Dreaming of firedrakes

March 7, 2013 at 11:18 am (Stories online)

“A Family for Drakes” is now up at Beneath Ceaseless Skies.

This story has a strange genesis.  About six years ago, I dreamed the scene at Traben’s Crossing, ice, drakes, Vigil, and all.  I remember dreaming I was one of two children, and that when the drake spoke I could understand it.

I also remember being convinced in the dream that this was a trailer for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.  Which was mildly boggling when I woke up and remembered that no, there wasn’t anything like this in The Two Towers.

I tried to write a story with what I remembered from the dream, but it crumbled in my hands.  My narrator (Bron, at the time) didn’t have any believable motivation, the drakes themselves seemed irrelevant, and I really had no idea where it would go after that one clear scene.  Hell, I didn’t even get to that one scene; I was bogged down in getting there, and abandoned the draft.

A little while back I started thinking about dragons. (As one does.)  About ownership of dragons, such as that could be, and what circumstances could contribute to them turning up out of nowhere, and about responsibility for dragons.  And with that came some thoughts about family, what responsibility one has to family, when it is time to turn away.

And this story surfaced in the middle of that, and finally I had the context for that one scene.

I’m not sure how much of that dream remains in this story, but the story itself is one I’m proud of.  I hope you enjoy it.

She pushed up to her hands and knees as a third drake, this one smaller than the others, landed in front of her. Its eyes gleamed, red glass in a mask of bone and black wood, and furnace-stink swept over them. The drake turned its head to regard her with its other eye, lipless jaws parting in a grin.