Spectre

On a hot summer night in the heart of the Foxfire Bramble, Jiro, Spectre and her little sister, Tui, were born. They don’t remember thane of their clan or the name of their parents, but they do remember what they were told: “You. Are. Fodder.” None of them knew what that meant at the time, but soon they realized by the way they were treated, it meant: “You. Are. Nothing.” Not in the eyes of eachother, they weren’t. Though Jiro didn’t play with them much, Tui and Spectre found ways to make themselves happy. One thing they did was discover how to grow flowers from the twisted brambles surrounding their humble fae den. (Yes, they got in trouble for that.)


Growing up together was all well and good. On the day of their coming of age, though, their hearts broke. They knew their parents never cared for them, but it didn’t cross their minds more than it did in their first few years alive. They had each other, after all. Now, it stared them in the face as a price tag was tied around their wrists and their wings were bound. They were to be sold, like some cheap product. They were people, they thought! You couldn’t just sell people!! “No. You’re not people, you’re not children, you’re not even worth more than pocket change. You’re fodder,” they were told as the door shut on the dark boxcar as they were delivered to the capital. The forum of the obscured crescent. The home of she shadowbinder.

They curled up with each other and held tight against the jostling of the boxcar on the old rails, not daring to speak. Jiro sat near to the door, not moving and hardly breathing. He seemed to be trying to keep himself from being pushed off the edge in his mind, muttering to himself and twitching his wings. There were other strangers in the car, some who had come to terms with this fate of theirs, and other that were manically screeching at the unfairness of the world. Even they, too, fell into the oppressive silence. Tui and Spectre didn’t bother speaking to eachother, they were thinking the same things. “What’s going to happen to me? What is exaltation? Why am I not priced higher? Why is this happening to me? Why am I worth so little? Was this meant to be from the beginning...?” The worst part was that they both knew the answers to all these questions.

They buried their faces in their wings as the comparative bright light spilling in the old door as it squealed open on its hinges. “Out,” a gruff dragon barked. The glum dragons began to file out, the sisters followed at the back, picking at the tags tied around their wrists. At one point a poor spiral lady broke down and started screeching, clawing at the dragons around her as she tried to escape. Moments later, two feathered darts stuck out of her neck as she collapsed into the mulchy shore of the driftwood drag.

There were many other dragons like them, mostly dragons unfortunately enough not to be genetically blessed. There were pretty ones, though. They remember marveling at a beautiful costly lady with feathers red as blood that changed colors in the sparse sunshine. Patrons or clan representatives walked left and right down the lines of dragons, opening their wings, shining penlights in their eyes, inspecting their claws...oh they hated standing there like that. At least this wasn’t the light kingdom, Spectre thought. Surely they’d have collapsed by now.

Then came an imperial dripping in diamonds and silver. Tui couldn’t help but stare, licking her lips almost hungrily as she thought of all those jewels...but Spectre saw something more going on. She started on the left and more to the right, going down the line of the youngest dragons. She’d yank a hatchling from the line and drop a few sparkling gems into the pot at the feet of the dragons. She was buying them all. In her heart, Spectre knew she wasn’t rescuing them.

She had accrued a great mass of confused children behind her, and she didn’t show any sign of stopping. Spectre had to do something, she was getting closer! She needed to escape, to get out of here. Now! But how? She looked left and right frantically, her fins pressing back against her head as her heart thundered in her chest. She knew what she had to do. Closing her eyes, she reached out with her mind, sorting through all the signals of the living flora and fauna in the area. When she found a particularly prickly signal, she honed in on it and began to coax it. Cracking her eye open, she watched as a tiny pointed shoot began to creep from the ground behind the diamond-dripping imperial, tiny thorns beginning to poke from the emerging vine. She had to do this quick—so no one would see. She began to count down...three...two...snap! The prickly vine shot from the ground and snaked around the dragon’s tail like a hungry constrictor, yanking as the coils were taught around the tail. As the spines dug in, the imperial’s screech split the air. All eyes were on her as she fought with the brambles slowly growing from the ground to consumer her. Managers and patrons alike began running to her aid, pulling back the hungry thorned vines. This was their chance. With all this commotion, nobody would notice two little fae children sneaking out into the woods.

“Tui!!” Spectre hissed, ripping the tag from her wrist as she reached for Tui’s, “We have to leave!”

Tui jerked her arm away, eyes wide as she shrunk down against the dirt, “Spectre, I...I can’t.”

“What do you mean?? We have to go now, please—“

“No! Spectre, they’ll—they’ll hurt us, they’ll catch us, they always will! I’m...I’m scared...”

The dragons were beginning to succeed in ripping off and stomping away the encroaching vines, the imperial lady was still blubbering as she dabbed at her many tiny bleeding wounds. Spectre was so very torn. She knew if she didn’t get out of here right now, her window of opportunity would be closed, and they’d both join that lady to serve whatever purpose she intended them for. But she didn’t want to leave Tui behind, her only friend, her only sister, her best friend.

“Please,” Spectre begged, grabbing her wrists and yanking her away, “We won’t ever be free if we get sold...they sell us at prices like trash and we’ll be treated like trash for the rest of air lives. I don’t want to leave you...I....”

Tui was frozen and silent. There was no getting to her. She was locked up tighter than a titanium safe without a door. Spectre had no choice. She let go of her sister and scampered off without direction into the woods, running and jumping between trees until she couldn’t hear the commotion anymore.

She ran until She reached a shining band of blue stretching across the horizon. From there, she flew. Fluttering with the help of the buoyant sea thermals as she was carried out over the expansive blue. In hindsight, it was a stupid decision. It wasn’t long before she collapsed from exhaustion and fell into the sea. She fought hopelessly in the water, trying to stay afloat by spreading her wings. The shore was too far away by now to swim to. Miraculously, she lasted for half an hour treading water before she began to cramp and sink. She remembered the towers of kelp reaching up to tickle her like tentacles as she fell down, down, down. Then in a flash of green, she raced upwards. She and her unknown rescuer burst from the water in a spray of water droplets like diamonds, racing up, up, up into the sky. Her rescuer sparkled a deep earthy green, studded with sparkling white gembond like rhinestones. He was beautiful.

“What’s your name?” She managed to ask through gasps for breath.

The Coatl smiled kindly, “Agate. Soldier of Trinau. Where are you from, little one?”

Slowly, spectre told him her tale, skillfully omitting the details about leaving behind her little sister. She was too ashamed. The kind Coatl listened, letting her sit on his back as he delivered her to safety. It turned out he was much the same. He, too, was a fodder escapee. He owed his rescue to Lady Isotope, the current leader of his clan. He said he’d take her back to his home where she would be treated her like any other dragon. Most of the members of the clan had escaped a similar fate. At the time, Trinau was simply a hidden system of caverns on a cliff-face overlooking the sea. The main entrance was hidden by a frothing waterfall, and they hadn’t been found yet. Her new life was only just beginning.


She lived and grew up in the primordial Trinau for years, learning to forgive herself for her choice to leave Tui, but not forget. Never forget. Agate became not only a best friend, but a father figure to her. She never had hatchlings of her own, but she’d sometimes visit the incubation room to talk to the hatchlings in their eggs, telling them that they would be loved and would never be sold like trash.

She was around for not one, but three great changes in the clan. The first, Trinau abandoned its ancestral home and occupied an archipelago in the mid-southern region of the sea. The second, the great reform of the political system which sparked a technological revolution and population boom. During this time, she was an avid supporter of “fodder rescue”, spending lots of time in the auction venues to rescue unfortunate little hatchlings and give them a better life. The third, Trinau’s Declaration of Independence and the creation of the very first nuclear arsenal. Shortly after this last great change, she transferred to an allied outpost in the thunderhead savanna, living peacefully in near solitude with some of her first friends.

Recently, she has decided it was time for a change. She’s packed her things and moved back to Trinau—to say her goodbyes. One October night, she made the long journey home and spend the night with her friends before she goes out to start a new adventure. She spent the night in the pub, singing and dancing and drinking and reminiscing and catching up in general. This morning, she’s boarded the train after receiving a notice. This notice verified she would be given a home in the light domain, with the clan of LightBirb. She holds her breath as the first dragon of the clan comes to greet her...