This story is an allegory about me and two friends of mine. I wrote this story to celebrate their 4-year anniversary.

Mandarin Wings

by Yuoofox

Once upon a time, there were two dragons. They lived on a sizable but extremely remote island in the middle of the ocean. The first dragon’s name was Mandarin. As her name implies, Mandarin was an oriental dragon. She had sleek green scales and amber eyes. The second dragon was named Thaniel. He had heavy amber scales and green eyes. Thaniel had enormously large wings. Together, they lived happily on their island, an island with everything you could ask for, including waterfalls, lagoons, a volcano, meadows, forests, and an assortment of secret caves.

Mandarin was born on the island. She had never left because she was born without wings, and it was too dangerous to swim great distances. (Even dragons try to avoid great white sharks when they can.) After several years of being alone, Thaniel flew to the island to explore it. He met Mandarin, and immediately they fell in love. They were very happy together, except for one week every year when Thaniel would fly away to pay homage to the king, who lived far away. Every year, Thaniel would fly back to the island, carrying with him various exotic and beautiful gifts from the king. This way, the two dragons accumulated many wonderful things, such as glowing gems or a magic telescope, which Mandarin would use to watch Thaniel after he had disappeared across the horizon. Sadly, they had not yet received the gift they wanted most, a pair of wings for Mandarin.

One morning, Mandarin woke up. She hurried out of her cave and up the path which lead to an observatory. She opened the door and went to the magic telescope lying on a pedestal. Thaniel had been gone for a week, and today he was due to return. She flipped the telescope from viewpoint to viewpoint, scanning each horizon for her beloved. After a while, Mandarin left the observatory to catch breakfast, and when she returned, she looked and--

“Thaniel!” she yelled with joy. She saw an amber flying form over the ocean. Since she was using viewpoint number three, it meant that Thaniel was only six hours away. Mandarin danced around, joyfully yelling, “Thaniel’s coming! Thaniel’s coming!” She ran into a field and began teasing and chasing some cows that were grazing there.

“Thaniel’s coming!”

“Moo?”

“Yes, he’s finally coming.”

“Moo.”

“Good, now I’ll have someone to talk to besides cows.”

The cow snorted indignantly as Mandarin ran off. Mandarin passed the time by preparing a large cauldron of shrimp gumbo, their favorite soup. Mandarin hung the cauldron from a chain. She lay down beneath it and began to breathe on it gently. Blue flames licked the bottom and sides of the cauldron. On normal days, she would have simply used firewood, but today was a special day, and every dragon knows that food tastes the best when cooked by yourself.

She passed the time underneath the cauldron by singing to herself and watching the horizon. (You can point your face upward and still see the horizon when you have eyes to the sides of your head.) Last year, she tried reading a book and cooking, but she ended up setting the book on fire! Suddenly, she saw a spot appear above the horizon. Mandarin was so excited that she nearly hit her head on the cauldron of shrimp gumbo soup. She made her way to the beach, and using a nearby palm tree as a support, she stood up on her hind legs. She yelled and waved to Thaniel, who waved back to her. As he got closer, she noticed that something was different. Instead of carrying a net full of cargo, Thaniel was carrying only one small item. As he got closer, she saw that it was something fuzzy and white-silver in color.

“Welcome back, Thaniel! Say, what have you got there?” she asked as he landed.

“Some sort of talking beast. I think it’s ill,” replied Thaniel, handing it to her. The creature was very weak. On closer inspection, she discovered that it was a male fox with light silver fur and unusually large ears. This fox had bulky sackcloth wrapped around his loins, and he was wearing a beautiful mithril cross around his neck. His eyes were open but unfocused, and he was whispering the Lord’s Prayer over and over. His eyes focused on the two dragons, and he began to tremble. Thaniel gently laid a claw on him and said, “Peace. Rest now, for you are among friends.” The fox said nothing, but he visibly calmed down and fell asleep.

As the fox was resting in a bed of moss in a cave, the two dragons conversed. “On my return flight, I saw something in the middle of the ocean. I flew down, and I saw the fox barely clinging to a piece of driftwood. For a while, I tried to carry both him and the king’s gift, but I couldn’t manage. Eventually, I had to drop the king’s gift in the ocean. You would have liked it, I think.”

“What was it?”

“It was a beautiful new kind of musical instrument. Piano, I think they called it.”

“It doesn’t matter. Come, let’s attend to our first guest on this island.”

Two days later, a fox named Yuoo awoke in his cave. He sat up, and immediately put a paw to his forehead. “groan What a headache!” Yuoo carefully stood up and began to look around. The cave was small and plain. The only thing there was his brown sackcloth robe and his cross, both of which he put on. Yuoo ventured outside. He walked down a path until he met one of the dragons. Yuoo was afraid at first, but then he remembered his rescue. “Good morning. Or is it good evening? How long have I been resting?”

“It’s evening, and you’ve been asleep for two days.”

“Two days? Well, I… Wait? Where are my manners? My name is Yuoo. I am a Fennec fox. I am a monk from the order of St. Vixen. I want to thank you for saving me,” Yuoo said, bowing reverently.

“The pleasure is mine, or ours, I should say. My name is Mandarin. It was Thaniel that found you.”

“Where is he?”

Mandarin replied by pointing upward. Yuoo turned around and looked just in time to see Thaniel landing with a flourish.

“Oh, good you’re awake.” After exchanging introductions and greetings, Yuoo told the pair of dragons his story.

He began, “All creatures at St. Vixen are required to go on a pilgrimage when they come of age. Some go to the mountains. Others go to the cities, spending time living with and helping the poor. However, when it came time for my pilgrimage, I was visited in a dream by an angel. The angel told me to go to the port town and take the first ship heading to the West. Obediently, I did as the angel commanded, and...”

Yuoo buried his face in his paws.

“What happened?”

Yuoo groaned and replied, “It wasn’t a pleasant voyage. First of all, the crew turned out to be pirates. They…well let’s just say that I was the only one alive by the time the typhoon hit.”

“Ouch.”

“Tell me about it. This certainly has turned out to be a strange pilgrimage.”

Over the course of a year, Yuoo stayed with the two dragons, and they became very good friends. One afternoon, Mandarin sat by brook, looking depressed. Yuoo sat by her, meditating and reciting the Credo-Vixenarius. Yuoo stopped and said to her, “Your sadness keeps throwing off my tranquility. What’s wrong?”

“Well, it will soon be time for Thaniel’s trip to see the king.”

“What’s wrong with that? When you two are flying to…” Yuoo trailed off as the realization hit him, “Oh! Sorry, I forgot.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Mandarin replied darkly.

The next day, Thaniel came and asked, “Mandarin, have you seen Yuoo? He’s been gone all day.”

“No. That’s strange. He’s usually up and about.”

The two dragons searched the island until they found Yuoo sitting at the rim of the volcano, very deep in prayer.

“Yuoo, are you okay?”

Yuoo had a strange, distant look in his eyes as he answered,

“Those who hope in the LORD,

Will renew their strength,

They will soar on wings like eagles,

They will run and not grow weary,

They will walk and not be faint.”

“Yuoo, are you okay?”

Yuoo shook his head as if he were just waking. He smiled broadly and said, “I’ve discovered why I was sent to this island.”

“Why?”

“I was sent here to give you the gift of flight, Mandarin.”

“What? How?”

“I have been given some very strange instructions, but if you trust me, I want you to carry them out.”

Mandarin paused, and then said, “I will. I mean, I trust you.”

Yuoo turned to Thaniel, “This involves you, too. Do you trust me?”

Thaniel replied, “You know I do, Yuoo.”

Yuoo smiled, and then he laughed to himself. Eventually, he said to them, “And now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a lot of work to do.”

With that, he got up on his footpaws and skipped quickly down the mountainside. Mandarin gave Thaniel a wry smile, “I don’t know what will come of this, but these next few days won’t be dull. That’s for sure.”

Later on, Yuoo came to them, carrying a knife, a pair of tongs, a rag, a mallet, and stone bowl.

“Thaniel, I need to ask a favor of you.”

“What is it?”

“I need to cut a small piece from each of your wings.”

“Huh? Why?”

“I’m sorry. I can’t explain it right now. Please trust me.” Thaniel agreed, so Yuoo cut a small triangle, about the size of a tortilla chip, from the each of Thaniel’s wings. “Thank you.”

Mandarin blew a small puff of flame to each wing to sterilize the wounds.

“Mandarin, I’ll need your help for this next part.” Yuoo removed the mithril cross from his neck and placed it in a stone crucible. “Mandarin, I need you to melt this cross down.”

Surprised, Mandarin asked, “Are you sure?”

“Yes. Besides, this cross doesn’t belong to me anyway.”

“Whose is it?”

“It belongs to the One who brought me here in the first place.”

Mandarin gave her hottest, brightest flame, and after a few minutes, the cross went from bright silver to yellow to cherry red. Just before it finally melted, the metal turned white.

Yuoo took one of the triangle pieces of Thaniel’s wings. He gripped it with the tongs, and he dipped it in the molten mithril. He dipped it in the stream to cool. He did the same with the other triangle piece. They inspected the pieces. The mithril had coated them so finely that they could still see the veins of Thaniel’s skin underneath it. Both pieces were completely coated, except for the very center of each piece, which was where the tongs had gripped them.

Yuoo grabbed the mallet and faced Mandarin. “Uh, Mandarin? This is the last step, but I don’t think you’re going to like it.”

“What are you going to do?”

Yuoo walked behind Mandarin. “Hold still, please.”

“Yuoo, what are you—OUCH!! WHAT THE—OUCH!!” Mandarin turned around and began shaking Yuoo. “What the heck do you think you’re doing?”

“Sorry, but the last step was to embed the two pieces into your back.”

Mandarin was about to reply, but then a strange feeling came over her. The sharp pain of two pieces of metal sticking in her back was replaced with warmth. It seemed like the two pieces were dissolving into her flesh. It felt like melting a piece of chocolate in her mouth. Mandarin turned her head to look at her back. (When you’re a dragon, you can do this.) The two stab wounds, if they were ever there, were gone.

“What do I do now?” she asked.

“Nothing, we wait.”

As the sun set, Mandarin and Thaniel returned to their cave, and Yuoo returned to the snug burrow he had dug. The next morning, Yuoo got up and ran to the dragons’ cave. Thaniel was outside to meet him. “Did it work? Did anything happen?” asked Yuoo.

“Well…sort of. You need to see for yourself.”

Yuoo went into the cave to find a very bewildered Mandarin. She was in shock, looking at her new unusual “wings.” Out of her back, just below her shoulder blades, grew two flaps. These flaps were about 100 centimeters long each, and they had the thickness and texture of plastic wrap. They were slightly green in color.

“Uh, Yuoo? I appreciate your effort, but I don’t think I can fly with these.”

“Perhaps they’re not ready yet. Maybe they’re still growing.”

“I can’t even move them. They’re just…stuck there.”

“Can you feel this?” asked Yuoo as he rubbed one of her wings between his fingers.

“No. Wait. I feel something. I felt a slight tingle.”

“I have an idea. Come outside.”

She walked outside, and her wings were exposed to the full sunshine. Mandarin immediately felt a burning sensation in her wings. It wasn’t quite painful, but it was unpleasant enough. “Ahhhhiiiiiii,” she said, twisting her face. A moment later, she realized something.

“Hey, Thaniel, Yuoo. I think I know what this is. This feels the same as when your leg falls asleep, and the blood starts to flow back into it.”

“Can you move them?”

“A little bit, but they’re very weak. I think I need to strengthen them.”

Over the next couple days, Mandarin soaked her wings in the stream and in the sunshine. Sometimes, Thaniel would massage them.

Over time, Mandarin’s wings grew beautifully. They grew to a total length of 6 meters each. They were translucent and extremely thin, but they were strong. Mandarin discovered that she could manipulate and bend every inch of them. She discovered that she was dexterous enough with them to do things that she normally did with her forepaws, such as opening doors, picking things up, and even writing with an ink pen. And, oh, they were remarkably strong. One evening, she impressed the other two by reaching up into a palm tree with her left wing. She daintily picked a coconut from the tree. Then, grasping the coconut in both wings, she skillfully ripped it half without spilling much of the milk inside. When she wasn’t using them, she could roll her wings up like window shades. Later, they noticed that her wings weren’t completely blue. In the center of each wing was a large mark. The mark was the same color as the skin of Thaniel’s wings and the same shape as the tong-tips Yuoo used. Mandarin’s wings had no blood flowing through them, but they were always supplied with their own energy source. Thus, Mandarin wouldn’t get tired from flying, like Thaniel did.

A couple days later, the three of them departed. Mandarin and Thaniel took turns carrying Yuoo. They visited the king, who was delighted by Yuoo’s wisdom and Mandarin’s pyrotechnic displays. As they departed, the king gave each of them a gift. The king gave Mandarin two jeweled covers for her wings when she had them rolled up. The king gave Thaniel something called a GPS, which is a type of magic compass. The king appointed Yuoo to the position of Abbot of St. Vixen, and he gave him a nice red habit to wear. This habit was especially designed for Yuoo. The hood had two sleeves for his ears to fit into. Thaniel and Mandarin flew Yuoo back to St. Vixen’s, making a spectacular entrance. Because of this, Abbot Yuoo became the envy of all the monks at St. Vixen’s, and he lived happily ever after.

Mandarin and Thaniel flew back to their island, where they too lived happily ever after.

The End.