By Bonnie Gale

Peter Meets Orenda: Part 2 of a Five Part Series

Peter was shocked. He quickly got to his feet and stared. The person wasn’t really a person. It was a ‘she’, he thought, but there was a shimmering and a transparent feel to her body. The blue light around the mound was equally around her, as well.
She was dressed as a Native American woman with a buckskin dress, leggings, moccasins and an elaborate head-dress with feathers. She had long black hair. She was very beautiful. The more he stared, he realized that she was a girl and not a woman. She was probably around his age. She did
not smile but he did not feel afraid. She seemed to be assessing him, even reading him, if that was possible.
After a while, she moved towards him. Her feet were hardly touching the ground. He approached her as well but his feet felt heavy and noisy as he made his footfalls. Her radiance was magnified as she approached. She stopped about eight feet from him and he likewise halted. She started to speak to him but not in the normal words out loud. The words were in his head and they were in the
English language so he could understand. She said “My name is Orenda, one with magic power. My family and clan lived here a long time ago. I see that you have found my dragon’s egg. The legend is
that, one day, she will rise again in her full glory. You have been chosen to take care of her and see that she teaches humans the lessons that they need to learn. “Her name is Keezheekoni, one of burning fire.”
Peter was shocked and stunned. He did not know what to say. This was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to him. He felt great energy and peace. His next thought was how he, Peter, was going to take care of a dragon! He answered her, in his head “Thank you, great Orenda. I am so honored and humbled with this task. How will I know what to do to take proper care of
Keezheekoni?”
Orenda answered immediately: “You will be guided. You are not alone. You can call on help all the time. You do not realize that you always have help. You just have to ask.”
Peter stood silent for a while taking in all this information. He certainly did not feel capable of taking care of a dragon but then it appeared that he had been chosen! He wondered why he was so privileged to be chosen for this task. There were a lot older and more capable teens. However, he knew that he really did want to take care of a dragon. This was so fantastic!
The blue light shimmered all around her. He moved forward and bowed to her. He did not know if bowing was appropriate but she did not move away. He had the distinct feeling that she could read his thoughts and she would probably know that he was showing respect to her and her dragon. As he stood tall again, he noticed that the light had become stronger and her body outline seemed to be
disappearing into the light. In a blink of an eye, she was gone! All that remained was the shimmering in the clearing. He felt sad that she was gone but he had the strong feeling that her energy was around him.
It took a moment for him to be grounded and come back to the clearing. He had not really left but he had been transformed by the experience of meeting Orenda. It seemed that time had stood still while he was in her presence. He also realized that he had not paid attention to the egg in those moments. He briskly walked over to the mound. The sweet smell was still around the mound and the blue
light. He looked at the egg. It was so beautiful. It was about twenty inches long. He now knew that this was Orenda’s egg and she created it. He was chosen to take care of the egg and so he had better start taking care of it right now.
The mound was still warm and so he lightly covered the egg again with the leaves so that it did not cool down. He knew from his Science class that baby chick eggs needed heat in order to hatch. He felt very protective of this egg. He sat alongside the mound and gently added leaves.
He was starting to get hungry. He wondered what time it was. He pulled out the watch from his backpack that his grandmother had given him last Christmas. It was only 6:47 a.m! Wow, it seemed that he had left the house hours ago. Actually, it felt like days or even years had passed. He knew that he would never be the same Peter that left his home an hour ago. He brought out a snack bar and
munched on it as he gently patted the mound of leaves.
As he was finishing the snack bar and was placing the wrapper in his backpack, he noticed that the smell was getting stronger and the light was very blue. He checked the heat of the mound. It was quite hot. He hoped that the egg was not getting too warm. He gently parted the leaves and saw that the egg was vibrating. It was only a subtle movement but it was definitely rocking. The shimmering
blues and violet color of the egg was wonderful. The rocking became stronger. All of a sudden, there was a cracking sound from the egg and he saw a split opening up...

—The Chenango Dragon Tale is a five-part series written and submitted by local artist and writer Bonnie Gale. Subsequent stories will be published on Thursday editions of The Evening Sun.