A girl sat on a hill above her village, her legs crossed and her mouth in a line of concentration. Laying on her legs was a pad of paper, and in her hands she held a pencil. The wind whipped her golden blond hair into her face, and she tossed it away irritably.
The sun was setting, and she paused in her writing to watch the colours. Beautiful red, oranges and even some purples covered the sky.
"Glaria! Glaria!" a voice called, and she glanced over her shoulder. A man was walking up the hill, his short grey hair still with streacks of black. His eyes were blue, like Glaria's, and he had a white beard, unlike Glaria.
"Grandfather, just a few more minutes, I'm nearly finished my chapter!" Glaria cried.
"Oh alright," he muttered, sitting down beside her. They were both quiet, the only sounds the scratching of Glaria's pen.
"I'm nearly out of paper," Glaria sighed, turning the leaf over and beginning to write on the other side.
"The traders are coming next week, you can get some then," Grandfather said.
Glaria nodded absently, to busy writing to pay much attention. Finally, she was finished. She carefully gathered the paper up, and tucked it into her bag. Then she stood, and patted her dress down.
Together, she and her Grandfather walked back to the house.
It was a small, one room building, with a cheery fire in one corner. In front of the fire was Glaria's bed, and beisde that was the chair Grandfather slept in.
The table took up most of the room, and they didn't have a kitchen like some of the richer people did, they did all their cooking on the fire.
Dinner was on the table as Glaria and Grandfather came in, they ate quickly for it was getting dark. After dinner, Glaria climbed into her bed.
"We finished our last book, Grandfather," Glaria said. "What are we going to read now?" Every night, Grandfather read Glaria a chapter or so of a book. Last night, they had finished
Fairy tales and mouse tails, a funny fairy tale book that Glaria had loved all her life.
Grandfather smiled, and opened his box under Glaria's bed. The box was his special box, only he was aloud to open it. Glaria had seen inside it once, it was full of all sorts of things, portraits, books, money, everything he could need.
He carefully pulled out a book, and blew the dust of the cover. It was beautiful. Blue leather covered it, and gold letters spelt out the title
The Land of Fire, a true history of Nomania. "Wow," Glaria whispered.
Grandfather smiled.
"This was given time by your mother before she left. She told me to read it to you when you were old enough. I think now it the time."
He opened the book as Glaria lay back down. She could sense magic around it, this book was true. Only a few books held the magic of utter truth, and Glaria knew this was one of them.
Grandfather paused on the opening page, a small smile on his face as he remembered something. Then he turned to page and began reading.
The sun was setting, and Splash was out fishing...The sun was setting, and Splash was out fishing. His blue wings skimmed the surface of the water. It was only his second time out alone, and the farthest he had even been to shore.
A movement caught his eye, and he dove, vanishing under the water without a sound. He dove straight down, and gripped the fish with his claws, soaring back to the surface. His stomach grumbled, and he tossed the fish up, catching it in his mouth and eating it.
Licking his lips, he glanced around to get his bearings. Suddenly, something caught his eye. Frowning, he dropped into the water and swam under the surface, only his eyes about the water.
The thing was large, larger them himself. It was made of wood, and was floating on the water. A large treelike structure grew out of it, wing like things spread halfway up to the top. Right on the top of the tree, a creature was standing.
It stood on two legs, it's front legs holding the edge of the basket it was in. It was small, and didn't have fur on its paws.
Splash frowned, he had never seen anything like that before.
He was about to dive under the water and head back to the main land, when he heard something through the wood.
"We'll reach land soon," one said, in a high pitched sqweaky voice. The blue dragon started, supprised that he could understand it.
"I hope so," one with an ever higher voice said. "If our baby is born on this ship....."
"Shh Violet, well reach land soon. Then I can made you a house, for our children and their children."
"And no more whips, or chains, or slave labor," the one called Violet whispered. "Sounds like a dream, Ronnald."
Suddenly, something landed in the water beside Splash. He lifted his head out to see one of the creatures holding a stick, and firing another at him.
He hissed, and dove under the water. He could hear them shouting through the water, but not what they said. He assumed it was something like
Wow, a dragon! They're real! He snorted at the ignroance of them, and speed through the water.
He lifted into the air and glanced back and the floating thing. Lots of the creatures were crawling all over it, shouting and pointing at him.
I should destroy the ship, he thought but he couldn't do it. The female, the one called Violet was with egg, he couldn't kill a pregnant creature.
He turned and flew back to the mainland, the elders of the tribes would know what to do.
Glaria was quiet, looking into the fire beside her.
"It's different to my history books, it's written like a story," she said finally.
Grandfather nodded.
"The author always wanted to write stories, so when this was written, she decided to write it like a story."
"But I've never heard of dragons in Nomania before. None of my other history books says anything about them!"
"They were killed centuries ago, most history books only cover the last few centuries. I think people were afraid of the dragons, so they forgot them."
"That's so sad," Glaria muttered.
"It is," Grandfather said. "Now, time for you to sleep." He kissed her on the forehead, and smiled.
"Night Grandfather," Glaria said, smiling.
"Good night, Golden one," Grandfather whispered, but she was already asleep.
