Dragoness

Some say dragons were never real. But Saphira Lane always believed that they were. Saphira’s name meant ‘sapphire warrior,’ but Saphira had always been less of a warrior and more of a dreamer. Saphira had always believed in magic. She believed that the lands were once filled with unicorns and goblins and trolls and that the skies were once overflowing with phoenixes and pegasi and fairies, and the seas were full of mermaids and kelpies and krakens. But her favorite creature of magic was always the dragon. She loved to stare out her window for hours and imagine great, beautiful dragons soaring in the country skies, their graceful wings skimming the clouds. Saphira’s bookshelves were filled with books about dragons, her walls covered in paintings of them. “Dragons are NOT real, and they never were, Saphira.” Her older brother would scoff. “They are just a stupid, made up, ugly beast that was invented to scare little children. They certainly were never made to become the obsession of dumb little twelve-year-old girls.” His words always stung. But Saphira never let it get to her, because she had other things to focus on. Saphira lived with her family out in the country, so she would spend entire weekends out in the rolling hills and sprawling fields, watching the skies and drawing them, always adding in her favorite dragon- a sapphire blue one that she named Skylina. She wanted to be Skylina, sometimes, when she was lonely or upset. She imagined being the dragon she had created and living the life she could only dream about. Little did she know, her fantasy of becoming a dragon was not too far-fetched….

One day, Saphira was out walking in the fields and drawing, like she was often, but something in the sky caught her eye. A flash of dark blue that flickered in the air before disappearing behind a cloud. She did a double take, but the source of the blue flash was nowhere to be seen. She had been seeing these a lot recently- out her window, behind a tree somewhere, or on top of a hill in the distance. She had concluded that it was some sort of bird, but deep inside her brain she must have found out it was more than that…. That night, when she was drawing Skylina again, like she did every night, she added in some pale pink and lighter blue under her wings. Then she slipped her drawing under her pillow and fell asleep within moments. In her dream, she was sitting out in a field with four other girls she did not know. They were laughing and talking with each other while also watching a dragon- Skylina, in fact, doing flips in the air. The dragon did loops and twirls in the sky, like a beautiful waltz with the clouds. Saphira was so happy in her dream, when she woke she was instantly sad to be back in the real world. She took out her drawing from under her pillow and looked at it- but something was different. Saphira and the four other girls were in the drawing, on Skylina’s back. And Saphira had definitely not drawn them there.