//------------------------------// // 10. Third // Story: The Celtic Dragon // by JumpingShinyFrogs //------------------------------// Waking up was an unpleasant experience. Instead of the fairly nice days we'd been having, I was greeted by a torrent of rain and a chilly breeze. Aside from a little warm patch which I presume was Rian, I was cold all over, and my legs were all stiff from my little hike yesterday. The dirt beneath me had turned to a cold sludgy mud overnight, and I could feel it caking onto my scales and in between my claws. Ergh. I cracked open an eye to look up at the depressingly dark and grey sky. Sure enough, there was no sign of anything even resembling the sun for miles around. Rian was still sound asleep, and seeing how his farmer habits had been leading to him waking up early, I guess that meant it wasn't quite morning yet. His fur was soaked, and slicked onto his body like a wet dog. I figured it probably wasn't healthy for him to be lying there in the cold and wet, so I stepped away from him as gently as I could and trudged through the muck towards the castle. I wasn't sure what kind of a lock was on the door, but hopefully I could break it so we could go into the castle. We hadn't bothered so far, seeing as the weather had been so nice, but now I was realising that I should really learn not to tempt fate. The wooden door was thick and had metal spikes on it, with a padlock keeping it closed. I picked up a nearby rock and tried to smash the lock, but it didn't work. Next I tried my claws. I managed to scratch a pretty deep gash in the metal, but it would take me quite a while to whittle it away with my claws at this rate. So instead, I gave my teeth a try. I admit, I was a little apprehensive that my teeth, while certainly capable of handling rock, might not be able to handle metal, but my fears were unfounded. My teeth tore straight through the padlock like it was nothing. The padlock had a surprisingly nice taste, which I enjoyed as I slid open the bolt and pushed open the door. The inside of the castle was not much warmer than the outside, but it was dry and there was no wind, so it was definitely an improvement. Aside from the draughts coming in from the arrow-slit windows, the air was stagnant, and it smelled stale and musty. Dust coated the floor and floated up into the air as I walked around. My nose itched a little bit, and after a couple of twitches, I sneezed loudly. A little plume of blue fire curled in the air as I did. I just sneezed fire. Holy crap. I would need to see if I could do that without sneezing later, but for now I climbed up the spiral staircase to the bedrooms to see if I could open them. There was more dust up here, and I tried my absolute best to avoid sneezing again. It would be quite a shame to accidentally burn all of the ancient furniture. The doors weren't locked, so I made my way back to the lakeshore. The rain had actually gotten worse while I was in the castle, so I prodded Rian awake. "Hmm? What's the ska?" he mumbled with half-closed eyes. "I have no idea what time it is, but it's pissing rain, so you should come into the castle. Which I opened. You're welcome, by the way," I said. "Yera grand," he said, standing up and stretching his legs. He followed me into the castle and up the stairs, where I showed him the ridiculously luxurious medieval bedchambers. "Pick a bed and fall in it," I said. "Use those antique bedsheets as towels." "Will do," he said, still half-asleep. "I'm going to go for a wander about and see what I can find," I said on my way out of Rian's chosen bedroom. "Grand," I heard him say. I climbed higher up into the castle, poking my head into the doors. They were all more or less the same, very large, very ornate bedrooms that hadn't been used for their intended purpose in centuries. Past the bedrooms, just below the roof, was the dining hall. According to the tour books you can find in the office on the ground floor, they used to pretend they were richer than they actually were by polishing lead plates to make them look like silver. No wonder they all died young. I'd always wondered what the roof was like. People weren't allowed up there, but there was no one around to stop me. It didn't take me too long to find the hatch that led up to the roof. It wasn't that impressive, to be honest. It was the top of a big stone tower, and while I'm sure it looked much better on a nice day, the depressing grey and misty scenery wasn't doing it any favours. It was higher up than I thought. You don't really realise how tall things are until you sit on top of them. I got an idea. A terrible, stupid idea. But I really wanted to try it. Yesterday's little escapade involving the mountain had been terrifying, yeah, but it had also given me a brief taste of the sky. If I could learn how to use my wings for real, then traveling would be so much easier. I wouldn't have to drunkenly drive an old tractor around or walk for hours to find other people and supplies if I could just fly to them. I didn't know too much about how dragons of old supposedly learned to fly, and the book I had said nothing about it. But when it came to large birds like albatross and condors, as well as ancient pterosaurs, starting from a high place was supposed to help. It might not be a mountain or a sea cliff, but this tower was fairly high. High enough for a makeshift launch pad, at least. I perched on the edge of the tower and spread my wings. I looked them up and down, the blue membranes glistening with moisture. They'd saved me yesterday, even if they had been the cause of the problem in the first place. And hey, the lake was right there, just in case, right? Right? Thinking about what I was about to do would only scare me. So instead, I took a deep breath, steeled myself, and leapt off the tower. My wings responded by catching the air and sending me into a gentle glide. Unlike yesterday's confusing tumble, this was deliberate, and a lot less painful. Now for the hard part. I was headed down at a fairly quick clip—down to the rocks on the lakeshore. I wasn't going to make the water, not unless I got a little boost. I tried to beat my wings. Neither my wings nor the air was pleased with my efforts. The wind resistance made pushing my wings down ridiculously difficult, and the fact that I didn't know what I was doing and was thus probably doing it wrong made my muscles complain. Long story short, I stopped gliding and started falling. I landed in the mud with a loud squelch and equally loud swear. I was absolutely covered in mud, from tail to snout. A good long swim in the colder-than-usual lake was in order. At least I didn't hit the rocks. I just laid there, defeated, for a moment. That was a stupid idea. A very stupid idea. I should have set my sights lower and started with trying to get finer control of my wings. By flapping them. On the ground. I can be quite the eejit sometimes. After a few minutes of lying in the mud, I heard the clopping of hooves on stone. Rian, still looking a little sleepy, trotted out from the castle and paused to look at me. "I was just drifting way there, and sure what do I hear but a huge feckin' splash and a shout from outside," he said with a raised eyebrow. "What the hell were you at?" "I made the huge mistake of trying to fly by jumping off of the top of the tower," I said. It sounded more ridiculous when I said it out loud. "Jaysus, girl, how the fuck am I meant to be getting any sleep at all if you're going to be firing yourself off of buildings?" said Rian. "Well, I s'pose there's nothing to do now. I'm up now so we may as well get on with it. What did you want to do today? Besides go lepping off of buildings." "I wanted to go towards Tralee, but that doesn't look like it'll be happening today," I said, casting a glance at the gloomy sky. "Tralee? Why the hell d'you want to go there? 'Tis miles away, and you won't find much there that you won't find in Killarney," said Rian. "Well...um..." I said. "Killarney is off-limits for me." Rian's eyebrow reached the heavens. "Off-limits? Girl, what do you be doing when I'm not looking?" "I had, um, an...altercation with someone there, and they more or less told me fuck off away from town. So, it's off-limits," I said sheepishly, poking my claw in the mud. "'Someone'? Like, another person? Well whatever happened is pure shite, I'd say. We should all stick together," said Rian. "Yeah, that's what I said." "Who was it?" asked Rian. "Some woman with a mean right hook," I said, rubbing my snout where Tina had punched me. For her to whack me hard enough to hurt through my scales...what were her hooves made of? Diamonds? "Bhuel*, let's go and find her." We did exactly that. The trip through town was fairly uneventful, aside from spying few deer near the cinema. The Royal was on the other side of town, but we kept an eye out for Tina as we walked. At one point we passed a jewellery store, and I really wanted to break in and take the stuff that was in there. Rian talked me out of it, saying that we didn't have any bags and that they'd still be there when I came back, but after meeting with Tina I was definitely going to come back to get those sparklies. They were just so pretty! Once we reached the Royal, a flash of pink and purple let us know straight away that Tina was home. The plan was for Rian to go in ahead of me, before I'd walk in and see if another apology would help us make amends. Rian gave me a quick smile and pushed open the door. It knocked over a couple of empty cans that Tina had clearly put there as a makeshift alarm, and she turned, ears straight up, eyes alert. Those eyes narrowed when she caught sight of me through the glass door. "Dunno who you are, strange pony who just walked through my door, but I thought I'd let you know that there's a vicious psychopath right outside the door behind you," said Tina, punctuating the phrase 'vicious psychopath' with a stamp of her hoof. "If you mean Deirdre, I know she's there. But I wouldn't say that about her," said Rian, more than a little bewildered. He hadn't believed me when I'd told him how confrontational Tina was. Now he was seeing it for himself. "Trust me, fella, if you saw what I saw, you'd be barricading yourself in here right along with me," said Tina. "What'd you see?" "She chased me all around town trying to eat me until I cracked her on the snout." Tina snorted. "I told her stay away, but I guess she didn't listen." "Is that all?" asked Rian, cocking his head. Tina stared back at him. "What do you mean 'is that all'? She tried to kill me!" Rian shrugged to the best of his ability, impressive given that he needed those shoulders to stand up. "Yera, she did the same to me. 'Twas a bit of both our faults, so I forgave her. 'Twas the right thing to do." "Are you seriously telling me that someone twice your size chased you around and tried to eat you, and you forgave her?" asked Tina incredulously. "To be completely fair, I didn't know what I was doing, and I apologised afterwards. It was a complete accident," I said, choosing that moment to step through the door. Tina tensed as I walked in. "Oh look. The huntress returns to stalk her prey." This was just getting obnoxious now. "For the fifth or sixth time, it was an accident! I had only woken up hours before, and I was confused, and I didn't have much fine control over my brand new body. Did you know that over the past few days I've gotten chills that almost killed me, tried and failed to drive a tractor for the first time, almost killed someone else by accident, fallen off of a mountain, and thrown myself off a castle tower, all while getting strange urges to kill things, hoard things, and eat rocks! Compared to me, you've had it easy." Tina's eyes were wide, but that last statement seemed to tip her over the brink to anger. "Oh, I've had it easy, have I? Because I don't think tripping over myself for a week, having no one but my reflection to talk to for a month, having the first real person I meet try to kill me, and crying myself to sleep half the time because I know I that I'll never see my husband or son again is 'easy'. Do you?" "Erm...I think that both of you girls have had problems," began Rian. When it was clear that neither me or Tina was going to bite his head off for it, he continued. "Deirdre's had more physical problems and you've had more emotional ones. But at the end of the day, sure weren't we all human at one stage? I think we'd be better off if we just started again and tried to work as part of a crew this time." He looked between the two of us. "I'll start. I'm Rian Willems. I'm from Gaeltacht Mhuscraí. I used to be a farmer. I s'pose I still am." It only took me a moment to cop on to what he was trying to do. Hopefully Tina would accept it. "Me next, then. I'm Deirdre Rourke. I went to the same school as Rian, but I'm from Killarney. I used to be a small, impractical teenager. Now I'm a large, impractical dragon. I'm only realising the 'impractical' part now." Tina looked the two of us up and down and sighed. "I'll give this a shot. One shot. If either of you mess up, I'm out. I'm Tina O'Sullivan. I'm from Killarney. I used to be a boxer and a fitness instructor, and I used to have a loving husband and a beautiful son, both of whom I'll never see again." There was a bit of an awkward pause after that. What exactly are you supposed to say when someone says something like that? 'Sorry for your loss'? I dunno. It seemed like those kinds of words would only be false comfort. It was Rian who broke the ice. "Well, there we go. 'Tús maith leath na hoibre'**, as the seanfhocal*** says." "Well," said Tina, a little impatiently. "What now?" "Well...now I guess we'll show you where we've been staying," I said, walking out of the door. "We'll come back for your stuff later." "A castle? Really?" deadpanned Tina, gazing up at our chosen base. "It seemed like a good idea at the time," I said, a little defensively. "The beds are feckin' comfy!" added Rian. "But seriously. You never once thought of the 'dragon in a castle stealing princesses' cliche?" asked Tina. "Do you see any princesses around here?" I shot back. "She has a point to be fair," said Rian. "Not you too," I groaned. "Well, I suppose if we're staying in this old medieval heap, I'd best start working on making it livable. You two should stay out of the way. It'd be best to not have a farmer and a self-proclaimed 'impractical dragon' getting under my feet. Or hooves, even." Having Tina around was certainly going to make things different around here. For better or for worse, well, the jury's still out on that one.