S.H.H.A.

Unfindable Base (1)

"Shielding the others with their mighty body, Mertal glided beneath the berserk dragon. Blazing flames scalded Mertal's back, coloring their grey scales black."

My sister laid over the book in human form, her round chin cradled between her palms. Chocolate brown eyes flicked between the words and vibrant pictures on the page. Then, they rose to see me enacting the fight scene.

I stood atop a small boulder, sunlight shining down from a cave hole in the ceiling. It warmed my head and shoulders. Platinum blond hair curved around my pudgy, blush cheeks. My salmon pink and white shirt was a size or two too large. Baggy blue pants hung past my ankles, tied up high to my far skinnier waist. As a child, I despised tight-fitting clothing and wouldn't touch denim or embroidery. Irregular materials irritated my sensitive skin.

The scarlet cape flung around my back. I flapped my arms and jumped, pretending to be a dragon protecting my friends. My mother sewed it for me after finding my previous cape, made of bed sheets, torn and muddy in a pile. Red fabric square-knotted around my throat. Jade warned me of choking hazards. Boss and Mouse always held me by my cape during combat training, tugging me off balance. Despite their joint efforts, I wore it everywhere like a close friend. Half of my acquaintances knew me better by my cape than my name.

Our picture book depicted two dragons, one of the mountains and the other from Kano's tribe by the sea. The mountain one, with brown belly scales and a grey back, Mertal, soared over the handful of animals beneath them —the fleeing members of Pax Equilibus. Flames swathed the other dragon. His eyes blazed and an angry inferno swirled behind his jagged teeth.

"Pax Equilibus fought from their safe ground underneath Mertal, successfully fending off the evil dragon," said Pudding. Observing me, amusement blossomed on her lips. "To express their gratitude, Pax Equilibus offered Mertal a position on their team. The black-scarred dragon humbly accepted their offer and later founded the Tank order. To this day, the Knight class and other members of S.H.H.A. still commemorate Mertal's heroic en-end," Pudding stumbled on the word.

"Endeavor," I said. While vocabulary test scores begged to differ, I memorized the old children's books by heart. The interesting parts, anyways.

"—endeavor by lighting the highest point of Mertal Mountain ablaze the night after every deky-du-os tree up the Singed Trail has lost its leaves."

Whoever decided 'hey! Let's celebrate Mertal by lighting their namesake on fire' probably had more issues than I. Which said a lot. That said, running up and down the mountain as a kitten, scavenging for trees that hadn't yet lost their leaves, held a special place in my memory. I may or may not have ripped a few leaves off their branches in hopes of quickening the process.

Walking up the winding trails brought back more memories than that. Pudding and I racing up and down the boulder sides; me in human form slipping on the winter, icy ground and spraining my ankle; my good friend, Athena, teaching me how to identify lavender and how to use it on my bug bites and sunburns. Evening drawing closed as Boss lead me up the tranquil mountainside.

I shook my head. Not right now, I thought. Not ever, said a quieter voice.

Dew glimmered in the morning sun. It brushed off grass blades onto my legs and trickled down pine needles onto my back. Although deciduous, leaf-losing trees —which Pudding later learned were pronounced "duh-si-jew-us"— dictated Mertal's ceremony, a majority of the trees were evergreens. Red spruce and the endemic winged pine, to be precise.

Of the semi-humans I passed, many in animal-form, most were guards or out practicing. The forest next to Mertal's Mountain, where my office was located, was the S.H.H.A.'s training ground. Certain layers were exclusively for Knight practice, the combat and defense class. Sometimes distracted teams or those seeking solitude strayed closer to the air force in the mountains.