The Smuggler: Chapter Eleven: Makele, Keeper of Souls

 I include some made-up dragon history in this part. If I get it wrong, please, don't judge.

Chapter Eleven

Makele, Keeper of Souls

    The cavern was deathly silent. The broken pieces of the shell lay at Peacock's talons, their iridescent color still glowing slightly. Julia's mind was still trying to figure out what had happened. Dragonfly had wanted them to break the shell, because someone named Makele wasn't with them, and Peacock had listened. The portal had disappeared and so had Wasp, after revealing that she wasn't their mother. And now they would never see Dragonfly again.

    Julia bit back a sudden sob rising in her chest. Dragonfly, with all she had done for them, now at the mercy of Wasp, because she was rescuing THEIR mother. Not hers. THEIRS. She closed her eyes. Images of Dragonfly filled her mind. Seeing her for the first time, bent in concentration over a map. The look in her eyes as the boarded the boat again, as if she had a feeling she wouldn't be back. And finally the relief spreading over her face as the portal faded into nothing. A sudden realization hit Julia. She loves us. Not the lovey way, like some of the stories she had heard about forbidden SilkWing-HiveWing relationships, but the other way. The way like Pieridae loved them. How she risked the wrath of the guards to send them a message. The way Moth loved his younger siblings, the fierceness that would never die. That was how Dragonfly loved them.

    Julia opened her eyes. Peacock had stepped back and curled up on the stone floor, probably surging with guilt because he thought it was his fault Dragonfly wouldn't be free. Oh, Peacock, she thought. Why are you always so hard on yourself? You saved us all, well, except for Dragonfly. But that's not your fault. You listened. We didn't. She sighed and slowly walked towards the remains of the shell. She could see out of the corner of her eye Moth spreading one of his wings around Peacock in a comforting gesture. But something seemed out of place.

    "Weren't we supposed to find the keeper of souls?" asked Julia tentatively. "It seems kind of incomplete."

    Peacock sighed. "I probably ruined it. Not all prophecies end how they're supposed to."

    Yeah, probably. Julia sat by the shells and began absentmindedly arranging them in a random pattern. Actually, it looked kind of like a dragon. There were the wings, the head, the neck, the tail... Actually it looked like a mini version of a dragon. Like the shell was supposed to be like that. "Hey, guys. Come look at this."

    Moth and Peacock stood up and hurried over to her. They huddled around as Julia fit more pieces together. "Doesn't this look like a dragon?"

    "Yeah," Moth whispered. "It does." He and Peacock began quickly searching for the rest of the pieces as Julia fit them together, eyes and mind whirring. The shell is still up, Dragonfly had said. It wasn't now. Now it was broken, but maybe it was supposed to be. Slowly the dragon formed. It looked very different from any dragon so far she had seen. Even the pictures of the Pyrrian dragons were nothing like this. It -she- was different from all of them, yet she was the same as all of them. It was impossible to describe her unless you had seen it.

    Julia put a piece in for her talons, and stopped. There were no more pieces on the floor. And part of the dragon was missing. One piece in the place where her heart should be. "Oh."

    "It's got to be around here somewhere," said Peacock, scanning the ground with his eyes. "Far away somewhere."

    Julia sighed and shook her head. "No. I don't think we'll find it." She looked at the dragon. Her gaze, though made of fragmented shells, still looked like she was looking fondly at them. Julia stood and resisted the urge to wreck the dragon with one swipe of her talons. "Oh, Dragonfly," she whispered under her breath. "What do we do? Please show me. Just one little sign. We've done almost all the prophecy. What else is there to do?" Her vision blurred and her eyes stung, her throat closing. She blinked to clear her vision and a tear rolled down her face.

    Julia didn't fight it. Why should she hide her feelings? The tear streaked down her face and dripped off, landing directly on the form of the shell-dragon. Then a miracle happened. The dragon started to glow. Or more precisely, the cracks around the shell pieces began to glow. Julia stepped back nervously. "Oh, what now?"

    Moth and Peacock turned and their eyes widened. "It's working!" cried Moth. "Or, something's happening anyway."

    Indeed something was happening. The glow grew brighter until the dragon seemed to be growing. Actually, she was growing. She grew larger and larger until she was bigger than any of them, or even Dragonfly, for that matter. And then slowly the light faded, but she didn't. She blinked. Blinked! The dragon looked down at them and then a smile slowly grew across her face. "Hello." Her voice was gentle but seemed to resonate through the whole room. "I've been waiting for you."

    Julia jumped back in surprise. "Oh, spirit of Clearsight."

    "No, no. I'm not Clearsight." The dragon's smile widened and she actually bowed to them. "My name is Makele."

    "Makele," Peacock whispered. "Dragonfly's friend."

    Makele nodded. "Yes. And you might also know me by the Keeper of Souls."

    The Keeper of Souls. "'You find the keeper of souls, and she helps her from the evil holds,'" Julia recited. "The prophecy is complete."

    Makele sighed. "Not yet. The hardest is yet to come, but do not despair. I will help you." She motioned to them. "Come. I will explain everything on the way." She started through the maze of statues, glancing back once and a while to make sure they were following. "I was here at the beginning of time. I was young and foolish, thinking that I could handle anything that was thrown at me, and in thinking so I made the biggest mistake of my life. I became the Mother of Dragons. However it has many blessings, such as having my beloved nine dragonets, Night, Ice, Silk, Rain, Sea, Sand, Leaf, Mud, and Sky. The mistake was taking on the gift of the future.

    "Like Clearsight?" asked Moth. "Or Moon?"

    "No. They could see the future, I knew it. Or more importantly, the danger. I also took on the extremely busy job of caring for the souls. Every time a dragon dies, its soul comes to me, and I take care of it. My dragonets each decided they wanted to move out of Agate Mountain and start the world, and how could I say no? It was what they were hatched for. Ice moved up to the glaciers up north, Sand, who was close with him but not able to survive in those extreme climates, moved right below him to the desert, Night found a charming little peninsula down south, Sky decided to stretch her territory all from what is now Freedom down to Agate Mountain, the three dragonets who liked the same piece of territory, Silk, Leaf, and Rain, settled in the rainforest, Sea took the part where her unique underwater skills could be put to use, and Mud, not wanting to stir up trouble by taking his siblings' territory, took the marshes.

    "I watched bittersweetly as they all adjusted to their new climate and began to thrive. They all had dragonets and began to expand." Makele chuckled. "Good thing, too. It would take day for Sky just to get from one end of her territory to the other. But once the original founders passed on and came back to me, things began to change. Their dragonets became corrupted and started making bad decisions, us watching sadly the entire time, unable to do anything. Then the most horrible thing happened.

    "Rain's descendants, the RainWings, who were usually quiet peaceful, suddenly turned on the SilkWings and LeafWings. Not wanting to hurt their friends and neighbors, they hardly put up a fight until they realized they were driving them out of the continent entirely. But by then it was too late. I don't even know how they managed the fly, but they made it across the sea. Silk and Leaf requested permission to go with them, and I sadly agreed. I still see them sometimes, but not often." Makele suddenly stopped at the crystal statue they had thought was the giver of light. She looked into her eyes and whispered, "The visitors are here." The statue suddenly disappeared, like nothing had ever been there, leaving a door standing in the center of the chamber. Makele looked at them. "Let me show you how to rescue Dragonfly."