The town was a little on the small side, more like a village. Alda passed people milling about in the streets while heading to the market to take care of things before it got dark. People around her stared, the creature by this point having crawled up to wrap itself around her shoulders. She had dubbed it a dragon of legend. Though that might not have been what it was, she didn’t care.

She walked slowly and carefully down one street towards home after the market when she saw something out of place—a door left open into an old building with peeling paint and broken windows just off from where she lived. It was most likely some sort of store or house abandoned years ago, but curiosity urged her forward. She had never noticed its presence.

Before she could get to the door, though, a man stepped out of the open door, glanced around and looked suspicious to her. He looked straight at her for a moment and she cast her eyes down to avoid meeting that gaze, feeling guilty that she had been intending on being nosey. Leaving it alone for now, she decided instead to go home, hefting the basket under her arm full of produce and goods.

She turned to head home, jostling the dragon, who hissed in momentary discomfort, shifting on her shoulders to get more comfortable. She glanced to the side to judge its position before moving again. It was no longer dark but a vibrant blue she would have never thought possible before meeting it. The dragon blinked a few times in response to her movement, its eyes grey like hers, seeming to take everything in with them.

“I’m going to call you Blue,” she said eventually after walking for so long that they had reached the other side of town, seeing nothing else exciting happen. “You’re alright now. I’ll take care of you. Gods be involved or not, you’re my charge now.”

Grey eyes blinked at her and seemed to understand what she was saying. At least she liked to think it did. Its eyes were strangely wise despite it just being hatched. She had heard dragons often were reborn into the world when their previous form passed into the netherealm of death. With its eyes, it spoke to her that this was a special being, and she had a lot to learn.

Alda gazed around the outskirts of town, her hair flowing in loose curls and blowing about with the wind which had picked up. The fading sun illuminated her pale skin as she walked down a dirt road and towards a forest nearby. The wind whistled through the trees above and below her head, amassing leaves on to Alda’s shoulders and the creature, who was now, while she walked past them. It was a fall evening and it would be too dangerous for one such as herself to wander into the woods at nightfall.

She reached a clearing within the woods that seemed untouched by humans before settling down against an old rock to rest from her journey. She tossed back some of her long locks with frustration and looked away from a giant oak tree which had been emitting ghastly sounds since she arrived. Its branches shifted against one another and other trees around it, causing many frightening sounds that if she didn’t know better, would be more like a ghost or some spirit unsatisfied with its plight.

She always thought it sounded like the plaintive cry of someone in need of help. Staring at the tree, she couldn’t help but drift in thought while her hands busily brought a fire to life before her. The motions were so automatic from having done them for so long; it didn’t even phase her to switch tasks and still be dreamy eyed.

“No, no!” she cried as she watched her little brother climb the tree all those years ago. “Don’t do it! You can see how high up you are. I don’t want to lose you too. Please come down now!”

He hadn’t listened though and continued his ascent higher into the branches of the old oak tree in their backyard, where he could just barely reach a protruding branch that was a good ten feet off the ground. “You’re going to fall and get hurt or worse!” She looked worriedly from below at him, trying not to cry out again for fear of scaring him more than he already seemed scared himself when he looked down on her with wide eyes and pale, tight-lipped face.

She wasn’t sure what was happening, but she knew it couldn’t be good. One minute all they were doing was playing outside in the yard as their mother called them back inside to finish their chores before dinner time. The next thing she knew, her little brother had climbed up onto a branch that was much too high for him to be reaching for!

Mama always told them not to play in the woods because there were bears and other scary creatures. But the two of them didn’t listen, just like when he climbed up that tree across the creek for a better view of the village bell tower on the edge of their property where they bothered no one.

He had no intention of coming down until Father got home from work, so he ignored her screams about how dumb it was to climb a tree at his age. He even ignored how much it hurt his knees as he pulled himself higher and higher into the branches-the pain only made him feel stronger. “Don’t worry! I won’t let go! Get mother! I don’t care!” he yelled as he reached for another branch.

Alda had been nervous until father had gotten home. Remembering it even now made her just as anxious now as it did then. The feeling almost overwhelmed her, frowning and placing a hand to her chest in a motion to calm herself. Eyes closed and focused on inner calm.

She was so focused on calming herself; she had forgotten about Blue’s presence; the creature shifting where it had been sleeping beside her and hissing at something in the background. She turned, and upon opening her eyes, she couldn’t believe what she was seeing and thought it was a trick of the shadows.

Something, however, moved in the shadows and came to the edge of the camp and ring of light, barely keeping itself outside the firelight. Bright eyes of ghostly white blue peered at her from the darkness.