The Dragon Who Hoarded Names
fantasyEveryoneVesper leaned close, smoke curling from her nose. 'No name at all? How unusual.' She plucked a blank silver coin from the wall and held it out. 'Empty. Like you. I could fill it with any name you point to. Choose from my hoard, child, and it is yours.'
The girl shook her head and pushed the blank coin back toward the dragon. She did not want a name peeled off someone else. She tapped her own chest, then tapped the floor, asking without words for a name that was truly, only hers.
What happens next?
1 ways forwardVesper studied her a long moment. 'No one has ever refused my hoard,' the dragon admitted. 'A name that is only yours cannot be taken from another. It must be made.' She lowered her great head and pressed one warm claw to the girl's throat. 'I will give you back the voice you were never allowed to use. Make your own name.' The girl opened her mouth and a sound came out, rough and small but hers. She said one word no one had ever owned, and it rang through the cave like a struck bell while every coin chimed back.