The Magic Hour

Mary danced, surrounded by fairies. The sun was bright, joyful but not annoying or suffocating as it sometimes became during the summer. The flowers whispered around them, moved by the wind. There were so many colours that Mary couldn't name them all, and she knew at least twenty different colours!

Mary was seven, and this was her favourite time of the day. The magic hour.

During that hour, there was nothing but her world. A world of colours, light, joy and affection. Of fairies who dance with you and tell you that you are pretty. That you are good. That you can do everything.

Green valleys full of flowers. Of sweet and delicate winds that mess up your hair.

Everyone was kind in Mary's world.

Laughing, she saw a group of unicorns fly over her. "If horses fly, are they a herd or a flock?" she wondered absently. It didn't matter, they were beautiful and majestic.

Some things are so beautiful, in their simplicity, that no one could ever find anything to complain about. You can only admire them and rejoice in the fact that you exist with them.

Mary could never have said it in words, but she felt it in her heart. And this was definitely more important, wasn't it?

The girl ran, leaving the fairies behind. She wanted to go to the top of the hill. At the top of the hill, there was the diamond tower. And Retaf, her best friend, lived in the diamond tower.

Mary caught her breath, holding her sides. Nobody had ever taught her to breathe regularly when she ran, so she always got tired. But she didn't care, running through those meadows was too beautiful. How she loved the magic hour.

She knocked three times, as she always did. A few moments passed, then a low, booming voice answered.

"Who is it?" Said the voice.

"It's me, Mary!"

"Mary! Come in, come in! "

Happily, the little girl opened the door and entered. Rethaf hugged her, almost crushing her, then went back to making tea. Despite being a red dragon who was more than ten meters tall, Retaf loved tea. And pastries too, even hough they made him put on weight and made it more difficult for him to fly.

But Retaf didn't have to fly anywhere. Retaf was always there for her.

Mary sat down at the table. The dragon's tower had no rooms, it was a large stone parallelepiped, hollow and at least a hundred meters tall. It was at least twenty meters wide, so there was a lot of space. Retaf slept at the bottom of it, where he had everything he needed: storybooks that he read with Mary, gold, jewels, tea and pastries.

"How are you today?" Mary asked.

"Very well, my dear, very well!" The dragon replied. "You?"

Mary shrugged.

"The usual. Glad to be here. "

"How did school go?"

"Fine."

"What have you learned today?"

Mary thought about it for a moment.

"We learned that the capital of France is Berlin."

"I don't think that's true." The dragon replied.

"And how do you know?" She asked, amused. "You have never been to school."

"Dragons always know everything." Retaf replied, closing his eyes solemnly.

Mary thought hard, closing her eyes to concentrate.

"Cripes, you're right! Berlin is the capital of Germany! "

The dragon nodded, satisfied.

"Bravo. And what is the capital of France? "

Mary closed her eyes again.

"Is it ... Is it ... Paris?"

The dragon applauded, then brought over tea and pastries. Mary ate them voraciously. As always, they tasted like the best thing in the world.

"Retaf, can you tell me one of your stories?"

The dragon sat down beside her (the earth trembled), sipping his tea. Mary waited, knowing that Retaf would answer her once the sip was over. Retaf was a true purist in this. He always said that humans don't know how to make tea properly. When dragons brew tea, they brew tea. When humans did it, they made hot, dirty water. This was what Retaf said, and Mary believed him blindly.

The dragon had a thousand different types of tea, including those that his dragon friends from China had given him, but strangely when Mary was there they always drank Earl Gray. The most common and easy to find brand.

The dragon finished drinking, then looked at the large sundial that hung on the wall.

“Okay, I'd say we still have twenty minutes, before- Of course, I'll tell you a story. Would you like an epic story, a sad story or a romantic story? ”

"Can't we have all three?" Mary asked.

"Only a great storyteller could give you all three." Retaf said solemnly. "You're lucky to know me."

So Mary spent the following twenty minutes listening to the epic deeds of a wandering knight, an ancient war and an unstoppable love. Retaf could tell stories like nobody else.
He told her how the knight's beloved had been kidnapped by a chimera, and taken to the underworld. He told her how the knight had one eye, having lost the other during the snake war. He told her how the knight's world was shrouded in darkness, and how this darkness could only be vanquished by killing the chimera.

Then, just as Retaf was starting to tell her the story of how the knight had forged his magic sword, they heard a sound. It was low and unpleasant. Both recognized it immediately, with sadness. Mary would always imagine big black clouds covering the sun, when she heard it. It was like a horrible storm, which came at the end of every magic hour.

"It's him.." Retaf said. "The ogre. He's back."

Mary looked at her watch. It was two in the afternoon, almost on the dot. She always hoped he'd be late, but it rarely happened.

The sound went down and stopped. The ogre had finished parking. Mary started to cry.

“Retaf, can't I stay here with you? Just this once?"

Retaf hugged her, crying himself. Dragon tears were golden, bright and absolutely beautiful.

"Oh, my dear. How I'd like that. I'm sorry. I wish I could always protect you, not just during the magic hour. "

The sound of the door opening came from downstairs.

"Mary!" An unpleasant and slurring voice screamed. "I'm back!"

Mary sobbed. He was drunk again. She didn't know how he managed to drink so much, between when he left work and when he got home, but he managed to do it almost every day.

However, Mary did not respond to her father. Slowly, she stopped clutching the dragon-shaped doll and stepped out of her box. It was a simple cardboard box, which she had coloured green using crayons.

Quietly, she put the box and the dragon back in the closet.

"Mary! Are you there? You better not be playing in that fucking box! You're too old for that! And there'll be hell to pay if you brought the pastries to your room! "

The heavy footsteps of her father began to be heard as he climbed the stairs. As always, Mary would have liked to hide, but as always there was nowhere to hide.

The girl sat on the bed, trembling, hoping that he wouldn't hurt her too much, that day. She wanted to see Retaf again. She wanted to hear how the knight's story ended.

The door to her room opened, and her father entered. He smelled of alcohol and sweat, and had an unkempt beard.

"Here you are, little bitch." He told her. "Why didn't you answer me?"

Mary said nothing. She no longer answered him. It made no difference, and she also did not want to give him the satisfaction.

Mary closed her eyes. The magic hour was over.

THE END