Pepper's First Twelve Moons: Pepper's Talisman

Pepper adored her mom. While Pepper was in her egg, her mother would talk to her about anything and everything. However, Pepper’s favorite times were when her mother sang. Many of her mothers songs were about the history of the dragons. Stories of how well the dragons got along with other races, stories of times of peace and times of war, stories of worlds of danger and worlds of safety. She told of how the dragons had lived on one giant world, but its location had long been forgotten.

No, the dragons had not been chased from their world, they had not left because it was dying. They left their world out of curiosity for the rest of the universe. While many worlds did not like them, they still had a desire to travel and discover new things. One of the things they discovered was that they could change their form to look similar to other creatures as long as they had a magical or chemical pendant from that species. They still kept many of their dragon features like their eyes, wings, tails, horns and even some scales. Although, over time, they could hold a near perfect image of the desired species with enough practice.

Contrary to popular belief, dragons were not violent or aggressive. Yes they ate animal meat but they weren’t eating every creature in sight. When Pepper hatched, her mother reinforced these teachings, and made sure that Pepper understood who her family was and what they did.

Pepper had seen her mom spit fire from her mouth, but whenever Pepper asked about it her mom would say, “I’ll tell you about it soon, now is not the right time.”

It confused Pepper, but she would quickly forget about it as her mother distracted her with many other interesting things to do. Pepper and her mom lived in a cave at the bottom of a mountain. Right outside the cave was a valley with a small lake and a medium sized forest. However, because of Pepper's size, everything was giant to her.

One day, after about seven moons had passed since Peppers hatching, she was outside playing by the water. Her nose felt like it was being tickled by something, and Pepper let out a little sneeze. A little cloud of black came from her nose and Pepper stumbled backwards, shocked at what had happened.

 

Worriedly, Pepper scrambled back to the cave in search of her mother. Was she sick? Did she eat something weird? Was she going to DIE? What if her insides were coming out? “Mom! Mom, mom, mom, mommommom! MOM!”

 

Pepper’s mother came rushing out at the sound of panic in her daughters voice. “What’s wrong! Are you okay?”

 

“I think I might be sick!” Pepper wailed, “I sneezed and black air came out and I don’t know what to do!”

 

Pepper’s mother tapped her butterfly necklace, transforming her into a human. Albeit, one with wings and horns. She walked up to Pepper, who was about the size of a large dog, and motioned for her to sit.

“I think I know what’s going on. Don’t worry, you aren’t in danger.” She said with a smile on her face. 

 

“But moooommmm. It wasn’t normal.” Pepper whined, annoyed that her mom wasn’t taking it seriously.

 

“Open your mouth real quick. If I’m right, then now is the time to tell you why I breathe fire.”

 

Pepper obediently opened her mouth, excited at the possibility of finally getting an answer to her question. Her mother did a quick check and nodded. “Yup your protective scales are starting to grow in.”

 

“Wha da dat ean” Pepper tried to say while keeping her mouth open.

 

“You can talk normally, I don’t need to check anything else.” Pepper’s mom shifted back to her dragon form and laid down comfortably. “It means that you are going to be able to start breathing fire soon like I do.”

 

A gasp of delighted surprise escaped Pepper. “Fire? Like you? I’m gonna be a big dragon! I’m the same as mama!”

 

She chuckled, “Yes, you’ll be like mama. But that doesn’t mean you’re going to use it all the time. This also means that now it is time for you to have my necklace.”

 

“The butterfly one?” Pepper questioned. She was excited when she saw her mother nod, and reach with a talon to take it off of another talon. Her mom gently put the necklace over Pepper's head, and it hung around her neck.

 

“This butterfly necklace helps with two things. It helps to control your fire and it helps you change into a human form. In fact, your father was part human. He helped me get this necklace.” She pauses at the memory, “Anyways. Whenever you feel like you’re not in control of your fire, then focus on the butterfly necklace, and imagine that it is sucking in that fire. Right now you can only produce smoke, but very soon you will be able to breathe fire like me.”

 

“How do I make myself human? They look wimpy. Do I have too?” Pepper was practically bouncing up and down in excitement. Mom was giving her something important! And Pepper was becoming a big dragon! Even if I am still a little small. Pepper briefly glanced morosely at her tiny dragon form.

 

“Well, you don’t have too, but it is easier to interact with other species if you look like that. There also aren’t that many languages that we can speak in our dragon form. Human mouths are better for communication. Other species are also less scared of us if we are in a different form. According to many of them, smaller tends to mean less dangerous or threatening. Even though we haven’t done anything to hurt them.”

 

Pepper stares seriously at her mom during the whole conversation. “Can I try right now?”

 

“Of course. You remember what I look like when I’m in that form right? Then think of yourself doing that and then touch the butterfly. It will help guide you.”

 

Pepper closed her eyes and focused on an image of the wimpy human-like form that her mom had, then touched the necklace. She felt a strange burst of energy and then opened her eyes to find everything even bigger than before. Looking down at herself she found that she had weird legs and squishy skin on her.

“Now try to stand. Like I do.” Her mom said.

 

Unsteadily Pepper pushed herself so her back feet were flat on the ground and then tried to push her front feet off of the ground. She partially stood before promptly falling backwards onto her butt, and tail. “My front feet feel weird.”

 

A huff of laughter comes from her mom. “Those aren’t called feet Pepper. Those are hands, and they aren’t meant for walking on. They’re meant to hold things. It’s okay, this is going to take quite a bit of practice. I’ve had hundreds of years to practice walking in the human form, it’s not as easy as it looks.”

 

Over the next five moons, Pepper’s mom taught her how to do things in her human form and control her fire once it had developed. During those five moons they ended up moving caves quite a bit and Pepper often saw her mother up late at night, worriedly staring at the sky.

One day Pepper was placed in a cave not far from a town that they had scoped out recently. Her mother told her to wait, and that she would be back.

 

Pepper waited.

 

And waited.

 

She was found two days later in her dragon form by Everest, a half-human, half-dragon hybrid. He approached her gently, but she wasn’t all that scared. Pepper was mostly excited that she now had a friend to wait with until her mother came back. Even though she was in her dragon form, Everest understood the huffs, chuffs, and growls of dragon speech, and told her that they would stay for two more days in case her mother returned. 

When two days passed and her mother hadn’t returned, Pepper realized that her mom might not be coming back. Everest told her that they would be leaving in the evening, but Pepper refused, and flew herself up the hill to hide herself from him and cry. Everest let her be and waited until she had fallen asleep. After cleaning up camp, he shifted into dragon form and gently picked up Pepper in his talons. Pepper shifted in her sleep, tightly clasping the only thing she had left of her mother. 

 

The butterfly necklace.