Curse of the Stars Book 1

Chapter 4

Chapter IV

The snow began to pick up again as she travelled late into the day and so far she hadn't seen any other dragons. Dragons liked to keep large territories; much too greedy to share them. There were a few types of dragons who liked to live in colonies but they did not reflect the general population. However with most types of dragons, only mates and hatchlings were most often welcome. And Stygian didn't feel like invading on someone else's turf again anytime soon.

~*~*~*~

"What does The First Dragon look like?" Malachite asked as their mother put them to bed for the night. Stygian knew he was just trying to prolong his hours of sleeping but Hyaline had often wondered it herself; imagining him as a huge dragon with fangs as long and jagged as mountains jutting from his mouth.

"The First and the Last is said to be pure gold." Her mother explained as exhaustion pressed into the outskirts of her eyelids. "A gold as bright and blinding as the sun. But in it are many a colour too, perhaps all the colours of the world and even colours to us lie unseen."

"How does that even work?" Malachite scrunched up his muzzle.

"Imagine snow." Mother yawned and outwardly revealed rows of sharpened teeth. "Snow appears white but is really only thousands of colour refracting into each other. And all of it together is light. So think. Is it really that hard to imagine that the First is gold, shines as bright as the sun, and is yet many a colour all at once if you catch a glance at him from certain angles?"

"I guess that makes a little more sense."

"Sense is not something you can apply to Him, Mal." Hyaline corrected her brother. "At least not as far as dragon sense goes. Little is really known about Him, he is truly a mysterious beast."

"How can anyone apply sense to one who is immortal?" Mother also questioned rhetorically before tucking them into the snow den. "I have heard stories of Old that also describe him as made of scales and feathers both. And it is said that no one can look into His eyes. However, there are also stories that say no one has ever seen His true form. For we would die. They say He comes as a familiar image; a mighty dragon, only so that we may recognize who He is. He likewise, appears human to the humans. But He is the First, no one has ever seen His face."

"Why not? What happens if someone sees His face?" Cotzy challenged.

"I don't know. It is said that no dragon has lived to tell the tale. That's enough for now. Go to sleep."

Hyaline curled up closer to her brothers and sister as the nightly sounds took over her mother's voice.

Luster was always the first one to fall asleep and the least interested in stories.

"I have one more question." Malachite called into the night. This was returned with a moan on his mother's part. "Of what substance did The First create the world?"

"The same substance as He created everything."

"And that would be what?"

For some reason Malachite had an obsessive tendency with details. He liked the information in full or not at all.

"His breath."

"How does that even work?!"

"Go to sleep Malachite!" And with that he finally had.

~*~*~*~

Lustrous Dragons were mostly transparent and silver, with a slight tint of something else that was usually unique to the dragon. Stygian herself had a very faint pinkish tint to her outstanding silver, while Malachite had a turquoise tint. Her Mother was more of a burgundy sheen while Luster was more leaning towards white than silver. Cotzy was silver through and through though; hence his name.

"Perhaps I will go to see my brother." Stygian whispered to the fox tenderly though it was probably too far away to hear her words anyway. Even as she said this she didn't know exactly which brother. Cotzy was boisterous and rowdy and would probably be up for almost anything. On the other claw, Malachite was thoughtful and questioning, with the same daring boldness for doing crazy things in his eyes. He was the eldest out of all of them.

She didn't know which one was more likely to help...or react to her appearance. Or recognize her rather...

But out of them all it was really her Mother she wished to see. Since she was soft and slow-going, taking roads with ease and facing challenges with wise eyes of wishful thinking. And she was always really very tender. If anyone was willing to recognize blood for blood, perhaps it was her own Mother.

"So shall it be." Stygian muttered quietly to herself as she proceeded through the pinnacles of the snows. Dragons usually kept the same territory for a very long time, so her best bet was to return to her place of youth, and of hatchling days. Of summers drifting with sweet aromas and rivers that thundered over the rocks.

~*~*~*~

Hyaline flittered over the rocks as Luster dared her to catch up. Her sister was quicker and nimbler than she, and all her siblings seemed braver than Hyaline herself.

Her brothers were splashing together in one of the tide pools cast aside and forgotten by the stream. The sun had warmed it and dragons liked the sun a lot.

"Come on slowpoke. You're allowed to use your wings for balance you know!" Luster called from the other side.

Hyaline poked her head out over the rock to the churning currents beneath. She could see the dazzle of the water over the rocks as they weaved back and forth and became distorted from the movement of the water and spread her wings.

Instantly the summer breeze seemed to catch underneath them and tipped her over. She landed in a muffled world; of boiling, slopping and rushing currents. The rocks were much duller looking hidden under her shadow and cold pricked at her skin as it soaked through her scales. But she didn't really mind all that much.

She lashed her tail to propel herself forwards and then glided herself in agile strokes, like a fish, until she had sailed behind her sister and then burst forth in a roar.

Luster screamed in surprise and the two fell into the water with a splash and a flurry of claws, wings, and tails.

At the noise her brothers had paused from their game and lifted their heads from their playful splashing to the mass of limbs that flailed up from under the water. They took one look at each other; a playful silent communication shared in glances, and took off after the foaming water; bounding almost daringly right into it.

"Hey!" There was a drumbeat of wings and their Mother landed in the stream-which went up to her waist—and reached for the first limb that flashed above the water.

It happened to be Luster's tail.

Luster squirmed and writhed like a martin caught in a fox's jaws; silver and sleek and slippery.

"Stop movin'." Mother said between her teeth and her muffled breath. And she dropped Luster back into the water-on top of Cotzy—who barely managed to worm out of the way.

"Why? What's wrong?" Hyaline poked her head above the surface as the others followed suit. "We were just playing."

"You could accidently drown somebody." Their mother scolded them gingerly. "Remember that your brothers are stronger and heavier than you and if they ended up on top you might never reach the surface again."

Cotzy gave them a smirk and a tongue poke even just to claim that he was "stronger" and took pride in it; boasting and flaunting it like a magpie. But Malachite just grinned without really looking at anyone and Hyaline wondered if he even knew he was doing it.

Luster just had her pouting face on and wriggled up onto the water's edge where she pulled herself into the long grass and the rocks that dotted the shore. "Hyaline started it." She grumbled as she slithered away.

Mother gave Hyaline a disapproving look.

"I didn't know Malachite and Cotzy were just going to...BUD in." She shot them a glare but they mostly smiled back playfully, and then swam off, back to their tide pool.