Dragon Kin 2

17

Carmen

"Every time I show up, it feels like there should be a reason." Standing in the dragon's cave again, I watched my dreams and looked out at the dark spires of the near-by peaks. What geological event could cause peaks to look like that? Reaching out like that, to scrape the sky with Gothic architecture.

"Not everything needs one," Extos said, from behind me as we watched the day's experiences being indexed and matched and connected and weighed.

"So, um, causation?" I asked. We had been discussing various topics for more than an hour. I felt like I had worked the stair-stepper for that long.

When I showed up I was a wreck. Total locomotive derailment. I had never had dreams of this nature. I felt strongly that we were either somehow on an actual ledge in the middle of a melodramatic mountain range where the peaks hewed the clouds below — spiked spear heads of war ... or ... we were both in the back of my mind on a ledge in my skull. Which would mean I had a dragon in my brain.

"Are reasons, causes?" Extos recited. "Then perhaps there is a reason for everything that happens to you, but it doesn't follow that the reason has anything to do with you."

I took philosophy. Had to. It's good to know for note taking... I guess. Reasons kept me sane. They told me that there's an order at work in the world.

My childhood indoctrination was into the church of a god of order.

I liked order. Order was good.

Extos' deep voice felt good on my soul. Vibrations from his voice massaged my deep tissue. Close my eyes and it is difficult to know where his voice is coming from. The cavern filled with his resonance. Extos, the underworld. Extos the dragon that lived there. Was that true? Hmm, I didn't know.

"You made the bonding." It took a moment to realize I blurted that out loud.

Several moments later, he said, "Yes."

When is my mind going to stumble upon something taboo and get me in real trouble when it blurted out? He was a dragon. A large, massive creature. A little bigger than a blue whale.

I stepped back a little.

"Careful of the edge, I'm not sure what would happen to you if you fell. You might just hover there. You might fall to your doom. Can't see for certain," Extos advised.

I looked over my shoulder and saw I was inches from the edge. I stepped forward, and then recalled I was stepping toward the dragon.

Which was the larger danger?

"You are nervous this time. Yet, everything has already been done, for now," Extos pointed out.

"Has it? That's nice," I said. "You said the bonding was a call. That we choose each other. You made the bonding. Do you know why I called to him?"

"That's a complex answer. I'm going to have to admit, I don't. It's not just one thing or many things. It's everything."

"So, soul-mates," I ventured. "I heard Ocean doesn't like that term. Do you know about him?"

"The cambion? Yes, we've spoken a time or two. I've heard his thoughts on soul-mates, and I have to agree. The bonding isn't searching for your soul mate. It is you calling out to the one that can help you become your greatest self. It is a calling, and answering, and a promise."

"Promise? What promise?"

"To complete of course. Not to fail the other, not to give up on yourself or him."