The Eternal War: The Dragon's Valkyrie

The Dragon

Saidy dropped Ash's reins and reached behind her.

"Draw your swords and only your ashes will be lost forever to time!" the dragon roared.

Saidy froze. She could see the fire swelling in the dragon's throat. Slowly, she raised her hands above her shoulders.

"A wise decision." The flames began to subside. "Unlike your choice to slaughter the druids."

Saidy dropped her hands and sunk her head into her shoulders a bit. "They attacked me," she said as her eyes narrowed.

"A choice you made for them!"

Ash whined behind Saidy. She bit her tongue. She remembered she wasn't here to fight a dragon. Could she even slay such a beast? The dragon was probably as large as a castle hall.

"I made no such choice. They chose to let the world suffer despite having the power to stop it!"

"A lie from the Poisoned One," the dragon huffed.

"It is not! My master will end the suffering of all!"

"By killing all who live, then raising their corpses as his slaves. A fate you know all too well, and one no living soul would wish for!" the dragon roared. The spines of his back stood taller, and his wings flared out.

Ash whimpered more. Saidy felt his nose nudge her legs. She could tell he wanted her to back down and go. Saidy wouldn't blame the wolf if he ran. Her heart raced faster with each word that came from the dragon. She could feel the heat of the fire that burned in his belly wafting into her face the more he roared at her.

"I'll not argue something you already know to be true, Saidy, regardless of how much you continue to deny it." The dragon's spines relaxed a bit, and he folded his wings over his back once more. "You chose this path, and you must atone for the sins you've committed while on it. By death or by righting them matters not to me or the world." His eyes gazed deep in to hers. But atone you will."

"I've committed no sins that I haven't atoned for already!" Saidy took a step toward the dragon, despite everything inside her pulling her away.

"Another lie you tell yourself, Saidy. Tell me, does praying to Leyellen for the souls that you take make the pain easier to endure? The girl who survived fourteen years as a slave to the oni didn't lie to herself this way."

Saidy opened her mouth to respond but instead of arguing, questions filled her mind: "H-how do you even know my name?"

"I know you like you know the weight of a blade."

"So you've been watching me?"

"You can call it that."

"What else would I call it?"

"I've not watched you in the meaning you think. Instead, I have known of your life. What it was, what it can be, and what it will be depending on the choices you make when you leave here."

"You talk like the druids! What do you even mean?" Saidy snarled.

"Exactly what was spoken. Your actions, like the actions of all, effect the world around you, Saidy. Yours just happen to effect it on a much larger scale."

Saidy pushed two fingers into her brows and ran them along their length. Through a clenched jaw, she groaned as she tried to wrap her mind around the dragon's words. None of it made sense, and the dragon could see that.

"The druids and my master have told me similar things. I don't know why my actions matter so much. All I ever wanted was to reunite with my brother." Saidy fell to her knees. Her hands covered her face, and soft whimpers fell from her lips.

She'd only being doing what she thought was right; what she believed would help her find her brother. Her only want in this world was to be with what was left of her family after the oni had taken so much from them.

"So if I'd just let myself be killed as a slave, then none of this would have happened?"

"No. These events would still come to pass, but with someone else in your place."

She felt a pull in her chest. However, it was not the Heart that pulled at her, but her own. It had been a pull she'd felt ever since she met Sam and the others. What that tug had grown to was not something she would wish on another soul. She groaned. The dragon could see her struggle to understand the full weight of his words—and admit her truth.

"Rarely is fate ever that kind, girl." The dragon's voice grew low.

Saidy could feel it washing over her. It comforted her much like her mother's singing used to.

"How do you even know all this?" Saidy asked, standing back up. Her eyes were still stained with sadness, but a fire pierced through the despair. If fate had chosen her as its martyr, then she would choose to find her brother regardless.

"Because I am the Great Dragon, Parius, Saidy Ebonharte," Parius roared as he stood on his hind legs and spread his wings. His scales shimmered in the fire that surrounded him, and Saidy drank in the sheer prodigious elegance of the legend that breathed before her. "Now, take what you've come for and return to the one you call master. I see that reason won't persuade your heart to the truth. But perhaps pain will."

A blue cloud shimmered into existence before Saidy's face. It pulled itself inward until it formed into half of a heart. Saidy cupped her hands below it. The last piece of the Black Heart dropped into them. Her eyes grew wide as the heart dug into her skin like its other half did before.

She ignored the pain, distracted by the elation of finally being able to return and begin looking for her brother. Then, the words of the dragon registered within her. Why would he say pain would be the only way for her to see a truth she knows isn't true?

"What do you mean?" she asked as she felt the Heart take its place opposite the other piece.

It was a strange sensation to feel two heartbeats within her, stranger now to feel it on either side of her own heart.

"Think, Saidy, tell me of a time Yrden has used your name."

Plenty, she thought; however, she searched her memories. Girl was the word that kept replaying in her mind whenever Yrden had addressed her. She refused to believe it, but she couldn't remember a single moment where he had said her name.

"Ask him if he even knows your name. If you're so important to his cause, if he's so benevolent to desire ending the suffering of all, wouldn't he take the time to at least learn the courtesy of your name and use it?"

Saidy thought harder. She rubbed her temples, straining her mind at such an odd thought. But the dragon's words ignited deep within her. Why hadn't Yrden ever used her name? Did he actually know it? She looked back at the dragon with more questions ready to fall from her lips but there was only darkness, then a blinding light.

Saidy blinked as the Garden of Life came into focus. The warm breeze of summer crashed over her and pulled her hair westward like a silken scarf. She spun around. How had she gotten here? Ash seemed to turn and sniff the air with the same concern as her.

Saidy turned back to the mountains. The Wall of Time shimmered only a few feet in front of her. Was this the power of the heart, or the power of a Great Dragon that moved her from one place to another?

Saidy turned to the sky. It had been night only a few seconds ago to her, yet the sun rested high in the sky as white puffy clouds floated along lazily. The rolling hills of the Garden were peaceful and green still, and tiny flowers of yellow and pink poked between the blades of grass. They weren't as prominent as the spring bloom, and the sweet scent she remembered had been replaced by the pure scent of grass.

Another gust of wind pushed her hair into her face. She brushed her fingers along the side, pushing the hair behind her ear. Saidy shrugged. The mystery of how she was transported here would remain just that. Excitement began to fill her body at the thought of being able to search for her brother now within her grasp. She only needed to ride Ash back to Yrden's tower and give the Heart to him.

She mounted Ash and willed him to sprint before adjusting herself in the saddle. She could wait no more. Her dream was so close now.

She never saw the oni scouting party that gave chase.