Dragons. From high up in the mountains roars are heard and lights flash. And, sometimes the sources of these lights come and appear in the skies above us, magestically. Some would terrorise our town leaving houses in rubble and for a long time that was all there was. However, a few years ago another appeared and instead of destroying our homes they would fight off the other.
Soon after they had arrived a traveller wandered into our town. She had a brown cotton cloak embroided with winged serpents following the seams while her unaltered hood obscured her face. Ginger locs of hair dangled out from under it. When she came to the town center she turned to the nearest local and requested for the town mayor to come. The local ran off to bring him while the girl stood there patiently and leaned on a staff that had been hidden under the wings of her robes.
The sun had reached its highest point by the time the mayor had finally arrived. Nevertheless she was still holding the same stance. The mayor looked displeased. “Who has pulled me from my work, do you know how much I have to do?” As displeased as he was none of it seemed to faze the girl. She slammed her staff down resulting in a loud crash drawing the attention of everyone in the plaza. The mayor was taken aback, “I can see you're a busy man so I will keep this as short as I can. I have moved into the mountain only a days away so I would like to form a good relationship. You may have noticed the dragon that had been bothering you has left. That was my doing. In exchange for that I only ask that you accommodate me when I do make my trips down and allow me to resupply.” She was very matter of fact and this left many of the observers somewhat stunned. However, the mayor wasn't willing to back down, “Oh, so you've come here only to request hand outs? Well I'll tell you thats not how we do things here. Maybe if you had actually protected us it would be different but we all saw that another dragon fought that one off. That dragon is now our protector and anyway how would a young girl like you protect us from something like that.”
She laughed, “I see you are unaware of who that dragon obeys. Perhaps I should bring it down to demostrate?” The crowd became uneasy. Years of terrorism had left trauma in their hearts that they had yet to overcome. Concerned and at the reluctance of the crowd the mayor agreed and the girl whistled with her fingers.
Above the clouds the white dragon was gliding using the wind currents to hold it afloat without expending energy. It had its eyes closed as if it was resting. Suddenly, its ears twitched, its eyes shot open, and it flapped its wings once before shooting down into a nose dive. The white giant crashed through the cloud layers past which the town below came into view. Though just a speck intially the freefall of such an enormous beast caused the town to rapidly expand until the dragon could see they were only a few meters above the town rooftops. White graceful wings expanded like a parachute causing the dragon to swoop over the rooftops, breaking it's momentum before turning back around and landing.
The townfolk had ducked in cover and cleared the roads in preparation for disaster. But now, it was right in front of them obediently laying like a dog. The mayor had turned as white as a ghost. He hadn't truly believed that the girl could command it and now it was evident that it wasn't simply under her command, it was under her control. To have something as fearsome as a dragon respond immediately demonstrated incredible skill. It wasn't as if he hadn't heard of these mythical dragon tamers before but he never imagined that they were actually real and that they were capable of being so young.
Recollecting himself the mayor adjusted his tie stood up straight, “Well I suppose in that case we should get down to buisness. We will pay for your food and lodging expenses as well as provide donations from the village. However, I can't just allow you to go unmonitored, you are an outsider after all. Can I send one of our own to watch over you?” The girl pouted clearly disliking the conditions for supplies. With a sigh she replied, “I suppose that will have to do. I can't quite expect you to give me total freedom especially seeing as that other dragon must have caused some serious grief,” she looked at the suspicious and worried looks of families, townsman and town officials. “I will accept your proposition and return to my mountain home. If you could choose your sacrifice quickly,” the crowd winced, ”that would be appreciated. I had to leave my home at dawn to get here by this time and I would like to get back for a bath to get rid of all this sweat.”
After spending some time deliberating the mayor decided to pick one of the older boys to go with her, to save on labour. The mayors finger just happened to land on me, the son of a lumberjack and sixteen years old. I wasn't even given a chance to pack as the mayor sent us on our way and the girl was impatiently eager to get back home. We were soon at the town gate one step away from leaving.
“Hurry up boy we don't have all day,” the girl said viciously. I was taking in my last look of the town that I had spent so many years inside. Of course given the circustances I was feeling nostalgic and hesitant though there was nothing I could do to change that.
“Hey at least give me a moment to take in the last moments I have with my home... This is my first time leaving it.” she rolled her eyes, “Of course they had to give me a troublesome one...” I winced in anger at the mere suggestion that her time was more important then my memories. It wasn't as if I had chosen to come along and it wasn't like I wanted to be here with her. She was rude to everyone she had met and had trampled on everyone's fears. Her reputation in the village was far from peaceful and bringing a dragon in without everyone elses opinion had potentially soured them for good. And so, I tried to draw a line, “You know you can't just walk all over me like you seem to think you can do with everyone else. I'm not here as your pet, I'm here as your supervisor and that means your equal.” Her eyebrows twisted and she looked truly angry for the first time. But, after taking a few moments to deliberate and showing a variety of different emotions on her face she took a deep breath and exhaled. “If *that* is how you want to be then there is no point in stoking your anger. *Perhaps*, I have been a little harsh to you so *maybe* I'll give you a chance. So tell me.”
“Tell you what?”
“Don't make me spell it out, its embarassing. Your name.”
“Noah. So does this mean I can finally have yours?” giving her a lifeline.
“Valerie.”
