THE FOURTH REALM: GREEN — Thank you for welcoming me
When she reached the assembly, the dragons were arguing as if not a single day had passed. Skyblue approached the official.
“My name is Skyblue. I don’t have a complaint.”
The dragon looked up. Once again, he asked her to repeat her name and, in almost the same words as before, announced this news to the rest of the group.
Once again, the conversations stopped. Once again, the dragons gathered around her.
Skyblue felt the urge to shrink into herself. She recognized it, breathed, and looked up.
She studied them one by one. They were no longer merely mouths laughing at her name. There was weariness in some faces, curiosity in others. One seemed to speak louder whenever anyone stopped paying attention to him. Another dragon moved forward and back, as if afraid of being left outside the circle. Skyblue knew that fear.
She wondered how she would respond if this were the first time she had seen dragons around her, if she could meet them without bringing the mockery of her childhood into the encounter.
“Thank you for coming to welcome me, all of you,” she said.
The dragons were taken aback. They searched her voice for mockery and found none.
“I’ve just come a very long way. I’m glad to meet you. You know my name now; I’d like to know yours.”
There was an awkward silence. Then one answered. Skyblue repeated his name to remember it and greeted him. Another answered. Gradually, they stopped all talking at once.
Before anyone could point out her blue scales, she showed them herself.
“These appeared during my journey. They still surprise me. Look what they do with the light.”
She turned a little. Sunlight brushed the scales, and their reflections changed color. A murmur of admiration rose.
One wanted to know where she had been; another asked whether the dwarves were as people said. Skyblue answered patiently. When she didn’t know something, she said so.
After a while, one of the female dragons said:
“You’re like the creatures who live in the meadows of the Green Realm. You should go there.”
At another time, Skyblue would have heard an invitation to leave in those words. Now it seemed the dragon had just found a place for her.
“Perhaps I will later. For now, I’d like to get to know you. I’ve talked a lot about my adventures, but I haven’t heard any of yours.”
A dragon stepped forward.
“Come to my home when you have time,” she said. “My son says he wants to travel to strange lands. Talking to you might do him some good.”
Skyblue was touched by the invitation. She remembered all the times the adults in her village had advised keeping their children away from her.
She stayed for a while in that cold part of the Green Realm. Soon she had more invitations than she could accept. She told them about her time among the dwarves, what she had seen among the laces, the terrible and beautiful forms of fire. She also listened to stories with no journeys or marvels in them. Every life held a difficulty, a joy, or a decision she knew nothing about.
She began to venture beyond the area assigned to the dragons. At first, creatures of other species moved away when they saw her. Skyblue greeted them and went on her way. Now and then, a look still stirred the urge to reject someone before they could reject her. Then she found her inner warmth and offered another smile.
In time, some stopped moving away. Then came shy greetings, brief questions, a smile that lasted a little longer.