Bricrui (The Forgotten: Book 2) Page 8

  The woman covered her head with her hands as though embarrassed by the lack of horns, but then slowly straightened and lowered her arms.

  “But soon, she convinced herself that she was even more beautiful without them and she resumed her normal activities; basking in her reflection at the pond, having the woodland creatures bow to her every whim to beautify herself, and in general caring about nothing but her own importance.”

  The old woman posed for the young children, pretending to be Zuzka, flipping her hair about and pursing her lips into an imaginary mirror.

  “After about three days of this, the elder who had tried to teach her a lesson became frustrated. She hadn’t learned a thing! So he transformed himself, this time into a lion, and once again put himself into Zuzka’s path. ‘Kind dragon!’ he called to her, ‘Please won’t you help me; I seem to have gotten my claws embedded into this rock while trying to sharpen them and cannot get them out.’ Zuzka eyed the lion suspiciously, wary of the elder’s last lesson, but then glanced down at her own claws. She had just sharpened and buffed them and they were shining so prettily. If she used them to get the lion out, they would be ruined.”

  The woman paused, examining her own nails. Then she continued, flourishing her hand out over the children, “Zuzka turned to the lion and said ‘I cannot get you out, but I will find someone who will,’ to which the lion replied, ‘Oh, thank you kind lady, I shall be forever in your debt!’ Zuzka left the lion to go search for help…” she dramatically danced to the edge of the circle of listeners as though in search, holding her hand above her eyes, but then stopping suddenly, saying, “but as she passed her reflection in the pool, she promptly forgot all about the poor lion.” She dropped her hands to her sides and began posing once again.

  As the giggling died down, the woman resumed her previous position, extending her hand out onto a rock in the ground as the trapped lion. “The Elder was most displeased and he extricated himself from the situation to go find young Zuzka. When he approached her, Zuzka exclaimed, ‘Hey, I know you. You got yourself out I see.’ ‘Indeed,’ replied the lion, ‘with no help from you. I was there all day waiting for the help you promised.’ Zuzka shrugged, unconcerned. ‘Guess I forgot.’ ‘Indeed,’ the lion repeated and transformed back to his rightful shape. Zuzka begged him not to punish her for her misdeed, but her pleas fell on deaf ears. The elder stripped her of her beautiful claws.”

  The woman slunk away into the shadows, mimicking Zuzka’s shameful exit to her cave.

  “Once again, Zuzka spent several days in her cave and once again convinced herself she was more beautiful without her claws. The elder was not pleased. This time he transformed into a bird, an emu, one of the flightless birds of the Plains with large bodies, long legs, and tiny wings. Then he strutted out in front of Zuzka, flapping his wings every now and then as he made a show of pecking at the ground in front of her. Zuzka watched the bird dispassionately. Finally she could take it no more and said, ‘The elder tells me that all creatures are equal, but look at you, you have wings but can’t even fly! I can soar through the air like no other animal. Surely, I am the most important of them all.’ The elder transformed, ‘Not so, young Zuzka, and now you show me that it is your flight you shall do without.’”

  The woman glanced around at her audience. “Does anyone know what he transformed into next?” she asked and several answers were thrown out as suggestions.

  “A bat!”

  “A turtle!”

  “A fish,” said an older boy, rolling his eyes. Having obviously heard the story already, he decided to ruin the younger ones’ fun. Someone poked him in the ribs and there was a slight grumbling through the crowd.

  The woman did not allow it to faze her. “That’s right, a fish. As Zuzka was admiring her reflection in the pond, a fish swam by that was the elder, once again disguised. He looked up at Zuzka staring at her reflection and made as if looking at himself in comparison. Zuzka noticed him and scoffed. ‘Look at how dull your scales are,’ she said to the fish condescendingly, ‘compared to mine. Mine shine and sparkle in the sunlight with unmatched beauty. You cannot hope to compete with me. Now be gone.’ Once more the elder transformed and lectured the young dragon and took away the scales she so vainly bragged about, trying desperately to get her to reform.” She glanced around, “And next?”

  “A mouse!” yelled another older boy. The first still held a pout from the reception his ‘guess’ had gotten and remained silent. He now looked annoyed that the second boy’s outburst hadn’t gotten criticism as well.

  The woman just continued her story. “As Zuzka was basking on her usual rock, the elder approached her in the form of a mouse. ‘You are laying on top of my home, dragon, please get off. My children are in there!’ Zuzka didn’t even open her eyes. He asked again, and still got no response other than the dragon swiping at him with her forearm.” The old woman slashed an arm through the air dramatically, drawing gasps from the crowd. “’Move!’ the little mouse cried and finally Zuzka cracked open an eye for just a moment. ‘Make me,’ she told him. The elder transformed back to a dragon, bellowing his rage at Zuzka’s refusal to respect her fellow creatures. ‘This is the last straw, Zuzka, I am taking away your size too if you will so misuse it. I am at my wits end, and will give you no more chances. Until you prove to me on your own that you understand the value of respect for your fellow creatures, you will remain this way!’ So now, Zuzka had no horns, no claws, no wings, no scales, and was the size of a mouse.”

  The woman moped around with a pathetic look on her face.

  “Then one day, as Zuzka was hiding out in a tree so that none of her friends would see her in such a state, she heard someone crying. Having done the same many times the last few days, she rushed to investigate. Not, mind you,” she held up a finger, “for the purpose of sympathizing, but rather because she thought it would be nice to see someone in a worse situation than herself.” She gave all the children a pointed look, as though admonishing them for doing the same themselves, and several looked down at the ground.

  “Soon, she found the source of the crying and was gleeful to discover that it was the ugliest, most pathetic creature she had ever seen. It had no arms, no legs, was a disgustingly gross slimy pink color, and had no redeeming features whatsoever that she could see. In short, it was a worm serpent. She laughed out loud as she approached, and the thing looked up at her and sniffled. ‘I can see why you are crying,’ she told it, ‘you are truly the most disgusting creature in the world.’ The serpent looked at her with unseeing eyes. ‘I am not crying for me,’ it told her, ‘but for the dragons that live here. I used to create tunnels in the ground which diverts the flow of water around their homes, but recently one of the young dragons thought it would be funny to pick me up and place me up here on this ledge where I cannot get down. I don’t think she meant to cause such harm, but she seems to have forgotten my plight.’ Zuzka felt an unfamiliar feeling wash over her: shame. She vaguely remembered having been the one to have placed the worm there…and he was right, she had meant to come back for him later that day. But like most things that didn’t directly have to do with her, it had slipped her mind.”

  The old woman widened her eyes to two round orbs and mouthed ‘oops’. Several children giggled once more.

  “Zuzka was worried, and asked ‘why does that matter to the dragons? They are the most powerful creatures in the world, anything you can do, they can do better.’ The worm looked at her with blind eyes, his features accustomed to digging. ‘They cannot,’ he told her, ‘the area makes it impossible to use magic to accomplish and they are much too big to physically dig it with the detail it requires. I do not think they even realize the significance of what I do, and wouldn’t even know to try. I fear that with the next rain, their homes will be destroyed.’ Zuzka was truly worried now, and surprised herself by her first thinking of what would happen to the children before worrying about her own possessions. It was nesting season and there were many young dragons
in nests who would be harmed by a sudden flood. ‘What can we do?’ Zuzka asked the worm serpent. The worm wriggled around to the edge of the ledge it was trapped upon and twitched part of its body towards the earth far below. ‘I need to get back to my holes, over there,’ he said, ‘if I can get back to them quickly enough, I will be able to make the tunnels to save their homes. But I can feel the rain coming, we may already be too late.’”

  The woman looked up into the sky, which in reality was clear, but she continued saying, “As Zuzka looked to the sky, she saw that indeed, rainclouds were rolling in quickly. She guessed that the rain would begin within the hour. If only she hadn’t teased the little worm serpent, the dragons wouldn’t be in danger! And now that she was a useless tiny thing, there was nothing she could do about it. In her natural form, she could simply pick him up and put him back in his rightful place.”

  The woman paced back and forth, clasping her hands together and pressing them to her mouth as if in deep thought. The children watched with wide eyes, enthralled, and several of their mouths were hanging open in fear for the dragons.

  The woman stopped her pacing and took up the story once more, saying, “A bird suddenly lighted on a branch next to their ledge and greeted them. ‘I couldn’t help but overhear your predicament,’ it said, ‘perhaps I can help.’ Zuzka’s first reaction was that this tiny bird couldn’t do anything, but then an idea struck her. ‘You can go ask the dragons for help!’ she exclaimed. ‘They are the only ones who can fix this.’ The bird looked at her, and then up at the sky. ‘I would not be able to reach their homes and return with them in time. We will have to do it ourselves.’”

  The old woman threw up her arms in a gesture of Zuzka’s impatience. “‘How can we do anything? It is hopeless if we cannot reach the dragons in time,’ Zuzka cried, sure that the dragons’ homes were doomed. A tiny bird, a worm serpent, and her in her current useless form were certain to fail. The little bird eyed her. ‘It sounds like you’ve been spending too much time with that conceited little dragon whelp that comes around the forest, ordering us around. She may think that we’re nothing because of our size, or our appearance, or our abilities, but don’t let her convince you that you are nothing. We all have things that are special about us. Just like the worm serpent here; he can do something that the dragons cannot.’ Zuzka scoffed at her. She went on, ‘Can dragons turn nectar from flowers in honey like the bees? Can they swim underneath the water without breath like the fish? Can they all work together like a group of ants, carrying ten times their weight and knowing, as a single mind, where to dig to create their intricate cities in the earth?’ The little bird paused, and Zuzka was forced to admit that dragons could not do any of these things. For the first time in her life, she thought about all the other creatures in the world for a change.”

  The storyteller looked skywards, her hand to her chin as in contemplation. “‘Alright,’ Zuzka declared, ‘let’s figure out a way to get this wonderful creature down there!’ Together, she and the little bird tried to find a way to get a hold on him to move him safely off the ledge. But his skin was too slimy for her claws to get a grip on without hurting him, and he kept sliding off Zuzka’s back when they tried. Another little bird joined them and asked what was going on. The first bird explained quickly, ‘that bully of a dragon left this worm serpent up here where he’s unable to get back to his work. As soon as those rainclouds blow in, the river will flood out the dragons’ homes.’ The second bird snorted, ‘It would serve that trouble-maker right for everything she’s put us through. As if we all don’t have better things to do with our time than buff her stupid claws. If it wasn’t for the rest of the dragons doing so much for us…’ he trailed off and the hint of his intentions of what he’d like to do with her made Zuzka’s face flush. She was surprised by how embarrassed the realization of what the forest creatures actually thought of her made her feel.”

  The old woman hung her head momentarily.

  “More and more little birds came to help, and eventually, they got Zuzka to wrap her legs around the worm and each of them held onto one of her limbs. Normally, she would have dreaded contact with a creature so far beneath herself, but she was beginning to realize just how important he was. With a bird holding on to each leg, and two on her tail, they were finally able to get the worm up off the ground. They made slow progress towards the holes below, with the storm looming ever closer. Finally, they reached the spot, and the worm serpent set right to work, tunneling into the ground. Zuzka sat with the birds, huddling together, awaiting the rain to see if they had gotten him here in time. As droplets fell to the earth, harder and harder, they all watched in trepidation, to see if the river would be properly diverted. The water levels rose quickly with the sudden downpour, threatening to overflow the riverbed, and then suddenly leveled out, the excess water abruptly allowed to drain elsewhere. The little worm had done it! Zuzka cheered with the rest of the audience of creatures, which had tripled since their flight had drawn attention. Then, out of nowhere, the elder dragon appeared. Zuzka tried to hide behind the birds, sure he was going to take something else away from her for having created the almost-disaster.”

  The woman hurried forward into the throng of children and pulled several of them around her, as though trying to hide, amidst their laughter.

  “But the elder just smiled at her. ‘Finally, Zuzka, you have learned the importance of the other creatures, and seen that they can accomplish what we dragons cannot. You have earned the right to your natural form again.’ Zuzka tried to stop him, embarrassed to sudden turn into the dragon that these creatures had been talking of so unkindly, but he was too fast. The creatures all watched in shocked surprise, and Zuzka hung her head. ‘I don’t know what to say,’ she said, looking at the ground. Then, the worm serpent, his job finished, stuck his head out of a nearby hole and wriggled over to her, laying his body over her fore-claws. ‘I hope that you learned something here today,’ he said to her and she looked down at him gratefully. The other animals, though still wary of her, did not move to leave and she immediately went about to apologize to them each personally, vowing to never again be a bully among them.”’

  The old woman wove through the crowd of children, shaking hands with them as she went, before making her way back to the front. She stood there silently a moment before she wrapped up her tale with, “And the elder created the lizard to remind Zuzka and those like her about the importance of all creatures, and what one can accomplish even when they don’t have all the things she used to think made her the most important creature in the world.” The woman clapped her hands together in finality. “And that, my dears, is where lizards come from.”

  Katya found that she had been transfixed along with the children and had to tear herself away from the group even as the old woman began another tale. It was all well and good that she was learning the fables of the Dena’ina people, but she needed to find where they kept this artifact so she could steal it from them. Hunter’s life depended on it.

  So far, she didn’t see any indication of where it was. Aside from the fact that the tribe was fairly spread out, there was also the high level of paranoia prevalent in all areas. They were ready for an attack at all times. Even the children were always armed. There were quite a few dangerous-looking beasts that Katya had encountered on her journey here that could possibly account for this, especially when they were on ground level, but that didn’t quite seem to make sense. Katya couldn’t put her finger on it.

  There was quite a bit of sentry activity and she decided that this might be a good place to start. So after tearing herself away from the story-telling, she picked a group to follow for the night. It was bound to be a boring few nights as she learned the routines of all of the guards.

  *

  Lorcan slunk around the edge of the Chamber. He was beginning to enjoy his new game, spying on the dealings of the Elders, although what he was finding out was more than a bit disturbing. Since the Arrival when the baby had been brought he
re from the Lost Lands, they had all been acting strangely. The visitors from the other tribes had returned home soon after the event, but the members of the circle from the Myaamia continued to meet almost daily, even after the child was returned to its parents. Lorcan was also confused by the rumors spreading through the tribe that Katya had supposedly attacked one of the strangers, the man they had moved from the cell to the infirmary, and had then been banished. Since he knew that that’s not what really happened, he was insatiably curious to find out what was going on.

  He crept up to his hiding spot, proud that he could so easily listen in to the secrets that the Elders thought were so carefully guarded. He had even been able to create a tiny hole in their magical barrier through which to send in a tiny probe of his own. They had not detected a thing. He puffed out his chest in pride. He longed to tell the other children of his feat, but knew that none of them could be trusted to keep a secret. So instead, he teased them with bits of knowledge that only he knew, pretending that he picked the tidbits up from Slade.

  Adjusting himself on his familiar perch, he leaned forward to listen to the current dealings. Kali was calling for quiet.

  “Our spells to monitor the progress in the Lost Lands have been detected and currently disabled. For the moment, we will be flying blind. But not to worry,” she assured the murmuring crowd, “in the last moments leading up to the event while we could still scry into the palace, there was still no indication that they have any clue as to what’s really going on. They still believe that we were thwarted in our attempt and are now regrouping for another. They do not realize that our plan is still in motion.”

  “And their actions are carrying it out,” snickered another.

  “Indeed,” Kali agreed, “And furthermore, they have so many other problems at the moment, they will find it impossible to worry about us.”