Dragon Curse

Content notes: non-graphic surgery, mention of human sacrifice, curse, dragons

A woman had two daughters with her husband, a farmer by trade. They had hoped for sons to help with the work on the farm, but loved their daughters just as well. The daughters worked as hard as any boys and did all that sons could have done.

They mended fences, sheared the sheep, brought in the harvest and helped to hunt wolves that came too close to their farm. While their father was glad for the help they gave, their mother worried. The girls were big and strong, with muscles, tanned skin and calloused hands. She was well aware that many men preferred creamy complexions and yielding natures. But how could she deny her daughters their freedom now, only to make them more attractive to prejudiced eyes later?

Whenever the sisters went to the village, their mother tried to make them wear dresses at least, but the girls found pants much more practical for riding and for handling sheep. Skirts often got in the way, and they did not go well with sturdy boots. Thus they went with trousers, but without friends, as people thought them strange.

A few years ago, a dragon had come to live in the mountains nearby, and immediately started to burn down houses and steal cattle. Knights rode out to defeat it, but not a one returned. So, after a long time trying to get rid of it, the lord of the land struck a bargain with the dragon. If the dragon left the people in peace, they would give him two underage sisters each month to eat. It was a hard choice to make, but this way fewer people would die.

One day the sisters were sent to have some tools sharpened. As they exited the smithy, they saw some people gathered in the marketplace, talking in hushed voices. The guards had come to the village as it was the next in line to supply a sacrifice. All sisters younger than seventeen summers were to be presented for selection.

Mothers cried, fathers glowered, brothers chafed and young wives let out sighs of guilty relief. The sisters looked at each other and stepped forward as one. “We’ll go”, they said. The guards were doubtful as the girls were big and strong and maybe too old? As they were well known in the village, the people soon convinced the guards that, indeed, they both were still young enough.

They were left, bound, at the edge of a cliff, where the dragon collected its due. When it swooped in from the sky, they had nowhere to turn. The dragon eyed the girls and sniffed at them. Since they smelled young enough, it took one in each of his front claws and flew off.

They landed at the mouth of a cave, where the dragon put the girls down. With one sharp talon it carefully cut through their bindings. It growled at them: “Help me.” The sisters were a bit surprised at this turn of events, but did not mind not having to fight the dragon with their farm tools as they had planned. They asked what they could do.

The dragon told them that it had been cursed years and years ago to terrorize the land. The only way to break the curse was to find two underage sisters who could remove an ensorcelled spearhead that was lodged deep between its scales. This was also why it had asked for those as a sacrifice, so they could try to get the spearhead out, but so far none of them had been strong enough. Some had just fainted as soon as the dragon spoke.

“What happens to the ones who fail?” the sisters wanted to know, and learned that they were sent to a hamlet in a secluded valley between the mountains, with only one path leading out, and that path went through the dragon’s cave. Thus the dragon could terrorize the land without hurting anyone. The knights were sent there as well, so the place was quickly filling up.

The sisters asked where the spearhead was sitting, and the dragon directed them to a spot just above its right shoulder. The girls clambered up the slope from the dragon’s tail up to the shoulder, and found a good grip on the scales. Soon they saw the scarred spot, and with their newly sharpened tools, they were able to cut through the thick armored hide. The dragon hissed in pain as the spot was very tender.

One sister pulled the wound open with a pronged tool while the other worked to cut deeper until they could see the spearhead lodged in the muscle. The work on the farm had made the sisters strong, and with a pair of tongs – meant to pull roots from the ground – one girl gripped the cursed item and pulled, first to no avail, but finally dislodging it after cutting a bit deeper.

The dragon sighed in pain and relief as the spearhead fell to the ground, and with one breath of fire burned it to ashes, never to harm another being. As the ashes blew away on the wind, the dragon wavered and shimmered. The sisters barely had time to jump off before the shape shrunk in on itself, and instead of a dragon, there was a prince lying before them. The older sister helped him up, and as they looked upon one another they fell in love, possibly to live happily ever after.

But first, the three went to the hamlet between the mountains, to tell the people that the dragon was vanquished, and they could go home. Not all who were sent there wanted to leave, having found a home here. But some people who had always lived in the hamlet took the chance. Among them a farmer who resented the limited space for his crops and offered to help the younger sister.

All four went back to the farm – the prince to ask the parents for leave to court their older daughter until she was of age, the other young man to help with the farm. A good while later, one sister went with the prince to be happy. The farmer from the valley stayed at the farm, even when he started a family of his own.

And when one day the prince was asked by his love why it had to be underage sisters who pulled out the spearhead, he just smiled and said: “The sorcerer was clever and thought that I would never find young women strong enough to do it. But he had not counted on the two of you. And neither had I.”

When they had children of their own, they encouraged their daughters to grow into strong women who would not ever have to wait for someone to rescue them, but who could grab their happiness with both hands and hold fast, never to let go. No matter what form that happiness came in.