A Dragon's Curse

Eyna awakened to the scent of cinnamon.

She was about to turn, to search for the source, when the sound of voices arguing carried over to her. Mother and Father. Eyna kept her eyes closed, straining to hear what they were saying.

Father cursed, low and dark. “How could this have happened?! Now of all times-”

“And yet.” Mother's voice was soft, but it immediately silenced Father. “And yet, the moment is upon us. You knew that it would come someday, dear heart. We cannot stop the flow of time, try as we might.”

Father made a sound of frustration. His hoof connected with the ground. “She isn’t ready! Not like this!”

Mother gently comforted him. “Our time moves differently. You must not forget that. Hers was always going to be a swift and determined thing. And it was never our place to say when she was ready. The gods have spoken. ‘Twas from their very well that the child of fire arrived.”

Child of fire? The snake? Eyna strained to hear more.

There was silence for a long moment. When Father spoke again, his voice was tense with emotion. “... Not like this, Ieantu. Please. This is too cruel. We cannot. Not with this one. You know what this means. You have seen the blood. You know what he did.”

He? They could only be referring to the snake. What had the snake done? Eyna desperately needed to hear the rest of the conversation. 

But Mother knew better. “Hush, dear heart. Little ears are listening.”

As expected - Eyna couldn’t hide that she was awake from Mother. The veins that pulsed through the Heartsprings were all hers. She knew all living things… And especially when Eyna was faking sleep. Already, roots coiled gently around Eyna, tugging her into an upright position. She could feel the familiar warm pulse of a tiny network of healing mana spreading through her.

Eyna opened her eyes, slowly adjusting to the gentle light of the glade.

She had been brought to Mother's core. The air was cool and clean here, a soft bed of tiny white flowers cradling her body. Sunlight trickled into the trunk through honeycomb-like networks.

As Eyna was lifted up, she could feel something odd. Her arm was stiff, right where she’d been bitten. A flash of memory - her skin rotting. Black marks that spread from an angry red puncture wound.

Eyna jerked her head to her arm, desperately searching. 

What she saw there, in the full light of Mother’s core, was not rot. It simply... Wasn’t her arm anymore. It was something else entirely. Where once there had been soft pale skin, now there were hard black scales. The glinted in the light, spreading outwards from the place where the snake had bit her.

Mother’s voice was soft. “Yes, Eyna. You have changed, my sweetest delight.”

Eyna stared, open mouthed, at the scales. “How…?”

Mother’s roots tightened for a moment. “A dragon’s curse. Your blood mingled with a child of fire in the sacred spring.”

“Dragon’s…?”

Father was the one who answered. His voice was gruff as he stepped forward. “... That was no snake, Eyna. You brought a dragon into the Heartsprings.”

A dragon. Eyna had never seen a dragon before. She had heard about them, of course, in Father’s stories. Beings made of divine magic, supposedly, both terrifying and beautiful.

Mother gently prompted her. “Eyna. Beside you, my delight.”

Eyna glanced to her side. And there he was. The ‘child of fire’, fast asleep. The source of the scent of cinnamon. His body was a warm presence at her side, chest rising and falling steadily. Now that Eyna was looking at him carefully, she could tell the obvious - of course he wasn’t a snake. But he seemed a bit… Small. For a dragon. His body was longer than she was, but the rough size was close to her own.

His head was serpentine, yes - the source of her confusion. But this was a serpentine dragon. A dragon of pure silver, as if woven from starlight. Little claws at his forelimbs and hindlimbs dug into the ground. Black horns coiled like slender variants of a ram’s, protectively bracing his skull. And, folded to his body, a pair of elegant wings, tipped like those of a bat, were tucked to his sides.

Eyna blinked.

There, at the dragon’s forelimb. A patch of pink. Where scales spread on Eyna’s arm, in the exact same spot, human skin spread on the limb of the dragon. As if, through some dark art, they'd exchanged their natures.

“Yes, Eyna,” Mother murmured, “That is the nature of the dragon’s curse. Your fates are shared.”

Eyna lifted her face to Mother’s roots. To Father’s grim expression. “... What does this mean?”

Mother spoke softly. "It means many things, my delight. A curse is a complicated thing. For no two curses are alike in nature. What we can be certain of... Is that the time has come for you to leave the Heartsprings. The divine springs are powerful. But they cannot undo the interplay of your fates. By diving into the pool, by bringing the child of fire into the Heartsprings, you have broken the sacred seal. You have brought foreign waters, and foreign magics. And now… Those waters and magics will carry you forward.”

Eyna felt her head spin. Leave the Heartsprings. She was being forced to leave. Eyna had, in truth, never even properly considered the possibility. The Heartsprings were all she knew. A future in which she wasn’t here... She could barely fathom it.

Eyna struggled to follow the rest of Mother’s words. Her heart was pounding, the echo of her sentencing reverberating in her skull. Her eyes dragged to the dragon. The reason for all of this. Had it been a mistake to save him? Had she done something terrible by bringing him here?

Don’t you understand?! She wanted to yell. Everything has changed, how can you just sleep like this?

Mother seemed to read her thoughts. “Eyna.”

Eyna’s gaze was hard, shocked, staring at the silver dragon.

“Eyna.” Mother’s voice was firmer this time. A branch tilted her head up, forcing her to look at the gently pulsing roots and branches. A magnolia flower bloomed right before her, delicate petals fragrant and soothing. “Eyna… You must never regret an act of selfless kindness. You acted out of love. And you saved the life of this child of fire. Make no mistake, my delight. He would have died if you had not intervened.”

Eyna’s gaze wobbled as tears threatened to fall from her eyes. Eyna stubbornly held them back, refusing to let them fall. She wouldn’t cry. She wouldn’t.

Mother continued. “And while this fate may seem severe, you were always destined to leave the Heartsprings someday. Perhaps the hour is earlier than any of us might have thought. But few are ready when the fates come calling. Such is the nature of destiny.”

Eyna clutched at herself. This felt like a punishment, not a destiny. Eyna knew she had been born outside of the Heartsprings. That had been no secret. But that hadn’t mattered to her. As far as she was concerned, it was her whole world.

“I… I don’t want a destiny,” Eyna said, voice cracking, “I want to stay here. With you. And Father. And Pepper and Saffron and everyone.”

Father’s jaw clenched at her words. When he finally broke his silence, his voice was gruff with an undertone of emotion. “... You don’t have to leave just yet, Eyna. I’ll make sure you won’t leave until you’re ready.”

Mother murmured to him, a faint note of teasing in her usually calm voice. “Soft of heart. So soft. Even after all these years.”

Father pawed at the ground with one hoof, brow furrowed. “She’s too young to leave just yet. We have time.”

“Do we, dear heart? Or is that you wish to believe it is so? Always so quick to let your emotions guide you…” Mother gently withdrew her branches. “But perhaps… We might at least prepare her.”

Father folded his arms over his chest. “Of course we’ll prepare her. I’m not sending her out there before she’s ready.” The tone of his voice made it clear that he would fight Mother on this one. A rare thing - few challenged Mother on her verdicts. But Father was adamant.

“... Very well. Time to prepare.” Mother acquiesced softly, a note of fondness in her voice for both Father and Eyna.

Eyna tried to draw comfort from Father’s assertions. She had time. She could wait until she was ready. But somewhere, in her heart of hearts, she felt the change like an impending tidal wave. An inevitability that hung heavy over her.

The feeling deepened into a dark, swirling pit as the dragon lifted his head and looked at her.