Cursed

Life Lessons

I lunged forward, dagger in hand. Aidan easily sidestepped the knife.

"No, no, no. You're doing it all wrong. Your acting like you think the knife will leap out of your hand and stab you to death itself."

We had mutually agreed that I needed to learn someway to defend myself. I had showed the knife I brought from the village to Aidan. He had called it a toothpick and given me one of his daggers. Unsurprisingly, he had quite the collection. I wiped my sweaty palm on my trousers and glared at him.

"It's not like I've ever done this before," I snapped.

"I can see why."

The way he told me to grip it was uncomfortable and not helping. I switched from the hammer like grip to one where I could use my finger to guide the knife.

"Why can't I hold it like this?" I asked, testing it out.

It seemed a lot easier than holding it in a death grip. He furrowed his eyebrows.

"Because...well, try to hit me like that," he instructed.

I shrugged and faced him. I brought the knife down in a swiping motion, and he jumped backwards. I thought I had missed him until he frowned. A trace of red was peeking through the fabric.

"Maybe you should hold it like that," he admitted.

I grinned at him, "Really?"

He frowned at me, but the light in his eyes gave him away.

We practiced for a couple of hours before we decided to set up camp.

"You do realize that you have to anchor the tent to the ground?" Aidan asked, taking a step back from his finished tent.

I scowled at him, trying to decide whether or not to throw something at him.

"You could...Oh, I don't know...help me?" I said sarcastically.

"I liked you better when you when you didn't talk to me," he muttered under his breath.

He walked to my tent and helped me set it up. The sun was three quarters of the way down, and the early sunset was breathtaking. I could see the long, ridge of the mountains in the distance. It was an uncomfortable silence for about 10 minutes before Aidan stood up and cleared his throat.

"Well, I'm going to see if they're is any food in this forest that is edible," Aidan said lightly.

"You know, I can hunt," I said defensively.

He raised his eyebrows at me. I mentally slapped myself. I hadn't been able to successively lie to him yet. Why did I think I could do it now?

"Well, I could get some roots or berries."

Women might not have been allowed to hunt, but the responsibility of gathering the village's fruits, vegetables, and anything else that could grown fell to us. Especially the younger girls. I grew up knowing the difference between a Devil's berry and a blackberry. If you didn't guess it, the former will kill you.

"While that sounds absolutely fantastic, I like meat, so I'm going to find something that moves," he smirked and started towards what I was guessing was a random part of the woods.

I muttered something not so incoherent about him under my breath. The silence was different was different from the one before. This one was crushing. It was like my first three days out of my village. Alone. Terrified. Desperate. Whatever you wanted to call it, I couldn't handle the silence. In the desperate attempt to drive off the crazy voices in my head trying to fill the silence, I grabbed some stones and started to make a fire. It only took a minute to make a small circle and soon I needed the second most important ingredient to making a fire. Wood. I got up and looked around. Not even a twig in the small clearing that we had set up camp in. I shoved my way through some underbrush, once again thankful for the trousers I was wearing. I picked up dry wood that would burn easily. I hadn't been gone long when I first heard it. Beating wings that sounded heavy. My blood ran cold. I had heard that sound many times before, and it could only be one thing. It was the one thing I feared the most, and its blood ran in my veins. It was a dragon. The wood dropped froms my arms as I looked around for cover. I pressed my back to the nearest tree. My heart was beating faster and faster. I couldn't breathe. The air felt thick. I had seen a total of twelve dragons in my life. Each one scared me more than the last. The thought that I was one of them was enough to make me sick. I felt rather than heard it land. It had be big. My whole body itched to look around the tree. If I had any chance of survival, I would have to stay put though. With each passing second, my pulse quickened. Finally, after what seemed like forever, I slowly looked out from behind the tree. Two black eyes stared back at me. I swallowed hard. I forgot to breathe, much less scream. The eyes were the size of my head. I scrambled madly away from it. Somehow, I managed to tear the dagger out of my boot. I didn't stand a chance. Its scales were a dark green hue, and it's wings were thick and long. The sunlight caught on its talons. All I could think was that I was going to die. I was going to die by the claws of a beast that had the same blood as me. It was monster, and that made me the same. It bared it's teeth at me. It almost looked like it was smiling. I shivered and took another step back. It tilted it's head and narrowed its eyes. I was almost hysteric. Then it did something completely unaccepted. It flew away. It just started pumping its wings and lifted itself into the sky. I felt sick. I watched it fly into the distance until it was just a speck in the sky. I plopped down onto the almost nonexistent grass. I sat there for a long time until the sun started to fade away. Just thinking. Eventually, I heard Aidan coming through the wood. Sure enough, he came through the woods looking confused. He took one look at me face and that confused gaze disappeared.

"What happened?"

I ignored his question and asked a question of one of my own, "Can you teach me how to kill a dragon?"

I was done being the damsel in distress. I was going to learn how to fight with more than a knife. I was going to kill dragons. I was not going to be a monster. I was going to push down the blood in me and make up for it. I was going to be able to do more than defend myself. I was going to be able to kill a dragon.