Brave Like a Dragon and Hopeful as a Princess

We had to do twice as much work as yesterday. Because of the land spirit that is currently living here, it is now our job and responsibility to clean up after him everyday. But at least he had been kind. He gave Satsu and I a treasure worth remembering.

"Here you are, the both of you deserve it for working after her." The land spirit leaned in and held out his hand. By her he had meant Utma.

Two figures emerged. They weren't toys, but figures. One was a dragon beast while the other was a princess whose hands held close under her chin, as if she was in prayer, or hoping for something.

Satsus eyes widened at the dragon.

"Why? What for?" Satsu asked. The land spirit chuffed.

"As I have observed the both of you working together," the land spirit went on, "being together helps you work harder. You give each other encouragement."

Satsu and I looked at each other, puzzled.

The land spirit laughed once more and then proceeded to explain again.

"These two figures came from an old myth, a folks tale from the gods in the spirit world. The dragon resembles being strong, carefree, and has courage. The princess you see here is in hope. She is also strong, and brings everyone guidance." The land spirit grew into a more serious tone. " Together the princess rides this dragon, and together they help the land. At first she encountered the dragon he wasn't in his greatest spirits," The land spirit looked up at Satsu, and then placed his eyes steadily forward. "Yet the princess had come along unexpectedly not knowing that she was great. She had just come into this new world, meeting the dragon. At first the dragon was filled with sorrow and misplace meant. Yet the princess had come along and had given him courage. And together they worked, and helped each other more and more, even today." The land spirit fixed his eyes upon me.

"The both of you act good together, and you reminded me of this tale. I listened to it when I was very young... It brings back much memory. And even the both of you are helping me. That is why I told Utma not to worry. The spirit had looked down with hopeful, yet steady eyes.

"Why? How are we helping you?" Satsu asked.

"Because," The land spirit went on, " The both of you had made me feel welcome. There was a sense of happiness under this roof. It had been a long time since I encountered someone being happy, and I too began to feel happy. I am a land spirit, and it is hard to gain happiness. Because you are working all day, you do feel good. But it is very hard to be happy for some reason." The land spirit stood up from his knees, and told us good work. And we had left early. I thanked him, and so did Satsu.

"No, the both of you, I should tell thank you." The land spirit smiled and then shut the door as we walked out.

Satsu and I walked to our rooms and placed the figures on top of both of our dressers, beside our mats.

Satsus eyes lay steadily on his dragon as I walked in.

" I am a dragon aren't I?" Said Satsu.

I nodded. "Yes."

Satsu grimaced and then sat down, leaning his head against the wall, closing his eyes.

"You know, dragons are cool... I like them. But I'm not obsessed with them." He said.

I laughed as I sat down in front of him.

"What?" He started to chuckle too.

"You always have to say that you don't really like something when you obviously like something. You always do that." I said.

Satsu looked at me with his eyes that glistened.

"Well..." He looked down, tracing his figure across the straw flooring.

"Sometimes... I really can be a dragon. I guess." He looked up at me nervously.

"What- Really?" I said excitedly and eager to know more. "Show me!"

"I kind of can't right now." Satsu looked back down at his feet again. I started to feel bad.

"Why?" I asked. He looked up at the ceiling.

"Because Utma stopped me. I'm not aloud to turn into anything. I wasn't even sure that what I turned into was a dragon. Utma just told me that it was a side of me that I was aloud to never show. Even though it was a side of me when I actually felt good. And free." Satsus eyes had started to look down, and droop even more with sadness.

"Then let's go." I said. I held out my hand to him. He looked at me completely shocked.

"What. No Eyra, I can't. I just can't." He cried.

"No. Let's go. I know that you have it in you." I insisted. My hand was still reaching out to him.

He held on to it.

And we got up at ran upstairs. We had run, passing all of the spirits and running past them. Some looked over and gasped in shock because of how fast we were. I didn't care. It was time for Satsu to be what he really is, and to become what he wanted to be.

We ran outside the front doors and jumped down the stone steps. Satsu almost tripped but I picked him up. We ran into the largest field of grass. It had grown longer since then.

"Okay how do you feel?" I asked.

"I feel like a helpless baby bird." He joked.

"Seriously Satsu. Really!" I laughed a bit, but I was still serious.

I held his hand.

He jumped, but then eventually ignored it. We both stood there to see what happens.

Nothing happened.

We didn't know what we could do. I tried to do everything. We got excited. Played tag. We even tried to fly a kite that was made out of straw. It still hadn't worked.

We sat down in the field and just lied there. Satsu looked up at the night sky.

"Look at how the stars shine for us." Satsu said unexpectedly after failing multiple times for him to turn into his true form.

"It is rather beautiful." I said. Satsu looked really happy, and at ease.

"I heard another folks tail. One time there were people of the stars." He went on, "and each of them lived on their own star. I think that most of them were women or something. But they all sat there waiting for someone." Satsu started to pluck off some grass. "And they always waited. But no one came. Until one-day comets flew right passed their stars. They jumped. They looked out to find what the comets were. One woman saw one comet land on another star. And another comet flew onto another star. She was beginning to look worried. Eventually all of the comets landed on every star but hers." Satsu looked and his eyes traced the stars. The starlight bounced back onto his eyes causing them to glisten. "She watched from afar. The comets were guys I guess. Men. And they all hugged the women who lived on stars. It looked like it was the star women's favorite comet men. The one who had been alone looked up into space, wondering where her comet may be. She started to get even more worried. She knew that she had met her comet man before, but he went out into a journey. But he never came back. So she stayed there all alone while all of the other people on the other stars had family's." Satsu said.

Tears started to form up from under my eyes. And one by one they had started to fall.

"N-no don't cry! Eyra don't..." Satsu crawled over to me. I started to cry even harder.

"That was really sad," My voice muffled, "don't tell me a story like that again." I cried.

Satsu looked very worried.

"Okay I promise. Eyra I won't leave you. Even if you do leave I won't forget about you." He Said.

The tears started to dry up.

"Let's go inside. I'll try to become a dragon, but until then we should go." Satsu stood up and held out his hand to me. I grabbed his and helped me up.

We walked back up the steps into the large house, and the doors shut loudly once we went in.

Both of our beads that we wore on our wrists were violently flashing. We sensed that we were in trouble.