Thirty-Nine
The morning was cool,the mountain air crisp with early mist. The forest stretched wide beneath the ridgeline, dotted with glimmers of light where the sun broke through the trees.
Kalen stood beside his father at the edge of a high overlook, his small hand gripping one of Midas’ claws, both of them looking down at the world together.
Elowen had sent them out alone. Midas hadn’t asked for it, and yet she somehow knew they needed it. Kalen’s twin brother stayed behind with their mother, so there they were, father and son—dragon and hatchling.
Kalen stood beside his father, both in their smaller, humanoid forms, eyes sharp, instincts apt, observing the world like he knew the skies would belong to him one day.
He had still been apprehensive about his nature after what the humans did to him, but today, he had stopped being afraid. Today, he was curious.
Kalen nuzzled against his father, one horn scraping against Midas’ scales, the other, a remaining stump barely protruding from his skull.
“You are warmer than mama,” Kalen said absently.
Midas nodded. “That is because fire lives inside me.”
“Can you always feel it?”
“Always. But it does not burn…it soothes. You will understand, little one, as you grow. Your fire is small now, like embers under the cooking fire, but one day, it shall burn hotter than all the fires in this world.”
Kalen paused inquisitively. “Do you like it?”
“Likeit?” Midas repeated. At first, he did not understand the question. Elowenlikedto braid his hair. Midaslikedto watch his children play. But he had never thought of the flame inside of him as anything other than…there. A truth. A part of him. Midas thought a bit longer before turning his golden eyes to his son. “I did not like it when I was alone. The fire inside me once meant anger, destruction, pain. It held memories that would have been a mercy to forget. But now…now my fire is protection. It is my legacy. It is my family. So no, my son, I do not like it, I respect it, for it has given me the most sacred thing I have ever known.”
Kalen was quiet for a while. He settled further into his father’s side, and Midas’ tail wrapped around his son.
“Mama says there used to be other dragons, but they have been gone for a long time, and that’s why you talk about being alone. She says you miss them a lot.”
Midas didn’t flinch, though the words hit him hard.
“It is true. Before you and your brother were born, I was the only dragon left. But I once had a mother, a father, and many brothers and sisters.”
“Why did they leave you alone?”
Midas paused for an uncomfortable second. “They didn’t leave. They were taken by the humans. What they did to you was only the beginning of what they did to the dragons. They think we are monsters.”
“Do you hate humans?”
Midas turned away from the light of the sun, casting shadows of his horns across Kalen’s face. “Yes.”
“But mama is a human. And I am part human, right? Do you hate us too?” His eyes glossed over with unknown emotions overtaking his young heart.
Midas pulled Kalen closer to hold him. “I could never hate you, or your mother or Auric. It is true, your mother is human, and that makes you part human too. But your mother is proof of what the humans could be, if only they wanted to. She will raise you to be all the best of humanity, and I will raise you with all the might of the dragons.” Kalen’s lips continued to tremble, and so Midas leaned in to press his forehead to the crown of Kalen’s head. “You are not lesser to me because you are part human, just as you are not a lesser dragon because the humans took one of your horns. You are not broken, you are mine.”
Kalen finally curled into his father’s embrace, and Midas wrapped his wings around them both. He sat there with his son for a while, staring at the stump where his horn had been cut from his body.
It was a stark reminder of one of his greatest failures—to see that they marked their son with cruelty in such a permanent way.
If only I had been stronger. If only I had been faster.
Midas huffed, smoke escaping from his human nostrils. Then, he leaned back so that he could speak to his son.
“Kalen, would you like to learn how to use your fire today?”
He perked up with disbelief. Midas had always told them they were still too young and fragile to learn, but he could not mask their instincts any longer, knowing it could protect them one day if the humans ever came for them again.
“Really?” Kalen asked.
