Fallen SnowA Story by sondrakeA dragons versus knights story from the point of view of the dragons. My mother sighs. I hear her stand and leave the warm safety
of the den. I think man has come, whatever man is. My mother talks about man a
lot. How man comes often, and how she has to fight them to keep us safe. Man
does not sound like a pleasant being. I hurry to break out of my egg. If I can
get out fast enough, I might see my mother when she returns. As the thick shell
surrounding me finally gives way to my sharp fangs, and I tumble out from the
warm, wet center of the egg into the large vastness of the world, I hear my
mother roar. I scramble to the edge of the den as best I can with my wet,
floppy, awkward new wings dragging me down. I see many shining creatures waving
sharp, shiny, pointy things around, and cheering. I see my mother, large and
beautiful, lying on the ground near them. A pool of strange red liquid covers
the ground beneath her. “Mommy?” I whine. Why doesn’t she move, why doesn’t she
come? I see her chest rise once, fall, and then she never moves again. The
shining creatures, the murderous beings I realize must be men, cut out my
mother’s heart, then cut off her head, and leave with their gory trophies;
leaving me and my un-hatched siblings to face the world as orphans. I
run as fast as I can at my floppy gait to her side. I can see that she is gone,
no more alive than the nearest rock or pond. I press my nose against her neck,
and I gather her last memories. I don’t know how I know that I can do this,
maybe instinct; all I know is that I am suddenly filled with my mother’s last
fear, her love for us, and her last thoughts. Stay hidden, my darlings, live, care for each other, and
do not let your mother’s death have been in vain… I don’t understand why the man creatures killed her. In all
the memories I have from her, she never even raised a claw against man except
in defense of her family. With sadness in my heart, I go back to the den. A few hours after our mother’s death, my siblings hatch
one by one. I care for them as best I can. After all, I am the oldest, and I
have much more experience with the things of life than they do. I have three brothers and two sisters. I myself am
female. The smallest of us, the youngest of my family, is my favorite sibling.
She is gentle and quiet, always trying her best to be helpful. She loves to sit
at the edge of the den and look out upon the world, watching the happening of
the world outside of our home. She loves to walk through the woods and see the
many creatures there. She even finds those that are injured and heals them, for
she has been born a healing dragon. Her behavior, however, worries me. She is
not the least bit wary of the outside world or humans; she even brings a small
and injured human child to our den! Humans are alright when they are small, but they soon grow.
I am tempted to kill the creature, but when I approach him, he smiles and hugs
me around the snout. This throws me off and makes me act against my better
judgment. I guess it’s because this human, if no other, doesn’t fear and
misunderstand me. Yuki and I take the boy home on foot, and I make him smile
the whole way by growing funny plants for him. For this, he names me “Flower,” and
he names Yuki “Snow” for her white scales. My plants also distract him from the
way we are coming, so he won’t be able to find his way back. “Be careful.” I warn her on our way back from returning the
boy near his anxious parents. “Many wonderful things are out there, but many
terrible things too.” I have told them of our mother’s death, and warned them
to beware the men with the shining skin and gleaming sticks that can pierce a
dragon’s thick scales. She nods each time I say this. “Yes, Hana. I know there is evil in the world. But
there is also much good!” She then twirls and laughs her musical bird-like laugh, and
continues her doings. Time passes, and we grow. Most of my siblings are a deep
blue color. I am a light green, and my youngest sister, who came to be known as
Yuki, is a soft white. I am a dragon of growth; I can make plants grow with the
mildest thought. My other siblings, Sora, Chikyuu, Mizu, and Tobu, have no
special abilities beyond flight and fire breath. Years go by and, one by one, my
siblings leave to find their own lives, their own destinies. Only Yuki and I
remain at our birth den. One night, Yuki decides to take a fly. I hate it when she
leaves for a long flight. She never stays within our territory, always drifting
into the human’s domain. “Be careful, Yuki. Stay within our boundaries, and please
don’t be gone for too long.” She nods her small white head. Even though we are
now full grown, she still has the appearance of an adolescent. “I’ll be back before midnight, Hana.” She flies off into the
moonlight. I sigh and decide to take a nap. She will be back soon. The hours
roll by, until the sun had risen again. Yuki still hasn’t returned. I try not
to worry, but I still find myself pacing. She has been missing days on end
before. Usually when she finds the aftermath of a human hunt, she tries to heal
all the injured creatures that have been left behind. I ask the birds, who are
her friends, if they know of her whereabouts. None have seen her. Finally, I
cannot wait any longer. Two days after she has disappeared, I fly off to find
her. “Yuki! Yuki!” I search for many hours, everywhere I can
think of in our realm. Over mountains, rivers, and forests I search, my eyes
watching carefully for any sign of her. After a while, there is nowhere left on
our territory to search. I land, and then I see something brilliant red. A
small phoenix, sitting in the tree next to me, watches me with dark shining
eyes. Yuki loves phoenixes, so I ask him, hoping to finally have an
answer. “Hello, kind sir.” I bow my head respectfully, as
phoenixes are easily offended and are strict advocates of good manners. “I was wondering if you have seen a mildly small white
dragon been by here recently? And if she has, might you be so kind as to tell
me which way?” The phoenix puffs up a little, and I am afraid that I may
have said something offensive to him by mistake, but he settles down right away
and answers in a surprisingly deep, rumbling voice. “My my, two polite dragons encountered in one week! If
someone had told me that I would ever run into just one, I may have laughed
myself into infancy again! Not to be offensive to your species, my dear, but
while dragons are magnificent beings, there are so precious few that show good
manners, especially to us phoenixes! To answer your question yes, I have seen a
young white dragon recently. In fact, it was yesterday that I did. I had the
most severe broken wing. When she showed up I was so scared, I thought I would
explode into infancy right there! But the gentle girl took my wing in her paw
and healed it right up! She headed north after the most delightful conversation
with me, said something about the animals in the nearby hunt. Probably hoping
to help them, bless her.” “Thank you, sir! I hope to repay your generosity in full
someday.” I leave the phoenix puffing up, stuttering that it isn’t
really a big deal, to say hi to Yuki for him. I fly another half hour north,
before I reach the edge of my land. I stop, my body hovering
above the edge of safety and danger, getting my nerve up for what I am about to
do. With a strong flap I fly over the line and, without looking back, I
head out to find Yuki. I search for about ten more minutes when a flash of
white in the dark grass catches my eye. I fly down, but when I see what has
happened, my heart stops beating. She had been killed. Her body is left in the
same gruesome manner my mother’s had been, no head and heart gored out, leaving
behind the bloody mess that used to be my living, loving Yuki. I feel myself
losing my mind, slowly sinking into the unbearable anguish. I try to calm down,
but my rage is too great. I howl in agony, flame uncontrollably flying out of
my mouth and nostrils. Why? She was so gentle, even the smallest mouse had no
fear of climbing into her paw. Many creatures loved her so. Many creatures came
to her for healing; she had even healed and almost dead human child she found
in the woods and led him back to the edge of civilization safely. So why had
they killed her!? Suddenly, I am not in control of my body any longer. I feel
a vague sense of what used to be me, the old, gentle me, but she has been
covered and hidden by a ferocious monster. I don’t try to calm myself anymore.
All my years of caution and fear are thrown off with a mighty shudder. I want
revenge; I want those beasts to feel every bit of the
pain and anguish they have put me through from the day I was born. I see the
smoke of a human den nearby andhead in that direction. My rampage lasts three days. Hana, the flower, is not
present. I smell the blood of many; hear the screeches of the humans, and
see a lot of shining sticks. The sticks do not affect me. My scales have
been hardened like my heart; fury is my shield. I use not only my natural
dragon fire and strength, but also my growth abilities, drowning whole human
nests in their own crops and flowers. I see a human with
small, catlike eyes dash from under a house in an attempt to survive. “Gekido!” He screams as he leaps onto a nearby mule and
tries to outrun me. I squash him with a swing of my tail. Wrath. I like
the name. I love the carnage I am causing; I love the shrieks of agony I hear
coming from my enemies as I trample them and burn them alive. I love the wails
of woe as humans realize that even their own crops and plants have turned
against them. The murderers of my mother and Yuki are paying in full for their
deeds, both against me and all other poor, innocent creature whose lives have
been ruined by human evil. After three days, I still have the energy to keep going for
weeks more, but then a young boy, about ten or eleven years, runs out from a
shelter and away from his mother who is screaming for him to return. As if the
shelter is any safer than the open path. As I am about to crush him beneath my
red-stained forepaw, anticipating the moment that he is no more than another
stain on the dirt of the road, he looks at me with huge eyes and says in a tiny
voice: “Flower?” I stop. I recognize that voice! “Flower, why are you doing this?” I realize that this is the
boy Yuki healed six years ago, the small child who hugged me and loved Yuki. “Why are you hurting people? Snow wouldn’t like that.” The
boy slowly approaches me, keeping his eyes on me the whole time. I am frozen,
for the first time in three days I am thinking clearly. The boy reaches my side
and, slowly, gently, hugs my left leg. “I know you’re a good dragon, please stop.” I bend down and
sniff the child. I hear the mother gasp. I see men raise their pointy stick at
me, but I don’t care. A snowflake suddenly lands on my nose and stays there for
the briefest moment. I look into the sky. Millions of the tiny flakes are
falling, landing all around and on me. Snow! I realize with shock. As though
Yuki herself is asking me to stop my doings and calm myself. I realize the boy is right. Yuki would never have let me do
this if she was still here. No matter what, she always believed in peace, not
violence. I look at the child, the only human brave enough to walk up to me and
try to understand me, even though I am a feared monster. I want so badly to
thank him so that he will understand what he has done for me. I have an idea. I
bend down and breathe on him, giving him the gifts of a long life and the
ability to speak to the creatures of nature so that he may better understand
it. He looks at me, wondering, and I smile at him. “Thank you, small one.” His eyes get big. “You’re welcome, Flower.” I leave after that, leaving the many towns to deal with the
damage I have caused to their homes. I am completely horrified at what I have
done. I had no right to do what I did, anger or not. I head back to Yuki’s
body, and I gather her last memories. Please, Hana, do not hold anger against the humans.
They are just so fearful; they destroy what can destroy them, even if it is not
going to. Good bye me beloved sister, may we meet again someday… I bury her body, and then I leave for a land far away. I
must go into hiding, to cover my shame and to try to start anew. I decide that
I will start a place in a hidden land, covering it in my own magic plants, and
make a safe place for all dragons to hide and live in peace. I will find Sora,
Chikyuu, Mizu, and Tobu, and others, tell them that I have a safe place. We can
hide, keeping ourselves safe from the humans and them safe from us. We will
hide for many, many years. The humans will destroy the few truly evil dragons
not in our little hiding place, and then they will forget we ever existed. One
day, perhaps, when the humans are ready, we might come back. But that
day does not come until all humans are as understanding as the boy who saved me
from my anger, when they stop destroying everything they don’t understand. Only
then can we return and live side by side with the humans, and on that day, I
will rejoice. Until then, we will wait. Every time snow falls from the sky and lies freshly
fallen on the ground, I will watch young hatchlings play outside. When they
become tired and cold, they will come visit me, their auntie dragon, and beg
for me to tell them a story. I will tell them many tales of evil knights who
destroy whole forests for no reason and courageous dragons, of phoenixes and
fairies, of the many wonderful and terrible things of the world. And I will
tell them the tale of Yuki, my own fallen Snow. © 2012 sondrakeAuthor's Note
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