How I met Vixen Lightfingers
Anyway, there I was among the trees, wandering along a path known to end at a sweet cool stream, when I was very abruptly stopped. By what? Well, not a what, unless you count a person as a what. Sometimes you don't, you know. But this what was a person..a young woman with golden hair, a tunic, and tights leading to high boots. A dagger at her waist caught my attention, since I do not carry a weapon as a rule.
"Halt, little druid," she told me, and I saw humor in her eyes.
I looked at her questioningly, not sure of what to answer.
"I need your help," she continued.
"My help?" I asked. "Whatever could I do that would help you?"
"Help me rob a nasty prince. He's been cruel to both my family and my friends, and I would like to lighten his purse."
Of course I hesitated, and who wouldn't? A complete stranger stops me in the woods and needs my help to rob somebody.
"Just who are you?" I asked. I could sense a certain honesty about her, but I didn't want to rely on that solely.
A wide grin brightened her face and she held out her hand to me. "Why, Vixen Lightfingers is my name. I live yonder in Mysteria and when I learned of the travelings of the dark prince, I knew I had to act. He is near to this forest now and will soon pass through her shadows near to here. I need you to stop him for me."
"And how do you propose I do that?" I couldn't imagine how a small woman such as myself could accomplish it easily. "Granted, I know of Mysteria's plight, fighting the Dark Lord for dominion of it's sparkling skies, and if you are one of the Dragonqueen's friends, then I will help you."
"Great!" she exclaimed and slapped me on the back, nearly knocking me off my feet in her enthusiasm. "And what is your name, little druid?"
"I am known as Diamond Lightfoot. I am studying at the academy." I said. "Is the Dragonqueen as beautiful and kind as legend tells?"
"Aye, that and more. Now we better get to the road. The prince will be there before us if we stand here talking all day!" And with that she took my arm and began leading me in a northerly direction.
Well, my friends, that was certainly a fateful meeting. I followed her to the road, where we waited until the evil prince was near. Then I hurried and laid myself in the middle of the path, hoping he would stop and not let his horse tromp on me. And of course Lightfingers waited in a tree that overhung the road. She might have been able to jump on his back without my help, but she was more knowledgeable about these things than I could hope to be.
The prince's horse reared, and down they both came. The horse ran off, and would stop when he was ready. But a battle ensued. And it didn't look to me like Lightfingers was large or heavy enough to do any real damage. So I hiked up my druid robes and jumped on the man's back. I certainly distracted him, and hoped to the source of all life that I was doing the right thing.
Lightfingers used her dagger to cut the man's purse away, and then his trousers. She pulled them to his ankles, and with his movement restricted, he fell to the ground. With me on top of him. And providence smiled on us. He hit his head on a fallen tree limb, and it knocked him unconscious.
Lightfingers smiled, hefting the purse in her hand. "Do you know who he is?" she asked.
"No, I don't," I amswered. "Should I?"
"Perhaps. He is named Mandrake, I suppose because his mother was a witch."
"Mandrake, the one that led armies against his brother, good lord Thomas?"
"The very same," she nodded. "The very same. He's burned more villages than I can travel to in a year. He deserves to die for his cruelty."
I assessed her tone. "But you don't mean to, do you?"
"No, that is for someone more powerful than I. so, we had better be distant memories before he wakes."
We walked quickly in the direction we'd come, taking a more circuitous route so that the prince would not be able to follow. And we safely made it away.
When we separated, Lightfingers told me that the Dragonqueen had need of a healer. I replied that I would need to finish my studies before I could hold any real power, be of any real benefit. She nodded in agreement.
"Come to Mysteria when you are ready. You already have a friend in the court of the Dragonqueen this day." Her smile lit her eyes, and I grasped her hand in friendship.
"Faith and fealty, my friend," I replied.
And when I was ready, I went to Mysteria. And there the real adventure began.
First off, they are able to understand our speech, once we've talked to then a bit. It takes a few sentences for them to assimilate the language.
And second off, they are disappointed in mankind's lack of responsibility to our Earth and its inhabitants. That's part of the reason they've had to hide all these years.
If you're lucky enough to see a dragon, it will be deep in a forest, or high on a mountain where man rarely, if ever goes. I was in a forest when I saw Phillopeth. That was his name. He was (and still is) a handsome dragon of golden hue, gentle of nature, and warm of heart.
He didn't show himself to me a first, you see, he waited to see what sort of human I was. I was there for the Samhain, the ritual of Allhallows, at the eve of the new Celtic year. Actually the new year began at sunset, and a time for reckoning. Samhain is one of the fire festivals of my kind, being a druid, after all.
Maybe Phillopeth sensed that about me. In bygone days, the druids and the dragons were friends, both friends of the forest. In any case, we talked long and long, and time passed without my knowing. He told me of what he had seen in times past. Of warriors in bright armor, hunting his kind. How sad, I thought. They knew not what they were doing, that much was certain.
You see, dragons possess magic..the magic to heal,the magic to see into the future, the magic to teach us what decisions would be right, since they have often seen the mistakes of man, and could teach us much of what went wrong and what we could do to make things better, I see the teaching as magic, too, because what one of us will listen to experience when we think we're in the right? The respect a dragon commands, at least of any intelligent person, would be enough to make many listen. And those that listen, be they leaders, could make a difference.
Phillopeth told me of what the earth was like when man first arrived, stories handed down though the ages from his ancestors. Dragons are not immortal, but they are long lived, and will survive many generations of mankind.
Man showed violence from the beginning, and the dragons wondered at their nature. For they were the first to show violence for sport, and not as a means of survival. But they couldn't destroy the humans and their evil. It isn't in the nature of a dragon to commit violence, nor to judge.
And when we were done discussing herbal remedies, I found that a night and a day and a night had passed, so hypnotised at his presence I was. Magic, pure and simple, still roamed the earth, still possessed a place under the sun, and the knowledge that it did was a miracle to me, and gave me the power to believe.