The first time Elegancus saw Hime, she was crying. Peach hair was stuck to the sides of her face as rivers of salty liquid dripped down her face. It was as though rain was pouring outside, except the sky was bright blue and the sun so powerful it burned fair skin with ultraviolet rays.
That was the first time Elegancus saw Hime, when she was two years old and her mother had left her sitting on a tree stump in the middle of a forest. Back then, she wasn’t able to understand what red scales and smoky breath meant on a house sized animal. To the child the fire dragon was just a giant lizard, cow, or simply an amalgamation of the two.
Hime could remember clearly the last time Elegancus saw her. It was never the other way around, never Hime catching a glimpse of ruby wings or a glimmering tail. Still, the scaly, spiral-shaped monster liked to leave less obvious traces of her presence in the most unexpected and cruel ways. She burned down the house of Hime’s new foster family. She turned the swimming pool’s contents into steam so that when Hime jumped in, she scraped her knees and broke a wrist.The monster would singed slightly all of the girl’s garments, so that other kids teased her relentlessly about having dirty clothes.
Even though Elegancus did all of these awful things, Hime slowly grew to emotionally depend on her. She was more of a mother than any human and always the only steady figure in the girl’s life. Everyone else left, dubbing her a freak thanks to the incidents that took place whenever Hime was near. If they were nice or wanted to stay, circumstances forced them to depart. Only Elegancus’ presence remained a constant. The dragon would leave toasted bread on her pillow if Hime went a whole day without food from a bad home. Eventually, this feeling of the dragon always watching, always being there, gave Hime reassurance rather than mistrustful unease.
It was only natural that when the dragon stole the girl away and left a burned store and flat amidst the building in her wake, that she would not protest. In Hime’s mind, it was okay because the dragon cared for her in some way. And from this little compassion of the dragon she had seen, the child drew the conclusion that the creature was trying to do what was best for the girl. Even further, she began to believe that nothing that Elegancus had ever done really hurt her. Moral concepts of right and wrong were only subjective in the dragon’s eyes; she could not be expected to understand human ideals. Much less, obey.
So Hime was whisked to a island in the middle of a lake, where Elegancus admitted, if in a tone not guilty nor convincing at all, that dragons were not the best of creatures. She was not going to admit anything, but she felt a little bit obligated for what she had done to the girl. It was too late to fix her childhood, so the dragon now tried to compensate for her actions-- a period of atonement would ensue. She taught Hime Fire Dragonslaying magic, with the promise that if anything ever went wrong she would not ever come back to the island or try to see Elegancus again unless she wanted to fight the dragon for keeps. Elegancus feared the real-world bond that any connection like this would blossom into. If she were human, mayhap accepting such an inevitable fact would be easy but alas the dragon’s anxiety regarding motherhood only grew as Hime’s feelings for her germinated. She used fearful methods during training to try to stamp out any affection. Hime jumped through fiery hoops, both literally and figuratively. If the girl was on fire, Elegancus would not put it out or let her swim in the lake. Hime learned to endure every natural burn until her body learned to welcome the heat.
Any flame became a part of her everyday comfort. By loving the warmth, fire could make problems melt away into something much easier to deal with. Anything that Hime burned, the flames of her own creation, soon faded into the river of apathy--gone without a trace of empathy amidst the inferno of her passion. And the girl would never repair or replace what she melted or charred. That kind of thing would take out all the fun.
She said this phrase all the time-- ‘lighten up’. Apparent enjoyment was a huge motivation for Hime. She laughed sarcastically sometimes, but she laughed with intent that other people could witness her mirth and the desparity between them. She laughed genuinely so they could know in their hearts that she was getting more pleasure out of life than them. So she did chuckle, even if the sound was cruel. In her mind, cruel was relative. Just like Elegancus had believed.
