by Julia Suzuki
As they followed the doctor, Yoshiko stared at the hundreds of jars of herbs that filled the shelves of his cave. Many sets of crystal wands hung from the ceiling like icicles.
‘Come sit before me, youngling,’ said the doctor looking over his glasses. ‘What seems to be the problem?’
‘We don’t know what to make of it,’ Kiara said. ‘My son seems to be changing colour. When he was learning to fly he changed from red to purple, and he has just told us that when he first blew fire, a similar thing happened, but that time thought he turned orange.’
‘Never heard of this before,’ the doctor replied. He reached his arm up and selected a particularly long crystal. He then began tapping it against Yoshiko’s chest, listening intently.
He nodded, took out a charcoal stick, made some notes on his slate and then drew out the hatchling’s wings as wide as they could go. ‘Take a deep breath,’ he said. ‘Now again.’
Yoshiko obeyed, letting his wings rise and fall.
The doctor dropped them back down again, and pulled out a small torch from his desk that he lit with a small puff of fire. He shone the light into Yoshiko’s eyes and ears. Finally he had him step on to a set of scales, and wrote down the numbers.
‘Well. It’s all pretty clear to me,’ he said finally, settling back down on to his haunches. Kiara looked anxious.
‘There is nothing medically wrong with your son,’ said the doctor. ‘His vital signs are healthy, and his general physical form is good,’ he continued, eyeing Yoshiko. ‘But his wings are strangely made for a Nephan and will take some adjusting to,’ he added. ‘Very large and not so nipped-in at the sides as you might expect; in fact they are the biggest wings I have ever seen on a dragon his age.’
The doctor tapped the underside of Yoshiko’s wings.
‘Some odd scales here too,’ he said, pointing. ‘These seem like they haven’t quite joined up with the rest of him.’
Yoshiko had never noticed before, but could now see that he had many ridges that looked like hooks, hanging away from the wing rather than lying flat as they were supposed to. He closed his wings self-consciously.
‘If you don’t like the look of them I can clip them off,’ said the doctor.
He made a cutting motion with his talon. Kiara shook her head and gasped loudly.
‘Then just leave them be,’ he continued, catching her expression.
The doctor put his equipment back into his desk and sat back.
‘One thing is for sure though – he clearly is overfed,’ he said, pointing towards Yoshiko’s rounded stomach. ‘All things added together probably make him all the more keen to prove himself with the other dragons.’
Kiara tried to reassure Yoshiko by laying her arm on top of his.
‘You are seeing the scales lose a little of their colour,’ said the doctor looking at Yoshiko directly. ‘You say you went orange when you were making fire? And purple in the presence of some Alana dragons?’ he continued. ‘I expect what you saw was the reflection of the fire itself on your scales, and the second occasion, well, you were by a river which may have reflected the light back on to you.’
Kiara looked bewildered. ‘I am informed by his father that he definitely went purple,’ she said.
The doctor shook his head dismissively. ‘He is perfectly healthy.’
‘Doctor, there are several witnesses of these colour changes!’ insisted Kiara.
But the doctor wasn’t listening. ‘Come back to me only if there is something serious. I have no time for trivial issues,’ he said, signalling the conversation was closed.
Yoshiko hopped down off the desk and Kiara rushed him out of the door.
‘Come on,’ she said, throwing her wing around him, ‘let’s go home and toast you some dragon puffs on the fire.’
7
Colour Change
During the seasons that followed, Yoshiko learned to accept that he could sometimes change colour, but did his best to hide it from his classmates at Fire School. He found that he changed colour more often when he was upset and he strove to keep his feelings from spilling out into his scales.
Igorr had tried to spread the word about what he had seen at the flying rock, but to Yoshiko’s relief the idea seemed too strange for the others to believe him.
All of the younglings were improving their skills. Yoshiko could now fly all the way to school, and he and Amlie went together, relishing the freedom of the skies. As their elders had instructed, however, the younger dragons never flew over Cattlewick Cave, taking the longer route to avoid the solitary mountain.
They often tried to guess who or what the mysterious dragon Guya might be. Their vivid imaginations had concluded together that he must at the very least have super-strength.
‘Maybe he mixes up potions for dragons to give them more vivid dreams,’ said Yoshiko as they flew to school one morning. ‘Perhaps he has special eyesight and swims to the depths of the Great Waters by night, gathering glitter-fish to decorate his cave. And maybe on the top of his head is a huge metal horn for him to burrow through rocks,’ he added.
They’d long since exhausted the general rumour about Guya, which was that he must have broken some law, making him a bad dragon.
At school they trained every day to make fire, Amlie had taught herself to blow complicated shapes through each nostril, and though Igorr taunted him for his lack of talent as a fire-blower Yoshiko could now at least make basic flames.
Yoshiko and Amlie had made new friends: a female dragon from the Mida clan with large dark brown eyes called Cindina, and a triple-horned male dragon named Elsy from the Effram clan. Both Cindina and Elsy had warned Yoshiko of a mean joke that Igorr and his friends had attempted to play on him by moving the target further away during their fire practice and they had been friends ever since.
The four dragons now regularly ate their midday meal together.
‘What do you think about doing some Fire Pit training soon?’ asked Elsy one day, as they munched on handfuls of stone-baked chips washed down with sorrel juice. ‘We have toughened our scales from the heat made during fire-making practices and none of us need whale-fruit for protection any more.’
Yoshiko looked out wistfully to the Fire Pit at the front of the Fire School entrance where he could make out the peak of the flames that heated the cave to red-hot temperatures.
‘The Fire Pit is just full of Alanas,’ he replied in a fearful tone.
Elsy shook his head. ‘Not only Alanas,’ he said. ‘Other clans go there too.’
Yoshiko was silent. He knew what Elsy was about to suggest.
‘We should try it out now,’ Elsy announced. ‘Let’s try walking in the big Fire Pit. We can’t be scared off by Igorr and his crew.’
Amlie gulped down her juice in excitement.
Yoshiko looked at Elsy’s scales, which were shiny and somewhat toughened. Yoshiko knew that Elsy had been exposed to the intense heat from the pot-making furnaces in his clan. He examined his own softer covering.
‘Come on, Yoshiko.’ Amlie was on her feet and tugging him up eagerly. Cindina looked worried. ‘I’m not coming,’ she said, looking warily at Yoshiko as if to warn him away. ‘I hate the feeling of so much heat. Besides, I want to keep my scales smooth.’ She tapped her delicate orange-coloured skin.
Elsy took hold of Yoshiko’s wing. ‘Come on, Yoshiko!’ he said. Looking at his friends’ eager faces, Yoshiko didn’t know what to do. Cindina was already retreating back to the school entrance.
‘OK, then,’ he said reluctantly. ‘But don’t blame me if we all suffer the scale-aches tonight.’
‘No chance,’ said Elsy as he raced off towards the Fire Pit, fanning out his wings to move him faster as he went.
With a delighted look at Yoshiko, Amlie copied him, running across the main crescent making a squealing sound.
The Fire Pit loomed on the other side of the crescent and today appeared particularly dark and sinister-looking.
Igorr and his friends wer
e standing near to it, and when they saw Yoshiko a great sneer went up.
‘Hey look! If it isn’t little Feddy!’ said Igorr loudly. ‘Don’t tell me you’ve come to show yourself up again and go crying home to your elders?’
‘You’re no superdragon yourself!’ retorted Elsy, narrowing his eyes at Igorr. ‘You’re not yet walking into the fire and I can see you’re still using whale-fruit on your ears. In my clan even the babies don’t need such a thick coating of protection.’
Igorr frowned, and Yoshiko noticed, even though he stood some distance away, that his purple ears were indeed dripping with the tell-tale fruit.
‘It’s true, it’s true, look at that jelly dripping everywhere,’ shouted one of Igorr’s friends loudly. Cries of laughter rang out and Igorr’s embarrassment seemed to make the whale-fruit run down his face even more.
Igorr looked towards some of the older Alana dragons at the Fire School, wondering if they would take an interest in defending a youngster from their own clan. But the burly dragons were too preoccupied, striding purposefully towards the hottest depths of the pit, every muscle on their faces in concentration, sweat pouring from their snouts.
‘I’d like to see you do it better as you are so full of yourself,’ Igorr finally retorted. Elsy grinned, and dropped his school net to the ground by Amlie. ‘You just watch me!’ With that Elsy walked calmly to the Fire Pit entrance and strode a good way into it.
He emerged triumphant with only the slightest trickle of sweat on his upper lip as the crowd cheered.
Igorr set his mouth meanly. ‘Now I’d like to see Feddy here walk the same path,’ he said. ‘The little Nephan has had so little contact with fire – look at his skin.’
Yoshiko looked back at him, desperately trying to stay calm. He felt the sensation he always got before he changed colour and the last thing he wanted was all the dragons present to see him transform.
‘It’s not a competition, Igorr,’ he said. ‘I didn’t come here to wage a war of words with you, and you know that no other dragons have the naturally hardened scales of the Effram clan, which Elsy comes from.’
Igorr’s mouth opened in a delighted smile as he regained full confidence. ‘Awww. What a shame. He is afraid!’ he chanted. ‘Thinks he can stand there and watch me being mocked. The loser has come to walk the Fire Pit and now he is too frightened!’
Amlie barged forward as best she could, puffing her tiny chest out. ‘He is not frightened to do anything you could do, Igorr,’ she said. ‘You couldn’t walk the same route that Elsy just managed. You are nothing but a sad, mean, nasty bully. Leave Yoshiko alone to walk the fire his own way and when he is ready.’
By now most of the older dragons had stopped their own practice and grouped to watch the argument escalate between the younglings. Some had even sat down to watch as they cooled down out of the fire.
Seizing the opportunity to humiliate Yoshiko further, Igorr began to chant. ‘Walk! Walk! Walk! Come on! Show us you can manage to walk into the Fire Pit!’
Igorr’s friends joined in and then some of the crowd followed. Something inside Yoshiko began to fizz, and to his horror he realised he was changing colour. His talons were tinged yellow, and he knew that soon the shade would wash over his entire body.
Yoshiko blinked his eyes as he willed the colour to go away with all his heart, but instead he felt the sensation rising further and did the only thing he could think to do in the circumstances. He spread his wings and launched himself into the air, putting as much distance between himself and the Fire School as possible.
As he rose he could hear Igorr’s taunts were loud and more victorious. As he turned, leaving the school far behind him, he looked down at his body to see that he had changed bright yellow like the sun.
Before Yoshiko could help himself large tears began to fall, he flew on and on with blurred vision before finally landing untidily on a distant mountain. He tried to take a deep breath to calm down, but no calmness came, and instead he felt himself entirely overwhelmed with despair.
‘My life is pointless,’ he said suddenly to himself, wondering at how true it all sounded when he said it out loud. A torrent of anger took hold of Yoshiko and he began pacing up and down. ‘I was the last in my clan to breathe fire,’ he said, as if checking off a list of his failures. ‘I am heavy and clumsy. I have stupid supersized wings, and now everyone at Fire School thinks I am a total coward.’
More tears fell as he considered the unfairness of everything. What had he done to Igorr and his friends to deserve their treatment of him? The idea of isolation at one of Dragor’s many distant outposts appealed to him.
‘There is no happiness ahead for me,’ he said, before collapsing back down on his haunches with a heavy sigh.
To his great surprise his lament was met with an answer.
‘What are you doing here?’
Raising himself up cautiously, Yoshiko rubbed away the tears and peered out into the distance. There he saw the outline of a dragon carrying a basket of freshly picked herbs and roots.
‘Who are you?’ asked Yoshiko, alarmed to see an elder on this deserted mountain. As the dragon drew closer it was without doubt the strangest sight he’d ever seen. Yoshiko noticed that his horns were thick and greying to suggest a great age, but unlike most elders this dragon had pronounced muscles all over his body, and the glistening turquoise eyes of a newborn. His scales were a deep ocean-blue, some rising in rows as if to form waves. He looked completely different from others of the Saiga clan, as if he was of an entirely different species.
‘Surely you have heard of me?’ asked the dragon. ‘This is my mountain, after all. I am Guya.’
8
Guya
Yoshiko backed away with uncertainty.
‘I – I am sorry,’ he said, remembering the rule to keep away from Guya’s mountain. ‘I didn’t mean to land here. I’ll leave you. Leave you alone right now.’
‘Go then,’ said Guya. ‘Run away if you like. I have no time for smallings anyway. Especially a smalling who is ungrateful for his good fortune and feels sorry for himself.’
The old dragon had turned and began to plod away in the direction he had come from.
Yoshiko felt annoyed by his words. No dragon used the old-fashioned expression smalling any more, and he felt angry at how the older dragon seemed to be making fun of him.
‘I’m not ungrateful,’ he said to Guya’s retreating back. ‘Things are not easy for me!’
To his surprise Guya stopped and inclined his ageing head.
‘Oh?’ he said. ‘And just what is it that is so difficult for you?’
Yoshiko was unable to stop his tears from welling up again. ‘I am the worst at Fire School!’ he blurted. ‘I can’t really do anything well that a dragon like me should be able to do! And other dragons at Fire School make me feel bad.’ Yoshiko stuck out his lower lip in grief at the thoughts.
Guya remained standing still but did not turn around.
‘Nothing life-threatening then,’ he said. ‘And no one can make you feel bad, without you allowing them to.’ Guya began to shuffle off again and called over his shoulder, ‘All this crying over nothing.’
Yoshiko watched him go, feeling the misery settle back around him.
He mouthed after Guya, thinking the old dragon was too far away to hear the words.
‘I change colour too,’ he whispered to himself. ‘I change colour like a chameleon.’
It felt like a great relief to say it, even if no one heard.
Immediately, Guya stopped in the distance and turned around.
He settled his turquoise eyes on Yoshiko and paused for a long moment. Then he motioned with his claw.
‘Come,’ he said. ‘Follow me.’
Yoshiko looked at him uncertainly.
‘Follow. Follow.’
Guya grunted in impatience and beckoned with his claw again. Yoshiko obeyed, moving quickly to keep up with the old dragon as he disappeared into the distance.
They rounded the mountain path and a large craggy entrance revealed itself, far grander than Yoshiko’s family cave. He stared up in wonder at the lofty opening.
‘Now stop and wait here!’ Guya motioned that Yoshiko should stay at the mouth of the cave. He stood nervously. A smell was coming from the entrance. Yoshiko recognised it as the scent of sorrel juice, but it was more exotic and powerful than he had smelt before. A strange whirring noise followed as though a heavy door had been opened.
After waiting for a few minutes Yoshiko’s nerves vanished and he began wondering what Guya was doing inside. He couldn’t hear the old dragon and was beginning to think he had forgotten him entirely.
Shifting forward slightly, Yoshiko moved so he could peer along the length of the cave entrance.
It was dimly lit and he could hardly see anything except for the long, white candle that Guya was holding. It lit a small room that the old dragon had entered.
Yoshiko continued to move forward and he could make out Guya’s haunches. He was settled as though he was looking at something inside the rocky mountain. Yoshiko leaned further.
Guya was using a single talon to trace something on the cave wall. Something like … pictures. Yoshiko strained to see. It looked as though colourful paintings of dragons had been etched into Guya’s dwelling. But there were some other creatures that Yoshiko had never seen before.
Yoshiko squinted to see. They were much smaller than the dragons, and their shape was different.
Humans, Yoshiko realised suddenly.
Guya’s talon was tapping a picture thoughtfully.
Yoshiko strained to get an even better look. Then the old dragon sat up suddenly, and Yoshiko moved quickly back outside the cave, anxious about what he had seen.
Surely dragons were not allowed pictures of humans in their caves?
He heard Guya shuffle away from the cave wall, but it was several more minutes before his blue scales came into view again at the entrance. Gripped in his claws was a steaming cup of sorrel juice.