But more times than not, common wisdom is just an acceptable term for unwarranted prejudice. And though the three races co-existed in peaceful and productive harmony, some old scars refused to go away.
Rose, though stubborn, strong-willed and rebellious, was still a Royal Princess and knew how to conduct herself with the Kings and Queens of the other races. “The honor is mine, your Majesty. This is an opportunity I look forward to.” That, of course, was a polite lie.
“Indeed”. And though F’Aerianne should have accepted the lie at face value, she decided to push the bounds of royal protocol. Dragons were also known to be a bit surly when dealing with humans and serpents. “Why is that?”
Rose was taken aback by the question. “Why?”
“Yes. Why is this an opportunity? Are you not always welcome in the realm of Dragons? Must you visit or avail yourself of these opportunities only when good King M’earth commands it?”
“Umm . . . no . . . I mean . . .” she didn’t know what to say.
“Tell me your version of history.”
“What?” As we all know now, that wasn’t a question a Royal Princess should ask.
“Why does your father possess the Crystal Egg?”
This conversation was spiraling out of control. Rose was beginning to get nervous and angry. “If I have said something to offend you, Queen F’Aerianne, I apologize.”
The Queen’s plumage had intensified in color as the conversation had progressed. That was a sure sign that she, too, was getting upset. But Rose’s statement forced her to assert control over her emotions and to set the conversation back on the course she had originally planned. “You have not offended me. However, I would like you to tell the story of Aerianna, the Old Ones and the contest between races as you have learned it.”
“But why?”
“History is written by those who win. Perhaps the truth is better served by recording the views of those who did not win as well as those that did.”
That statement was a little too deep for Rose. But to end this conversation, she would do as she was asked. It was a familiar story that every child learned.
“If it pleases you, your Highness. This planet was created by a superior race of beings that we call the Old Ones. Upon this world, they placed three sentient species – Humans, Dragons and Sea Serpents.
At first, all went well since each species lived separately from the other. Sea Serpents ruled the sea, Humans the land, and Dragons the skies and the mountain tops.
But as time went on, each group grew and their need for resources drove them to encroach on the areas formerly held by the other species. This led to war.
The Old Ones were horrified and called the leaders of Humans, Dragons and Serpents to an Island. There they were told that the fighting must stop. As an incentive, they told the three races that there would be a contest to see who could build the greatest civilization. The winner would get a gift of unlimited power – the Crystal Egg. The losers would be subject to the rules and whims of the winner.
In the end, the Old Ones determined that Humans had built the greatest civilization. They had created the floating city of Q’umulus and there they had established a center for arts, literature and learning deemed superior to all others.
My father was awarded the Crystal Egg. Instead of enslaving the other races, he created the Council of Equals and commanded that all three races share the responsibilities of governing this world.”
“Enough” commanded the Queen. “Why are Dragons considered the most inferior of the three races?”
“Because they were the first to . . .” but the girl stopped because she realized she had blundered badly. She tried to correct herself and said, “I mean to say that the contest was considered very close and could have been ruled in favor of any of the three.”
“Stop. Go back to your first answer – not the polite dribble you were spewing.”
Rose was now angry and that clouded her judgment. And that in turn gave her license to tell the truth. “Dragons voluntarily dropped out of the contest first. They said that they had progressed as far as they could – they saw no way forward.”
“And for that we are deemed inferior.” Rose wasn’t sure if that was a question or a statement.
“My father judged you, and your people, equals. He invited you to help rule this world. He has told me on more than one occasion that it was one of the best decisions he ever made. He is very proud of how you govern. He is proud at how Dragons have become an integral part of Aerianna’s society.” This was a wonderful answer and Rose should have stopped right there.
But, of course, she didn’t. “I tell you this, your MAJESTY (she stretched out the word). If and when I become Queen, I will command the Crystal Egg to knock that chip off your shoulder.”
As the words left her mouth, she flinched. “Oh my gosh” she thought to herself. “That was a dumb thing to say.” But she didn’t apologize. She just glared at the multi-colored dragon.
“Well, Rose’Alynnia, I can see why your father has sent you to me. You have the courage of a Dragon. Unfortunately, you also possess our temper.”
“So what now? Should we just tell my father that this was a mistake?”
“Is it true what I have heard? Did you really fly from Q’umulus on wings made by serpents?”
The girl broke out in a big grin. “Yes. But my friend Kl’air flew beside me just in case things went badly.”
“So you trusted your life to a Dragon?”
“I did. And I would again.”
“Then, my dear Princess . . .
. . . I am very happy to welcome you to Talon’s Perch. I believe your time here will prove to be very beneficial. We have much to teach you.”
“Yay.”
*****
As usual, she waited for her tutor to show up. This time, however, she was standing on one of the highest turrets in the castle. Since Talon’s Perch was built on top of a mountain, from her extra high vantage point she could see a hundred miles in every direction. It was impressive – especially looking down on the thunderstorms floating through the valleys. The flashes of lightning were spectacular and made the little hairs on the back of her neck stand up.
“Hi.”
She jumped at the unexpected voice.
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you.”
“I wasn’t scared,” she said defensively. But she was a bit surprised. The owner of the voice was a young dragon, maybe a little older than Kl’air. However, this one was a male.
“My name is Storm. Should I call you Rose or Rose’Alynnia?”
Half teasing, she answered, “You may call me Princess”.
“Then you have to call me Prince” he said petulantly.
“Why in heaven’s name would I do that?”
“Because I am one.”
“Really? I don’t remember ever meeting you.”
“Um . . . they kind of keep me away from really important people.”
Rose giggled at the dragon. “Why?”
If dragons could blush, Storm would have. Instead, he just hung his head staring at his oversized talons and mumbled, “I’m a little clumsy. And sometimes I forget to talk like I’m supposed to . . . you know like don’t say don’t, and you can’t say can’t. Stuff like that.”
Rose could relate to the second part of that statement. But in the spirit of teasing she ignored it and focused on the first part, “I never heard of a clumsy dragon – sounds dangerous. Did you ever step on someone?”
“Um . . . I’m not supposed to talk about that.”
The girl giggled once more and the dragon fidgeted in embarrassment.
And to add to his discomfort, she asked as sarcastically as she could “So what in the world could YOU teach ME?”
“Um . . . the first thing is how to fly on a dragon’s back.”
“Really?”
“The Queen said that somebody saw you fly into Talon’s Perch on the back of your friend and it looked like you were going to fall of
f any second. So she wants me to teach you how to do it right.”
“You’re going to teach me? A klutzy dragon who probably has never even met a human girl?”
“Um . . . yeah.”
“No way. You’ll just get us both killed.”
“Um . . . I supposed to tell you that if you say no, I have to teach you the history of Queen F’Aerianne’s family. That’s more than a hundred generations.”
“Like you really know that much history?”
“She’s my aunt so it’s my family too. Besides, I’m pretty smart.”
“For a dragon?” That was kind of insulting.
“I guess. I’m not really sure how smart humans are.”
“Anyway, that’s just memorization. What else can that brain of yours do?” She didn’t really care but figured he would say something so dumb it would be funny.
“Um . . . I sometimes do stuff with Ven’trrr. He’s a scientist . . .”
“I know who he is” she cut in. “What kind of work could you possibly do for him? Lift heavy lab equipment?” That was more than a little rude but she didn’t believe that this dragon had any real intelligence.
He shrugged and said “different stuff.”
“Like what?” she pressed.
“Mathematics mostly.”
“What?” That sounded absurd.
“They couldn’t figure out the equations for the sub-atomic interference patterns needed to isolate the wave function for the inter-galactic . . .”
“OH STOP IT” she yelled.
“Huh?”
“You did the math for that thingy? I don’t believe it.”
“I guess I have a knack for numbers and stuff like that.”
“You got to be kidding me?”
“Not exactly.”
The situation was becoming less amusing and more annoying. “Listen, no offense, but I don’t think you can teach me anything.” She felt bad about hurting his feelings but he was such a dufus. If he actually did work for the Serpent scientist, it was probably as a favor to the Dragon Queen. Knowing Ven’trrr – he probably just let this kid think he was making a contribution.
“Actually, I am giving you your first lesson as we speak.” Suddenly his voice was filled with self-confidence and smug amusement.
Sensing the change in his demeanor and realizing she was the butt of some yet to be explained joke, Rose blushed. “What’s going on here? Who are you, really?”
“As I said, my name is Storm and I am a Prince. We did meet but that was a few years ago. You were very young . . . for a human.”
“But why were you pretending to be such a ding-bat.”
“To make my point. We Royals have a responsibility to judge others on their own merits and not through the prism of our own preconceptions. I am a young dragon so you were more than willing to accept the fact that I was a bumbling adolescent with limited intelligence. However, I was presumably sent by Queen F’Aerianne herself. Would she actually send such an inept person to teach the daughter of King M’earth?”
“Well, I guess not.”
“Of course she wouldn’t. So you ignored your powers of reasoning and common sense and let your prejudices take over.”
“I AM NOT prejudiced,” she protested loudly.
“The fact that I am Dragon, young and a male led you to believe the worst.”
“That’s not true.” Of course, it was true.
“If you can’t be honest with yourself, you can’t be honest with anyone.”
Now that really infuriated her. Not because he was wrong . . . since he wasn’t. She was upset because she had been denied one of her favorite past times – arguing.
To avoid the unmitigated horror of admitting she was in the wrong, Rose changed the subject and asked, “So you’re not actually going to teach me to ride?”
“On the contrary. Climb up.” She hesitated and the dragon added, “I’m not really clumsy. In fact I’ve heard it said that I’m rather graceful.”
“Ha . . . if anyone said that, it was probably your mother.” She slid on his back, just forward of his wings, and took hold. “Oh my gosh . . . no seat belts” she teased.
“Humans!” he replied in feigned disgust.
“Don’t be grumpy” something dragons were often accused of.
“Don’t be silly. I’m tons of fun. Are you ready?”
“Just one question before we go.”
“What?”
“Are you really good at mathematics?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I’m a dragon” and with a loud ‘eeek’ he took off.
Chapter 5 - Storm
None of her friends had ever been boys. Royal Princesses just didn’t do that sort of thing until they were sixteen. Then they would go through a time-honored ceremony of being ‘introduced’ to the world. Afterward they could enjoy the company of whomever they pleased.
Since Rose was only ten, it was more than a little puzzling why F’Aerianne had assigned Storm to be her tutor. If the girl had given it any thought, she would have come to the conclusion that the Queen of Dragons was daring King M’earth to object. It was probably her way to get even for some assumed slight that the Human King had shown her. One more proof that Dragons were grumpy.
But Rose didn’t care about any of that. All she knew was that Storm made her laugh, treated her like an equal (which was odd since she was the Royal one), engaged her in interesting conversations (something that T’eel and Kl’air never did) and was way more fun than any of her other friends had ever been.
They had been constant companions for three months. At the moment, they were doing what they loved to do best – fly. Rose sat on Storm’s back as they sailed over a large snow covered peak. They were so high that the dragon stopped flapping his wings and just glided. Except for the whisper of wind slipping by, it was eerily quiet.
“Where to, Oh Royal One.”
Without hesitation, the girl said, “Sighing Whorl."
Storm looked over his shoulder so he could see Rose’s face. “You’re kidding, right?”
“I’m serious. Have you ever seen the Myst Tree?”
“NO!” the dragon roared at the outrageous question.
The Myst Tree at Sighing Whorl was a representative of the Old Ones – the creators of Aerianna. Though there was no law that said you couldn’t visit him (or her or it), the fog that covered the hills and valley of Sighing Whorl kept out any unwanted guest. No one knew in advance who the Tree would allow to visit. Even M’earth had occasionally been denied an audience.
“Me neither. Let’s go say hello.”
“You are one loony lady.”
“I thought Dragons were brave. Don’t tell me you’re scared?”
“I prefer to think of myself as exceptionally bright with a high degree of common sense and smart enough to stay away from places I don’t belong.”
“That’s what I thought – you’re scared.”
“Ha. And you’re not?”
“Why should I be? The worse that can happen is the Tree doesn’t allow us in.”
“NO, the worse that can happen is the Tree does allow us in.”
“Why is that worse?”
“What the heck do you say to a talking Tree that possesses the knowledge and power of the most advanced civilization that we’ll ever meet?”
“Hi, Tree” then she giggled.
“Like I said, you are one loony lady.”
“Take me – I command you.”
“Be nice or I’ll fly upside down.”
“So?”
So he flipped over and flew upside down. Rose had to hang on for dear life and was just able to keep from falling off.
He flipped back over, turned and smiled at her. “Fun, huh?”
“What were you going to tell my father if you had dropped me?” She was red in the face from the blood rushing to her head and from the thrill of dangling ten thousand feet above the ground.
“I would say, “Your Majesty, I dropped your dau
ghter. My Bad.”
She kicked him playfully in the side. “Well, since you have it all worked out, I guess I’ll just leave” and she did the stupidest thing she had ever done; she jumped off the dragon and into thin air.
Storm turned around to tell her she was nuts but she wasn’t there. He squawked and looked around frantically. And there about a thousand feet below him was the ever-smaller speck that was the Royal Princess of Aerianna.
Without hesitation, the dragon dove straight down flapping his wings for all he was worth. It took about ten seconds to catch up to (or is it ‘down to’) the falling princess – grabbing her as gently as he could in his talons and pulled out of the dive. He looked down towards his feet to make sure she was okay and was greeted with a big smile.
“Hi, there.”
“YOU ARE CRAZY.”
“Me? I’m not the one who dropped a Royal Princess.”
Storm gawked at her in horror, shook his head and looked around for a place to land.
On the ground, he put Rose down – but not as gently as he could have.
“OW”.
“Sorry.”
“Liar.”
“Ro, what is wrong with you? That was stupid, even by your standards.”
But she didn’t answer his question. All she said was, “I wish I could fly.”
“Well we know one thing for sure – you can fall.”
“No, really. When I used those wings to glide from Q’umulus, it was beyond wonderful. That’s why I want to visit the Myst Tree.”
“You lost me? Were you going to ask him to turn you into a dragon?”
“Uggg, no. Oops, sorry. That came out wrong.”
Storm didn’t take offense. “So what were you going to ask the Tree?”
“I’m not sure. But I had a dream and in it I was flying.”
“Oh.” Dreams on Aerianna were taken very seriously. It was how the wisdom of all those who had come before was passed on to future generations. “In that case, hop on.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
*****
It took almost an hour to reach the Valley of Sighing Whorl . . .
It was called that because the sound the fog made as it swirled over hills and through the trees sounded much like a human sighing contentedly.
Boxed Set: Egg and the Hameggattic Sisterhood: [The 12 book 1st adventure + the series prequel] Page 4