Uncle
A Short Story from the world of The Captive Dragon
I wrote this story quite a while ago for an anthology. It wasn’t selected, but I can share it with all of you now. If you’ve found your way over from “The Captive Dragon”, welcome! I’m glad your here. Right now SubStack is the best place to keep up with me. I’d love to hear from you so feel free to leave a comment or send a message. If you’re already a subscriber, I’m glad you’re here too. If you haven’t, you can checkout “The Captive Dragon” on Amazon.
This takes place a very long time before E’shi, Magtar or any of their friends and family, back when the world was young and everything was new…
Dherghos stretched as he woke from his slumber. His long talons tore gashes in the floor. His back scraped the top of the cave.
“Curses of the gods.” He opened his wings to shake them, but he hit the ceiling of the dark cave before they unfolded. “I’ve grown again.”
He destroyed all life on the planet one time and now he had to take these accursed ‘naps’ every few centuries. He was a dragon, a creature of fire and rage.
He settled back onto the floor. What had the Ten Gods expected of him? They made him this way. “Stupid gods. Stupid punishment.”
“Awake, are we?” Cena’s voice echoed inside his mind and outside the cave. It rumbled like his, in dragon tongue, but she was no dragon.
“No.” He answered.
“Very well then, I will come back in another hundred years and check on you.”
“Can you even do that?” Dherghos snickered. “I thought you were stuck with me unless I slept.”
“On the contrary. You are stuck with me unless you sleep.” Cena was the other half of his punishment. No matter how hard he tried, if he got farther than his own length away from her, he’d stop in his tracks.
At least this time the gods had given him someone to talk to, even if she was there to keep him out of trouble.
“Whenever you’re ready to get out of that tiny cave, there’s someone I want you to meet,” Cena said.
“Wonderful.” She’d probably taken another pet while he slept. Some small, useless, unintelligent creature he wouldn’t be allowed to eat.
“Two someones, actually. Hurry up.”
Dherghos pushed away the stone that blocked the entrance to his cave. Last time Cena had someone to introduce him to, it was a tiny, wingless scaled creature. She’d called it Little Dherghos.
Insulting, since it could fit into the palm of her hand, and she could fit into his claws.
Light flooded the cave and he blinked. Why couldn’t he wake up at dawn, or twilight? Always noon. “Alright. Let me meet whatever new pet you’ve created.”
“I didn’t make them.” Cena looked up at him. Her dark brown hair swung in a braid down her back, showing off her pointed ears. She looked the same as she did when he went to sleep a century ago. “The gods did.”
“Does that mean I can eat them?”
That had been their agreement. The creatures that the gods remade after he covered the world in his fire were there for him to eat. The ones Cena made with her magic were hers to decide.
“Absolutely not!” She blinked rapidly, as she often did before water leaked from her eyes.
“I won’t. Just don’t do that thing with the water.”
“Crying. I cry.” She wiped at her eyes. “And please be nice.”
“I’m tired of being nice to your pets. They always die anyway. Or end up in the wild when you are done with them. I don’t understand why you make them.”
“These aren’t pets. Again, the Ten Gods made them.” Her small face turned red. “Or one of them anyway. I suppose you could say we made the other.”
“What is happening to your face?” It had only turned red like that once, but it was after a day spent on the shores of the Ocean, near the equator. Not in a single moment.
Cena turned and walked away. She’d covered herself with the skin of a meat animal.
Dherghos had never understood why the gods made a creature that walked on two legs instead of four. Fur only on her head. She had a few scales but they were scattered randomly on her skin, useless for protection. Only her ears resembled something that might be draconian, they were long and pointed. And if you looked closer than Dherghos usually cared to get, two of her front teeth were sharp.
Perhaps the gods made it so he’d have to protect her, to make it easier that they could not be far apart.
“Why are you wearing that covering?” Dherghos asked. The grass under his feet told him it was late spring, or early summer. “You only do that in winter.”
Cena walked on. Dherghos followed. There must be something special about these new not-pets.
“Do you remember the deer I made?” She asked. “A few winters before you slept?”
“Yes. Obviously?” He remembered that winter, they’d made the mistake of traveling north for too long. She’d taken snow for water, branches for earth, and icy wind for air.
Then with her gift from the gods, her magic, she’d breathed life into it. There had been two deer, though, not one. Both had snow-silver coats, but one had an elegant set of antlers.
“Remember how surprised I was that I’d made a male and a female, like the gods?”
He groaned. “Of course I do. What is the point of this?”
The bushes off to the side of the clearing rustled. A rabbit popped out, followed by another and then several small ones.
“Well, when you settled in that cave, the deer came back. They had offspring with them. I made life that made more life.”
“Perfect. And I suppose that you don’t want me to eat them?”
“I don’t, but that’s not the point.”
He could eat the rabbits if he wanted to. The gods made those. They were for eating. Rabbits were just too small to interest him, even if they did travel in large groups.
Cena stopped and turned back to him. Her face and her shoulders and the part of her stomach he could still see turned red. “Apparently, I can do it, too.”
“Do what?” Dherghos put his nostrils close to her and growled. “I’m tired of this game.”
“I can make life, without using magic. I can do what the animals do.”
He rolled his eyes. “Animals need two of the same kind to do that.”
Like the rabbits.
“Well…”
Dherghos circled his companion. “Do not tell me I have to put up with two of you.”
“He’s not exactly like me.”
“It’s male?”
“Yes, he is.” She put her hands on his nose and rubbed the smooth ruby scales. His nose came up to her waist. “Please don’t be angry, Dherghos. I want you to be friends.”
Dherghos sat on the ground with such force the rocks and trees jumped. “What is a friend?”
“A friend is like you and me. We care about each other, but we don’t mate.”
“Why would I want to mate you? You’re fragile and tiny and not at all like me.”
Cena put her skinny arms on her puny hips. “That is the entire point. Come on.”
She stomped off over the crest of the hill, into a grove of trees. Dherghos followed. Why did she need a male of her? What good was that? How did she even know it was male?
As he crested the hill, a small shelter came into view. Cena often made them while he slept. But this one was bigger. It had large sections made of stone, instead of just tree branches and leaves and wood.
“Wait here,” She ordered.
“Will this take long? I haven’t eaten in a hundred years.”
She glared back at him. He sat down gently.
She walked into the shelter. When she came out, a being followed her. It, he, stood much like Cena. On two legs and covered with skin without protective scales. He stood taller than her and his pale skin contrasted her deep tone.
His face was like hers. Almost flat, with their eyes, nose and mouth all on the same plane.
Dherghos preferred his snout, which showed off all of his lovely sharp teeth.
“He has antlers.” Dhergos squinted, surely that was not right.
“Yes. I was not expecting that.” Cena ran a hand over one and smiled. He smiled back at her.
Dherghos had not earned a smile from Cena for what seemed like centuries after they met. Also, his own horns were much larger and far more intimidating. The fire within him burned hotter, and an ache settled into his bones.
He hadn’t felt like this since he was the only intelligent creature alive.
The male said something to Cena, but Dherghos didn’t understand. It sounded like Cena’s other voice. Not the one that made sound in his head and in his ears, but the one she used sometimes to make music, like the birds.
It was lovely, but it only sounded in his ears. There were no words that made sense. This man’s speech wasn’t a song.
Cena answered the male in the same. Then she turned to the dragon. “I’m sorry, but I don’t think Wiros can speak to you like I do.”
“So, he isn’t intelligent?”
“He can speak, but he doesn’t speak dragon.” Cena laughed as the male, Wiros, put his hand on her chest. “But he says he can feel the words”
Wiros wore a skin around his back. Something was inside.
“His pack is moving.”
A small sound came from it, like the whimper of a wounded animal. Wiros turned his back to Cena and she lifted out a small, wriggling bundle. It was fleshy and fur-less and wrinkly. She cradled it close to her.
“What is that?”
Cena glared at him again. “This is our young, Putlom.”
Dherghos leaned in close to the three of them. He sniffed. They all smelled roughly like Cena did, a mix of their flesh and the skins they slept in and the ash of the fire. But the little one smelled of something else.
He sniffed and backed away.
Putlom let out a wail, like a dying animal. How could a thing so small make so much noise? “Cena, make it stop.”
“You scared her. It’ll take just a moment.” Cena rocked the creature in her arms, and Wiros stroked its head.
“I’m not staying around that thing.” He turned and walked back up the hill, but he could still hear it screaming. He lay down and clamped his arms over his ears. Curse the gods and their stupid curse.
When the young one had stopped crying, the sun was low in the sky.
“Dherghos?” Cena came up the hill. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think she’d cry like that. Caring for our young is a great deal of work.”
He glanced back. She hadn’t brought it with her. Good. The punishment stated that he had to stay with Cena. It didn’t say anything about the others.
He wrapped a claw around Cena. “I’m hungry.”
“What are you doing?”
He shook out his wings.
“Stop!” Cena screamed as they took off. She hadn’t done that in eons. “Dherghos, I can’t leave them!”
A cry came from the camp. Not the young, but the male. He ran up the hill after them. He was faster than Dherghos would expect. Magic? His legs didn’t look any different than Cena’s, though he was taller.
Cena screamed in her other voice. The male shouted back. But he couldn’t keep up with a dragon in flight. Nothing could.
Cena stopped screaming but kept crying. Dherghos flew on. He always ate soon after he woke. They’d done it for eons. Why should a male and an offspring change that?
A herd of cows grazed below him. They ran as his shadow covered the moon as it rose.
Cena was quiet. She couldn’t fly, so she was stuck with him.
He dove for a cow that fell behind the others. He sunk his talons into the shaggy creature and turned around to sit and eat it.
Cena slipped out of his claw. She started walking back the way they’d come.
“Cena, Where are you going?” He asked.
“I’m going back.”
“I’m not done.” He swallowed a leg. “I need several more cows.”
“I have to go back.” Her voice was strained and thin. “It hurts. I’ve never been away from her this long.”
“Your young is a lot of trouble. We should just leave them.”
Cena growled at him as she walked. “You don’t understand. I have to feed her. Wiros cannot do it.”
“It’s going to be two or three days walk.”
She did not stop. “Take me back then.”
“I don’t have to obey your orders. Just stay in your sight.”
Even with her back to him, Dhergos knew she was crying. Did being apart from her offspring really hurt?
“I will never forgive you if you let her die.”
The dragon snarled. “You were going to let me starve to stay with them.”
“I wasn’t. Wiros and Putlom were coming with us.”
Dherghos walked a bit behind her. “Why did the gods even make another-whatever you are?”
“Because I asked for a mate.”
“You asked for him?”
Cena turned around and faced him. “I’ve been asking, for eons.”
“Eons?”
“The gods never thought you could handle it. But I begged them this time. Assured them you’d be able to adjust.” Her glare froze his heart. “Apparently, I was wrong.”
Dherghos turned his back and sat down, curling his spiked tail around his feet. “I don’t see why having a puny male is better than having me.”
“I’m not doing this.” She started walking again.
“What could he possibly have that I don’t?”
“Hands. Hair.” Cena threw her arms in the air. “Interlocking parts!”
Dherghos turned his head. “Why is that important?”
She put her hands in her hair and screamed. “Take me back to my baby.”
“No.” He stopped himself from asking what a baby was.
“Then I’m walking back. If she is gone, I will let you starve.”
“You won’t.”
She walked into the trees.
This wasn’t going to work. She’d been mad at him before. Like the first time she’d made a pet and he ate it. She always came back.
Something pulled at his chest.
Stupid curse. She wasn’t stopping.
The tug around his heart became painful. He dug his claws into the ground. She would come back. It would hurt her, too.
The tug became a yank. His talons slipped. He dug them into the ground, gouging furrows of earth. “I’m not going back to that screaming thing.”
Cena must have plowed onward, because the curse dragged him with her. His claws ached where they bumped over rocks.
Fine. Dhergos grumbled and sat up. He could hold her captive, in his claws. If she couldn’t walk, she couldn’t take him with her. Except she might get hurt and that would land him in trouble with the gods.
He followed Cena. This wasn’t over.
Her back came into view as she stomped through the forest.
“If you let me starve, no one will be there to protect you. Those fire wolves you made that one summer could show up.”
She waved her hands and an upspring of trees blocked his path. When he stepped over them, sharp points scraped his scales.
“Well, I doubt the gods gave your male magic, too.”
She left the path and tapped an upright stone. It stood taller than Dherghos’ shoulder. A crude mark was carved into it.
“Did the male do that? With magic?”
The set of Cena’s shoulders said that he had.
Curses. This called for something else. “I can breathe fire. I could take them away. It would be easy. Then you’d have to stay with me.”
She stopped. “I was never going to leave you.”
“Then why did you need them?” Dherghos came up behind her. “Did I do something wrong?”
Cena laughed. “Oh, Dherghos. No. You didn’t.”
“Then why?”
She gestured toward a rustling in the forest. A small herd of silver deer ate in a clearing. A big male, antlers blooming in the late spring, rubbed his nose on a female’s neck. A fawn danced in the sunlight nearby.
“The animals that I made, and the ones the gods made, they all have their own kind.” Cena rested her hand on his side. “You and I did not.”
“I don’t want any other dragons.”
“Perhaps, but you told me that you destroyed the life that was here before because there was no one to talk to. Because you were lonely.”
That was only half true. He was lonely. And bored.
“There was always going to be a time when I got a mate.” She started walking again. “And so will you.”
“I don’t want one. Or offspring. Especially if they scream.”
“Putlom will grow, as fawns and chicks and cubs do.”
“She will not always scream?”
“I hope not. But I must go back to her now.” She rested her head on his side and stroked his scales. “It will be faster if we fly.”
Dherghos looked at his companion. She clutched her arms around her chest. This separation from her young–her baby–caused her physical pain.
“I will fly you back. But only because I do not like it when you cry.”
He crouched low so she could climb onto his back. Once she was settled, he took off.
The flight back was short and silent. Maybe they wouldn’t be there. Maybe he would have Cena all to himself again.
But no. As soon as the valley came into view, Wiros came into view as well. He walked in the direction of the cows. He had the offspring with him. Dherghos heard it crying.
“Land now.” Cena ordered.
“Must I?”
“Now.”
Dherghos landed nearby. Cena hopped off his back and ran to her mate. He put his arms around her. The dragon turned around and sank onto his feet.
Cena was his first.
When Dherghos turned around, his companion was gone, back into the little shelter, along with her male and offspring. The screaming had stopped, at least.
In their travels, he’d encountered the young of many creatures, but none like this. Yes, it looked like a tiny version of Cena, but gods, was it loud.
He waited on the grass. His stomach growled. He hadn’t eaten in a hundred years, for pity’s sake. Why was this tiny creature more important than that?
“Alright, Dherghos. We’re ready.”
He turned back to them.
Cena stepped out of the shelter. She’d strapped Putlom to her chest. The little terror slept. Wiros walked behind them. He carried packs of what looked to be supplies and bedrolls. He also carried a long stick with a sharpened rock on the end. He glared at the dragon.
Dherghos flashed his teeth. He was not scared of pointy rocks. He turned to Cena. “Ready for what?”
“For Hunting. You must be hungry.”
“You’re all coming?” He gestured at Cena’s bundle. “I don’t know if I can hunt with that one crying.”
“It will all work out. Come, before it gets much darker.” She spread a blanket over his neck and climbed on. Wiros hesitated but followed.
“Hold on.” He took off.
Wiros yelped as the dragon lurched upward.
Dherghos chuckled. This would be fun.
Stars peeked out behind clouds as Dherghos settled near the fire. Cena and Wiros sat near its warmth, cooing over their young.
He licked the remains of the four cows he’d eaten off his lips.
“Satisfied?” Cena looked up as he stretched his talons in the grass.
“I’ll be alright until morning.”
Cena scooped up Putlom and sat by his side. After a moment, Wiros joined her. Dherghos looked down at them. Maybe he could get used to a male and a baby around.
***
“Dherghos!” Putlom ran through the trees and collapsed on his snout. “We have a problem.”
In the five summers since he’d woken, she’d grown, just like Cena said she would. The screaming, however, hadn’t gone away. Just changed.
“You do not know how to be quiet, do you?”
“I can. I just don’t want to.” Putlom mercifully spoke to him like Cena did, inside his mind. Wiros simply couldn’t. Dherghos could use both voices now, to his surprise.
Dherghos’s favorite game of Putlom’s was keeping secrets and playing pranks on Wiros. There were other avuncular activities he enjoyed less.
“What is this problem?” He shook his snout and Putlam squealed wildly as she held onto his nostrils.
“Amma and Pater say they want more offspring.” She slid off his nose.
Dhergos stood and placed Putlom on his back. “Absolutely not. One of you is quite enough.”