Lou

 

Lou clung to the rope that led him along the cliff. Behind him walked Harper, and in front of him the happily hopping Nour. She babbled incessantly and did her best to describe to Lou everything she could see. Harper looked at the railing, which didn't look particularly sturdy. Lou heard both the cracking of the wood and the dragon scolding softly. "What terrific builders!" he hissed. "Gorgeous! At least there is still the rope. That should be safe enough... Hopefully! The railing is shaking!"

"The gorge is very deep, but in the sunlight, the stone sparkles almost like gold!" announced Nour at the same moment. She didn't listen to Harper. "Just like now. It's as if a golden river flows through the mountains. If you look up, you can see a few birds. The sky is blue. Not a cloud is to be seen." Then she snorted angrily. "But the sun is blinding!"

Lou could see the blue of the sky, but he didn't dare look down the cliffs. He preferred to stare at the rope and the rock face. Gold is beautiful", he replied, however, to hide his worries and fears. He tried to appear positive. Positive and grateful. His real feelings, on the other hand, lurked darkly in his thoughts. He was afraid of falling down. At the same time, that's exactly what Lou wanted. He wanted to end it. All. And yet he was still here. Between all the dragons.

Someone touched his shoulder. Startled, Lou clung even tighter to the rope.

"It's just me!" murmured Harper. "It's all good. You're just swaying a little while walking. Are you dizzy?"

Lou shook his head. He wasn't dizzy. He was scared! About what? He didn't know that. Did he fear himself? Or the dragons that had saved his life? The Wise Men? Humans? He feared…

The Wise Men. Lou had trusted their words for a long time. Wrongly. They are monsters. I could have had a normal life. I wouldn't... My family wouldn't have had to suffer.

"Oh! Up front are Masson and Olive! With Bilge, the pain in the ass!" cried Nour at last. "Shall we go back?"

"Who's that?" Lou asked quietly.

"Masson and Olive?" Harper snorted. "These are the other two dragons that helped us. They also fly with wizards! Garry and Chester. Relatives of Remy. Pffff... There must be something special about this family that they are chosen. I'm sure that's why Remy is so conceited!”

“Bilge is the son of Olive and her partner Sahli", Nour added. "He's eight. And annoying. Very annoying. Lou?"

"Huh?" Lou leaned against the rock face and closed his eyes. More dragons...

"Do you want to go back?", asked Nour quietly.

“No.” Lou opened his eyes again. He tried to catch a glimpse of the dragons, but he saw nothing but the usual colors. Blue, brown, black, and white. Those were probably the dragons. How he wished for the colors to become actual dragons! Now that it wasn't a curse anymore, now that it was just bad luck, Lou hated the colors.  It's not fair.

Slowly, most of the white disappeared. The dragons took human form.

"Nour! Harper!" shouted a woman's voice that was foreign to him. Olive. "And that must be Lou!" The voice was followed by a loud growl. Lou was startled again. "Bilge! Behave!"

"Too late, they saw us..." Nour grumbled annoyed. Harper, on the other hand, put a hand on Lou's shoulder. The small group of dragons came closer. And with them, a feeling of exhaustion. Lou had never had so many people around him as he did that day. People who meant well.

"He never does!" Again a foreign voice. This time a male voice. Lou was startled again. So strong, in fact, that he fell and staggered against Harper.

"Yikes!" said Harper. He deftly caught Lou and hugged him.

"Hm!", protested Lou.

"Oops!" growled the male voice. Masson. "Earth's gravity, huh? Nasty thing!"

"Are you all right?" Nour turned to the two of them. She was already on her way to the other dragons after Lou didn't want to go back. Or did he want to?

"Lou? We can still get away!" murmured Harper. "Then we don't have to talk to them!"

"That's rude." Lou slowly straightened up and clung to the fabric of Harper's clothes. Cautiously, he looked at the dragons standing next to Nour. He and Harper were only a few steps apart.

So they kept walking until they arrived at the three dragons. They were waiting for them in front of the secured path. A good distance from the cliff. Presumably, they were standing close to a cave. Lou could see something dark. The cave entrance. He stayed close to Harper and saw the blurry colors of Masson and Olive, and some white that reached the colors of Nour up to her waist. A delicate dragonhead approached Lou to sniff him. Immediately, Lou pressed himself close to Harper.

"Oh! Bilge won't hurt you, darling! He hasn't learned to change shape yet", Olive said quickly. "Hello, Lou. We look forward to meeting you. I'm Olive, the cub is my little darling, and the one next to me is Masson! He's not my little darling."

"Hey!" growled Masson, amused.

But Olive ignored him. Instead, a volley of information followed, sending Lou's ears ringing. "My partner, Salih, keeps our second egg warm. Warm and cozy! Therefore, he can't greet you. Otherwise, he would have come along. Our egg must not be left without heat for too long. We smelled you, so we rushed here! Unfortunately, I couldn't help build the fence, you know? Or I had been there. But with an egg and a young one. Bilge is still very unsteady with his wings. He could fall. Such young dragons can't fly properly yet. But he would have liked to help. And Masson didn't want to. Old grump."

"Hey!" growled Masson again.

"Well, welcome!", continued Olive. "Bilge was very curious when he heard that a human was here now. He really wanted to see you."

"Hello!" Lou blinked as the cub nudged him a little violently. Luckily, Harper was holding on to him, or Bilge would have knocked him over.

"You can't play with Lou!" Harper chided the cub. "Play with Nour! She's a kid too!"

"I'm not!" cried Nour.

Harper shrugged. Lou could feel the movement. But Lou's gaze was fixed on Bilge, who nudged him again. "You wanted to play with dolls together with Lou!" Harper teased the girl, pushing Bilge's muzzle aside with one hand. "Don't do that. Play with little Nour."

"I'm not small!" said Nour.

"Hm. The smell of doom. Please. Fight!" grumbled Masson. "Hi, Lou. Welcome. Olive forced me to say hello to you. I'll go now!" And so the dragon disappeared into the cave, which was obviously his. Lou blinked again. "Thank you?" he murmured. Thanks for the hello? Thank you for... No. Lou's gaze wandered to the alluring colors of the gorge. If only you hadn't saved me. Then I wouldn't know all this. Wouldn’t feel all this. But if Lou wasn't around, Harper wouldn't have kissed him. At the thought, Lou's face felt very warm and everything tingled.

"Oh, ignore the grouch!" Olive drew his attention. She stroked Lou's hair. He immediately tried to dodge, pressing himself all the tighter into Harper's arms.

"Sorry." Olive sighed. "Remy said you don't like to be touched. I had forgotten that. Hopefully, he's okay. Him, Narcisse, Renan, and Basil."

"Hm", Lou replied. He hoped for the same. Bilge's white colors now moved toward Nour. Lou heard Harper snicker mischievously.

 Olive sighed and stroked her cub's bright head. "Remy's family must be very unhappy. He didn't talk much about them, but I know from Garry that he got along well with one of his cousins. At least until Remy became a rider. After that, he didn't really care about his cousins and his old friends. But he always talked a lot about you. Well, Lou. Have you ever seen a dragon egg?"

"Eh?" The change of subject came abruptly. Lou shook his head in surprise.

"Well, if you like, you can visit me. But you don't have much time, since our second cub should hatch in the next few days."

"Do you have a name yet?" asked Nour curiously. She pushed Bilge away from her, who tried to wrestle with her. Had Lou been able to see this, it might have made him laugh. Although Nour looked very delicate in human form, she had enough strength to push away a small, very powerful dragon. It looked funny.

And that's why Olive snickered too now. "If it's going to be a boy? Well, Sali wants to call him Bilal. Bilge and Bilal. If it's going to be a girl, then I'll choose. Amba is my favorite at the moment."

Lou wanted to see a dragon egg, but he didn't dare to say so. He felt a little cramped between four dragons, one of which growled incessantly. Bilge's growl was a playful one, but it still troubled him. There had been a lot of dragons around him before, and now it was getting too much. Lou felt drained. Exhausted. He felt slightly dizzy.

 

Nina

Was I a bad sister?

I had ignored Lou for a long time. I had never thought of him as my brother. Rather as the cause of my suffering. Because of Lou, some of the kids didn't want to play with me. Because of Lou, adults sent me away, fearing that Lou's curse had already hit me.

I'd be pretty if my hair wasn't so thin. Thin curls. A delicate fluff. Almost bald. No, I wasn't pretty. And I blamed Lou for my misery.

It was never his fault.

People are cruel when they fear something. The people around us feared the curse and rejected us. We had few friends. And the boy, whom I liked for as long as I could remember, did not like me back. I watched from the window as he was fooling around on the street with some friends and his beautiful girlfriend.

I didn't belong to their group.

They didn't want me.

Dad coughed loudly. He had been having a bad cough for a few days. Mom was worried. She wasn't feeling well either. She was pale and always tired. That scared me.