Dragon Dream

by Elena Van Peborgh

  “We’re too far up north. The bats who drink blood live in the south, and those bats don’t drink the blood of shape-shifters or dragons. I think our blood is too similar to human blood. And I don’t know if there are bats elsewhere. This is the warmest and darkest place they can find, and it’s still close to an exit. There is one on the other side of the room.”

  Adam and I left the central place and walked through the wide hall. We took a few more turns until we reached another wide hall and I saw a huge room at the end.

  “That is the mess hall. I know meat still gets eaten often in the communities, but here they only eat vegetarian. It’s almost lunchtime, so we can wait a bit until everything is ready,” Adam said.

  We entered the mess hall and waited in a corner. I wondered why we couldn’t just sit at one of the tables. I scanned the room. The different tables were neatly arranged in rows and at least twenty people could sit at each one. Only the table in the middle of the room was isolated. That was also the only one with a chair at the head of one end of the table. Several chandeliers with about twenty candleholders hung spread out over the high ceiling. The candles illuminated the whole room.

  “The giant and fire dragons can enter any moment now. They will get food first. We need to wait until they sit. Then all the others can get food and sit down,” Adam told me.

  He had just said that when a group of fifteen people entered. Some of them were having a quiet conversation with each other. The three people leading the group all remained quiet and were a good deal taller, wider, and stronger than the others. The group stood still and waited until the first three had taken their food. These three who had priority over everyone were definitely giant dragons. The rest of the group waiting in the middle of the room consisted of fire dragons.

  In the meantime, some other groups entered. They also went to stand in a corner. A few people joined Adam and me. The three giant dragons sat down, and the fire dragons went to stand in line for the buffet. We waited patiently until they sat down as well. It occurred to me they went to sit at the same table as the giant dragons but left a few chairs open. Two of the giant dragons sat across from each other at the end of the table and the third sat on the chair at the head of the table. A girl from our corner took a few steps forward but a guy stopped her.

  “Count them. The three giant dragons are there but there are only twelve fire dragons,” he said to the girl.

  “Lilith is late again,” another girl complained.

  “Why does she get priority? She hasn’t had her first transformation yet,” asked someone else.

  I couldn’t see who had said that.

  “Shut up. It is almost certain Lilith will be a fire dragon or maybe she’ll become a giant dragon.”

  “A female giant dragon… I really want to see that. That hasn’t happened in the last three millennia.”

  The group was so deep in discussion they missed the girl’s entrance. She ran into the room and quickly took a plate which she piled with food. She walked towards a table in the corner. Adam stood next to me and I poked his side. I nodded in the direction of the girl.

  “Why does she need to sit alone?” I whispered.

  Adam quickly looked around, but the rest were still too heavily in discussion with each other.

  “Lilith isn’t allowed to sit with the fire and the giant dragons because she hasn’t transformed yet. But she’s almost nineteen, so she will definitely become one of them. She can sit between the rest of us, but nobody wants to sit with her.”

  “Can’t we sit with her?”

  “If you really want to,” Adam shrugged.

  We got in line for the buffet. I took two pancakes and a little jar of jam to spread on them. I also took a vanilla muffin. I went to sit across from Lilith, and Adam sat down next to me. Lilith looked up for a bit but then shrugged and continued eating. A blonde girl sat down next to Lilith.

  “Hey, Sil. How are you?” Adam greeted her.

  “I just finished feeding the little ones. Now it’s my turn.”

  ‘sil is also from down there. She helps to raise the little dragons,” Adam said to me.

  “Down there?” I asked in confusion.

  “He means I am also from the communities,” Sil explained.

  A couple of druids joined our table, including Bernardus. I wasn’t used to living so close together with the druids. When I looked around, I saw them sitting everywhere between the dragons at the tables. I recognised the druids by their dirty, grey clothes. Most of the dragons also wore dirty clothes, but they wore other colours than just grey.

  I looked towards the table in the middle of the room. Even the three giant dragons were having a conversation with the druids sitting at their table. I felt rather uncomfortable. Adam was talking with the druids about the apple and pear plantations while Sil told me about her work. Lilith and I didn’t say anything, but I nodded now and then to show I was listening. Lilith was the only one who didn’t participate in one of the conversations.

  “Hey, do you already have a place to sleep?” Sil suddenly asked me.

  I shook my head.

  “There’s still some place left with us. There are only three of us so you can easily join us. Jenna and Emma will be happy because Revan here has been complaining for some time; we need to find another girl. I’ve found her, Revan.”

  Sil pointed to the druid sitting next to Adam. Revan had long, curly black hair and a long black beard. He resembled a pirate a bit.

  “Then there will still only be four of you,” he answered.

  He had a very low and growling voice. He frightened me. I decided I wanted to stay away from him as much as possible. Sil poked Lilith, which resulted in an angry glare from Lilith.

  “Don’t you want to be the fifth?” Sil asked.

  “Oh yeah, sure. I can’t get enough of your chattering. Just shut up for a couple of minutes. You usually come sit with me, but you annoy me to death,” Lilith looked angrily at me now. “And you too. I don’t need your compassion. Understood?”

  “Hey! I am not saying anything! I’ve left you alone until now. What’s your problem?” She had made me mad, so I had lashed out at her. I had done nothing wrong to her.

  “Just take that chattering group to another table next time.”

  Lilith looked at Bernardus, Revan, Adam and Sil simultaneously. I jumped up from my chair, causing it to fall over. I carefully took everything from my tray. I picked my tray up and I hit Lilith’s head very hard with it.

  “Shut up! Don’t act like that! It’s not because no one likes you that you’re allowed to be so hateful towards everyone who wants to be friendly towards you. But have it your way, we’ll sit somewhere else next time. Then you can sit here all alone and be pathetic on your own.”

  I couldn’t stand Lilith being so mean. She might become a fire dragon but that didn’t give her the right to treat everyone else like they were less than her. I didn’t know Revan and he looked rather terrifying in my eyes, but I did know Adam, Sil and Bernardus. All three of them were friendly and helpful. I considered them my friends.

  “They might be rather chatty, and I sometimes only listen half to them. But I still try to show some respect by pretending I’m listening,” I continued calmly.

  I put everything back on my tray and looked at Bernardus. “Is there a rule I need to wait until the fire and giant dragons have finished and cleaned up? Then I’ll just sit down again and wait.”

  Bernardus shook his head. I took my tray and walked away. I put the plate and the little, glass jar on a huge grey tray and put the cutlery in a grey container. I put my tray on the rack standing in the room. I hoped it would be okay like this. It seemed logical it had to be like this. The whole time I was vaguely aware of the fact everyone was staring at me, but I didn’t care. I couldn’t care less I had taken a risk. I wouldn’t care if they kicked me out. I couldn’t stand Lilith’s behaviour.

  I could accept the rule they had that everyone must wait until the giant dr
agons had served themselves. I could easily follow that, though I had always had a problem with rules and authority. I tried to behave and to follow the rules as well as possible, but I hated people who pretended like they were superior. I had thought dragons knew better. They knew how humans could be. Some of their friends or family were probably being hunted by the humans right at this moment. Dozens of dragons were locked up right now, waiting until they would get poached.

  I didn’t really know where I was going. I tried to find an exit. I heard someone running through the hall. No, it wasn’t just one person. I was pretty sure I heard a few feet. I stood still, turned around and folded my arms. I kind of suspected Adam, Sil, and Bernardus had chased after me, but then I saw the three gigantic figures. The three giant dragons stood right in front of me. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know how I had to act. They stood still as well. I quickly let my arms fall next to my body and looked at my feet.

  “Who are you?” one of them asked. His voice was very heavy, and the sound echoed through my ears.

  “My name’s Tatiana. I am from down there. I am a fox,” I answered. I didn’t know if I should tell them how I had gotten here, but they hadn’t asked that.

  “Tatiana, I am Zoran. I am the oldest living giant dragon here.”

  Shit. This wasn’t good at all. The oldest living giant dragon was the leader of the dragons. I had already heard a few things about him through rumours spread by the shape-shifters in the communities and in The Capitals. He had seen how I had hit a future fire dragon. I was really in trouble now. Zoran would probably kick me out or worse.

  Fifteen

  Zoran was still young – especially for a dragon leader – at only twenty-four years old. I didn’t know how old the other two giant dragons were, but they were younger than he was. They had probably transformed not long ago – giant dragons only transformed when they were twenty-one.

  Zoran became the leader of the dragons so young after the previous leader, Iljas died. This had happened three years ago. The humans had almost captured Iljas’ daughter back then, but he had been able to prevent it. Unfortunately, he had died of his injuries afterwards. Iljas had been the only remaining giant dragon after the war, and Zoran had only been twenty-one then. The dragons had been without a leader for about three months and had waited until Zoran would transform for the first time. They could have instantly declared him leader because he had helped to save Iljas’ daughter. However, Zoran had refused that offer. The shape-shifters said there was a huge scar running over Zoran’s left cheek. Apparently, he had gotten it during a fight with the humans.

  “Am I in trouble? I’m sorry,” I said.

  Apparently, one of the giant dragons found that funny because he started laughing but he immediately stopped at Zoran’s order.

  “Look at me. I know that’s difficult because I’m very tall, and you’re rather tiny, but just do it,” Zoran said.

  I looked up to him immediately. He towered way above me. I was rather small indeed while he was definitely more than six feet tall. I paid attention to the left side of his face. Even in the dark, I could see the huge, frayed scar running past his left eye and down his cheek.

  “Do you know who Lilith is? You probably don’t. I’ll tell you. Lilith is my sister. I’ll even tell you a small secret,” he said, quickly looking at the two others. “You two don’t say a word. Okay? Good. It was about time someone put Lilith in her place. She acts like she’s the queen. I wanted to do it myself, but that wouldn’t set a very good example. She’ll apologise to you soon.”

  Huh? Zoran didn’t tell me off and didn’t want to kick me out. I was confused. At that moment, I heard the voices of Sil and Adam further away in the hall. I apologised to the three giant dragons and turned into a hall on my left. I followed the sound of the voices, so I ended up in a hall right before where Sil and Adam stood. They seemed to be rather surprised to see me, so I told them about Zoran and what he had told me. I didn’t want them to worry about the dragons expelling me. I was still welcome here.

  “You were lucky. Lilith was startled but I don’t think she’s angry. She’ll recover quickly, and we shall wait and see how she’ll react,” Sil said when I had finished talking.

  “I will still apologise to her no matter what. But anyway, shall we continue with the tour? Where do you sleep, Sil?”

  We walked through the halls with Sil going first, Adam following, and I being the last one of our group. We passed through the central place where I paid very close attention to stay as much as possible on the outer segment of the room. I knew the bats were still sleeping, but they frightened me nonetheless. I didn’t want to wake them at all.

  After we had left the central place behind us by turning into one of the smaller halls, we continued walking through the small, dark halls for a while. Suddenly, we ended up in a wide corridor. Torches hung everywhere in this section. The faint glow of fire in them gave the hall an ominous feel and it smelled like burned wood.

  “Why are there torches here? There are halls everywhere where you can’t see anything, but I haven’t seen torches anywhere,” I said.

  “You’re able to see something in some halls because you’re close to an exit there but most of the halls are just too small. It’s too dangerous to hang torches there. They were supposed to hang torches in the central place as well, but the bats are there,” Adam answered.

  “They can’t hang too many torches either, the fire goes out fast. The fire dragons must get up earlier to make sure the fire is burning in all the torches; they make sure there’s light. They inspect the halls regularly,” Sil added.

  “Oh, do the fire dragons also make sure the candles in those candleholders in the mess hall stay burning as well?” I asked.

  “Yes, indeed. And they also regularly replace those candles when they have fully melted,” Sil responded.

  We continued to follow this hallway. I had the impression we were going up. The torches all hung on the right wall, a few feet from each other. A couple of side passages came out in this corridor on the left side and then it stopped at a dead end. A torch hung on the wall just in front of us, revealing the hallway on the right, which we turned into. The torches hung on the left wall in this hallway, and there were corridors everywhere along the right side. We turned into the tenth hallway on the right. The torches hung on the left wall again while there were big holes on the right side revealing some sort of caves. We entered the fifth cave we encountered.

  “This is the sleeping hall where Jenna, Emma, and I sleep,” Sil said.

  I examined the space. The cave wasn’t that big, but up to seven people would be able to sleep here. The room was rather rectangular, and several sheets, blankets, and pillows were piled up into one of the corners. I looked up but the ceiling was too high for me to see it.

  “The mountain druids don’t care who you share a sleeping hall with but we – and I mean the other two girls and I – have always explicitly said we only want to share our sleeping hall with other girls. How about you, Adam? Do you share your sleeping hall with girls or are there only guys? I don’t think you’ve ever mentioned that,” Sil said.

  “There are six people in the sleeping hall where I sleep, myself included. I share it with two other guys and three girls, so there are as many girls sleeping there as guys.”

  “Yeah, everyone has their own ideas and rules. We don’t accept guys. But I should actually return to the baby room. It’s almost time to feed them again. Can you show Tatiana where the toilets are, Adam?”

  Adam nodded, and the three of us all left the cave. I still found it looked more like a cave than a place to sleep. We turned twice to the left, but Adam and I turned left at the next split while Sil continued straight ahead. Adam and I followed the winding hallway upwards and turned into the first corridor on the right. He told me this was the ladies’ room and that he actually wasn’t supposed to be here. He explained to me where I would find the toilets and the showers. He added I could go check it o
ut for a bit if I wanted to and he would wait for me here. It was obvious he felt uncomfortable, so I refused the offer.

  “I don’t need to shower or use the toilet now. I will see those spaces when I really need to use the facilities,” I said.

  Adam didn’t object to that and we left the room. “Do you know the way back to the central place? I can’t remember routes at all. I mostly just turn into some halls blindly. Can you lead us to the central place?”

  “Sure, no problem,” I answered.

  Adam let me go first, and we went in the direction of the central place. I walked quite fast, but I got the impression he couldn’t follow me well then, so I lowered my pace.

  “You’d be an excellent messenger,” he said when we arrived at the central place.

  I wondered what that would be like, being a messenger.

  “A messenger?” someone reacted suddenly.

  I could hear it was a girl’s voice, and I vaguely remembered hearing that voice before, but I couldn’t reach the memory. The girl sounded surprised.

  “What’s that? What do you have to do as a messenger?” I asked.

  “I can explain to you what a messenger is because I am one. There aren’t a lot of people who are qualified for that task. There are only three messengers: Isaak, George, and I. You need to have an excellent memory because you need to remember the routes you have followed. If someone asks you to bring a message somewhere, you need to know where that place is. You need to be able to find your way easily. They’ll usually write down their message on a piece of paper but sometimes you’ll have to deliver the message orally. You need to say that message literally, word for word,” the girl replied.

  In the meantime, the girl had stepped closer so I could vaguely see her face now. I recognised her as Lilith.

  “Oh, Lilith. It’s you. I’m sorry for what I did during lunch break,” I said.

  “Apology accepted. I acted rather mean. I’m sorry for my behaviour. What’s your name?” I told her my name and she nodded. “Nice to meet you, Tatiana. Adam, can I borrow her for a while? I’d like to talk to her for a bit.”