{working title} A Fantasy Fairy Tale
an excerpt

Kael ran, he had no idea how long he’d been running for, but all he knew was that he wanted to get as far away from those other dragons and that place as fast as possible. He finally trotted to a stop in the middle of a huge field of white flowers that were beginning to open as the silvery moonlight touched them. They flowers seem to shimmer slightly in that eerie light. Kael collapsed in amongst them, an emotional wreck,

It isn’t true, it can’t be… Oh mother, why did you never tell me?

Kael could no longer hold back the choked sobs that escaped his throat, the tears running down from his eye soaking the ground beneath his head. He had no idea how or why fate had decided to be so cruel, just that it had been and would continue being just that. A cool breeze began to pick up and wind its way around the still sobbing dragon, the leaves of the flowers rustling gently as they moved, creating a sound that sounded almost like a whisper. Kael raised his head slightly as the breeze dried the trail his tears had left down his cheek He gazed sadly up at the stars in the inky black sky above him, remembering the very first time he had ever seen such a sight:

“Mama, where are you taking us?” a tiny green dragon asked curiously as she gazed adoringly up at the large white mass ahead of her. The white dragon turned her head to look at her hatchlings, all following closely behind her. She smiled gently,

“Just to the top of the ridge, I want to show you something.” She replied. Kael shivered both with the cold and excitement, it was not often his mother decided to do anything with all four of her young together. The red dragon in front of him bounded along happily,
“I’ll bet it’s something really exciting.” He said, grinning the entire time. The journey from the cavern to the top of the ridge was fairly short, but to the baby dragons it felt like it lasted an eternity. The white dragon finally stopped, allowing her young too catch up with her. When all of them had reached her side she simply motioned to the sky just above them. They eyes of al the babies went wide and all of them let out a quiet ‘ooohh’ of amazement. The clear skies were emblazoned with millions of little points of light. Every now and then there would be a sudden streak across the sky, a shooting star. The white dragon allowed her young a few moments to take in the spectacular sight before speaking,

“All of those stars right the way across the sky, and even beyond that, are said to be the souls of all those that have lived and died. The shooting stars are souls that are ready to be reborn and are falling back to earth to find new bodies to live in. Every single creature of this world, no matter how small and insignificant, will one day become a new star and some will even become shooting stars.” Kael turned to look at his mother, who was looking up at the night sky with a wistful smile on her face. He began to wonder how many souls had ever lived and been reborn only to become stars again,

“Mother, you say every single soul becomes a star one day?” he asked quietly, “Will that include even me?” the white dragon lowered her head and gazed at her son,

“Of course it will Kael, it matters not what you look like or what you have done, every single soul becomes a star one day.” She smiled then nudged him gently, “You may have a difficult life ahead of you, but remember that I love you and that even when I am no longer here you can always look to the stars for guidance.”

Kael had never forgotten his mother’s words even after all this time. They had been the very foundation of his outlook on life and how he treated others. The words of the strange dragons back at the Holding simply did not correspond to what Kael had based his life on and the derogatory words they had used to describe the kind and gentle dragon that Kael owed his life to hurt far more deeply than they would have done had they been directed at him alone. Kael kept on looking up at the sky above him, searching for an answer to the questions that burned inside him,

Why?

The only question he ever had and it was one that could never be answered, not even by the shining lights twinkling silently above him. More tears found their way down Kael’s cheek,

Mother, why did you have to leave me? There are too many questions I never got to ask you that I cannot find the answers for.

He laid his head wearily back on the ground, still gazing at the hidden world above him,

What the Council said cannot be true. You never had a reason to lie to me, to lie to anyone, but then why do I doubt myself so much now?

Kael gave a heavy sigh, he would not find the answers up there, he knew that much now. He had never felt more lost and alone in his life, his entire world had been pulled out from underneath him and there was no-one to help explain why or tell him how to cope with it. He shivered as he curled his tail around him and drifted off into an uneasy sleep.