Growing Older

Chapter Two
Growing Older

    The day drifts by in a lazy way. The sky is a brilliant blue and the breeze has a gentle coolness to it. The sun warms the air if you stand still long enough. Mother and I finish my lessons and we start getting supper ready. I am getting the honey ready for brewing the mead. She takes the honey and water and boiled it in the cauldron pot over the fire. Then she adds the herbs and stirs it.
   After sometime she pours it into containers and we haul it out to the barn.
It will sit there till the moon is full again. Emerald wakes up and starts out to the field for a late afternoon snack of grass. We watch him as he tries to walk with grace, but he is so big now and clumsy on the ground. My mother and I give a chuckle. He has become such a part of our lives and family. We never ask him to do anything that would cause harm to another. We would never put him a way to get bad karma.

    My mother believes that if you do something that you know is wrong you will get negative karma at you 10 fold. That lesson goes for every living thing. Mainly people, she tells me. Some people in the village dislike our family, because my mother is a healer and because I have a dragon. My mother says that to “want what other a person has is not good”. She says “That you need to work hard to get the things that make you happy”. But karma works both ways my mother says. “If you are a good person and do good things you get rewarded”. I think Emerald is my reward for being a good person. There is so much for me to learn in this lifetime. I hope I can get it all and do it right. I do not want to disappoint my mother and all her hard work. When I am Older, I will be taught how to be an artisan. The entire bread making for the family will be up to me. I am excited and scared about this, But then I remembered my dream I had, I was a cook and an artisan to the nobles. Then when I am old enough I will be there healer too. I am starting to understand what my mother has been telling me.
   Time is starting to pass quickly now, it seems only yesterday I was a mere age of 10. I am now 15yrs old and getting ready to be married off to the man my father chose. I was scared about this, for emerald and I have always been together, Never parted not for a day. I ask my father to take his time in choosing a husband for me. I told him” I am not ready for this task in life”. He said to me" child you will make a good wife, but as you wish. Not this day" I jumped about the cabin hugging him and hugging my mother. I ran out to tell emerald the news I did not have to marry yet.
   He is not there. He is not in the field kicking over the rocks. He is not anywhere I can see him. I sat and cried; for so long I have put the thought out of my mind that he would leave. For so long I pretended he would always belong here with me. That night I just cried myself to sleep, but when I closed my eyes all I saw was him flying about and when he landed walking funny on the ground. Holding me in his wings when we slept on nice summer days, the two of us frolicking around causing mischief. I dreamt of all the lands we would visit and the people we would meet. All the different foods and drinks we would taste. "He didn't come say good-bye to me" that hurts me in my heart, like being stabbed.
   My belly aches and my head hurts. Nothing will get rid of it. My mother tries every herb she can think of, nothing helps.  I just want emerald back! Hours turned into days, and days turned into weeks and still no emerald. It would be two full moons that have passed before I would hear that roar again. I ran out of the cabin to find emerald there with one other dragon. I yelled, "Emerald!!!!' "You are home, wait. Who is that with you?" "Do you have a sweetheart"? But the other dragon was slower and older it seemed and much larger than Emerald. I call for my mother and father. They came rushing out of the cabin only to see two dragons instead of one.
   My father stood dead in his tracks, not knowing what the other dragon will do. He is cautious about his movements. My mother walks right up to emerald, gives him a big hug, and asks "Where have you been? The moon has cycled twice”. Emerald responds with a head rub on her. My mother then approached the other dragon and gives her a hug. My mother stepped back and said,” well your emeralds mother. Welcome to our home. I hope we have taken good care of your son in your absence?” My mother then bowed to her, as if she is a noble. I did not understand this at all.” My mother is bowing to emerald's mother?” My mother turns to me and in a sharp voice says, "Respect young lady! Show it and bow!"
   I do as my mother asks (My mother has a gift from the Goddess, she tells me that when you touch someone or something that is living. You feel what they are feeling. She said I have been gifted with that as well from the Goddess. )

   As I bowed, the mother dragon came to me and rubbed her head on me, knocking me down to the ground, Emerald came over and licks me. I think now he is saying goodbye to me. He has found his family and does not need me anymore. But to my amazement he did need my mother and I. His mother is hurt; other villagers in a far off land have hurt her. Emerald heard her cries and went to her. He brought her back to us so we can help her with our herbs. My mother and father got them settled in the barn for the night. It was a tight squeeze indeed.
   The next morning my father set off to the harbor to fish. And my mother and I go to see the harm that was done to emerald's mother. She is cut up on her right side and her legs have rope burns on them. She has been tied down. It looks like she has been starved; her ribs are showing through her skin. She is in great pain. My mother tells me the list of herbs to gather and make haste and hurry she needed them. Emerald and I setoff to get the herbs to heal her. My mother heads off to get the cauldron pot and starts boiling the water from the sea. She will need lots of salt for this healing batch. We return with the herbs my mother requested and off she goes to the caldron to finish the batch. By early afternoon the mixture is ready, some for emerald’s mother to drink and some to be applied to the wounds.
   After applying everything, my mother settled her to sleep with a song I had never heard before. She says that will help her heal, Sleep is a good aid in healing. Emerald's mother slept for several weeks waking only for a few moments to nibble on grubs and drink fresh water. We check on her every few hours for the next few weeks to see if she is okay. Her wounds are healing well and she is gaining her strength.

   She is so much bigger than emerald. The barn can hardly hold the two of them. Myfather returns from fishing and my mother and he talk for a great deal of time. They come to me and tell me what they had decided. “The barn is not big enough for the two of them; the dragons would have to leave”. I look at my father in disbelief and plead “Can we build a bigger barn for them?” I ask my father.

 

Author's Note

ignore grammar problems, what do you think of the dialogue

Reviews

[Lady Arganteilin]

Thank you for reading my work. I have finally gotten over my writers block and getting back to pen and paper. Thank you again.

[Wildecat]

I have always been a fan of the Dragon. I have read every book that Anne Mccaffery has written. There are a lot of Sci fi Writers who have stories about Dragons. Yours is a wonderful story loved last few lines about getting a bigger barn. Well done.