The Beasts That Make Us

Sera Was Running

    Sera was running. She was running out of breath and running away and running out of time. There was something chasing her. Her dark hair was sticking to her green face and she couldn't see the rocks and branches she was trying not to trip over.
    "Everest!" Sera called out.
    The pocket-sized evergreen colored dragon chirped from beside her, reassuring her he was keeping up and hadn't been eaten. It was a struggle for him to keep up, though, as he flapped his wings furiously.
    A loud cat-like roar rang out from behind them. Sera could feel it getting closer and she was only now getting nervous about the fact that she could be the one about to get eaten.
The creature was just on her heels; she could feel it getting ready to pounce. It started as a joke, a game she and Everest played to see how close they could get to an animal without it waking up. Sera had the sinking realization that this could be the game that went too far, the one where she finally crossed the line and couldn't step back.
    There was a loud screech and then an enormous brown dragon the size of a horse came swooping down, clawing at the animal and scaring it back away from Sera. She and Everest ducked behind a large rock and covered their heads for protection.
Once the sounds of the dragon fighting off the creature stopped, Sera heard the sound of boots meeting the ground. Familiar boots. Oh no, she thought, sinking her face into her hands.
    "Sera?" a voice called out.
    Sera climbed out from behind the rock, Everest flapping just next to her ear.
    "What are you doing out here?" she asked, refusing to meet her brother's eyes.
    "I was saving you. Again. What are you doing out here?"
    Sera looked down.
    "Mom again, I couldn't be in the house anymore."
    "Well...that's all you had to say."

                                             •••

    Glenn and Sera walked a path with their dragons trailing behind until they arrived back at the village of Galena where they lived. Their mother, Clementine, greeted them at the door of their house (which was more of a glorified, two story hut really).
    "Glenn!" she cried, fussing over him and checking for injuries, "are you okay?"
    "I'm fine mom, really, we're fine," he replied, pushing her hands away.
    Clementine's hair was a cloud of brown and grey and her eyes, adorned with crows feet, were wild with worry.
    "What was she doing this time? Chasing *hic* Everest off a cliff? Seeing how high she could climb a tree with a leopard lounging on it? Jumping-"
    "Actually," Sera interrupted, "the leopard was on the ground, and it was sleeping."
    Clementine's eyes widened.
    "Why would you do such a thing! Glenn could've *hic* gotten hurt, and it would've been your fault."
    "Yeah or, you know, I could've gotten hurt," Sera snapped.
    "Don't start with me Serafine," Clementine sighed, putting a hand up to silence her.
    Sera clenched her fists at the sound of her full name.
    Clementine mumbled something about needing to lie down and stumbled off to her chair in the living room. The chair was dusty and plaid and Sera couldn't understand why they still had it other than the fact that it was their father's.
    Glenn turned to her with a sympathetic look.
    "You know she doesn't mean it, it's the booze."
    "Oh really? 'Cause it sure sounds like she means it," Sera spat.
    She took Everest up to her room and made sure to close the door gently. Despite her rage, she didn't want to provoke her mother any further.
    Sera took her coat off and caught sight of a tear in the sleeve lined with blood. Great, she thought.
    She stepped towards the mirror perched atop the vanity her brother built for her when she was fourteen and he was eighteen. She turned to reveal the gash in her left arm, most likely placed there by a stray tree branch or a sharp rock during the chase. She sighed and sat on her stool, dragging out the first-aid kit stashed underneath the vanity. This wasn't the first time she'd needed some gauze so it was nice to have it handy.
    After she finished disinfecting and dressing the wound with the cloth that was already soaking with her deep green blood, Sera sat and stared into her own reflection. Dark brown eyes stared back at her. Those eyes were the same as Glenn's, the same as their father's. Their eyes looked almost black if you didn't look close enough.
    The chlorophyll running through hers, and every Forest Dweller's blood made her skin the color of a bay laurel tree and it was peppered with the dark freckles she had been ashamed of her entire life.
    Sera sat and stared at herself as she thought about what Clementine had just screeched into her face.
    "..It would've been your fault!.."
    She's right, Sera thought. It would be my fault.

                                        •••

    "Wake up!"

    Sera was startled awake the next morning by her mother shaking her shoulders.

    "Wake up Serafine, they found another one!"