The Dragon's Soulmate

The Woman

Brandon Strand had always had a hand in his family’s leather working business, starting first with his uncle tanning and dying hides to ready them for just about any usage. Usually people would come through to purchase hides at wholesale, using the leather for whatever their company sold. Brandon however, had the foresight to hold onto scraps of pieces even when his uncle advised against it. He didn’t see the issue with his own curiosity, having the skills to create useable items with what he had.

Brandon also picked up sewing while his grandmother was still alive. She quite enjoyed completing day to day clothing and for special occasions, even hand embroidered flowers on her daughter’s dresses which were all uniquely gorgeous. Brandon believes that sewing skipped a generation though, since his mother hadn’t had the patience to sit and stitch anything. The woman was always in the barn caring for her horses or herding cattle. It didn’t make much sense to her to make such fine clothing for their lifestyle. And so, Brandon kept this to himself until he found a lucrative outlet to sell to: women.

Jewelry, wraps, belts, and boots if he could find the right pieces to create such things was what he started with. As his confidence grew, he started making bags, satchels, cantinas, and eventually armor for the renaissance fairs that came through seasonally.

Nerranne State Park was a new location for him, but he’d been to so many over the years, he knew what would do well. Some pieces were traded with other shop keepers for items he felt he could lure customers in with, and because of it, this day wouldn’t be any different.

Brandon’s shop is made up of a few tables, and a hanging blue velvet curtain that claims the space around him. Forms hold armor for both men and women on either side of his “u” shaped lot. Dyed and cured items he’s grown up creating fill the rest of the space around him too.

Today, he’s noticed, there’s been a mixed interest which is different for him. He’s selling out on belts, satchels, and a new favorite, a booze clip he calls it, but labels as a potion pocket. It’s roughly the size of a small wallet, and holds up to a six-ounce container, which he’ll remember to make more of being they’re the least time consuming and the quicker sale..

By the time midday comes around and the sun has disappeared behind the clouds again is when sees a woman who seems to stand out from the rest while she mills about in other shops. She’s gorgeous, not like the many who he’s seen at other fairs. Many other women are dressed to impress or are with their knights or whatever. But she seemed elegant and simple all at once. Her eyes are bright and curious while her nose is dainty like a porcelain doll’s. Brandon catches the way his mouth begins to water the moment his gaze flecks down to her rose tinted lips, nearly matching that of her dress. Her hair is obviously done carefully, and he’s anxiously awaiting her arrival to his own stand, hoping that she’s indefinitely on her way past him. 

He’s like to suggest she stops for him but he’s never been that bold. Instead, he watches as she picks up a piece of jewelry to study it as if she’s looking for into its history. It’s odd, he thinks, to see such scrutiny applied to pieces here. Most of the women that had been by were looking for a meaningless stone, large and lustrous to adorn their finger or hang from their wrists, but this girl would pick up the pieces shops have been trying to get rid of for seasons as if they were the finest gilded pieces among the garbage there. It wasn’t to say it was garbage per se, but it was certainly strange to see her fawn over such uninspired pieces.

Brandon found himself picking up another box of leather bands he meant to replenish what he had sold with just to lose her so that he wouldn’t be caught staring. From there he’d go back and forth trying to look for her and back to his work without being seen.As much as his height should have helped him, searching the crowd seems nearly impossible. 

She’s gone, Barandon repeats it to himself, she’s gone...

————

A shift in the breeze captures Raine’s attention. The day had been hot, and the humidity felt as though it was pressing her down into the soft ground below her feet, so the breeze is very welcome. Like many she’d enjoyed, it first started warm and then cool, much like a storm was coming.

Gently, Raine puts the bangle she’d been looking at back on the display stand in front of her. All the while, the artisan still speaks but she doesn’t hear a breath of it. Instead she follows the swirl of air tingling around her neck, tickling her face with the loose tendrils shaping her just so. It moves around and over her like a ribbon tying a precious gift.

This is no breeze she thinks.

This is something else.

Raine turns to follow as it moves past her, staying within the coolness as if she’s in a waiting path. Her brow furrows trying, of all things, to remember if this was a part of her dreams or steps into her nightmares. Leaves crinkle behind her, falling over a small pile of themselves. Her breath catches at the sound and Raine can’t control the way her body responds to her fear. Heaving her breath as she stands rooted to the ground, panic blossoms in her heart, racing as it always had when she had heard that soft sound.

Raine weave’s through the crowd, hurrying to get past by any means necessary when she hears the whisper of what she thinks might be a name.

“Melchoir.”

She’s hearing things, Raine tells herself. It’s just a panic attack. She could handle this.No one said that. She hears the sounds of merriment, clashing of swords and horses neighing in the distance. There’s music and constant movement all around her. No one whispered a name to her. No one was that close to her... not even her brother. He was off on his own adventure with that girl he mentioned.

Raine is alone, left to her own devices to search through the overcast daylight for the sound as if it were a person. In her dream, whatever chased her never whispered. It never sounded like a name, and even then, the sounds it did make were more taunting, teasing her as she stepped away from the strange path.

It leads her back, deep within the crowd to a darkly colored cloth, one she can’t focus on. Her heartbeat hammers in her ears being the only color she remembers seeing before the return of the eternal darkness brought to her by those hell beasts. And yet she’s still drawn to it. Closer and closer until she reaches the item calling her.

Of all things she would have expected, it’s a dragon pendant. One she’s never seen. The metal clearly stands apart from itself, suspending circular gem that could have been taken as a jeweled heart set off to the side. What kind of stone? She’s not sure, but it had both of her usual colors within it, and decided she needs him.

Him, the shard of a thought splinters into her mind but is quieted as she reaches out her hand to touch it. Raine’s fingers shake while she does as if it were forbidden. The moment she does, a roar of a voice sounds in her ear making her jump. It’s beast like in nature but somehow sounds as if a man has yelled through it too.

“What are you doing?” the faceless entity grumbles behind her making her panic more.