A.N, Thank you my readers for encouraging me to make Chapter 2! Here's a shout out to some of them!
BeaCurious
YoungBloodC
921Kathy
CasuallyGeneric
Jararocks101
ahlaibluewolf
h2346h
AjaxAth
agrolos
SnowslashChaos
Photo above by KittyCatzy
I woke up to a little bird chirping right out the window. I grabbed the curtains and pulled them closed, covering my face with my pillow.
My pillow was made of thin animal skin, stuffed with bird feathers.
The birds continued their chirpy songs and little chatter. After a minute or so I decided to get up.
I climbed out of bed and opened the curtain. "Quiet down out there!" I yelled sleepily. A crow landed on a tree branch right outside the window.
He puffed up his feathers and ducked his head to try and intimidate me, making those noises they make.
I grabbed my pillow and threw it out the window, the crow dodging it swiftly. The pillow crashed into the trees outside the window, tumbling to the ground, leaves and twigs falling on top of the white pillow. The birds all flew off for a second, but quickly landed back on the branches. The crow made a proud chirping sound, sounding like a 'You missed." Teasing chirp.
I groaned and grabbed my clothes off the side of my bed, and slipped them on, washing my face in a bucket under the bed. I grabbed my bow case filled with arrows and my bow, and my belt full of daggers.
I walked out my room and looked around. My mother wasn't here. She was probably out collecting something for the house- water, fruits, whatever. I made my way outside, squinting my eyes at the sun.
I skipped towards the tree beside my window, but pillow still sitting in a heep of leaves. As I closed distance, the birds began to gawk and chirp angrily. I picked up the pillow and dusted it from the soil and leaves that now left a light stain of brown on the white skin.
I slapped the crow with the pillow and it chirped in surprise and flew off. "You guys never know when to quit." I rolled my eyes, but before I could turn, the crow came swooping down biting at the skin of my pillow, flapping its wings rapidly to pull the pillow from my grasp.
"Hey!" I yelped. Either the birds were mad at me, or this pillow was stuffed with their cousins feathers, because they really wanted it.
With surprising amount of effort, I pulled the pillow from the crows beak. But even more surprisingly, the bird still held onto a piece of white skin from the pillow.
"Ugh!" I groaned dramatically as I saw the feathers spill out from a tear in the pillow. I huffed like a child and opened the curtains to my room from the outside. I threw my pillow onto my bedroom floor.
Closing the curtains, I walked into the village center. The center of the village had a big well and lots of marketing shops.
I shoved my way through the crowd of villagers, bumping my arm while doing so. I yelped in pain as I looked down at my saw arm that I had forgotten about. That'll probably need to be checked before my parents freak out, I thought.
But first I'd sit alone for awhile, like I often did. I had no friends, but not yours "I don't have any friends! I'm always getting bullied! I'm so depressed and lonely!" Type of no friends, it was "I don't care about you, I don't wanna be your friend. I don't care about you either. Or you." Type of no friends. No ones worthy. One day the right friend will come along, or maybe they won't, either way I didn't care.
I paused as the Ancient Heart Oak tree came into view. It was a large tree, it was as old as my tribe, and it's wood was tough. So tough some people used to carve them into swords and use them to fight.
They could be sharpened till they were as sharp as a blade and as strong as any weapon.
But since the Heart Oak tree was so important to our tribe, it became forbidden long ago to take wood off it. All the Heart Oak was thrown into the mining tunnels, and buried for good. But the Chief at the time, Chief Burgan, still wanted some Heart Oak in his household. So one of the planks of wood that make up his house- Yes, the Chiefs get wooden houses- was made of Heart Oak. It's still there till this day, in our Chiefs home. But nobody knows which one is the Head Oak, it looks identical to regular wood. But that's for the better, it would have been stolen by now if people could tell the difference.
So many wonders of Heart Oak, but my favorite is that, Heart Oak has something that really stands out from normal wood. All wood, catches on fire. Wrong. All but Heart Oak, Hear Oak actually doesn't catch on fire! You could drop it in a pit of lava and it wouldn't even get smoke.
My shoes crunches on the snow that surrounded this tree, as I made my wat towards it once more. I stretched my arms up as the reached the tree, grabbing hold of an old branch.
I pulled myself up, and gripped my shoes to the ancient bark of the tree, pushing myself up.
When I reached the first large branch, only a few metres off the ground, I sat down and leaned against its trunk.
I loved this tree. I really did. It was so magnificent. I loved it more than any human that was for sure. Well, except mother and farther of course.
I pulled out a dagger and cut the tip of the branch. I know I'm not supposed to, but I really want to, I thought. I began carving it into something, I wasn't quite sure of yet.
My mind began to wander to yesterday, to the dragon. It was so... Tame. Why?
My hands began to carve a little statue of a dragon. It was a strange thing, dragons. Vicious, powerful monsters, but... Somehow around her they seemed smart and tame somehow. But that's impossible. Everybody knows dragons are greedy animals.
My mind wandered back to the story my mother used to tell me as a child. The story of the dragons only wanting the Chiefs necklace, and nothing more. The story of how the war between man and dragon first began.
I had never seen the necklace before, except for once, on the Chiefs wedding day, he wore the necklace. The memory was a blur. I must've been five or six. The necklace had been circle, dark green colour, surrounded by gold, and attached to a gold chain. In the green circle was a drawing of a dragons head with an arrow through it.
They say the Chief Jarrath I, forged it from pure gold on the day of his sons birth, Jarrath II, so he would one day wear it. But the tales aren't too clear about where the dragons were before hand. They say they lived far away, but when they sensed the necklace was build, they came for it. It didn't make much sense, but I guess it was forgotten after generations.
Others say the dragons were only born after the creation of the necklace, or that the first dragon hadn't even hatched yet, the egg lay underground, but when the Chief went mining for gold to make the necklace, he cracked the egg, and the dragon flew out, and over time breed all these dragons.
It was impossible to know which one was real. But my favorite was the last one, of egg that lay underground. It was different. I like different. I'm different.
For a minute I thought about that. Did I want to be different. All the other girls got it so much easier. And for the second I considered caring about others opinions about me, a stab of regret tore at my heart.
I'm not the loyal, respectful, beautiful, elegant Lady my mother wanted me to be. I wish I could make her proud and be strong at the same time.
I'm not the little girl my father wants me to be. I'm a disappointment to my family and people, and a disgrace to our ways.
Wouldn't it be good to have a friend that I can talk to? Or someone that could keep me company when I was lonely or sad? Yes, that would be nice.
But what would I need to do to accomplish this dream?
I'd have to stop hunting, stop going out, stop making my own decisions, stop fighting, stop practicing, and instead my main priority in life will be keeping my house clean. Or showing off to other girls how beautiful I look.
No. That wasn't me. I would be wasting my life. What could I say I accomplished in life? What will my children remember me by? The lady who's house looked like heaven? The most beautiful girl in the village?
And what's to say if I don't accomplish these things?
I want to be remembered by my children and their children, as the bravest woman in the village. The lady who's bow skills outweigh any other lady in history!
Well... I doubt I'd have kids anyways. Who would marry someone like me?
I literally shook my head to stop my thoughts. I don't care about anyone's opinions. I hate everyone that hates me. I need a man. I don't need kids. I don't need friends. I want to be brave, strong, smart and awesome. That's all I want. That's all I want...
I slid off the tree branch, landing on the snowy, grassy ground, my body shaking from the fall. I looked down at the wooden dragon I carved. "Your my only friend little buddy. And from now on you will be my best friend." I smiled at the wooden dragon that stared at me.
"I'll call you Oak." I said, then a very indelicate laugh, or more of snort, escaped my mouth. Was I seriously talking to a statue? I guess that's what happens when you've been lonely all your life.
I tucked Oak in a large pocket in my dress. No one could even see it, it flowed perfectly with the dress. I skipped towards my house. I had to make sure nobody saw Oak. After all, what would they say when they see I took part of the Heart Oak, and made it into a dragon.
I stopped my skipping as I reached my house. My hand wrapped around the door nob, but paused. People were talking inside, mother, father and Leo.
What in the world was he doing here?
/2019/
/@BlueWhiskers1/
/Dragon Age./
/Chapter 2/