Sasha was surprised at how knotted his back was. “He must have had a hard day,” she thought. She moved her hands along his shirt along the top of his shoulders to try and get a better fix on a knot. In truth this was as much for her as him. She needed to be doing something. She just wanted a semi-normal evening. She paused and looked down at his slightly exposed back, at the tattoo that had been on him from before Edis found him in the woods. Normally it was a dark green that was almost black, but tonight it was a deep purple.
It wasn’t like any other tattoo she’d seen. Most tattoos were of names and pictures, all the lines coming together, but not on this one. None of the lines touched, and if they overlapped the image would end right before the other and continue again just past the other side. In the center of the tattoo was a circle that was filled in. Three curving branches came from it, spaced out and symmetrical and covered in little leaves that were amazingly detailed. The circle and branches overlapped what appeared to be a triangle that was filled in except where the circle and branches went over it. There was another circle surrounding everything, with only the tips of each branch breaking out from it. In whole the tattoo was about three inches wide and three inches tall.
Nobody had been able to figure out why someone would do this to a baby, but now Sasha knew the question was not why but how. Tattoos didn’t change color and they distorted with growth. This one had not, and that meant one thing: magic.
She continued working on the knot, Legon blissfully unaware of her momentary pause. She should say something to him, but what would she say? He, like everyone else in the family, was at the breaking point today. She would wait until tomorrow, wait and collect her thoughts. After a bit she stopped rubbing his shoulders and sat back down. She was still thinking about the tattoo. If it had been made by magic, then why? And did that mean that there was more to it than just decoration? She never worried that much about her brother. He was tough and could take care of himself, but if he had been marked with magic…
“Thanks Sash,” said Legon with a yawn. “It’s getting late. I think I’m going to go to bed.”
Sasha smiled at him and nodded her head. “If you must. I will see you in the morning.”
Legon got up and stretched his arms above his head, then leaned over and gave her a huge hug. He walked out of the room, shut the door, and walked into his own. The bed was bathed in soft moonlight and looked wonderful. There was a slight breeze outside that made the room feel cool and nice. He undressed down to his undershorts and slipped under the covers. His mind drifted from thought to thought in a haze as oftentimes happens when one is falling asleep. Legon drifted to sleep in what felt like moments, never knowing that next door his sister lay awake, thinking and worrying.
Chapter Three
“Gray is sometimes seen as a mix of light and dark. This, however, is incorrect. To the trained mind and soul there is no gray, simply light and dark, good and evil, joy and sorrow. Gray is only misconception, and it is in this misconception where failure occurs. Yet dark is not always evil, nor is light always good; you may move to one and find the other.”
Legon was walking in a misty field of soft heather. He couldn’t see the sky through the mist, but there was enough light to tell that the sun was up. He could barely see five feet in front of him. He could feel the mist fill his lungs with each breath and feel the weight of it. The mist was cool and felt good. Legon knew that he was not anywhere he’d ever been before. The weight and moisture in the air made his skin feel moist, like after a heavy rain storm. He was in the lowlands somewhere. I’m probably by the sea. Arkin told me they get… what did he call it? Foggy. Fog down by the sea, that’s what this mist must be, he thought.
There was sound coming from ahead of him. Something heavy was dragging, accompanied by thumps of something large hitting the ground. He heard a deep rumble that reverberated in his chest. The sound was moving toward him. He could feel his heart race. A branch snapped in the far distance and the dragging sound stopped. He could tell now that whatever was making the sound was right in front of him through the fog, but the snapping branch had made it stop, which meant that there was more than one of whatever was here.
Silence. A sound from overhead and a bit forward. What is it? Legon’s ears strained trying to place the sound. It was like breathing, but it couldn’t be. The breaths were long and deep, he couldn’t think of anything big enough to breathe like that. Then a thought came to his mind: Only a dragon would breathe that deeply. His body became rigid. It’s a dragon!
Up to this point his heart had been pounding with a sense of adventure, but now his blood ran cold and his heart seemed to stop beating altogether. The only dragons in the land were Iumenta dragons, and they were cruel and clever. The deep breathing caught for a moment. Legon stood stalk-still, hoping beyond hope that it couldn’t hear, smell, or see him. Then a new dread tore through him. Dragons can read thoughts! It doesn’t need to smell me! He had to run. He turned on his heels and bolted away from the sound, his legs and lungs burning as he sprinted. There was a snort and a grumble from behind him and from above there came a resounding thud… thud… thud. The other dragon.
Legon felt the air in his chest catch with every thud. The sound was at first far away, then over him… and now in front of him. The ground shook and he heard the sound of claws scraping against rocks in the field. He was trapped. One dragon was behind him and the other in front. He wondered if dying was going to hurt. Then the fog parted and Legon saw a flash of bright blue.
He sat bolt upright in his bed, covered in cold sweat from head to foot. He could almost hear his heart trying to beat its way out of his chest. He was trembling almost uncontrollably and his breathing was heavy and labored. The dream was slipping through his memory like sand. Soon he remembered none of it and began to calm down. “It was just a dream, nothing more,” he said in a whisper. “You’re fine. Go back to sleep”.
He lay back down, more tired than he had been when he went to bed. His legs ached as if he’d been running. The room was dark. He felt himself drifting again. He soon fell asleep and by morning would not remember even waking up in the night.
Legon woke to the warmth of the sun’s rays on his face. He slowly sat up in bed, rubbed his eyes and stretched his arms above his head. “Hmm, I feel tired still. I must not have slept well,” he thought with a yawn. He lay back down and considered going to sleep again, but an image of Sasha and a bucket popped in his head. “Maybe I should get up,” he said aloud to himself.
He got out of bed, walked over to the dresser, and pulled out a blue shirt and brown pants. He pulled on some socks and boots and walked out of his room into the hall. Sasha’s door was open and he could hear her downstairs. When he got downstairs he could see her flitting around the kitchen, making breakfast and humming to herself. Her red dress spun as she turned to smile up at him. He could tell that she hadn’t slept well last night either, though it didn’t seem to slow her down. Maybe I was snoring really loud last night and kept us both from a good sleep, he thought.
He walked in front of the mirror for his normal pre-day inspection. There was a dark spot on his chin, and for a moment his insides squirmed with excitement. He reached up to feel the stubble… and his fingers slid across his smooth face and smudged a spot of dirt. Feeling stupid, he looked at Sasha in the mirror to make sure she hadn’t seen his mistake. She was too busy scooping eggs onto plates. He breathed a sigh of relief.
“You look tired this morning. I didn’t keep you up snoring, did I?”
She looked up at him, her eyebrows furrowed in thought, and said, as if she was having a hard time remembering, “No, I just had a hard time falling asleep. You weren’t snoring… although I kept hearing you say something like ‘Sasha is the most beautiful girl in Airmelia and so smart and funny and…’ oh, I can’t remember the
