Solinaria

Athilea Majiri

  

  The sun rose slowly over farmlands and pastures as far as the eye could see. Men began working in their fields as children tried to play unseen in lue of their chores. Mother's and some older sisters cleaned the morning dishes and completed other various chores. A few of the teenaged boys tried to sneak away to secret meeting places with some pretty girls they fell for quickly. Usually these boys were caught before they got very far, but once in a while one would achieve his temporary escape. Just like the children that were caught playing, they would be chastised and put back to work. Before all was said and done the children would try to play again, and the boys would once again try to sneak away.


  Out in one of the unoccupied fields a couple of children played hide-n-seek. As one of them searched for a place to hide he stumbled across a blackened and still smoking area of the field. He heard his friend call out, "Ready or not, here I come," but could only stand there as he stared on in disbelief as the enormous scorch mark. The other little boy came up behind him, "Leon, you made it easy," he said and then stopped dead as his eyes fell on the burnt wheat field. Leon finally regained his composure enough to run back towards the house, and he yelled back to his brother, "We have to tell them about this, and were going to tell them the truth. They won’t believe us unless we do." Though the younger boy had some misgivings about this, he did not argue, he only ran to catch up. Before they made it to the house they came across the field their father had been working in. They started to call for him and got a gruff response.


“Why aren’t you boys doing your chores,” a tall man, their father, asked. He looked closely at the boys through squinted eyes, “You two have the look of people that have seen a ghost.


“We,” Leon paused, “we were playing in one of the fields and, well, it’s been burnt. It looks like something set fire to one of our fields. I think you should see it, papa.”


The man growled almost audibly, “Take me to the place,” he said as he handed his scythe to one of the farm hands. Leon and the other boy went back to the field, all the while hoping not to be punished to severely for ignoring their chores. They could feel their fathers gaze burning into the back of their skulls and knew they were in trouble. Finally they reached the field with its unnatural burn pattern. At the sight of his damaged crops the farmer walked into the burnt area, “What, in the name of the goddess, could have done this? No human has inflicted damage like this before.”


 About an hour later the farmer, Finor, went to his neighbors’ house. He found that he was not the only one something strange had happened to. Many farmers and ranchers had found scorched lands and mutilated or half eaten livestock. Some had even found strange markings, like something huge had been dragged across the ground. Whatever did the damage was large and had to be a flying creature. They started talking of a legendary creature that had been mentioned in naught but fairy stories. Speculation of a Phoenix rising again became the center of conversation. Eventually they made a plan to see the lord of their village about this after a few days. Provided, or course, that they were attacked again. Once all the discussion was finished they went their separate ways for the time, though one thing lingered on their minds.


 While all of this was happening a young couple made their way to meet up with one another. The boy makes it there a little before the girl, however. They had decided to meet in a clearing with a single tree growing in the middle of it, and a stream of silvery water running past it. There was a legend surrounding this clearing, and the tree especially. The tree was the only of its kind and only seen in its true form on the foggiest of nights. It would transform when the moon was high and full, but here the story of this tree becomes confused. None seem to see the same thing, so each tale become incoherent with the last. Every time it has had the form of a woman, but the woman always seemed to have been of a different species. The boy pondered the tree for a moment until he felt a soft touch on his shoulder. He turned to see the blond haired girl. He hugged her tightly and she allowed if for a moment before pulling out of his arms.


 "I don't have long, my father thinks I'm out fetching water," her voice was low, "I heard a noise, it must have been you though."


 He shrugged, "Maybe, but I haven't done anything to make a noise."


 The heard a low rumbling that sent vibrations through the ground, and their bodies. The girl clung to the boy as they stared around through wide eyes. Slowly the rumbling faded and everything was silent, but for the sound of the nearby stream bubbling over stones. The young couple didn't move, however, paralyzed with fear. They didn't even dare to speak, because they had no clue what kind of creature they had awakened. Something moved to their left, poking its huge head through a large gap in the trees. The girl let out a scream of pure terror and, being faint of heart, fell to the ground. The boy just stared at the magnificent creature before him, of which he had never seen the like.


 The thing that looked at him certainly was from a fairy story, but it was no Phoenix born again. Its head was scaly and in such a shape that reminded him of lizards. The leathery skin was shimmering green, as though millions of jewels were embedded in its hide. The eyes that looked out from that face were black as night with silver slits in their centers. Somehow those lizards’ eyes managed to look amused, mainly being focused on the girl lying on the ground. The boy looked at his companion, no having noticed the fact that she had passed out.


©2005 Pamela "Athilea" Johnson All Rights Reserved