The Dragons' Crystal

Chapter One

Different isn't good, they told me. Different is bad. Different is awful and ugly. Different is sinful. 

It towered over me. With wide eyes, I stared up at great being. It was red and black, flames searing in between the scales of the dragon. The dragon raised a claw, lowering it towards my face. I felt paralyzed, unable to look away. Tears stung at my eyes. "No.."

I'm different, and my name is Odelle.

"You, my dear, will help me rule. With your power, no one can stop me. I will control this world. Doesn't that sound nice?" The dragon was smiling at me. There was rage and fury within as he caressed me, holding me as though I was a precious stone.

I've heard time and time again... Odelle isn't good. Odelle is bad. Odelle is awful and ugly. Odelle is sinful. Over, and over, and over. It never ends. 

"I don't want that! It isn't right, and you know it!" I was pretrified, but I could still speak up. I couldn't decipher why I felt so angry. I didn't know this creature, yet he seemed to know me. 

I shouldn't complain, mother has it far worse than I do. The elders of this village tell her each time they see her that she should have abandoned me the moment I was born; that I made better wolf food than I did a child. I've known it was hard for her to pull through for me, but my mother isn't like everyone else here. She looks just the same as they do, but her heart is different. My mother can actually love. 

Glancing down at myself, I was smaller than normal. That didn't frighten me. My hand raised, sturggling against the power of the dragon. "I won't let you do this."

For as long as our village, Erstonia, has been around, the people have been the same. I'm not sure how that came about, my only guess being genocide. Surely, there had to have been people that didn't look alike. Whatever happened to them, I feel sorry. They didn't deserve what happened. I can only pray that they've since found peace. Ever since then, the people have all had blonde hair, brown eyes and tanned skin. They are selfish, though I don't believe it to be their fault. They care about themselves and their family and they stray from anything that causes them to stand out. They blend in with each other. The only thing unique about the people here is their names. 

"You don't have a choice, my darling."

So, why does everyone hate me?

"Watch me make one, then."

I was born to a single mother who had no family, no other children, and no husband; not even a man she was seeing. According to her, there was never any man involved. Even as an infant, I opposed the village's look. I was born with black hair and, peculiar enough, violet eyes. The midwives were horrified when I was born. They stayed brief enough to make sure my mother was okay before running out of our home. 

It was though my soul pulled itself out of my body. When I blinked, I was standing to the side watching the interaction between what I assumed was myself and the dragon. Though, now as I watched the two I began to think otherwise. That woman didn't look like me. 

Mother says that when I was small, the men of this village wanted to kill me. They wanted to make a sacrifice of me, declaring me an act of evil. They didn't believe my mother either, thinking she'd laid with a man and was simply denying it. She convinced them to keep me alive, though I'm not entirely sure how. Any child here that was born different was killed, or sent to another village. Perhaps my mother just had a way with words, or maybe the men were finally having a change of heart. Either way, I got to live.

A brilliant purple light was bursting out of the woman's eyes. She held her hands out towards the dragon, that same glow consuming her hands. It was going straight at the dragon.