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Chapter 17: Dragon Blood
Kenric spent the next few months visiting this little village of humans. He saw in them what his own kind was missing, change. The dragons needed new blood, they needed different voices and opinions and ideas. Dragons would soon be left to history if they did not move forward with the world. They could no longer isolate themselves as two lone families left over from the war, they would wither and die. Kenric was convinced that Nova herself could start that change. But she was decidedly human. He could abandon his true dragon form and join humanity with minimal negative consequences but that would not solve the problems of the dragons, in fact, it would increase their problems as they would be down one more dragon.
If only he could turn Nova into a dragon. Could he turn Nova into a dragon? He was quite sure that it had never been done before but what did he have to lose? Well, Nova, for one. If he failed, he would certainly lose Nova. Would she even want to be a dragon? There was only one way to find out.
Kenric became the village story teller. He spent every night filling the villagers' heads with fantastical and magical tales of dragons in all their glory. He knew that the first step in wanting to become a dragon was fascination, curiosity, and love of all things dragon. He would go on “dragon scouts” and come back with his own dragon scales to show the people. Nova was increasingly invested in his nightly tellings, but surprisingly, many of the other villagers were too. Kenric had a regular crowd of about fifteen humans that were all becoming his “dragon crew.”
The humans were primed, they now think dragons are the coolest, most awesome and awe inspiring beings in existence, which they obviously are. Time for stage two. Dragon transformation. Only one problem, Kenric has no idea how to transform a human into a dragon. He has exactly one theory. Since dragons have magic in their blood that lets them transform into a variety of forms, including humans, perhaps if humans ingested enough dragon blood they would have the power to turn into dragons. But how much blood is enough blood? How do you convince humans to drink dragon blood? That’s pushing it a little too far, even for his dragon obsessed “dragon crew.” This is beginning to sound more and more cultish. “Drink the magic dragon blood and all your problems will be solved!” It sounded ridiculous, even in his head. Oh well, humans are weird, they might be into this weirdness.
The only thing to do is try. The next night, around the campfire, Kenric told a story of a human that turned into a dragon by drinking dragon blood. The story was epic and as he ended the whispers started. “That would be so cool. I would totally drink dragon blood if I could turn into a dragon.” “Where would you even get dragon blood?” “That’s totally gross, I don’t want to drink blood. Maybe you could bake the blood in something so it was less disgusting.” “Do you just have to drink blood once? How soon would we be able to fly?”
Kenric let the whispered conversations die out until he dramatically held up a cup. In the soft fire light the contents looked as black as night. “Who wants to go first?” He declared dramatically.
Nova, the trailblazer, was the first to speak up, “Where did you get that? Is it really dragon blood? You’re not messing with us, are you?”
“It really is dragon blood. I found it when I got the last scale. A dragon must have been injured and its blood pooled in a small rock bowl. I gathered what I could. I don’t know if we can really turn into dragons, but their blood is magical so. . . who wants to try first?” Kenric knew that in order for the humans to trust him, he would also have to participate in this little experiment. Hopefully, when they had been drinking blood for a while, he could walk them through the transformation process, pretending to transform for the first time.
“I’ll try, but if this is going to be a regular occurrence, I agree with Bertram, we should bake the blood in rolls so it’s not quite so. . . . vampirey.” Nova knew if she tried, the others would follow. She just hoped her father didn’t catch wind of their little “experiment.” Sure enough, as they passed the cup around, each member of the dragon crew drank a little blood, including Kenric. They all agreed it was disgusting, but no one wanted to lose face by refusing. Peer pressure at its finest. Kenric suggested they drink blood every day for one month and experiment to see if there were any dragon-like tendencies creeping in. The group agreed, and Nova was designated the blood baker. She whipped up a few experiments to make the blood more appetizing. Her best creation was a rose shaped roll with cranberry cream cheese frosting generously layered in between the “petals” of dough. The tart bite from the cranberry masked any lingering salty metal blood taste. These are the rolls that she made.
Cranberry Rose Rolls Recipe:
(No actual dragon blood was used in the creation or consumption of these rolls)
The dough recipe was inspired by this wool roll recipe by King Arthur baking. https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/filled-wool-roll-recipe
Dough Ingredients:
6 Tbsp whole milk
2 Tbsp bread flour
1 Tbsp yeast
¼ cup sugar
½ cup whole milk, warm
1 egg
4 tbsp softened butter
1 tsp salt
2 ½ cups bread flour
2 Tbsp milk for brushing before baking
Method:
Mix the 6 Tbsp milk and 2 Tbsp flour in a small saucepan over medium heat. Keep mixing until the mixture has thickened. Remove from heat. This is your Tangzhong, a Japanese style starter to make bread pillowy soft and last longer.
Mix your yeast, sugar, and remaining milk. Let sit for five mins.
Add in egg, butter, salt, and Tangzhong. Mix thoroughly.
Add in bread flour and knead until smooth. The dough will be very sticky, it should still stick to your hands slightly as you’re kneading.
Place in warm spot and let rise for 45 mins- 1 hour
While the dough is rising, make the filling.
Beat the cream cheese on high with mixer until smooth
Add the butter and mix until smooth
Gradually add the powdered sugar
Add the cranberry sauce, vanilla, and cinnamon
Chill until the dough is ready
Gently deflate dough and roll out into a large rectangle. Use a pizza cutter or whatever you so desire to cut into large squares. Cut ⅓ of the large squares in half so you have a small rectangle. Cut about half way in the large square on each side. (Just look at the pictures below.)
Place a Tablespoon of filling in the small rectangle and pinch the sides together to make a small ball.
Place the ball in the middle of the large square.
Spread a teaspoon of filling on each corner of the large square.
Wrap each corner around the ball in the middle. Voila. A Rose. To get rounder petals, make a larger large square so your petals can wrap around the middle more.
Place each rose in large muffin tin or loosely fill a round cake pan or pie pan
Let rise for 30 mins
Gently brush each rose with milk
Bake at 350 degrees for 25-28 mins (rotate half way through)
Remove from pan and place on cooling rack
Enjoy!
Filling Ingredients:
8 oz room temperature cream cheese
½ cup room temperature butter
About 4 cups powdered sugar
1 cup cranberry sauce
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp cinnamon
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