Tales of Malenatu: The Blue Dragonlady

The Imprinting

The Imprinting

Hey, what gives? My father, Brendu and his tamer, the Headhouse are arguing about my syndicate-mate. This isn’t right.

Don’t touch this one, Faronur. She’s dangerous. Remember the stories? My father, a white dragon, keeps complaining. What stories? They’re going against her just because she’s two colors. This is just wrong. It’s like saying “Oh, you’re a forest dragon. You must be overly environmentalist.” Not all forest dragons are like that. Some are really amazing, and they don’t only care about the forest. They’re all different. Just because she’s different doesn’t make her bad.

"Well, what should we do, Brendu?" From the inside of my shell, the man’s voice wasn’t clear. I could hear him, but it was slightly muted. Almost garbled. I let an eye open slightly to try to catch a glimpse of who was coming. I knew they should be here any minute. The wishers. I wonder who I’m going to be Imprinted by. I hope he’s nice. But all I saw was red from the inside of my shell. The tip of my blue tail wiggled a little, tickling my nose. A dark shadow passed by my egg and I quickly shut my eye. We baby dragons aren’t supposed to see inside of our eggs. Our mother, Rany, a red dragon always tells us that our eyes will go bad if we open them in the eggs. I don’t care. I like being rebellious. Besides, this is so cool!

Isn’t it obvious, Faronur? Burn the abomination, that’s what. Can’t have a TWISP in the vicinity. Last time that happened, almost everyone was screwed. What a jerk. Going to burn my syndicate-mate. That’s certainly stupid.

Hey, father? Can’t we wait until AFTER the Hatching? I mean, she should have the same opportunities as all of the rest of us. It’s not right to judge based on a color. Let’s just see what happens. Please? I mean, I know I’m a lowly blue and don’t mean too much, but… If I were her, I wouldn’t want to be burned before I get a chance to live like everyone else. And if that doesn’t convince you, think about it. Your fire is very hot. And she IS kind of close to the rest of us. You would end up seriously hurting or killing some of us. I don’t know why I said it. It just… slipped out. My father and Faronur stopped talking about it. The wishers were coming now, and they didn’t want to make a big scene.

I let part of my soul go outside of this stupid shell to see what was going on. Almost like I was seeing through someone else’s eyes. I had done this before. That’s how I learned to walk and got a good feel of my surroundings. I’ve heard that while we do this, it looks like a barely visible ghost wandering around. And that the “ghost” looks like a baby hominid dragon of our color. There was a… girl. She had golden-brown hair and multi-colored eyes. Yellow and green. Like the Twisp girl I fought for only moments ago. It can’t be a girl. That’s against the rules. Maybe she’s a rebel too. She started talking to me about other people’s craziness. Oh, please just touch my egg so we can talk. I like you. And it would be a great Icernstisce present if I was Imprinted on by you.

Umm… Hey. Are you alright, friend? I couldn’t help but ask my syndicate-mate whom I had just defended.

Yes, I’m fine. Just thinking. I heard her soft, delicate voice, but it wasn’t fine. It was sad-sounding.

You don’t sound fine. What’s wrong?

I just would like to stay here, that’s all. You’ve been so nice to me, even when the others aren’t. At this point, I started to feel down about it too. What’s your name?

What does she mean, what’s my name. I don’t know. We all know we choose names based on the wishers’ personalities. I can’t honestly say what my name is. I let my soul venture a little again to get a good look at my options.