Together

Zea was twelve, and completely friendless, and no matter how much she pretended, she still wished that she had somebody to play with instead of always playing by herself. Well, not quite by herself, giving out an odd whistle Zea watched as a small dragon flew in a circle over her head. At least she imagined it flew over her head. She imagined the small dragon had scales that constantly turned color. She had imagined that she had hatched the dragon from a stone she's found. She imagined that it was her friend and companion and read her mind, and knowing all her deepest secrets would be there to console her should she ever have the need.


She also imagined that having a real friend was nice, but she was more secure with just having Elza. Her little dragon wouldn't ever hurt her. Her dragon protected her, and would never leave her behind.


So here she was walking through these giant bark covered pillars holding her small blue ball close the her chest, when she felt a stir. It was like a strange breeze flitted through the branches and suddenly the place changed. The air was warmer or smelled a little bit different; The sounds around her had shifted slightly. She felt both excited and afraid. She walked a few more paces and then heard or felt something behind her. She turned and saw him.


A boy small, short, perhaps no older than her was standing several feet away from her his back turned. As she turned he seemed to notice her for the first time, as if feeling her eyes on him, and he too turned to see. Their eyes met. Something happened, neither was sure what, but when their eyes met something changed, not just to them but to the forest, or perhaps the whole world. The woods around them seemed to become more vibrant more alive and solid. It was as if they were twice as real as they had been before. They had certainly been real before, Zea couldn’t explain it but they were brighter more colorful, more... there.


This was all something she felt rather than saw for the boy himself held her attention more than anything else. It was strange that he should be here, there was never anyone else in these woods but her. It was also strange because he had white hair and red eyes. He was staring at her, just as she was staring at him: so surprised to find anyone else there. They must have stared at each other for a full minute before Zea realized what this meant. She had someone to play with, at last. She smiled and held out her ball at arms length. The boy stared at it and her, unsure what to do. Zea tossed it underhand to him. It was a good throw but instead of catching it he dodged it, letting it bounce off a tree behind him. He looked at the ball then looked back at her incredulously. He spoke his voice surprisingly deep for one so young.


“Why did you throw that at me?”


Zea stared at him, and his stupidity, perhaps he had thought she was trying to play dodge ball?


“I wasn’t trying to hit you, your supposed to catch it.” She said walking toward the ball.


”Why?”


“It’s a game.”


He looked down at the ball and picked it up. Feeling it’s texture in his hand he tossed it to her, or rather tossed it at her. It was a good shot except it came fast but she still cought it.


“Yeah like that, here”. Zea backed up a little and threw it to him again. This time he did catch it, and after looking at it again he threw it back to her. As they threw the ball back and forth. Zea started talking.


“I’m Zea, what’s your name?”


“…my name is Shim.”


“Sh-Shim?”


“Yes.”


“Cool, I’ve never heard that name before, most people think mine is weird though.”


“I’ve never heard that name before.” Shim answered.


“Well I like it I guess, so do you live around here?”

“My home is in that direction.” He said pausing pointing as he held the ball. “It’s a few days away from here, I’m just staying here with my uncle for a while.”


“Oh.” Zea said obviously disappointed. “My house is back that way” she said pointed past him. "It only takes a few minutes to walk, but my Dad doesn't like me going back here in these woods so it's hard to sneak out sometimes."


Shim nodded solemly. "My uncle would not be particularly pleased himself if he knew how far I have come."


"Blech-I don't see why grown-ups have to be so seriously, serious about being serious, all the time!"


"What?"


"It's seriously boring, they're never happy to be just... happy I wish they would liven up a little, or at least stop telling me to grow up."


"You know that we'll have to grow up someday."


"Not me, I might get taller, and have a job and stuff but I'm still gonna be a kid always, right here!" She declared pointing the place where her collar bone dipped.




They played with the ball for awhile and hide and go see in the trees. Then Shim got the idea to climb one. Zea had trouble doing it and she got stuck halfway up too scared to go further and to afraid try and go back down, but Shim helped her up and soon they were almost at the top of the tree.


“You can see everything from up here!” Zea cried staring at the landscape below.


“Look.” Shim said. “You can see the river over there. That’s where my uncle and I are camping.”
“Wow, I didn’t even know there was a river around here- Hey! Look, you can see my house." She tugged at his sleeve and pointed at her brown roof.
He nodded as he looked.


They relaxed for a bit and enjoyed the view. Finally Shim spoke up.


”You know I’ve never really met anyone like you before.”


“What do you mean?”


“Well your… friendly, people aren’t well…friendly to me.”


“Is it because of your eyes..and hair?” Zea asked.


“Yeah…” his eyes fell.


“Well…it's their loss, I don’t have any friends either, nobody likes to hang out with me, cuz they think I’m weird.Actually they think I’m crazy!” She said with a grin on her face.


“You look normal to me.”


“It’s not cuz of the way I look its cuz of the way I act…”


“Like, how?”


“Like a kid I guess, well the other day this new girl came up to me and asked me what I was doing, so I told her I was training my dragon how to fly.”


”So…”


“Well of course she didn’t see her so, she gave me this weird look and asked me 'what dragon?'"


“I pointed at her flying in circled over us but she didn’t even really try to see her there.”


“You have a dragon that you train that…no one else can see?”


“Her name is Elza and she changes her color so it’s hard, but you can see her if you try.”


“I have to try, to see her?”


“Yes it can be very hard to see her.”


“Where is she now?”


Zea squinted her eyes. “She’s flying just below us; I’ll ask her to land here if you want. She’s only about this big, not including her tail.” Zea said spreading her hands carefully to indicate a space about 7 inches wide.


“Yes!” Shim said, obviously enthusiastic about seeing a dragon up close.


Zea lifted her hand out away from her like a falconer calling its bird and trilled a whistled.


Shim felt no breeze and he heard no stirring of wings but, after a few seconds Zea’s arm shook as though something had landed. Smiling, Zea brought her arm back towards her.


Her eyes glinted as she whispered, “Can you see her?”


Shim stared hard at the space above her arm. He squinted his eyes and tried looking at the place in every different way he could thin of, but he couldn’t see anything at all. The silence grew kind of awkward until finally Shim said.


“There isn’t really an Elza is there?”


Zea turned to looked out over the treetops.


“No, I mean, I know that there isn’t really any dragon but,” She looked back at Shim.
“There could be! I like to think, to look at stuff like it were really there.”


She moved her still upright arm, back out away from her and made a motion as though a small dragon had leaped off of it.


“Life is more interesting that way.”


Shim stared at her.


“Is that weird?” She asked and turned away again. “Everybody seems to think so, they say that I’m too old to act like that, like imaginary things really exist, but even when I’m all grown up… I’ll still be like this, I guess, and I don’t plan to change for anyone.”


Shim looked away for a long moment staring at the treetops below them. He looked back at her then, away again. He seemed to make up his mind about something and then turned to look at her.


“I think that that’s their loss, I didn’t have any friends either but...” Shim pulled something from around his neck, a necklace. It had only one stone on a plain leather cord but the stone was beautiful, it was shaped like a fang, but it was a deep red. Like the same color of Shim's eyes.


“...now we can both have one." He held out the necklace to her. Zea was surprised.


“Are you… giving it to me?” she asked.


Shim nodded.


“If I give it to you and you take it, then it means that we’ll always be friends, from now on no matter what.” Shim said holding it out to her.


Zea liked the sound of that. She took the necklace, and put it around her neck.
She smiled at her new friend. Her real friend.

He smiled back. It was the first time she had seen him smile, it was warm and sweet and happy, even though the rest of the time his face seemed so… serious.

“Oh”. Zea said. “I don’t have anything to give you!”


“You don’t have to give me anything, the necklace counts for the both of us!”


“I know but, I want to give you something… something that you can always have with you…like I wear this necklace, so you’ll always know I’m your friend.” She sighed. “But I don’t have anything…” she thought for a moment. “I can give you my ball…but that’s not really anything special, not like this…” she said indicating the necklace.


"The ball is special. I've never seen one like it and... It was the first thing we played with together."


"Your right! Ok from now on the ball is yours." She said pulling it from her pocket she handed it to him.


"I'll treasure it always." he declared awarding her another smile. He stuffed it in his own pocket. "By the way," he said his eyes roving the treetops, "Elza's flying is very...well trained."


Zea grinned.


"Thankyou!"


They pretended to watch the dragon in silence, an idea came into Zea's head.


"I know, I'll give you Elza!"


"What do you mean, give her?"


"From now on, Elza is your dragon, she'll stay with you wherever you are, and if you get into trouble she'll protect you!"

Shim hesitated a moment, then smiled and said, "Thank you, I’ll take good care of her."


“She doesn't really need you to take care of her, she eats sunlight and drinks moonlight, and she can watch out for herself, her training is complete now so she’ ready for a real master.”


“I never thought that I would become a dragon master.” He exclaimed smiling.