The Protagonist Speaks

Dear readers, tonight with us are two dragon riders from a world where dragons are considered demons and Dragonriders are hunted and killed as witches.

I’ve heard the two of you are from one of the mountain villages. Can you tell us what it was like to grow up there? How are the people different in the mountains?

Noren opens his mouth, but then Silmavalien leans forward, and he gestures for her to start.

“I don’t know a lot about how the people are different,” she explains. “I really haven’t met a lot of people down here. But I can tell you a bit about how I grew up.”

She reaches out and takes Noren’s hand, and he smiles. She goes on. “The mountains are beautiful! I love them so much better than the plains! The trees, and the heights rising above you, and the valleys!

“As for growing up … My life was a lot like everyone else’s in Treas. My father was a good hunter, and when he taught my older brother, I often watched when I could. Noren was learning the same skills from his father, and he noticed and started going out of his way to help me and teach me how to do all the things he was learning. We spent a lot of time talking, and he told him all about everything. His frustrations, and his triumphs, and his first deer.” She smiles. “Everyone knew what was going on, of course, but most people didn’t take much notice. I’m not the only woman to hunt, but there aren’t that many of us. So people mostly ignored it.”

Noren grips her hand a little tighter. Perhaps he can tell she really has no idea where the plains-city people are coming from, and is just going on about her life. She turns to look at him.

“Sil, love,” he says, “I think this kind young man has no idea what you are talking about.”

She laughs a little nervously. “You go on, then, since you know more than I do.”

She leans into Noren, as he takes up the thread. “You asked how people are different in the mountains,” he begins. “In case you were wondering, dragons are just as maligned there as here in the plains and the cities. The bards often came through with their stories about them, the same ones you know I’m sure, and we didn’t have any stories of good dragons, either.

“Apart from that, I’m not sure where to begin either. I can only tell you that when I came down here, it was very confusing, and it took a while for me to stop doing things that made other people uncomfortable or suspicious that I had bad intentions. It was a very different environment in Treas, where everyone knows everyone else at least a little, than it is in the cities, where you’re living so close to so many people you don’t know at all, or even the towns down here, where travelers come through all the time. There, the only travelers we knew were bards, apart from every now and then, when we would host another village or two for a big festival.

“So there’s a kind of trust between us you don’t have in the cities. It’s not perfect, Silmavalien didn’t get to telling you, but her brother married a woman who was … well, the sort of person who’d lead the ‘Dragonriders are witches, burn them!’ mentality, and she was a nuisance to be around. But people’s relationships are clearer and we’re not worried about each other doing things that I don’t know how to mention.

“At first I really didn’t appreciate the different environment down here, and even now after spending a number of years working as low-priority courier, I still don’t. I just know better what to avoid, and being a courier helped. There were ways it narrowed and defined my interactions and made that easier. So I hope that’s … kind of what you were asking.”

Yes, it is. It was good to hear what both of you shared, and I think this is a question you might like, Silmavalien. What did you enjoy about your life growing up?

Silmavalien looks up and smiles. “Apart from Noren? We’ve always done so much together, since I was old enough to run and talk. Umm … probably what I miss most is the festival nights, especially the singing.”

Her voice takes on a cautious, wistful edge. “Now you mention it, I used to look forward to the bards. I loved the stories. But now … now that I know they’re all horrible lies, it’s hard to remember that well.”

She pauses, and the smile comes back. “But festival nights! I liked listening to the songs, and I liked to sing, sometimes together with other people, but I used to sing for everyone, sometimes our old songs that we keep, that I’d learned from hearing others sing, but I’d often sing alone, maybe a new song or one I made, or one of the old songs that’s for just one woman to sing. I loved all of it, and now, well, I wouldn’t give anything for the dragons, and Songeth often sings with me or for me, and I sing for them, too. So it might be even better, but it isn’t the same.”