Artemis Part 1

10-year-old Mathew was in his grandmother’s garden. The boy was vigorously digging up the beets his grand had sent him out to get for supper. A few nice fat beets were growing next to grand’s Mugwort patch and when he tried to pull them out the roots of the Mugwort would not release the large bulbs. He had been told not to disturb Grand’s patch of Mugwort, but if he just pulled the beets away from the plants that shouldn’t bother the patch. He attacked the tangled roots and pulled as hard as he could and 3 large beets came lose so quickly, he fell over backwards and landed hard on his bottom from the sudden release. Matt stood up and brushed the dirt off his pants and stepped back to the hole he had created and picked up his hard, earned beets. How ever the beets were still tangled in the Mugwort roots along with a bright iridescent oval, egg shaped object. Matt could not take his eyes off the shining object. Even coated in dirt and roots it was beautiful. He knelt down and gently pulled the tangled roots off the beets and the shining object. He put the beets in the basket that grand had made just for him. He was so excited that he scooped up the object and ran into the house to show his grandmother, leaving his basket behind.

As the egg lay in his hands, it began to wobble back and forth. He was so startled he nearly dropped it. Grand quickly cupped her hands under his.

“Careful Matty, don’t drop it!” She sighed, “It’s much sooner than I had planned but you’ve found it now so there’s no going back.”

Matt looked up into her eyes, “What do you mean grand, it’s sooner than you planned?”

She sighed very deeply and her eyes sparkling with tears. “It’s too soon to tell you the whole truth my sweet, sweet boy.”

Matt looked up at her. “Grand, you’re crying.”

The distress in his voice snapped Rebedita out of her sorrow. She forced herself to smile. She had raised Mathew for this day; the day he would inherit his legacy. Everything had to be just right. The egg had to be held and protected and both had to be raised to be kind and gently. There could be no dark influences in these two.

Matt whispered “Grand, what is it?” As he stared at the object.

“It’s a dragon Matty. It’s your dragon.” She smiled at him with that special smile she used when she told him how much she loved him.

Then Matt smiled back and laughed. “Come on grand, you’re telling me another story aren’t you.”

Matt thought his grand was the most interesting person in the world, she was a professor of mythological studies at the university. She told Matt all kinds of magical stories. He had always thought those stories were just make believe. Now he looked at his grand and back at the wobbling egg. It couldn’t really be a dragon’s egg. Matt waited for his grand to say something but she just kept smiling down at him her hands still gently cradling his hands and the egg.

She had kept this egg hidden for all these years; she had not planned for Matt to find the egg for several more years.

Rebedita had hidden the egg under a patch of carefully cultivated Mugwort which would ward off all evil. The last thing she had suspected was that Matty would accidently dig it up.

The shell gave off a sharp crackling sound, then POP! A section fell off and a tiny blue-green scaly hand stuck out. Then the shell cracked and popped again. This time a tail swept out and a set of back legs kicked against the shell. The back legs pushed against the remaining shell and a sleek neck and tiny, beautiful equine head emerged from the last of the shell.

“Quickly Matty, talk to him.” Grand said.

“What do I say?” Matt asked.

“Just start by telling him your name.” Grand pulled her hands away and stepped back.

Matt looked down at the small creature in his hands. “Hi, I’m Mathew.”

The small dragon tilted its head and looked up at Matt and crooned. Matt smiled back. “Is he trying to talk to me?” He asked his grand.

“Yes, keep talking.” 

“Grand, how do you know he’s a boy?” Matt asked.

“It’s his coloring, he’s green and blue. Also, his mother told me the egg would be a boy.”

Matt looked up at his grand in amazement. “His mother told you?”

Rebedita smiled, “Yes, Matty, his mother told me. And she also told me that you would be his human companion” Grand sighed. “There’s so much I need to tell you and now, there may not be enough time. I had planned to tell you before the egg hatched so you’d be prepared. But there’s nothing we can do about that now. We just have to do the best we can.”

Matt looked at the small dragon. “I guess we’ll both have to do the best we can.” Matt pulled his hands closer to his body, cradling the small creature and it increased its crooning. “Everyone calls me Matt. Well, everyone except for Grand, she calls me Matty. Do you have a name?”

The little dragon crooned and rubbed its head against Matt’s chest. Suddenly Matt felt waves of hunger rush through his body.

“Grand,” Matt gasp, “I think he’s hungry.”

“Well,” Grand said. “I better get something for him to eat. He’ll reveal his name in time.”

Matt continued to talk gently to the small dragonette.

Matt fed the dragon listening carefully to Grand’s instructions while she quickly prepared a special meal. She said it would ensure that the small dragon grew up to be gentle. She had hurried out to the garden and brought back some the young tender Mugwort stalks. She quickly cooked up the stalks with some chicken she had ready for their dinner and gave Matt a pair of blunt ended tweezers. She then showed him how to pick up a small amount of the baby dragon food and feed the small dragon like a mother bird would feed her young.

It took a little bit of coaching but once the baby understood the process he began to grab and ravenously gulped down all the food Matt offered him.

The small dragon’s belly bulged, full of food and he began weaving almost drunkenly in Matt’s hand. Matt cradled the baby to him and spoke softly to the baby about how beautiful he was. Feelings of gratitude and love flooded through Matt’s chest.

Matt looked up at Grand, “Is he trying to talk to me?”

Grand smiled. “Yes, when they are young they mostly just communicate feelings. What is he feeling right now?”

“He’s thankful and feels love.” Matt told her. “And he’s very sleepy.” he mumbled.

“That’s good. We want him to feel love in return and to feel safe as well.” She smiled. “Tell him he is safe and that you’ll protect him.”

“Grand! How do you know all of this?” Matt asked around a big yawn, looking up at her in total amazement.

“That’s a story for another day my little Matty.” Whispered Rebedita as she watched her sweet little boy fall asleep with the small dragonet in his arms.

 

Artemis part 2

Recap from Artemis part 1; Ten year old Matt finds the dragon egg in his grand’s garden and it hatches. He is now responsible for raising this small dragon and his Grand, Rebedita, is teaching him how.

 

Matt woke up the next morning to something walking around in circles on his chest. He sat up so quickly that he nearly dumped the little dragon onto the floor. The dragonet cocked his head and purred at Matt. Waves of hunger washed over the boy. Matt smiled as the memory of finding the egg and the small dragon hatching suddenly returned. Here he was with this diminutive dragon clinging to the front of his night shirt and that little dragon was now his responsibility.

“Okay, so you’re hungry?” Matt cooed.

The little dragon kicked up and down with his back feet while he clung to the front of  Matt’s shirt with his forearms. The little dragon let go of the front of the boy’s night shirt and took off flying toward the kitchen. Matt’s eyes nearly burst from his head as he jumped out of bed tripping over the tangle of blankets around his legs. He ran to catch up with the small dragon.

“Grand! Grand! He flew?” Matt yelled as he ran into the kitchen.

Rebedita turned to watch Matt slide to a stop just in time to miss crashing into the kitchen table.

She smiled, “Of course he can fly. What did you think the wings were for. Besides if a baby dragon can’t fly they could become something else’s dinner.”

Matt stared at her in shock. “Something would eat him?” he exclaimed.

Grand smile. “Many things could eat him as he is now. But once he learns to breath fire, he’ll be much safer.” Grand turned and placed a bowl of warm mush on the table as Matt stared up at her with eyes wide! “Breathes fire?” he squeaked.

Rebedita laughed. “You feed him first then you get to eat. As he grows, he’ll learn to feed himself but until then you always make sure, he has his food first.” 

Rebedita watched the two young ones interact. She was very surprise with their growing bond. She could feel that bond growing fast and strong. That meant the dark ones would soon feel them too. She had to get them to the sanctuary much sooner than she had planned.

She had hoped for more time to just enjoy being Mattie’s Grandmother before she had to send him away to safety. But she could see that everything was progressing so much faster than any of them had planned.

The question was why? She had hoped to wait until Matt was about 15 before she had to tell him everything. Now she hoped that she had enough time to fill in the basics. She felt a profound sadness wash over her and shook her head. He was still so young for all of this.

Once the baby dragon had filled his little belly he curled up on Matt’s lap and fell asleep. Rebedita told Matt to eat his breakfast. As he ate, he watched Grand pull out a strange device from a cupboard.

“What’s that?” he asked around a mouthful of his own mush.

“Don’t talk with your mouth full dear.” Grand said. “It’s a scale. I want to measure your little guy’s weight. Then we need to monitor how fast he’s growing.” She smiled at Mattie, “Just so you know, he’s going to grow very fast. So, get ready.” She smiled, “It won’t be long before he won’t fit in your lap.”

Rebedita lifted the small dragon from Matt’s lap and gently places him on the scale. She then adds several stones to the other side.

“See Mattie, each stone is marked according to it’s weight. You place stones here until it’s balanced then we calculate your little guy’s weight. Or if you really want to be accurate” She smiled, “his mass; 168 drakeums, not bad.” She nodded.

“What do I need to get ready for?” Matt asked.

Rebedita thought for a moment. “Well, as he grows so will his appetite and that means more frequent feedings and more food. He’ll need more room to sleep; he’ll outgrow your lap and bed in a matter of days if we feed him correctly.  Which will mean he’ll need his own bed very soon. Then he’ll need exercise. You can take him out with you while I teach you to forage for the foods he’ll need, that way he’ll also learn what plants to eat. I’ll come with you to help and keep an eye on both of you.”

Matt looked at her, “Won’t he eat meat? I mean, don’t dragons eat meat?”

Grand smiled at the boy. “Oh yes, as he gets older, he will learn to hunt and eat more and more meat. But right now, he needs baby food and I’ve been adding some ground chicken and egg in with his herb mush.” Rebedita let that sink in. “As he gets older we will need to add more and more meat to his diet. As a growing dragon he’ll eat a great deal. When he’s full grown, he’ll slow down on the number of meals he’ll eat. He’ll eat just as much each meal but less and less often.”

She placed the small dragon back on Mattie’s lap and put the scale back into the cupboard.
“We’ll check his mass every day. To make sure he’s growing properly.”

She got a cup of tea and sat down across the table from Matt. “Mattie, I’ve never told you about your parents, not really.” She stared down into her tea cup. “I will assume, and I’ve told you how dangerous that can be.” Then she chuckled, “that you are probably wondering if they had the special link to dragons that you do. And I can tell you that they both were excellent dragon riders. But when you mother became pregnant with you, they had to come to this part of the planet for her pregnancy and for you to grow properly.” 

Matt stared at her with a quizzical look. “How did they die?” he asked softly.

Grand looked at him sadly, “First, you live here with me because I can shield this place from those we call the dark ones. I can shield my magical aura and that allows me to work out side this property and when you were younger, I could shield you too. But around your 9^thbirthday your aura became too strong for me to shield outside of the homestead. You are only safe right here on this property.” Rebedita waited for Matt to think about what she had just told him.

“Did my mom and dad stay here with you too?” He asked.

“Not a first. They tried to live on their own on their own homestead. But after you were born your mother’s ability to shield you was greatly diminished. Pregnancy can do that until the mother recuperates after birth. Your father took steps to move all of you here, where I could shield all of us. They brought you here right away and had gone back for the rest of their things when the dark ones caught them.”

Matt looked up and could see tears in Grand’s eyes. She took a deep breath. “I never saw them ever again.” She whispered. She sipped some of her tea. “Mattie, you need to know so much and I’m so sorry, I thought I had more time to let you grow up and become ready for all of this but I can’t wait any longer. You need to know how special you are.”

They sat silently for a while then Matt asked, “Grand? Who are the dark ones?”

Rebedita sighed. “That’s hard to explain Mattie. Long ago all dragons and dragon riders worked together. We protected the world from bad people who would do harm to others. We were the keepers of the peace. But something happened and a group of dragons lost their way. Instead of protecting and helping they started to take control. They started by making people their slaves even their riders.” Rebedita thought for a moment. “There are three main continents on our planet. We live on this one and the dark ones have taken over the other.”

What’s on the third continent?” Matt asked.

“That continent is nearly all ice and few people live there, mostly animals that have evolved to survive in the cold climate.” She looked out the window for several minutes while Matt waited patiently. “There are a few dark ones in hiding here on this continent watching to catch any of us off guard. We shield ourselves against them. We have a place that’s shielded where they cannot enter. It’s a very special place. I plan to take you there so you will be safe. It won’t be long before the dark ones learn about you;” She stopped and smiled down at the little sleeping dragon. “And the little one. If they can capture you two, they will turn you.” She didn’t add that if they could not turn the two youngsters, they would destroy them.

Matt looked up quizzically. “Turn us to what?” he asked.

“To a minion of the dark one. You see there is one very powerful dragon that rules them all. He is angry and damaged deep in his heart. Many have tried to reach him to bring him back from the dark but all have failed.”  

Matt stared down at the little dragon; he felt waves of safety and love radiating from the tiny body. The little dragon looked up at Matt, blinking with sleepy sparkling eyes. “Mattie?” he heard a small voice in his mind. Matt smiled and spoke, “Yes, my name is Mattie. Do you a have a name?” he asked out loud, not really expecting an answer.

“Artemis. Me Artemis.” The small dragon’s eyes sparkled. “Artemis hungry, Mattie.”

Matt started to laugh. “Grand, he says his name is Artemis. And he’s hungry again.”

Rebedita smiled sadly, she had even less time than she had feared. She reached out with her mind. “Domhnal, Katriona, its time, wake up and hurry.” I’m going to miss this little boy.  She thought as tears welled up in her eyes.

Rebedita shook the tears off, “Well then, we better get Artemis another meal.” Grand said as she stood up and walked to the far side of the kitchen.

She brought over another bowl of mush and sat down with her chin in her hand. Smiling as she watched the boy feed his dragon. It wasn’t long until the dragonet curled up and fell asleep again.

“Well now, If Artemis is done eating, again. We need to get out and harvest the herbs he’ll need.” She walked over to her sewing table. “Here, this is a carry bag so you can carry Artemis with you.” She slid the strap over Matt’s head and then she carefully positioned the bag so it hung in front of Matt’s chest then gently laid the sleeping dragon in the small hammock that had been lined with a piece of sheep’s wool.

Matt smiled down at the little baby as he stood there waiting for Grand.

“Alright come along, we have work to do.” Grand said.

Rebedita’s homesteaded over five acres and the whole property was shielded. However, the elderly woman knew that the enemy was always probing and that danger was always just beyond her shield.

She was also very worried that she was not completely ready for this. She had small patches of the necessary herbs started around the property in preparation to feed a growing dragonet but she had not yet increased the size of those patches in preparation for this hatching. She might have to forage further and further out to make sure she had all of the necessary ingredients for the little one to develop.

Small dragons’ magical properties developed from the selection of herbs they ate when young. In this little guy’s case, the Mug Wort was the predominant herb. She knew it grew in many places around the property besides her main bed where the egg has been concealed for ten years. But there were a few more herbs that needed to be added to spur the growth of his magical abilities. The use of Artemisia Vulgaris/Mugwort had the main purpose of shaping the small dragon’s personality; sweet, caring, healing, and protective.  Mugwort as it was most commonly known was revered as a healing plant to almost everyone, so the large patch on Rebedita’s property did not raise any suspicions. That plus her area of research and teaching gave her the perfect alibi for raising so many magical herbs. There were some who were suspicious of the old woman’s, witches’ garden, as they called it. But Rebedita laughed at them and said that it was all just old wives’ tales. Besides whenever they were ill, she was the first one they came to. But she knew exactly what the herbs were for and some of the old gossips were not far from the mark.

Rebedita and Matt spent the rest of the day foraging for the herbs that Artemis would need. Matt listened to every word Grand told him. Not only what herbs his little dragon needed but why. Grand and Matt gathered enough herbs for several days of meals. She explained that the little dragon needed to eat every 3 to 4 hours. As he grew his feedings would spread out but he’d eat more and more.

Artemis would wake up and fly around the herb garden and around Matt’s head. Once he landed on Grand’s shoulder, but he looked her in the eye, gave her a chirp and flew back to Matt. As soon as he was tired, he always flew back to Matt and crawled into his nest in the bag.

Artemis had spent a lot of time flying around his and Grand’s heads then landing on the ground. He listened and watching them picking herbs. Suddenly the little dragon started grabbing and eating the herbs raw. Grand laughed.” Well, it will help if he can start eating on his own. But he has a long way to go.” She pulled a container out of her gather bag and handed it to Matt. “Here, give him a snack until we can get all of this back to the house and cleaned.”

Matt found that trying to gather herbs with the baby dragon swinging from a bag around his neck was somewhat clumsy. But it wasn’t much longer until Grand said they had enough for a while.

Back at the house, it felt like it would take forever to get all the herbs sorted and cleaned but finally everything was put away and ready to cook up into baby food.

Matt sat down and fed Artemis nearly a full bowl of mush then the little dragon crawled in his nest and fell asleep again.

As Matt sat at the kitchen table, he realized he was tired and hungry. Grand put a big bowl of stew in front of him. “Your dragon is not the only one that needs to grow.” She smiled.

Matt thought about the many feedings and foraging trips and decided raising a dragon was not easy.

Matt ate his stew and watched the little dragon sleeping on his lap.

Matt felt himself starting to nod off. When suddenly there was a loud whooshing sound outside. The whoomph! Whoomph! Whoomph! was not just loud, Matt could feel it deep inside. He looked up at Grand with wide eyes! “Grand! What is that?”

Rebedita smiled. “That’s my dragon and her mate.”

Grand stood up and walked to the door. She looked back at Matt frozen at the table. “Well, don’t you want to see how big your dragon will get some day?” and she walked out the door.

Matt was breathing in quick short breaths. Grand had a dragon? And her dragon was here?

Very slowly Matt stood up cradling Artemis in his arms. He slowly approached the door leading out to the front of their little house and looked around. He didn’t see anything at first then he looked over to Grand, standing by a tree? No! Not a tree, a leg. Then Matt looked up, and up. The deep lavender dragon lowered her head to look Matt in the eye.

“Hello Mattie.” She heard in his head. “I’m so glad to finally meet you. I’m Katriona. Domhnall and I have been waiting to meet your and Artemis for a very long time.”

Matt stood frozen in place taking in the massive dragon standing in their front yard.

Rebedita looked over at Matt as she hugged the dragon’s leg. “Well, are you going to faint?” she laughed. “You better shut your mouth before a bug flies in.”

Matt shut his mouth and before he could speak another dragon whooshed down to land beside Katriona. As he back winged the buffet of air pushed Matt back a few steps. This dragon was a deep dark blue with lighter blue markings. He held his head high and looked down at Matt. “If you want to see how big your dragonet will get, then you need to look at me.” His voice in Matts head was like thunder then Matt heard him chuckle. “Can I see the little one?” he asked.

Stiff legged Matt walked out toward the two huge dragons and nervously held Artemis out so they could see him. The two adult dragons lowered their heads and purred and warbled deeply, gently touching their huge snouts to the baby’s tiny one. Their vibrations ran through Matt’s body. Suddenly he was over whelmed by a flood of emotion. The adults adored Artemis and him too and a warm smooth snout touched Matt’s check.

Stay tuned for Artemis part 3. Find out what's next in Matthew's journey.  Taurie