I Don't Own Avatar or Miraculous.
Chapter Fifteen. Chronicles of the Dragons.
Adrien was sick of crutches. He also didn't like not having enough food or water. He managed to get some nicer people to get him food, and there was a fountain in that neighborhood square. Still, he really wanted someone to accept his offer to work for him or her, but as long as he was still injured, he was pretty useless to everyone. That day in particular, he was sitting by the fountain lazily watching the people passing by. Plagg was not his satchel, poking his head out ever so slightly to talk to the bored teen.
"Okay, I got a cool story. Once, when my holder brand new, I learned that he got motion sick and they were fighting an evil dragon back in the medieval times."
"Dragons were real?"
"Yep. Still are… but that's another story. Anyways, the guy decided it would be wise to try and ride the dragon. You can imagine what motion sickness combined with riding a dragon did. I never let the kid live that down."
"Could we focus more on the dragons?"
"Nah, that stuff is boring magic and lore stuff. Tikki and Wayz are more into that. I like talking about my kittens' greatest failures and of course: the amazingness of cheese. Speaking of which, when we get back to Paris, you owe me all of the cambert your father's money can buy." Adrien rolled his eyes.
"Why is it that everytime I talk to you, our conversations immediately steer back to cheese?"
"What can I say? I've got a gift." Plagg said proudly.
"So can you still sense Tikki out there? Is Ladybug still okay?" Adrien asked.
"Eh, yeah. I sense Tikki, but it's pretty faint. I have no idea how far away Ladybug is right now. I doubt Tikki has a clue where we are. I mean, I still don't know where they are. I'm keeping my ears and eyes out though. The trip here could have messed with my senses, though. She could be right next to us, and I wouldn't even realise it."
"Great." Adrien said sarcastically. His eyes drifted away from Plagg's hiding spot in the satchel to a little girl in a green dress wandering the streets. She looked about seven to eight years old and had a frightened and confused look on her face.
"Mom?" She said softly. Adrien's heart sank. The poor girl was lost. He wished he knew the area better, because he wanted to help. Since he didn't know the area and he was still practically a cripple, he made no motion to do anything. Instead, he watched her carefully, silently hoping her mother would appear and take her home to safety. After all, a lower ring square was not a safe place for a little girl to be wandering alone. Finally, he decided to call her over to him.
"Young lady? Could you come over here?" He asked. The girl spun around to see him. She looked startled when she realized a boy years older than her had spoken, but visibly relaxed upon seeing the crutches resting beside him. She lumbered over to him, not quite relaxing completely. He got that, he was a stranger after all.
"Yes?" She asked timidly.
"You shouldn't wander around like that, someone could try to hurt you."
"But my mom…" She trailed.
"What does your mother look like?"
"Brown hair, green eyes. Green kimono." So pretty much everyone in that world.
"You'll have to be more specific." Adrien told her.
"Uh, well, she looks like an older version of me and she had a satchel with a platypus bear sewn on it. Adrien blinked. Had he heard the girl correctly? Platypus bear? What was that exactly? Some sort of hybrid animal? As if the platypus wasn't a hybrid enough. He sighed.
"I can't see anyone with a bag like that. Not from here. But the fact remains, it's unsafe for you to just be wandering around. How about you stay over here where I can watch you and make sure no one tries to hurt you. Your mother is bound to notice you missing and come searching. If you move around the square too much, she might not be able to find you." Adrien suggested. The girl nodded timibly.
"Thank you." She said softly, sitting next to him and staring at her hands sadly, "How'd you hurt your foot?"
"I was attacked. I am just waiting for it to heal, but no one wants to hire a boy with an injury, even if I will recover eventually. That's why I am staying in the square. Sometimes kinder people will walk by and give me food."
"Oh, that's sad. Don't you have any parents?"
"I have a father, but he isn't living in the city. I'm on my own."
"Like me right now."
"Don't worry, your mother will certainly come looking." Adrien smiled, offering his hand, "I'm Adin, by the way."
The girl eyed his hand suspiciously before shaking it.
"Jeng." She replied, "So how old are you exactly?"
"I just recently turned seventeen."
"Wow! You're grown up! You certainly don't look sixteen. You are really tall though, I bet you'd be taller if you stood up, but I suppose you don't want to do that right now, do you?"
"Nah, I rather sit right now. So are you new to the city?" Adrien asked. Jeng nodded.
"My dad opened a bakery in the city near a local tea shop we are partnering with. It's an honor to be allowed to open a shop in the city, even if it's just the lower ring… at least… that's what dad says."
"My friend back in my home village was a baker's daughter. Everytime I went over to her house her parents would try and give us their unsold stuff or get us to taste test their new products. I am certain my father's friend, the lady who watched me, was not pleased with the sugar high I usually got shortly after returning from her house There was so many cookies…" Jeng giggled at the story. The story made Adrien even more hungry though. Jeng noticed the pained expression and reached into her bag.
"My mom packed lunch for me in case we needed to stop on the way home and eat. Food in the market restaurants can be too expensive. I don't need all of it though." She pulled out a loaf of bread and split it in two, handing half of it to him.
"... you don't have to do that…" Adrien immediately objected, not wanting to take a child's food.
"No! I want to. You said you are at the square because nice people will sometimes feed you. Well, I am nice. I want you to have it." She insisted. Adrien sighed and took the bread in his hands, tearing off a little bit of it and directly placing it in his bag so Plagg could have food. He began to eat the bread slowly before wrapping up what was left and storing it in his pocket for later.
"So what does your dad do?" Jeng asked in cirousty.
"He is a… designer of clothes."
"So he's a tailor?" Jeng said.
"No. He has other people trailer the clothes. He designs them and comes up with the ideas for the patterns and stuff. Although I have seen him make some clothes himself before… when I was much, much younger. He hasn't done that in a while. Lately he's been much too busy to do anything by hand."
"Yeah, sometimes my dad gets busy in the bakery too. I don't notice, because mom has been trying to home school me. Most kids these days don't read as much but mom thinks that if I can read, I can have a better future and maybe one day make it to at least the middle ring."
"I know how to read too." Adrien said in thought. She looked at him in awe.
"That's really cool. Hey! I have a book in my bag. Could you show me some of the words I don't understand?" She asked.
"I can take a look." She beamed. She reached into her satchel and pulled out a small leather book. He was surprised to see it was written in Chinese and not French like what Jeng seemed to speak. Odd. Why would everyone in that world speak his language, but not write in it? He would have to ask Plagg later. Thankfully, Adrien was well versed in Chinese. The title on the book was The Final Chronicles of the Dragons. Ironic, considering he'd been talking to Plagg about dragons earlier. She handed him the book. Once more he was surprised. It wasn't a novel at all. It was a script to a play.
"A play script?" He asked Jeng.
"It's a classic, according to my mom. I don't understand all of it though." Adrien skimmed through the pages, trying to figure out what exactly the play was about.
"It's about the world when dragons still roamed. The main character, Lee, is a human boy who stumbles upon the Dragon King and Queen. Only the King and Queen of Dragons are in a huge quarrel against each other. They are fighting." Jeng explained, "But I can't figure out why. And sometimes I don't quite get some of Lee's m-monol-monologues. I don't even get what a monologue is."
"A monologue is just a really long speech an actor gives. Mostly put in a play to explain something or to make you understand a character's struggles more. In this monologue here, Lee is mourning the dragons, because they are fighting and hurting each other. Lee is talking about how the dragons are supposed to be the teachers of fire, but they are being selfish and destroying themselves because they are afraid to admit they are wrong."
"Really? It doesn't sound like he's sad."
"But he is. Here, he says, 'Woe to me, for I have seen the dragons fall. Once I beheld them on a pedestal, but now they are as men. Where has the blessing of spirit's gone? Why has it come to the end of such great beasts? That they would quarrel and destroy the world in fire out of selfish ambition? Behold the sons of fire! The sons of destruction! Who have only themselves to blame for their ultimate end? If only I could end this war, but what can one human do against such great beasts?' He is sad that they are fighting and wishes he could stop the war."
"Oh! That makes sense! He's trying to help the dragons, but they won't listen to him."
"Exactly. And he's sad, because in his travels, he has befriended many of the dragons, but they are still fighting."
"But why? I never got that."
"Right here, in the Dragon Queen's monologue it says, 'The Dragon King was proud. He wanted to spread his power across the land. He thought he should spread his good fortune to the humans. But I told him no. We would only be destroying mankind by interfering with their world. We must remain separate if there is to be peace. That is why I fight against the King of Dragons, to protect the humans from his flames.' Basically, it's saying the Dragon King wanted to go to far and try and conquer the humans in order to 'spread good fortune' to all peoples. But in doing so, he could have endangered innocent human lives, so the Dragon Queen had to fight against her husband, even though she loved him."
"Oh! That's so sad! She loved him, but he became her enemy."
"Exactly, which is why this story seems to be a tragedy, a story with a sad ending." Adrien explained.
"But Lee is still there in the end." Jeng pointed out. Adrien raised an eyebrow, flipping to the end.
"So he is, isn't he? Oh… that is sad."
"Why?"
"The final monologue of Lee goes like this, 'In the end, I did not win. Neither did my friends. Each side was left in ruin. The dragons became a thing to be hunted as sport instead of the teachers in fire. Their destruction was their own. It was partially mine too. If only the sons and daughters of fire saw the beasts as I did. They don't. Not anymore. Now I stand alone.' He lost all of his friends because he still trusted in the dragons, even though the rest of mankind did not. I know what is like to not have a friend. A lonely life. But sometimes being lonely is the price of doing what's right." Adrien said.
"I never realised the play was so sad…" Jeng said softly as she gazed at the book, "Mom never explained the play to me. I was always confused."
"Hey, it's no problem. I like to read. If you ever need any other plays or books explained to you, I'll just be right here. Does anyone actually perform this play anymore?"
"I don't know. If they did, it would be in the upper ring… I bet you'd make an awesome Lee if you didn't have a hurt leg."
"Oh? You'd make me the hero of the story? Why then, I'd make you the wise Dragon Queen, Miss. Jeng." Adrien said playfully. Jeng giggled. That's when they heard her name being called out in a frantic, fearful tone. Jeng looked up and an older woman in her thirties wandered the streets in search for Jeng.
"Is that your mother?" Adrien asked. Jeng smiled excitedly.
"Mom! I'm over here!" She waved. The woman spun around, a look of relief spread through her face and she hugged the girl with all her might.
"Mom, this is Adin. He watched me until you got here. He also told me some interesting stuff about that play you had me read. He's super smart." The woman smiled kindly at Adrien.
"Thank you so much for watching out for my little girl. I was so worried. How can I repay you?"
"Oh, no need. I just wanted to make sure no one tried to hurt her. It's not safe for a little girl to be wandering the square alone."
"Mom, he's hurt, and he has no place to stay… could we help him?" Jeng asked.
"Jeng, you don't have to-" That's when Jeng's mother noticed the crutches.
"Oh, my gosh, why didn't you tell me young man? Come on! We must have you over for supper. I insist! It may not be safe for a girl to be alone in the city, but it isn't safe for an injured young man like you to be alone here either. "
"You don't have to do that! I don't want to intrude. I was only trying to help." Adrien objected.
"Nonsense! You will come over for dinner, and I insist you stay with us until you have properly healed. You can help Talo, my husband, in the bakery to pay me back. He's needed help anyways with me watching Jeng all the time. Please!" The woman insisted. Adrien sighed before making his famous Agreste smile.
"Thank you ma'am." He said, giving in… but mostly for Plagg's sake. That Kwami's complaining was annoying when he was too hungry.
So originally I wanted to dive deeper into the Avatar play, Love Amongst the Dragons, but I didn't think it would fit in with the point I was trying to make. So instead I decided to make up another play about dragons. Sorry... Anyways, I hope you liked this chapter. Review and give back constructive criticism.