Madre Awakes

   I had been working with “Lady” Demton two months by the fateful morning I woke up to the red sky. Instantly I jumped out from under the thin blanket I slept under and ran for my wrapper.  Meg, the maid assigned to me, Had showed me how to wrap it so it seemed like a dress when I stood on the balcony, but I would need it for more than that today. This time I awoke terrified. I knew only one thing that could turn the sky that red in the morning and it did not bode well for this town or any other one on this island. She had awoken.
   Glancing out the open doors to the sky beyond, I knew time was running out. They were coming for me and the people would panic, even though they should already be worried. When she woke up without her guardians there, she must have been confused. That confusion obviously didn’t last long, I thought as I raced through the building heading up. I barely noticed anyone as I ran, I knew that what I was doing was improper but it had to be done. If they got here before I was visible, things would get bad, real bad. Up and up I ran, not thinking about the pain I’d be in while I tried to go faster up the spiral staircase. Finally I reached a window large enough to climb out of and jumped down to the roof below just as they reached the city and the outcry went up.They flew straight for the roof they saw me on before the foolish humans could prepare the weapons. Landing rough as we needed to travel fast, the two griffins rushed for the far edge of the roof as I sped towards them. I made it onto the larger one’s back moments before they jumped off the roof to resume flight. Wings outspread, they soared around the building the humans called a palace and headed back for the Great Forest. We flew for nearly an hour over the Forest before I saw her. The great dragon, one of the original Children of the Greatest, was soaring around a growing clearing, fire sprouting from her mouth on her whim.
   “Madre mios, madre mios,” I started to sing as we approached. Immediately she spun on us, her ears fine tuned to the well known song. “Madre mios, madre mios, why do you scare them so? They are not your food, they are not your foe. Madre mios, calm down, I am safe. Relax yourself, madre mios, relax. I am well, you are too. What need is there for anger?” By now the dragoness had quit her query, likely an unfortunate human caravan again, and was following us. No longer breathing fire, I knew she had calmed herself and was ready to talk. With a word to my griffin friends, we flew higher above the trees so I could be eye level with her, though necessarily far away as the griffins would only get so close to the ancient one. “Madre mios, why are you awake? You still have many years before your nap was to end.”
   “I am weary, my dear. I do not wish to be awake, surely you know that. I know not why I am awake, I feared you had woken me in need of assistance. Why else would I be awake?” she queried in her gravelly voice as she spoke the slurred speech of the ancient reptiles in the Great Forest.
   “Are you ready to go back to sleep, Madre dearest?” I asked, well aware what could happen if she chose not to.
   “I am weary, love, and you are well. Why should I stay awake? Let us return and I will sleep.”
   “Good, Madre, you need your sleep,” I said just before she dove under the griffins and I slid off the griffin’s back and onto her hard scales. That done, we flew deeper into the Forest, following her path of destruction, both brand new and centuries old. Finally we came to her cave and though the griffins refused to enter, Agalia flew me deep into the earth that sheltered her ancient den. Once there she lay down and I redid the sleeping spell that started her hibernation cycle. As I listened to her breathing, I searched for what had woken her but found nothing had changed since I had left with the herd so long ago.
   I had nearly left the den, shaking my head at the puzzle, when I stopped. There was one thing I had left here, one thing I didn’t bring to the herd. It had meant nothing while I had been with the herd, but now I was among humans. It may mean something there one day. One day I may wish I had that little bundle that he had wanted. He hadn’t known I had it, he thought they had left it when they brought me. Maybe there was some significance to it in the human world. With that thought in mind, I quietly crawled over the horde Agalia had accumulated to a small cave in back for her guests, or as the villagers had once called them, sacrifices. There in the back of a drawer under a pile of mold-free clothing was the little bundle, still wrapped in the blackened handkerchief I had saved from his fire. That in hand, I hurried up the wide passageway to the griffins and they flew me back so I landed soft enough not to break any bones on my balcony before heading back to their family.