Dragon Fruit

Chapter 2

I didn't want to move. I didn't want to breathe, or even think, because all I thought about was the fact that I was going to be the protector of the ancient fruit. It's a big deal in our society, you see. The title is bigger than being the president of a country, or the ruler of all the continents. Technically, it was like being a god. Only you were mortal, and you were risking your life to save another race.

"Zoey?" I heard my mother say, as she slowly crept inside.

"I'm here. Like always, mother." I reply to her call.

I felt a pain in my gut when she entered the room with flowers firmly grasped in her hand. She sat down next to me and sighed.

"I'm sure you know about Carter, right?" She began.

"Our neighbor? What about him?" I asked, curious as to where she was going with this.

"Well, he brought these flowers for you, said he picked them himself."

There were some roses, thorns still attached, and some plumerias, which are my favorite.

"I'm just saying... if you don't want to follow in your father's footsteps, Carter's a pretty cute man."

I didn't respond to that. I just looked at her with disgust. My own mother practically forcing me to marry. "Thank you, but I must decline." I stubbornly told her. When she opened her mouth I interrupted her.
"Do you think I'm just some pawn?" I asked.

"What? Of course not." She replied.

Lies.

"Really? Then why are you always desperately attempting to get me to marry another man?"

I began packing my bow for my practice shooting sessions. "I do not do that." My mother said, laying the flowers on the bed.

Enraged, I replied, ranting with "I don't want to be caged like an animal in my own house. 'Make dinner for the kids', My husband will tell me. Then when I make dinner he comes back late and scolds me for not polishing the floor. I'll only be a child making sex macine, whose sole purpose is to be a slave to the home."

The room was silent. I could see it in my mother's eyes, she wanted to reply in rebuttal, but she didn't have it in her. She knew I was right, but she was too afraid to admit it. For a moment, we just sat there.

When I finally moved, I only stood up and walked out of the room. I grasped my bow firmly in my shaking hands, and flung the arrow sack over my shoulder. "I might as well become a protector." I quietly said.

Ryuu galloped along with me happily, without a care in the world on his shoulders. I needed to get out of the home, even if I was only going to be there for a moment.

I slid down the ladder, and walked over to my shooting range. At this point you can already tell what I wanted to be from the object I was holding. I wanted to be an archer, not a protector, or a housewife.

I raised the bow in the air, frustrated at what I had done. I aimed, not just to the target, but to my heart. I fired, but missed by the long shot. Instead, I hit a deer that was passing by.

I froze in fear of what I had just done. Afraid, I approached the beast I had struck down, and just looked at it. At that moment, a male deer was calling for his mate.

There was no response.

Most elves would be glad, they had killed a deer! More food for the banquet of my chosening! I wasn't like them. I cried, and didn't want to stop. Ryuu gently brushed himself on my leg in comfort, and I picked him up and held him in my arms.

My father came from behind me, in a panic. "What happened, what's wrong?" He yelled.

I didn't respond.

"Answer me!" He continued unbearably.

He looked at the deer in front of me, and he smiled. Not the evil grin, but a happy smile. "You managed to kill a deer! Why are you saddened?" He asked.

"It had a spouse... Father." I replied.

"And did you kill the spouse as well?"

"No, I did not. And I did not want to."

"Why?"

"I came to feel relaxed, but I have killed a deer with a spouse." I looked at the bloody arrow stuck in the doe.

"Feel happy!"

I heard a fawn call from afar, and I stood up. The call continued, and I followed. In a clearing, there was a fawn curled up in a leaf. I assumed it was almost going to pass away with it's mother, so I told Ryuu to cheer them up. Ryuu approached the fawn, who was terrified of the young dragon. I giggled when the fawn turned upside down in fear, and I saw it was a girl. I emerged from the bush I hid in, and approached the fawn carefully. It got back on it's feet, and ran away.

I heard the swift sound of a spear hitting an animal not so later. I sat down on the grass, the impure grass. I couldn't see myself anymore, I didn't want to.

Do you ever feel the same way, like you've let everyone down?