What are you?
What creature could have left such a thing behind? She knew of no such animal.
This was…something else. Something unknown. The Council had drilled into her people long ago that the unknown was dangerous, and so she should have felt afraid.
Instead, she felt like she’d found something she wasn’t meant to see, but was somehow meant to keep. A secret. Something all her own. A memory no one could steal from her.
Knowing she could not take it home with her, Elowen dug a small hole back into the edge of the lake where the mud would keep it safe.
She covered it with dirt and marked it with a flat, pale stone. Not a grave to be forgotten, but a treasure to be found again.
From the cover of trees,the dragon froze. His eyes were fixed on the shape in her hands, and his body was coiled tight in frustration.
Fool, he thought.
He had not noticed he lost a scale, for it happens so rarely. They typically only shed when he was wounded or strained, but he was an old creature, and his scales had hardened with age, shedding occasionally to grow anew.
He usually crushed them, or buried them, or even swallowed them to keep them out of the ever-greedy palms of the humans.
He must have lost it the last time he was here, distracted by the very same woman who now holds a piece of him in her hands, curiously examining it like it were a fine gem.
The last dragon watched as the woman stood and looked around, gaze drifting through the trees. Her fingers slightly tightened around the scale, but she made no move to run. She did not scream. She did not call out for help.
He waited for that moment though, his body tight and ready to pounce the second she bolted for the village. Yet, just when he thought she might move, she sat instead, setting the scale in her lap as she dug in the mud for roots and bugs.
When she was done for the day, she reburied the scale and marked it with a stone before returning to her village.
He did not leave the shadows until long after she was gone and the night was deep. When he finally approached the marked spot, he didn’t immediately uncover it.
He stood over it. Stared. Felt something unfamiliar stir in his chest.
Not rage. Not suspicion.
Something far more dangerous: curiosity for the strange woman with gentle hands. For her obvious attempt to keep his scale a secret from others.
The dragon considered her for a long time before sticking his nose into the dirt and unburying the scale. He wrapped his tongue around it and swallowed it like he’d done many times before.
As soon as it slithered down his throat, something else in him stirred. For a fleeting moment, he wondered if she would be saddened to return to her secret to find it gone.
And with that thought he put a name to that feeling: guilt.
Seven
Three days passedbefore Elowen was allowed to return to the forest. Two of the Council members fell ill within hours of each other, vomiting up their supper.
They accused their kitchen maid of poisoning them, of treason. When Elowen and her father purged the sick from them, they promptly ordered the young girl to be tied to a post in the town center, where she was given ten lashes.
The Council must have felt merciful that day.
Elowen and her father were given no acknowledgement or thanks for helping them through their illness; not that they expected it.
Their stores grew thin, and Elowen itched to return to her lake. She wasted no time when her father told her to return with a full satchel before dark.
It was already midday, so her time grew thin. She rushed into the forest and headed straight for the lake. When she reached it, she flung off her satchel and begandigging for the strange stone she found the last time she was there.
Elowen swore she knew where she had buried it. Even remembered marking it in case she forgot. The lake’s edge was dotted with small holes from her digging, but Elowen’s secret was nowhere to be found.
Something fractured in her tender heart at the loss of her stone. In a world where she was not allowed to keep things for herself, she had one small secret. She did not know if it was human or animal that took the stone from her, but it hurt all the same. A single tear fell from her left eye, and she wiped the other before any more could fall.
