The Healer [m]
It all started one night when I was packing up after a long day. It was snowing outside and my fire, now burned to ashes, was trying feebily to heat up the ice-cold air. But I didn't bother to add in more firewood as I was planning to close up shop and head into the small sleeping quarters upstares to sleep. That was when a crashing was heard as the door was jerked open rather harshly. The candles shuttered as a cold blast of air came from the open door. A young man lay, facedown, on the ground, a spot of blood spreading and soaking into the fabric of his left sleeve. I helped get him back on his feet and set him down in front of the fire, adding wood to get it up to its full blazing warmth. I sat down beside him and looked into his face. Tears were streaming down his cheeks, yet he seemed to be angry as well. He was muttering something something under his breath, over and over again. "What is your name, young man?" I asked as I tightened the bandage on his arm. "Bram" he said, quietly. He began to mutter once again, this time I could make out his words: 'Why? Why? Why?' "So, Bram, would you like to tell me how you got this injury?" I asked him, putting a hand on his back, near his left sholder. Bram stopped muttering and looked me in the eye, tears still spilling from his dull blue eyes filled with agony. After a while he quietly said "I fell in love with a dragon".
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You see, the incident that Bram was recounting to the healer had happened over a series of days. The first event happened about a week ago, when the weather was still nice and not a single snowflake could be found anywhere in the valley. The young man was making his way to the blacksmith's forge where he worked as an aprentence for a few hours of the day. "Good morning Bram" the
Blacksmith said, looking up from the shield he was hammering into shape. "'Morning" Bram replied, walking into the forge and hanging his quiver of arrows on the wall. "Have you heard the news?" The Blacksmith said, putting down his hammar. "No, what is it?" Bram replied, his curiosity piquing. "There's a dragon not far outside town. All the men in the village are getting themselves a good sword and a shield and are going to try to slay the beast" The blacksmith said, picking up his shield. "Great!" Bram said, rushing back over to the wall where he hung his quiver. "I will try as well." "No." Said the Backsmith, grabbing his sword "When I'm gone we will need someone to man the forge. And if I don't come back..." Then he added, "I will come back. There is a bounty on the beast's head. And I will be the one to slay it." The blacksmith then made his way out of the forge and down the road that lead out of town.
Would this deter Bram?
Of corse not.
Bram was a skilled hunter, so good that he could be inches from a deer and it wouldn't know he was there.
But nevertheless, Bram was nervous.
He had followed a group of men who had boldly declared they would slay the dragon. He didn't want to be descovered because the blacksmith was with them, and he had ordered Bram to stay at the forge. Bram didn't want to loose his job. Who wouldn't? So Bram followed the group of men into the forest, being absolutely silent. Then they stopped. There was a large rocky wall where the mountain dropped off into a sheer cliff. There was an elegant waterfall that branched off into a swift river and a small stream that lead into a pristene pool at the bottom of the cliff. It created a beautiful clearing surrounded by trees, but where was the dragon? Then Bram saw one of the men shout and point up at a cave about thirty feet above the crystal lake. A small scorch mark was visable just inside the cave entrance. "Come on men!" he heard the blacksmith yell. They started to clamber up a pile of rocks to a thin legde that ran five feet underneath the dragon's cave and all arround the clearing. Bram looked arround and noticed that a part of the ledge had fallen down on the side opposite of the men. Swiftly, Bram began to climb up to the ledge. He wobbled when he reached the top. Twenty-five feet above the ground is a long way up, expecially if you are on a crumbling rocky ledge only a foot wide. Bram started to inch his way twords the cave, but the group of men got there first. They silently entered the cave. Then he heard the men yell as they changed the beast. The cage became bright as the dragon attacked the men. Bram could see some of the men dive out of the cave, clothes scorched black and even some still on fire, and land in the lake. "Fall back men!" He heard somebody say and a large group of men jumped from the cave as well. Then the dragon stormed to the mouth of the cave.
That was the moment Bram was waiting for.
Mechanicly he drew an arrow from the quiver, loaded it into his bow, and fired.
The arrow wizzed through the air and soon found its target.
The dragon wailed when the arrow pierced its thigh. Bram blinked. Could he be hearing things? The dragon's wail was not the evil blood-curtling scream that could scare the wits out of the strongest man but a beautiful, unearthly thing that caused Bram to feel great sorrow. It sounded more like whale song then the screech of a vulture, yet it didn't even sound like whale song. More like siren song.
It was a completely new sound to Bram and it terrified him.
The young man almost lost his balance on the legde when he turned arround he hurried away and back to town.
He was haunted by that sound.
It took three days for Bram to muster the courage to encounter the dragon again.
Last encounter Bram had been terrified, the reason for that was because of its voice, nothing like the terrible screech that was said to come from them, had only seemed to have been heard by him. All the others had heard a dreadful screech and they all described it in the same way, like scraping a sword on a stone. But Bram had returned to the clearing that contained the dragon's cave. He entered the clearing and waited. Nothing happened. So the young man climbed up to the ledge at the same part he had climbed before. He was inching his way twords the dragon's cave when he saw something moving. He instincively froze as a creature extited the cave. Then Bram gasped. From where he stood, he judged her to be about as tall as him. She was covered with beautiful blue scales that were accented with gold on her face, arms and legs. She had a head of brillant blue hair and wore a golden amulet with a pearlike stone inside. And her eyes were a pale gold. This was a very strange dragon indeed.
It seemed almost... human.
The next day Bram returned to the clearing, this time with a sketchbook. He would sketch this 'Dragon Woman'. He clambered up the fallen part of the legde, and sat there, charcoal pencil hovering over the paper and eyes fixed on the cave mouth.
He waited hours...
And hours...
And hours...
Bram sighed and picked his pencil and sketchbook. He climbed back down.
When he turned arround, she was there.
But instead of the form he had seen yesterday, she was a more average dragon, about twice as tall as him on all fours, with a wolflike enongated face and a short main of hair down her neck. Bram began to shake as she looked him over with her greyish-gold eyes. Then suddenly the anger drained from her eyes and suddenly she was enveloped in a flash of light. Bram shut his eyes.
When he opened them again she was in the form that she had been in yesterday. From far away she was lovely, but up close she was breathtakingly beautiful. Her scales seemed to glisten like saphires and her sleek blue hair cascaded like a waterfall from her head.
"H..Hello."
Bram managed to stammer. She simply smiled at him, the expression causing him to feel incredibly warm inside.
"I'm Bram."
The young man said, his voice seeming to get smaller. She simply smiled again. Then suddenly the dragon woman's smile drained from her face and replaced itself with a look of worry. She quickly looked to her left, then kissed Bram on the cheek. Then she was a blur as she sped off. Bram stood there, too stunned to move. He quickly regained his senses as he heard a loud party of men making their way down the forest path. He quickly jumped into a bush a hid. He couldn't believed it.
He had been kissed by a dragon, and he was falling in love.
Nobody likes dragons.
And if anybody were to do something insane, like, fall in love with a dragon for example, he would be driven out of town or killed. So in the back of Bram's mind folated a dark cloud of worry and anxiety. Bram sighed and put down his sketchbook. He couldn't stop drawing her, the Dragon Woman. He was trying to capture the cascading effect her brilliant blue hair mirrored. He walked out of the small sleeping cabin he lived in during the summer away from home and into the main forge area. He spent an hour or so working on a sword to disperse his anxiety, each blow of the hammer trying to hammar away the thoughts. After he was done his arms were sore, but he had a new sword. He turned arround and came face to face with the backsmith. "Hello Bram." He said "Is this yours?" Bram gulped as he saw what the blacksmith was holding. It was his sketchbook, open to the picture of the Dragon Woman. Bram dropped the sword and there was a silence, the blacksmith and the young man looking eachother in the eyes. "You know what happens when one thinks of such things." The blacksmith said as he dropped the sketchbook onto the floor. Then Bram bolted out the door.
He hurried down the forest path, brambles catching on his clothes and skin, to the clearing where the Dragon Woman lived. That day had been colder then the last and it had already began to snow. Small piles could be seen where animals had dug under the thin half-inch that had already fallen. But the snow was getting harder and the wind pointed to the snow not stopping anytime soon. He soon stumbled into the clearing and to his astonishment the lake had already frozen. Up higher in the mountains the snow had already fallen for a while and he concluded it was much colder. Bram looked arround for the Dragon Woman.
"Hello?" He shouted into the wind, wich was picking up and blowing with more intensity. Then suddenly there was a break in the wind. The Dragon Woman was standing in front of me. "Hello!" He said to her "The villagers are coming to kill you." Her face didn't change, but stayed expressionless as she shifted the long folds of her dress. Bram gasped. She still hadn't removed the arrow he had shot into her leg. She grabbed the arrow with her hand and pulled it out, a red stain appearing on the beautiful pristene dress. Then she took a step tword him, bloody arrow in hand. She walked up to Bram's ear and whispered "An eye for an eye" Then she stuck the arrow into Bram's arm. He shouted and pulled away, tearing the arrow from his arm. Suddenly the wind began to pick up and the snow came in harder then ever, assaulting Bram with a sheet of white. He ran blindly through the snow for hours, until he managed to reach the next village.
And we know what happened then.
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As Bram finished telling the story, I sat staring into the fire for a while more. I don't remember when I started staring except that it happened when he was telling the story, I think, probably somewhere in the middle. The story seemed improbable, I mean, a dragon and a human? It was not something you see every day. "You don't believe me, do you." Bram said. "I'm not exactly sure." I said back, shaking my head. "but at least you can rest for the night." I made a sweeping motion with my arm to reviel a set of cots. Bram nodded and shuffled over to a cot. sitting down. I noticed the fire had dyed down during his reteling of he story. So when I went outside to get some wood for the fire I thought about what Bram had said. He was a lot younger then he seemed, but his weary attitude made him sound much older. Could his story possibly be ture? I put my arm in front of my eyes to shield them from the cold as I began to pick up a log and walk back inside. Then I fell to the ground as I heard a terrible roar. Then a crashing from my house and the sound of a door being flung open in a hurry. "I'm coming, my love!" Bram shouted and fought his way against the storm. "No Bram! Come back!" I shouted back at the young man. "No!" He shouted "She needs me!" "You're delirious! You need to rest!" I shouted back at him, finally making a move to get out of the snow. But Bram didn't respond and continued trudging forward against the wind. But the wind got harder and I saw a bright light, then turned back and stumbled back into my home.
And I swear, I heard the most joyous laughter.
