Dragon Dream

by Elena Van Peborgh

  “Shhh. Just try to lie still and get used to the fact you’re so close to me now.”

  I listened to him and stopped moving. I moved my head so I could look at him. My head lay on his chest, so I could see his cheek line well. I felt his chest moving under me and took in his smell.

  After a while, I started to feel better. He relaxed a bit, so I could move. I switched to a position where I lay halfway over him. I smiled at him. I hadn’t gotten completely used to his presence being so close to me yet, but I would. I would get used to all of this. I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him.

  Apparently, I had been right; it didn’t take long. After only a few weeks I had gotten fully used to his presence so close to me. I didn’t think sleeping next to him was uneasy or uncomfortable anymore. I had worked myself into the wolf community; I had found my place here. I made myself useful by working, I was connected to a wolf and my relationship with Jon hadn’t changed too much. We were still very good friends.

  Twenty-seven

  It was a calm, sunny day. I was working on the fields and there weren’t many wolves around me. Suddenly, I collapsed slightly and grabbed at my stomach. I felt very sick. I fell on the ground and touched my head with my hand. It didn’t feel warm, but I had a serious headache. I sat up and tried to crawl over the ground. Everything hurt. My muscles burned; I tried to draw strength and energy from the earth, but my mind refused to cooperate. What was going on? What was wrong?

  I slowly crawled forward. Something was pulling me in the direction of the forest. Something was forcing me to leave the wolf community. My muscles were trembling. I was about to transform into a dragon. No! I wasn’t allowed to do that! I tried to resist but it was stronger than I was. I stood up and ran into the forest. I transformed into a dragon as soon as I left the wolf community. I ripped out of my clothes, lifted off and flew in the direction of the mountains. Something pulled me in that direction. I could clearly feel the invisible power pulling at me.

  I flew low between the tops of the trees to hide myself as much as possible. While I was on my way to the mountains, I could clearly spot a figure. I recognised the figure immediately, it was Bernardus. He sat on the ground and ran his hands through his hair. I landed in front of him and he looked up instantly.

  “Tatiana?” he asked.

  I wondered how he could recognise me in my dragon form since I looked like any other earth dragon. I nodded.

  “We thought you had been caught by the hunters.”

  I shook my head. What was he doing here? I tilted my head.

  “You’re probably wondering what has happened. You felt it when Zoran called all the dragons. Oh Tatiana… Something terrible has happened. And it’s entirely my fault.”

  Bernardus hid his face behind his hands. He truly sounded desperate. What was his fault? What had happened? I was waiting for him to continue but instead, he started crying. I didn’t know what to do. I wished I could comfort him.

  It lasted several minutes before he calmed down. When he removed his hands, I could see his face again. Tears were still running down his cheeks.

  “Marthe disappeared again and I noticed Lilith following her. I went after them alone instead of warning everyone. I’ve tried to save them, but I was too weak. I’m just an ordinary, stupid mountain druid. It takes too long for me to perform a spell and use magic. I couldn’t physically fight the hunters either. I’m too old and physically too weak to fight,” he told me.

  He paused again as he started to sob. This time it only lasted a short time until he calmed down.

  “I saw how the hunters took Lilith. She’s very valuable as a fire dragon. And Marthe… Marthe is dead. They shot her. I can’t return to the mountains. Two dragons are dead because of me. Zoran has lost his sisters because of me.”

  It wasn’t his fault. He had done what he could. He had tried to rescue them. I only noticed now that his grey clothes were smeared with blood. He was likely injured as well. I wondered where Marthe – where her body – was. I concentrated and made contact with the earth under my paws. I still felt the invisible force pulling at me, but it was less heavy now. I could sense where Marthe was lying. Her blood had seeped through the soil. She was lying a couple of feet farther away to the south.

  I went to her in my dragon form. I examined her thoroughly, not only with my eyes, but also by making contact with the ground. She was very pale, and she lay in a puddle of blood. I tried to make contact with her, to heal her. But when I tried to transfer the energy and the life of the earth to her, I felt it. I was nauseous. It felt wrong. She was as cold as ice; I could feel that in my mind. This wasn’t something I had felt before. It was hopeless. There was no more life inside of her. She was dead.

  Bernardus touched my side with his hand, which startled me. I hadn’t heard him approaching me because I had been so concentrated. We looked at each other.

  “Don’t try to heal her, it’s useless. I’ve tried it too. I’d be able to resurrect her, but necromancy is a perversion of nature and it is against the laws,” he said.

  I nodded as a sign I understood. Of course he had tried to heal her, and maybe he had even considered for a very short moment raising her from the dead and resurrecting her. But he was right, it was probably a very bad idea and even forbidden. I directed my attention to Marthe again. She seemed to be a younger version of Lilith.

  Lilith… She had been taken by the hunters. I concentrated again to make contact with the earth. I could feel the car the hunters drove. They weren’t that far away yet. Marthe might be dead, but Lilith wasn’t. Lilith was my friend, and Zoran had only one sister left now. Lilith was also very important and valuable because she was a fire dragon.

  I decided to go rescue her. I quickly glanced at Bernardus before taking off. I flew in the same direction as the hunters drove and tried to visualise the car in my mind. The hunters were driving slowly because their car was heavy and struggled on the forest ground. I focused and manipulated the earth. The ground started to shake. I flew as fast as I could while the ground vibrated below me.

  Come on. You can do better, I said to myself.

  I tried to make myself mad. All my frustration came out. The hunters couldn’t have Lilith, and they had killed Marthe. Before that, they had threatened Jon and his sister. They captured a lot of dragons. I knew they killed them and stripped their skin to make furniture, clothes, and accessories. It was time for this to end. The dragons were afraid of the hunters. It was about time humans and hunters would fear dragons again.

  The earth shook heavily, and the hunters stopped the car. They knew I was coming. Good. I might have lost the element of surprise, but I’d still be able to ambush them. I caught up with them fast. They were ready with their guns in their hands, waiting for me. I dived downwards and tried to hit them with my claws. They dodged my attack by falling on the ground, but they had dropped their guns in doing so.

  I ascended again. The earth shook and vibrated, slowly ripping into two parts. The hunters rolled around to try to avoid falling into the chasm. They tried to get back up, but I found a couple of bushes with my mind, pulled them out and threw them towards the hunters. They were just able to avoid the bushes and then they got up. I pulled branches from trees and tossed them as the hunters tried to pick up their weapons. I let the earth rip open again at the same moment a hunter bent over to pick up his gun. The tear appeared right under his feet and he fell into it. He grabbed onto the edge with both hands at the very last second, preventing his fall to the bottom of the chasm.

  I tried to pull out a tree, but I didn’t succeed. It was too healthy and too strong while I was getting weaker. My power wasn’t strong enough. The earth wasn’t happy either. I was hurting it, hurting the trees and the bushes.

  I’m sorry but I don’t have any other choice. This is the only way I can fight the humans. Please help me. Fight them. They hurt you as well and they hurt you more than I’m hurting you right now, I thought internally.

  In this way I t
ried to communicate with the earth. It seemed to listen because I felt fewer obstructions restraining me now. I pulled at the tree again and it moved a bit.

  A shot sounded at that moment. A hunter had fired at me. I responded too late and couldn’t dodge. The little arrow nestled into my body. An arrow? Why weren’t they using bullets? It hurt when the arrow hit me, but it didn’t hold me back. I pulled at the tree again and it finally cracked and fell over at the same time a hunter threw a rope at me. He caught my hind leg, but he needed to run for his life. The hunters had dodged the falling tree, but I could still use it.

  I rolled the tree back and forth and threw bushes or branches I had ripped out earlier. The hunters tried to catch the rope stuck to my hind leg when another shot sounded. This time they used bullets. The bullet flew through my left wing. It hadn’t gotten stuck so I would heal fast. One hunter shot bullets at me while another used arrows. The hunter with bullets shot another couple of them through my wings.

  I fell quickly. My wings were badly ruined. Because of the damage I couldn’t fly anymore. Shit. This wasn’t good at all. The two hunters both used arrows now. About five arrows pierced my body as I landed and manipulated the ground under my feet. The earth rose up. I tried to create a wall between myself and the hunters, but they threw even more ropes and chains over me.

  Everything around me started to spin around. I started to feel dizzy and tired. I understood now what the arrows were. They were laced with some sort of sedative to knock me out. I was too tired to fight now, so the hunters captured me and tied me up. Damn it. How could I have been so stupid? How could I have ever thought that I would be able to handle them alone?

  I’m sorry. I’ve lost. Thank you for your help. I hope someday I’ll be able to make up for it, I said to the earth.

  The earth responded by starting to shake and rip apart again. More trees and bushes were pulled out, flying around and attacking the hunters. The earth rose up around me. I wasn’t the one manipulating the earth though. The earth itself tried to protect me. My eyes started to feel heavy. I couldn’t stay awake any longer. Everything turned black.

  When I woke up again, I still felt dizzy and everything hurt. I slowly opened my eyes to find myself hanging just above the ground. I tried to look down but couldn’t move my head much. There was a metal shackle around my neck. I could see another shackle around my waist and some straw lying under me. As I tried to move my tail, a chain clinked, so I realised it had also been chained to the wall. The metal restraints holding me against the wall hurt, pressing hard into my skin. But the most pain came from my wings. I tried to move them but instantly pain ran through them. I suppressed the urge to collapse.

  At that moment, I heard other chains clinking. There were other dragons present in this room and I heard their laboured breathing. As I focused on my other senses, I smelled how it reeked terribly in this room. I wanted to get out of here. The space was too depressing and too hot. The light of the lamps hurt my eyes. I tried to make contact with the earth through my mind, but only found concrete and steel. There was nothing natural present I could hold on to. I felt dispirited and miserable. I just needed to get out of here. I tried to move, but only hurt myself more. I was on the verge of a mental breakdown. I felt the tears coming.

  I suddenly got an idea. Maybe I could transform. Dragons normally couldn’t transform to their human form while being hurt, but I used to be a lower shape-shifter. I used to be able to transform to my human form when being hurt as a fox. I closed my eyes and concentrated, using all my willpower. I must transform.

  I didn’t succeed. I was a dragon now; I needed to heal before I’d be able to take on my human form again. It was frustrating. Transforming was my only hope of escape. The shackles were made for a dragon; I would fall through them as a human. I tried again, completely concentrating. Everything was about transforming now. I tried to visualise myself as a human.

  Transform. Transform. Transform, I kept repeating to myself.

  Eventually, my body started to react. My wings and tail started to move. My wings were pulled towards my shoulders, and my tail retracted itself towards my lower back. It hurt a lot. I didn’t scream. I couldn’t anyway. I could open my mouth, but there would be no sound. The metal shackle scraped against my tail. It burned. I would be badly bruised later. My tail was finally free, but my wings still hurt as they ripped. I shrank and transformed.

  I fell and on the way down, I bumped my head against the metal brace that had been around my neck. The metal hit me right under my chin. Ouch. I landed into the cold, wet straw that was on the ground and it smelled like urine. Eeew. Disgusting.

  I examined myself thoroughly. I was in a lot of pain. I had a bad headache, and my back hurt. I felt blood running over my skin; I was bleeding heavily. But I was mostly worried I might not have transformed fully. I seemed to be fully human. I had done it! Though I was completely naked, like I usually was after transforming from a dragon into a human.

  I stood up and watched the other dragons hanging against the wall. Their wings were pinned against the wall with nails. Humans were barbarians. There were two water dragons, an air dragon and a fire dragon. Lilith was the fire dragon, of course. They stared at me in surprise. They probably wondered how I had succeeded in transforming. Lilith was the only one who didn’t seem very surprised. I raised a finger to sign them they needed to be patient and should wait. I turned around and walked towards the steel door.

  Please. Open, I prayed internally.

  I placed my hand over the door handle, and the door opened. Yes! Humans were so stupid. They hadn’t made any effort to lock this door. Why would they? I left the room and went up a flight of stairs. There was another door at the top. I stopped for a moment, trying to listen if the humans were inside the building. I carefully opened the door. This one wasn’t locked either.

  I seemed to be inside a normal house. I had come out into a big hallway. Searching my way through the house, I quickly found the stairs leading up. In the hope of finding some clothes there, I went up the stairs. I quickly found the bedroom and immediately opened the closet. After I had pulled some clothes on, I took some more with me for the other dragons. Since I didn’t have much time, I didn’t want to leave them alone for too long, so I returned quickly to them.

  On my way back to them, I passed by the kitchen. There was a set of keys on the table which I took with me. Maybe I’d be able to open the locks of the metal braces with these keys. I returned to the basement where the dragons were and threw the clothes on the floor. Good, with the keys I could try opening the locks of the braces, but I was too small and barely half as tall as a dragon. I couldn’t reach the braces around their waists and necks, so I couldn’t unlock them.

  Finding a ladder in the corner of the room, I decided to use it to free the dragons. I freed Lilith first, starting with her tail before climbing up the ladder to pull out the nails in her wings and unlock the other shackles. She fell on the ground, and I quickly moved the ladder to free the other dragons as well. After I had freed them all, I put the ladder back and then pointed at the pile of clothes I had thrown in the middle of the room so they would notice it. Hopefully, they’d find something that would fit them more or less since I had quickly gathered some clothes. The ones I wore were actually a bit too big for me, but they were good enough.

  Lilith was the first to transform, which was logical since I had freed her first, so she had had the most time to heal.

  “You’re crazy, but you’re also a genius, Tatiana,” she said.

  I looked at her questioningly. Why was I crazy? Why was I a genius?

  “You’re crazy because you let yourself get captured by the hunters, but I didn’t know you could transform while being injured.”

  I shrugged. I hadn’t known that myself either. Normally, I shouldn’t be able to, but I was different. I was special since I had been a lower shape-shifter at first. She searched for some clothes through the pile and got dressed.

  It didn’t t
ake much longer before the other dragons had also transformed and gotten dressed. I signed for them to follow me and they looked at me questioningly.

  “I’ll translate Tatiana’s signs. She can’t talk. She’s asking us to follow her,” Lilith said to the other dragons.

  I nodded.

  “Oh, right. I believe I know now who she is. Tatiana is the lower shape-shifter who has become a dragon and sacrificed her voice,” one of the other dragons said.

  “Indeed. That’s correct,” Lilith responded.

  I turned around and led them to the door and the stairs.

  “Do you realise you’re still bleeding, Tatiana?” one of the dragons asked.

  I nodded again. I was still bleeding heavily and could feel the blood running over my back.

  “Shouldn’t you have healed already?” another dragon asked.

  “I don’t think she’ll heal that quickly now because she has transformed while being hurt,” Lilith answered.

  I nodded in agreement. That was probably the case and I had wounded myself even more during the transformation. We went upstairs and quickly passed by the kitchen so I could put the keys back. I then guided them outside the house. The hunters parked their car next to the house right at the very moment we were leaving.

  “Shit! Run!” Lilith yelled.

  We immediately started to run, but my whole body still hurt, and I wasn’t fast enough. I quickly fell behind the others. The hunters ran after us and caught up with me quickly. One hunter tackled me, and we fell on the ground. I tried to get up, but he slammed an object into my head, causing me to immediately black out.

  Twenty-eight

  I woke up when someone threw a bucket of ice-cold water over me. I was soaking wet and tied to a chair in the basement. My hands were tied behind my back with a rope. Five men stared at me intensely. They made me shiver, but I tried not to show any reaction. My head pounded even harder and more frequently than earlier. I bled less heavily now though; I had finally started to heal. The man who had woken me put the bucket back down and put his hands in his sides.