Majay Mistrocoli

Merry Christmas break, everyone!  I hope that you are surviving well on this fine winter day.  It has been snowing here, which is great with me.  Here is a picture of our backyard:

This is a beautiful sight!

And now, here are a few snippets from The Dragon Bstirvm, which I dug up when I came home for break and am working on now.

I sipped the thin soup from my bowl.  Soups seemed thinner now than they had been.  I looked into Mother’s face and saw that it was worn greatly.  Perhaps it was only the light of the fire, but I thought that I could see tears in her eyes.  Looking at Janik, I could see how thin her arms were beneath her ragged sleeves, and how her hands trembled as she held the scrubbing reeds.  I stared down at my own clothes, noting their threadbare condition, seeing for the first time the holes in my skirts and the ripped edges of my sleeves.  My eyes were opened.  For so long I had lived in fantasy that I had not noticed the worsening conditions around me.  For the first time in my life I saw things not as I wanted to see them, but as they appeared to everyone else.  When danger reared its head, it tore the blinders away from my eyes.  I was not a princess in disguise, Janik was not a little fairy, Father was not a kindly giant, our house was not the ancient ruins of an enchanted castle, King Edwin was not a grumpy dwarf, and Rusa was not a magical city in the sky.  Instead we were poor, we were common, and we were oppressed.  I had seen only flashes of reality before this, but now that our family could be torn apart, I saw the full blackness of my life.

~The Dragon Bstirvm

As I walked from the smithy I could see soldiers tramping down the street.  They stopped at our front door.

“Father, look!” I cried.

            He came to the doorway and looked out grimly.  “I don’t know what they want.”

            My only thought was that they had somehow heard about Mother.  Perhaps they were going to take her away.  I dropped the basket and ran to the house and in through the kitchen door.  The soldiers were already in the front door, and Mother was standing before them with her hands on her hips.

            “What are you here for?” she asked.

            “Your house has been chosen by lot,” said the captain of the soldiers.  “Have you any daughters?”

            Mother put her arm around Lansel’s shoulders, for Lansel happened to be standing beside her.  “What would you have with our daughters?” she demanded.

            “Orders of the king, woman,” the captain said, flashing a piece of parchment sealed with scarlet wax in front of her face.  “We are to take your oldest daughter.”

~The Dragon Bstirvm

We flew up, up, upward, towards the height of Castle Kaldrob.  The wind was bitter up there, and the air sharp and thin.  We were nearly to the crumbling entrance of the castle when the dragon flew low and dropped me on the ground.  I lay, panting for breath that did not seem to come, as the beast effortlessly soared around the tower of the castle and circled back toward me.  He alighted down beside me and watched as I struggled to breath in the thin air.

            “You are weak from the journey,” he said in a low voice.  He seemed to be stating a fact as opposed to asking a question.  “Catch your breath, Princess, and tell me your name.”

            I looked up at him, meaning to tell him that he was mistaken; I was no princess.  Then I thought of Gabrielle, and I snapped my mouth shut.  If I spoke, the dragon might become annoyed and destroy all of Rusa.

            “What have you brought me here for?” I gasped.

            “What is your name?” he demanded, ignoring my question.

            “Majay,” I whispered.  “My name is Majay.”

~ The Dragon Bstirvm

Thanks for reading and God bless,