Dragonkeeper

I did not ask to become a dragonkeeper. The role was more or less thrust upon me by accident by some dithering old woman I met at the marketplace. She, of course, never knew that she had given me such an opportunity. Perhaps that was for the best.

It all started the day Mother kicked me out of the house. I remember her pinched face vividly. Andrei, my little brother, peered at me from his crib. He was much too young to comprehend what was going on. It was the last time I saw him.

"You are a pest and a burden, Catherine," Mother spat, her thick, strong fingers wrapped around my scrawny arm as she dragged me to the door. She shoved me out roughly and I landed in the dirt, straight on my buttocks. The chickens outside scattered and squawked loudly as if they were the ones who had been unceremoniously thrown out of their home in nothing but a thin day dress.

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(I do not own the picture on the cover; credits to the artist.)