SeaDragon

“Follow the SeaDragon. She will lead you home.”

In a world of constant wars, where magic is real but magical creatures are not, fifteen year old Glossy Freeman and her cousin Eric make their living as mercenary-mages. This is the only life Glossy knows since the death of her father over ten years earlier and his dieing words are the only clue she has to her heritage, her home, and the truth about those closest to her. What is the SeaDragon’s secret? Glossy will do anything to know.

The Dream

It is so very dark that I cannot see out of the window. There are many gathered round the warm fire of the place I know as home. Eric, who is so much younger then, guides me away from the window and into another room, where it is empty and cool. He kneels down and brushes the hair away from my face. “Can you believe it, princess? We’re going to go home. You’ll get to see your mother again. We’re actually going home now!”

But, of course, I am to young to understand what the youth before me is saying. I am only a little girl. All I know is everyone is so scared and excited. Eric wraps me in blankets and picks me up, taking me back to the main room, and I am warmed again by the fire.

He speaks with those gathered around, and everything is set into action. The man I know as my father takes me from Eric, and the two women in the group wrap their own infants. The flames are doused and we leave the house in the midst of a cold night. I am very tired now, but I am filled with an energy I do not understand. The group moves so silently through the streets and alleyways of what I know now as the port city, Avelan.

I watch them now, from above, disembodied and hovering. I see me nestled in my father’s large arms, I see Eric, who sprints by my father’s side. Then I look up. I see something else moving, someone watching, a guard. By the time we make it to the docks, an alarm has been sounded that startles the girl-that-is-me from her comfort.

My father curses softly, and then urges the others to move quickly, but armed guards pour through the streets around them. They are trapped. Eric takes me into his arms and sets me on the ground, moving into the center of the group with the two women, where we will be safest. From above I see my father draw a sword and make the first move, and a bloody war erupts in the streets.

They make their way to a rather beautiful ship with a mark on it’s sail I do not know. As the men fight, the women, a few men, and Eric ready the ship to sail. The little girl watches them, until she sees something from the corner of her eyes, her wounded father comes aboard, clutching his bleeding side.

“Move quickly!” He urges the others, “If we do not leave now, we will be captured.”

The little girl watches him with fearful eyes as he takes a seat on the deck near her. The ship is cut loose and sails unfurled, away from the bloody war with less than half those who had been in the house earlier that evening. After that, sea is all she- I- know, as we make our way to a faraway place. But the journey is not easy, the two infants die after only a few days. Father becomes ill from his wound as it slowly becomes badly infected. The two women are also ill from grief.

Eric explains to me that my father may not make the trip back home, but I refuse to believe him. I run to my father’s side and beg him to come home with me. “Oh, my dear, sweet, daughter.” He tries to smile but it becomes a wince of pain. “If I cannot go home with you, then I will simply meet you there.”

“Papa, how will I find the way home without you?” To me, home is the place we ran away from. I do not understand this home all the others speak of, though it is the land of my heritage. I long simply for the warmth of a fire by night and the sun of the docks where I was slave by day. “Please take me home with you!”

He manages a smile this time and sighs, “All children must leave their old home and make way to new homes. They do not have someone to guide them and must go the journey alone, but I have one thing to tell you. If ever you are lost and confused, you must follow the SeaDragon. She will lead you home.”

“But papa, there are no dragons.” I reply.

He closes his eyes with another smile and falls asleep. Eric comes and takes me away. The next day we give his body back to earth and as I watch it sink in watery depths, I cannot help but wish I had some flowers to give him.

Weeks pass on as food runs low. “Hopefully we will be there soon.” They say. They cannot be sure because it has been so very long for them. I was born in bondage, and Eric taken when he was a very small child, but those we travel with know the place home. Clouds roll in though, just as we begin to see land, and a great storm sweeps over us.

Into the night we fight the ocean and a greater fear than the soldiers in the streets takes hold of me. In my mind I think that this is what they meant by home and part of me is happy. I fall into unconsciousness.

The next morning I awake on a piece of driftwood with Eric by my side. We float in the warm waters for many hours before another ship finds and rescues us. We were the only ones who survived. We, who did not know our way back home. So it began, our journey, to find it. To find the place everyone was looking for…