(I wrote this back in September or October for my English class while we were studying early American literature. It explains why we can neither see the wind nor know where it comes from or where it goes.)
The Dragon Wind
Prologue: Meeting in the Night
The crackling of the fire was monotonous as the wood within slowly charred. A gentle breeze began to rustle the leaves. Above, a brilliant moon cast shadows through the large oak trees. Quietly, the tribe made their way to the bonfire meeting called to order by their leader, Isä.
“Greetings, tribe of Lohikääme,” Isä began as he moved to stand at the front of the bonfire. “It is with great pride that I welcome my son Mies to our tribal meetings.”
Mies nodded to the tribe, his shaggy black hair falling in front of his face with the motion.
“Mies has finally come of age and is now ready to hear the tale of Lohikääme, the mighty Mother Dragon whom our tribe honors by name,” he continued. He raised his head as another gust of wind blew through the forest. “These winds have graced our land for the past centuries, but many of our ancestors never knew what the invisible wind was.” He turned his gaze toward the flames. “Long ago, the only gusts that were felt were from the wing beats of the dragons.”
Hesitantly, Mies began to speak. “But Father, there are no dragons.”
A tiny chuckle left Isä’s mouth. “Not now,” he agreed, “but in the land of our forefathers, dragons ruled the skies.” There was a great pause as his gaze moved from Mies to the bonfire to the sky. “Oh, great Lohikääme! Come now! Show us your might! Show us the story of life and death, of new and old!”
Once more, a gust of wind buffeted the air, this time carrying the flames with it. Isä’s otherwise dark eyes were lit in the sudden light. The awe-struck tribe watched as a dragon formed in the blaze. Laggardly, the story began.
The Great Dragons of Old
Death…Destruction…Demise… Lohikääme thought to herself as her large orange bat-like wings sliced through the air. Those were the “Three Draconic D’s.” This time was not a safe time for the dragons. The weather had grown warm which meant it was once more time for the hunt. Below, she could hear the voices of the mortal hunters.
“We need the Draconic blood!” one shouted to the other, holding a bow with an arrow already nocked and ready. “The wounds of our people must be healed!”
“It is the scales we need! Illness is a greater evil!” the other hunter replied.
Lohikääme gave a large, coercive roar. She abhorred this human obsession with dragons. Various parts of the dragon did heal mortal ailments, but it disgusted her that the mortals would simply kill another race for the sake of their own.
The sudden noise drew the attention of the hunters. The one who was first to speak was already releasing an arrow. Lohikääme only had to open her red jaws and blow a single plume of flames to stop the wooden arrow in its path. Disgruntled, the two hunters began to nock multiple arrows at once. Before they could get a good sight of the dragon, however, she had disappeared.
When she was a safe distance away, Lhikääme landed on the side of the cliff. “I have returned, Aviomes,” she whispered, not wanting to risk being heard by any of the hunters down below.
There was a long pause, and nothing could be heard but silence.
“Aviomes?” she called out again.
A faint response could be heard that time. “Lohikääme?” a voice croaked.
She gasped. “Aviomes!” she called out, quickly trotting to the other side of the rocky outcropping.
The sight before her was appalling. Aviomes, her once dazzlingly blue dragon mate, was lying on the ground, one heaving side covered in a mat of blood with an arrow protruding from the center. “Lohikääme..” he whispered. Weakly, he motioned with his head for her to draw near.
Hesitantly, she obeyed his order. “Yes?” she whimpered, feeling warm tears welling up in her eyes.
“I… I tried to stop them… There were too many…” he croaked, lifting his wing slowly to reveal a tiny, motionless dragon.
“Nuorten!” she gasped. “My son! His scales! I cannot look…” Sure enough, the scales of the young dragon’s side were missing, revealing tender, soft flesh.
“I… I tried… Th-they caught me…” he mumbled, laying his wing down again. His breath came in pants for a moment longer before it completely ceased.
“My husband! My son!” she mourned openly, not caring who heard. However, no one was within earshot at the time to hear her roars of anguish.
After many hours of wallowing in her tears, Lohikääme straightened her broad shoulders and took to the sky in search of Viisaus. If anyone could help the dragons, it was the wise Great Horned Owl.
Viisaus was preening his feathers when he felt the gusts of wind that came from the wing beats of the dragon. He quickly straightened and looked over. He recognized the red body and orange wings. “Ah, Lohikääme! What brings you to my tree of knowledge?” he asked, tilting his head to the side.
“Oh, Great Viisaus! I bessech you! Help my kind through these terrible times!” Lohikääme pleaded. “The Father Dragon is dead! Killed by the sticks of the mortal-kind!”
“No, now. Be calm. I believe I have just the thing to help you,” he said, hopping into the tree. He came back with a tome in his beak. He dropped it on the fork of the branch and began flipping through it with a clawed foot. “Invigorate… Invincible… Inviolable… Inviolate… Inviscid… Ah ha! Invisibility!” he hooted in success. “How many of your kind are left?”
“There are no more than fifty left,” she said with a nod of her head.
“Then this spell is perfect!” If not for his age, he would have leaped from the branch and arched through the air.
“What is it?” she asked, craning her neck to see what the owl had read.
“It is a most potent spell. It will be of great use to you and your likes!” he said, hopping back into the knothole. “Just need to find a few things… just a few…” After a short while, he came back out holding a vial in his beak. “Because all dragons are descended from you and are thus linked, if you drink this, the entire lot of you will become invisible to all.”
Lohikääme’s eyes lit up. “Invisible?” she gasped. Before the owl could even respond, she had clutched the tiny vial with her forefoot and downed its contents in a single gulp. “I don’t feel so good…” she mumbled.
Everything went black. The sky was first to return. Had it always been green? No… It was blue again. A strange tingling stretched over her body. She gained a sudden feeling of weightlessness. Then, nothing. With a deep breath, she stood up. “Well… Did it work?” she asked.
Viisaus looked around. “Who? Who? Who is speaking?” he asked.
The potion was a success! “You can’t see me!” she cheered, taking to the skies. All that Viisaus could feel was a strange breeze that came from nowhere.
She just had to try out the invisibility on the mortals. She saw a clan hunting and flew directly over them. Confused, the men looked up. The could feel the wind, yet the dragons were nowhere in sight. The only things visible were the clouds over head.
“What is this strange occurrence?” one man asked, holding his hand to feel the movement of air.
“It is the Dragon Wind, yet I see no dragons… Perhaps it is just wind,” the other replied.
Wind? Lohikääme thought to herself. Indeed! Wind! That is what we shall be called! She breathed into the rushing air, “Wind… Wind… Invisible wind…”
Meanwhile Viisaus sat on his tree branch. “Should I have told her the spell would come and go as she needs it? No… It will probably never wear off.”
Epilogue: Return to the Future
Slowly, the flames of the tribal fire died down to nothing more than smoldering embers. Awe-struck, Mies sat and stared at the remains. “Amazing…” he whispered. “Our tribe was named after the first Invisible Wind?”
Isä nodded. “Our forefathers who were in this tribe at the time of the Invisible Wind fought tirelessly to rid the world of those who would harm Lohikääme and her offspring in hopes that she would one day grace them with her beauty,” he addressed his son.
“Are they gone now?” he asked, finally turning away from the remnants of the fire.
“We will only know when the wind no longer blows from unseen sources.”
“How long could that be?” Will I ever see the day?” His heart was racing at the mere thought of seeing a dragon of old soar across the skies.
“There is no way of telling for sure, but it is entirely possible.”
Mies turned his head skyward. “What I’d give to see Lohikääme herself…” he mumbled.
Suddenly, the winds died down, and the leaves ceased their incessant rustling. The entire tribe gasped as a red draconic tail wound its way through the trees, followed by hind legs, a body, forearms, and a long neck topped with a head.
“Lohikääme,” the tribe gasped as one.
Tags: Myth, Nature, T-bird