Flight

Part 5

Streams of water flowed freely from the dragon’s eyes at that point; regret gnawed at her belly. But she kept her orange snake eyes on the child, wondering why he had so foolishly appeared right before her.  Icarus was frozen by that gaze; his fascination with this giant creature was overwhelming.  He often read about dragons, every book classified them as monsters who were only born to consume everything and told about the Great War between the knights and the dragons.  They were thought to be extinct; Icarus had never in all his times inside his head would he consider that he would ever encounter one.  

But what took away his breath were those great bat like wings of hers.  How could they have evolved so successfully when their numbers had dwindled so much?  Icarus could have had conversed with himself day and night about this topic, but he stopped when he noticed the large droplets of water coming from this great beast’s eyes.

“Miss Dragon,” he asked considerably.  “Why are you crying?”

The vengeful beast silenced her growl of hostility and stared at the child as an actual being.  At that moment he had been the very first to address her that way which had very much sparked her awake.  He continued on, beginning to understand the dragon’s reaction to his question - “Did they hurt you too?  Those wings of yours… did they judge you harshly because you’re different?  Your arms are full of scars…”

The golden beast faltered, this boy had a quick eye; could he read emotions?  Was this a normal human?  “When they hurt you so much… the mind and the soul can only take so much rejection until you begin to hurt yourself.  Is that what you endured, all by yourself, Miss Dragon?”  The great winged one’s heart began to give out; her tears were streaming down freely now.  Even through the toughest of situations, she had never cried this hard before.  All she could muster was a “…yes …”

Icarus had reached a state of understanding with her; he approached her and cautiously placed his hand over her muzzle.  He then took it, and hugged her.  “It’s alright now…” he had begun to develop a few tears.  “You don’t need to hurt yourself anymore.  I’m here for you now, Miss Dragon, I’ll be wherever you want me to be.”  As they embraced, their hearts were connected.  A deformed child and the first born European dragon had developed a secret bond that would keep them together until the end of time itself.