Dances With My Dragon

by William David Ellis

  Shaking her head, Lizzy slipped into her teacher voice and demanded, “Then what is going on?”

  Once again, the room was as still as the first new snow. Gracie looked at Maggie, then back at Easton and started to open her mouth, but Easton beat her to it.

  “Who’s the eagle, Miss Lizzy? Do you know him? Is he your boyyyyfrieeeeend?” Easton blushed after the last remark, then moved quickly before Maggie could poke him in his side.

  “What?” Lizzy screeched, shocked at the question.

  Gracie piped up, “The eagle, Miss Lizzy. We didn’t know that people could shift into anything but dragons. Now we are finding out they can be all sorts of things. And if the eagle is a shifter and he is guarding you, then does he know you? Do you know him?”

  The blood ran from Lizzy’s face. How do they know about the eagle? She thought a second and decided among these children the best answer was always the truth. “No, I do not know who he is or why he rescued me. Do you know?”

  As one they shook their heads. She paused a moment, then said, “Well, then, can we get back to the story? The last we looked in, Sarah was having a horrible time.”

  “I’ll say! She tore up Kusaila’s tent and ran off, then something really good happened…” Gracie interjected.

  Lizzy looked stunned. “How did you know? I didn’t tell you guys that, did I?”

  “I don’t remember that either,” Maggie added.

  “Me neither,” Ryan and Easton barked.

  “I think Gracie musta dreamed that… because you sure didn’t tell us that part,” Ryan added.

  Lizzy turned her glance back to Gracie and cocked an inquisitive eyebrow.

  “You didn’t tell us that part?” Gracie asked, confused.

  “No, Gracie, I haven’t got to it yet… it did happen but I am fairly certain I didn’t tell you guys about it yet.”

  “Hmm…” Gracie’s face paled. “Really you didn’t tell us that?”

  “No, honey, I did not,” Lizzy confirmed.

  Gracie whispered softly to herself, “Well, I guess I did dream it then.”

  Lizzy shook her head but also saw the opportunity in the strangeness. “Gracie, since you seem to really know what is going on in the story now… why don’t you bring the rest of the class up to speed by telling them the latest happenings in our little saga?”

  Easton’s hand shot up and his mouth blurted out, “Miss Lizzy, what’s a sogee?”

  “Uh-uh, not this time, Easton. Gracie, tell us what you know.”

  Gracie’s eyes lit up and a bright gapped-tooth smile spread across her face. She was going to be the storyteller! “All right!”

  She lit into the drama mimicking both the tone and inflections she had learned from Hank Ferguson. She wasn’t as good a storyteller as Hank or Lizzy, but she did a pretty decent job for her first attempt ever. After about five minutes of a very condensed and intense narrative, everyone was close to being caught up… ending with, “So Sarah… our Sarah has got an invisible friend too, and also and I hate this part, she may not like Harry as much as she likes Kusaila!”

  “No, that ain’t right, none of it… not one bit!” cowboy Ryan drawled out.

  “Typical girls… can’t make up their minds,” Easton added, looking straight ahead, deliberately avoiding the daggers both Maggie’s and Gracie’s eyes were tossing at him.

  Not to be outdone, Gracie blurted, “Harry is not doing any better with Belle Rodum!”

  Maggie raised her hand, which was so unlike her the whole pack turned to see if she was sick. Then when Lizzy called on her and she had the undivided attention of everyone, which was her intention to start with, she asked, “Miss Lizzy, I feel like those people in some kind of Santa Claus movie where they look in the magic snow globe and watch what the people inside of it are doing. It is a strange feeling.”

  A weak, uncertain grin settled across Lizzy’s face as she heard Barry’s words tumble from Maggie’s mouth. She nodded slowly and breathed in deeply and said, “Somebody else told me that very same thing, Maggie, and you are so right!” Lizzy paused, looking around the room; every little eye was riveted on her. She shrugged and continued, “So do you want to keep looking?”

  A dozen little heads bobbed at once.

  “Okay, then let’s keep moving this along. And by the way, if any of you have a dream or get an impression, it’s okay to share it… especially if that impression is about me or that eagle. You understand?”

  “Yes, Miss Lizzy,” a couple of muffled whisperers responded.

  “Now you want to take back up with my dad or Sarah?”

  The quietness of the room erupted with six wanting Harry’s story to continue and half a dozen wanting to find out more about Sarah. Finally, when names started being called and fists were about to fly, Lizzy came up with a bright idea. “I am going to flip a coin—heads, we find out more about Sarah, and tails, we don’t find out more about Dad.”

  She pulled out a quarter from her purse, threw it in the air, and was stunned that halfway down it stopped in midair, hovering.

  Lizzy only thought she was beyond being surprised. Before she could protest, Easton and Gracie, who as always were on differing sides of the coin, started in.

  “Stop it, Gracie… leave the coin alone.”

  “She’s cheaten, Easton, and you know it. Both ways we have to hear about Sarah.”

  “So?”

  “Not right, Easton. Miss Lizzy, you trying to trick us?”

  “Gracie, are you responsible for stopping the quarter in midair?”

  A big grin lit on Gracie’s face. Her head nodded in long, proud sweeps. “Yes, ma’am, I did it.”

  Lizzy was about to admit she had been wrong to try and deceive the children but instead just started laughing. “Oh, the perils of training little dragons. Gracie, you are right… I was teasing you guys. But, Gracie, I have a question.”

  “What’s that, Miss Lizzy?”

  “Gracie, whose quarter is it?”

  “Yours, Miss Lizzy.”

  “And whose daddy?”

  “Ah, yours, Miss Lizzy.”

  “Well, in that case, if it’s my quarter and my dad, it’s my call…” And with a raised eyebrow she looked down her nose and a smidgen of her dark bloodline crept in.

  Gracie saw it, frowned, and with a heavy sigh replied, “Yes, ma’am.”

  Lizzy immediately felt bad for being so heavy-handed and pulled back. “But Gracie, since you were right and caught me trying to trick you, my call is to start the story back with what is happening to Sarah!”

  “Yes!” the girls in the class yelled and clapped, some making fists or high fiving. Easton frowned, got a puzzled look on his face, and pointed his finger to an invisible blackboard with Lizzy’s last few words transcribed on it. He read it slowly, his lips moving, then smirked and shook his head.

  “Now if I remember correctly, when we last left off with the story…” A hand shot up politely. The fact it was not accompanied by a loud mouth startled Lizzy. She looked at the politely waving hand. It was attached to one of the quieter children, a slender little boy who sat on the back row and was not usually involved in the power plays and banter of the front-row warriors. “Yes, what is it, Levi?”

  “Miss Lizzy, I am confused…”

  “Okay?” she answered, encouraging the little boy on.

  “What happened in the cave? Did Harry ever rescue Princess Sarah? When do we find out about that?”

  “You know what, Levi, I am confused about that too. And the story I am telling you is based on what I have read in my father’s journals, and so far, I haven’t read about how the cave rescue ended. I am kinda waiting on that myself. I mean, we all find out that something happened, it wasn’t good, the evil dragon was thought to be killed but wasn’t, and my dad when he was a peasant boy was horribly wounded and well… he was… he was ah…”

  “It’s okay, Miss Lizzy, we all know Sarah was turning into a bad dragon and betrayed him and may have even hu
rt him, but in the end, he forgave her… right?” Maggie blurted out.

  “Yeah, something like that, Maggie. I just don’t know the order of events or the details.”

  Levi, unperturbed by Maggie’s interruption, continued, “But Miss Lizzy, if you don’t know the details and if your dad and Sarah travel the time streams… do you think if a bad thing happened… if Sarah really did something she would never do now… that maybe they could go back and change the bad thing she did then?”

  Lizzy’s face paled and her shoulders slumped. Words tried to push out of her, but they had to pass through her brain first and it was effectively clogged. The rest of the kids turned quickly to look at Levi, some with huge grins and others with confused frowns. A few tried to speak, but like their teacher most were speechless. Finally, Lizzy roused and, like so many times before, slowly shook her head before answering, “Uh… Levi, that is a great and confusing and extremely complex question to which I have absolutely no answer… I just don’t know.”

  The little boy nodded and said, “I understand, Miss Lizzy. I was just wondering.”

  “Okay then, let’s go back to the story we do know about. Let’s go back to Sarah.”

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  “Sarah’s days and nights ran together in a fast-paced blur. Training, training, and more training. She did not realize she could be so sore, or so delighted with the things she was discovering her dragon self could do. Her days were divided between physical activities—flying and fighting—all of which had to be coordinated with Kusaila, and her nights with reading or being read to by her book friend, who she had decided to call Liv. Which was short for living book. She had tried at first just calling her Book like Harry called the speaker sword just plain Sword… but somehow it didn’t seem right. She wasn’t a swashbuckling slash-and-cut figure; she was an elegant matron.

  “Stay with me, guys,” Lizzy responded to the confused crew of tilted puppy heads that stared back at her. “Matron is a special older woman, kinda like a grandma, who runs things.”

  Lizzy saw the responses coming and pushed on… she didn’t want to know what Easton’s dad thought about an older woman who bossed everyone around or how Gracie’s grandmother had refused to believe that a real dragon had actually manifested, even though her own grandkids were now green-tinted and occasionally grew little scales that sometimes blew off in a strong wind.

  “Annnnyway…” she continued, “the older lady book deserved a real name, and Sarah, being a sophisticated lady of royal training, determined to give her one if the book was willing. She was absolutely delighted at that idea, and so it was that Liv was named.

  “Three weeks after Sarah had experienced her famous midnight run, she was sitting in a chair with her eyes closed, reading another of Liv’s pages, when she came to a new chapter. One she had been looking forward to reading and at the same time also dreading. She had not recognized her reluctance to read the chapter as dread, but as she began to read it, it became clear that the feelings she had were exactly that, dread.

  “Liv picked up on those feelings and had been anticipating them. ‘Sarah, what you are feeling is very common. Dragon people often struggle with their relationship to their riders, especially those from timelines similar to yours, and especially female dragon people.’

  “‘I’m not struggling with my feelings,’ Sarah replied too quickly.

  “‘Of course not, dear. But you can understand if some dragon women did, couldn’t you?’

  “‘Ah… I’m not sure what you mean, Liv?’ Sarah said as she began to feel her fingers being pried off the shield of denial that was gradually being ripped away from her.

  “‘Sarah, let me assure you the relationship of a dragon to her rider is not one of greater to lesser; it is not a subservient relationship. Unless the servitude is mutual. Read on and I will explain as we go.’

  “Sarah closed her eyes again and watched from the vantage of her imagination as the beautiful manuscript unfolded. Letters gilded in golden flames settled on the first page. They quickly focused and Sarah groaned as she read them.

  “A dragon must submit in all things to their rider. In battle, there is no time for explanation, negotiation, or rebellion.

  “‘I thought you said the relationship between the dragon rider and the dragon was not a subservient relationship, Liv?’

  “‘It is not, Sarah… and I realize this is going to be harder for you than for some people. You were born into royalty and trained to rule. It is natural for you to take charge and command. Sarah, this rule, this discipline, violates most of what you were trained to be. It causes you to wonder about your personal worth and value. For in your culture the greater commands the lesser, but under the North Star that is not the case. If you try to make it so, if you choose to determine your value by your role, then you will fail as a dragon companion… miserably.’

  “Sarah blew out a long smoky breath in spite of herself. The room was soon wrapped in smoke. Finally, Sarah collected her angry, fearful thoughts and said, ‘Liv, what if the rider is inexperienced? What if the rider is flawed? What if the rider is wrong? Can’t the dragon person object to that?’

  “‘Absolutely, Sarah, but not in the middle of a battle. What you need to understand is that the rider and the dragon bring a different set of gifts to the table. The dragon brings strength, fire, the ability to foresee a few seconds into the future, the power to call the very elements of the sky together and bend them to her will.’

  “Sarah’s eyes widened proudly. ‘That is a very formidable arsenal, Liv… with those kinds of weapons a dragon may not even need a rider.’

  “The book snickered, trying not to be insulting… and failing. ‘Sarah, several dragons have thought that… especially those like yourself from royal or military backgrounds. That mindset is the very reason this rule is the primary rule, the first rule of dragons and riders. Every time, and I mean every single time, the rule of roles is broken… as much as that word role might offend you, it doesn’t mean the principle is not true. When the primary rule is broken, eventually the partnership is broken and ultimately the team loses the battle and their lives. Every single time. It often does not occur immediately, but it always occurs. Fish do not fly, Sarah, and birds cannot breathe underwater. They can try and look as though they have for a short while, but ultimately, they fail. Do you understand me, Princess Sarah?’

  “Sarah frowned at Liv’s use of her title princess… but the frown disappeared as an understanding of why she used it dawned.

  “Sarah frowned again and sighed. ‘Liv, why do the most important things always boil down in some form or fashion to trust? As I have wrestled with what you have told me, I realized that the dragon has to trust the rider… even if she knows he is wrong. Even if the rider’s direction leads her into catastrophe. It is so hard, Liv, to trust another with that kind of power over you.’

  “‘Sarah, as always you get to the bottom of the matter quickly… You are right about trust being a horrible thing. I mean, really, let’s call it what it is. It’s a form of bondage. But Sarah, in this situation the anchor of a dragon’s hope is not in the rider… it is in the King.’

  “A knowing smile slipped gently across Sarah’s face. ‘Always… it’s always that way, isn’t it?’

  “‘You should know, Sarah… you’re the dancer.’

  “A bright smile framed by tears quickly replaced the somber reality that had lit on Sarah. ‘I am indeed. I am the dancer. I have danced with the King.’ And she paused as a sheepish look pushed its way into the moment. ‘He told me the same thing. He told me not everybody dances with the King.’

  “‘I bet he did, honey.’

  “Sarah closed her eyes and slipped back into the cushions that acted as her study desk. ‘But…’

  “‘Now how did I know that “but” was coming? Hmm?’ Liv asked.

  “‘Smart aleck… if Harry were here, he would have used another term—starts with an a, includes some s’s, and is a lot
shorter and easier to spell… but in spite of my years in Texas, I am not that redneck.’

  “‘Actually, more green-neck if the truth were known,’ Liv teased.

  “Sarah frowned in a way a young woman raised to be a queen might, and Liv snickered. ‘You are not amused, are you, Princess?’

  “‘No, we are not…!’ Sarah teased back, assuming the role Liv had crowned her with. ‘Buutttt… the question is, if the first rule for dragons is they have to obey the rider… well?’

  “‘Well what, Sarah?’ Liv asked, pretending ignorance.

  “‘What is the first rule of the rider?’

  “A heaviness entered the room, emanating from the ancient manuscript. Sarah felt it and shivered. ‘Good grief, Liv, what’s going on… what just happened?’

  “‘Sarah, the first rule for a rider makes the first rule of dragons pale in comparison.’

  “‘I don’t understand?’

  “‘Sarah, the first rule of a rider is to die.’

  “‘What!’ Sarah screeched, starting to involuntarily transform, then catching herself and pushing back so she wouldn’t destroy another tent. ‘What do you mean die?’

  “‘First let me say… a few riders, and I mean three out of over twelve thousand over six thousand years. Very few… and two of those were under spells cast by powerful witches. Only three have ever broken this rule and refused to sacrifice their lives for their dragon partners. Many teams have died together, and often when one perishes the other does not last long. The only hope a “widowed partner,” for lack of a better word, has of overcoming the sorrow of their partner’s death is to be re-bonded with another widowed partner, and, to be honest, that is extremely rare… anyway, the rule is the rider lays down his life for the dragon.’

  “‘Wow,’ Sarah whispered, but then another frown pushed its way through her thoughts.

  “Liv read it and quickly responded, ‘But in case you are thinking a rider only has to die once but a dragon has to obey for a lifetime… let me introduce you to rider rule number two. Please note dragons only have one rule and a few derivations thereof. But riders have several rules… understand?’