The Language of Spells

The Language of Spells — page 7 — So after waiting fifty long years Grisha’s parents were baffled by his ordinary looks The baby dragon had gold eyes violet was the most common eye color for dragons but there was nothing special about gold and his scales were shades of green brown and orange There was no fuchsia no blue nor any red on him anywhere There was not even the splash of black along the neck that the very best warriors always had His mother a National Roaring Champion and his father a well-known Sword Warrior and Fire Breather couldn’t understand why they had waited so long for such an ordinary-looking dragon But they knew that sometimes magic made an occasional occasional wrong turn Either their baby dragon was a perfectly normal one or his particular talent would have nothing to do with his appearance Grisha’s mother shrugged and his father went back to work on the battlefields of men In a way it was a relief for now they would not have to hire one of the older more experienced dragons to teach Grisha how to manage any extraordinary powers Grisha was born in the year 1803 which turned out to be the last year that any dragon special or otherwise was born There is much debate about why dragons stopped being born and no one knows the exact reason Perhaps it is simply that in the years following Grisha’s 6

The Language of Spells — page 8 — birth the steam engine was invented railways were constructed constructed and light bulbs became a fixture in homes and on streets As the world of men built new and extraordinary things the world of magic began to decline No creature lives beyond its own world and a dragon is nothing if not a creature from the world of magic But back in 1803 the year of our dragon’s birth magic was still as common as electricity is today Dragons flying horses and poisonous rabbits roamed Europe’s famous forests in large numbers and were not considered by men or the other woodland creatures as anything strange or even wondrous Instead the dragons flying horses and poisonous rabbits were accepted as natural parts of the forest much like the trees And if the creatures of magic were obliged to perform various jobs and tasks in the world of men it just meant that sometimes they were obliged to leave the forest Flying horses were used when someone was too ill to send for a doctor or when a message could not be trusted to a servant Poisonous rabbits who save for a small black dot on the back of each ear looked exactly like ordinary ones served as both spies and assassins Dragons were created solely for battle Even more than swords guns or cannons dragons helped to sway 7

The Language of Spells — page 9 — a military conflict Almost always the side with the most talented dragons won the fight Fighting was serious business A good dragon could make or break a royal knight’s reputation Not only that a single dragon could change the fate of entire kingdoms In order to prepare for such a future you might expect that young dragons would be sent to training camps Or be forced into childhood battle drills and endurance tests Or simply take part in endless fighting contests against each other But that was not how dragons developed their particular particular talents Their parents guided them in certain areas but before that new dragons were encouraged to discover their world As children all of magic’s creatures learned about themselves by being curious about the forest It was only when Grisha first crept under a low bush that he learned he could change his size I’m small he thought with a mix of alarm and pleasure What had once been a branch he could trample on was now hovering over his head When he crawled out he returned to his normal size To experiment he sought out a large clearing clearing and sure enough he grew in size able to see over the surrounding trees Although a bit painful if done too often or too quickly all dragons are able to scale to size 8

The Language of Spells — page 10 — In this way they can easily pursue a fleeing army into a palace or fort Grisha learned to fly the first time he’d wandered too far from home and had promised to return before sunset Without even thinking his wings spread and he soared into the sky Over time he learned how to use scents and an internal guide to stay on route One trick he learned quickly was on a return trip to take off from the place he’d landed That made it far easier to retrace his route Those were the lessons young dragons were expected to figure out on their own When they were a bit older their parents taught them how to breathe fire and to develop a unique roar Tactical lessons in fighting and haunting came still later after the forest had taught its living things that staying alive mattered above all else Grisha loved the forest and all the creatures he met from the lowly field mouse to the much admired if rarely seen mountain lion He loved the streams the trees and the mossy forest floor Nothing not a torn paw pad or scraped scale ever dimmed his spirits Other dragons were quick to take offense or find fault in the world but not Grisha Even when his father died in an unpleasant incident involving a prince and a magic spell Grisha’s 9

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