Dragons: Addae and Otieno

This is a piece that accompanied two wire dragon sculptures that I gave to two of my best friends.

Flickers of red flashed between the dark trunks of the trees under the heavy canopy. There was bare enough light to catch the rest of the shape of the quickly moving form from the soft pre-morning glow at the edges of the sky. Everything slept at this hour, even the nocturnal predators. Everything except for the beast running, leaping, ducking, moving through his forest with barely a sound to belie his great mass. He knew his forest as well as he knew his own body. And his forest knew him and made way for him as he raced towards the cliffs.

As the pale light increased, he knew he had to hurry otherwise he would be late. And if he was late, then he wouldn’t hear the end of it. He threw himself into his pace harder as the forest slowly began to wake around him, the small diurnal animals lifting their heads and blinking the vestiges of sleep away, turning to watch with amusement as the dark blur past. The black scales blended with the shadows cast down from the boughs above. The green flecks matched the ragged moss that clung to every stationary surface. Great wings were pinned to his back to make him narrow enough to slip under half fallen trunks and hid most of the bright red that got brighter with the almost risen sun.

He didn’t slow as he broke from through the tree line. He lunged across the soft grasses that mark the space between the forest and the cliffs. He felt exposed as the pale grasses contrasted against his dark forested colors. He only let up when his claws started to click against the stone that tops the cliffs. He heard the ocean crashing far below, eternally working to reduce everything to sand.

He rounded the corner of the worn and familiar path and wound along the cliff face. He cringed a bit as he sent rocks skittering down to the foam below. The stone was so unlike the soft vegetation of his forest. He slowed more as the path widened and led to a large hollow tucked into the cliff. He spared one glance out over the horizon where the sky was brightest but not yet gold with the new morning sun. Pink and orange still stained the wisps of clouds, making them stand out against the pale blue sky. He wasn’t late after all.

He turned his attention back to the large mass curled up at the back of the hollow. He rolled his eyes at the heavy snoring coming from the iridescent scales. The same pink of the clouds, mixed with the deeper shades of purple that were missed, was reflected in the folds of the wings that unconsciously blocked out the morning light. He sidled up close, slipped his own head under the cover, and knocked roughly against the other.

“Addae, get up.” He got a grumble in return, but the snoring stopped. “Come on. You are going to miss sunrise.”

“Go away, Otieno,” a gravely voice answered.

“Not until you get up. How can a morning colored sky dragon still be sleeping while your moment happens?”

“Because dreams. Nice dreams. Pleasant dreams. Dreams ruined by an obnoxious brother.”

“Just move your wing and look!” Otieno nudged the wing covering their head and Addae slowly lifted it, stretched it out to its full distance, and then folded it back out of the way.

Just in time too as they witnessed the bright sun crest the horizon, spilling golden light across the surface of the ocean. Both dragons sighed at the beauty of it. Otieno snuggled in closer to his brother, wrapping his dark tail over Addae’s paleness.

“Can’t believe you woke me up for this.”

“I always wake you up for this. Just as you always wake me up for sunset.”

“Stupid night born.” Addae knocked his head against Otieno’s.

“Stupid day born.”

They settled down and watched the day wake up from the niche in the cliffs until Otieno started snoring, his teal eyes closed.

“Brother, get up and go to your own bed.”

“Huh? Oh. Right. I’ll see you tonight.” Otieno climbed to his feet and shook sleep off enough that he wouldn’t misstep and fall off the cliff before returning to his den deep in the forest.

For a little while, Addae watched the serpents leap out of the ocean in the bright new sun, their colorful scales and fins creating rainbow prisms against the water. Then he too stood up but instead of following the path Otieno took, he shook out and stretched his wings and then lept off the edge of his den with a powerful bunching and releasing of muscles that launched him far out over the crashing waters.

He hung in the air for a brief moment, suspended by momentum before he started to fall, arcing down towards the sparkling ocean surface. He let himself free fall, let the air rush around him until he could taste the sea salt and then he beat his powerful wings once, twice, three times until he was soaring back up again.

The water droplets that caught on the thin pink and purple webbing of his wings dried against the warmed morning winds that caressed his ivory body and invited him to cavort in the clouds with him. He tucked his legs up close to his body and used the push and tilt of his wings to lazily circle back up to the top of the cliff and then up higher. He could see the forest sweeping out over the hills until the soft mists of the mountains obscured it. Looking out over the sea he saw the gentle curve of the earth as it fell away. Through the clear waters below he watched the serpents dart through the reefs for their breakfast. He saw the shelf fall away, shifting abruptly from the teal of his brother’s eyes to the dark blue of deep waters. His own copper eyes matched the veins of minerals that stand out against the pale gray of the cliffs that line the land his brother and he inhabit.

He wondered if he should visit their mother up in the mountains but decided against it in favor of following a pack of dolphins as his stomach growled with a reminder to get breakfast. He turns once more into the wind, hovering for a moment before diving down with fierce glee.