Random stories

Gift Giver

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Soft though the footsteps were, they didn’t go unnoticed. A warning draft of hot air washed over the small human girl, but she carried on walking her small yet deliberate steps further into the cavern, not taking any heed of the potential danger that lay ahead of her.

She wasn’t in danger though. Gifted at birth with an extraordinary sense of all living beings’ intentions and more than a little precognition, she was assured of her own safe passage; creatures as old as this honed patience like the greatest of smiths honed their blades, and she saw nothing untoward in her immediate future.

The rush of inhalation from further within sent a prickle down her spine as she knew the creature was smelling her. Sensing her. Tasting her intent, her presence, her soul. The feeling quickly passed though as her intentions were true, if odd.

She carried herself with the air of someone who had no graces, but whose grace would most assuredly give her last breath of air to one who needed it more than herself.

Her name was Alice, a diminutive human child not past her first decade, and yet here she stood before a creature such as this, without fear, without want or need or desire, past that of which to give a gift. No expectations, no promise or even consideration of anything in return. Just a gift.

A gift for an Elder Dragon, with many thousands of times the years she had spent alive and taller than a hundred of the tallest of horses.

Her eyes turned upwards, looking across the vastness of the dragon as he surveyed the tiny speck in front of him from the illuminated centre of his seemingly endless cavern, resting upon the treasure of his millennia. Eyes glowing gold with the reflection of his bedding, a hint of something, some emotion or feeling, lurking in their depths.

His hearing clearly caught it, despite the distance and the daintiness of its source, despite Alice speaking with no extraneous volume and no echo coming from around her. Her gentle voice drifted over to the dragon saying simply,

“I brought you a coin Mister Dragon.”

A coin. A single coin. A coin to compare to the treasuries of a hundred or a thousand or even more kingdoms. A coin of silver, hardly precious even by itself. But a coin freely given.

Few knew that dragons could speak to all, and none currently living had heard it. He had no reason to change that. No justification, no desire as such and yet… he felt compelled to reply.

He tasted his own words before a sound was uttered. He tasted the air around him and the soul of the tiny creature before him.

She wanted nothing in return.

No exchange.

No favour or promise of one, or even acknowledgement.

She just wanted to give him a gift. A gift given freely. The type of gift he never received, not once.

Alice stood patiently, with seemingly all the time in the world, yet with a lifespan akin to a dandelion seed carried in a summer’s breeze. She felt no fear, no awe, no wonder. She crouched down and carefully laid the single coin down upon the ground, with the delicate touch that someone might place a glass cut of crystal upon a marble surface. As she stood, she began to feel a tickle at the edge of her mind. A soft caress across her mindscape, a feeling entirely foreign and yet not unwelcome to her.

The tickle began to grow, and then around her head echoed the most ethereal and yet haunting voice that she could barely comprehend could come from anyone or anything.

The last thing she remembered, etched into her mind and her memory forevermore. The last thing she would hear from the cavern of the Elder Dragon. The last thing before her world turned black was simply,

G̸͕̻͍͙͋̑͒î̵̳̆̊̆f̶̡̛̛͕ṯ̴͇͕̽̂ ̷͕̮͗̐G̸̡͈̲̀̐i̶͕͇͈̲͐v̸̲͔̠̄͐̏̏e̴͍̝̝͖͐̽r̶̰̃̊̚͠

Edit: I wrote a part 2 people someone asked for it :), reddit isn’t wanting to play for linking though, but it’s in the comments below

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Submitted by posh-u on Sun, Jun 11, 2023 to /r/WritingPrompts/

The prompt

Whenever you visit the dragon's lair, you give some treasure instead of taking some. People think you are crazy for doing this.