Dragon Blossom

Flowers for my teacher

"Uncle Jim did what?"

That had been Eri's reaction when she finally understood why her teacher had attacked him at the meeting. But she had gotten the truth out of Mom after asking her many times.

Eri thought it was extremely unfair. Her teacher was a very good and kind woman, even though she scolded her a lot or always spoke so seriously. What bothered her the most was that Uncle Jim was upset because she was a dragon. Yes, there were bad dragons, very bad ones even, but the same could be said of all other people. It was like being upset with Mom for being half-elf. Dad had told her the story of the half-elf prince who had been a very bad lord and had hurt his family and his kingdom.

That day she gathered all her friends with whom she took classes, which in reality were only Koro and Mikorin, the others didn't like school or already had other teachers. They were in the square of the upper district of Artemia, they needed a plan.

"No, Koro, it has to be done before we leave, the trip is going to be long and we don't want to see her sad all the time." For Eri, it was important that everything was ready as soon as possible.

"B... but..." said little Mikorin, a finger tangled in one of her blonde curls, trying to make herself heard despite her soft voice, "we don't know what could make her happy, she never talks about herself."

The goal was to find something that would make her teacher smile before the afternoon class. They only had a few days left before leaving for Pellegrin, and then Mikorin wouldn't be with them to see her face. Koro would also go as usual, this time even his mom would go.

"I know, the teacher loves flowers, she always stops at the planters to smell them, and her house is full of them," Eri said proudly.

"But that won't be enough," Koro added. "She always has flowers around and she never seems to smile."

"She told me once that her favorite flowers are called blood buds. She says that once she flew across three continents to find them."

Koro and Mikorin looked at each other, they had just found out about Lady Mera's secret now that everyone knew. Koro had said that it was no wonder the teacher had something strange about her.

"That's great, Eri," Koro said, scratching the back of his head. "But do you know what those flowers look like? I've never heard of them. Maybe there aren't any in the city."

"Dad always buys flowers for Mom near here. The lady who sells them knows a lot, I'm sure she has them."

"So you don't know what they look like?" Mikorin asked, somewhat worried.

"No, Mrs. Mera never told me." Eri put her fingertips together. "But I'm sure we can find them before this afternoon. We have to try, Uncle Jim locked her up for several days after she saved me from the dragon, that made her very sad, I know, being locked up is very ugly."

The three of them agreed, they pooled their allowances for the occasion, Eri's of course was much larger even though Mikorin's parents were minor nobles. But everyone wanted to participate. They put their coins in a small bag and ran to the flower shop. A woman with shoulder-length violet hair, about the age of silly Bestenar, welcomed them with a smile. Eri visited her sometimes, since she met her, she brought flowers to Mrs. Mera every week at her office. She was very kind and pretty, she loved flowers with all her heart.

Eri was fascinated with all the varieties of flowers in the place, there was so much color that both she and Mikorin were spinning around admiring them with their mouths and eyes wide open. Too bad Koro didn't know how to appreciate flowers. The girl smiled as she prepared a particularly complex arrangement.