Chapter 2: Curiosity

Aeris lay quietly on her mattress staring at the book lying in front of her. She had been staring at the same page for what felt like hours, and she still could not even begin to explain the page’s contents. No matter how hard she tried to focus on the pages in front of her, her mind kept drifting back to that night, the night when she lost all self-control and confronted the Everfields.

After the outburst at the garden party a few days ago, Master Aaron hadn’t spoken on whether or not he had managed to repair the damage, but he hadn’t been in a good mood since. Aeris tried asking Maggie how things were going, but the response was always “Not now, Aeris. Lord Strauss just needs time to cool down.”

He had her confined to her room for the last few days and forbade anyone from letting her out except to go to relieve herself. Even then, she was only let out at certain times. When she was fed, she received meat scraps and bread instead of her favorite meals. Being cooped up in her room, she felt as if she were losing her mind, but she knew better than to complain.

She couldn’t understand it. Everything was going so well. Why did she lash out like that? She felt so proud of how she reacted. How could she feel so proud knowing that she had done something so selfish and horrible? Was it because they insulted her? But she had been insulted before. She had even been called worse things than “half-breed”. Even some of the staff at the estate gave her dark looks and talked about her when she wasn’t in the room. Once a drunken noble referred to her as “a flying gecko that talked back.” Everyone in the room heard him and laughed, and it hurt her feelings greatly. Worse still, Master Aaron couldn’t do anything about it because of how well-connected the man was, so she spent the rest of that night in the corner hiding her face behind her wing. Another time a noblewoman yelled at Master Aaron because he brought his “stinking, filthy beast” into her home, and Aeris was forced to spend the rest of the evening outside.

But then what was it that pushed her over the edge? Even thinking about it now, a low growl escaped her.

I would do it again. Someone needed to tell those pompous bastards off.

Aeris shook her head and blinked, surprised at her behavior. She stuck her nose back in her book. Another thing that bothered her was what the Everfields said about her being a half-breed.

It wasn’t the first time someone questioned her origins. It happened quite a lot. Just about everyone Master Aaron introduced her to wanted to know where she came from. Every time, she had to put up with the disappointment in their faces when her master said he didn’t know.

Well, she was going to know. The next time someone dared to call her a halfbreed, she would have a response for them. She had spent the last few days reading all the books on dragons she could find in her master’s study. There was a surprisingly large amount of books. Unfortunately, none of the books she read had any reliable information.

The soft creaking of the door snapped Aeris out of her thoughts. She looked up to see Maggie entering the room. “Hello, Maggie,” she said, smiling cheerfully. “What are you doing here?”

Maggie straightened her clothes although they were already neat. “I just wanted to see if you wanted to talk.”

Aeris tilted her head. “Talk about what?”

“You know, anything that may or may not be bothering you,” Maggie replied, nonchalantly. She walked over to the shelf and picked things up and put them down immediately as if it were an exercise. Eventually, she just threw hands in the air and said, “Oh, I can’t do this. I noticed you’ve been quiet ever since you came back from that party. I heard about what happened.” Aeris opened her mouth to protest, but Maggie waggled a finger at her. “And don’t you dare say nothing is wrong. You and Lord Strauss have been in a foul mood ever since you came back.”

Aeris hung her head in shame. “I don’t know what happened. I just couldn’t take it anymore. The words starting pouring out of me, and I couldn’t stop. And she was carrying a purse made of dragon scales! Who does that?”

“I think I know what happened. You were already in a foul mood from being cooped up in your room all day, forced to take two baths so close together, and you missed a meal. For a human that’s enough to make them more than a little irritable. And I doubt a dragon would feel any better,” Maggie sat on the mattress next to her, “But Aeris, you don’t need to keep all of your feelings bottled up like that. If you need to talk, don’t be afraid to say so.”

“But I don’t want Master Aaron worrying —”

“That is no excuse to shut yourself off from everyone else. I know you want to try and make things easier for Master Aaron, but hiding things from him is only going to make things worse later on. Now if you’re set on keeping things quiet, you can always tell me, okay?”

Aeris smiled and nodded. Maggie always knew the right things to say to cheer her up. It was nice to know there was someone to confide in. She turned back to her book, confident she could focus on its contents.

“Aeris?”

“Yes, Maggie?”

“Where did you get that book?”

Aeris stiffened. “Oh, you mean this book? I…took it from Master Aaron’s study.”

Although she was forbidden to leave her room, the door wasn’t locked because she knew better than to go outside when she was told not to. Over the years, she learned that the only thing she really had to worry about was getting caught.

Maggie stood up staring at Aeris in shock. “How did you even get inside the house without anyone noticing you?”

“That’s easy,” Aeris said proudly. “There’s a secret passage in the side of the house. I just sneak in through there.”

Maggie sighed heavily. “You silly dragon, Linda has been driving us all crazy claiming there’s a rat living in the walls. We’ve been setting traps for months and wondering why we haven’t caught anything.” Aeris began laughing but quickly stopped when she saw the serious look on Maggie’s face. “Now what’s this about a secret passage? How did you even find it? And why is this the first time I’m hearing of it?”

Aeris curled into a ball, her pride slowly leaving her. “I just happened to find it, playing in the garden one day. I didn’t say anything because I knew you would get mad, and I worried you would tell Master Aaron.”

Maggie rubbed her temple. “Aeris, I would not tell on you. But you can’t go sneaking around like that. Lord Strauss would be furious if he found out. Promise me the next time you need a book, you’ll ask me to get it for you.”

“But how can I tell you which book to get if I’ve never read it?”

“I don’t know. But you can’t go breaking into the house like that, you have no idea how much trouble you’ll be in if someone catches you. Lord Strauss is unhappy enough with you as it is. What if he came in and saw you with that?”

Aeris dropped her head. “I’m sorry, Maggie. I just wanted something to do, I didn’t mean for anyone to get in trouble.”

“It’s fine but from now on, no more sneaking into the study. Now if anyone asks, tell them I gave you the book. We weren’t told not to bring you things to do, so it should be fine. What are you reading anyway?”

Aeris moved a claw over the book. She looked everywhere except Maggie’s eyes. “N-Nothing interesting. Just a story about dragons.”

The look Maggie’s face showed she wasn’t buying it. “Aeris, you hate stories about dragons. You don’t like how the dragons are always stealing things and killing people.”

“It’s not fair!” Aeris whined. “They always make dragons sound like monsters and everyone cheers when someone kills them and—” she snapped her muzzle shut realizing she was proving Maggie’s point.

The woman chuckled. “Aeris, you are a terrible liar.”

Aeris’ mouth dropped open in mock outrage. “I certainly am not!”

“Aeris, you really shouldn’t take advice on lying from the stories you read. They want you to know the character is lying.”

“Oh. Right.” Her stomach tightened as Maggie looked at the small pile of books on the table. Aeris couldn’t believe she had forgotten them. What if Master Aaron had come in and seen them?

Maggie snatched the book on top of the pile and read the cover aloud, “Calculus: Early Transcendentals? Aeris, how did…where did…you mean, understand this?”

Aeris sank into the mattress. “At first I didn’t get much of it, but it mentioned this thing called al‑gee-bra, so I read a book about that. Afterward, the book made a lot more sense.”

Margret stared at the dragon wide-eyed. “You mean algebra? Aeris, how long have you been reading these types of books?”

Aeris found herself unable to look Maggie in the eye. “I don’t really know—”

“How long!?”

“A-A few months,” Aeris said, quickly, shrinking further into a corner of the mattress. She had no idea what she had done to upset Maggie this badly. It was just a book. And Maggie was the one who taught her to read. Maggie’s face was turning pink with worry. First Master Aaron, now Maggie. Why was she upsetting everyone lately?

“A few months—oh, heavens.” Maggie began pacing around the room. She kept mumbling things under her breath. Aeris couldn’t make out what she was saying and was too frightened to ask. Maggie finally turned to face the dragon. “Aeris, how many of these books have you read?”

“I don’t know, I never counted them. I think that is the last one.”

Maggie didn’t look pleased with the news. “Nothing to do about that I suppose.” Maggie quickly scooped up the books into her arms, snatched up the one Aeris was reading and rushed towards the door. “I’m going to put these away. You stay here and don’t talk to anyone.”

Aeris stared at the door, unmoving. She was too scared to even breathe. Her mind swam with theories about why Maggie would be so upset about her reading.

The books were different than what she was used to reading. Most of the books she had read contained stories full of drama, suspense, and intrigue, but these books contained no stories at all. There were no characters, no plot, no beginning, and no end, yet Aeris was fascinated by the complicated explanations and various diagrams. On more than one occasion she attempted to replicate what she saw in the books, but she had no idea how to write and the scratches she made in the dirt floor resembled just that, scratches. She looked down at her latest attempt to draw something the book described as a square. The books described the shape as having sides of equal size, but the lines she drew were uneven and crooked. Aeris used her tail to brush away her drawings. Maggie was already upset, no point in making it worse.

Eventually, Maggie returned, looking once over her shoulder before closing the door. She began straightening her clothes which were already neat and fixing her red hair which didn’t require straightening. Aeris sat up straight, waiting for Maggie to notice her. The fact that Maggie remained silent for long was worrying. It usually meant she was trying to calm herself down enough to speak without yelling.

Finally, Aeris decided she couldn’t take the silence any longer. “Maggie?”

“Aeris, I’m sorry I yelled at you. I didn’t mean to scare you,” Margret said, her calmness reflected in her voice and posture. “But we discussed this before: some people would be very upset to see a dragon reading. They would be even more upset to see a dragon learning things such as physics or calculus. People aren’t used to seeing that kind of thing. It’s not really considered normal for a dragon to want to learn about those things.”

“But what’s wrong with learning those things?” Aeris asked cautiously.

“There’s nothing wrong with it,” Maggie replied in the same calm tone, “It’s just that kind of knowledge is considered a very powerful thing, and dragons are already powerful enough.”

“So everyone’s happy as long as dragons remain dumb beasts?” Aeris asked, feeling her anger rise as the conversation with the Everfields entered her mind.

Maggie walked over to the mattress and sat down next to Aeris. “No, no. I’m not saying that. I’m saying with that kind of knowledge, you can do very dangerous things.”

Aeris slowly nodded. It sort of made sense. Dragons were already capable of terrible things, and those books allowed them to do even more. But humans were also capable of terrible things; she knew that much from the history books and stories she read. Why were humans allowed to further their knowledge but not dragons? She decided to keep her questions to herself. Maggie already seemed uncomfortable with the situation.

The two sat in silence for several minutes. Aeris stared at the window while Maggie adjusted her blouse again. The longer Aeris sat there, the more she thought about what Maggie said. Dragons didn’t read; it was considered normal. Normal. The very word seemed to irritate her. There was nothing normal about her, yet she was supposed to act the way everyone expected her to. Mrs. Everfield’s words echoed in her mind: “It’s in their nature to be rude, dear. You can’t expect too much from them.” The mixed feeling of anger and regret she felt that night began to resurface.

Maggie broke the silence and Aeris’ concentration. “Aeris, I noticed you took another book called The History of Dragons. May I ask why?”

Aeris ducked her head under her wing to hide her sudden embarrassment. “I don’t know what I am,” she mumbled.

“I’m sorry, what?”

“I don’t know what I am,” Aeris repeated louder.

“Aeris, honey, you’re a dragon what else could you be?” Maggie responded, chuckling.

That did it. The feelings Aeris was trying to force down shot through her defenses. She couldn’t help it when Maggie talked about something that mattered to her as if it weren’t a big deal. She felt the same way she did back at the party: As if someone had taken over her body and all she could do was watch as they manipulated her as they saw fit.

“That’s not what I meant,” Aeris said, angrily jumping to her feet. “I know I’m a dragon, but that’s all. I don’t know where I came from or what species I am or what happened to my parents. I don’t know anything about myself. Why am I so different? Why am I a different color than other dragons? Why can’t I breathe fire?” Aeris began pacing around the room. She couldn’t stop talking. It was as if she was an open window and nothing could close it. She felt consumed by her anger and confusion. Worse still, she didn’t care who heard her or what they thought of it; she was going to get this off her mind and dammit they were going to listen. “I’m sick of it! I’m sick of not having an answer when asked ‘what are you?’ and I’m sick of people looking at me strangely or calling me a half-breed because I don’t know where I came from! Even Master Aaron has been lying to me! Why doesn’t anyone want me to know what I am?” Aeris stood in the middle of her room breathing heavily.

Maggie sat there staring as if she had just seen Aeris for the first time. She silently adjusted her clothes and stood up, not once taking her eyes off the dragon.

Aeris felt the emotion slowly drain from her body and replaced with fear. What was Maggie going to do to her? Was she going to yell at her? Was she going to strike her?

Maggie slowly crossed the room to where Aeris stood. Without warning, she fell to her knees and wrapped her arms around Aeris’ neck, embracing Aeris so tightly she found it difficult to breathe.

“I’m so sorry, Aeris,” Maggie said, her voice muffled from being buried in Aeris’ scales. Even though her voice was muffled, Aeris could tell she was crying. “I don’t have any answers for you. I don’t know why you’re so different and I can’t tell you where you came from because I honestly don’t know. But you know what”—she broke away to look Aeris in the eye. Aeris saw Maggie’s brown eyes had become bloodshot from crying—“I can’t answer your questions but I’m can help you find them. Wait right here. I’m going to get some more books from the study and see if we can’t figure this out.”

“But what if someone sees you?”

“You let me worry about that,” Maggie replied.

Aeris slowly stood and followed. She wasn’t supposed to leave her room, but she felt almost compelled to follow Maggie. This was her chance to find the answers she had been looking for.

Other than her bi-monthly break-ins, Aeris hardly ever set foot inside, even as a dragonling. She was still allowed inside, but only supervised and with Master Aaron’s permission. Master Aaron always told her it was because human homes weren’t designed with dragons in mind, and she might break something. Of course, this didn’t stop Master Aaron from sneaking Aeris into his bedroom at night when they were younger. Once, her curiosity got the better of her and she decided to explore the hallway. She was so fascinated by the various pictures along the walls she walked into an end table, knocking a very expensive vase on the floor, shattering it. Master Aaron’s parents scolded them something fierce for the incident and Aeris’ tours were brought to an end.

Aeris quickly went around the estate, making sure to hug the wall to keep anyone from seeing her through the windows. She peeked through the window to the study and saw it empty. Rather than wait for Maggie to arrive, Aeris decided to let herself in.

The entrance to the secret passage was always difficult to find. Hidden behind a rose bush on the estate’s west side close to Master Aaron’s study, it was near impossible to see even knowing where it was. After finding the secret door, she had to push it open from the bottom and squeeze inside.

The passage had been designed for humans, not dragons. It was only wide enough for a single human to walk without scraping their elbows. It was a bit of a squeeze, but Aeris had gotten used to traversing the narrow passages. The passages hadn’t been maintained in years. The air was always thick with dust and walls lined with cobwebs. The passages led to all the rooms in the mansion, including the attic and bathrooms, and Aeris knew them all. The guests’ quarters where the servants slept also had secret passages with viewports into every room.

She often explored the passages on the days she was bored which was mostly rainy days. She often used to sneak into the mansion on days when Maggie was sick as Kera, the maid who took over Maggie’s duties when she was sick, only brought Aeris food and refused to interact further. Aeris would sneak into Maggie’s room and lay beside her bed.

What Aeris hated were the secret windows that allowed her to see inside the rooms. There were paintings on the walls and many of them had mirrors hidden behind them. Aeris could see out, but couldn’t see in. She tried. Being able to spy on others made her uncomfortable as did the idea that whoever built those passages designed them for that very purpose. The mansion had been in Master Aaron’s family for generations, how many of them knew about the secret passages, and how many had actually used them? How many of their guests had their privacies invaded? These questions invaded Aeris’s mind every time she entered the passages.

Each door was opened by use of a switch which was usually located near the door. It didn’t take long before she found the switch controlling the door to Master Aaron’s study. She checked the window, a painting of a sea she could see through, before pulling the switch and entering the study.

No matter how many times Aeris entered her master’s study, she felt as if she were entering for the first time. The study was one of the few rooms she was never allowed to enter.  Master Aaron said Aeris could break something being inside, but the study was more than spacious enough for her to move about unhindered as long as she kept her tail under control.

So Aeris had always been extremely cautious during her visits, keeping her wings snapped close to her body, and her tail tucked underneath her even though it was uncomfortable.

A large desk took up most of the space in the study. The books in the room sat on the bookshelf which covered an entire wall. The rest of the room was occupied by a smaller table and a few chairs. It was always a bit messy inside, books and papers scattered all over the desk and table. Aeris tried reading them once, but they were long detailed descriptions of dragon birth rates that didn’t hold her attention.

She wished had read them when she had the chance.

Maggie entered the room and carefully closed the door. She spun around and yelped at the sight of Aeris. She quickly recovered, clutching at her chest and breathing heavily. “My goodness, Aeris, how did you get in here?”

Before she could respond, the study door opened. The two females watched as Charles entered the study. Charles was an old man who had served as the Strauss’s family butler for the last two generations. The man was sort of hunched over making him appear smaller than he was. His skin was stretched over sharp cheekbones and a strong jaw, giving a face a pointy appearance under the right light, and his eyes still carried a strong will to live despite his slow movements.

He straightened when he noticed the Aeris and Maggie. The old man looked back and forth at them with piercing green eyes. Aeris fought the urge to hide. She was always afraid of them even during her early years. The man’s ability to move quickly when he wanted to and enter and leave a room without making a sound was uncanny.

Maggie didn’t seem nearly as bothered by Charles’ appearance. “Is there something I can help you with?”

“Margret, what is she doing in here?” Charles asked, pointing at Aeris. His voice was strong and deep, opposing the frail old man it belonged to.

“I invited her in to keep me company,” Margret said, casually as she placed books on the floor next to the dragon.

Charles casually and slowly scratched at his chin never taking his eyes off Aeris. She stared back, transfixed. It was if he could see right through her, his gaze saying, “I know why you’re here.”

“It’s funny, I don’t remember seeing her when I saw you in the hall,” Charles said.

“Perhaps you weren’t paying attention,” Margret stated, simply, “Or your sight is finally starting to fail.”

“You know Lord Strauss won’t be happy to learn she is out of her room and was in his study of all places.”

“And how will he find out? Are you going to tell him?”

Charles's eyes narrowed. “Careful, Margret. Lord Strauss isn’t going to put up with your defiance forever. There is only so much you can hope to get away with.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, Charles. Now if you’ll excuse us…”

Charles released Aeris from his piercing gaze, saying nothing as he slowly backed out of the room. For a moment, Aeris could have sworn she saw pity in his eyes.

Aeris turned to Maggie when she left the room. “What did he mean by that?”

“That’s not important, Aeris. We only a few hours before Lord Strauss gets home; we need to go through as many of these books as possible.”

Aeris nodded in agreement. She was grateful to Maggie for wanting to go through all this trouble for her, though she didn’t have the heart to tell Maggie that she had already read through the books. Perhaps Maggie would see something she didn’t.

They poured through the various tomes for hours until Master Aaron came home.

But not a single book held the answers Aeris was looking for.