Meredith's Dragon

Chapter 3

As soon as the faintest light drifted beneath the door, I started a fire and put porridge in the pot for Ebba's sake. She was just beginning to stir when the door burst open. "She did it!" Marliss cried. "Gwen killed the dragon!"

I dropped the spoon into the porridge. She'd actually tracked it down? And survived the fight?

"I knew she could do it!" Ebba leaped off her chair and followed Colwen out the door.

I doused the fire, leaving the porridge to grow sticky in the pot, and followed them.

We approached the village from the hillside and could just see the crowd beyond the thatched roofs. At its center, dawn's light flashed off something golden.

Colwen didn't hesitate to push her way through the crowd, and I followed in her wake. "I brought her!" Colwen announced.

Gwen's face shone with triumph. She met my eyes and lifted the creature in her arms for me to see.

My stomach dropped. It was as fat as a sheep, with a neck and tail no longer than a pony's and wings that would hardly match my own armspan. "What is this?" I asked.

"I killed the dragon, Meredith," Gwen said.

Conversations jumbled around me. "Gwen herself delivered the deathblow," "...much smaller than what the girl described," "...not sure if something that size quite recovers her father's honor" "...rather exaggerated," "...not much to fear from dragons after, all...", "...but a story to tell when the young fellows get back, ha!"

"This isn't the dragon I saw yesterday," I told Gwen.

Her glow faded a bit. "It was the only one in the cave."

"I know what I saw."

No one believed me. My shoulder grew sore from friendly slaps as neighbors joked about my vicious dragon with the wingspan the height of a tree, or maybe a shrub, haha. Gwen was showered with praise and gifts, but her smile had lost its radiance. I wondered if she believed me. I slipped away from the village as quickly as I could.

Exhausted as I was from the previous sleepless night, I awoke twice that night. The first was when Gwen and Ebba crawled into bed long after dark, Gwen's breath scented with mead. I awoke a second time to a loud thump. I tensed and listened. The sheep were bleating and I thought I could faintly hear human screams as well. "Gwen?" I asked, feeling the bed next to me. "Ebba?"

Ebba's small, cold fingers gripped my arm. "What's happening?"

Gwen was already crawling over me. She went to the door and poked her head out. I came behind her and looked toward the village. Rising smoke was illuminated in flickers. The light gleamed off the dragon's pale underbelly as it dipped toward the village and unleashed another stream of fire. Its cry was somewhere between a boar's scream and a woman's wail. My skin tingled.

Gwen's head smacked into my nose. She didn't apologize as she backed into the house and started toward the corner where she'd propped her sword and shield upon her return only a few hours before.

"No," I began, my growing higher with each word. "No, Gwen, not this dragon, you can't fight this dragon, this dragon will kill you, please don't go out there, please!"

She didn't argue, just continued strapping on the sword belt. I crossed the room and held her hands. "There's nothing you can do, it's flying too high, we have to stay here and be ready to run if it comes toward our cottage." She twisted out of my grip and picked up her shield. I held on to it. "Don't leave us, Gwen, at least stay here and protect us." She began walking toward the door, and I tried to hold my ground while curling my fingers around the metal rim of her shield. "Gwen!" I begged.

Outside, Ebba screamed.

I released the shield and we flew through the door as one. Where was she? "Ebba!" Gwen screamed. I looked up. The dragon flapped its wings again, and I saw Ebba clutched in the pitchfork-like claws. I ran toward the dragon this time, but it was too late. A few rapid beats of the wings carried the dragon and my sister into the darkness.

Gwen and I stood there a moment, surrounded by bleating, distant cries, and drifting smoke.

"This is our fault," Gwen moaned. "I could have fought it! She would have at least had a chance."

"You would have both been killed!" Killed. My mind stuttered as the word left my mouth. I couldn't think Ebba had been... "It – it was your fault. If I hadn't had to hold you back, we would have noticed Ebba leave the house and we could have stopped her."

"You wouldn't -!" She sighed heavily. "Oh, never mind whose fault," she said. "I know where it lives now. I'll go, and this time I'll kill the right dragon."

I stared at her. I couldn't think. Ebba's screams still echoed in my ears. Ebba's gone. I turned the thought this way and that in my mind, examining it numbly without comprehending.

"I have to," Gwen continued. "I should have saved her. Now I can only avenge her. If . . . if the others are all right, I'll go get them and lead them back to the lair." Gwen adjusted her grip on her shield and started toward the village.

My mind began to thaw, whirling and making me dizzy. My baby sister was gone. The sweetest person I ever knew. The reason I cooked and wove and cleaned and sewed and planted and harvested and made Gwen take my place with the sheep, from my eleventh autumn onward. She was the reason I had learned to smile again after Mother died. "Gwen," I said, reaching for her, reaching for words. I couldn't lose her too.

She stepped beyond my reach. "I don't care what you say this time. Ebba's gone because when I was trying to go out and protect us all, you just wanted us to wait inside for the dragon to scorch us all and the village besides, without even trying to do anything about it. I can't live like this, Meredith. I'm done with you holding me back when something needs to be done. I'm done with trying to make you happy and keep the peace. If you want to hide in this cottage for the rest of your life, fine, but if I can't kill this dragon, I don't care if I die, there's nothing here to keep me anymore." Gwen swung around and ran down the path.

I watched her leave, still disoriented. Ebba was gone. Gwen was leaving. What did I have to keep me here? Gwen and the others would never kill a dragon this size. They would be gone in a breath. Just like Father. I wouldn't be able to bear it. Could Ebba really be gone?

I followed Gwen down the path, heart thumping. She was a fool. We were all going to die, and it would be her fault. Then again, I should have been watching Ebba. But I had to keep Gwen from going out and getting killed! Now we were all going to die. Yet, without Ebba, we might as well die.

I barely noticed the broken walls and scattered tools I stepped around, nor the flaming roof thatching that lit my way. Gwen ignored me as we waited outside the smithy. Landis hesitated when he emerged from the doorway with his weapons and saw me, but Gwen took off without speaking. Landis followed, as did I.