Heartsong
It was her heartsong that did it. Her heartsong was what made people love her and hate that they did. Her heartsong that tore emotions from them they didn’t want to feel. Her heartsong that made them weep and laugh and groan with raw feeling. It was her heartsong that saved the dragons.
Annabeth was seventeen the first time she saw a dragon up close. She stood several meters back from the edge of a cliff, unable to breathe. It was beautiful, the dragon. At first she thought it was the green of grass, but metallic. Then the dragon moved, her scales catching the sunlight as she curled her body closer to the rocky ledge. Her colours danced like an ocean, first blue, and then yellow. She lowered her eyes to Annabeth, turning her head to peer at her through an eye as large as Annabeth’s head and shifted colours as her scales did. Annabeth stood paralyzed as the dragon exhaled with the force of the wind, heat riding her breath. It was almost like a sigh and with that sigh came the beginning of a single note. It shuddered at first as if the dragon had not used her voice in years. Annabeth’s heart squeezed once tightly, hard inside her chest then loosened, loosening all her muscles with it. From deep within her a note was pulled, tugged by the single, wavering one of the dragon. It touched her tongue, brushed her lips as it began to poor out. Then the hooks came.
The hooks were attached to the wall that surrounded the Complex, thick chains connecting the metal claws to the stone.
They weren’t strong enough to pierce a dragon’s scales but they could rip at them, catching the edge and digging into the flesh beneath, nearly ripping the large scale off. The dragon’s note turned into a shriek that shuddered the earth, grated at Annabeth’s ears as if the claws were digging into her own skin. The girl screamed, collapsing onto the ground, her voice like shattering glass. Suddenly large arms closed around her, pulling her off the ground, yanking her back toward the complex. Annabeth kicked out, still screaming, struggling to get away. It didn’t stop her from getting hauled through the gate and the gate from slamming shut, quaking with the roars of the dragon. Annabeth was thrown to the soft, wet ground of the edge of the marshes. In a moment she was up again, screaming, wild.
“What are you doing?” Annabeth cried, throwing herself at her brother. “Kyle! She wasn’t hurting anyone!”
“Annabeth!” Her brother snapped, rage in his voice, shivering in his clenched fists. “It is a dragon and it deserves to be destroyed. What you were doing with it out there I have no idea, but news is going to get around!”
“I’m sorry,” Annabeth raged, her voice turned from beauty to sorrow to anger in the span of minutes. “That your precious reputation is at stake! How it must pain you to have a sister like me!”
She turned on her heel, the hem of her dress snapping against her boot, and stormed toward the stairs. The dragon’s crying was still in her ears, echoing off the buildings of the Complex. It sounded as if she were fighting, though. It sounded like she was strong, like she was going to get away and going to live and maybe not be crippled. A dragon’s wings were strong but thin. The skin that stretched over the unique bones could easily be cut by the sharp claws. Tears full of rage and empathy stung Annabeth’s eyes, blinding her, and she was glad that everyone else was hiding, that nobody could see. Maybe they should. Maybe when one of their kind was finally crying with the pain they’d stop and think. She doubted that if it was her and her alone it would make much of a difference. Annabeth was known for her emotions, for her raw empathy, for her heartsong.
Grabbing the rope railings on either side of the stairs, she pulled herself up the mesh of rope that was plated with wooden planks. The sort of bridge stairs angled upward, off the soggy ground and into the air where the Complex was built. Thousands of thick wooden poles held the buildings of the complex up where they would not be flooded, would not sink into the soft ground, where nothing but dragons would hunt them. The buildings themselves were made out of wooden floors and walls, straw mesh roofs and a multitude of bridges like the one Annabeth was on now connecting them all. In the middle of all of it was a large stone tower, built from the ground and tilted oddly to one side because of it. That was where they watched for dragons. That was where they sent out the call to attack.
