If you’re new to The Môrdreigiau Chronicles, welcome! You might find the Glossary helpful for some of these words. Colons indicate the sea dragon’s thought communications.
Previously, Elpis was rather rudely rejected by Geraint, was foiled by a wishing bridge and found some poisonous red flowers. Meanwhile, her brother Llallogan and Geraint are searching for said flowers and headed for the giant kelp forest…
Read Part 1 / All Parts of “They Were Shining“
Elpis had never been a very adventurous draig môr. She made her older brother Llallogan take part in the winter solstice ritual, delivering Goddess cakes to the ancestral barrow and pretended to be sick when he grew too old to do it. A cousin represented the family instead.
She’d never left the caer1, being presented to the last prophet in the palace when she came of age, as had been done for generations.
Sometimes, she longed to leave Caer Morgana, but the strange patterns and the sheer wildness of what peered in through the translucent membrane that protected the caer, frightened her.
And yet, here she was, passing through the palace gate. She knew what was supposed to happen: she would metamorphose from her human form into a sleek sea dragon. Would it hurt?
Her carefully collected and held poisonous red flowers flew out of her hands, lifted by a swirl of thousands of minuscule bubbles. She glimpsed an arc of golden light that surrounded her, the points of the compass rose passing through her centre.
Then the iridescent bubbles blinded her.
When she could see again, in the short sealock between the caer and the open ocean, she’d transformed into a draig môr.
She gazed down at herself. Her apricot robe had transformed into scales of … well, if she had been to the surface, she would know her scales reflected not just the deep oranges of a stormy sunrise but its vibrant pinks and deep blue-purples.
Instead, she thought her scales looked rather startlingly pretty.
She gathered the scattered red flowers. :Brother,: she called out to Llallogan. :Just where is the giant kelp forest?:
He told her. Elpis never left the caer, after all.
She confidently set off.
Here’s that link to the short story about the winter solstice ritual, some generations after this lot (yes, I really really need to do a timeline):
Also, the title comes from an ABBA lyric (that should be no surprise) which encapsulated Elpis’ feeling. Her name means ‘hope’ by the way.
This is a response to the Smogust Story Hoard writing challenge by Bradley Ramsey and The Circus Dragon for the month of August. And yes, as it often happens with these month long challenges (often being precisely once before), it’s going to be a serial.
Read Part 1 / All Parts of “They Were Shining“
longtime readers might have wondered. This story pre-dates Maeve who lived for generations outside the caer. You can meet her in “A River Trembles” (and the upcoming prequel, apparently.)