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“Hey, Dragon, wake up!” Liesel called from the cottage. Dragon stirred. He had been dreaming, but he couldn’t remember it. He yawned, then rose and stretched. The pallid moonlight that lit the cave reflected off his silver-blue scales. Sleeping for two weeks in a row was not the most brilliant idea he had ever had. Suddenly, he stopped, body frozen mid-movement. The dragon shivered as pain wracked his body, stemming from small stumps on his back. As the pain faded to a dull throbbing, he pulled himself from the ground and out into the night.
"Liesel! I need the kit," Dragon called out to them telepathically. A moment later, after several clangs and crashes sounded from the inside of the house, Liesel stumbled into view. In their hands were several rolls of gauze and some vials, and they set to work cleaning and bandaging the dragon’s bleeding stumps. Liesel tended to the wounds as carefully as they could, but the fairy was more accustomed to the indifference of machines. After several tensioned minutes passed in silence, Liesel couldn’t avoid the question.
“What happened to you?” they asked, looking concerned. The dragon stood slowly, and with what seemed to take considerable effort on his part, turned to look at his companion.
"I was dreaming, as one does, and I was woken up by your call. That’s all that I can remember."
“That’s it? You wake up from a dream and now can’t fly anywhere. Great, just in time for us to migrate.” They threw their hands into the air and walked back to the cottage. The dragon, conscious of his recent injury, hobbled after the fairy.
"It isn’t my fault that I lost my flight!" He called to Liesel, though they had entered the cottage. Dragon knew that they were prone to overreacting, so he tried to placate them as much as possible. "We could just go looking for them, and even if we don’t find my wings, I can migrate on my feet like the wingless dragons. Hopefully, we’ll find my wings in the days before then. Please don’t hate me."
Liesel quickly gathered several days supplies, including more vials of medicine. With a final glance at the machine covered workbench, they left the room. After locking the door behind them, Liesel turned, coming face-to-snout with the dragon.
“Well, are we going to get your wings, or not?” they asked with a faint smile. The dragon smiled a toothy grin and started towards the forest. He turned back when the fairy hadn’t moved from the doorstep.
"You know, we don’t have all night to get started."
“How do we know which way to go?” they asked, looking confused.
"I’ll explain as we walk."
“Alright. I’m coming.” Together, the fairy and dragon began their journey through the forest.
"Flight for magical creatures is magic-based, and manifests itself in the form of wings. Obviously, the wings help in flight, but the magic does the work. Though my wings were cut off, the magic is still in my body. It mostly manifests itself in flight and my ice-breath, so when one of the two is missing, I notice."
“That doesn’t explain why you have been walking confidently in one direction for the past age,” Leisel commented.
"Since my wings had most of the magic, some of it lingers over time. It forms a magical signature of sorts that is distinctly mine. The magic that remains in my wings sort of leaks out over time, and the rest of my magic can sense where it is, forming a clear path of which way to go."
“So we get to where your wings are, and then what?”
"We take them back and the two parts of my magic will join the wings to my body, and we can fly away."
They were walking in comfortable silence for some time before Leisel tripped over a root, but in all fairness, it was well hidden for a species of trees that grew to over 500 lengths tall. Fairies in general had a knack for mechanics, magical technology, anything that requires stable hands. However, this causes them to be ironically clumsy in general life. Liesel was no different. Dragon laughed. "You could grow a pair of wings and manage to trip mid-flight."
“You know, fairies used to have wings,” they commented.
"Really? What happened?"
“Well,” Liesel began their story, "A couple centuries ago, there was a revolution of ideas concerning who was magical. It was decided by the council of beings that species who must migrate north for the summer months were magical. That includes fairies.” Dragon nodded, remembering his first migration with Liesel. He had flown with Liesel on his back, and the two of them had gone up to the frozen north. Magical beings had to migrate north, as the heat of the summer hurt their magic.
"Were fairies different in any other ways?"
“Most had orange or pink hair, and were no more than three feet tall. Obviously that changed, as time went on, so nowadays most are like me, with blue hair and at least five feet to our names.” Liesel smiled, being five and a half feet tall.
"Your hair is beautiful, but you still haven’t explained why fairies don’t have wings."
“Just be patient,” Liesel teased, only to trip on another root. “The fairy’s wings drove many other winged creatures mad with hate and jealousy due to the powerful magic harboured within them. This led to a couple of wars and a deep-rooted fear of fairies.” Dragon snorted at this. He had known Liesel for years, and other than the tendency to be clumsy and overreact to situations, the fairy was a loyal and trustworthy being, albeit with neon blue spikes for hair.
They glared at him. “Can I finish?” they said. He nodded. “Anyway, a petition was sent to the council to stop the bloodshed on all fronts. It took some time, but the council came to their decision to allow fairies to join the magical community with one condition. To stop the fighting and hatred, all the fairies had to give up the magic in their wings, rendering them flightless.”
"Didn’t they long for flight like I do?" Dragon asked with shock. He hated being stuck on the ground, even for a little while. He was not looking forward to the couple of nights he would be without flight while they searched for his wings, and could not imagine life without them.
“Yes, but they longed for peace more. They sacrificed part, but not all, of what defined them at that time so future generations could be safe.”
"That’s pretty selfless." Dragon was amazed that one being could do this, let alone an entire species! He got so caught up in imagining the conversations that must have happened that he got spooked by an enfield emerging from its den. Enfields are rather harmless fox-eagles, but Dragon was so surprised at its appearance, he leaped into one of aforementioned trees, much to Liesel’s amusement. They weren’t the only one clumsy on the ground. Unfortunately, Dragon’s acrobatics reopened the stumps. They stopped for the night as Liesel re-bandaged the wounds. Dragon turned to look at them and scowled.
"I cannot wait to have my wings back. These bandages itch, and so does my heart." Liesel looked at him strangely. "My heart yearns for flight, like all dragons. To fly is to be free from the pains and weariness of the ground. Nothing is more amazing than to feel the air against your scales and hear the beating of your heart and wings as one." He stopped, realizing that Liesel was asleep against his curled body. With a few ice-forming breaths, a trademark of northern dragons, Dragon constructed an ice hut for the two of them to survive the heat of the day. He hoped that they would find his wings before migration, as the heat of the approaching summer was affecting how well the fairy functioned. Dragon closed his eyes, quietly resting as the sun rose to mark another night over.
He had expected a quiet bit of rest, but the parts of the dream from the previous day kept popping in and out of memory. There were cries for help as flashes of ice-capped fire froze a crowd of beings. Then the dream morphed into flying, and a feeling of comfort washed over the dream.
Dragon and Liesel were both up by moonrise, and they continued on their journey through the forest. Upon the third strike after midnight, they saw a city below, nested inside and inbetween the trees. The graceful architecture was stunning, completely reflecting the world around it. The pair was stopped before the city by an elf woman.
“Good after midnight,” Liesel said to her as they tried to walk past her. She moved, blocking their path.
“Not so fast. You might be able to help me,” she looked hopeful. “I’m Nepenthe, and you two are the first beings to come to the city in nights.”
"What do you need Nepenthe?" This elf seemed familiar to Dragon, and so did the city, but he disregarded the feeling as Nepenthe began speaking again.
“For about two weeks, my people were attacked. Every night, those who went outside the city boundaries never returned. In the morning, when some of us looked out in safety, nothing was to be found but a ground covered in ice shards. Night after night this happened, with our best warriors leaving to try and stop the disappearances, only to never return themselves.” She sniffled. Liesel wrapped one of their arms around the elf.
“What do you want us to do?” they asked. Dragon was uncomfortable with this delay, and snorted in frustration, a bit of fire escaping his nostrils in the meantime. His fire, like all dragons, could vary between flames and ice. Nepenthe’s eyes went wide, staring at Dragon.
“Well, the two of you can come to the city and review what little more we know. There’s a meeting at sunrise for all elves to discuss what to do, and if you come before then, it would give you time to review the little details,” she suggested.
Liesel nodded. “We can do that, right?”
"I guess so." With that, the three walked the rest of the the way to the city. Nepenthe led them to the main hall of the town, and through a series of twisting hallways. Then, all of a sudden, she was gone. Dragon was a little confused, as he thought she was just in front of them.
"Liesel, where is Nepenthe?"
“I don’t know.” They looked worried.
"I don’t know either. It’s rather odd, though, as the magic that led us here seems to have gotten stronger. My wings are close."
The two paused in front of a door. An elven spell was floating in front of it, blocking anyone from entering. With a quick breath, Dragon froze the spell, and it opened onto a set of stairs. They hurried down them, wary of the narrow passageway and larger dragon. It only took a moment before the stairway ended.
“Woah,” Liesel’s voice was quiet, as they looked up at the cavern the stairs had opened up to. The roots of the grand trees had formed a tall cathedral ceiling, illuminated by an earthy green light. The room was so expansive that neither Liesel nor Dragon, who had exceptional eyesight could see either end.
"My wings are here, in this room. They feel just out of sight. Come, Liesel, freedom is two wings away." With that, Dragon turned right into the grand room, moving quickly in anticipation. Liesel was just a few seconds behind as they raced into the expanse. They ran for what seemed like hours, dragon and fairy both tiring in the eternal space. When all sense of direction was lost, the duo stopped.
“Where are your wings?”
"I don’t know. It seems that they are just a couple steps away. Let’s look around for a moment." It did take just a moment, and Liesel was looking at the roots closest to them.
“Look, the runes are wings! We just release the runes and we find your wings.” Dragon looked over Liesel’s shoulder and frowned.
"It is a non-magical lock. I cannot break it like the other."
“Don’t worry,” Liesel said, reaching into one of their many pockets. “Mechanic, remember? I can pick locks as well. Most people hate buying new runic locks, even the non-magical ones, so I had to learn how to pick them to fix the variety of problems a lock can have.” They pulled out a couple of hairpins and went to work. The lock clicked, and the root opened onto a room. There stood Nepenthe, about to lower Dragon’s wings into a cauldron of boiling green goop.
"Stop! Those are mine!" Dragon raced across the room, diving between a bubbling cauldron and his wings above it. They reattached with a burst of light, he landed, and with a snarl, he turned and faced the elf, who had been knocked down by the force of dragon’s leap. She pulled herself up and faced the dragon’s wrath.
"What were you doing! You are a monster to take away a dragon’s flight."
“No!” she stood her ground under the scrutiny of the dragon’s anger. “I am no monster. It was you who took my neighbors and sisters, those two weeks. Your ice-fire formed the same shapes as the ones they found. Where are they?”
Dragon was downcast. He finally remembered his dream, and Nepenthe would not like it.
"I’m so sorry Nepenthe. They are rather, um, eaten. As I slept these past few weeks, I dreamt that I was hungry, so I flew and found somebeing to eat while I slept. It must have been the elves who disappeared, but I never meant to hurt or kill anyone."
“You may have never meant to hurt anybeing, but you did. None of them will ever come home,” she spat.
Liesel spoke slowly and carefully, hoping to not anger the elf further. “Isn’t there anything he can do to fix this?”
“His wings would have finished a potion, that upon completion, would give all elves immortality. It would prevent anybeing from seeing us as prey.” Liesel looked at Dragon, worry shining in their eyes.
“Don’t do anything stupid, but try to repair some of the damage,” they said to Dragon, turning away from the cauldron, elf, and dragon, and then they walked out of the room.
Will the potion work?
“It called for a sacrifice of a wrongdoer.” He looked back at his wings, longing to feel the wind against his scales and fly just once more. He sighed, and a little of his fire brought the cauldron of potion back to a boil. He began the words to remove his wings.
"I, dragon of the northern winds and frozen tundra, give my wings as partial penance for my destructive actions." With that, his wings detached cleanly from his body. The magic intrinsic to the wings moved them into the potion, which shifted appearance to the feeling of a cold winter’s storm. It stayed this way for just a moment, before exploding in a spell of bright light.
It took several minutes for the spots in all of their eyes to clear, but when they did, dragon and Liesel were standing together. The two were outside the elvish village, and Nepenthe was with them.
Dragon faced the elf, and asked quietly,
"Did it work?" Asked Dragon. She nodded.
“You can go. Though I will miss my sisters and friends, helping me prevent future hurt has removed all of my hate for you. Good luck on your migration north,” she stated simply. With a quick turn, Nepenthe walked back into the city.
Together the pair walked for a night before they got home. The migration was to follow their arrival home by a week. Dragon was not looking forward to explaining to the council of beings what had occurred, not only about his lack of wings, but the events leading up to their removal. However, he knew that it would help the elves who had survived.
To make matters worse, upon reaching the cave and cottage, Liesel disappeared from moon to sunrise. It would have been nice to talk with them about the ordeal, but they seemed to be working on a project. Dragon didn’t know what for though, and he knew that nobeing would order anything mechanical before migrating, as the order would have to be remembered and picked up the following fall. The clanks and clunks from the cottage were intriguing, but Liesel didn’t offer any information, so Dragon didn’t ask.
On the night of migration, Liesel finally emerged, half-carrying, half-dragging a massive amount of canvas, rope, and an almost comically large basket. Dragon walked over to them, looking confused.
"What is this? I thought you were preparing for going north."
“This is how we are going north. Can you do me a favor?” Liesel asked. Dragon nodded, still perplexed. “Thanks. Now, climb into the basket and start your fire, gently mind, and not the ice kind, into the canvas.”
He did so, and it took almost an hour for the great mass of canvas to inflate, but when it did, the basket started to rise. Liesel hurried into the basket as the balloon was filled to its maximum air. They had been preparing the basket for the hours of flight north while it was inflating, and now a week’s worth of work was put to the test. The entire contraption lifted into the air. Within a few moments, dragon, fairy, and hot air balloon were high in the air and headed north.
"This is incredible! Liesel, how did you know to make this?"
“This is how the fairies who gave up their wings went flying. I figured that, since you are in a similar situation, it might help.”
"Thanks to you, I can fly once more," said Dragon with a smile. With that, the pair drifted off into the distance in their balloon, one, a dragon who had sacrificed his wings to make up for a crime, and the second, a fairy mechanic born without flight.