Myrra - part 2

[Myrra]

Alone

It's been centuries I am alone with the stone-dragon-baby.
I tried to shake or knock against the rock but he does not wake up.
I have nothing more to eat and I'm hungry. I will have to go hunting and this time it will not be a game with father.
I found my dagger in the remains of the house with wheels and also Dad’s harpoons. It is broken, but by attaching a rope to the end, I will still be able to fish.
I have my hunting clothes and a goatskin of water. Outside of the house of dragons, I look back and I carefully examine the surroundings. I have to be able to find the place back.
I know I'm still a baby, but I will have to be the mother of the dragon baby, so I have to be strong, that I hunt, I fish ...
MIAAAUWWWwww!
I want Mommy!
I'm tired, I'm dirty, my entire body aches, but I return to the home of dragons with a few fish, roots and fruit.


First, I carry my fish and my harvest near the baby dragon, then i want to bring fire in the little cave, and then i have a problem.
I can’t get the fire through the river, and I cannot bring back the sleeping dragon baby through the river. Or maybe...
Inside the house with wheels, I find a big bowl, in rather correct shape, and use it as a boat to carry the wood in our little cave, then I set a branch on fire inside the lava river, and transport it to our cave inside the bowl.
Then I make a small fire to warm the baby and me, and to cook what I brought back.

I’m not hungry anymore, but next time I will remove the mud from the roots before cooking them.
And I wonder if I should not remove the inside of the fishes, the part I don’t eat, before cooking them.
But, well… At least my stomach is now full. Tomorrow I’ll go pick the preys from the snares, and gather a large wood supply.
I fall asleep next to the stone-dragon-baby.

I’m starting to get good at living alone. When this idea comes to my mind, I feel a pinch in the heart. I miss Mom and Dad so much.
I shake my head and throw those black ideas away. I need to make provisions for the time the dragon baby will wake up. After such a long sleep he’ll probably be very hungry.
I hope he will not wake up while I’m not there, but I have no choice. I have to gather wood and hunt, at least for my own subsistence.

Yesterday, I didn’t dare to get out, there were beasts in the larger cave, I did hear them.
Fortunately, I had woven a net-bag, and I keep some fish prisoner in the little river that flows through our little cave, so I could stay in the cave , and could eat, but I hope the beasts will not remain.
If they’re still there tonight, I will sneak out and check.
The beasts are still there. They did nearly eat the White, and did install their camp. Fortunately, they didn’t set guards so I can wander in their camp, I find a rope and some lamp grease and I have an idea.
I put the grease all over the rope and bind it to their cloth-homes, and drop the end in the lava river. It soon takes fire and the fire runs along the rope and, as I enter the river tunnel to our cave, I see the fire start to burn everywhere.
Soon I hear alarm calls and lots of noise, and I hope they’ll go away. I’m too small to attack them anyways, and I go bed next tot the stone-dragon-baby, to wait… and I sleep.

The monsters are gone. They left a mess behind them but I will not clean the place, Maybe then they will not come back.
I carefully venture outside, and make sure they’re gone and away, then I redo provisions.
The dragon baby still sleeps, and I hope he will not sleep forever, as the blue and dragon parents did… and as did Dad and Mom. I’m now certain they sleep for ever, otherwise they would long be back and calling for me, and would have seen the signs I left for them at entrance.
I’m alone with the sleeping dragon baby since too long.

[Myrra]

*translation note : “Rose� in French means “Pink�*

Hatching

I listen again against the rock-that-is-egg, but I hear nothing. I knock gently and it is no longer the same noise as the first time. So I try again and it looks like it is hollow.
Suddenly, the stone roll on its side and start to shake. I think I woke up the baby dragon, I hope he will not be angry.
The rock cracks and breaks into several parts, and a pink dragon with white belly scales and begin to scream, the stagger towards the food pile.
I give him food, then guide him to the river to clean him because he has something sticky on him.
Cleaning her, I realize she is not a male dragon.

The small Biniki Rose sleeps cuddled against my fur.
As her mother, that I now am, I had to find her a first name, and as her parents name is unknown, I did also choose her a name, “Rose�, because she is pink.
She ate all the food and her tummy is bulging, and now she sleeps, so I decide to go out hunting.
Fortunately collars have taken several animals and I know the best places to find edible roots now, so I come back with a full load of food.
When I return, I find her awake and she rubs her scales against my fur. Her scales are soft and warm, I caress her and I want to prepare the food, but she steals a rabbit and eats it, raw, with the fur and all.
Meeoww it's disgusting.


A baby dragon only sleeps and eats. In addition she eats a lot more than I do.
I do nothing more than hunt and sleep and when I return I don’t even have the strength for my cleaning.
I feel tired, I feel dirty, and despite my efforts, she is still hungry when she finishes eating everything.
I have to find another way to feed her or I'll end up sleeping and never wake up.
She eats anything, she even ate fingers-that-get-out-the-ground.


Today, when I came back to the house-of-dragons, I found Biniki trying to climb up a slide. She probably followed my smell to get out of the small cave where we were hiding.
I give her food, and I bring her back to our cave, because monsters could come back and I prefer to know she is well hidden if it happens.
I can sneak through, but she will not. She is too clumsy, and she is big, bit it's not her fault, she’s a dragon. But I still think she eats too much.
She also sleeps less, probably because she is still hungry when we both finish eating.
I go out hunting once more, and I ambush near the water. I do not have to wait very long before I hear a step in the scrub, and I prepare my sling but it’s Biniki who appears from the forest, and let a questioning "meep" get heard.
I tell her she must stay at home, and I want to pull her home, but she curls up between my legs and refuses to move, so I get back to my ambush place and tell her to come near me and stay quiet.
When prey finally appears, a small deer, I knock it out with a well thrown stone, and Biniki rushes on the animal and devour it greedily. I can not watch as it is too wild.
After eating, Biniki comes back to me and preens her scales, filled with deer blood, then curls in a ball to sleep, but I don’t let her sleep and force her to come with me back to the house-of-dragons. Once there, I let her sleep.


Since the day Biniki followed me for hunting, we go hunting together, and I teach her what Dad taught me to hunt.
She seems to understand better and better and now she manages to meow a lot better, so I can explain how to hunt and she questions me when she does not understand.
Our days pass like this: We go out hunting in the morning and by mid-afternoon we go back home and we start to make provisions because I feel that the days shorten and the bad season approaches, as it was when I was just born.
I remember it was cold and white and Dad could not go hunting.

[Myrra]

The stranger

Biniki and I are walking in the woods below the house-of-dragons, on our way to the pond, where we can easily find preys.
Since many days now, the trees have changed their colours and the leaves of some trees have fallen.
Suddenly, a gruok springs out of the bushes and charge us.
I jump quickly and turn in mid-air, ready to land on his back and attack him, but I have to change my plans, because he has a feathered wood shaft pointing out of his shoulder, and I nearly skewer myself on it.
I fall towards the ground, and my eyes widen from horror, because I see Biniki standing on her hind legs, wings wide spread, facing the gruok.
I scream at her “Move!�, because it will not stop.
Then, suddenly, she breathes a burst of flame that kills gruok instantly, but I'm behind the animal and she burns me a leg and my tail.

I meow from pain, lying on the ground, and Biniki comes to me and sniff, looking terrified by what she did, her eyes full of tears, "Mom ... sorry I did not want to... sorry ... please get up… please"
Then, popping up out of the forest, a bipedal lizard appears, feathers on his head, a long wooden shaft in his hand, and feathery wood shafts on his back. He stops in front of us, astonished, then looks at my wounds and he touches my burned fur, then he mumbles some strange words, and I do not feel pain anymore, but I'm still heavily burned.
"Is your camp far? " he asks us.
I tell him that the house is not far but when I try to get up, my leg does not react, then he carries me the way Mom sometimes did.

When we reach the house-of-dragons, he grabs pieces of cloth in his backpack, and a pot of sticky paste, and applies it onto my leg and my tail and then wrap them into the cloth bits.
"Are your parents there?"
"They are asleep."
"Can I talk to them?"
"They sleep forever."
"Ah. Then I'll stay here until you are healed."

So he stayed and hunted for both of us long and long.
Every evening, he told us about his travels and the cities he had crossed. He drew elves, dwarfs and satyrs, and many other races and showed them to us, and told us what their beliefs and traditions are.
He taught us about history and the War.
When I finally have been healed, it was already white outside, so he stayed with us until spring.
I showed him the house-of-dragon rooms, and he taught us to read, using the books of the dead dragons, and we gave him some of them, as there were a lot of them anyways.
He showed us books we should not read and should hide them well, so I did go hide them in our hideout.
Before leaving he said goodbye and told us that if we wanted to go in town, we should follow the road towards the north and arrive in New Trismus a few days later.

We did talk a lot, Biniki and me.
She did not want to leave her parents' house, and I could not leave her alone.
But I had been hurt, and without the sslik’s help, I would be dead for sure, so we decided to leave, so we can learn how to cure, and come back when we would have grown.

[Myrra]

End of the story for this week.
Comments welcome.

[Tcei]

Very good story! I look forward to more, keep up the good work!

[Litarath]

ooh, yes, I do like this! This is a wonderful read!

[awdz]

You have an excellent knack for tale-telling, Myrra. Thank you for sharing this so far, and I look forward to future additions! :-)

[Shian]

I love reading this story. Always eager for more.