Hattu Makkalu

Suruli found me some grey leggings, a long sleeved undershirt, and a dark brown tunic for me to wear. Then she set up a place for me to sleep in Śarat’s room.

The room was covered by thick maroon drapes and then hanging beads made from painted clay. Inside were two hanging hammocks, one above the other, a shelf filled with precious stones and a table covered by some sort of board game.

I slept on the lower hammock with a couple blankets to use and fell asleep as soon as my head touched my makeshift pillow.

When I woke up I was in a pitch black room, candles surrounded me like in some sort of ritual. I heard chanting and the pounding of drums. Six figures in black hooded robes surrounded me outside the candle barrier.

Then a final figure stepped out of the darkness, Nisvārtha Shade, with his glittering violet eyes hungry for blood.

"I have decided what to do with you, Kendra." He said in that deep velvet voice. "And my Council agrees."

The figures threw back their hoods to reveal my mother and father, Jack, Sanna, Śarat, and Suruli. All looking at me with hungry eyes.

"What are you going to do with me?" I asked, my heart pounding in my throat.

Nisvārtha smiled a sickening grin and his body started to bubble and shift, his neck became longer, his body bigger, horns sprouted from his head, wings ripped from his back and a long whip-like tail came around and wrapped around my throat.

He was completely black and the only color were those terrible violet eyes that had now become slits. His face came close to mine and he bared his razor sharp teeth.

Eat you. His voice sliced through my mind and I screamed as he devoured me.

I woke up gasping for air, my hands around my throat, the blackness choking me as it covered my eyes and sent chills up my spine. I ran out of the room and fell to my knees near the low burning fire, holding my mouth closed to keep in the scream that was building from the horror of my nightmare.

This wasn’t a dream. I knew that now. I was in this world called Avondale, with people who could turn into dragons and strange men who had to “deal with me.”

I sobbed as I looked at those imposing wooden doors that held darkness and the estranged founder of this clan filled with misfits. They thought I was crazy, and maybe I was. They wouldn't believe that I was human...but maybe I wasn't. I needed to go home, but what if the way was closed like they said? What if I never got home?

That was too many "if's" and "maybe's" for me to be sure of anything.

"Kendra?" A voice whispered.

I must not have been as quiet as I thought. I looked up to see Sanna regarding me with concerned yellow eyes.

I wiped my eyes and scrambled up. "Sorry I woke you." I said, my throat still thick with tears.

"Do not apologize." He said and stepped closer. "Why are you crying?"

I wiped my eyes again. "I'm not, it's just the smoke getting in my eyes."

He frowned. "I heard you crying."

I scowled. "Well I'm not, will you just leave it?" My voice broke at the end and I felt more tears building in my throat.

Sanna pulled me into a hug just as I broke down again, stroking my hair as I sobbed unceremoniously into his bare chest. The music that identified as him played in my head.

When I finished he led me into his room and handed me a clean rag to wipe my eyes and blow my nose. Then left and returned with a lit candle to make the room less dark.

He sat next to me on his bed and fiddled with his knife.

When my sniffles had finally stopped he asked, "Would you like to talk about it?"

I shook my head. "It was just a bad dream." I looked at the knife in his hands. "Why does everyone have one of those?" I asked.

He blinked in surprise. "Oh, this is a blood knife. We all carry one so we can access our powers."

"What powers?" I asked warily.

He smiled a bit. "I shall show you."

I sat still as he slid off the bed and knelt on the floor.

"Each kind of dragon has a gift. One element for each type. Phoenixes control the air and weather. Wyrms control fire. Serpents control the water, and I told you I was an earth dragon, so my gift has to do with the earth element." He took out his knife and without hesitation sliced through his palm.

I gasped but he held up his uninjured hand. "It is alright, I will only be in pain for a moment."

He put his hand against the ground, letting the blood stain the earth.

Then he took a breath and exhaled out his mouth, green grass spread over the floor of the room and as he lifted his hand slowly, I watched in fascination as a flower budded and bloomed into a perfect red rose, which he picked and handed to me.

I couldn't help but smile as I smelled the wonderfully sweet fragrance of the rose. Roses were my favorite, even as a child I had demanded roses to be planted everywhere so I could always smell them, and the resulting aroma lingered on my skin and in my hair for most of my life.

But Sanna had no way of knowing that.

As soon as the rose was out of his hand, he made me watch as the gash in his palm closed up and vanished like magic.

"How�""

He chuckled. "Dragon's blood has many magical properties, the first is that it is the key to using our powers in human form. The second is when one drinks from another, the drinker will be healed of almost any injury. But if my blood were to touch your skin, or anyone else's, it would burn like acid."

My eyes widened as I looked at the healed cut on his hand. As I looked, the lines became sharper and I could see faint scars crisscrossing over his palm and down his wrist.

I gasped in horror. "This is horrible!"

Sanna shrugged. "It looks bad, but I assure you it is not. We keep our knives sharp so it hurts less and heals quick, it is a small sacrifice for the power it gives." He cleaned the small knife in the grass and put it away. “As soon as a hatchling is born we are introduced to blood. Like Suruli did with you, infants are given a few drops of blood to pass on a few things. The memories of language for one, and the mother's immune system for another. So blood does not bother us, it is a commonplace thing to see.”

I thought about that as I twirled the long stemmed rose, being very careful not to cut myself on the thorns.

Sanna yawned widely and rubbed his eyes, “Hey, would it help you sleep if I told you a story?”

I shrugged, “Maybe, what did you have in mind?”

“Um,” Sanna rubbed at his face. “Do you know the story of the Hattu Makkalu?”

“The what?”

He grinned. “Awesome, I love this story. Okay, Hattu Makkalu means Children of the Ten.”

“The Ten what?” I was getting excited now.

“Be silent and I will tell you.” He chuckled. “Well, Modala, our Great Lady, our wonderful creator, she created the first ten dragons. A male and a female of each of the five dragon types. Gāli and Tangāli were the first phoenixes. Nīrina and Sāgara the first serpents. The first wyverns were Bhūmiya and Kallu. The first wyrms, Benki and Kidi, and the first drakes were Myājik and Prīti.”

“Wait a second,” I held up my hands to stop him. "What's a drake?"

Sanna sighed. "Drakes were the fifth type of dragon. Very powerful, and very rare. They could control all four elements and usually had a special gift of their own. But they're gone now.”

“What happened to them?” I asked, laying down on the bed.

Sanna chuckled, “One story at a time, Kendra. Anyway, Myājik and Prīti were the first Drakes. Our Royalty were named for Myājik, since he was the eldest of the Ten”

“You have royalty?” I blurted.

“Had,” He corrected. “But that is a whole other story. Anyway, the Ten had many children. All of them only carried one form, and loved their powerful dragon bodies. They were free to traverse the Human world. The Ten taught their children the ways of love and acceptance, to be kind with the humans and to remember that they were all equal and the same.

“But the children grew spoiled and careless with the humans, and began to mistreat them because of their primitive nature. The Ten then cursed their children to take the form of humans, their dragon forms gone and they were cast into the human world, each with an egg. Their forms would only return and the Gates reopened when their children hatched. Which would only happen when they had learned their lesson. The children did, and from those eggs hatched the first of the Dracore.”

I yawned. “Dracore?” I murmured.

“It is our word for herd, or flock. The whole population of Avondale united under the Myājik was the Dracore.”

I yawned again and my eyes fluttered closed. “Goodnight, Sanna.”

I heard chuckle and felt a blanket being draped over me. “Goodnight Kendra.”