#deadly shadow

Nonnie, that's like asking me to pick a favorite child!!! 😭😭😭

But I will say I've always had a liking towards dragons with multiple serpentine heads. King Ghidorah, Yamata no Orochi, Ladon and the Lernean Hydra from Greek mythology, Hydreigon from Pokemon.

My absolute favorite of the bunch is The Deadly Shadow from the How To Train Your Dragon books. They're a dragon that's introduced in the final half of the series whose three heads are simultaneously in sync but have distinct personalities. The peaceful left head is Innocence, the vicious right head is Arrogance, and the middle head is Patience because that's what they have to have. Aside from having some cool abilities like perfect camouflage to the point of invisibility, dual lightning and fire breath, and venom, the Deadly Shadow has quite the emotional backstory involving one of the main characters and a small arc about learning to hope and love humans again.

Here lies my baby, here in my arms. 

And he is perfect. What the Tribe says does not matter. I say he is perfect. 

His tiny fingers curl around the lobster’s claw on my necklace, his thumb nestled into his mouth. He lays against me, his soft baby breathing heavy with sleep. Gently, I stroke the side of his face.

I want to drink in the sight of him. I want to carve how beautiful he is into my heart, so I can look at him always. But I cannot. Tears, cursed tears, take him from me early. 

They are coming. Too soon. They will take my son from me and they will send him away, to die a brutal death, because they think he is too small. I do not think he is too small. 

I would scream if I could. I would scream and hit and rage to keep him safe, to keep him mine. Here in my arms, to hold forever. But the birth was hard. If I were on my own, I would barely be able to find the strength to say anything at all now.

Yet I am not on my own now, I know. Here is proof, sleeping quietly against my breast. And Shadow has promised. Promised by blood, and that is a promise too great to break for a dragon. He will be in my arms once again. He will not die, out there all alone. But that does not stop the tears on my face. I never want to let him go. Never.  

He is perfect. He is my baby and he is perfect. 

TWELVE DAYS OF DOOMSDAY 2021