Light as a Cloud

Chapter 14

Weeks passed and Ayra was no longer so eager to live in the forest, but she no longer had a choice. Even if she found Kleech back, they wouldn't as easily shrug and walk by, as she'd started to look like some sort of monster. The many tears in her dress revealed her reddened, swollen skin: a rash caused by insect bites and toxic plants. There were leaves tangled in her hair and blood spots of her preys everywhere, except on her feet, that were covered in a thick layer of mud instead.

Jewel had helped her, sure, as it was used to living in the wilderness. It had brought her water-holding leaves (because the water in the lake by Kleech was not clean, obviously), roasted her meat and kept her warm at night. He even led her to all the fruit that he could find that wasn't toxic. However, a dragon is still better at surviving the forest than an eminn.

Having no choice, Ayra now dragged herself forward and sighed: "Come, Jewel, let's go hunt."

Jewel eyed her concernedly. She looked as if she was about to drop dead, not hunt. It reached to her with its talon and held her back. 

Ayra turned around. "What?"

At least ride on my back, Jewel's eyes begged.

Ayra nodded. "Fine." She climbed onto her dragon's back and let it carry her. 

This is not what I had in mind, she thought. Life in the forest seemed much easier than it actually was. Her romanticized ideas didn't include the effort it took to get through the stressful days, with the little recovery she got from the long, cold nights. Her head was constantly aching from thirst. 

Suddenly, the soft buzz of fairy wings drew Ayra's attention away from her misery. Instinctively, she tensed every fiber in her body and glanced around to find the source of the sound, though Jewel had already found it and moved towards it at a nerve-rackingly slow pace. 

The nest appeared on the other side of a thick, dead oak. Fairies with humming, pearly wings zipped around it. Ayra counted eight of them, but she wasn't quite sure, because they were moving so fast. They didn't seem to notice the danger that was so awfully close to them now and still nearing, ever so slowly... 

A flame sprang from Jewel's mouth and struck the fragile creatures- all, except one. The biggest female, presumably the mother, had accidentally escaped. She let out a high-pitched screech as she saw her family fall, roasted by the dragon's fire. She dropped among them and tears welled in her tiny eyes. 

Both Ayra and Jewel seemed to be frozen solid as they watched the little fairy running around desperately. Some children she held, some she shook as if she tried to wake them up, and finally she broke down and burst into tears with the father in her arms. Her long, high-pitched wailing sent shivers down Ayra's spine. 

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

In response, the fairy widow whizzed away in utter horror. 

Ayra didn't feel hungry anymore, she felt sick. The guilt felt like a pound of sand in her stomach. Killing was a lot easier if you didn't know what it did to those left behind, she realized. She had never felt this way about her mother.

"Mom deserved it," she said out loud to herself, and she kicked the oak in frustration. Then, she got down to her knees and started to dig a hole. 

Jewel looked at her in wonder. "Grrr?"

"In my culture we bury the dead," Ayra explained. "These are people, not random animals. They deserve a worthy funeral."

Jewel closed its eyes and shook its head, for to it this was utterly stupid. Little Dragons use dead bodies as building material, to ensure that these people were remembered, not only in minds, but also in the physical world. 

Ayra threw the fairy bodies into the pit and closed it. Then, she took two branches and stuck them in the dirt as an arc. A tear welled in her left eye as she remembered the cries of the fairy mother. It slowly grew until it slid down her cheek, pearly like the fairy wings used to be, before they blackened.