To Battle Dragons and Our Pasts

Part 1

To Battle Dragons and Our Pasts

Part 1

"There! Shoot it Gwen!" The small voice of my cousin Max shot at me.

I ignored him and pulled back my bow, intent only on the deer about twenty paces away from me. The stag must have heard my cousin as well, because it picked up its head, looked our direction, and darted in the opposite. I released my arrow and had the satisfaction of hearing the fleshy thud of it sinking into the deer. It fell dead almost instantly and I looked at Max,

"Ha! I told you I could kill it with one shot! Though next time don't scare it off, if I miss that leaves you without dinner just as much as myself."

He humphed and opened his mouth to retaliate when a piercing screech filled the air. The sound was deeper and louder than that of any bird I knew of, yet it came from the sky. I studied the sky through the trees of the sparsely wooded forest and caught a glimpse of a grey-brown blur alighting from the air about forty feet from the game. It seemed large and vicious; I could see it's teeth clearly from where we stood. I drug Max to the ground whilst I willed it to go away.

A dragon.

It had to be a dragon. I knew we had dragons here on the island kingdom of Galdir, but I thought they all resided in the northwest, in the Silver Mountains.

It folded it's large wings and looked about. I think it was smelling for something, hopefully not us. It screeched again and walked leisurely to my deer.

No! I needed that stag to feed Max's family and myself. I watched helplessly as it slowly devoured the carcass. It laid down, apparently to digest it's meal or something. We waited for a long time, but it didn't flinch. I risked turning my head to look at Max. The beast didn't move, so I concluded it was asleep. I slowly stood, motioning at Max to do the same. It took some time for him to find the courage to move, but eventually he did, and we slowly backed away from the beast.

Once we were a safe distance away, I glanced at Max, "You okay buddy?"

He nodded. He looked alright, albeit frightened out of his wits. We both decided we should go home instead of searching for more game. We walked in silence the whole way. I felt bad that I didn't have any kind of meat for Max's family, but hey, I am not about to argrue with a dragon. But they did rely on my bow to provide a large portion of our diet, for which I was thankful, because I never learned how to do normal womanly things and that made it hard for me to help my aunt.

When we arrived at the small cottage Uncle John met us at the door.

"No game today Gweneveire? Are you losing your touch?"

He said it in jest and I was surprised he hadn't noticed Max's pale face.

"Well," I grappled for words, "I did kill something, but it was... ah... taken by a dragon." The more words I formed about it, the more frightened I became, there was a dragon in the neighborhood and it was probably going to eat me next.

He raised an eyebrow, then looked at Max's face; It looked like he had fallen into a basin of white wash. Uncle's eyes widened and he grabbed a nearby rake, holding it like a quarter staff. He looked around franticly and shook the rake at anything that moved.

Satisfied it hadn't followed us and concealed itself in the grass, he looked at me with questioning eyes. I told him we left it sleeping and I didn't think it had followed us. He didn't seem convinced but whispered that we should go inside. We tiptoed in, our fears making our actions eccentric. Sitting down, we recounted the whole ordeal to Uncle and the rest of his family. I succeeding in terrifying Max's younger siblings and Aunt Clara almost had a heart attack.