It was night. The sky was a perfect, intimidating shade of inky black, and the only blemishes were the planet’s usual lightning blue moons in the far distance. Fen Kyparr shivered with delight, getting faint chills as the wind sent tingles down his spine. A perfect day for dragon-calling, he thought longingly. With his fingers, he traced his silver birth necklace, which depicted Kyisma’s founding star, Aradene, and was engraved in his family’s archaic letters. If only…
If only! His thoughts turned bitter as his brow furrowed. He thought those two words too often. If the mages came to visit, they would definitely punish him: they had already warned him that his idle daydreaming would get him nowhere. He sighed and turned back to work. If only… Fen picked up his washcloth and squeezed it, letting the crystallized water fall onto his skin and explode into cold vapor. He wafted the mist toward him and sucked it in greedily. Ah, that was better. As soon as he was refreshed, he picked up the shovel and began to work. The labor was tedious, yet the Zuul tribespeople felt a certain comfort from the dull, repetitive clang of metal against stone. Tonight, Fen didn’t feel that comfort. The steady echo added to his throbbing head and was a constant reminder that everyone else had left and gone home long before.
The mages had visited last week. Everyone was anxious to be their best in front of their consul leaders, yet Fen was just hoping to get it over with. Once the mages had caught Fen dozing on his job, they had ordered him to do a couple of extra hours of work each night. His mother and father had protested, yet Fen partly didn’t mind. He was a night owl by nature, and the stark and cold evening air kept him awake. However, after several nights of staying up past midnight, Fen’s weak, ten-year-old body frame felt on the brink of collapse. The only thing that motivated him to stay mining was to hear the dragons. He never saw them, of course, but every few days, at around midnight, a heart-throbbing cry echoed through the caverns. If he were lucky, he would hear the brief flapping of wings before the gargantuan creatures took off and glided across the sky. The cry awakened all living things that heard it and made Fen’s nerves jolt with electricity. Fen lived for those moments. He knew that it was supposed to be a warning call, as the mages said, yet the beautiful, almost harmonic dragon voices intrigued him.
Dragons. Fen had studied them in books all of his life. Even though he was a low-class miner, and not supposed to be literate, Fen had snuck books in from the local artisan’s library to read in private. He had memorized every single word in those books and could draw every detail of the pictures in those pages. But mostly, he gazed at the dragons. There were only a few illustrated books of what dragons looked like (for only mages had seen them in person), so he pored through them over and over. His favorite dragon was an Opal Dragon, a highly powerful shapeshifter that used magic mostly for trickery. It had glossy black scales, with indigo undercoats and golden, red, and blue hues that gleamed like stained glass. Fen dreamed of getting one-- as his trustworthy guide, companion, and friend. However, he knew that dragons only bonded with the people they chose and were hard to tame. Even some of the most powerful royal mages hadn’t tamed one! Fen’s heart pounded as he heard a dragon cry in the distance. If only…
He returned to his work--mining opals for wizard royalty--and sighed again as he chipped away at the stone and dirt in the caverns. After admiring a royal blue lightning ridge opal (often called a Kopal) the size of his palm, he deposited it in the bucket and began to count his gems.
Fifteen more to go. Fen was shocked. So many more! What had he been doing the last few hours? He stared gloomily into his royal blue opal. It would probably sell for about seven thousand gold bloomians, due to its few imperfections and mesmerizing milky surface. He considered dressing up as an artisan and selling it for money, then shook his head. What was up with him lately? He looked at it for a few seconds. Though he hated mining, he still failed to get bored of the opals he collected. There were so many varieties that it was hard to not to get enraptured by them.
Fen continued to chip away at the walls, thankful that the priceless gems were not hard to find in these caverns. He was just about to stop for a break when he felt himself being drawn to one of the cavern walls. Something about it was utterly strange... He touched one of the rocks hanging on the ceiling, his hand pulled by the mysterious force. Suddenly, a deep rumble began to form throughout the cavern. Fen’s heart nearly stopped. His face shined with cold sweat. Dragons? Could it be? But no. He clapped his hand to his mouth, his scream muffled. The ceiling began to cave in. Rocks and pebbles tumbled down like rain, their sharp edges meeting skin and piercing it. He cried out, but the pain was too great to make a further sound. His nerves felt like they were being roasted on white fire, and his ears rang for all of the devil’s worth. Then, it stopped. Fen looked up, afraid to move. He was trapped in a small, cramped space, no larger than four of his bodies stacked on top of the other. “Help!”
The air was already beginning to get warm and stale. Fen breathed in dirt and coughed. He tried to push the rocks on top of him but they didn’t budge. Tears came to his eyes and stung the cuts on his cheeks. He inhaled deeply through his nose. Each breath was like a clock ticking-- counting down until he would eventually die. The air turned hot and steamy. Fen felt dizzy. I love you, Mother. I love you, Father. He tried to convey his last thoughts to them as the world swayed, blurry from his flowing tears. He sensed the sharp and sickly smell of blood. Time seemed to stop.
A sudden roar awoke him from his dazed hallucination. Another chill ripped through his body and Fen felt hope course through him: a dragon! For real, this time! Would the dragon save him? He clutched his bag of opals. “I’m here! Help!”
Fen heard wings flapping. His head thrummed a steady beat, almost succumbing to the hot atmosphere. He had to make it. He had to. Finally, the flapping sounds stopped and a blast of air sent the rocks tumbling. Could it be? The freezing air refreshed his senses, and he stumbled to his feet, looking around. Whoever it was that saved him was gone.
He heaved a breath, disappointed. At least he was alive. He peered into his opal bag, relieved to see that none of his opals had fallen out. He might as well finish his job since he only had one more opal left to go. Stunned, Fen picked up his shovel and began walking back to where he had started. After a couple of minutes, he found himself in the same place where the cave-in happened. His eyes widened. Usually, his instincts in finding his way in the cavern were prime-- how could he be lost? Without warning, the cavern seemed to go deathly silent. Fen began to sweat again. He wiped his palms on his trousers. Was this a dream? He looked around the room, his eyes finally resting on the place where he had touched the rock that started the landslide. His hand gravitated toward it again. Fen wildly tried to pull his hand away from it, but one of his instincts told him not to. He slid into a trance-like state as his fingers pulled away one of the rocks and grasped something round and smooth. An opal! He pulled at it, and it came loose without any effort.
Fen pulled his hand back to look at the opal, then gasped. A dragon breath black opal, the rarest of them all! It gleamed and pulsed almost violently, flashing brilliant magentas, blacks, scarlets, and royal purples all over the cavern walls. He stared at it greedily, the stone warm in his hand. Suddenly, it began to shake. Fen almost dropped the fragile gem but cupped it in his hands. “Boom!” The gem exploded into a million shards on the floor, then disappeared. Fen gaped at his empty hands. “How?” Then he turned and screamed. In the opal’s place was a dragon.
It was the most beautiful thing Fen had ever seen. The dragon was around six feet in width and four feet in height: a vibrant juvenile with the exact same colors as the opal he had touched. Fen could tell she was a female by the strange, moon shaped markings on her face and her wide black eyes like obsidian. Something about her reminded Fen of the perfect landscape he was out in a few hours ago. She snorted, and bolts of lightning shot out of her nostrils.
“What’s your name, kid?” the dragon asked, tossing her silky mane backward. “How’d you find me?”
Fen almost fainted. “I’m--I’m Fen Kyparr.”
The dragon rolled her eyes. “Is that truly your real name?”
He blushed. “Yeah, sorry. My real name’s Fennel. And yours?”
“Opalia. So, you’re embarrassed by your miner background?”
Fen’s cheeks burned. Miners were given the names of plants at birth, and Fen had gotten unlucky with the name Fennel. He yearned to have regal stone names like “Obsidian”, or “Rhyolite” like those of the mages’ sons. “Well… Not embarrassed…”
Opalia shrugged. “Then what?”
His heart stopped beating for a second. He couldn’t believe that he was actually talking with a real, live dragon-- a lightning-catcher, a shape-shifter, a mage-caller, a fire-breather, a mind-reader! Maybe he could bond with this dragon and become a dragon-tamer after all!
Opalia nodded, reading his mind. “Fair enough. I don’t think I want to bond with a person, though. I like being independent. I think you should just leave it at, 'Thank you for saving me', you know what I mean?” She smiled a smile with crooked teeth. “Nice talking to you! I rarely see humans, anyhow.”
Fen’s face fell, and he scrunched his face up to hide his utter disappointment. His vision spun as he clenched his fists. With two sentences, Opalia had diminished his entire hopes and dreams. If only… He stretched open his bag and dumped all of his opals out, letting them shatter on the floor. If he could just capture Opalia, then eventually he could buy her a harness and keep her as his own. Then, they would bond and become the greatest frie…
“Don’t even think about it.” Opalia snarled, her expression turning dark. She shook herself so her wings spread wide. “I could beat you in a fight since I was two-weeks old.”
Fen felt his hot tears coming. What was he even thinking? Opalia began to preen her wings: a signal that she would soon be taking off. Without him. He had finally seen a dragon, and now she was going to leave him. Just like that. Suddenly, without warning, Fen charged at Opalia. He didn’t think, just ran.
“You were my dream!” He screamed, his high-pitch voice frantic. “A way out of here! Don’t you understand why I NEED you? I need a friend! I want to be something else than just a miner!” He sprinted toward her, his bare feet splattered with blood after stepping on the opal shards. The opal shards: his ruined dreams.
In a moment, Opalia tackled him to the ground. Her claws dug slightly into his flesh, and he could smell her night scent- which reminded him strangely of damp dirt. “Interesting dream for a ten-year-old. But, hey, that’s life! We’re all disappointed sometimes.”
Fen’s face was bloody, streaming with tears. He could taste iron in his mouth. “You can’t tell me what my dreams are! You can’t decide my future!” Angrily, he struggled to get out of her grasp, but the more he struggled, the more her claws pierced into his chest. In desperation, he flung his opal bag over his head at Opalia. She snorted, grabbed it out of the air, and tore it up, her teeth gleaming like daggers. Suddenly, she began to grow exponentially until she loomed over him. Her scales became sharper, a bright red, and her eyes burned with green fire. From her head horns sprouted and she rose on two legs, taking the form of a demon. "You've underestimated me." She turned back to face him and pressed a claw on his chest further, breaking his silver birth necklace.
"No!" Fen cried out as the Aradene pendant fell to the floor in pieces. He reached out to catch one of them and it bounced up into his hand. When he looked at it, however, it wasn't silver but ominous green. No. Not a Jyerr crystal?
Opalia snarled, her body turning a dangerous shade of violet. "Last chance. If you go straight home to wherever you came from, I'll let you go. Do you understand me?"
Fen was too busy to listen to her words. As he took a quick glance from his viewpoint on the floor at the rest of the pieces, he quickly realized that the green crystal had come from the center of his necklace. It had to be Jyerr, he thought suspiciously, as the structure was soft and slightly bendable compared to an emerald's. He suddenly recalled from his guide book that Jyerr crystals were excellent for hypnotizing dragons. Opalia opened her eyes wide in objection before he thrust the Jyerr shard in front of her face. She took a step away from his chest as her pupils began to swirl with blue lightning bolts, unable to tear away from the now glowing crystal. Opalia began to shrink, and eventually returned to her usual dragon form. Fen walked aimlessly holding the hypnotizer in his palm and was amazed when Opalia followed him. Soon enough, he found the front of the cavern.
After a couple seconds, Fen realized what he had done. No: he had truly captured a dragon! His eyes grew wide as he looked at Opalia, who was helplessly gazing at the green crystal in his hand, utterly defeated. It wasn’t a dream. He wasn’t unconscious. Fen felt pride surge through him and wiped his tear-stained face. What would he do with her, though? He could try to keep her captive and bond with her. Or, he could sell her at the marketplace. Mages from all over Aradene would come to buy a captive dragon. Maybe in all of Kyisma! He would be rich! He grimaced. No, he would not sell away his precious dragon-- his midnight opal. He would keep her and train her until she bonded with him. Then, he would become a true dragon trainer. Fen grinned, thinking of riding on her sunlit back and flying through the wilderness. Yes, that was a good decision. Then, he wouldn’t have to be a miner anymore! He would take her to shows and groom her and become a high mage for the courts. After contemplating where in his home he was going to keep her, he guided Opalia into the night.
Once she was outside and in the moonlight, he took a break, panting. He stole a glance at Opalia again, then recoiled. A terrible sense of guilt overcame him. For a moment, Fen could see that Opalia’s eyes were still open, and although she could not move with her own free will, she still had a sense of hope. Fierce rebellion. Her eyes flicked for a moment to look at Fen, yet when their gazes met hers were locked in fury. She snorted, then remained fixated on the shard, returning to a passive state.
Then, Fen truly began to break down. He sobbed with his head in his knees and cried for what seemed like the tenth time that night. His injuries stung, and his bagged eyes overflowed. What had he done? What had he done? What had he done? How could he be so ruthless? How? Why? He looked up at the moonlight, then back at his fist clenching the Jyerr crystal. He knew what to do.
Fen let go.
The crystal seemed to move in slow-motion as Opalia began to recover. It fell, losing its green glow, and found its place in the dirt. He didn't bother to pick it up. It shamed him. A flapping of wings turned his gaze to the sky, where he saw the dragon staring inquisitively down at him, stunned. “Why?” she asked, well above his reach.
Fen began to cry even more. “Because. Because I knew that if I kept you, you would never forgive me. You would hate me forever. You’re such a magnificent creature, and I don’t deserve to be your companion. I’m evil!” He stopped, sniffling, and grew solemn. “What I did was wrong, and I know it. I’ll never see you ever again, and that’s okay. I want the best for you. You’re just a child like me, and you should grow up without any restraints. You should never have a forced harness around your nose, or someone hindering your flight. You won’t understand why I love you so much, Opalia. I just wanted a friend, and I blew it.”
Opalia’s eyes softened, and her scales gleamed in the silver light. “Thank you,” she whispered. “Thank you, Fen.” Then, she spread her wings, and headed for the moon. Fen watched her as she disappeared. Once she was well away into the night, he headed home, empty-handed.
The next day, Fen awoke in his bedroom. His mother walked in, looking concerned. “What happened?" He reached up to his face and wasn't surprised when he felt dozens of dried scratches and bruises from the night before along his cheek and forehead. All at once, Fen remembered what happened with Opalia. Only this time, it didn’t bring tears. “I got caught in a cave-in.” That was true.
Fen’s mother nodded, looking worried. “We were about to send a search party out for you because you weren’t coming home. You are lucky that you survived. After what happened to Ol’ Richard last year… The mages should really take care of the poor working conditions in the caverns. It’s been so dangerous.” She sighed. “Get some rest, for you will have to collect double the amount of your opals today. Hopefully, the mages won’t notice.”
In the afternoon, Fen departed for the caverns again. His heart ached, but he felt that he had done right in releasing Opalia. He smiled at the memory of her. Suddenly, something swooped in front of him. “Opalia?” Fen called. And yes, she was there, in all of her glory. Her scales glittered, and she landed on the ground right next to him. “You came back!” Fen exclaimed.
She nodded. “I didn't plan to come, but last night I thought about what happened. I never met anyone like you. Most would have sold or kept me. But you didn't."
Fen’s eyes got watery again. “I thought I would never see you again.”
Opalia knelt down so Fen could pet her muzzle. "I decided I wanted to be your friend."
“Really?” Fen longed for it to be true-- his chest hurt so much.
Opalia smiled. “Really.” Then she knelt down all the way, so Fen could hop on her back. Fen whooped, joy coursing through his veins. “Are you ready?”
It was Fen’s turn to grin. “Ready as ever!” And the duo took off, flying over the mining caverns, valleys, and streams. Once the sky turned dark and Opalia lit the way through the stormy clouds, everyone could see them, shining in the night: a boy and his midnight opal.
The End