On Braegan Pond

From the writings of Sun-and-Moon

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Preamble

Miss Sun-and-Moon takes GrandMaster Chipmunk’s beginners’ class for their weekly field trip. Today, they visit Braegan Pond, spread their mats well away from the sirene haunt and lay into their packed lunches. Eventually, edibles exhausted, they fall silent and turn, one-by-one, to look expectantly at Sunny. “You promised us a story, Miss Sunny,�? said one. “So I did,�? she replied, taking in the sea of eager young faces, “And so I shall.�? * Sunny looks at the children. * You know where we are, don’t you? Yes! bottomless Braegan Pond. It was not always a pond but it did once have a bottom. * Some of the kids sniggered and she knew she had their attention.*

The Price of Prosperity

A very, very long time ago, when there was no nation of Ferrell, this was an arm of the Great Lake of Eridanus that reached inland to here, where the pearls flourished and the fish were fattest. In those long-ago days, Halflings were not as civilised as we are now, but one of the biggest tribes lived here in a fishing village whose prosperity was the envy of all others for many leagues around. Little did the foreigners know that the good fishing and priceless pearls came at a terrible price, a guilty secret which no one -- no one -- would ever talk about except in whispers, and never to outsiders. The reason Eridanus village thrived, loomed over it like an oppressive thundercloud. The reason lay under a huge cliff, with a path leading down from the top to a small stony beach far below. It was a forbidden place -- no one came here willingly, and those that did never came back. Well, that’s not quite true. One brave Halfling did and Braegan Brighteye was his name. * The children exchange knowing glances. *

The world was so different then -- full of powerful, cruel beings -- and one lived at the bottom of Old Eridanus Lake -- a terrible dragon by the name of Pharo’agraphynax. * The kids stop chattering and huddle together. * With scales as dark green as the kelp forest in the shadow of the cliff and black eyes that burned like sea-coal, he was said to be as old as time itself. Lord Pharo -- as he was referred to out of fearful respect -- spent most his time asleep, as very old folk do … but one day a year, at the spring equinox, he awoke to eat * Sunny leans forward. * and what he particularly savoured was a tasty young virgin. * The kids gasp! * There was the secret! If there was no virgin, no unmarried boy or girl, the dragon would poison the waters and that would be the end of the pearls, the fishes, the prosperity and perhaps even the village.

Sacrifice and Subterfuge

Each year, it was the sad duty of the headman to select the virgin by lots at a gathering of all the families. No happy hearth gathering this day; no eat-as-much-as-you like before bedtime; No! And no laughing, no passing the mellowsmoke pipe or the biscuit barrel! Not with every father and mother dreading that their son or daughter would be chosen. The sacrifice brings honour to the family, oh yes! It is easy for every other family to honour the ‘special’ family as their own sins and daughters are safe for another year, of the full nets and bounty of pearls for another year -- what relief! -- as Lord Pharo, satisfied, goes back to sleep for another year …

But spare a thought for the family of the chosen, for their loss while others are celebrating. Think of the family gathered in sorrow around their hearth -- a hearth with no cheer in it, can you imagine that? -- as they listen to the merriment from the burrows around the green.

* Sunny pauses. takes a swig of lemonade, and concentrates… * Now where was I? Oh yes! It so happened that, one year, the lot fell to a beautiful girl called Autumn. She was quite the prettiest girl and very popular, even with other girls, despite having caught the heart of a youth called Braegan Brighteye. the only son of a poor neighbouring family. They loved each other so very much that their parting tore at the hearts of all who saw their last embrace. Braegan could not bear to live on if his love died, and resolved to do the only thing that would keep her safe. Just before dawn when the sacrifice was to be made, he slipped from his home for the last time, went to Autumn’s home and put the family under a sleep enchantment that he stole from his father’s chest.

He planned to take her place, to be the dragon’s supper. What a foolish boy, eh kids? Did he think for a moment how she would feel knowing her love, her dearest, was being digested in a dragon’s tummy? No! Not for a moment! But he was brave and he was in love and had no time for thinking things through. As Autumn and her family slept, Bragon met up with the headman at the appointed place, at the top of the cliff – this cliff * Sunny points to bluff above the Salt Mine. *. The headman protested but there was no time to make another selection; the sacrifice had to be at dawn.

Rice Dumplings and A Coin

So off they went – the headman and Braegan behind, thinking of all the families lying awake (except Autumn’s) thinking of them, alone, plodding down the old cliff path, step by step down the ancient stair, down to the beach and the cave that was the antechamber to Pharo’agraphynax’s kingdom. There he was chained, by a dank cave closed with salt-encrusted gates. Beside him, the headman placed a bowl of rice dumplings -- you know, the ones with a pickled radish filling -- and into Braegan’s hand he pressed the single gold coin by custom decreed. Then, by the cliff path, the old man returned, sad to leave the brave boy, sad to be telling his family the heart-breaking news, disappeared from view.

Braegan waited, too numb to think as the awful nature of his predicament dawned on him, as Berryn’s Blessed Smile lit up the world for the last time for him. Time passed and as he had not thought to have any breakfast, his tummy rumbled, his eyes turning towards the rice dumplings with its sweet radish filling. But knew he could not -- should not -- and that was one of the hardest things he ever did. * The kids were nodding, even as they licked their lips. *

It seemed like an eternity that he waited, as the morning mist burned off and clouds scudded, as clouds do, overheard. Suddenly the dawn chorus fell quite, and in the silence he heard the gates squeal and scrape as they opened for the first time in a year. A very old kobold peered out at Braegan; around his neck the golden seal of Pharo’agraphynax. At the kobold’s gesture, the chains fell away and Braegan stepped forward, rubbing his aching wrists. From tales, heard since babyhood, Braegan recognized Pharo’agraphynax’s Chamberlain and, without a word, held out the coin and the bowl. The kobold ate the spicy dumplings with their sweet radish filling, and pocketed the coin, then gestured to Braegan to follow him through the gates.

Into the cave they went, into the darkness that smelled of salt and seaweed. Then down they went, down and ever on, to a cavern lit by softly glowing fungi, and to stone steps that lined the edge of a strange pool. The Chamberlain went down the steps, into the depths, as though the water did not exist, but Braegan stopped there, fearing he would drown. The kobold did not get angry, or use force or summon mephits with prongs (as kobolds sometimes do in these stories) to force him go down. Astonished, Braegan saw him reach out toward him and, with one scaly hand on his golden seal, with great gentleness touch Braegan’s forehead with the other.

The Water World

Such a strange calm fell upon him that he stepped forward and down, not minding that the liquid rose past his eyes and above his head. Then -- Oh! children, what do you think happened? -- wonder of wonders!, Braegan could breathe under water. With this strange calm, he stepped forward into a watery landscape that mirrored his home above the waves. They walked for hours, Braegan looking all around, seeing creatures new to him and coral-like houses, they came at last to a huge castle with turrets so tall they must cause shipwrecks on the surface high above.

The Chamberlain showed him to a room he could call his own and told Braegan that he must toil in the underwater fields of kelp and canyons of coral. For months, perhaps years, he worked and never saw another soul until one day, despairing of ever finding his way home, of ever seeing Autumn again, he spotted a girl. She was pale and had iridescent scales but she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen and the way she smiled at him made him forget about his betrothed, his parents and his village. It happens to young men * Sunny was nodding, though unaware of it. * so it seemed perfectly natural to him. In time, they courted, betrothed and lived together … there was no one else to arrange the marriage for them. They even had a baby! Braegan thought he could never be happier … except for one thing. His beautiful wife, with her finely scaled pale skin as rich as a rainbow, left their bed every night. The first and only time he ever asked her where she went, she put a fine iridescent finger on his lips and asked him never -- ever -- to ask her to explain or to follow her.

Another Life

A year passed and Braegan had forgotten all about the folk he left behind. One night he was awake but dozing -- it was his turn to look after baby -- still stiff from his odd labours in fields of kelp and canyons of coral. He noticed his wife missing, as he had done hundreds of times before. This night, he woke in time to see her shadow on the wall, fleeing as she left their room, running down a dark corridor. He followed. He knew he shouldn’t but the years made him yearn for something he could not remember.

Down and along he followed, deeper into the single huge castle that dominated the underwater land until, suddenly, he emerged into a vast chamber, lit by thousands of floating, shining jellyfish. He thought he lost track of his wife, his lovely wife, but, there she was, in the soft, green light, running towards a huge dark mountain in the middle of the cavern. The apathy that cocooned him since he entered this land dropped away and he was filled with a dread, colder than any of the watery winds that swept in from deeper caverns.

His wife, his beautiful iridescent wife was changing before his eyes. No, not changing – she was taking off her clothes. No not her clothes – her skin. He prayed then, to Ingoren, to our Lady of the Waves. He did not know or care how he remembered her, when so much else had been forgotten. He prayed for blindness so that he could not see her skin -- her beautiful, pale, finely scaled, mother-of-pearl skin, drop to her feet like the finest silk from elven looms. But it was too late; he had seen it and, even if he became blind, he could not remove the terrible sight from his mind. But worse was to come. * The kids were silent, rapt, with mouths open. *

Running for his Life

She ran – or rather a reptilian figure that was humanoid, and that vaguely resembled his wife, ran – ran towards the dark bulk that now moved or shifted around. Oh the terror that struck him now … the mountainous bulk was Lord Pharo’agraphynax. * The kids cry out as one. * With its scales as dark a green as a kelp forest in the shadow of a cliff and with black eyes that burned like sea-coal, there could be no doubt. And the running form – the thing that had been his wife, warmed his bed and borne his child – was the Old Dragon’s daughter.

He could not help him self, children. He let out such a cry of despair that the terrible King and his Princess turned to see him by the entrance to their chamber. He fled -- as you might too, if you ever a dragon notices you -- but Braegan found a bravery that was part of him and which could not be forgotten so easily. He ran to gather up his child unknowing, or careless, of the spells being cast after him. Out of the palace and across the fields he ran. Hearing the furious dragons behind him he dared not stop or look to see how close they were. Could he make it to the strange pool? Yes! He was up the steps, running though his legs were tiring and then -- out of the cave with its rusted gate, to pant and gasp in the thin air his lungs had quite forgotten. *Some of the children clapped and others brightened.

With the terrible roars sounding closer, he fled again, running for what seemed like hours until he came to the great stone gate and out into Berryn’s bright day. He was home. He had only to go up the stair carved in the cliff-face and fall into the embrace of his family, his village. He did not know how he would explain to them, to the headman, or to his beloved Autumn. He looked at his half-dragon baby and thought of Autumn then, for the first time in years, and he wept, and weeping, fell asleep above the cliff -- yes, that one over there, in fact -- utterly exhausted.

The Return and its Aftermath

When he woke it was still light, but possibly it was another day. There was no sign of his pursuers. Nor was there any sign of the village or all the folk he remembered. None of it made any sense. A fisherman’s widow took Braegan and his son in, and he fished for her while he slowly returned to himself. He realised that for each year he had spent in the undersea kingdom, a hundred had passed above the waves. All those he knew and loved, or who knew him, had long since turned to dust. * Hey now! Stop blubbing at the back there! * Still, none of it made any sense. Braegan sank into despair; he had lost two women he loved, his family and home, all lost in a past that he could never regain. And so he toiled, remembering the fields of kelp and canyons of coral, and gave himself up to the toiling.

Braegan settled in the village, this Eridanus which was not the village that he knew, and became its best fisherman with his uncanny knowledge of tides and sea-creatures. The bay became a port and his son grew up to be the headman in his turn. Long after he was too old to fish, Braegan spent his days on the cliffs - these cliffs - looking out over the Great Lake. It is said he died there, still sitting, staring out across the water, but no one really knows.

The day Braegan vanished there was a terrible storm. He was never seen again. It is said that Pharo’agraphynax, took him and then, to complete his revenge, shook the land and collapsed the cliff, leaving this small pond as its remnant. Now, in place of the old bay of fishes and pearls, you have a few sirens and the old salt mine with its kobolds, who once served the dragon. The old sacrifice had been long discontinued and it was believed - by those dwindling few who remembered or cared - that the Old Dragon lies permanently asleep in his cavern. But, when the ground shakes * The kids laughed as Sunny flung herself about while holding on to a small bush. * -- yes, you know it now! -- Old Pharo turning in his sleep.

But at night... * Sunny’s voice dropped to a whisper * when the lake-storm comes, grannies scare their little ones huddled in the hearth fire light. “The Dragon King’s daughter is close,�? they say. She is furiously shaking the doors of the burrows as she searches for her stolen child. * The kids look around apprehensively. * And on the anniversary of the old day of sacrifice – the spring equinox - her terrible howls of anger and loss can be heard … right here at Braegan’s pond, if you put your ear to the ground and listen carefully. * Sunny’s countenance adopts a comic grandeur as she puffs herself up. * And I, Sun-and-Moon, vouch for the truth of this tale, as Braegan Brighteye and his half-dragon Halfling were my great great great (and so on) grandfathers.

Postamble

* It began to rain. Sunny helped the kids pack up their picnic things and urged them to dash to Huntingcreek. She chased them, pretending to be a sirene, flapping her arms and hooting, causing them to shriek all the way back to the dojo. *