Cursed: Chapter Two: Meeting Winter

Chapter Two

Meeting Winter

    I watched the dragons for a long time. Around three years. By then I was about fifteen. I almost seemed like another person. My time watching the dragons brought a huge change in me. I was happier, and woke up each day with a sense of adventure. My awesome quick-learning skills actually made me fluent in dragon by now. I was climbing a tree. It was the tallest tree in the forest and the best spot for me to be a lookout. No one knew I was doing it, but whatever. I emerged above the treetops and found myself covered in sunlight. Not a cloud in the sky today.

    I shielded my eyes against the glare, looking towards what I now learned was called Jade Mountain. Where was Winter, the blue dragon I had seen the first time I followed him? He usually came alone now, his friend Kinkajou off doing something somewhere. I gathered that usually he was collecting people for his "scavenger observatory". Where was he, anyway?

    Wingbeats behind me made me freeze. Oh dear. I spun around and saw Winter. He was flying towards me, scanning the forest below. I pressed closer to the trunk, praying he wouldn't see me, but too late. Winter looked up and his eyes met mine. Oh dear times ten. Winter froze, hovering in the air, then slowly began coming towards me. "Hey," he said in Dragon. "It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you."

    Like you would, I wanted to tell him. He was very fond of the "scavengers". My mind instantly replayed every single escape maneuver I could do. As kind as this IceWing was, I didn't want to be stuck in an observatory. I picked the way of escape that was most likely to succeed, and jumped. I clutched my cloak to my chest as I fell, wind whistling in my ears. That branch was free of any poky things. I'll take that one. I grabbed it as I passed and wrapped my arms around it like a sloth. Wingbeats told me Winter was following.

    Ignoring him, I leapt off the branch and disappeared into the canopy. Only too late did I realize it was right next to a clearing, an easy landing spot for my pursuer. Muttering a mix of Human and Dragon swear words, I landed on the ground just as Winter did. I instinctively rolled to the side as Winter grabbed at the spot I had just been. He seemed slightly impressed, but I didn't stop to chat. I sprang to my feet and jumped a full foot into the air, grabbing a branch above my head and hauling myself onto it. Honestly. Why did I weigh that much? I quickly disappeared into the branches using the stealth methods I had taught myself.

    Pressing my back against the trunk, I climbed as swiftly as a squirrel to the branches above Winter's head, crouching on one of them to watch him. He had no clue where I had gone. "Hey, little scavenger. Come out."

    "Come on," I whispered in Human. "Most people wouldn't understand you, you know. You aren't that dumb." I hooked my legs around the branch.

    "I'm not going to hurt you," Winter continued, moving aside a branch to look under it.

    I took a deep breath. This was it. I swung myself around, keeping my legs around the branch, so I was hanging upside down in front of Winter's face, holding my cloak around me. Sure I had a clasp, but it didn't help much while I was upside down. Winter jumped. "Well of course you're not going to hurt me," I told him firmly in Dragon. "If you tried, you wouldn't know what hit you."

    Winter blinked at me for a few moments, then looked around as if he expected one of his friends to come jumping out at him, laughing.

    "Hey, you," I said, waving at him. "Up here, Mister Scavenger Expert. Aren't you the one who's always talking about how scavengers are smarter than you think they are? Here's your chance to prove it."

    Winter looked back up at me. "Sorry, are you...talking?"

    "Maybe you need glasses," I said, crossing my arms. "Or some kind of hearing aid. Yes. I am talking. Me. This little scavenger hanging in front of your face."

    Winter still didn't say anything. He looked down and gave his arm a little slap.

    I rolled my eyes. "You aren't dreaming, Winter. I'll prove it." I snapped off a branch and poked his head with it.

    "Ow!" Winter said, jumping back. "Hey!"

    "See? I'm real. VERY real. Any more doubts, or do you need more persuasion?"

    "No." Winter rubbed his head. "I'm good." He looked back up at me. "Wow. I'm actually talking to a scavenger."

    "Yes. Are all dragons this slow on the uptake or just you?" Okay, maybe I was insulting him a little, but honestly. He couldn't believe it when the evidence was hanging in front of his face. "My name is Hazel."

    "Winter," said Winter.

    "I know." I grinned at him and, deciding my legs were getting tired, dropped down to the branch below me and sat on it, now at Winter's eye level. "I've been watching you for a while."

    "You have?" Winter frowned. "I don't remember seeing you."

    "Of course not. If you had, you would have tried to take me to your observatory. So I stayed out of sight." I paused a moment as Winter considered this. Should I ask him? Should I confide in him that I'm cursed and I need the dragons' help to maybe break it?

    "Where's your family?" Winter asked. "Or your pack or something? Don't scavengers usually have someone with them?"

    Apparently I should tell him or he'd be suspicious. "I'm an outcast," I said, looking him in the eye. "My family didn't want me. You know how that feels, right?" I had seen how the rest of the dragons from his tribe treated him. I had even overheard rumors that they had thought he was dead before he showed up to fight a giant, magical NightWing. What was his name? Darkstalker. My family thought I was dead too, but it was different. They had tried to kill me.

    Winter nodded slowly. "Yeah. Did you have to fight your brother to the death too?"

    Oh. I didn't know that part of the story. It made sense, though. "I don't know if I even have a brother. Or sister. I don't even know who my parents are." I had seen some potential candidates around the village. Robin and Branch? Berry and Sky? Maybe even that old couple, Moss and Snow, although they were pretty much too old. Snow probably would have died if she was trying to give birth.

    "Is that some kind of weird scavenger thing? Like the parents leave their dragonet or scavengeret or whatever when they're young as some kind of learning thing?" Winter's voice jolted me out of my thoughts.

    "One, it's child or baby. Not scavengeret. Two, no. Just me." I blew my brown hair out of my face. "Just me," I repeated.

    I knew what was coming next, and I wasn't disappointed. "Why?"

    Show him, tell him. Show him, tell him. Show him- Honestly, Hazel! You're thinking about showing this dragon you've never actually talked to before something you swore not to tell anyone? Are you nuts? I decided to stick to the basics without the demonstration. "I'm cursed." That was the basic basics. And apparently the making-dragons-look-at-you-like-you're-nuts basics.

    "Cursed? Like by an animus?"

    I shrugged. "How am I supposed to know? It must have been done before I was born, though. On second thought, maybe it's a mutation or something. Eh, probably not. Probably a curse."

    "What kind of a curse is it?" asked Winter. He seemed to have gotten over his shock of having a scavenger talk to him and was now talking as if he talked to scavengers every day. Took him long enough.

    "Disfigurement. Yes, you may look fine to me, but that's because I've learning to keep it hidden. Trust me. If you saw it, you would know." I took a deep breath and then asked the question I'd been dying to ask someone my entire life. So what if this someone was a dragon? It was someone, right? "Can you help me?"

    Winter frowned. "With what, getting rid of it?"

    I couldn't stop the hope flooding into my eyes. "Yes. Humans, scavengers, whatever, can't look at me without chasing me out of the village with torches, swords, and pitchforks. Trust me. I've had experience. And either humans or dragons are the ones to help me." I was worried I was going to sound like a two-year-old asking for help on a coloring page, but I couldn't help myself. "Please?"

    Winter stood before me for a moment, blinking in surprise and confusion. "Well, I would love to, Hazel, but I don't know how."

    All of my hopes crashed to the ground. No one could help me. I would be burdened with my curse for the rest of my life.

    "Maybe my friend Turtle could? He's an animus and might be able to enchant it off."

    I looked down. "No. It's fine. I don't want magic to get the thing off that might have been put there by magic. That might not mix well." I hoped I was hiding my disappointment. All my life I had nursed a small hope that maybe the dragons could help me. Now here Winter was, telling me that no, they couldn't. There was the magic option, but that made me a bit uneasy.

    Winter was watching me. "I'm sorry."

    "It's not your fault. I should have realized it." Maybe I should find a cave and starve myself in it. It would probably be less painful than having the world see me. I stood up. "Thanks anyway."

    "You probably shouldn't be thanking me for telling you I can't help you," Winter pointed out. I pretended to not hear him, which was kind of stupid, considering I was still standing in front of his face.

    "Bye, Winter. Maybe we'll see each other again." I started back into the forest.

    Behind me, I thought I heard Winter say, "I hope so," before I slipped behind a branch, my hopes shattered.