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Every break, every fall, every sunset
Heralded that final day
When fires burned, and heavens cried
When one last swing, one last sword
One last dusk
When that day on the cusp of the longest night
Hope, scared and bleeding,
Breathed its last
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Eulogy to the Dragon of the Setting Sun,
circa A.Y. 6960, Jason Bur’I
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Chapter 15:
The Talk
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#15.1 – Tuesday, the 17th day of the 9th month…
Following detention, Scarlet went straight to the Great Library of Arindell*. This was her usual Tuesday routine; off school at three, walk to the Library, spend all afternoon flitting amongst the stacks, then her mother would pick her up. Despite the suspension, her mother agreed to stick to the schedule since she didn’t want to miss work.
Scarlet, meanwhile, just liked Tuesdays because they meant she could check out a lot of extra books without having to carry them, and today she needed as many as she could get.
Despite being a frequent patron at the Library, Scarlet was not a good one. They had a normal limit of five books at a time, which Scarlet skillfully bypassed by registering for two dozen different cards under various names. At first, she’d gone to great pains to visit different windows and conceal her methods.
Then, Scarlet found a loophole.
Since young children frequently did not have iden cards, you didn’t need a legal form of identification to register a library card if you were under eighteen. Some few centuries back, a librarian got the idea that more kids could be convinced to read if they were encouraged to take out library cards under made-up names(fictional characters being the most popular choice).
Like many traditions this one stuck around long after it should have, and today allowed Scarlet to get as many books as she pleased simply by making up and ever-rotating cartel of new names. Whenever one card reached the maximum for late fees, she simply tore it up and registered a new one.
Scarlet currently owed roughly five thousand wingbeats in late and lost book fees.
Of particular note, History of the Greater Continent, First Edition, presently sat on the edge of her desk at home, the blood stains still very much visible on the cover and pages. The library didn’t value it highly enough to hunt her down, but ‘Rose Jusenkyou’ certainly wasn’t checking out any more books. Scarlet decided she’s stick with the theme and grabbed a form so ‘Carmine Jusenkyou’ could get a card of her own.
As Scarlet waited outside, her heart began to pound. She thought about what was coming. Her mother never raised a hand to her and seldom yelled; but had spent Scarlet’s entire life quietly making sure that a simple ‘I’m disappointed in you’ hurt more than anything had a right to.
During their brief phone conversation, Ann hadn’t invoked the magic words, but made it clear they were going to talk tonight. There would be punishments, a mountain of extra chores at the very least, or something worse. The possibilities were reeling through Scarlet’s little skull as the car pulled in.
Scarlet opened the back door and tossed in her monstrous stack of books along with her school bag, then climbed into the passenger seat and sat down. Her mother said nothing as she navigated out of the parking area and drove to the main road.
It was coming.
Whatever it was, it was coming.
When Ann spoke, she did not speak the words Scarlet expected.
“Scarlet,” her mother said. “At your age, it’s perfectly normal to start being interested in boys.”
“Oh, my god, please, no,” Scarlet begged, covering her face. “Can we please talk about the fight?”
“All I’m saying is, it wouldn’t be unusual for you to have a crush,” Ann explained. “You’re ‘at that age’, I know what it’s like. I—” Ann paused and her cheeks flushed. “I had my own infatuations we won’t discuss here. It’s just… its important for you to understand that there are boundaries, and it would be inappropriate for you to start ‘seeing’ Hezikah. I know he’s a nice young man, but he is too old for you.”
Scarlet held her hands skyward and appealed to the heavens. “King of the West†, I don’t ask you for much, but please, blast out my ear drums?”
“Scarlet, you can’t pray for deafness every time we try to have ‘the talk’,” Ann rolled her eyes.
“It’s worse than I expected!” Scarlet lamented. “Give me something sharp, I’ll do it myself! God helps those who help themselves!!”
As the sun sank towards the end of the valley, Scarlet noted they were not on the road that headed towards home.
“…where are we going?” she gulped.
“We have plans, remember?” Ann replied. “We talked about this on Saturday night. You need some new dresses.”
“I thought the plan was to take me home and rake me over the coals for starting a huge fight at school?” Scarlet said.
“Your father has to work late. Besides, I figured it would give us some time to talk. Mother to daughter.”
“Oh, god, there is a level of hell lower than public parking!” Scarlet cried.
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* #15.2 *
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On the whole, Scarlet and her mother had a good relationship. Easily on the level of one of those classic TV mother-daughter relationships. Sure, Scarlet would have been happier if they also drove around in a van solving mysteries, but you take what you can get.
For the most part, Scarlet felt like she could talk to her mom. Her mom didn’t care about ancient history, so they didn’t have a lot to discuss. But they laughed, joked, and spent time together. While not much of a home-maker, her mother keenly made sure Scarlet had essential life-skills. She taught her how to get chores done right and fast. Cooking, cleaning, sewing, all the basics. It wasn’t ‘woman’s work’, just stuff you needed to know how to do.
There were only two areas in which they butted heads.
The first was shopping. A certain amount of this Scarlet felt should be normal. Moms in general have a completely unrealistic idea of what’s in fashion for teenage girls. It had been this way since High Tower*, when shopping and teenagers were invented some fourteen millennia ago. This problem was further compounded by Scarlet also having no clue, and her desire to spend every waking moment in t-shirts and cargo pants.
Sure, she liked pretty and cute things well enough, but she liked to look at them, and then leave them in the store. Nothing ever looked right on her anyway. Since hitting puberty, Scarlet felt her body was eternally the wrong shape, perhaps composed of some sort of four-dimensional hyper-matter that made everything remotely cute somehow too big and too small at the same time.
Dress shopping proved exceptionally aggravating. The tortures came, as inevitable as the tides. First, Ann would find something Scarlet didn’t want to be caught dead in. Then Ann would insist Scarlet try it on anyway. Then Ann would wander away from the dressing room and make Scarlet have to walk all the way across the store in something she didn’t want, whilst leaving her own precious clothing abandoned in the fitting room.
Happened every time like clockwork.
Trying things on in stores was a special kind of hell for Scarlet, for whom it felt like wearing a stranger’s clothing. Taste formed an even bigger problem. If she were to dress nice, Scarlet wanted elegant, regalia-inspired fair†. Nothing of that sort came in her size.
When selecting things to ‘try on’, her mother tended to gravitate towards larger versions of ‘little girl’ dresses. Lots of ruffles and frills. Scarlet didn’t have too big a problem with flowers, but anything with cartoon animals or imaginary princesses on it was right out.
Fashion, in general, did her no favors. Though not an aficionado, Scarlet did like to glance at magazines now and then, and even had a favorite dress-maker. Eva Morrow; Scarlet wanted one of her gowns almost as much as she wanted five more book cases. But the local mall only carried the big-name designer brands. These were always scaled-down versions of trendy adult outfits that were totally inappropriate for young teens. Scarlet did NOT want to look ‘sexy’. Being the wrong shape was bad enough, being the wrong shape AND crammed into a way-too-revealing dress was a sort of living nightmare.
Good options were entirely absent; no one seemed to carry nice dresses for teenage girls at the mall. It was either dress like an overly tall child, or like a slightly short adult sex-icon. No happy middle ground.
That, naturally, segued nicely into the second area in which Scarlet and her mother clashed heavily: sex. Scarlet felt as uncomfortable with it as anyone, but her mother was in the unique situation of being both deeply repressed yet honor bound to discuss the topic.
Ann herself always dressed modestly and would blush profusely whenever anyone told a dirty joke. Thanks to being punished most often with doing laundry, Scarlet knew her mother was extremely unimaginative when it came to her ‘inner-most layers’.
The woman could barely string together a sentence on the subject, having to rely on a lot of metaphors and awkward hand signs. Whenever she tried to give Scarlet ‘The Talk’, she ended up using the phrase ‘well, you know’ considerably more times than is healthy for a sane individual.
And yet, thanks to the household’s rather thin doors, Scarlet was painfully aware that in certain spaces her mother and father were very much not repressed. This one added to the nightmare on a whole new level. Frankly, Scarlet would be happy to embrace a life of celibacy if it meant not having to have another conversation on the subject.
As if all of that weren’t bad enough, her mother chose to begin this conversation at the local mall. Being the go-too hangout for popular girls, any trip was bound to bring them afoul of Scarlet’s classmates, the lot of whom were still insisting she did icky things with both dragons and undead.
“Try to work that one into a sex-talk, Mom,” Scarlet mumbled as they got out of the car.
It all combined into some sort of twisted miasma of unpleasantness.
AND, her punishment was still coming.
The walk from the parking lot to the entrance seemed to be going well, they’d managed to run out the car ride in silence, but Scarlet knew that wasn’t going to last. She dreaded what the inside of the building might hold, desperate not to have to have her mother overhear the whispers and giggles.
Scarlet was, for a moment, disheartened, when she recognized the first face she saw upon setting foot inside the building. Scarlet gave her brain a moment to process, but try as she might could not place the young woman in front of her.
She looked about twenty, dressed in an extremely short denim skirt and some fashionable little sandals. A decorated belt sat below an exposed belly button, and a tight tube top. She adorned her neck with what looked like about fifty necklaces(ok, really more like a dozen), and even more bracelets on either wrist. She studied a cell phone; not using it, just intently examining it like she thought it were interesting.
The mystery girl managed to spot Scarlet before Scarlet could place her.
“SCARLET!!” she screamed excitedly in an eerily familiar voice. She ran over and gave Scarlet a huge, awkward hug, then looked down at her and grinned. “What are you doing here? Who’s your beautiful friend?”
Scarlet blinked for a moment as realization set in. “Es—Esperanza?!” she gasped. “How are—what are—?”
Ann leaned away and held a hand to her chest. “Scarlet, who is this?”
“Ahem, sorry,” Scarlet cleared her throat. “Mother, this is Esperanza Venahaj, of the Seacrest Spire Flight, out of Ajan, by Souroc. Espy, this is Annaria Jusenkyou, of the High Mountain Flight, out of Lucile, by Jacob. You can just call her Ann, though.”
“A pleasure,” Ann said, shaking Esperanza’s hand awkwardly. “You’re… a dragon?” Ann forced a tight-lipped smile and added under her breath. “Dragons and necromancers… why can’t she have normal friends?”
“Espy, c-can you get me back into High Mountain?” Scarlet asked. “There’s something I wanna look for…”
“Oh, sure, any time,” Esperanza waved. “In fact, I insist! We can all go swimming!”
“I don’t swim,” Scarlet said in a small voice. “So, what are you doing here? I didn’t think dragons needed to go to the mall…”
“Well, I told you all the cute boy dragons were off on a pilgrimage,” Esperanza explained. “So, I figured, hey, perfect time for a girl’s night out! But my gal-pals seem to have gotten lost. So typical! Agrenna can’t stand human form and probably insisted they fly here, then couldn’t find the place at night.”
“Were you trying to call them?” Scarlet asked, indicating Esperanza’s cellphone.
“I don’t really know how this thing works,” Esperanza admitted, passing it to Scarlet.
Upon receiving the phone, two things were immediately clear: the case seemed outwardly fine, the weight and feel made it certain that the insides were melted. The second problem lay in the phone itself, being clearly seventy years old. So-called ‘Smart Phones’ had been in Arindell since the reconstruction, but technology did change.
“I figured, you know, hip girl’s gotta have a cell phone, right?” Esperanza explained. “So, I grabbed this one out of the Tribute Cave. I don’t think it works.”
“Well, a couple decades ago, people were camping out over night to get this model of phone,” Scarlet commented. “I guess I can see why someone thought they should give it to the dragons as a tribute. Then the Gudersnipe Foundation+ bought the company and forced them to start making sure supply met demand when they released a new one…”
Esperanza frowned. “Does that mean I can’t get the internety-thingy on that?” .
“You… might need a new battery or something?” Scarlet forced a smile.
“You’re not much of a tech buff, are you, Espy?” Ann said.
“Seacrest Spire is pretty far from any uuman cities,” Esperanza admitted. “So, we don’t get a whole ton of interaction. I’m really digging this easy-access, though. I was gonna take a mate back home, but I’m starting to think I’d be happier sticking around here! Besides,” she paused to give Scarlet a sideways hug. “I couldn’t dare let this pretty young hatchling grow up with such an appalling fashion sense!”
“Well, as it happens,” Ann commented. “Scarlet and I are out shopping for some new dresses for her.”
“WONDERFUL!!” Esperanza cheered. “Let the girl’s night commence!”
She grabbed Scarlet’s wrist with one hand and Ann’s with the other and dragged them into the depths of the cavernous mall.
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* #15.3 *
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They fast-marched straight into Scarlet’s worst fear: a big, trendy clothing store full of popular brands and beautiful people. Not where Scarlet belonged at all. Probably fine for Esperanza, though.
Without even having to survey the whole shop, Scarlet counted two separate groups of girls she went to school with. No signs of Bethany, though; so small miracles.
Esperanza came to a grinding halt beside a seemingly random clothes rack, reached into it without looking, and yanked out something long and black. “Try this on!”
Scarlet shied away. “I don’t think it’s for me.”
A huge grin split the dragon’s face. “Trust me?”
Scarlet took what turned out to be a dress and looked around for a fitting room, cheeks flushing red. “Mom, come wait outside this time?”
Ann blithely thumbed through another rack. “Just come find us when you have it on.”
“But, mom—”
Esperanza pinched Scarlet’s shoulder. “I’ll handle her. Go!”
Hating store changing rooms almost as much as school locker rooms, Scarlet donned the dress over her pants. The black linen fabric fell in around her shoulders with a light fit, but when she saw it in the mirror it made her stop.
Not only did it very much not have the sort of plunging neckline that seemed to be an integral part of all things “trendy”, it actually framed her face in a way that made her look almost pretty. Keen so see how far this would extend, Scarlet slipped off her boots and pants and finished doing up all the buttons.
It looked calm, subdued. With her hair up she could pass for prim and proper at any funeral. But with the hair down she felt she looked… fun. She could take this dress in to one of the under-eighteen dance halls and fit right in, without looking like the sort of plane, ugly thing nerds wore.
After admiring herself from every angle she could manage, Scarlet cracked the door open and peeked out, to find Esperanza waiting just a few paces outside. Breathing a sigh of relief, Scarlet emerged to a sight that very nearly blinded her.
“Mommmm!” Scarlet turned her head to the side and shielded her eyes. “Don’t you think you’re a little old for something like that?!”
Changed into high-wasted black shorts with a neon crop-top, Ann did a little twirl to admire herself in one of the large mirrors outside the fitting room. “Oh, little bird, I think you forget sometimes that I’m only thirty-two.”
Esperanza gave Ann a bug sideways hug around the middle. “Girl, when you have a body like this, it needs to be shown off!”
Scarlet made a fist and bit into it to keep from talking, or more probably screaming. The subdued, work-a-day, bridge-club-going mother did not belong in such a wild getup.
Ann rubbed the fabric on Scarlet’s shoulder. “This one is a keeper. Espy, how did you find it?”
“Shhhh,” Esperanza held a finger to Ann’s lips. “If you break it down, it ruins the magic.” She picked up a red dress and forced it into Scarlet’s arms. “Go!”
That evening, Scarlet made a new discovery: there was, in fact, something more uncomfortable than shopping with mom while having ‘the talk’. That would be shopping with mom AND a female dragon in heat while having that same conversation.
Scarlet possessed an inquisitive mind, always eager to gain rich and valuable insights. And dragon reproduction was one of the least-understood aspects of their biology. These were deep secrets virtually unknown to dragonology*. Scarlet knew she could write a paper, nay, a book on the subject, with what she learned that night, and go down in history as one of the great dragonologists.
She did not, however, want to do that, even a little, and was hopeful she could bleach the subject from her brain at the earliest convenience.
At least Esperanza used a lot more specific, if ick, language.
But the shopping, however, did turn into a special kind of magic. While Esperanza used Scarlet and Ann as her own private life-sized dolls(or three-quarter-scale, in Scarlet’s case), she did repeatedly demonstrate her skill. Store after store, outfit after outfit, everything the dragon picked up not only fit, but looked good, and with only some notable exceptions was something that made Scarlet excited to put on. She thought she might even try wearing a dress to school.
When it came to dressing her mother, though, Esperanza seemed intent to blast through every boundary with the sort of wild abandon only a fire-breathing monster could manage. Things Ann wouldn’t have been caught dead in otherwise. Things Scarlet would have nightmares about having to wear herself. Though after some hours of this torture, Scarlet had to admit, the clothes suited her mother’s form well.
They left the mall with an armload of shopping bags, Scarlet feeling wiser but scared for life, and Ann giggling like a school girl. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen her mother so happy.
Whilst trying to maintain her composure, Scarlet and Ann said their goodbyes to Esperanza, who walked them to their car, helped them load their purchases, then turned into a dragon and flew away. The massive burst of air from her wings was enough to knock Scarlet off balance and nearly flipped a car that was waiting for their space.
On the ride home, Ann regained her usually subdued demeanor. Without taking her eyes off the road, she spoke plainly and firmly to Scarlet. “I will… pass on punishing you for the fight at school. If you will agree not to share the details of our little shopping trip with your father.”
“Only if you promise that you’ll never make me wear what’s in that pink bag,” Scarlet replied, forcing herself to swallow.
“That’s fair,” Ann agreed.
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* #15.4 *
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At home, Roy raised a curious eyebrow at the massive armloads of shopping bags, but didn’t blink when Scarlet had to use the hand-truck from the garage to bring in her library books.
“You two have a… nice time?” he asked as Ann joined him in the living room.
“Oh, you know, she’s a growing girl,” Ann waved. “She needed some new things.”
“She has been exactly four-foot-ten since fifth grade, I don’t think she can grow,” Roy replied. “Still, doesn’t seem entirely appropriate to reward five days of detention with a shopping spree.”
“Well, dear, sometimes children act out because their parents just don’t spend enough time with them,” Ann said.
“Fair enough,” Roy nodded, turning the page on his evening paper. “There’s a symposium at the Antiquarian Society this Saturday, I’ll take her.”
“Symposiums aren’t typical teen-girl activities,” Ann replied. “Don’t you think we should try to get her into something more normal?”
“No, I do not,” Roy said, turning another page. “Scarlet is not normal. I recognize that.”
Ann rolled her eyes and then nodded in agreement. “What are we going to do about the fee for the destroyed textbooks?”
“Oh, we’re not paying that,” Roy said, lowering his paper and glancing at his wife. “Someone sprayed paint into the locker. Seems to me it’s the vandal’s responsibility to pay for the damages. The fact that she later broke the spine of one of them against a young man’s face is inconsequential. I put in a call to Barry, down at the club, he’s drawing up a legal motion for me.”
“Tax law Barry or criminal defense Barry?” Ann blinked.
“The one with the weird hair?” Roy gestured. “I got bullied when I went to that school, I don’t mind bullying them right back a little.”
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* #15.5 *
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Scarlet stood alone in her bathroom.
Earlier in the afternoon, none of the bruises had changed color yet. Her mother knew she’d been in a fight, but aside from a few red spots she hadn’t had anything to explain while Esperanza played dress-up with them.
Now, staring at her body in the full-length mirror, the myriad of injuries started to go purple and yellow. There were so many she looked like a low-budget sci-fi alien.
Probing the edges of the painful welts, she could even clearly make out the shape of knuckles. One of the boys had punched her, closed fist, full-force. She raised her head until her eyes met their reflection in the mirror, those strong, piercing green eyes that marked the Jusenkyou line.
“If they’re gonna do this to you,” she said out loud. “You’re gonna learn to fight back.”
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End:
Chapter Fifteen
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