I woke up when Sky Gazer stirred beneath me. I sat up quickly and felt drool on my cheek. I wiped it away as he groggily moved trying to look around. There was great confusion on his face until he gazed at me. His eyes sparkled with a happy shimmers as he tried to push himself up to sitting. I could see him recoil in pain as he moved but his determination to look at me must have been driving him as he sat up and drank in the sight of me. He looked out of the tent at the beasts being prepared for food, leather, and tools. “I’ve used your gifts, I have brought back food. Tell me does this please you?”
I smiled at him and before I nodded I had to ask, “How, how did you use the gifts you received from me.”
He nodded crossing his uncrippled leg and sat up as straight as he could. “As I left the village I came upon my first challenge. Hunger, I picked the safe berries as I walked storing them in the basket you made. It was so fine and great that even the smallest of pebbles could not slip through it. As I walked I used the spear to move alone. The small birds and creatures I found I was able to strike like the anger from the sky. These gifts gave me the strength to hunt on.” He pulled the basket, it was heavily damaged compared to what I had given him.
Slowly Sky Gazer pulled out small hides stripped of flesh. Fur and scales lined each one as he set them at my feet. “These are their pelts. May they be used to clothe your children.” His eyes grew slightly haunted as he continued, “The footing I needed to cross became treacherous. My leg struggled with it and soon could not be used any longer. I took great sticks and the hide strips you gave me. With my leg made stronger thanks to your gifts I moved forward. The great swamp beasts were too much for a single man to take on so I moved on past the great swamps.”
He shifted and pulled out nuts and roots, “These are known to be able to ward off the spirits of pain. I used the bark of this tree,” He held up a few slender strips of bark, “It quieted the pain spirits in my leg as I continued on. It took me five days to reach the forests. The home of the boars.” He looked at the litter. “I was attacked by a great beast, its claws sharp as knives. It tore the basket from my shoulders, the hide tunic you made me was the only thing that kept me from being killed as the claws caught on it.”
He moved his arms wide as he gazed at the top of the shelter. “It was half again as tall as a man. Great thick black stripes ran along its skin. It had six powerful legs and short hair. My heart soared with a warrior’s spirit I had never known. I went to strike again and instead of falling back I dove forward underneath the beast. It moved like water flowing away from me and my shout of challenge. I was on my hands and feet like a babe as I scrambled along the ground dodging swipes that would crush my bones in an instant.” Sky Gazer snatched up coal and moved to the tent wall and started to scrawl pictures on it. They were amazing, beautiful, and showed me of beasts I knew of. He drew himself with spear in hand on his knees challenging the beast.
“It pounced at me and as its paws came down I thrust up into it, piercing through the pad of its feet with ease as if it was cooked fat.” It roared and pulled away as I pushed after it. The beasts call shook my chest like thunder shakes the mountains. As the spear came loose of the paw I thrust it deep into the side of the beast Halfway up the spear it sunk. Blood,” He pulled up a sleeve and showed me red stains all along his arms. “It came like a river and coated my arm as I pulled the spear free.” He lifted his arms over his head as he continued, “I could hear it struggle to breathe and it became weak as a babe. In my victory it lashed out at me, swatting me to my belly. It pinned me down and dragged its claws down my back. Yet I did not cry out in pain. I have known pain since I was a boy.
“I rolled and snatched the blade I made moons ago. I plunged it into the neck of the beast and as I fell back I pulled it across his throat. The blood of the beast poured over me as it collapsed.” He reached into the basket and pulled out teeth and claws. “It was too great a beast for me to bring back to the tribe. It would take two hunting parties to take half the beast. The gods must have truly blessed me.” He put them at my feet, “Without the strength of your spear I would be in the belly of the beast. Without the thought of having you giving me strength I would have given in.” His hands cupped my face. “I dug traps into the ground, used the wits the gods had given me and prepared an area for boars. When it was ready I set the berries and roots that would entice them most in the center of the trap.”
He went back to the wall and drew the traps, “It was like the gods told me how to do it. I never hunted before but I knew it like it was in my blood. I waited like the second moon for the sun to set before rising into the sky. Then the sow came, with her piglets following. They were as fat and large as you see them now.” He drew the trap giving way under the boar and the piglets tumbling after. “I moved to them and from the top of the trap speared them to bleed them out. They are my gifts to the women of the tribe from me. My gift to you.” He looked at me with feverish happiness. His eyes wide and joyous.
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“They were so fat that I had to sacrifice my spear to make an arm of the litter. I loaded the beasts up and brought them hear. It took me days to move alone. But thoughts of you filled me with the power of the gods as I moved. Then I saw you running to me. My back that had been drained filled with strength. I wouldn’t have made it the last distance without you coming to me and reminding me what it was I was proving myself for.”
He drew me running at him, his hands dancing across the hide with the charcoal as he focused. “Now, I find myself healed. Find the pain gone, a hunger in my belly that only the living can have. I know it is thanks to you.” He turned and stumbled down to be right in front of me as he took my hands. “Tell me, tell me do you accept my gifts. Does this make me earn the child of the gods.”
I stared into his eyes, I couldn’t remember the last time I had someone tell only me a story. I felt a well of power filling me as he held my hands. I was breathless and my heart hammered like a drum being pounded in my chest. My breasts heaved as I tried to bring myself back to the moment. How could he not have earned me? I nodded.
His smile split his face and he grabbed me pulling our lips to one another in a crash of life being celebrated. His lips were soft but the scruff of his chin and upper lips scratched at my face in the most pleasing way. I touched his cheeks and closed my eyes, no longer having them wide with surprise as I melted into the kiss. I felt his arms wrap around me as he brought our chests together. Then he ended my first kiss. I felt the world spin and my heart and stomach flutter with nerves and something I had never felt.
“We must tell the others. When the men return we will celebrate this. I must make you gifts in return. What would you desire, Weaver.” His eyes gazed into my own and I was lost in them. They were delightful and full of life. I had no answers until I remembered how he drew on the wall.
“Will you listen to a story and draw it on the great wall of stone by the village? This would be the best gift I could ask for.” I hoped he would say yes and he only nodded. Then he kissed me again. I felt some of my magic slip as my wings erupted from my back and wrapped around us both. I was surprised and worried he would recoil in fear but he held himself against me. My power did not make him quake like the others did. My skin reverted to scales and he still stroked me. I did my best to keep my body the right size and my mouth soft but he kissed even my scales.
Then it was over and he pulled back. He took in the sight of my scales and wings and stroked my face as I calmed down. The wings pulled back and my scales turned to skin. “Aren’t you afraid?”
“I have faced a great beast alone. Nothing you could do would scare me.” He stumbled back and gathered himself. “We will rest apart again until it is time to feast and celebrate. I will meet you every morning and listen to your story and draw it upon the stone wall. Thank you Weaver, I never thought this was possible.” He hobbled away no longer using a walking stick as one sat near the shelter’s entrance. I watched his back, which seemed so much broader now as he sat next to the fire and a great hunk of steaming meat was brought to him. I watched as he ate and lived.
I went to the other side of the fire feeling the knowing looks of the other women as I sat and enjoyed the meal. Stunned by the pounding of my heart and the thoughts of him embracing my more draconic form. The feeling of his strong arms around me, even though I was so much stronger than him I knew he would give his life to save me. Not out of reverence, but out of something much more. I just didn’t know if it was only me feeling that way.
Food was served and songs were sung. The night came and everyone slipped into their homes and it took a great amount of my will not to go to Sky Gazer and embrace him again. Feel his lips on my own. I had to respect his wishes and I thought of what story I would have him draw for me.
It was three days later that the other men returned. The great stone wall held a mural of me meeting the other dragons on the mountain top. The gateway to heaven shining above us showing the gods speaking to us from above.
I helped prepare the food, my skin dancing with the images of the new mural and the tale of Sky Gazer’s hunt. Soon it was spoken of how I had given gifts to a man. The ones that did not accept them looked shocked at this. All except the small boy that had refused them himself. Sky Gazer stepped forward and told his story, he held up a necklace of teeth and claws into the air and showed the scars on his back.
The men raised him up on their shoulders and whooped and hollered when presented the boar meat that had been saved. His gift to the tribe. When he was set down the tale of my dedication to make things came in. One I hadn’t heard. They spoke of my unending focus and desire to be one of them. Only a god could do what I did and I felt disheartened as the tribe looked at me with more reverence than before. Those thoughts were banished as Sky Gazer limped to me and grabbed my hand and lifted it high above his head. “I claim Weaver of Tales, the great one from the sky. She has made me the gifts a woman gives a man and I have used them to bring gifts to the tribe. Who here challenges this?”
Everyone was silent. Instead they bursts into wordless songs and drums were beat as everyone began to dance in celebration. We did not join them. Sky Gazer brought me to the edge of the village into his humble home. His floor wasn’t coated in furs like the others. His life of crafting and making new things didn’t give him the same benefits as the full hunters. He kissed me once more and when we joined with one another I flooded with warmth. I wrapped my wings around him once more as we bonded in flesh. I knew then, he loved me, and I him.
I woke up in the present day with memories of my first love in my mind. I could only rub my lips with my fingers and stare up into the ceiling.