Dragon Clan #6: Anna's Story

Preview of Dragon Clan #7: Shill’s Story

Shill had spent over a year listening to the stories of Breslau that the family messengers brought, tales of conquest, defeat, bravery, and of young girls who did all that men did, and more. He’d heard them all. Camilla, Raymer, Tanner, Carrion, Anna, Gray, Dancer, and others. People who left their families and fought to protect them. Brave people. The kind legends grow around.

Not at all like Shill and his poor family. They were a smaller division of the Dragan Clan Family living west of the Raging Mountain Family, on the dry grasslands of the rolling prairie. They had no permanent homes like most others, but lived in wagons as nomads isolating themselves from the few others who inhabited the wide, empty area.

In recent years, Shill had all but accepted his life as a wandering goat herder. He owned a small flock of sheep that followed the goats everywhere, and he had once traveled to Springtown where another branch of the Family lived, making their homes around a natural spring three days further west on the prairie. He’d gone there hoping to find a wife—and secretly a new life to go with her.

He found two young women of age and unmarried lived there. One wanted more than he could offer, and the other offered too much. Her desperate advances chased him back to the grasslands and his family. Lately, he had been thinking more and more about going to Bear Mountain in search of someone to share a life with. Dragons also lived there on the side of the volcano, and so did the Bear Mountain Family. Fleet and his father, Dancer, also lived there, but so did Camilla.

She was a few years younger than him, but from all he heard, she was the one he wanted. Her early life as a wildling told of her will to survive. Later, she evaded the King’s Weapon Master and Slave Master and all but made fools of them. Her stories raised the hairs on the back of his neck when he compared it to the little he’d done in his lifetime. In his entire life, he had felt the tingle of two dragons, and seen only one.

What use in being of the Dragon Clan if there were no dragons around? Living at the very edge of civilization, or as his brother often said, one day’s journey further west than the end, meant a dreary, uneventful life to look forward to living. That was fine for many, but Shill wanted more. He had decided recently that he would have more.

Lately, he spent his days talking with the goats while watching over them, rehearsing the words he would use with his family. He responded to all their inquiries and arguments, although the goats raised few objections and the sheep even less. He smiled to himself for the first time in days. Mind made up, his emotions improved and he sang a few old songs with the goats and sheep adding in their input where needed.

He would miss them when he departed. For years, they had heard most of his innermost thoughts and hopes. But the time had come. His family might object, but it was something he had to do. If he died in the process, it would be better than life as he knew it.

The young dog that had replaced Old Blue hadn’t earned a name yet, but what it lacked in knowledge, it made up for in enthusiasm. A whistle brought its attention to him. He waved one arm above his head and turned his back on the flock. The dog would bring them.

He didn’t hurry. His staff was his cane when walking, but today it reverted to a weapon. Remembering what his father had taught him before the illness, he gripped it in the center and slashed an imaginary opponent before it even knew what happened. He twirled to meet another, head on. After blocking the downswing of the sword, he jabbed the end of the staff into the attacker’s stomach. He’d won another encounter, despite the time since he’d last practiced with the staff.

After a fine dinner of a heavy mutton stew filled with carrots, onions, and turnips he washed his bowl and said, “I’d like to call a council meeting tonight.”

A stricken look fleetingly crossed his mother’s face, butt was gone almost as fast as it appeared. She sliced more carrots to add to the stew for tomorrow's meals, and said, “You’re leaving us.”

It was not a question. Her eyes were avoiding his, but she waited for the answer. “I have to go.”

“These people from across the sea are unknown, and they will not come across the grasslands to our home.”

“We don’t know that. But, even if that’s so, these people from Breslau will find and kill as many Dragon Clan as they can. They have Dragon Masters who teach dragons to kill ours. We wear the dragon mark, and to do less than we can help our family is wrong.”

His mother finished chopping carrots and scooped them into the stew, but did not stir it, yet. She diced turnips and added them. Then she said, “If there had been a nice girl for you at Springtown, you would remain and raise babies.”

“Instead, I raise lambs and kids. But you are right. I want a woman to share my life with and on my way to Racine, I will stop at Bear Mountain.”

“To look for a wife?” She sounded hopeful.

“Yes. There is one we’ve all heard of. Camilla.”

“Son, you may have set your sights too high. That one is known far and wide. I’ll bet there is a path worn through the forest by eager young men to her door. But, I will go tell Anson you’d like to talk to the family tonight.”

After she had left, Shill closed his eyes. That had gone better than expected. When he opened them again, he decided to gather and inventory his belongings. It didn’t take long. He would leave most of it to his younger brother, who would learn to watch the flock. Jammer wouldn’t be happy about him leaving, and even less so when he discovered, he would inherit Shill’s job of a herdsman.

Jammer didn’t like animals, at least not in the way Shill did. Jammer didn’t talk to them. He thought them stupid and only good for eating. Not yet ten, he had far too much energy to sit and watch animals eat all day long. Perhaps he could teach Jammer some moves with his staff, and he could work on learning them while watching over the animals.

But he would complain as he did about everything. Suddenly Shill didn’t care. He would be gone, off to find a wife if he was lucky, and to help his people and have adventures above and beyond any that a man in his family had in a hundred years.

He would see Bear Mountain, dragons, Castle Warrington, and the Endless Sea. If he worked hard enough, tales would spread of his achievements, even to the grasslands of the far west. Defeating Breslau was important, and a goal he should set for himself, but his mind kept pushing it to the back. First and foremost, he was going to see dragons. See and ‘feel’ them. Maybe bond with one.

Finding a wife is a lofty goal considering what little he had to offer, especially for someone like Camilla, but seeing a dragon close up was a reality and possibility. He determined that the slopes of Bear Mountain would be his first destination. He might not meet and marry Camilla, or defeat Breslau, but there was that one goal he could achieve.

Failing to see dragons would make the entire trip, and his life, seem a waste. For a Dragon Clan member, the calling of him was beyond normal. It didn’t tug, it pulled at him, and had for over a year. It was as if one specific dragon was calling his name at night. Lately, the calling had been stronger, more intense. He hadn’t mentioned it to anyone, but when he woke each morning, it seemed real until it faded with the dawn.

He wouldn’t mention dragons at the council tonight. He’d think about them at the meeting and dream of them again tonight. But when he woke in the morning the dream wouldn’t fade this time. He would go find dragons, maybe a wife, and enough adventure to last a lifetime.