Zefir’enel woke with a cry, her bed soaked with sweat and tears on her face, salty in her mouth. Her nose was clogged and her heart racing like she’d run a race. The symptoms of her body were nothing compared to the whirlwind of her mind, though.
The young woman scrambled out of her bed, uncaring of the noise she’d make or who she woke as she grabbed the first pair of pants that presented themselves on her clothes-strewn floor and then a bra and a red tank-top. She threw took off her sleep clothes and put what she’d grabbed on before snatching her pocket-knife out of her dresser drawer and heading toward the door and down the hall.
She’d just flown down the stairs and was heading toward the front door when her sister’s haughty voice stopped her. “And just where do you think you’re going?
Zefir’enel’s heart pounded but it wasn’t in fear for being caught. It was with urgency and a terror that made her body shake and her mind race. “Out.” She snapped the reply to her younger sister with impatience as she started to walk toward the door once more.
She could hear the glare in Firsa’leenya’s voice. “You’re not allowed outside after nine.” Zefir’enel ignored her sibling as she punched in the key-code she’d learned on the door long ago. It was supposed to only be used in an emergency, like in the case of a fire, but Zefir’enel had used it more often than that and frequently.
As she pushed the code in now, she heard Firsa’leenya come closer and then her sister’s voice was rising in a shrill way, like their mother’s did. “What are you doing?! Stop it! I’ll tell mom and dad!”
Zefir’enel looked at her fifteen year old sister then and her mind absently compared them like it was wont to. They both had the same violet eyes, but Firsa’leenya’s were a lighter shade, breathtakingly beautiful like the clear sky above them. Zefir’enel knew her own were dark and much too shadowed, dull. Her sister’s hair was a rich gold and shimmered whichever way she turned, curled at the ends and tweaked to perfection. It never seemed to be out of place. Zefir’enel’s hair was white and much too long according to her mother. It never did as it was told, waving and tweaking when it should curl. It was a mess of broken ends and tangled and most-often it was put up in a braid. Firsa’leenya was thin, her skin smooth and glowing with a tan, perfect whereas Zefir‘enel‘s body was curvier and her skin was covered in nicks and scars from her active life. Her sister was perfect and everything Zefir’enel was not.
But in this moment, Zefir’enel didn’t see that like she had before. She saw nothing but a spoiled little girl where her younger sister stood and in that moment Zefir’enel could not have been more disgusted with the majority of her family.
She smirked and yanked the door open. “Go ahead.”
She didn’t wait to see what Firsa’leenya would do as she disappeared out the door and started to run down the dimly-lit streets. The city was silent, the signs turned off and only the dull yellow streetlights giving enough of a glow to see. The nights in Ruuk were silent, haunting and the only life to be seen was the movement of the police, both human and robotic, as they patrolled the streets, keeping the curfew in affect.
Zefir’enel was careful to avoid them, knowing their routines by now and how to move through the streets unseen. Her breath came in frantic gasps though as she darted through the City, working toward her destination. She couldn’t be too late. She couldn’t! The words kept repeating in her mind like a chant as she tried to keep from crying again, focusing solely on her task.
The young woman had never had such a terrifying vision and if it killed her, she would not let it come to pass!
She finally came to the place she sought, the Fire Station, and Zefir’enel burst into the building, bypassing the person at the desk entirely as she ran into the back rooms, violet eyes searching frantically for the one face she needed to see.
Men looked up at her as she came into a lounge room, a place for the Fire Fighters to relax between jobs, but Zefir’enel didn’t see the one person she wanted and she turned to leave, to keep searching. One of the men was quick enough to recognize her, though, and grabbed her arm.
“Zefir’enel!? What are you doing here? What’s wrong?”
Wide violet eyes, scared and near-panicked almost didn’t recognize the face they looked into and then the name came to Zefir’enel and she grabbed the wrist of the hand that held her arm. “Michal’nos, where is my brother?!”
The dark-haired man blinked in surprise and searched her face before he answered, seeing her urgency, feeling the pulse that pounded under his hand. The young woman was truly scared about something. “He’s getting ready to leave. We had a call.”
Zefir’enel made something between a whimper and a gasp before she wrenched out of Michal’nos’ hold and darted away, down the halls and toward where she knew the transporters were located. Her blood roared in her ears and every step felt like a drumbeat in her skull. Her feet hit the ground much too slowly and it felt like the entire world seemed to slow as she rounded the corner and saw her brother readying to step on to the platform that would send him to his next fire.
Zefir’enel knew it would be to his death this time.
“Bor’sanin!!” She screamed his name as he stepped forward and her brother whirled around, startled and then shocked as he saw her. He caught her in his arms as she collided with him, holding on tightly and starting sob, fear and relief warring in her mind so that she could hardly breathe, could hardly think at all.
It only occurred to Zefir’enel after few minutes that she was scaring her brother badly and he was trying to get her to talk to him, to tell him what was wrong. Was it mother? Father? Their sister? Had someone died? Had there been an accident? What was wrong?!
The young woman could only shake her head, but though her body shook, she pulled back from her brother and tried to gain some control, wiping her eyes and her nose with the back of her hand. She knew she looked terrible, wearing dirty clothes, her body sweaty and her hair in disarray from bed. She didn’t wear any shoes, something that hadn’t mattered with the smooth streets, but must have made an odd sight. Her eyes were puffy and she couldn’t stop shaking.
It was no wonder Bor’sanin was looking at her with so much worry right now and Zefir’enel tried to offer him a watery smile, trying to get words past her somehow raw throat. Talking felt like a task completely beyond her. Bor’sanin seemed to see that, too and he looked over her head at the men who’d followed her from the lounge. One of the other Fire Fighters nodded and started to get ready, taking his place and Bor’sanin gave the man a grateful nod as he took his sister around the shoulders and led her out of the transport room and into an empty one down the hall.
It was a medical room for those who could not make it to the hospital and for minor injuries sustained in the job. Bor’sanin made Zefir’enel sit on the exam table and then he took her shoulders gently, looking at her with a stern, but worried expression.
“Take deep breaths and calm down. Deep breaths.”
The young woman nodded and started to do as she was told and soon her breathing had evened out and she’d stopped shaking so badly. As her heart rate began to slow, the words started to come back to her, but she now feared saying them, explaining. Unfortunately, her brother wanted answers, she could see it in his face as he sat on the stool and wheeled it over so that he was in front of her, raising a brow.
“All right, what’s going on?”
“I..I had to see you.” Zefir’enel whispered, not thinking she could get her voice any higher and Bor’sanin frowned, unsatisfied and for good reason. “Zefir’enel, it is one in the morning, you are dressed in the same shirt you wore earlier today, you look like you just rolled out of bed and I would have thought someone was dying from the way you burst in here. What. Is. Going. On?”
He made sure to enunciate every word and Zefir’enel flinched at every single one, knowing she was not going to get out of this. She wasn’t going to be able to lie or haw and hem. She needed to tell him. She needed to tell SOMEONE. But the words were so hard to say after so long of silence and she started to fidget with her fingers, tears slipping down her cheeks. She was scared beyond reason. She could be killed for what she was about to tell her brother.
She lifted her violet eyes to his brown ones, cherishing the love she saw there, the worry and fondness if also confusion. She wanted to keep those looks close to her heart. She might not seem them again after tonight.
“I had…a dream that you…died. In a fire. The b-building was the Animal Museum and one of the exhibits fell on you. You couldn’t get away in time.” Her voice shook as she relayed the dream, finding that she could remember every detail, feel the heat of the flames and hear the cracking and breaking as the exhibit fell. She could smell the smoke and hear the scared cry from her brother, his last utterance echoing in her ears so that she wanted to shake them away and just rock while she cried for what could have been.
She’d changed it. She’d changed it, but it could have been and it was something horrible to think about it. And now it was made worse because her brother was looking at her in a strange way. He didn’t say anything at first, standing and pulling her into his arms, hugging her tightly. She returned the gesture at first, but then he spoke.
“It was just a dream, Moon. I am sorry it scared you so much, but it was just a dream.”
Zefir’enel pushed away from him then, suddenly angry. “No. No, do you think I would freak out over a mere dream!? Do you think me so hysterical!? No! This was not JUST a dream!”
Bor’sanin gave her a look and shook his head. “It had to have been, Zefir’enel. It was just a dream.”
“It was a vision!” she spat back, standing from the table and the young woman watched her brother’s face morph from confusion to fear and then to warning. He came close to her so they were nearly nose to nose…well, she had to look up at him, but close enough.
“You should not speak about such things. Not even as a joke, Zefir’enel!” His words were hissed, a worried brother for a sister, but the young woman looked at him with determination. “It is not a joke.”
“Yes, it is! I was just a dream, sister!” Bor’sanin gripped her shoulders, shaking her slightly as if he could shake some sense into her. He was scared, Zefir’enel could see it in his eyes, in the way he held her so tightly, in the way he kept glancing around and toward the door. And suddenly her own fear was gone.
“Is this a dream then?” Zefir’enel stepped back from her brother and unzipped her pants just enough to loosen them as her brother watched her with a disturbed expression, looking like he wanted to ask what the hell she was doing. He never got the words out of his mouth as the young woman let her tail slip up from her leg and then her pants, and it uncurled like a snake, the tip twitching in the air as Zefir’enel raised her brow.
“If I’m dreaming then so are you.”
Bor’sanin’s mouth had dropped open slightly as he looked at his sister, his eyes saying he was finally seeing her for the first time and then his brown orbs were steadying, no longer surprised, but accepting and the words that next came from his mouth startled Zefir’enel.
“I believe you. Now hide it again before someone walks in.”
The young woman narrowed her eyes but did as she was told and Bor’sanin watched the process before he shook his head, running his hand through his hair as he started to pace and Zefir’enel hoisted herself back on the exam table, waiting.
“You’re not going to turn me in?”
Her brother snorted in a short laugh. “I’d have to turn myself in if I did that.”
“What?”
Bor’sanin grinned then and Zefir’enel watched with amazement as he held out his hand and fire started to flicker along his arm. She felt a shiver go through her body, an excited feeling as she looked up into his brown eyes with her own wide ones, amazed like she was a young child again. “You too?” She barely breathed the words, but her sibling nodded, the fire leaving.
“There are a few of us hiding securely. We look after one another and we keep each other safe. I am sorry, Moon. If I had known you were one, I would have come for you sooner.”
“One? One what?”
“A mutant. There are many of us cropping up, so many that the Government is finding it hard to come up with excuses for ‘missing people’ these days.” Bor’sanin said the words in disgust and he had stopped pacing at this point, leaning back against a wall with his arms crossed, appearing perfectly in control of the situation. It confused Zefir’enel and she narrowed her eyes at him.
“All right, I don’t understand you. You were all panicked when you DIDN’T believe me about what I said I saw about you and now that you DO believe me, everything is fine?”
Her brother sighed. “When I thought you were just talking it scared me because you could have been in danger for saying such things and without an actual power to back up your claims, those with gifts would not have helped you.”
“And now they will?”
“Yes.”
Zefir’enel looked down, frowning at the white linoleum as she tried to make sense of what was going on. Everything seemed to be moving too fast and she didn’t understand the twists her life seemed to be about to take. “What if I don’t want help? I’ve made it two years without any help.” she said with a proud tilt of her chin and Bor’sanin smiled.
“And that is admirable, but little sister, you’ve never admitted out loud what you were either, have you?.”
The young woman crossed her arms. “What does that have to do with anything. No one can hear us now. It‘s still a secret!”
Now her brother gained a serious look, one that actually scared Zefir’enel a little as he pushed away from the wall and walked forward. “That’s not true. There is no privacy, Moon. There hasn’t been any for us since birth.” He was before her now and he reached for her head, a questioning look on his face when she pulled back a little. They looked at each other for a long moment before Zefir’enel finally let him tilt her face to the side and his fingers reached behind her ear, feeling for something. She knew instantly when he’d found it because she felt it too quite suddenly.
Bor’sanin kept his finger on the bump under her skin and looked at her until she reached up to feel it too. “That is a chip. It is inserted into us when we are born. It has all our information, every movement we’ve made, every conversation we’ve had. The only thing it doesn’t have are our thoughts. The Government can’t monitor every chip personally, but the chip is keyed to pick up on certain words and certain images. You’ve probably already triggered it today and the Government will have access to anything you’ve done in the last two years, Moon , and beyond that, too.”
Zefir’enel felt cold, like the blood had drained out of her as she listened to her sibling and she looked up at him with suddenly scared eyes. “How…what I am I going to do?”
Her brother’s brown eyes, so steady and sure as they looked back into her own calmed her heart. “You’re going to come with me. I have friends who will help remove the chip, but after that, you can’t go back home.”
“That’s what you did. You got your chip removed.” It was suddenly so clear to her now. Her brother hadn’t come home to PROTECT her and their family! It wasn’t because he was so busy. It was because he was staying under the radar and going back home was risky! And now he was telling her she had to live the same life if she wanted to stay safe and to live, and while it scared Zefir’enel, it also excited her in a way she’d always wanted to feel.
Her violet eyes rose to meet Bor’sanin’s then, resolved and strong, determined and stubborn. “Okay. I will trust you. I will go with you.”
Her brother smiled and kissed her forehead. “Good girl.” He reached out and she took his hand, hopping down from the table and following him out the door as he looked down the hallway. They snuck through the Fire Station and out one of the back entrances, and Bor’sanin led them along the dark streets until they came to the transporters that would take them to the second circle. Zefir’enel wanted to question just how he thought they were going to use them since the machines were shut off at night, but her brother surprised her once more as he punched in a code that had one of the devices whirling to life.
He motioned her to hurry onto the platform and Zefir’enel closed her eyes, feeling a wave of nausea as they disappeared from the first circle and then appeared again on an older, less shiny platform in the second circle. The streets here were just as devoid of movement, but Bor’sanin made them walk quickly down the streets and he finally pulled her to a red building with a door exactly like all the others around it. Unlocking it, he led her inside and then locked the metal door securely.
Zefir’enel blinked as the light was turned on and looked around the simple apartment. It had a run-down couch and a coffee-table in the living room, nothing else. In the kitchen was a simple transport machine for food delivery, some dirty dishes in the sink and a water purifier attached to the faucet in the sink. A hallway led off to what looked to be one bedroom and Zefir’enel would bet anything it was as simple and brown as anything else in this place.
“Is this your-”
“Home? No. This is a temporary safe-house for new mutants. One of many. We bring you here when you still have the chip and if this place gets raided later, the police find nothing to help them. I can’t take you to any of our real homes until the chip is gone.”
Zefir’enel nodded, understanding and she cautiously sat on the edge of the couch as her brother disappeared into the bedroom down the hall. He emerged a few minutes later dressed in jeans and a dark blue button-down shirt, having changed out of his uniform. He got a glass of water from the kitchen and then another, handing it to her as he sat on the opposite end of the sofa.
Zefir’enel didn’t drink, watching him, suddenly feeling very overwhelmed and unsure. She curled her bare toes into the rough carpet and turned her gaze to the water in her hand. What was she doing here? Was this really the right choice? She continued to stare at the water like it might give her the answers. Bor’sanin’s voice soon made her look back at him, though, and she saw not the confident mutant-rebel her sibling had transformed into but her BROTHER. It was instantly reassuring.
“Hey, Moon, I never did ask; What exactly can you do?”
The young woman sighed, something like relief and preparation in the sound as she sat back on the couch and pulled her legs up, absently running her hand down the tail she could feel under her pants. Bor’sanin watched the movement, suddenly knowing why she’d done it before in his presence.
“Well, the tail…I can’t really use it all that often, but I can make it wrap around things, big or small, doesn’t matter and I have really good balance because of it.” Zefir’enel picked at the skin on her fingers, frowning. “The dreams and the visions. Those are newer and they are different from each other and not the same thing.”
“What do you mean?”
She now had her brother’s full attention and for the first time since she’d gotten her powers, Zefir’enel was allowed to TALK about them and she found she had a lot to say.
“See, the visions I understand. They’re of the future. I can see anyone, but I usually like to focus more on the people on this level of Ruuk. They are the ones who need help and I think my desire to help them can control my gift to a degree. I don’t know for sure, but I haven’t got to test the theory yet either.” The young woman scowled at her water as if it was the cause for her trouble and then pushed her white hair back behind her ear, knowing it wasn’t doing much in making it look better, but her attention on something entirely different than her looks. It usually was.
“I can’t make the visions come and I can’t make them stop when they do come. They make me shake and convulse, and I can’t see anything but the vision. Some people have seen me having a vision, but I can always explain it away. They usually happen at night, when I am tired, sometimes when I am sleeping, but sometimes the dreams come instead.”
“The dreams? Aren’t they visions, too?”
“No.” Zefir’enel put her water down and stood, feeling the need to move as she spoke, her hands gesturing as she did so. “No, the dreams are different. They are both about the past and present, but not the future. They aren’t visions and I’ve only been having them for a few days. They don’t feel like my gift, but something much more powerful.”
“What are they about?” her brother asked, his eyes following her movement and Zefir’enel glanced at him with a blush spreading across her cheeks and she cleared her throat, looking away.
“A man. They are all about the same man.” She hurried to say more as her sibling’s brows shot up on his face. “It’s not like that! I don’t feel anything like...that for him! It’s just…I don’t know him, but I see his life so clearly. I’ve never seen him before, though, not even in passing. He doesn’t live in a City.”
“In this City, you mean?”
“No. In ANY City, Bor’sanin. He doesn’t live under the domes. He lives on the outside, in gray mountains.” the young woman whispered, seeing not her brother but the black-haired, pale green-eyed man who’d haunted her dreams for nights now. She was honest when she said she didn’t feel anything romantic for him, not even fleetingly. But she did feel SOMETHING for him. What it was, she couldn’t explain, but she knew she did.
And it wasn’t just curiosity for him and the world he lived in, though, that was part of it. It was the connection she felt with him, a person she’d never met, that drew her in and made her wonder. But how could she explain that to her brother when all he seemed interested in was the idea of someone living outside the domes?
“Don’t you see, Zefir’enel! If you’re seeing people outside the domes, then it really does confirm that people can live outside of the Cities. Mutants could leave the Cities and be free of the Government.”
“Perhaps.” Zefir’enel said it to appease him as she paid attention to his words again, but truly she did not know what she thought about such an idea and she really wasn’t up to thinking about it tonight. She yawned, gaining her brother’s attention and he stood. “Come on, Moon. You sleep and I’ll keep watch tonight. I will introduce you to some of the others soon. Sea might understand better what you are talking about than I do anyway.”
The young woman smiled and nodded, agreeing, though, she had no idea who he was talking about. It really didn’t matter right now, though. What mattered was the bed, though old-fashioned and dreary with its gray blanket, was clean and softer than it looked when she laid on it. What mattered was that her brother now understood what was going on in her life and she understood that she wasn’t alone.
What mattered was that even though she might never get to go home again, she was safe. That’s what mattered.
Zefir’enel went to sleep knowing she was looked after and that no matter what happened tomorrow, things were going to work out. They just were.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
He woke feeling alert and nausea-free, without a headache or that hazy feeling that often occupied his mind after he’d been sick. There was nothing. Nothing that might indicate he’d felt like crap the last time he’d been awake…and that was something to be interested about in Caln’s way of thinking.
He woke himself up more fully and raised his head from his arms, gray eyes quickly flickering about their surrounding area. Caln relaxed his coiled muscles as he saw a campfire and around it the six members of his tribe. It was growing dark around them and colder, but his people looked to be just fine and Weln glanced over toward him and then did a double-take before she smiled and rose from her spot by the fire to come to his side.
Her action caught the others’ attention and they looked over as well as she crouched by her brother’s side and without a word, felt his forehead. Caln batted her hand away, frowning. “I’m fine.”
Weln crossed her arms and the War-Leader sat up, shaking his head and running his hand through dark blond hair that he knew had to be sticking up all over the place. “Really, I am. I don’t feel sick at all.”
“Headache?” That was Caab, venturing over as well and Caln shook his head again. “None. Where are we?”
He was looking around again, but in the dark it was hard to make out exactly where they might be and when he looked up he didn’t see even a glimmer of the stars. They were…underground?
“We’re in the first cavern you led us to, in the Haaprin Mountains.”
Right. The cave. Wait…the dragons. The girl!
Caln sat up further, instantly on alert as he scanned the faces around him, but when he didn’t see the one he’d hoped to, he relaxed again. Okay, more like slumped, but he’d never actually admit to that. His gray eyes met his sibling’s black and brown ones. “Did I dream it? The dragons, did I dream them?”
“You sure didn’t, Caln. They’re here, further down in the caverns, but we weren’t sure if Caab could keep them from advancing on us while you were unconscious so we moved back up here.” Danil answered. He might have looked like he wasn’t paying much attention to the conversation as he hid behind a curtain of red hair, but though he was the quietest member in the small group, he was also the one who had the most thoughtful things to say and could usually be counted on for good advice.
Caln let out a breath of relief that only his siblings heard before he looked between Weln and Caab. “And the girl?” He felt like his heart couldn’t even beat as the two looked at each other and then back at him and he wondered if his hope shone in his gaze.
Weln finally nodded, watching her brother closely. She’d never seen him so anxious for an answer before and the fifteen year old was starting to wonder if it was the dragons they’d been trying to find at all and not something - or someone - else entirely. “She’s with the dragons. She did something to you.”
Caln’s hand immediately went to his collarbone without prompt. He could almost feel the place the girl had touched. The memory was hazy in his mind, but there was now a connection of some sort that he could feel between them and he just knew where her fingers had been against his skin. And he somehow knew that yes, she had done something to him, but what it was…he could not have said.
“Has she been here since then?” How long had it been anyway?
“She came peeking into the cave yesterday, but we haven’t seen her since then.” Fara answered with a shrug.
Caln nodded, thoughtful before he stood, much to the surprise of his siblings, and grabbed a torch from his pack. He crouched to light it with the campfire and Weln put her hands on her hips, a scowl on her face. “And just WHERE do you think you’re going? You were just sick!”
“I’m not sick anymore. And I won’t be again.” Caln replied calmly and cast his sister a glance when she stared at him, uncomprehending. “I can’t explain it, but I know it‘s true. I won‘t be sick again.” He stood once more, every movement fluid and sure in a way it hadn’t been in months. “That girl is the reason I came here. I know I am here, with her, for a reason and I need to find out what that reason is.”
He didn’t expect them to understand. He barely understood himself, but Caln’s mind was made up and his tribe could clearly see that. They didn’t try to stop him as he started down the rock tunnel, but after looking at each other, Caab and Asin silently followed their War-Leader with Caab giving Weln a warning look to stay put.
Caln moved down the tunnel in a sure way and Asin wasn’t the only one who saw that the War-Leader didn’t need to follow the charcoal lines that had been made. He seemed to know the direction to go instinctively and they soon arrived back in the heated, glowing red cavern with the magma pools below and the dragons laying about, soaking up the constant heat.
Gray eyes wandered over the creatures, searching, paying little heed to the animals themselves in favor of their goal. Caln could feel her, sense her. She was here and close. He didn’t know how he knew this, but he knew some things were beyond explanation at this point and now that he was HERE, it almost didn’t seem to matter that he didn’t exactly understand what was gong on.
The War-Leader was the only one who didn’t start with surprise when the girl seemed to drop from the rock ceiling to land right in front of them on her hands and feet in a crouch. Her red-brown hair flew about her and then settled wildly around her shoulders, down her back and around her face.
Asin and Caab had taken a step back, hands instinctively going to their weapons, but Caln had not moved and now he and the wild girl looked at each other, searching for something even they could not identify the name of. All Caln knew was that looking into the young woman’s amber eyes was like looking into the sun. They seemed to draw his eyes even as he wanted to look away for the intensity her gaze. She seemed to burn like fire, passionate and uncontrollable, but there was a strange gentleness to her as well, a welcoming quality underneath the scorching heat.
He felt the power inside him, suppressed from full potential for so long by the frailty of his own body, rising up to meet her fire. But as of yet, the two strong wills seemed unable to touch, not really, but the idea was enough to draw them both like moths, neither understanding what was going on, but wanting to know more.
Caln watched the girl rise to a standing position, her posture surprisingly straight and her head up, proud. Somehow, the dark blond was more than sure that she knew exactly what she was, that she was like them and yet not like them all at the same time and he found a smile curling at his lips. He spoke in a low voice, never taking his eyes from the amber ones that burned into his gray.
“Caab, can you tell her we are friends and ask her what her name is?”
The girl hadn’t even seemed to really look at either Caab or Asin, her eyes only for Caln, but the War-Leader was positive that she knew they were there and he could see how her body coiled, ready to fight or flee at the slightest provocation.
He saw his brother shake his head from the corner of his eye. “It doesn’t really work like that, Caln. There are only so many words these creatures actually share among themselves and most of these ‘words’ are more impressions and ideas than actual speech.”
Caln frowned, finally taking his eyes off the girl to look at his brother, raising a brow. “Say again?”
Caab sighed and started trying to explain a power that was complicated to understand and relay to someone who had an inkling of what he was talking about. Explaining it to Caln…was just going to be a headache.
“To simply put it, I could tell her that we are ‘not-prey’ and also that we are ‘hunter’, but trying to explain that we are both not something to eat and predators like the dragons AND don’t pose any sort of threat to her would be like us…trying to wrap our minds around what the word ‘infinity’ means. It’s….complicated for the dragons to comprehend. To them, prey is prey and a hunter is a hunter. To be able to get along with a hunter that is not a dragon is almost unthinkable to them.”
Caln crossed his arms and sighed, letting the tension inside go as he knew this could potentially be a loooong conversation with Caab. Things like this always were, but he HAD asked this time. He looked back over at the girl and saw, with some surprise, that as he’d relaxed his body, she’d done the same, watching him.
He tilted his head, a slight smile forming on his face before he looked back at his brother - but not before he saw the wild girl tilt her own head to imitate his. “She’s human, though. Her intelligence is above the dragons, right?”
Caab rubbed his temples, looking down at the stone floor in a clear sign of frustration and an effort to be patient. “Technically, yes, but…humans are raised among humans. We learn how to think in words and how to pick up communications skills from those around us. It appears this girl might have been raised here. She shows no verbal skills, her behavior is much like the dragons’ own and she is overly curious about us. If she learned from an early age the ways of those around her, it would stand to reason that her ‘language’ is that of the dragons. She might think differently than we do, maybe in pictures or instinctive urges.”
Caln was frowning again, gray eyes narrowing. “So she can’t learn to talk?”
“No, no! That’s not it. Look at her.” Caab gestured to the girl with his hand and she showed her teeth to him, hissing. Caab ignored the sound. “She’s curious about us in the same way a child would be. The human mind is always developing, always trying to understand the world around it. Her mind might have developed differently due to her raising, but that doesn’t mean she can’t be taught new things.”
“She’s already figured out that you’re the one to watch, Caln.” Asin pointed out with something like a laugh in his voice and Caln looked back at the girl to see that her arms were crossed and she was watching all of them with a narrowed-eyed look. Just like he’d been doing.
Caln couldn’t help the smile he showed, watching her and she looked back at him. He tilted his head experimentally and she tilted her head, back studying. He uncrossed his arms and she slowly did the same thing a moment later. Caln spoke quietly again, watching her. “Is there any way to find out her name?”
“She might not have one.”
The War-Leader glanced at his brother with a raised brow, exasperated and Caab sighed, rolling his eyes, but turning his attention to the girl. He started to growl after a moment, following the sound with a few chirps and a warble.
Amber eyes blinked at him for a moment and then the girl started to laugh in a warbling way and she uttered a series of chirps and whistles before looking back at Caln and chirping in a way that could have been a chuckle. A moment later she was gone, leaping off the ledge and scampering to the floor below and weaving among the dragons.
Caln watched her and then looked back at his brother, thoroughly confused. Caab only shook his head, highly amused. “I tried to ask what her call was. Each dragon has one, a certain whistle or chirp or warble that identifies them.”
“And?”
“She called me a dragonling. I think she means my speech.”
This time it was Caln who could not help chuckling.
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She had been happy to see him, the gray-eyed stranger. She didn’t know why, but when he’d appeared on the ledge, she hadn’t hesitated to go toward him, to show herself. He’d appeared healthy, no longer sick and in pain and her heart had been happy to see it, though, she did not know why that was.
And she’d been happy to see the spirit in his gray eyes. It was like the fire-ones’ spirit. It was like a flame, hot and strong, destructive and safe all at once. His eyes blazed with the spirit inside him, but she felt like she was the only one who could truly see it.
She’d stood when in his presence. It seemed wrong to crouch, to be looking up to him. Their hearts were equals, she could feel it in a way she’d never felt with any of the fire-ones before. She was always the young one with them. They were more powerful than she and she had always been submissive with them. She was coming into adulthood now and trying to find her place. Her spirit was testing the limits it must keep in the pack and the strength of the others around her.
Now her own spirit seemed to want to rise up to meet the gray-eyed stranger’s in a challenging way…but also in a soft way, in an understanding way. She was curious about him, was drawn to him in a way she could not explain and she had to wonder if this was the mating call the other fire-ones always felt. She had never thought to feel it. She was a child of the fire-ones but she was not a fire-one. She knew that. She was stranger, but not a stranger at the same time.
She looked like they looked, but her heart had never called to one of theirs. Was that what it was doing now? She thought maybe it was for when the gray-eyed stranger looked at her, she felt like she could trust him, like she was supposed to be with him, to follow him. Like she was home.
It was the most peculiar feeling. She’d never felt like that around a stranger before.
If it was the mating call, though, then she needed to understand more about the gray-eyed stranger. That was clear - mating call or not - for she understood nothing of what he did. His face kept changing, from something that looked angry to something that looked happier when he glanced at her and she found herself trying to find some pattern to the faces, but she could not.
He was already very confusing to her and she understood nothing of what he was saying. She knew the strangers’ range of sounds were much different than the fire-ones’ range. They seemed to communicate in more complicated ways, but she’d never been concerned about knowing what they were saying.
Until now.
She knew just by observation that the gray-eyed stranger was the alpha of his pack. The other members obeyed him and when he made sounds at them, they always answered back and their body-language was always respectful, submissive. Even when the gray-eyed stranger was relaxed, his demeanor was dominate, powerful.
And he affected everyone around him, she knew that just by how her own body had relaxed or stiffened with his own. Perhaps the strangers could sense these types of things, too, for they were all looking at her again as she shifted her positions slightly. The idea whirled slowly through her mind and she acted on it slowly, looking at the gray-eyed stranger carefully before she moved her arms in the same position he had his.
Perhaps, if they could not communicate through the same sounds, they might be able to do it through body-language? It was a new idea, but it would only work if she could figure out what each of their cues meant and how to apply them properly.
She watched the strangers look at her again and felt a thrill of excitement when the gray-eyed stranger started to look at her in that happy way again. He tilted his head, in a way that struck her as experimental and just to show him that she understood what he was doing, she did the same thing back at him and unfolded her arms when he did his.
He started making more sounds again and the gold-haired stranger beside him made sounds back before making an annoyed sort of face and turning to her. He started to growl and chirp at her and her eyes widened at the sounds he made.
Her call? Why would he want to know her call? He was not a fire-one! And his chirps were childish, rough and stammered, unconfident. They were funny!
She found herself warbling in amusement and chirped back at him that he was a very childish fire-one. He didn’t respond to that and she looked back at the gray-eyed stranger, unable to stop another chirp of amusement before she left.
She heard a sound that could only have been amusement from the ledge a minute or two later and warbled to herself again as she pressed against the hide of her mother, chirping back at the fire-one to show she was fine and hadn’t been hurt. Her amber eyes strayed back toward the ledge, though, where the strangers were disappearing back into the tunnel. She knew she probably should not have left, but the strangers had made her head spin from information in just a short time with them and every look from the gray-eyed one had made her want to stay, to follow him anywhere.
The feeling was frightening and she needed to think about it. She needed to decide what she was going to do because she wasn’t stupid, she could FEEL that something was changing. The fire-ones were restless these days and she had felt like something was happening for a while now. She dreamed of the white-eyed stranger all the time now. His spirit was calling her, too, but not in the same way the gray-eyed stranger’s spirit did.
She was going to have to choose to stay with her pack or go with the strangers, she knew she was. She’d known that for a great deal of time now.
She just wasn’t sure if she was ready or not for that big of a step of change in her life.
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Another chapter! :)
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