8 Years Ago
It is tradition that every year on December 1st the children who turned 12 will take their place one by one on the podium, to reveal their animal forms before the village. Most children have a distant feeling the moment they turn 12 about what type of animal form they will have.
But Lyra....Lyra felt nothing.
No pull.
No feeling.
Nothing at all
She just felt. Normal.
To the village, normal is having an animal form; a choice to change from human to animal, to become something more than human.
Anyone who doesn't fit their understanding of normal is cast aside and ignored.
Lyra can't afford that. She can't afford to be cast aside. She can't afford to be ignored.
In the village, if a child does not reveal their animal form at the ceremony, they are sent away to a destitute place where only those without animal forms live, or worse, they disappear. Lyra's mother had warned her of this, of what would happen if she did not shift but Lyra laughed it off stating,
"I'll make them keep me here."
But even Lyra did not believe her own words.
Ever since she turned 12, she had pretended that everything was fine. Pretending that she could feel the animal inside of her. Pretending that she was normal. She even went as far as to pick the animal she wanted to become.
'A wolf'
In her village, wolves were strong, respected, loyal, and safe. But standing at the edge of the crowd of 12 year olds, furthest from the podium where they would present their animal, Lyra felt nothing.
No animal, no instinct.
The only thing Lyra felt was the erratic pounding of her heart that felt as if it travelled throughout the courtyard everyone was gathered in.
Names, after names were called. The further the list went down, the harder her heart pounded and the sweatier her hands became, until...
"Lyra Vale"
Her head shot up towards the speaker, all eyes were on her, people where pushing her forward, encouraging her towards the podium but Lyra didn't hear anything aside from the pounding in the centre of her chest.
She eventually made it to the podium and looked around the at the people gathered in front of her. She caught her mother's gaze, the fear in them paralysing her before she could take the last step.
Fear, not disappointment like Lyra had thought she would see.
But pure fear
Lyra shook it off thinking
'Its fine, I'll just make sure they keep me here and if not, well lets just not think about that.'
Lyra continued to walk on the podium until she reached the runes engraved in the floor, she admired them for a moment.
So intricate. So beautiful. So terrifying.
The runes begun to glow under her feet with the snap of the announcers fingers. They burned a bright orange, then green, blue, pink, purple, brown and black. Then it just went away.
The entire crowd gasped. Murmurs begun. Some laughed.
Lyra already knew she didn't have an animal but with the entire village now knowing, she couldn't help but feel ashamed.
People started yelling.
"She's powerless, get her out of here"
"Get her away from the village before she poisons the younger children"
"How did she even make it here"
The words crashes into Lyra. As her chest tightened, she looked down to her shaking hands. She wanted to run, to disappear. But as luck would have it, her feet remained frozen to where she stood.
"ENOUGH"
Her mother's voice cut through the crowd and everyone went silent.
Lyra looked towards her mother as she was fighting through the crowd that was holding her back.
"THAT'S MY DAUGHTER"
"AND SHES POWERLESS" someone replied
Her mother stopped as the colour drained from her face. Lyra had never seen her mother so afraid, not even when she was sick or injured herself when climbing a tree.
This was different.
The announcer stepped towards Lyra with a confused expression on his face as his eyes were glued to the runes beneath her feet.
The black glow disappeared but there were hairline cracks in the centre of the runes.
"I've never seen that before, step off the runes"
He looked at Lyra as she didn't move.
"I said step off"
She finally forced herself to move, one step at a time.
The moment she moved off the runes, the crowd surged backwards, as if she was contagious.
"I'm sorry"
She stated, unsure to herself if she was talking to her mother, the village or herself.
The announcer raised his hand to announce that the ceremony was over, which caused the crowd to erupt.
"She cant stay"
"Send her away"
"She's dangerous"
"She's nothing!"
Nothing.
That word hurt more than others.
Lyra spent the first 11 years of her life wondering what type of animal she would have. Spent 11 years dreaming about it.
But now.
Infront of everyone, she had her answer.
She was nothing.
Her mother reached the podium and grabbed Lyra's hand.
"We need to go. Now."
"Mum..."
Lyra couldn't finish her sentence as her mother was dragging her off the podium away from the crowd, when her head down trying to keep the tears at bay.
She could hear what people were whispering as they passed
Powerless
Defective
Monster
Dangerous
Once they were nearly away, Lyra had an urge to look back at the podium.
The runes were dark. Completely dark, except for one.
At the very centre of the podium, where Lyra stood, was a faint glow of gold.
Then.
It blinked away. As if Lyra imagined it.
YOU ARE READING
The Last Dragon
FantasyEveryone remembers the girl who failed to shift. No one remembers what happened when the runes turned black. For eight years, Lyra Vale has lived as an outsider in a world where having an animal form means having a place in society. She has learnt t...
