The Midnight Dragon (Part 1)

The Midnight Dragon swept down from her lair atop the highest mountain in the largest range on the continent. The vast and lush range encircled the capital, but that was presently irrelevant to the Midnight Dragon, for tonight she was headed south.

She knew not where her destination lay, nor how long would be the flight. She knew only that this was the night her human, after near on a thousand years, was to be born.

*16 years later*

Avey stood in the open field known as the Choosing Ground. It was her sixteenth birthday and she had been waiting for this day her whole life. If the legends were true, her beast would have sensed her birth and had been watching over her, keeping her safe, until this day. How the beasts knew which human was theirs she did not know. No one did. The humans simply trusted in the Gods, and in the beasts who did their bidding.

why, then, was she so nervous? She felt utterly exposed; naked despite the riding leathers she had chosen for the occasion, cold despite the fur that Grandmama had placed over her shoulders. A chill ran down her spine. Anticipation settled in her stomach like a rock.

Avey had spent the better part of her sixteen years dreaming about which beast would choose her. She didn't know anyone who didn't play at beasts as a child, choosing the most fearsome or most intelligent as their familiar. Avey's favourite had been a dragon, how could anyone not dream of a beast that could exist in all three elements, and shoot fire no less? But everyone knew the dragons, and the wyverns along with them, were gone, the Gods having removed them in order to keep the humans content, in order to keep the land flourishing. Avey would have no choice in the hand she was dealt, though she shoved down the bile that arose at the thought of being paired with a pitiful beast - she had high expectations and would not be content with the likes of a sprite or domovoi.

She knew her beast was getting close when the wind stopped lashing her brown hair about her face. Mama had tied it back in the traditional braid but, as it was want to do, tendrils had escaped around her face. The long grasses stopped swishing about her knees, the trees on the hills that framed the Ground all but whispered hush. The land shuddered with expectation, and Avey shook from nerves. In those final moments before she was chosen, certainly settled over Avey, it would be a water beast that claimed her.

She turned to the deceptively small creek that framed the Choosing Ground, watching for her beast there, for she knew it would come from the oceans. The water rippled and she strained to see what would emerge. The villagers, waiting on the far side of the Ground, gathered for this moment, saw her movement and murmured amongst themselves. Her brother was there, waiting, obviously as nervous as she. Avey tried not to think about Hen and his Capricorn. The Water Beast had chosen him, just as Water Beasts had chosen their parents, and countless other ancestors. Earth and Sky beasts had chosen other members of the village; there must be a balance for the village to thrive. But there were only Water Beasts in her family, and her familiar must be one of them.

There was an expectation that she would continue the tradition of water and as much as she enjoyed pretending dragons were real, in her rare moments of obscured honesty, she had to admit she genuinely loved the waterfalls that cascaded down through the mountains. The mist on her skin, the roar that drowned out the rest of the world, the destructive power that came from a basin of calm. She had wanted to work with them as soon as she discovered it was a profession. But to admit this, even to herself, was to raise everyone's expectations and usher disappointment.

There was no promise that this is where her propensity would lie, but a girl must dream. Water might be her family's expectation. But it was also hers. Of course, as a beast of all three plains, a dragon could wield the power of the Gods through the falls the same as any other water beast. But one dream, a dream that was actually plausible, was enough for Avey.