Renna was feeding the pigs - three of them. She cleaned out the through, poured the slop in and watched as the pigs ate. Occasionally she would reach over and scratch one of them on the back amused how the enjoyment of scratching made the pig forget the food for a moment. Soon, for the midsummer festival, one of them will be roasted and served and the thought of it made her rather happy - she loved fire and roasted meat, the former a rare delicacy in her life.
She picked up her bucket and started going back to the house but did not get that far - a strong gust of wind pushed her to the ground and the next thing she heard was a pig squealing. She looked back at the enclosure. It had only 2 frightened pigs and the squeal drew her eyes higher up, off the ground in the air. The pig was flying. Not on its own tho - it was in the claws of an impossible fairytale creature, an impressive blood red dragon. The dragon was now quite high and far with the prey, but not too far for Renna to see the fate of her pig.
The dragon gracefully let the pig drop from its claws, swooped around to quickly cook it with its flame ending the squeal and then swallow it whole. Feeling fear would have been very appropriate, but Renna felt to her own surprise only extreme annoyance. She could smell the scent of roasted pig all the way to where she was and it made her drool. That had been her roast, not his. Well, she assumed the dragon was male… It certainly behaved male. Greedy pig.
Renna got up and sighed - unless anyone else saw it, she was in for a beating for the missing pig. And there was more work to do. Farm work never ended.
Renna was 17, due to be 18 in spring and only daughter with 4 brothers of varying ages. Her mother had died the winter before leaving all the household burdens on her. Her oldest brother would marry soon though and bring a wife to live with him. She would need to find employment elsewhere then. Or marry someone. She knew her father had been looking for a man to take her since she came of age in spring, but wasn’t having much luck. Renna’s father may give her a small beating over the pig, but she knew he loved her quite enough to make sure that she would not go to a bad man - did not matter much if it was either as maid or wife. She had doubts about both options. She wasn’t marriage material and as for employment…
Village considered her… well … crazy. She had been 11 when an older man had raped her... She lost her mind. But not the usual way. She had set the man and his house on fire. He did not survive. If she had been an adult they would have hung her for murder. But she was a child. And the man’s ways were known to quite a few generations of women in the village. So she was simply whipped quite near death and then left to deal with it. She survived. But both things counted against her as a marriage prospect - she wasn’t a virgin and she would probably kill any man mistreating her…
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She scared people. Kids hadn’t been allowed to play with her and young men were warned by their parents to stay away. Not that they needed the warning - she was scary enough on her own. Ever since the incident, Renna had not been able to stand any man’s touch and would react violently even to casual contact. Well, except when it was her baby brother. She had had an equal share in raising him after all. Older brothers respected her space and had never been that close to her. But they were still a tight family and she knew that she was left alone mostly because of her brothers - they would trash anyone who did not respect her space and tried to gang up on her. Having four big brothers to stand up for her was nice. But her future was uncertain at best. She had as much chance of finding a happy life as a pig flying.
She snorted a laugh - she had just seen a pig flying hadn't she… It hadn’t been very far… and it had ended in a roasting… but still. A pig did fly.
She mulled all this over when she was getting on with the chores and then thought about the dragon. It had arrived suddenly now almost six years back, set the ruling lord’s castle on fire and made some demands. First, that once a month he would need a small snack - a farm animal, cow or pig, with preference to pigs from anywhere on the land and once a year, something… more substantial. An unmarried maiden. She had seen the dragon carry the first girl away that year.
Margarite had been considered crazy too for a different reason - her flaming red hair and unwillingness to bow to anyone. She had been an old maid - 25 already and unmarried at the time. She had been a healer, good with herbs and setting bones, and yet Lord Aris had found her expendable. He regretted it soon enough when his son broke his leg riding the next fall and there was nobody to set it right. He healed crooked and will limp for the rest of his life. Margarite would be amused knowing this little fact.
For six years, every midsummer, some girl had been grabbed by Lord Aris’s men, stuffed in a sack and taken to the place where their lives would end. It had been a place in the old days where animals would be sacrificed to gods. Now - it was girls. There was a big standing stone there, on top of a bleak hill. There was nowhere to hide for nearly a mile around and everybody could watch the sacrifice. There was still a week to go until midsummer and she wondered who the “lucky" girl would be this time.