Ariel Irene
What a day. I don’t even know where to start, to be honest. The sun started peeking through the cave this morning, and we all sort of felt stiff and awkward and not sure where to go next. I had a dream about Esther. We were kids again, and she’d taken some stuffed animal from me, and I could hear Dad’s voice kind of guiding us through an apology.
“Do you forgive her, Ariel?”
He just kept asking it, and I couldn’t make myself say it… until I saw her face. She was suddenly an adult, her hair pulled back in that long braid, a goofy smile on her face. And then the words came tumbling out.
Lilo told me she heard me yelling in my sleep. When I asked her what I’d said, she clammed up a bit, but after some cajoling, she told me: “Why did you abandon me?”
Didn’t even make eye contact. She just handed me my knife and walked away, an unspoken agreement between us.
But right then we felt this huge rush of wind, and there was this deafening roar. I don’t think any of us really knew what was going on. But when I finally got my bearings, there was this huge dragon clawing at the gate to the treasure hoard we found yesterday. I didn’t know dragons could wail, but it’s a sound that will haunt me until I die.
And then all the sudden, he just whirled around, tail snapping like a whip, and started lunging at us. Thaddeus amazed me—he dashed off, taunting it, and giving Lilo and I time to throw together a plan. The only real weapon we had between us was my knife and with the cave only half-lit, I didn’t trust my aim enough to try throwing it.
Lilo got its attention, and it came racing back toward us. I don’t know if it even saw me, honestly, but it flew real low right over my head, and I just sort of threw my arms up, dagger held in both hands, and I managed to slice it down the stomach. My dagger caught on something and went flying, and the dragon landed right in front of the gate again, this huge thud just echoing all around us. Thaddeus came back a few minutes later, panting and dripping in sweat, but alive.
I’m all nasty now, covered in something I don’t even want to think about, with no sign of clean water (any water, even!) to bathe or wash my clothes. I don’t know how much longer we’re going to be here, but I know finding a spring or something will be top priority when we get ou—
What the hell?
Thaddeus Diggory
We’re alive. We made it. I can’t believe we survived the day.
Frankly, I couldn’t believe I’d survived the night, after everything Ariel said to me yesterday, but then again, the realization that we’d all gotten here because of Marcus seemed to sober her up a bit. So perhaps it wasn’t all that surprising.
What certainly was surprising, though, was the appearance of a dragon—or at least some previously undiscovered flying lizard—that was very unhappy we’d blocked off the entrance to its home. We all froze for a moment when it turned on us, and I felt a shiver down my spine that this was it for me. The way its big yellow eyes locked right on me, as if it was weighing my soul in a balance…
I didn’t think so much as just move, and before I really understood what I was doing, I was halfway down the cavern, light fading around me with every step, hurling insults at the beast that, in retrospect, make no sense at all. The only thing I knew—so deep and all-consuming that it felt like my whole self—was that I had to keep those girls safe. It felt like an eternity of running, but it must have only been a moment later that the thing whirled around, its wings beating so hard that I couldn’t breathe in the wind they made. By the time I got myself back to the gate, it was collapsed in a heap, dead.
As I stare at its corpse, I can’t help but reflect on my relationship with these two young women—fraught though it has often been—and wishing I had known twenty years ago what I know now. I wasn’t half the father my children deserved, and I can’t help but wonder if I would have risked my life for them like this, had the need arisen.
The light in the room is growing rapidly, and I—
How fascinating…
Lilo Talei
Mom, do you remember that dragon book we used to read when I was little? The shiny green one?
That exact dragon almost killed me today, and it almost killed my two best friends, and it was only because of you and that shiny green book that we made it out alive.
I was so scared, but then I heard your voice reading aloud about dragons and their treasure piles and their love of gemstones in particular, and I had this huge one in my bag. Thaddeus was off like a shot down the hallway, as if he knew we would need the thing to get a running start (flying start?). So in that precious minute that he bought us, I yelled to Ariel not to miss her shot, and then I hurled the gemstone as far as I could in her direction, and she raised her arms up, knife in hand, and just absolutely gutted the thing.
But her knife slipped, or got caught on something, I’m not sure. We looked around as much as we could, but there was no sign of it. I guess the body fell on top of it. I’d just given it back to her this morning, and I was so sad that she lost it again, but she seemed okay. Shaken, but okay.
I’m just glad they’re both alive. When the dragon first appeared, almost out of nowhere, I got this horrible sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that I didn’t want to lose them. I’ve pushed everyone else away for as long as I can remember, but I finally feel like I’ve got a weird little family—goofy old Thaddeus is the dad and Ariel is the big sister I never knew I wanted, you know? And if the cost of keeping them safe is the biggest musgravite I’ve ever laid eyes on? Well, that’s a no-brainer.
Okay, wait, am I crazy, or is everything shaking again? Please don’t let it be another dragon. We have nothing left.
Well, it’s not so much a shaking as it is a… vibrating? And my vision must be going blurry or something, because—
Wait, what?
You’re reading The Ravenswing Report, a rapid-fire, limited-run serial from Sara Dietz at Blinking Blue Line. To learn more and access the Table of Contents, click here.
The effect of what they've done (the habit of knifing someone, of running away, of stealing) - suddenly turned on its head and given the opportunity to be taken up into sacrificial love !
Today's was too exciting to quote stack!!
I definitely have suspicions about the dragon and what it says about what's going on. But I'm just so glad they're improving and rising to the challenge!