A Forgotten Love

Trapped

        

Esperanza watched the pirates move around the boat, all talking excitedly in a totally different tongue now that sounded to her like stones and knives scraping together. She had refused to sleep or even talk for 3 days straight and now fatigue was settling in on her. Her head continually drooped down and she had to remind herself that she couldn’t go to sleep with being sure she would be okay if she actually did fall asleep.

The next day all the pirates were moving around, preparing line and such, pulling down all the sails so the boat moved forwards under its own power. Esperanza noticed none of this. She sat, asleep, head down on her chin, without a care in the world. She was no longer tied up and had no guard watching over her while she slept. Both had been removed in the early dawn, after she’d fallen asleep.

 A few hours later, the boat pulled into the dock where a prestigious carriage waited for its special delivery. Esperanza did not wake as she was lifted off the deck by the carriage driver and put into the carriage, where it then drove away, harness jingling. The carriage traveled down cobbled roads where it finally stopped at a stone castle that rose up into the sky, watching over the city that lay below it. Esperanza was again picked up by the carriage driver, carried inside, and fussed over by two women before being laid down in a feather bed that was unoccupied. Esperanza knew nothing of this, and continued to sleep on, having been awake for the past 3.5 days.

 Obitus woke on the same day, though he was still out at sea. His wings hurt from the overflying that he’d done, and the dragon skull was gone from his face as well as the gold chains from around his neck. He stood and arched his back like a massive cat; and then flapped his wings to stretch those. It was only then that he noticed all of his feet were bound and his muzzle was chained shut. He growled, steam coming out of his nose. Sailors stopped what they were doing as he swung his head to stare at them. After a few moments of complete silence, the sailors went back to work again, though they cast nervous glances at Obitus from time to time as though they didn’t trust him to not scorch them.

After a while, the boy from before approached him nervously with the dragon skull in his hands. Obitus looked at the boy wanting to see what he did. The boy stretched his hands up and placed the skull back onto Obitus’ head. Obitus sighed, feeling the familiar creases of the skull back onto his head. Obitus realized that the boy was still staring at him and so Obitus stared back at him. Bright green eyes met bright green eyes and Obitus realized that in the sun, the boy’s hair glowed the golden color like his scales. Obitus let out a snort of amusement when a burly sailor, approached the boy and dragged him off glancing back at Obitus once. It was funny, the kid not being afraid of him but the big tough sailors were.

 For near three hours, Obitus sat on the wooden deck staring out at the horizon. It was only after, the sun had begun to set, setting the ocean on fire, that he spotted a smudge of land on the horizon. Almost immediately he was on alert, trying to find out where he was approaching. The smell of horses, and food hit his nose, even though they were still about 25 miles away from the land mass. The ship holding him sailed closer and Obitus wrinkled his brow in confusion as he was still trying to figure out what it was. He’d visited all the land masses once upon a time but that had been centuries ago and he suspected that more people had traveled and advanced their life styles.

About 1 ½ miles from the shore the crew lowered their anchor and the boat stopped, out of the harbor. Boat sailed past him and he could hear shouts of surprise as the people on them saw him. Eventually, night fell and Obitus was left gazing at the reflection of the moon on the water, lost in thought. Why was he even here in the first place? He was so drawn to Esperanza and he had no idea why. She made him think of the Ancient Dragon, and the special connection that’d felt with him. It was almost . . . inhuman. He snorted in amusement as he thought. Of course it’s inhuman. I’m not a human in the first place! , he thought. He heard the creak of the trapdoor opening on the ship and he turned his head to gaze at the boy with the golden hair from earlier, who’d given him his mask back. They gazed at each other in silence for a few moments before Obitus turned his head back to stare out over the water. He was sure Esperanza meant something in the terms of dragon history.

He heaved a sigh, before shifting and curling up into a smaller ball, tucking his tail around him.  He closed his eyes, and ignored the boy who was still standing next to him. Obitus could feel disappointment washing off of him like waves on a shore.

“Are you ok?” the boy asked in a smooth, rich tone.

Astonished, Obitus whipped his head up. He was talking in the Forgotten Language “Who are you?’ he snarled in reply, rising to his feet.