Curse Uncurse - ONC 2020 [Completed]

Author's note and Story Info (with a full glossary at the end)

Hello everyone!

The day has come for the mighty dragons to leave their nest - my mind - and paint the skies with vibrantly colored wings as they soar high. 

Or, the author has actually decided to start publishing this story XD

Anyways, this is my entry to the Open Novella Contest 2020 and I used the prompt 24: 

"Millennia ago, your kind was cursed by an angry goddess. Ever since then, you've all been confined to human bodies while the rest of the world believes dragons are no more."

Yes, my dears, you guessed correctly: Dragons! 

I love dragons. Granted though, I've never published anything with dragons before but still, I'm a big fan of anything containing them. (cough cough, a Fairy Tail fan here)

Once I'd read the prompt I realized it clashed with my idea for dragon species in my universe/multiverse, though it clashed quite beautifully. 

I don't think there are lots of books around with Slavic Mythology. And, yes, this story is filled with Slavic gods and goddesses, and Slavic names (just look at my MC, his name is Plamen for goodness sake XD). Therefore, I will provide you with a simple glossary if you want to know the meaning of some of the words I used (scroll a bit down). 

As I was saying (more like typing but who cares lol), at first I had a few writing difficulties, but then the story just poured out of me and suddenly I had a rough outline for the novella plus enough words for the first milestone. From there this story about dragons was slowly being made.

I'm open to suggestions, feedback, and critique. And don't worry, if you give, I'll give back (though, if you give detailed feedback and want back the same, contact me and specify exactly what you want).

Let's go to the meaning of the names, shall we?

Plamen - literal meaning: flame 

I rummaged through the ancient Slavic names and saw that some had actually used to use Plamen as a name. The thing is, the word plamen is in everyday use in my language (with the meaning flame), a normal word so to say, but not something to be used as a name (I can only speak for Croatia, though, I did find out that it was used as a name in a country or two)

Vid - literal meaning: eyesight, sight; can be used for 'vision' and 'aspect' too

This one is an actual name in Croatia, a bit older one, not frequently used these days, but you can still find some younger guys named Vid around. Also, in the city of Rijeka, there's Saint Vitus Cathedral and we actually don't say Saint Vitus, but Sveti (Saint) Vid. 

Zima - literal meaning: winter; can be used for 'cold' (I think using it as a word 'cold' is a dialect, not the standard language)

The word zima means winter and is commonly used like that. However, when it comes to names, I don't know anyone named Zima, though you can find the surname Zima in Croatia.

Strašna Šuma - Terrible Forest; strašna can be translated as scary, dreadful, horrid, etc-

Zlatan - golden, auric, gold. Can mean sweet as in a person being generally pleasant. 

This name is used in Croatia.

Goddess Nužda - in Slavic Mythology she is the goddess of hardship and poverty, the literal meaning of her name: necessity, need

Zmajeva Zvijezda - Dragon's Star (literal meaning)

Pozadnje Suze - Last Tears; pozadnje would literally mean 'the latter' though this word isn't used much in everyday language. I took artistic freedom when naming these flowers.

Željezna Krila - Iron Wings (literal meaning)

Goddess Ognjena - adapted version of Ognyena Maria (literally "Fiery Mary"), the goddess of fire; in Slavic Mythology she is considered to be Perun's, the thunder god's, sister; interestingly, she also associated with snakes and titled as the mistress of snakes.

As of May 4, 2020, this story is completed 

That's all for now. I'm happy this story is launching and that I found time to write it down. 

Kind regards,

Meredith