Woodlyn (Beck 1)
Woodlyn (Beck 1) Fearless
By Simon1fox
Hermit: So you have come to hear about the dragons of this time. It is nice to have a visitor. You know my name very well by now, but this is less about me. There are many people around the meadow that I interact with. The ranch owner and those there know me as a horse, some of the Hamish ranch workers and one Kate Hamish know me as Vince morph., the dairy farmer's wife and daughter know me to be a cow, but all of them know me as the Hermit of the wood, and another girl knows me as a dragon. I've also been many other things in other times. This is the story of that girl.
This is how it goes. In the days of dragons when they are feared by most everyone, there is a daughter of a dragon slayer that is not like most others. She isn't scared or angry at them. She has an interest in dragons. The meadow is known for having its times when dragons fly over it and she knows this. This girl comes to the meadow every chance she gets to look up at the sky in search for a dragon.
One day while she was in the meadow, she was lying down on the ground to watch the clouds and search as she always did. But on this day she fell asleep in the meadow and that is not the wisest thing to do. Not only are dragons known for flying over the meadow, but this young 6 year old has a tendency to sleep deeply. And so as she slept a dragon saw her laying there and quietly flew in and landed near her. She was very much asleep. The dragon picked her up into his mouth and flew off to his home. On the way to his mountain home the dragon needed a drink and so he landed on the bank of the river that's near the meadow, upstream from where he picked the girl up. He brought his head down to drink ever so slowly to be sure not to wake her. He slurped up all the water he could and after taking his drink she was still fast asleep. With her being wet now her smell was more potent and that drove the dragon to fly all the faster to get her to his lair. That smell and the taste of her in his mouth were arousing to him. When he landed in his cave he dropped her down on some hay he had saved for another meal. Quickly he changed his form into that of a man and began taking off her garments. First he took off her boots and then after raising her skirt he pulled off her small undergarment. Being only 6 years of age she was not heavily dressed. After removing the undergarment he leaned over her and was about to enter her when she moaned, yawned, and started to wake up. This startled him and he turned back into a dragon before she was fully awake. When she was awake she looked around and was intrigued and said.
Girl: Well, where are you? I didn't end up here on my own, so show 'yourself.
Dragon in a deep voice: Why aren't you afraid? Can't you see me?
Girl: Stop hiding and let me see you.
Writer Hermit: I lower my head down from the ceiling. She was looking forward and still didn't see my legs or tail until I lowered my head. When she saw me I was shocked by her face. She wasn't scared of me.
Dragon: Why are you not scared of me? Don't you know what I might yet do to you? How can you be so calm in my presence?
Girl: I hadn't seen you until now and that makes me wonder. Why haven't you eaten me nor done what it was you wanted to do to me? Why are my boots off and my undergarment if you weren't going to do something to me? Is this cave made out of magnesium or sulfur or is it just your home?
Dragon: Tell me girl. Why is it that you ask me such mature questions while being so young? And how is it that you do not fear me?
Writer Hermit: I turn into a man again as I say the next line.
Dragon: Do you really know what I wanted to do to you? Do you know how I wanted to ravish you like men do to a woman? How do you not fear me? You must answer me that!
Girl: I think that you are as interested in me as I am with you. Why else would you not have just done what you wanted? I think you like that I don't fear you.
Dragon: I have to admit that I had a hunger for your flesh and then that faded and was replaced with a different kind of hunger which was also made still. Your interest in me is a driving force that stills my actions which in all other cases are swift and brutal. How does a girl of your age get the maturity that's in you? What keeps you here?
Girl: Well for starters I don't know where here is. And you still have me without my boots or undergarments, which also keep me from running home. Don't you wonder about why men fear you so?
Dragon: I am feared because I eat man and beast and kill all in my way if I have to. Many have never seen the light of day after seeing me unless I leave them to tell others of how I am brutal and vicious with their bodies before I eat them. You where about to have the same fait, but you are no ordinary girl, are you?
Girl: Far from it. I am the daughter of the same dragon slayer that you have outwitted many times. I am Rebecca Jackson, daughter of dragon slayer Theodore Jackson, husband of Rose Jackson the fisherman. My mother has nothing much against you, but you and my father seem to have a lot to fight about or at least he does.
Dragon: Well I am not the one that tries to look for and kill anyone. I may kill, but I need food to stay alive. I must avoid him whenever he is around in order to live. Do you know what I do for the land?
Rebecca: You are a servant of the land? How so?
Dragon: It may not look it, but I am like a large vulture, eating the ones who are either dead or close to it. I only really end up eating people to keep them away from me and keep their fear going. If they like me then I will be nothing, but a squatter in their sight. If I'm feared by them then they are the ones that are in the wrong. I did not begin life as danger to man. Man drove me to it and I don't want to go back anymore.
Rebecca: Why can't you try to like humans again? You like me don't you?
Dragon: And I was about to eat you after making myself pleasured by your flesh and its youth. Don't you see? I cannot turn back if I wanted to and even if I did the humans would still fear me because I will not stop eating their livestock. I need food.
Rebecca: Why do you need to eat like a dragon when you are before me as a man? No man I know eats like you do. Why not stay a man and be done with your kind?
Dragon: Would you wish that all the diseased and dieing animals die and lay around your town. They would make you all sick and everyone would die. I can't stop being a dragon because I'm the only kind of creature that can eat such decaying flesh. I'm not actually a man right now. This is a body form that I can make appear and move and feel through, but it's not me. I learned long ago how to make other forms and live through them, but this image isn't who I am. I was once not feared and actually respected a long time ago and I was taught many things by those who used magic. I do not know how to change my body into a man's and I don't want to anyway.
Rebecca: Why are you in a man's body now? Does it matter to you how I see you? Why would you not want to be a man?
Dragon: Don't you want to get out of here? Why must you ask me so many questions? I keep man safe and I have to keep making more of my kind to keep up with the ones that are being killed. I may not like being feared, but that is not my choice anymore.
Rebecca: So you're just giving up on man? Why not try to keep from doing things that make them so angry at you? You don't have to eat people do you?
Dragon: You don't understand so I'll tell you. In order to handle eating the dieing and diseased I must eat those that are healthy and humans get in my way too often to pass up. They taste good and I like the women folk for their particular qualities. Do you know how many other dragons there are today? I can't get a female to stop for long and them she has to go out and find more to eat. You would have taken the place of at least one female for a short time, but I'd have to eat you at some point or you would become another mouth to feed.
Rebecca: What if you didn't have to be feared by man? What if you could do your work in peace and the same for all dragons? That would please you wouldn't it?
Dragon: What are you saying? Do you think that your father would just stop hunting me and my kind one day and we could go back to being peaceful? My kind needs to eat and they need to take the diseased and dead also. We will not stop taking the good to make this peace.
Rebecca: Well I don't see why not. Start with me. You could get your fill of fresh flesh from my hands and for doing this I would keep you from feeling your other hungers.
Dragon: And where can you get all of my kind fresh meat to counter our toxic lifestyle? And are you offering yourself to me?
Rebecca: I may be young, but this era is full of those who have no respect for the rights of age. I'm not the only one this young to feel this way. Many of my friends are not virgins anymore because of how wicked this time is. I too am not pure in heart or in body. I could keep you from your hunger both ways and not be torn by those who have not yet been found by my father.
Dragon: So you are giving me this so that you can get what in return?
Rebecca: My father has you in his stories more than any other. I will do all of this in order to stop having to hear of how he hates what you are doing. I want my father to live without this hate. It spills into the home and I don't like seeing what it does to him. Besides, I would like to have a friend as amazing as a dragon wizard.
Dragon: You seem to know things beyond your years and I'm not saying that I don't want a peace, but you must tell me. How can all of my kind face the putrid and decaying hide of those who would make others die with just a breath, without taking those who are healthy and strong and still keep peace?
Rebecca: First you must make your own way and then the rest might follow. I can work and buy off the meat that you need to start with, but I need to see how much magic you or your teachers know.
Dragon: Why do you need to see magic? What is your plan?
Rebecca: First you will find me the power to make fresh meat never run out and the rest is a matter of time. And can I put my boots and undergarment back on?
Dragon: Here, take them. You sound like you don't really care if you have them on though. Why do you want them? I don't know of any lasting spell like you are talking about. My master might know. Why put on you clothes if you are to satisfy my craving? When did you expect to pay me that kindness?
Rebecca: I need to see the spell that will change all of this first. Why, did you want it that badly that you cannot wait for a short while? If I can't find the right spell then you are out of luck and then I will give up myself as payment for your loss. At least it will hold you for as long as I live.
Dragon: My master is far from here and he will know the right spell, but what if we didn't need a spell?
Rebecca: I don't follow. What do you think I mean it for? The fresh meat to keep your kind alive and counter the dead meat will need to last if a peace is to be sure of. And man will not need to bother with you because you and he will be without reason for quarrel. What else could give your kind that kind of fresh meat supply?
Dragon: Have you heard of the Hermit of the wood?
Rebecca: You don't know what the time is, do you? I will most likely be missed soon pending how long I was out for. It is dark out isn't it?
Dragon: It is near dark hours, yes. Answer the question please.
Rebecca: Why? What does he have to do with this? What else can you turn into? Could you get me home now and be a horse or something so that my father wouldn't know you are a dragon?
Dragon: He takes care of creatures and knows things that might help, and He'll tell your family that you were with him all day. I will take you back to the meadow field and you can ride a wolf back. She is not mean and your father should know this. How would you like to get there, on my back or some other method?
Rebecca: How did you bring me here? And what might I call you, now that I've offered myself to you?
Dragon: You were in my mouth on the way here and I even drank while you slept. And my name is Dam. No one calls me that though. My full name is for after we've met in passion.
Rebecca: That would explain some things. That's not a very easily likable name, seeing how it sounds like damn, but what does it mean? I'll ride on your head if that's fine with you. Just make sure to get me there quickly.
Dam: You make sure to hold on tightly. It means "Blockade" like how I stop death from pouring into the world. Get on then. Hold on to my horns and don't rap your legs around my neck too tightly. This is going to be fast.
Rebecca: That is a rather lovely name now that you've explained it to me. Fast? Not if we don't get out of the cave, it won't.
Writer Hermit: And with the word "out" I had started my run out of the cave. I flapped my wings and soared out of the mountain's mouth. Rebecca held on to my neck and I didn't seem to mind as much as I thought I would. I flew straight to the meadow field and landed at the edge of the river. She hopped off and I turned into an eagle and flew to Ute. Ute is a wolf that is not like most, but that's another story. I asked her to bring Rebecca home and she agreed. I followed them by air to make sure Rebecca got home safe and Ute got out safe.
To be continued in Woodlyn (Beck 2)