Dragons' Father (Book 2 in the Dragon Hunters Trilogy)

Chapter 7: Declaration of Love

Declaration of Love

We held a ceremony for Grimond that evening, in usual dragon custom.  Dragons knew the dangers of a dead body as well as D-SQUAD, so once everyone had been given the chance to say something at the rim of the hole, Calla and Valaria sat on opposite edges and blew flames into the hole at the same time.  I stood next to the youngsters and watched with tears streaming from my eyes, my heart feeling like it was breaking in two.  Grimond may not have been my son, hell he was a different species for Pete’s sake, but he was family, just like Valaria, Calla and her children.  We lived under the same sky, and slept in the same cave.  Related or not, I had become closer to these creatures than my own mother and father.

I used a large flat rock to carve out a tombstone for Grimond, and left it at the edge of the hole with a cluster of wildflowers.  Valaria hadn’t spoken since I had been lifted out of the hole, barely able to choke out some hushed words over her brother’s body from the rim of the sinkhole.  Afterwards she had raced back to the cave and had broken apart, crying her eyes out and hiding her face under her front paws and tail.  I had climbed up to the cave, but Calla had stopped her children from joining me.

“This is something they need to do alone.” She had said before looking up at me with sad understanding. 

I nodded and walked up to Valaria’s side, noting the shivering in her limbs that had nothing to do with the cold, and the faint wheezing that was her attempt at breathing.  I knelt down next to her and placed my hand on her shoulder, her muscles flinching for a moment before she moved her paws out of the way and buried her head in my chest.  She howled out her pain as I slowly rubbed my hands along her cheeks and neck, feeling her tears as I pushed her back gently to look her in the eyes.

“I know this is hard Valaria,” I whispered softly as I locked my gaze with hers, “but we’ll get through this.  Grimond would want us to be strong and survive for him, to carry on his life as well as our own.”  She buried her head back into my chest, shaking like a leaf with silent sobs, “Oh Valaria.  I’m so sorry this had to happen to you so young.  Your mother warned me that many young dragons don’t survive to become adults.  Most of them don’t make it past their first year.”  I pushed her back again so she could look at me, “I would have never wished this on anyone, but Grimond was a victim of terrible bad luck.  No one is to blame for his death, so we must let him rest knowing that we loved him, and that we will never forget him for as long as we live.”

She nodded slowly, tears streaming from her eyes, “I-I miss him.”  Her voice was choked from crying and she was barely loud enough to hear, “I-I keep waiting for him to c-come back with a deer on his back, o-or sneak up behind me and surprise me like he used to do.”  She closed her eyes and took a shaky breath, “I-I just can’t believe he’s gone.”

I nodded once, fighting tears of my own as I ran my thumbs under her eyes to wipe away her tears, “I planned a little surprise for you and the others.  It was supposed to be for tomorrow but I think it would be best if we did it tonight, in honor of Grimond’s memory.”

She looked up, a bit of her old spirit returning to her eyes as she met my eyes, “You planned a surprise for us?  When?”

I ran a hand over my eyes to wipe away the tears, “We humans have a holiday that happens on the twenty-fifth of December.  It’s a time of gifts and giving thanks for all the happiness we received during the year.  I think we can break tradition this one time and have it a day early.  I think Grimond would have wanted it that way.”