Lotus

Chapter 28

We walked for several minutes in silence. Shivering slightly, I tried to glance around, but there was barely enough light to see a few steps ahead of us, let alone around us. I tried not to think too hard about it as we continued.

We finally came to a stop, and the SkyWing directed her flames over to a small torch on the wall. She finished lighting it, then turned back to me with a small smile on her face. She motioned for me to follow her through the small opening next to the torch.

I hadn't known what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn't this. It was a fairly large cavern, with a couple lit torches along the walls and what looked like a small freshwater spring near the back. What surprised me the most, though, was the small dragonet that was running around in a corner.

She looked to only be about a year old, and she didn't know how to fly yet. She was also a sky blue, with rust-colored fins and swirl patterns across her scales. I now knew why the SkyWing said that I would understand soon enough.

The dragonet came to a skidding stop when she saw us walk in. With barely a breath, she bolted over to the SkyWing. "Mama!"

"Hi, little birdy," the SkyWing said, scooping the dragonet up. They both giggled at that and nuzzled each other. 

The dragonet then glanced over and saw me. Her eyes widened, and she jumped down from her mother's arms, stopping a few paces in front of me. She looked me up and down, then squinted her eyes at me. "Who?"

Her pluckiness startled me for a moment, causing me to forget to respond. After an awkward beat, I found my words again. "Kamala. My name's Kamala."

She giggled again. "Mala. Mala, Mala, Mala!" She started running around again. "Birdy, birdy, Mala!"

"Sorry about that," said the SkyWing, coming up next to me. "She certainly...has a lot of spunk. Anyway, I don't think I properly introduced us. My name is Cerise, and that is my daughter, Murre." We both looked over at her again as she hopped from one small rock to another. "We clearly don't get out much." She chuckled lightly at that, but I could sense some sadness behind it. 

I opened my mouth to respond, but closed after a second, not knowing how. She seemed to notice, but decided to change the topic.

"Well," she said. "Let's find something to eat, shall we?"

-----

Much later, after Murre had practically collapsed from exhaustion, Cerise and I sat underneath the single torch still lit. I watched the light play across her scales and onto the floor. She sighed quietly, and I looked up at her as her eyes focused on Murre.

"She reminds me so much of him," Cerise said quietly. "I haven't seen him in over a year, and yet…" She hesitated, then sighed again, shaking her head.

"What happened?" I asked. "If you don't mind my asking."

She was silent for a beat, then spoke. "I was staying on the western coast of the SkyWing Kingdom when I met him. To put it simply, we started spending a lot of time together, which eventually led to us falling in love." She took in a shaky breath, and let it out slowly. "Things got complicated, and we both had to return to our own kingdoms for a time. A few weeks later, I found out that Murre was on the way. I let him know as soon as I could, and we came up with a plan to leave together and go somewhere...somewhere Murre could be accepted as a real dragon."

I swallowed hard at this, and worried about what she was going to say next.

"As you can probably guess, we weren't able to go through with that plan. The SkyWings caught us trying to leave. We were very lucky that Queen Zodiac was in a relatively forgiving mood that day, because she allowed us to live. They didn't allow us to see each other again, though, which is why I live here, in the middle of the continent."

A moment passed, and I knew she was done. "That's awful," I said, barely audible.

She didn't say anything, except that we should both try to get some sleep. As I began to drift off, I couldn't help but wonder how many other families were ruined  because of our world's stupid prejudices.

The answer? Too many.