All of this, and more.
Sheilah stood on some cliff she couldn’t see, some elevated position above the Terrace of the Dragon, even above the Cliffs of the Thunderbird. All the lands of the Redstone Valley, every bit of the canyons and valleys and spires and buttes and mesas stretched out before her, as far as she could see.
All of this, and more.
She wasn’t sure where the voice came from. Part of her felt like she knew it intimately, knew it to her bones, so she simply accepted it as part of her dream, the dreams she always had since her mother had taken a single drop of dragon blood and rubbed it on her lips as an infant.
She blinked and suddenly she was staring up at the rippling canvas ceiling, smelling the comforting smells of her home- the ghost scents of last night’s dinner, the individual smells of each of her family members and the ever-present dry smell of dust- waiting for her thoughts to come back to her.
She stretched out her arms and flexed her hands, watched her fingers curl and uncurl for a moment before she let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding, and pushed aside her bedding. She rubbed her face with her hands and discovered she was sticky with night-sweat. She grimaced and stepped out of the sleeping area she shared with her three sisters and dunked a rag into the shared bucket they used and wiped herself down.
Sheilah looked over at her sisters, nearly the same age. Kellia and Sellia, the twins, slept side-by-side, hands clasped together between them. Caidi slept beside them, a year younger than the two. Sheilah smiled a little in triumph; she’d woken up ahead of them.
She struggled into her clothing. Whoever woke up last would have to do chores, and she wanted to get an early start on her day.
Sheilah was thirteen, and today was her birthday.
*****
On the other side of the long tent was the sleeping area shared by her mothers and father. Her mother and father slept in their bed, face to face, mostly hidden under their bedrolls. It was freezing cold at night, searing during the day in the Redstone Lands. Her other mother Mayrin slept on the other side of her mother.
It was a rare thing to wake up before everyone else in the tent. She rubbed her arms briskly and headed down the length of the tent to the central fire and prodded the coals to see if any survived the freezing night.
She kindled a morning fire as her father mumbled something to her mother and crawled out of their shared bedroll.
Her father, Davian, eased himself out of bed and absently scratched his face as he stared blankly out at nothing. He eventually blinked, and glanced over at Sheilah.
He absently popped his neck, first one way, then the other, and then twisted at the waist, popping his back with a subtle, dull crackle. He was covered in scars. His back was webbed in them, his arms and legs looked as if they’d been slashed over and over. What was it that could have done something so terrible to him?
He wiped himself down with the rag, tugged on his clothes, and joined her at the fire. “Up first, hmm?” He mumbled. She nodded as she set the kettle in the fire. She liked to think she shared a kinship with her father beyond just being a parent and child: they were the only two humans in the family. His wives were Wild Elves, and her sisters were half-elven.
“You’re on water duty today.” He offered with a tired grin. She shot a look at her siblings, still sleeping.
“No, it’s the laziest that gets the water.” She countered, pointing at the twins and Caidi.
He chuckled and offered her a rare grin. “So you’ve learned to argue with your elders!” He grinned. “Good. That’s a sign you’re learning to stand on your own.” He praised sardonically. “Now get your sisters out of bed. I expect two buckets each from the four of you.” he added in a severe voice that wasn’t joking.
Sheilah frowned at him but nodded.
He rose to a standing position and twisted back and forth again. She could hear the crackle and pop of his spine as he stretched.
“Do you know why I’m sending you?” He asked, turning to face her.
She shook her head without thinking about it.
“Your necklace.” He pointed, and she grimaced. She’d taken it off before she’d gone to sleep, and forgot to put it back on when she woke it up. It was a leather thong with a cluster of dragonling teeth, one for each of the years she’d been alive. She was expected to collect sixteen teeth- kill sixteen dragonlings- between the age of ten and the age she was chosen to be sent north into the Ashlands.
She was supposed to wear it all the time, but it was uncomfortable.
“It’s your birthday today, so I expect to see another tooth soon!” He encouraged.
“How long did it take for you to fill up your necklace, father?” She asked.
He gave her a wry smile, but his eyes were blank. “It was different for me.” He replied simply, ambiguously. He gestured towards the rear of the tent. “Sisters. Buckets. Water.”
He headed back to the sleeping area of the tent himself, but instead of waking his daughters, he crawled into his own bed to affectionately caress the cheek of Ladria his wife and whisper something into her ear.
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Sheilah strode to her side of the sleeping area, and kicked the feet of her sisters until they groaned and meweled in protest. It didn’t take long; the rule of the Redstone was simple and unforgiving: You lived and died by your own strength.
She headed back to the central fire, took the kettle off, poured water for tea. The tea itself was bitter and pungent, perfect for waking up quickly.
She picked up her two buckets and stepped out of the long tent and looked out over the Dragon’s Terrace.
*****
The air was thin and dry and arid. In the Redstone, the sun boiled at day and the land froze at night. In these magical hours of the morning, the air was cool and crisp and dry.
She jogged towards the well as she mentally planned her day. Her father had demanded another tooth, but she’d heard last night that in the territories of the Clan of the Mountain Cat a dragonling had been spotted. If she was lucky, that dragonling would be hers by sunset.
*****
Sheilah got a fair amount of ribbing from Doel, the man who watched over the well.
Wells were important, they supplied a clan with a necessary resource without having to go all the way to the lake, and it fell to him to watch over it.
“So the little Sheilah was a sleepyhead, hmm?” He offered with a smirk.
“I was the first up.” She retorted, and her sisters behind her gave her a sour look. “I have to get chores done early so I can hunt.”
He sobered up quickly at that, and nodded. “I’d heard there was a dragonling about.” He agreed. “Down near the southwest forest?” He asked.
“I hope.” She replied as he filled her buckets. “There’s also gnoll sign there, too.”
He made a disgusted face. “Gnolls. Never have been quite able to stamp them out. You do your best, hear?”
She nodded dutifully.
As she received the second bucket, Fialla arrived, sweating and struggling to catch her breath. He gave her a sidelong look. “This one looks to have overslept, too.” He offered.
Fialla was like the rest of the half-elves, with brown skin, pointed ears and silvery eyes.
“I didn’t oversleep!” She protested weakly. “I was waiting for Sheilah.”
Sheilah traded a glance with Doel, who nodded knowingly.
The girl panted with effort as she passed her empty buckets to Doel. The half-elven girl looked to Sheilah. “You’re going after the dragonling, right? My father asked yours if it was okay for me to come along since there was gnoll-sign there.”
A tribe was a double-dozen families, and each tribe made up a clan. News got around.
Sheilah nodded.
“I have a new-made bow. I can keep watch for those man-eaters while you go after the dragonling.” Fialla offered.
Ever since she could remember, Fialla had stuck to Sheilah wherever she went, like a shadow. Fialla could be annoying at times, but the two of them were good friends.
“I think you’re buying up favors so you can have me watch over you when you hunt yours.” Sheilah offered knowingly, and the slightly smaller girl hung her head. “I don’t mind. I do need help.” Sheilah added.
Fialla smiled at her warmly.
“Thank you, Sheilah.” She acknowledged, picking up her buckets. “I’ll be ready to go in about an hour. You?”
Sheilah thought about her morning chores and nodded. “About that long, yeah.”
Another girl joined them, and all the other girls there turned away. Atta was antagonistic and rude; she didn’t get along with the other girls at all.
“I suppose your father has a new dragonling all lined up for you, huh Princess?” Atta snarled. Like Sheilah and Noel, she was human.
“Everyone hunts equally.” Sheilah replied, but that seemed to agitate Atta even more.
“Everyone except the Princesses,” She snarled. “Everyone knows that Davian plays favorites with his daughters. It’ll be the Great Dragon’s own luck if anyone else gets a chance.”
She passed her battered buckets to Noel with a clatter.
“I can’t stand you.” Atta snarled. “All this favoritism makes me want to puke.”
“If you’re going to puke, make sure you do it in the gardens.” Fialla snapped back. “We don’t have time to listen to you.”
“Oh, a touching word from the Princesses’ Shadow. How lucky must I be?” Atta spat.
Sheilah waited for Kellia and Sellia to get their buckets filled, and began the trek back to their tents.
They collected their buckets, Fialla following behind, since her own family’s tent was nearby.
“That girl probably slept on a cactus.” Kellia muttered.
“That girl probably slept on a cactus every day her whole life.” Sellia returned.
“It’s not nice to say things like that.” Caidi urged, and like that, they changed the subject to something else.
*****
The Redstone was a mess of maze-like twisting canyons, buttes, and cliffs that stretched for miles in every direction; the stone of the desert lands as red as their namesake suggested. There was a single river that fed into a lake, but aside from that, the lands were mostly barren and devoid of vegetation.
While there were places in the Redstone with cool shade, trees, and even grass, those of the Clan of the Dragon disdained them, preferring the even more dry and desolate cliffs that made up the Terrace of the Dragon, a series of stepped ledges high up against the cliff walls of the Redstone.
“If you woke up before anyone else, you should have woken us up before father woke up!” Kellia hissed at Sheilah as they made the trek back to their tent.
“You live and die by your own strength.” Sheilah replied blandly. “Besides, he woke up right after I did.”
Kellia made a bitter face, but glanced at Sellia and Caidi. “There’s gnolls down in the Mountain Cat territory?”
Sheilah nodded. “So I heard.”
“We should go, too.” Kellia urged. Sellia added her voice, and after a moment, Caidi did too.
“You know that I’m there to hunt a dragonling, right?” Sheilah replied drily.
“You’re not the only one that needs teeth, you know.” Caidi argued, her sweet voice still showing her youth. She was barely eleven years old and uncharacteristically meek compared to the other clan members.
“So you want to come along, then?” Sheilah asked. They all nodded.
“Whoever gets the Dragonling first gets rights of course, but Gnolls are dangerous.” Caidi argued. “With all of us, we should be able to put them down.”
Sheilah smiled at that. “I don’t mind killing them, but it’s Mountain Cat territory. Rightfully, it should be their job to deal with them.”
“Yes, but we’re Dragons.” Caidi insisted as if that settled the matter, and in a way, it did.