This is the story of a teen girl who lives in the time of Mammoths and sabre tooth tigers. After thousands of years, lies have been spread about the dragons that attack her village. But when Lian begins to notice that the dragons never harm her, she...
My eyes opened slowly, the sunlight filling my vision. I sat up and wiped the sleep from my eyes. My mothers' gentle voice spoke from the other side of the door. "Lian, can you help me with the clothes before you go for the hunt?" She asked. I flicked off my covers. "Coming." I opened the door, and it squeaked. I grabbed a bucket of water in front of the door and washed my face, getting ready for the morning. I was so excited! The Chief finally let me come on another hunt with the men. I flicked my blonde hair over my shoulder after I finished braiding it.
I made my way into the main room. There were only three rooms in my house. My room, my parents' room and the main room. The main room was where the cooking, cleaning, eating and chatting was done. I found my mother with her hands in a wooden bucket, washing one of my shirts. There was a pile of dirty clothes on the floor beside her bare feet, and some wet clothes hung up on the line- A rope hung from one end of the ceiling to the other- For them to dry. I pulled up my sleeves and grabbed a headscarf from the pile of clothes. I dunked it into the bucket and began scrubbing it. "You know Lian.." My mother began, and I already knew what she was going to say. "You don't have to go. Hunting isn't going to prove that women are equal to men. You can never change that men are stronger and braver. Women are better at some things. We are better at washing, cleaning, cooking and looking pretty. But men will always be stronger and better hunters than women. That's what men are built for." She said. "We've been through this before mother. Men aren't stronger and braver. If a woman trains as much as a man, they will surely be equal." I said. My mother opened her mouth to speak when the door opened, revealing my father. "Let's go, Sprout." He said, waving his hands in a hurrying motion. That's what my father called me- Sprout. Why? I'm not really sure. I think he says it because I'm taller than most girls my age. So I guess I sprouted? Who knows, but it's cute. I squeezed the scarf in my hands and threw it over the line. I fast-walked across the cold stone floor and slipped on my shoes. Only hunters wore closed off shoes. Everyone else wore sandals or no shoes. It was harder to make closed off shoes, but sandals didn't really have much of a grip for hunters. I slipped on my last shoe, and after kissing my mother goodbye, I rushed outside into the cold air. My feet sunk into the snow, but because of my closed off shoes, my feet stayed warm. As the hunters walked past they all shot me glares. Leo nudged me. Leo was a 'friend' of mine. He wasn't really a friend, but he liked hanging around with me sometimes. He thought I was... Different. I mean, you could travel around the whole world and never find a girl who convinced her Chief to let her go on a hunt. Leo handed me my spear. In a hunt, you always had a spear and sword or hammer. So I always carried a sword, spear and I also learned to get quite good with my bow. But I'm not even close to being a professional archer . Not that anyone in my village is really a professional, they all favour close up heavy weapons that they can ram into their opponents.
I took the spear from Leo. "Thanks," I muttered. "You know this will be dangerous," Leo said. There was a silence between us for a while. "You know if you're scared Leo, you can stay home," I replied, smirking. Leo's shocked expression was satisfying. It was always funny to hurt that big ego of his. After about an hour of walking through the thick snow- Which reached just below my knees- I heard a shout split the silence. "MAMMOTH!" A hunter shouted. My blood began to boil with different emotions. Excitement, impatience, fear- no, not fear. I won't allow that, I hate fearing stuff, I don't fear anything. The mammoth roared as spears pierced his flesh. I pulled back my arm to throw mine, but a shoulder pushed it out of my grip. "Let me handle this, stay low," Leo said as he rushed toward the mammoth with his sword. "Ugh!" I groaned loudly as I pulled out my sword and ran toward the mammoth with a loud battle cry. "Yyyaaaaaaaaa!!" The mammoth died soon after I joined the battle. The mammoth must've been young, maybe a teen, because an adult would be a lot tougher to kill than this one. But life wasn't that generous. We couldn't bring back the whole mammoth. We would be lucky if we could bring back a leg before the sabre tooth tigers got here. They could smell the blood from miles away. A man walked past me and began cutting the leg off the mammoth. My head reached past his shoulders, which was tall for a girl my age. I am sixteen at the moment. Leo is one year older than me. After the leg was cut off, the men began to carry the heavy piece of meat. Just the leg was a bit taller than me, and double as wide. But then, I was pretty thin. Before I could retrieve my spear, a loud roar split the air. My blood began to boil, and my breath got caught in my throat. I couldn't deny what I was feeling right now, was indeed, fear. "DRAGON!!!" The Chief's voice boomed. "Run!" The hunting group began to scramble, and I just stood there frozen as the giant figure began to immerge from the trees. The white and blue icy dragon began to stomp my way. By the time I came to my senses, the dragon was only a step away from me. My frozen body tumbled to the ground, staring up at the dragon that stepped right over me and began to chase the others. Why don't dragons ever come for me? I'm not complaining, but... I'm sure it saw me... I looked around as the hunters ran and fought the dragon. The mammoth leg lay forgotten in the snow. I rushed towards it and grabbed hold of the long brown fur on its skin, dragging it across the snow for a minute before I entered the snowy forest edge. I tumbled down a steep hill, the leg landing on top of me, my arm twisted awkwardly under my back. As I landed on the muddy- snowy ground, my arm made a loud 'Crack' as mine, and the leg's weight fell on it. "AUGH!" I yelped as I rolled the leg off me, and sat up, looking at my bruised arm. I was sure I had broken it a moment ago, but as I opened and closed it gently I exhaled in relief. It wasn't too badly hurt. I tried to lift up the mammoth leg with both hands, but that only led to a sharp pain rushing down my arm. "Nngh.." I moaned as I grabbed the leg with only my left arm- the uninjured one- and tried dragging it but failed. It was too heavy to pull with only one arm. And my left one too, I'm right-handed. The men came sliding down, covered in scratches and torn clothes. "Lian, let's go!" My father called as the men lifted the leg and ran off with it. By the time I dusted my clothes from the snow, they were all already gone from sight. I huffed and sat back down. I needed to breathe for a moment. But I threw that thought aside as snow from the top of the hill began to crumble and fall. The dragon's heavy paws landed beside me. I held my breath and didn't move. I couldn't outrun this thing if my life depended on it- Which in fact it did. Maybe if I didn't move it would think I'm a tree? So I stayed still as a tree, my eyes never leaving the dragon. The dragon stepped right beside me and began sniffing my hair. I think it' s working... But of course, I thought that too soon. The dragon roared into my ear, a hurricane of breath and saliva, causing me to tumble over backwards. I landed hard on the muddy ground, a large tree root digging itself into my side. As the dragon lifted its paw, I shut my eyes and covered my face with my hands. I waited for a moment, and when nothing came, I opened my eyes. The giant ice dragon that was frosty grey and blue, covered in snow, turning around in circles like a little puppy, before lying down, head on paws, tail on legs, and its face facing me. It looked at me with sky blue eyes that seemed so tiny on its large figure. It blinked a few times as it watched me, then shut its eyes closed. Sleeping. Huh, it's sleeping. Well, I'm right here, doesn't it know I could kill it in its sleep? Or is it that I'm a girl! He thinks I'm weak, and he's comfortable around me. Pfft. Not for long. I silently walked up to the dragon, my whole body the size of one of its front legs. I stood in front of its stomach, pulled out my dagger and lifted it above my head. I can do this, I can kill a dragon, I can! I looked down at its face as it peacefully slept. But why? Why didn't it kill me? Dragons kill women too. And why did it fly right over me at the battle? I put my dagger back into its spot at my side. I stretched out a hand and touched its face. What am I doing? Its face was cold and scaly, moving up and down as its breaths shook its whole body. It's sleeping, there's nothing to fear. Of course, once again, I thought too soon. The icy dragon opened its sky blue eyes, looking at me. With an expression, I couldn't quite understand. I snatched my hand back and turned around quickly. It was awake?! I almost killed myself! As I began to run, I looked behind me, the dragon hadn't moved, hadn't gotten up to attack me. It lay still, its eyes following me. I turned my head in front of me just in time to see a tree branch hanging in front of me. Ducking quickly, I stole myself and headed back to the village.
What have I just experienced?
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