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Once upon a time, an immortal fox and the spirit of the forest came upon a dragon.
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Simon was fairly certain that Grace was messing with him.
“A dragon?”
"A dragon." Grace nodded excitedly.
Simon had just woken from his winter as the central forest tree. As always, he lay in the freshly thawed spring dirt, his body trying to remember how to be a person. Wrapped in a blanket, birds chirping and the giant shape of his left behind tree self in the background, Simon would remember how to move, breathe, see.
While wandering, Grace had visited the Seine in France. He'd been told of a dragon causing a ruckus in Rouen but Grace had not believed it likely. On the journey over, Grace had expected great burning and violence. Instead, they were confronted with graffiti, lewd things thrown over the town wall, and pranks to workers. The medieval city was churning stressfully many out of towners avoiding it entirely, and people were demanding that their leaders, the clergy, or God Himself do something.
Admittedly, the dragon could look mighty impressive, a massive thing of black and crimson scales, although when Grace first saw them they looked like a ten year old child. He chatted with the dragon, trying to suggest them off their mischief, and they had swollen their little childlike body into a great thing of scales and fire. Fortunately Grace was not scared of fire. One did not live with a piece of an apocalyptic volcanic spirit inside of them, remnants from saving the world, and tremble before dragon breath.
La gargouille looked as Grace had expected a dragon to look, lizardlike with big round eyes and a stern sloped forehead. As a child, their face was much less severe most of the time but when they screamed or got overwhelmed, Grace felt as though he could see the resemblance a tiny bit. Then again, when the enormous winged beast looked calm, Grace could almost see the gleeful child within, too.
“They're waiting in the town,” Grace told Simon. He'd left la gargouille–and they did insist on being referred to that way–in town to avoid dealing with a naked and confused Simon at the same time.
On their way into town, Grace explained the dragon had been at risk of being killed by a bishop and Grace had intervened. La gargouille had been subdued and hypnotized by the bell of a religious man, stood on a pyre, and lit a flame. Grace had expected to be able to walk through flames unscathed to rescue the burning dragon but had worried someone would spot him, but he managed it. Grace left behind a half sculpture in the inferno, and healed the peculiar creature in private.
Grace's healing hands had made quick work of the dragon's burns. They would have taken hours or days to burn, their dragon scales resistant to the flames. Unable to move, the fire had licked at them and worked away, though. Scared for their safety in Rouen and hoping the city believed the dragon burnt and gone, Grace suggested they come home with him. “The language,” a different dialect of French, “is a little funny but you'll pick it up!” Scared, lost child eyes looked up at Grace when they agreed.
Simon was not entirely surprised Grace had taken in a child, much less a terrified dragon. Grace was very often getting roped into things unexpectedly, a hazard of his curiosity. Whenever there was time, Grace prioritized helping foster the children's education in the towns, teaching them about plants, the world, kindness, and the importance of gift giving. It had probably been only a matter of time until Grace brought a child home.
The town near Simon's current forest was small and had been struggling, the flood patterns disrupted, but Simon's reshaping of the river, streams, and erosion patterns were beginning to improve things. The church doubled as a school for the children and Grace spent a lot of time there.
The gentle landscape made the wooden buildings stand out particularly well in the half sunset. The town wasn't very well fortified, less invasions from vikings found their way this far south, but Simon suspected when they had a string of successful years they may build some preemptive defenses.
Impatient and angry, the dragon was drawing on the walls of the church.
“You left!”
“I had to go get my friend. Hoo boy. I thought we talked about this?” Grace rubbed the back of his head, staring at the church walls. “Where's Mary?”
“She left, too.”
For a moment, Simon was worried the child had killed the townswoman .
Not believing the dragon, Grace dropped to the floor and transformed into a fox. It was a tricky thing for Grace to transform outside of Fairy, but he was getting awfully good at it in the last few centuries. The dragon seemingly didn't know Grace could change shape and immediately began to scream and reach for him, giggling. As they pulled on Grace's tail, Simon considering intervening, Grace shot back into being a man.
The dragon, in the shape of a boy, clung to Grace's back, howling with laughter.
“Simon, could you check the closet? It smells like someone locked Mary in there.”
Indeed, la gargouille had. Simon helped Mary, one of the young ladies of the village, out and apologized to her greatly. Everyone had been coming to understand the magical oddities of Grace and Simon but mostly by their benefits. The forest was so very bountiful lately, filled with berries, Grace was able to heal any wounds, and both Simon and Grace had been a huge help with an angry bridge troll a few towns over.
The bridge troll still lived nearby, now he simply charged a sliding scale fee, specifically maintained the bridge, and also stopped eating people.
Understandably, Mary hurried away and didn't look closely at la gargouille. She'd felt like a good option to watch the dragon since she generally took no nonsense from anyone, while also being considerate, but it seemed a magical little rascal was beyond her.
“It is nice to meet you. Do you have a name?” Simon asked the child dragon.
The child glared. “La gargouille.” Simon looked pleadingly at Grace for help pronouncing that. “You're not very smart, are you?” The dragon huffed.
“Hey, hey,” Grace put his hands on his hips. That would be but the first of incidents where la gargouille insulted Simon and Grace.
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Rocky and Adrian were delighted to meet a dragon.
La gargouille shook off their human shape in Fairy. Their huge wings could flatten crop fields but Fairy’s robust forests bent and shielded; they also took much better to gentle encouragement to fly higher rather than humans trying to shoot la gargouille down with bows.
Swooping, la gargouille even tried going to an upper level of Fairy, wings beating and taking themselves to higher levels in the tree of life.
Although Grace had stressed the importance of not eating or drinking in Fairy, everyone fairly immediately stressed about la gargouille going too far.
The tree of life gave a little shake on that limb and la gargouille dove back down.
“It's alive!” The dragon craned their neck, staring at the tree.
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Grace insisted that la gargouille apologize to Mary. After they'd had a few weeks to settle in, he led them back to town.
Staring at their feet, la gargouille told Mary they were sorry for locking her in a closet. “I thought it was funny. I thought… I
I thought…” La gargouille shrugged their shoulders dejectedly.
Mary looked at Grace.
In turn, Grace shrugged and gestured a single hand towards la gargouille.
“I forgive you. But please don't do it again.” She clutched her hands to her chest.
“May you live many long lives,” la gargouille grumbled.
“How are you enjoying living with Grace and Simon?” Mary asked.
La gargouille perked up. “They're weird!”
Once again, Grace could only shrug and laugh nervously, judged gently beneath Mary's kind but piercing gaze.
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“Why didn't you hurt the people hurting me?” La gargouille asked Grace on the walk back to Simon.
Waiting on the edge of the forest, Simon waved at them from afar. He had been inspecting the terrain. Usually, the forests they rehabilitated didn't involve quite such problems with the soil in regards to human settlements but it had made for a fascinating project for Simon.
“Grace?”
La gargouille wouldn't drop it. It seemed to Grace that the child had wanted revenge.
“I didn't think it would be fair.”
“It wasn't fair that they hurt me,” la gargouille grumped as they walked up to Simon. The dragon recapped the conversation for Simon.
Grace stared up at the trees. What if they weren't equipped for this?
“Hurting bad people is still bad, morally, compared to hurting good people, it's still hurting people. Hurting someone to stop more harm is one thing but… How can you even know they'll do that? Besides, most people are pretty good at hurting themselves.” Simon rattled off while tying up his hair, following along.
Grace thought that was a fair, of adult answer.
Then la gargouille began to get upset. The child's face contorted. “Am I bad? Did you take me in because I'm bad?”
“We took you in because you needed help.”
La gargouille kicked a sapling near the trail. Simon made a small, “Ahk,” at the violence toward the new growth. “I'm bad,” la gargouille kicked again, this time at nothing, to demonstrate their point. “They tried to kill me because I was hurting people. So they were allowed.”
“No, no,” Simon dropped to his knees and held out his hands. “Listen, listen.”
La gargouille shoved his shoulders. “No! I did bad things! I'm bad! I'm bad, I'm bad, I'm bad!” The child, with all the force of a dragon, began to sob and wail, clutching their chest.
“You don't have to stay bad. Everyone can change. I changed.” Not really listening, la gargouille fell forward into Simon's arms. “Okay. Okay. It's okay. You had a big day.”
“I'm bad.”
“No,” Simon held them close. “I promise you're not.”
After several deep breaths, la gargouille asked how Simon had changed. Finding out Simon had once been violent but grown out of it–Simon spared them the details just yet–la gargouille came to like Simon all the more.
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As la gargouille grew, they calmed considerably. Then again, they had plenty of opportunity to stretch their legs and their wings. With Grace, they visited places all over the world, although Grace steered clear of large cities in case la gargouille got any ideas about vandalizing churches again. They learned alongside other children, the townsfolk un phased that a dragon child would live with the magical men who had started to inhabit their forest. With Simon, la gargouille came to appreciate the forest, the land, and the idea that many things are connected.
La gargouille yearned to see more European cities, promising to behave. Grace agreed to take them back to the big cities one winter while Simon was a tree.
“One important request.”
“I'll behave,” la gargouille whined.
“Don't go without me or Simon.”
“Oh.”
“At least for now.”
Respected, they no longer felt compelled to destroy and vandalize. Grace didn't think reminding them of old behaviour was useful anyhow.
They visited a small port city. La gargouille delighted at the steep cliff drop offs and Grace tried not to stress. The city was bustling and busy for wintertime but Grace knew how absolutely packed it could be during peak seasons. The lanky teenage dragon passed easily in the crowd. Following barefoot, Grace stood out more than la gargouille–so much so that la gargouille insisted, embarrassed, that Grace buy shoes.
“Aren't you cold?”
“I don't get cold.”
“I know you said that but I always thought you were lying.”
“Why would I lie?” Grace worked his feet into the shoes.
“Youre a fox, foxes are liars.”
“Talk to a lot of foxes?” Grace snorted.
“Just you.”
“When have I ever lied to you?”
“About not getting cold,” la gargouille laughed teasingly. Then they pointed out some street food they wanted to try.
All was going quite well until a clanging in the distance worked its way through the city. The bells chimed for the hour, peeling brightly.
With a sudden, “Ah!” la gargouille clapped their hands over their ears. Immediately, Grace thought of the bells that had been used to hypnotize them into submission before the pyre. It wasn't clear if their reaction was from bad memories or the bells themselves, but Grace wasted no time pulling la gargouille into his arm.
“Shh, it'll be over soon, you're alright, you're alright,” Grace hushed in a low, soothing voice.
When the bells stopped, la gargouille insisted they return home. Upset, they became a dragon and went to lay in the stream, the stimulating cold water a favourite sensation for them on their scales. The waterway bloated around the dam of their body.
When la gargouille finally came back into themselves, Grace and la gargouille went for a walk in the forest.
“How will I ever see human cities if I can't withstand bells?”
“Hmm. Perhaps we could start with a small bell?”
“Can we wait for Simon?”
The trees rustled.
“We can absolutely wait for Simon,” Grace promised.
That spring, it became their project. A tiny bell, muted by Grace or Simon's hand, was used to slowly work la gargouilles tolerance up. At first, they half hid at the very sound, but as the sounds and sensations became familiar, they were able to graduate to bigger, deeper bells.
The following spring, the three took a trip to a small town during springtime festivities. La gargouille had never especially
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It was a small sliver in a beautiful eternity.
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“I want to explore the churches,” la gargouille decided one day shortly after turning twenty. “And the cities. And the people.”
“I do that, you come with me, we do that.” The half hearted protest didn't make sense to Grace even as he said it. Grace knew this would come, and still he felt oddly abandoned, outgrown.
“I want… To go alone. I want to find myself. My people. My person. And that's the fun. I'm glad you saved me but I need to live. I want to live and explore. Please. Please don't stop me.”
Biting back the offer to go with them, Simon and Grace looked at one another. They'd always known they would have to say goodbye to their beloved dragon but had hoped it wouldn't be for a long time. Simon was used to forests outgrowing him, no longer needing him, and the idea that support could change over time. Grace knew this for the human children, they grew up so fast, but la gargouille had been different, had been special to them.
“We'll miss you,” Simon started.
“I'll visit.”
La gargouille fell into their arms. A dragon all grown up, ready to face the world.
“You're always welcome back,” Grace sniffled.
“I know. I'll be okay! I'm a great big dragon. And I won't anger a bunch of villagers.”
Begging la gargouille to wait, Grace ran back into the hollow. He came back out with the small bell.
Every century or so, in the blink of an eye for a dragon, la gargouille would find Grace and Simon. They would tell them if the great big beautiful buildings they saw, the people building them, and all the adventures a dragon could possibly imagine.