn’t and wouldn’t live without her. Medea had to come up with a second plan, then. With a spell, she put the dragon to sleep. But just as she grabbed the fake artifact, getting ready to leave, she saw three tears fall down the sleeping dragon’s cheek. Carefully, she caught them in a bottle and hid it under her robe.”
Aileen made a pause. With slow, careful movements, as if to show the dragon she meant no harm and had no hidden agenda, she placed the tear-shaped bottle on the floor. Then, she dug her right hand inside her hip bag and took out the scroll. She unfolded it and read the words out loud.
“In his lair, he never slumbers.
How long he’s lived, he never wonders.
His eyes let fall three healing tears:
The first can soothe all hidden fears,
A troubled mind the second mends,
The third, the body’s pain transcends.
A time will come to pay the price,
The Guardian’s tears - a sacrifice.”
She set the scroll down, next to the bottle, then closed the distance between herself and the iron bars. The heat radiating from the dragon’s body didn’t make her sweat anymore. It was as if the beast used this ability to either tell its enemies they were in trouble, or let its friends know they were safe. It was odd, but Aileen felt safe now.
“This is Medea’s prophecy. Each of your tears could heal something in a human, but that miracle came at a price. The women in my family passed the story, the prophecy, and the healing tears from one generation to the next, but fearing the sacrifice mentioned in the last verse, they never dared to use the tears. Not even when they could have saved someone from certain death.” She paused and looked at her own hands clutching the bars. The iron was still warm from the dragon’s fire. She smiled. “Until I was born.”
The beast leaned in. To her surprise, Aileen didn’t back away. All she could see in its eyes was the desire to hear the end of her story.
“I… I was not a healthy child.” She closed her eyes and sighed. “I was born with what we call Level 3 Autism Spectrum Disorder. It’s the most severe level of autism.” She opened her eyes and looked up at the dragon. A dark chuckle escaped her lips. “Of course, you wouldn’t know what that is. Probably, in your time, children suffering of something like that would either be left to die, or seen as messengers of the gods. Let me try to explain some of the symptoms I had… I can’t remember having them; I was too little. But my mother told me when I grew up.” She counted them on her fingers. “I could barely speak, I was very moody, couldn’t sleep, people couldn’t deal with me most of the time, I was sensitive to everything… noises, more than two or three people in the room… I couldn’t stand their presence. I was very aggressive and would sometimes attack my mother, or anyone who tried to get close to me. With my teeth, my nails… anything. My parents and my grandparents tried to help me, took me to doctors, did everything in their power. The truth was… I was never going to have a normal life. Even if they poured money into various treatments, I would never grow up to be a normally functioning adult. My mother told me she wanted to heal me with the tears… your tears… many times, but my grandmother said ‘no’ every time. She was afraid the sacrifice would be too great, and she was sure I would be the one to pay it one day. She didn’t want me to be healed only to suffer even more later in my life. Then… something happened. I injured myself for the first time. I don’t remember it, but my mother told me she had been gone from the room for a few minutes, and when she came back, blood was oozing from a deep gash on my forehead. She didn’t even consult my grandmother. She went straight to the safe where she kept the tears and the prophecy, opened the bottle, and forced me to drink the first two tears. The next morning, I felt like I was a new person. And I continued to be that new person until this very day.”
Aileen ran her hands through her thick, black hair. She realized it was still tied up in a messy ponytail, and decided to release it. She pulled at the hair tie and let the dark tresses fall down her shoulders and back. She scrunched up her nose in disgust when the smell of dirt, sweat, and smoke filled her nostrils. She could really use a shower.
Her small gesture seemed to mesmerize the dragon. She cocked an eyebrow when she noticed it was studying her more keenly than before, its blue eyes running up and down her body, taking in every detail of her skin, of her clothes… She remembered she wasn’t wearing a top anymore, and she instinctively wrapped her arms around her round, heavy breasts. The sports bra wasn’t doing much to cover them.
“Anyway, my mother thought that if she gave me only the first two tears, the ones which healed the mind and the spirit, the prophecy wouldn’t be fulfilled. After all, it never mentioned anything about what would happen if not all three tears were consumed. It was a long shot, but she needed something to believe in, some hope that I would be okay. When my grandma found out what she had done, she told her she was a fool. But when she saw how healthy I was, how I could speak and perform any activity ten times better than children my age, she agreed with my mother that giving me the tears had been the right call.”
The dragon leaned even closer to the bars. Aileen was starting to get confused. She couldn’t tell what was going through its mind anymore. There was still interest and curiosity in its eyes, but also more than that. It wasn’t looking at her as if she could be its dinner, but as if… She shook her head.
“I was great at everything. Brilliant, even! The first in my class, I could memorize things so easily, find solutions to any problem… I seemed to have a way with people. Everyone liked me. Teachers, peers, boys later… girls…”
She chuckled, remembering the first time a girl had asked her out. She had been in college. As curious as she had been, Aileen had decided to refuse. She already had enough on her plate given that every guy she met was instantly drawn to her. She wasn’t even the most beautiful young woman on campus. Yes, she felt good in her own body, appreciated her curves, and knew how to dress to impress, but she was aware there were so many blonde, skinny girls who should have attracted more attention than she did. Still, if a guy had to choose between her and a top-model, he always chose her. Aileen Callas – the brilliant young lady everyone wanted to be friends with… that was… unless they could get into her pants. She had known it was all due to the two dragon tears that had healed her as a child. Even so, she had never felt she didn’t deserve the praise and attention. After all, she had always done her best.
“My mom told me that my passion… no, obsession with the ancient mythologies started right after I took the cure. I studied Mythology and Folklore, especially the Ancient Greek ones, then I wanted to teach. It was easy for me to become a professor at Harvard University, although I won’t lie to you: I did work for it. After a couple of years, though, teaching the same things over and over again just didn’t cut it anymore. I already knew one of the ancient myths was not real. How many others weren’t? I started by exploring the idea that the story of Jason and Medea could have another version, a version which had been hidden from humanity. Some of my students liked my approach and indulged my little game. Others didn’t appreciate the fact that I was straying from the textbooks they were so used to, so they went to my colleagues and told them I was teaching them the wrong myths, and they couldn’t afford to fail their exams because of my fantasies. So… here I am now, trying to prove to everyone that I was right. That I am right.”
She licked her parched lips and swallowed heavily. Her throat was dry, and she couldn’t say another word even if she wanted to. She coughed, tried to ask for water again, but all that left her lips was a pathetic croak. She closed her eyes and swallowed again, focusing on her breathing, trying to convince her own body that it was fine, it could hang in there for a little longer. She snapped them open when she heard a loud crack coming from the other side of the bars.
Aileen’s eyes grew wide with fear and wonder when she realized the noise had come from the dragon’s body. The beast was twisting and convulsing before her, its bones snapping and its muscles shrinking and rearranging in a whole different shape. She covered her mouth with both her hands as she watched the dragon fall to the ground and shake as if it was having a seizure. It moaned in pain, grunted, and roared, and when it was done, what was left of the mighty beast was a naked man lying on the cold floor of the cave. His eyes were closed, and he was breathing heavily.
Aileen couldn’t even think anymore. She could barely understand what was happening. The man seemed to be feeling better, his pain subsiding with every passing minute. When he sat up, supporting his weight on his right arm, and opened his eyes, Aileen saw they were of a pale blue. So pale that they could almost be white.
“Medea…”
His voice was deep and hoarse, as if he hadn’t used it in a very, very long time. His accent was strange and unexpected. He looked into her eyes, and Aileen’s heart skipped a beat.
“Medea,” he whispered again.
Aileen could pass out on the spot. For the second time in her life. She struggled to hold it together.