III Smoking mirror

When we arrived from the sea a dragon was already waiting for him, green hair and eyes just like the one I had helped cross the sea, and black scales, it was a little larger in size, though a young one too. It glared at me the moment I came to land, but he was glad to see his brother, something he let clear by lowering his claws when the white dragon explained something in their tongue. The land had forests too, so I could continue traveling.

In the forest I found Devas, wild, illiterate Devas, I would even doubt they could be called such, thus we fairies begun using the term humans to describe them. They were foraging for roots to eat, insects and fruits. It was a sad scene, so I decided to walk up to them, I removed a leaf from my hand and allowed blood to drip to the ground.

I didn’t know Devas like this could exist, and it made me sad, there were no Devas at home, only dragons and fairies. After all this was a dragon world, Devas did not like dragon worlds, full of wild fairies and dangerous animals, yet here they were. My blood and some magic fell onto a wild plant, making it grow and become something they could better eat, a single husk full to the brim with big fat corns of several colors.

They found it tough and tenderized it with some minerals they had in their own land, after all they were still Deva, they still changed the land to fit them, we fairies did the same but not to that extent. With those seeds they made flat breads, within a year they were growing said corns, elotl or maize they named it and they named me Xipe or “Our skinned lord”

When their first harvest was done and their bellies full a young woman, close to my height willfully gave up her life, so that her skin could be given to me as an offering. Which I gladly took. It felt like dying, or so I thought, I was used to the pain it was to me my sense of self, then suddenly there was none, the wind felt like a gentle stroke, the ground soft and friendly.

The dragons came in later, they gave gifts to the Deva too, it was the white dragon, Quetzalcoatl, the feathered snake, as they called him who gave them the knowledge of softening their food using lime. The darker one, Tezcatlipoca, the smoking mirror, gave them fire and stone working. I had to tell the fairies at home about the humans in the west, these wild Devas, we could prove to the smart ones that we were better than them, that we cared for those who were below us.

II Feathered snake

It was a rather large dragon, white as marble and hair green and shiny with red tones. A water breathing dragon, as dangerous as a fire breathing one but a lot more reasonable since they found treasure in alliances and wisdom and not just gold like the others. I took out a small honey cake from my bag and left it in the ground before the dragon, he smelled it and licked it off. He was rather young, about twice my size, honestly, he could still eat me if he so wished but he liked the cake.

I didn’t speak Deva, neither he spoke Sylvan, there was a slight bow from his head, and I retorted, it was clear his intention wasn’t consuming me as a snack. Water dragons were rarely seen in this lands and the fact he didn’t speak Sylvan, like all dragons in the area was reason to believe he was traveling. He also carried a pouch, but it had almost no food, which made me realize his intentions, he didn’t want me to become his supper, but he needed help for it. I was running low on food as well, bread was beginning to get moldy since it was full of cream and eggs, I tossed it out, but the dragon found it to be quite tasty.

Even if I could explain that it was spoiled perhaps, he didn’t want to know, how bad was the food he ate if he considered a spoiled cake was good? Or how good was the food I ate? We stacked in berries and acorns, some squirrels he managed to catch became part of our goods, I skinned them and laid the meat as straps around his pouch so they could dry, I did the same with mine.

This young dragon never tried to attack me, so I kept the Suryan seal to myself. He invited me to ride on his back and fly across the sea, it was clear we both sought to do that, and neither could do it alone. He could soar through wind currents but the wind itself would prove dangerous in the open sea with no mountains to hold it. Swimming was not an option for him either, sea dragons are extremely territorial, they would tear him to pieces, same case as mine.

Though me as a fairy I could control wind, speak to it and make it carry us to any direction we wanted, this is the simplest of spells, so much so that even our children use it to fly, it comes to us as naturally as it does to dragons to spit water. But to fly in the open sea, for someone who can control wind is difficult since we are not large, we cannot pierce through the clouds and ride the wind, dragons do that, we float in the wind we create.

Many love the idea of riding a dragon, but dragons are not rides, I was allowed to do so because I would keep him on air, he needed me as much as I needed him, dragons only allow you to ride their backs if they receive something in return. Perhaps in modern times tales would tell I had a pet but in ancient times the tale would tell it the other way around, after all dragons were way more respectable than fairies, we were created to serve them but some of us escaped and hid in mounds. Wild fairies were seen as savage creatures and to be honest we didn’t make it any easier on them, I knew what dragon meat tasted like and probably this dragon knew it. I assume he didn’t try to eat me for the same reason I didn’t attack him either, we knew we had to work together to travel. I doubt I could had attacked him even if I wanted, later on he actually admitted he was afraid of me when we met, I reeked of blood and was covered in leaves, he was afraid I would vanish into the forest and hunt him down from there, he was amused I was afraid he would try to attack me too, after all it wasn’t cooperation, but fear that kept us safe from each other.

I Our skinned lord

Father told me the day I was born mother passed, he never told me she did it herself when she saw me. It was a blessing though, it allowed him to marry into the Dannan family, considering he was a simple fairy with a sick child, being married to Boann, younger sister of Nuada allowed us to become part of their family. He never stopped loving mother, in fact he never forgot her, he married because he wasn’t sure I would even be able to survive.

The moment I was born I cried and had to learn to live with the pain from that moment, the world’s mere existence, the wind, the sun was all pain to me. Mother could only last for three days after she gave up, father though, decided to raise me, he was unsure the small skinless baby would be able to even grow up to call him father, yet he tried. He held me in his hands so small that I would fit in them, gasping for air to cry, fully knowing the touch of his skin hurt less than the blankets.

Using his sorcery he made the worms produce a filament so thin, so strong it could make a strong fabric soft enough to hold me in without causing that much pain, he weaved it himself and wrapped me in it, the white fabric turned red the moment it touched me, but it was the first time I stopped crying.

Most of my childhood I expended indoors, reading along with father which made my brothers resent me. When left alone they wouldn’t waste a chance to simply spit on me, their saliva being particularly hurtful in my body. I learned later on that to make them stop I had to retaliate, Derg, my older brother had taken one of my notebooks and began to make fun of the way I write, how messy and bloody the pages were.

His mother tried to separate us, but she was thrown away by accident, something I never fully understood, had she tripped on me? Why was her arm bruised? One of the guards came and gripped me wrapping his arms around me, I tossed and turned, I kicked but ultimately, he had me. After cleaning Derg they were outraged at the fact that some of the blood that covered him was in fact his own.

Father tried to tell me why what I had done was wrong, it wasn’t about defending myself, it was about losing myself to rage. Apparently I had grabbed Boann by the arm and tossed her away, something she did not expect, Derg was in pretty bad shape too, we fairies heal quickly but he had sustained major hits, I expected that, he was younger than me but Boann?

It was worth the punishment, being locked away for a month did feel great, I had nobody to bother me, nobody to hurt me which to me was a reward. The same went with the rest of my brothers. Honestly, they could have retaliated, but Boann had made them promise not to try to harm me directly, which was why they were bothering me in the first place. Perhaps she would had chosen her words differently if she knew the outcome.

Boann was in any form of manner my mother, neither did she try to be, though she genuinely tried to maintain me in a rather safe environment, or what she considered safe to be honest. To avoid me the pain of going to war, she arranged a marriage with the Fomorians, that way I could remain neutral in the current conflict.

With father I found a way to cover myself with leaves, using them as skin of my own, it wasn’t as resistant, it hurts all the time, but it made the world more bearable. That made my late childhood a time I fondly remember, no fear of my brothers, no fear of touching anything. Which allowed me to go out more.

I loved going out to find new types of flowers and collect their seeds, categorizing them and writing about them in my own made up language. One day I found lotus flowers in a pond, something rare as I came to learn later, it was the first time I saw one of those, a miracle considering I was in a planet where there had never been a Lotus.

It was out here in the open for a reason, even when it shouldn’t be, it should have died in this environment yet there it was. I brought father to see the flower, he in turn brought Boann, they agreed my idea of going out to see the world was for the best, but they also handed me a seal of the royal Suryan family, this way I could act as an envoy and nobody would dare to attack me. Father crafted me a staff with copper casings on the edges, I was not old, or capable enough to gain my own weapon so this was the most they could do.

Father handed me a silk cape, which was already colored red, as all my clothes were so my own blood wouldn’t show as a stain. Still as a child but not old enough to gain my weapon I decided to leave and see the world, find a cure for my own illness or a way to survive.

I thought they had given me a great amount of food, later I learned all of it would quickly spoil, in fact Boann nor father expected me to actually leave. Knowing that out in the open I would just bait dragons I decided to travel through the forest, when it ended, I was met with the sea. I had never seen the sea, it was majestic but the wind it brought over made me feel particularly uneasy. I’d ride a kelpie to cross it but from old tale a kelpie would feel tired and fall asleep during the way, I wasn’t willing to become a fleshy bait in the sea either.