Tales of Malenatu: The Blue Dragonlady

A Little Part of My Culture Comes Back

While Caden and Robbie flew to Helor Nest to cover up my rescue and catch up on their responsibilities, Gaddie, Baya and I flew back to Epicene Hollow. I still had to finish fixing it and I wanted to see if my powers were my own or just a side effect of the demon Rabnahiaem. Kimmy went to Donelia Nest to report my "escape" and Liam went to Lover Falls to meet with Ratego and catch up.

We flew all night and I sat gazing at the stars from the brilliant view I got sitting in a wheel-chair in my dragon's mouth. I could see the Shirinara Galaxy, watch the beautiful pink and blue hues turn to vibrant reds as the sun came up. We landed at the entrance to Epicene hollow when the sky was still a canvas, painted by the artist nature with the lovely sun-soaked paintbrush that made a rainbow of colors.

I wheeled myself into my broken home and examined my surroundings through new eyes. The cavern was still split in places, others needed improvement. Small places where the color had been worn off and turned black reminded me of all the times I had thrown things at others just for the objects to hit the walls. It would take hours to fix this place. Good practice for powers though.

"Hey! I'm home!" I called out, but there was no answer. Soon Raine, Ian, and Valerie walked out to me and hugged me, their arms wrapping around my upper body and neck area. Valerie offered to help push me upstairs, but I refused. She instead started to push me in the direction of the kitchen.

"Oh, I'm so glad you're home!" Raine started.

"Oh? So you forgive me?" I asked, looking at my three Hollowlings.

"Forgive you? For what?" Ian butted in.

"All the things I did to you three."

"You didn't do anything to us. What are you talking about?" Valerie stopped pushing my wheel-chair

."Umm... I don't know. Sorry." They shrugged it off and finished wheeling me to the kitchen where I prepared a good meal with the help of Tadon, the Hollowlings, and my new Kitchen Worker and Rhynayoh's teenager, Aasinlyah. She helped me reach the high objects and we wound up cooking dinner for everyone in the Hollow. It consisted of steak, chicken alfredo, ham stew, key lime pie, mint chocolate chip ice cream with sprinkles, brownies, marble cake, tuna-pasta casserole, lasagna, sausage and pineapple pizza, salad, fruit salad, and we wound up putting out Macuberry, Ranch, Zesty Italian, and Barbeque sauces. Dinner took us overall about 4 hours to make. Once Caden, Robbie, Kimmy, Liam, Yekaterina, Rolenan,, Samantha, Rhynayoh, Rayo, Xanthos, Quinn, and all of our families joined us, we engaged in hearty conversation. We talked of dragons and Blaenik, my rescue, and about how much I'm glad we can all still be here. I told them about Atami, Caedamon, and Serandah, and how Connor was the one to convince Raanan to kill me off. No one seemed to remember my dark days. They didn't recognize my description of the gods either. It all brought me flashbacks of the good times when I would serve the noble Dragon Tamers as I waited for Gaddie's syndicate to hatch.

Once we had finished dinner, I made my way up to my family's old room with the help of Tadon, Rayo, and a lot of books making a ramp. They went down to help with putting away dinner as I worked on my room some more. I found an old box under my bed that had collected dust over the Pass I'd been here. I remembered when I'd found it. I'd sent a letter to my mom asking her to help open it and Baya had been really excited about it. Well, late is better than never I guess.

Hey, Clarissa, can I see too? I heard Gaddie's wonderful voice in my head and I reached down to open the lid.

"Of course you can, bud." I wheeled over to a window where his great brown eye came within my sight. I took a deep breath in as anticipation grew and lifted the lid. In it was quite a sight. It wasn't what I had been expecting, but it was pretty. The box consisted of a bunch of pendants. Each pendant was a golden peacock with jewels for its tail spots and eye wrapped around a polished rock. The teardrop-shaped rock was either blue or pink, and each one had a fancy "E" carved into the rock where it was visible from the peacock. The tail connected to another ring that would go on a necklace. I'd heard of these. Legend was that an Epicene would wear one or be gifted one at birth. The girls got pink, the boys blue. I picked up a pink one and ran my finger over the layered texture of the extravagant collection of jewels.

"What do you think about these? Beautiful aren't they?" I just sort of called into the open with no real destination in mind.

Yes, very pretty. Just like the legend. Gaddie sighed, then turned to go tend to Hagan, Fadromin, and Baremyth.

Master-woah! I see you've finally opened the box! You should keep one. You know, you are half Epicene. Baya appeared with Kylindum and they landed on my shoulders.

"Yeah, I don't know. Anyways, what were you going to tell me?" I looked at Baya straight in the eyes, but what I saw informed me of enough. I didn't need her to tell me anymore because her baige eyes gave it away. Her eyes only turn baige when she laid a syndicate.

I know you figured it out. They're in my nest over by the kitchen. I made sure to lay them in it so there's no actual moving of them. These ones seem especially weak. She flew over to the nest that Liam had invented with glass in the shape of a dragon's egg and the nest sitting comfortably in the bottom. A hole in the side of the egg allowed for her to enter and exit. The glass would keep the egg warm even at night when the sun heated it directly. I wheeled over to see about 37 young eggs glistening in the sundown light.

"They are quite lovely. Oh, Clarissa you found the pendants." My mom walked in and beamed at me. "Go ahead, put one on." I hesitantly reached up to my Tamer necklace, took it off, attached the pink pendant, and replaced the necklace to its resting spot.

"Why did you tell me to do that, Mom?" I looked at her with one eyebrow raised to plainly show my confusion.

"Well, you were awarded one upon your birth." She sighed. "But once this place was attacked and Lord Breuth took over, it was destroyed." Confusion plagued my mind as I processed this information.

"Wait... You remember this place? Like... Before it crumbled?"

"Of course. We lived here, in this very room. You have found evidence of our lives here." Mom came over and stretched her arms out, engulfing me in a warm embrace. "You just don't realize it's ours."

"So then... If we needed him, why did Dad leave us?" Mom's face grew cold and she broke away from me.

"I suppose I couldn't hide it from you forever and you deserve to know... Your father died heroically. He died saving us." Her expression became pained and she looked at the ground. Caden's voice called for her down the hall. She gently stroked my hand before leaving me in silence.