[stylist] Trials of an honorary Dragon. Chapter 23 (new chapter).

[helene ryles]

Chapter 23
Nadia Murat.

I clung tightly to the nylon straps as the dragon swooped downwards.
It was pitch black as far as I was concerned.  It always was, as Wendy
considered that the safest time for me to travel.  I didn’t have to
see to know we had landed on the roof of yet another dragon owned
home.
I pulled my cane out to help me gauge the drop, then using my cane; I
felt my way carefully round the roof until my cane hit a slight drop.
 I sat down on the roof.  I placed a foot carefully on the front door.
I then pulled out the key that I had been given. Feeling round the
edge of the enormous dragon sized door for the keyhole.
The door swung open.
Next I felt for the ladder.  I climbed down a few steps.  Feeling
carefully for where the keyhole again with one hand while I clung on
to the ladder.  I found this quite difficult to do without light, but
it would be a dead give away if I left the key in the lock.  When that
was done I hastily pushed the trap door shut behind me.  Pounding it
with my cane to make sure it was truly shut.
At the bottom of the ladder my feet touched a thick long fibered
carpet.  I was relieved to find the soft fluffy blankets and pillow
had been placed conveniently near to the ladder.  So I just had to
crawl under the blanket and try to get some sleep.

       ***    ***   ***

The yellowness of the room was quite overwhelming when I woke up the
following morning.  I was sitting on a bright yellow carpet,
underneath a light yellow blanket, and matching yellow pillow cases.
When I got up to explore the room, I found the walls covered with pine
shelves, covering a light yellow wall.  This particular dragon must
really like yellow.
Apart from the gaudy colour scheme, the lay out of the room was the
same as the lay out in the homes of Talmon, Kan and several other
dragons that I had stayed at.  I was getting quite familiar with the
internal designs that dragon's preferred since the last few months had
involved a lot of moving  from one dwelling to another.  Most of them
were owned by dragons although there had been a few humans too.
I was on the move so often that I never got to know any of them.
Not that I really wanted to get to know them since none of them were
my aunt Liza.  I had no idea where she was since I hadn’t seen her
since we had met at the dragon’s private quarters.

At that point I visualized a bowl with a question mark over it.
I looked up to see a large copper coloured dragon that was standing in
front of me.  This dragon had streaks of green and blue which made his
skin look particularly attractive.  He was eyeing me intently.
"I would like to have veggie burgers, chips, and a lot of hot spicy
snacks.  I also like chocolate, crisps, and ice cream.   They must all
be suitable for vegans. That means they must not contain anything
derived from an animal.  No meat, dairy, eggs, or honey."
I saw the dragon eating salad. I visualised the words “healthy vegan”.
 Then I visualized the food I had suggested accompanied by the word
“Unhealthy vegan”. Next I visualized myself sharing a plate full of
couscous and bean salad with the dragon, followed by a question mark.
“I suppose so.  Are you vegan too?” I asked.  I had never heard of a
vegan dragon before.
The dragon nodded.  I saw him eating all sorts of vegan food to
provide a healthy balanced diet including various vitamins and
minerals made up into a potion by the Parvesh witches.  I visualized a
healthy looking woman eating from the same plate.
"In that case why do some dragons eat human legs?" I asked him.
I visualized a person eating meat followed by an equation symbol and a
question mark.


                    ***  ***  ***

A few nights later I found myself shaken awake by my aunt Liza.
After a long embrace, I peered at my aunt in great concern.   She had
a crutch under one armpit and a long cane in her other hand.  The
various injuries she had sustained from that vicious dragon didn’t
seem to be healing too well at all.   In fact she had developed more
injuries since I had last met.
“What has happened to you?” I asked in concern.
“I slipped off a ladder,” she signed, “That’s why it’s taken me so
long before I could visit.   Don’t worry about me.   You‘ve survived
this entire ok.  Hopefully all this movement should come to an end
after Katrina Parvesh gets back from north Nazdonia.  I’ve just come
with Vinny, Sunniva and Van‘s human companion.  She is a very powerful
witch.   She’s going to help put up a lot of charms to stop anyone
discovering our present whereabouts or getting in.   You will see them
all in the morning. Van Bronze, the dragon who lives here, has offered
to let me throw a party here.  So I am planning a joint birthday party
for you and Sunniva.  It will be her eighth birthday and your
twelfth…”
“No, I’m already twelve.  My next birthday will be my thirteenth on
the 18th   November.” I told her, feeling disappointed that my aunt
had forgotten how old I was.
“Oh dear, It’s the 19th of December today.  Sorry Nadia. I thought
your birthday was in December, the same as Sunniva’s.  So much has
happened recently, I just lost track of time. Is there anyone you want
to invite?"  My aunt asked.
"Wendy Krum," I replied.
"Oh dear, I‘ve already had to disappoint Sunniva about this, but I
can‘t possibly invite Wendy, she‘s against the dragons,” signed my
aunt in dismay.
"But it's our party," I argued.
"This isn’t our home.   We can’t abuse Van’s hospitality by bringing
troublemakers here.  Now please just accept this, or I’ll just turn
round and leave. I’ve already had more then enough of Sunniva‘s
tantrums.  So who else do you want to invite?" my aunt asked.
I shrugged despondently.  Wendy was the only friend I had these days,
but it seemed that my aunt didn’t like her.
My aunt sighed.
“What a pair you are.   Sunniva wants me to invite some of her
teachers. She did not seem interested in children of her own age at
all. Wendy was the only child she wanted me to invite.    I just want
everything to be normal.  It’s not easy with Beria giving me so much
grief," my aunt explained.
"I thought her dragon savaged you?" I asked in confusion.
"Beria is really angry about that.  I don't think she will ever forgive me."

                  ***  ****  ****

I was rereading “Mutts and Butts” yet again when a small hand reached
for mine.
"Hello Nadia! I have just come to keep you company," the little hands
informed me in tactile sign language.    I turned to see Sunniva
wearing a silver and green blouse with lots of embroidery round the
edges.
"Pluto will be coming later for the party with all his friends.  He is
busy studying for his exams right now.  He isn’t as intelligent as the
rest of us. He's just in the regular Tenth grade class with ordinary
children," Sunniva told me with a lofty air.
"What's wrong with that?" I asked. This little girl made me feel so
inadequate.  What would Sunniva think of me if she knew I had been a
year behind my age group, and was still at the bottom of the class?
"Nothing is wrong.  It's just why he takes longer to learn new skills.
 He's also not magically able either.  Apart from his gift as a healer
he is practically duman.   He is a good musician though.  He has
formed a quartet with three of his friends from school. Pyre says he
takes after father that way, but I can't remember father being much
use at anything. He had some sort of stroke when mother left.  It was
just like having a baby father after that.  He had to relearn
everything.  Fortunately he has improved a lot since then, especially
since he married your aunt Liza," Sunniva explained.
I went very quiet after that.  Fancy Aunt Liza getting married when
she should be with me.
"I say, that was a lucky escape we had at the swimming pool.  If that
fader had been more discreet we'd have never got you away in time,"
Sunniva eventually announced.
"What do you mean?" I asked her.
"I heard someone approaching us so I asked my cousins to check them
out.  None of them could see anyone there so I put two and two
together.  The fader that your mother hired was not making much effort
to be quiet.  It's almost as if he wanted me to hear him.  Your mother
must have offended him," Sunniva explained.
"What do you mean by a fader?" I asked her.
"I'm talking about those little people that can vanish at will.  They
are all powerful witches but they can also be very easily offended,
and they are notoriously prone to insanity.  They will sometimes hire
themselves out to help another witch achieve invisibility.  As I said,
your mother had obviously offended this fader so he wasn't bothering
to co operate with her.  My friends say your mother became visible
soon after that.  That must have been the point where the fader
decided to leave the scene," Sunniva told me.



                 ***  ***   ***

"Happy Belated Birthday Nadia," Liza signed, later that morning.  She
gave me a big hug.  Then she handed me a parcel.  I looked blankly at
it.
"Nadia, that's your birthday present.  You're expected to open it.
Don't you remember about such things?" she asked.
I shook my head.  Nobody had celebrated my birthday since Mother reclaimed me.
"Don't you remember the party you had for your ninth birthday? We
invited the twins and all your friends from Druzil..."
"I think so..." I replied slowly.  I opened my present.  It was a
model of a Growlin shepherd.
"Is it Vegan?" I asked.
"What! You are supposed to admire it, not eat it…” she exclaimed.
"Is it made using fur, leather, wool or silk?” I asked.
My aunt got up and left.

                         ***  ***  ****

The following morning I sat rereading ‘Mutts and Butts’ when Sunniva
snatched the book out of my hand.
“You were supposed to find me and wish me a happy birthday.  It's my
eighth birthday today.  After that you are also supposed to give me a
present..." Sunniva finger spelt.
"I'm sorry..." I apologised.
"I'll forgive you in time.   I take second hand gifts too as long as
they are vegan.  What about that book you are reading.   Have you
finished with it yet?"  Sunniva asked.
"How will you be able to read that?  It's in print," I told her.  I
felt unwilling to part with "Mutts and Butts," even though I have lost
count of how many times I'd read it.
"Easy.  We've got several reading machines at school that turn print
into speech or tactile print.  In the mean time I like the smell of
used books,” she replied.
“That’s my favourite book though.  Wendy gave it to me and I don’t
know when Wendy will next come with more books from that series,” I
explained.
“She will be coming today, when I hold my party.  She’s come disguised
as one of my teachers and she’s bought you a present,” Sunniva finger
spelt in a secretive manner.
“It’s a pity she had to come disguised. Why does Aunt Liza say she was
against the dragons anyway?”
“She probably criticized Talmon,” Sunniva told me.
"Why,” I asked in puzzlement.
 “He’s vile," Sunniva replied.
"No, he is not!" I protested.
"You wouldn't say that if you knew what Talmon put your aunt through
when she was growing up.  Even now he makes her entertain the other
dragons without even insisting they cut their nails first," Sunniva
objected.
"That was the fault of Beria’s dragon.  He’s horrid like Beria is, but
the other dragons are all ok. Have you any idea what Aunt Liza does to
entertain these Dragons?" I asked.  This was something I'd always
wondered about but my aunt had been really vague on the matter.”
"No, but Pyre knows.  He won't tell me because he thinks I’m too young
to understand.   I think it's really insulting and ageist of him to
assume that. Don't you?"
"What's ageist mean?" I asked her.
"It means you are being discriminated against for being a child.  It
happens a lot, but most children are too stupid to realise it.  It
takes a genius like me to really see the way things are."


               ***  ***  ***

“Hello Nad, thanks for inviting us,” signed a pair of chubby hands.  I
looked up from my book to see a girl who was vaguely familiar from
somewhere.  She was wearing a modest black tunic and matching head
scarf.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“Zaina, and my sister Zahira is here too,” I looked round but couldn’t
se anyone with matching attire so I assumed she was well out of my
field of vision.
I felt bad as I hadn’t thought to invite them.  We had been out of
touch for so long.
I struggled to make conversation with Zaina. In the end Zaina left to
explore the room which was now filled with lots of other children whom
I hadn’t invited either.
"This is Zahira speaking.  Have your batteries run out or are you just
ignoring me,” a tiny hand signed using tactile sign language.  I
looked up to see the same thick glasses I had, but she looked very
different from her sister now.  She wearing boy’s clothes with a
baseball cap slung carelessly over her short curly hair.
“I don’t wear it now,” I told her.
 “Do they let you get away with that oral school you go to?” Zahira
asked, “We keep getting all their rejects you know.  They end up in
the special needs department because they never mastered speech and
they can‘t read or sign either. They act really frustrated.  Well,
what you make of that?" she demanded in a really hostile manner.
I shrugged.
"You might think you are better then the rest of us, just because
father sacrificed a leg to make you hear.  This doesn't impress me at
all.  I'm profoundly deaf and I can speak too," she stormed.
With that Zahira turned and left.  I had obviously offended her but I
couldn't work out how.
The twins seemed to have made their own group of friends now.   Zahira
had joined a tight cliché of signing deaf boys who hung round
together.  They were all a lot bigger then Zahira.
Zaina’s friend was a rather chubby blind girl in a blue dress.   She
communicated with Zaina using a system that involved touching the
first three letters of each hand. Sunniva later told me the system was
called finger braille. Since I didn’t do finger Braille and Zaina’s
friend didn’t use any sign language, we couldn’t communicate except
when Zaina or Sunniva interpreted for me.
"Hello Nadia, it’s really good to see you again,” Katrina signed.  I
was very pleased to see Katrina too.  I'd missed her after leaving
Druzil.  Today she was looking as attractive as ever in a long flowery
dress.
“Zahira is a different size from Zaina now, before they were
identical.  Why is that?” I asked her.
“They have always been fraternal twins. Zahira is a transfigurator.
At one stage she was in the habit of becoming the mirror image of her
twin and you as well.  Now she’s not so close to her twin.   She wants
to be seen as an entirely separate person. They even go to different
schools since leaving Druzil School for the deaf and the blind.”
“Why did they leave Druzil?”
“Druzil doesn‘t take pupils past fifth grade except in special needs.
Zaina now goes to a boarding school for girls in Darthrila while
Zahira goes to a school for the deaf in Nazdonia. It’s hard for Zaina
to be separate from her sister for so long but it’s actually what
Zahira wants, She thinks Zaina cramps her style,” Katrina explained.

"Now we're all going to play party games," Aunt Liza breezily
announced, as if speaking to a much younger group of children.  I was
standing near one of Zahira's friends who signed something that I
didn't quite catch.  I could tell by Zahira’s look of momentary
annoyance that she hadn't seen what was said either but she sniggered
along with her friends in a rather superficial manner.
My aunt looked round, biting her nails.  She moved forward, tripped
and fell headlong.  We all burst out laughing.  It was a laugh of
sheer embarrassment, then because we found anything funny.   Katrina
rushed over to help my aunt up.  I only hoped Liza did a better job of
entertaining dragons then she did with us children.
After Liza’s fall most of us felt so remorseful about having laughed,
that we allowed Liza to sit us down for a game of pass the parcel. It
was more to humour her then because the idea interested any of us at
all.  I even let Liza put a balloon in my hands.  Only Zahira and her
friends resisted any efforts to join in.  They all stood up with their
arms folded, looking disdainfully about the room.
At that point Pluto and three other boys picked up their violins and
cello.  They began to play a classical tune, which I was able to feel
through the vibrations that my balloon was making.  Meanwhile Katrina
had enchanted the carpet fibres to grow and sway about when the music
stopped. It felt a bit like yellow grass swaying in the wind.  She
even made it smell like a field of buttercups as well.   We were so
impressed by the music and the magical affects that we allowed
ourselves to engage in the party games that aunt Liza deemed suitable
for us.


We ate party food after that.  The whole of the buffet was vegan.
There was a wide variety of fake meat and other party food to choose
from, that Sunniva’s aunts had prepared for us.  The fake meat was so
well made that none of the children even realised that they were not
eating the real thing.
   Someone had placed a stack of leaflets on the table about the
benefits of taking up a vegetarian diet.  I couldn't understand why my
aunt Liza removed them again, after examining one under a small thick
magnifying glass.
   "Why did you do that for?" I demanded, "It's my party and I want
people to know what goes on in the meat industry so they will know why
eating meat is unethical," I told her.
   "This is a children's party.  How would you feel if I started
handing out pro life literature?  There is a time and place for
everything you know," my aunt replied.
Before I got a chance to object, someone prodded me.  I turned to see
the tiny red haired woman who had saved my life.
"That lady in the fur coat is prowling about, the one who pushed the
child into the railway station.  The one who looks like her," the
woman informed us in sign language, pointing to Aunt Liza.