7. Eliza

Meeting Edward left me confused. The memory of him returned at inopportune moments. It distracted me so much that first night that I cut my fingers on the nettles worse than usual. My brothers came to try and persuade me to stop, but I couldn’t. Finding this place had been a stroke of luck. Never had I seen more nettles than here, probably because the graveyard had been left to decay for many years.

To my surprise, I found a pair of gloves in the morning, left by someone on the cracking steps leading up to the church. I looked around for the owner, but nobody was there.

It should have at least troubled me to find the gloves, undoubtedly left on purpose, but it didn’t.

Not even the next day, when I found a red rose.

Or the next, when I discovered a satchel that I could carry on my chest and fill with nettles, much easier to handle than my burlap sack.

Every day for a week, new things popped up. A soft pillow, a case of water, a box filled with chopped-up greens for my brothers. Every morning I woke expectant, curious, and filled with joy to see what my unknown benefactor had left this time.

By the end of the week I had enough nettles to start sewing the next mantle during the day. For this, I couldn’t wear the gloves, they were too cumbersome to wield a needle with. Just during the short period of a week, my calloused fingers had begun to soften and by the end of the day, their tips were bleeding.

William nudged me with his sad eyes, pushing his beak against my hands. Stubbornly I picked up another nettle, only for him to peck at it, causing me to drop it.

I moved to pick it up, but my stubborn brother pushed it away. I would have loved to tell him that I didn’t mind, that I was doing this gladly for him and the others, but I wasn’t allowed to speak.

So I bent forward and embraced my little brother, squeezed him with all the love I had for him, and kissed the top of his head. He made a sad sound, and prodded me again with his beak.

I circled my heart with my finger, pointed at him, and circled it around his chest, conveying with my eyes, I love you. He lowered his head and didn’t interfere this time when I bent again to pick up the nettle, but I could have sworn tears shimmered in his eyes.

I made good progress during the rest of the day, and that night I set out to find more nettles. The moon was receding, making it harder to see, but I managed, wondering if my unknown benefactor would leave a lamp for me tomorrow. I giggled at the idea.

Then my mind wandered back to Edward and a soft current moved through me. I hoped I would see him again before we would have to move on, but chastised myself for it. I wasn’t leading the kind of life where I could form a relationship with anybody, even though I was becoming lonelier by the day.

I missed other people, missed listening to laughter and voices, even if I wasn’t allowed to speak I would have enjoyed the company of others.

I was so deep in my thoughts that I didn’t hear the creature from hell before it was nearly on me. With a scream I jumped back, hoping and praying the scream wouldn’t count as speaking, worrying I had just broken my vow, but even as those foolish thoughts ran through me, I realized I had bigger worries.

The thing creeping up on me was utterly terrifying. Sharp claws protruded from skeletal fingers, neon-orange eyes glowed from inside dark, hollowed eye sockets. The creature was hunched over, hissing through pointed teeth.

It readied itself to jump at me again, but suddenly loud flapping wings sounded out and a white form threw itself against the creature. Feet out, beak pecking, the beast recoiled but recovered quickly.

I wanted to yell at Caspian to get back, but then Richard appeared and Philip. Pecking at the nightmarish thing just like they had done to the man who had tried to rob us. Only the creature didn’t appear to be scared. It lifted its clawed hands and swiped it through the air, right at George, who was just about to land on the creature’s back to peck at its head.

George made it back into the air, but Caspian suddenly screeched in pain and was in the grip of another monster that looked like the first, but different.

There were more of them!

Red appeared on Caspian’s white feathers and I cried out. I would have screamed, No, no, let him be, but thankfully due to disuse my voice didn’t allow me to utter a word. Otherwise, the last three years would have been for nothing.

Still, my heart cried for my brother as more of these despicable creatures crawled out from behind headstones, graves, the trees. They poured from crypts and from behind rocks. A seemingly never-ending wave of them.

I didn’t know what to do. My mind screamed at me to run, but watching my brothers fight them so valiantly gave me courage, and I flung my new bag against the closest one, catching him off balance.

Deep down, I knew this fight was lost. There were so many of them compared to us.

Suddenly a loud swooping sound pushed air against my ear canal, as if I was diving underwater. The pressure rose, and the creatures and my brothers began to tumble in what looked to be a mini storm.

Fire rained down, hitting one of the beasts, turning it to ash in the blink of an eye, then another. I fought to keep upright, had to lean into the wind that had seemingly come from out of nowhere.

A mighty roar, reminiscent of what I had heard just before the steeple caved in, made me look up and what I saw, buckled my knees.

A dragon!

A large, deep green dragon.

His oversized wings flapped—the source of the wind—keeping him nearly still, hovering only a few feet above the ground. His head moved left and right, spewing flames so hot, they appeared more white than yellow, incinerating the terrifying creatures one at a time.

Even in my anxious state I noticed how well aimed the licks of flames were, only directed at the creatures, careful to avoid my brothers and me.

My brothers!

Caspian!

Regaining the use of my legs, I rose on them shakingly and made my way over to where Caspian lay on his side, bright red stains prominent on his white feathers.

My mind screamed, Oh no! Nonono, as I fell to my knees next to him, lifting him into my arms. His long neck hung lifeless to the side. My brother, my beautiful brother.

William and Richard joined me, then Philip and George. The others followed, mostly unhurt, but some sprinkled with blood. None of them were in bad shape though, not like Caspian.

Shakily I pressed my ear to Caspian’s body, where I heard a faint beat of his heart. Caspian, my mind cried, please hold on.

I was so absorbed in worry over my brother, that I didn’t notice that all the ghastly creatures were gone.

The dragon had landed on his legs, hands or paws or whatever it was that sat midway up his wings, pushed into the ground, his wings folded up, his head lowered, and he regarded my brothers and me through deep green eyes that looked more human than should have been possible, reminding me of my brothers. Was he a cursed creature as well?

Not knowing what to do, I held out my unconscious brother in my arms to him. My heart about stopped when the dragon carefully bumped his nose against Caspian’s feathered body. He seemed to sniff him before he lifted his head and our eyes met.

My heart skipped a beat. Edward. For some reason the man from the minimarket popped into my head. He had never been far from my mind ever since we met. Still, why would I think of him now? Only that… his eyes had been as green as the dragon’s.

Was that possible?

Anything is possible, I thought, looking at my brothers.

Can you help him? My eyes pleaded.

The dragon lowered a wing and tilted to the right. He wanted me to climb on his back.

I swallowed.

Having cursed brothers had somewhat prepared me for magic, but I was still shocked by the creatures who had attacked us, my heart was bleeding for Caspian… Caspian.

He needed help and I was the only one who could give it to him. Me and the dragon it seemed.

He had saved us.

I needed to be brave now. Determinedly, I gathered my long cumbersome skirt, while still supporting Caspian’s weight in my arms and climbed onto the dragon’s back.

My other brothers were squawking in alarm, dancing around, flying, but they too must have sensed that this was our only chance to save Caspian.

The dragon waited until I was safely situated on his back. I slung Caspian’s still-lifeless long neck over my shoulder, shifted him so I held him pressed against my chest with one hand, while my other grabbed hold of one of the large scales, and my legs cramped around the dragon’s wide back.

The dragon’s head turned to me, green eyes questioned, Are you ready?

I nodded with all the bravery I didn’t feel and the giant wings began to flap up and down. Something shifted as we rose and I closed my eyes for a few seconds to calm my erratically beating heart.

I snuggled my chin against Caspian’s neck, sought the softness of his feathers, and prayed that the dragon knew what he was doing and that we would find help for my brother. I didn’t think I could bear losing him.

My other brothers flew beside us, calling to each other now and then and I hoped like I had done so many times before that they were at least able to communicate with each other that way.

Underneath us was the forest, so far below, it made me dizzy. But for just one second, I thought, This is what my brothers experience, every day, followed by a short rush of excitement that died very quickly in the presence of the injured Caspian in my arm. Still, just for that one moment, I felt free.

Soon the trees vanished and the small town being built came into view. The dragon banked and lowered, smoothly landing by a row of houses. His head nudged me to look at a large sign in a yard, Dr. Michael Pinkerton, DVM. Veterinarian.

I wasn’t sure what that meant, but doctor was pretty self-explanatory, the rest was gibberish to me, but for some reason I trusted the dragon and climbed off his back.

I hastened up the few steps to the door, not caring that it was in the middle of the night. While I rang the doorbell, a whooshing sound behind me stirred the air and my hair, telling me that the dragon was taking off.

The rest of my brothers gathered around me, as I pressed the bell for a second time.

“Yeah, yeah, hold your horses, I’m coming,” a grumpy male voice sounded out from within, followed by some stumping sounds making me think he had stumbled and tried to catch his balance.

“Do you know what time—” A man, clad in pajamas, ripped the door open. His breath was heavy from running down the stairs I noticed behind him. His words broke off abruptly when he saw me, pitifully holding out Caspian to him in my arms.

“Oh my, what do we have here?” he asked, producing a pair of round glasses from his pajama pockets and pushing them up high on his nose.

“Come on in, come in. Did you hit the poor fellow?”

Hesitantly, I followed over the threshold into a narrow hallway, and from there through another door on the right. He clicked a light on, illuminating a medical room with a silver examination table in the center. The table was too short for a human and I realized that this must be a doctor for animals. Many pictures of dogs, cats, horses, even a cow with thank-yous attached to them decorated one wall, bearing further evidence to my assumption.

“Put it on here.” He knocked on the metallic table once and my hackles rose because he was calling my brother it.

I tampered it down though, because I understood. I only had to take a look at his round features to see that he cared. He was a nice man and didn’t mean anything derogatory about Caspian. He just didn’t know any better.

“What—” The vet broke off when he realized ten more swans had followed us into the examination room, cramping the small space.

“Friends?” The vet smiled at me, but it was a bit uneasy.

“Michael, what is going on—” A lady, just as round as the doctor, appeared. Curlers decorated her gray hair. She too was dressed in pajamas, but wore a bathrobe over it.

“Oh my…” she repeated the doctor’s earlier words.

“You poor thing.” She came toward me, put a hand on my arm, “Come, let Mike work on the bird and I’ll get us some hot chocolate, okay?”

I shook my head. I wanted to stay with Caspian.

“I’m Daisy, and this is Mike,” the lady said, looking at me questioningly and I raised my finger to my lips and shook my head to indicate I couldn’t speak.

It wasn’t pity that shone in her eyes, but compassion. “It’s alright. Come. I promise Mike will take care of your swan.” She tried to pull on me again, but I stood my ground. My brothers began to squawk and gently pushed against Daisy’s legs.

In the meantime, unperturbed, Mike examined Caspian. “Alright, so your swan is a he. And he has a nasty gash on his side. I’ll clean and stitch it. He’ll also need some antibiotics.” He looked up at me, resigned. “I suppose you can’t pay?”

I pulled out a golden ring, my mom’s wedding band, and handed it to him. Surprised, he looked at it.

“I can’t take that. That looks like a wedding ring.” His brow furrowed and he held the ring back out to me, offering it up on his outstretched palm.

I closed his fingers around the ring on his palm and pushed the hand back to him, beseeching him with my eyes to just take care of Caspian. My mom would have gladly sacrificed that ring for her son.

“Fine, sit.” He pointed at a chair behind me. “Daisy, just bring her some hot chocolate, she looks like death warmed over.”

“Poor child, what happened to you?” Daisy crooned at me.

Suddenly that was too much. Tears rolled down my cheeks and a sob pulled my shoulders up. Once the dam opened, there was no way for me to stop it, especially not when she pulled me into her arms and held me against her warm chest.

It had been so long since somebody had held me and told me everything would be alright, that I just sank against her and cried for what seemed like hours.