Chapter 3: Chapter 2

Saira

 

Fiete jumped through the cave. His little dragon wings fluttered. Saira's little brother was way too cute. She would have loved to push him under her wing all day, but the seven-year-old preferred to play catch. So she chased him through the cave as far as she could with her much larger dragon body.

Fiete growled and hissed. He flapped his wings and snapped at Saira's tail. Some of the feathers at the tip of her tail were affected.

'Got you!' He held on as best as he could and Saira let him amused. She nudged him with her nose and snorted. The teeth of dragon children were barely noticeable to adult dragons.

Her mother, Novalee, took care of her husband. Saira's and Fiete's father. Cosmo was getting worse. He had a rare disease that made him weaker with each passing day. At over four hundred, he wasn't very old for a dragon, but they expected every day to be his last.

Saira was the first child of her parents. She was now well over two hundred years old. Not far from three hundred. But even she would not live forever as most dragons did. She had inherited the disease. Her younger brother Fiete, the second child of her parents, had escaped this fate. Dragons very rarely got eggs, so their group was small, although they could live forever.

Saira would not live forever, but she had resigned herself to her fate. She still felt strong. Her body did not let her down yet. Her father was just skin and bones. He could still fly, but it cost him a lot of strength. Most of the time he slept. Fiete had no idea how bad his father was, or that Saira would eventually feel the same way.

For him, his father was simply sick. He didn't know him any differently.

While Saira played with her brother, her mother kept her father warm under her white wings. Her feathered wings gave him warmth, which his emaciated body desperately needed. Cosmo felt cold continuously.

Another dragon came clumsily into the cave. Vicky, Saira's girlfriend. She came by every day to help the family. Vicky was snow-white, like most white dragons. Unlike Saira, her brother, and her mother. They also had a few orange feathers and scales. Vicky found Saira's orange feathers adorable and never forgot to tell her. Today she brought some little rabbits that she had hunted for all of them.

The language of dragons was special. Apart from sounds such as rumbling and hissing, they conversed in pictures and with the sharing of memories. For every word and every name, there was a picture. If they wanted, they could also take on another form, that of an animal or that of a human being. Their magic helped them communicate with humans when they so wished. They automatically spoke in human language when they took that shape. But the dragons usually stayed away from humans unless they were hungry. Humans didn't taste bad. Saira, however, preferred cattle. Cows were much more nutritious.

'Pelle and Alwin are getting on my nerves', Vicky just told her.

'How so?'

Pelle and Alwin were two of their friends and the two had been in love with each other since they could fly. But they did not dare to confess their love for each other. They flirted incessantly and yet they did not make any progress.

'They are constantly languishing at each other and don't realize it! I suggested they should just share a cave and finally live together! And more. And instead of doing that, they just protested and claimed they were just friends. I can't watch this much longer! Oh yes, and Pella has announced that he feels more like a female today. I'm going crazy! He is constantly changing his gender! Can't he finally decide?" Vicky snorted and rubbed her big head against Sairas. Fiete playfully snapped at her wings. Amused, Vicky nudged the tiny dragon.

'She.'

‚What?‘

'Pelle is a she today. That’s the way he is. That's why we love him', Saira reminded her beautiful girlfriend. Vicky was beautiful. Saira could hardly believe her luck.

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Vicky put a wing over Saira and snorted. 'It still annoys me. Saira? When do we move into our own cave? Here, we have no privacy. There is a small cave, nearby. It is still free. Well, it was still free. It’s ours!'

'You have your own cave now? I don’t know. My parents need me. Fiete needs me. Mom is so busy caring for Dad that she doesn't have much time for him.'

'At least stay with me today!' Vicky nibbled lovingly on her neck and Saira let out a satisfied rumble. Then she nodded. She wanted to spend some time with Vicky. Alone.

'Vicky! How was the work? Is our treasure all right?', asked Saira's mother. Cosmo had fallen asleep again. Fiete ran to him and snuggled under the feathers of his wings. Fiete could not fly yet. Like all small kids, his wings were not strong enough yet.

The dragons described the heritage of their people as their treasure.

'All the eggshells of our ancestors shine and the murals look like new. I've had to restore a few.' For this, Vicky always used human form, as she could paint poorly as a dragon. Also, the way into the cave was not passable in dragon form. And cleaning the eggshells was almost impossible as a dragon. 'Our history is sacred. I am happy to honor our heritage. Every egg is sacred.'

The white dragons kept their eggshells deep in the mountains. In a cave, they had created with their sharp claws and fire. There, paintings told their story and every egg, every ever hatched dragon lay there, as a reminder of how precious all their lives were. That of the living and that of the deceased. Fiete's eggshells also lay there. His egg was the youngest in the collection. 

'Is it okay if I sleep with Vicky today? Or do you need me?' Saira asked her mother.

Novalee rubbed her nose against her daughter's nose. 'Just go. I'll manage on my own tonight.' Then she looked at Vicky. 'The rabbits look wonderful!'

'Well, let's eat', Vicky suggested.

The dragons enjoyed their meal together, leaving two rabbits for Cosmo and Fiete. After that, Saira accompanied her friend to her new cave. The cave was small and cozy and the two dragons made the most of their time together. They talked about their friends and their future. Vicky wanted her own dragon child at some point. Saira smiled amused.

'Pepe wants a child too, maybe he wants to help out!", Vicky announced. 'Alwin wouldn't mind, would he? What do you think?'

'Don't you want to ask me if I would mind?'  Saira buried her face between Vicky's wings.

'Would you?' Vicky snorted dreamily. 'I take care of our heritage every day. All the precious eggshells. Besides you, there is nothing more important in my life. I would like to put the eggshells of my own little dragon to the others one day. Do my part and instruct a child in the role of the guardian of our history. Is that too much to ask?'

'No. I don't think so.' Vicky's feathers tickled Saira's nose and she snorted softly. Saira had never thought about it. With her little brother, her parents, and the illness that would one day cost her life, she didn't allow herself to think that far. But Vicky might live forever. She was a healthy, strong dragon with a dream.

She was able to make it happen without Saira.

One day. 'It's not too much...'

Vicky grumbled contentedly and rolled onto her back. She pulled Saira on her. They cuddled and shared dragon kisses until Saira fell asleep under Vicky's wings.

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