Photo by Satyam Pathak

The Wishing Map is a full-length fantasy that is being posted episodically at this site. To read the previous episode click here. To read it from the start, click here.

Gina and Zack’s quest has led them to the mill-boy B’frona, who has confessed his failure to overcome the men that kidnapped Gina’s dragon.

He stood steeped in anguish as Sh’renn, his adoptive sister, picked up the narrative: “I left my sleeping mother and went to the marketplace, knowing that I would find B’frona there. I found him, yes…beaten and bloodied, this courageous boy. But the Dragon of Rennou was gone. I washed his face and waited. When he came to his senses, he told me what Skelljaip and Artifíga had done. And then…” Sh’renn stopped, overtaken by tears.

B’frona took her hand and finished the sentence for her: “And then we smelled smoke and rushed to the widow’s house. When we arrived, the flames…they—”

“He tried over and over to enter,” said Sh’renn. “He still has the scars.”

“The fire had already consumed the shrennel-thatch,” B’rona explained, “and the timbers had crashed in upon themselves. The house was a flaming skeleton. The widow’s remains…they were found until the next day.” He stole a glance at Sh’renn.

He does care about her, Gina realized.

“B’frona was blamed,” said Sh’renn. “It was known that he resented his adoption. This and the disappearance of your dragon led the elders to assume B’frona did it. But just see what he had been through!”

“Sh’renn stood by me,” said B’frona, “and Skelljaip and Artifíga were missing. Everyone knew Skelljaip’s crow-bait character, so it was not difficult for them to imagine him and his vile son doing such things. Then reports began to filter in of two men selling the services of a rogue dragon. The shops of merchants in Peludien, Crésie, and D’nair were torched to the ground, bringing sudden windfalls to their competitors. In each case the ruins bore the marks of dragon-fire.”

“I was only eighteen, said Sh’renn, “when I was made B’frona’s guardian. We have shaped a life together, but…”

“But if you had never come,” B’frona said, pointing at Gina, “the Dragon of Rennou would still be here, the widow F’lenn would still be alive—”

“B’frona!”

“And Rennou’s curse would have been lifted. Only now it is even worse than before, and it is all your fault. I would kill you if I were not such a coward!”

Gina had no counter to B’frona’s accusations; they were true, every one of them. And yet she hadn’t known what would happen when she fell on that egg and scooped up that defenseless little hatchling.

“Make your own destiny,” had been her pet phrase. But could B’frona make his own destiny? He hadn’t had any control over his mother’s death, or his father’s self-destruction…or Gina’s own catastrophic impact on his world! Aunt Aloysia had said that finding your destiny was about making “choices you don’t want to make.” What choices would B’frona have to make?

What choices would Gina have to make?

φ

Thoughts: Life isn’t just about fulfilling dreams; it’s also about overcoming curses. We were put in this world to help each other do both.

To read the next episode, click here.