Rain

• Freya Begg, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2021

The light was gone. Swallowed by the vast, dark clouds. Rain swatted Kioga’s wings, flinging themselves into her eyes. She shook herself, droplets of fallen water cascading across the cliff face, plummeting past the edge down into the ocean waters below. Kioga felt sick to the thought. Her claws clutched her only egg. She breathed out a golden wisp of flame, lighting the air in front of her, turning nearby raindrops into steam.

Shimmering aquamarine, was the egg. It was the same shiny, azure blue of Kioga’s scales. She stared at it, eyes locked onto the imperfect sphere, torn between her leader, and her offspring. Previously ordered by her king to dispose of the egg, Kioga flew to the sharp cliff face of Sapphire Mountain to throw it off. She was fiercely loyal to her tribe and would never betray them, even in the hardest of times.

Kioga stepped forward, her talons landing on the edge, crumbling pebbles and rocks tumbling away. The wind howled and the rain pounded down, the thunder roared and the lightning struck, sending slivers of light out across the world. Her heart ached. The thunder shook the mountain, rumbling and intense. The ocean below was thrashing and overlapping, but it didn’t hide the sharp rocks jutting out of the base of the mountain, pointing to the sky like teeth, waiting for prey.

Kioga straightened her thoughts and held out her arms, shaking. She let herself cry. Tears streamed down her snout, barely changing the state of her already-raindrop-covered face. Her tears fell, crashing down the cliff with the weight of all her heavy feelings. The egg rocked and shook in her talons, slipping and sliding in the windy rain. Then Kioga opened her palms.

The egg plummeted, and Kioga let out a sob. She felt like the lowest sea slug in the world. What kind of mother- what kind of DRAGON would do this? She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts, but her mind kept repeating again and again back to the egg, slick with rain, falling. She closed her eyes, and let another tear drop.

A talon was placed on Kioga’s shoulder. “Are you okay?” Fiume asked, his eyes sympathetic. Kioga forgot he was with her. She stayed silent, rubbing her talons together as if trying to wash away all the painful memories. Her wings twitched, and Fiume reached out to brush one of his wings with hers.

Fiume was always there, the calming island of hope in the ocean of hopelessness, the oasis of love in the desert of despair. She turned around, the sight of the cliff face too painful to bear, and crumpled into Fiume’s wings, and he hugged her. He hugged her despite the monster she’d become, despite what she’d done. He still loved her. They both began to cry.