Muneca

“ I don’t know what your talking about” Muneca spoke, ignoring her twin brother Prometheus. Her voice soft and certain. Prometheus was a brute in her eyes, the world was very different in his perspective and Muneca tended to ignore his warnings and ramblings most of the time. His voice was gruff and harsh “ Glen has left the valley”. Muneca Looked up from her treasury counting and watched her brother for a long moment “ Glen wouldn’t do something so stupid” she replied harshly. Her hatchlings weren’t fools and they knew better then to leave the safety of the valley, especially Glen. Prometheus sat and glared, his dark red wings catching the glint of the sun and showing off his vipera markings. The two siblings sat in silence, watching each other as if speaking telepathically.

Muneca squinted as if testing him for lies, she liked to believe her arcane eyes saw all. Prometheus finally broke the silence as he stood up “ so be it” and with that he spread his wings and took off, disappearing back into the valley. The cave was quiet and Muneca went back to counting her gold. Surely Glen would fall for the valley jumper’s lies. The valley had an old story teller who traveled from beyond and went from place to place, a beautiful vibrant skydancer by the name Hatarei. “ surely she wouldn’t...would she?” Muneca stopped and went to the edge of her cave, gazing out onto the lush greenery and bountiful fields she called home. The female spread her bubblegum colored wings and jumped, tucking her legs in as she soared and made her way to the edge where the mountain range began. Glen lived on the edge of the valley in a cave at the highest peak where the sun would set and cast beautiful colors of the evening. Muneca fluttered to a halt and perched on the edge of the cave “ Glen?” She called out and let her voice echo for a moment before calling out even louder in hopes of her child’s voice to answer. But their was no answer or reply. Panic arose for every second that Glen didn’t answer. Muneca searched their cave but to no avail, Glen was gone. Had Prometheus been right? And she really did leave the valley.

Muneca briskly flapped her wings, increasing speed as she searched the valley high and low but her child was no where to be found. The mother finally stopped when the sun began to set, she had asked the other dragons in hope that Glen had just been off hunting but none had seen her...well, she asked almost everyone. Hatarei rested among the soft fields of grass when Muneca arrived. “ where is my daughter?” Her words cold and snappy and filled with rage. Hatarei nonchalantly answered “ off to find Bringer of course” her words like a birds song. Bringer was one of Muneca’s hatchlings, he was so sweet and gentle and and no one could have imagined what he would have done next. After Bringer lost his mate, he had gone mad and was riddled with evil then eventually cast out of the valley after supposedly poisoning one of the elders. It was a great loss to Muneca and her mate. Glen had always adored her brother but Muneca never imagined she to would leave the valley. The mother hissed, her plumage ruffled “ you’ve filled her head with lies again!! Just as you did Bringer and many others!”. Hatarei basked in the last of the sun’s rays and was not frightened in the least “ who said they were lies?” Her voice a chorus and sing song like the birds. Muneca huffed and took off to the skies, she couldn’t bare to lose another child and it was time she faced her greatest fear.

Muneca raced to the edge of the valley but suddenly stopped on the mountainside, staring out into the wastelands of the Outside. The Outside looked barren and dead, not a single green blade of grass as animal bones scattered the black sands. A rumbling deep voice spoke from beside her, it was an elder, a golden colored ridgeback “ once you leave you cannot return Muneca”. The mother stood in silence as she listened, not to the elder, but the winds. The elder growled “ once you go past this mountain, you will belong to the Outside and will never be able to return, you will be deemed dead to all who are in the valley”. She looked over at the elder, a choice had to be made.

Sorry Prometheus, her parents, and her only offspring left in the valley: Quidlin. Muneca spread her wings and became the only color in the Outside and against the black sands.

It was dark and she had been flying for what felt like days although it had only been but hours. The Windclaw finally landed and rested her aching wing muscles. Sleep became inevitable, even when the sound of an approaching beast became evident. Muneca awoke in a nest of scratchy twigs and rough grasses cluttered with feathers and scales of all sorts. A Gaoler stood hunched over a bubbling cauldron, it’s antlers scraping and scratching against the stone ceiling as the cave was far to small. “I am a wanderer, you may call me Co” the gaoler spoke, her body colored gray and mossy green with fur braided and woven into neat designs among its ancient scales. Muneca sat up slowly, looking around at the odd decor of bones and plants and fur with scales decorating the cluttered walls like priceless gem stones among nothingness. “ I found you asleep on the earth sands of the desert” she moved and the tiny stones tied to her antlers chimed as she scooped up some muddy looking water from her cauldron and brought it over to the Windclaw. Co spoke “ what is a prisoner doing way out here?”. Muneca gaped, has she heard the Gaoler right? “ I think your mistaken, I’m NOT a prisoner and I’ve come looking for my daughter Glen. The Windclaw looked at the muddy water, disgusted, but drank it anyway since she was a guest of CO’s home. The water was earthy tasting but surprisingly not bad. Co coughed...or was it a laugh? One couldn’t tell since the old female was making a racket from under her plentiful fur. “ that is what a prisoner would say, they keep you locked up and naive, for a true prisoner is locked up behind bars of lies” Co went on.

Muneca began to question if the Gaoler was even sane “ what are you talking about?...anyway, have you seen a young pearlcatcher with peacock patterning?”. She stood up, stretching a bit as her muscles felt much better. Co grumbled “ youth” and walked out then sat. The Gaoler went on “ perhaps I have seen one, a bright flame who broke from the prisons of inside”. Muneca followed and started to question if the water was poisoned and if Co was even telling the truth. “ which way did she go?” The Windclaw didn’t want to spend to much time around the crazy old female. “ north, towards the forests. Perhaps you to will learn to unlock the cage your trapped in”, and with those lasts words Co turned her back and went back inside. Muneca shivered a bit and took flight, continuing her long journey northward in search for Glen.

- u/MikuKitty