#rakshiv

“Your atmosphere contains oxygen,” she explained calmly. “One of the constants of your universe is friction. Friction creates heat and stress and that, in turn, can ignite the oxygen, if used correctly.”

Without warning she brought down her other hand and snuffed the flame. Startled, Caedryn jumped back, and Rakshiv just grinned.

“Fire cannot exist without a fuel source. Without something to eat, it dies…”

She uncovered her palm and Caedryn hesitantly leaned in to see. The fire had gone, and the dragon’s once yellow palm was marred with streaks of burnt ochre. Confused he looked up at her, only to be met with her enigmatic grin.

“But oxygen is such an abundant fuel source, on this and many other planets, and if I rub the molecules together and excite them in just the right way…”  She trailed off and once again dragged her claw through the air, this time slower and more deliberate. Caedryn watched eagerly. He watched the slow movement of her claw, the nearly imperceptible point where she excited the molecules in the air, followed by a bright spark, a low bass ‘thunk’ and the ignition of oxygen that led to the fire. He stared at it, confused, trying to conceptualize the process that the ancient dragon had used.

“…But how?” he asked after a moment. Rakshiv cocked her head to the side.

“I just told you.”

“But…” he trailed off, unable to formulate his words. “How… How do you… I don’t understand.”

Rakshiv thought for a moment, the ball of fire playing games in her hand, but didn’t have an answer.

“HOW do you do it?” asked Caedryn, exasperated. Rakshiv smiled benevolently. The flame licked playfully at her hand before going out.  

“I don’t know,” was her answer. “I just do.”

Caedryn was miffed. All that explanation and demonstration for nothing. He glared at her and she smiled back, her tail wrapped around her body like a long fire coloured snake. He opened his mouth, closed it, looked away, inspected the sky, glared at her.

“One of these days,” he said, pointing at her. “One of these days I’ll get your secrets you… You…”

“You what?”

She was smiling, always smiling, as though his petty concerns and peeves were nothing to her. Caedryn had no words, and with a smile she stood and stretched before promptly phasing out of local time-space, leaving him once again alone.

“Don’t be so eager to learn everything,” she said, her ethereal voice echoing through the trees like a ghost. “It’ll all come in time, my friend. All in time…”

He started walking back to the village, not sure if he wanted to feel angry or awed at the powers she seemed to take for granted.

“Caedryn…”

The ethereal whisper caught him off guard and he stopped, looking around. The dragon was nowhere to be seen.

“Caedryn Thalos…”

She appeared slowly, melting into reality like a ghost. First her eyes, then her grin, then her face, then the rest of her. A slow splash of vibrant red perched in the tree before him, tail hanging lazily from the branches. Caedryn smirked.

“Are you sure you are not a spirit?”

She phased out of local space time only to appear a moment later beside him, as though nothing had happened.

“I’ve been called a spirit on other worlds,” she said softly. They began their trip back to the village again. “I’ve been called a spirit, a ghost, a demon. A malicious trickster, a playful entity. I’ve been called so many things… I don’t even know what I am.”

“But you’re you.”

She looked down at him and smiled.

“Yes,” was her response. “I am me.”

For a moment their walk was quiet. Far off, between the leaves, they caught the sight of smoke hanging lazily in the sky. The village. It had come a lot faster than Rakshiv had expected, and even though mere moments earlier she had been filled with so much joy, instead at the sight of it she felt a familiar weight in her heart: fear. Caedryn noticed the shift in her walk and looked up at her.

“You are afraid,” he said. A statement, not a question. Rakshiv faltered as they got closer, hung back. The feathers on her head laid themselves down, making her look much smaller. Gently he put a paw on her side and smiled up at her.

“Do not be afraid. They are my family. My friends. They are your friends, too.”

His kind words didn’t help.

“But I’m not like you…” she whispered, before stepping back and fading out of reality. For a moment Caedyrn stood, staring at the place where she was and yet wasn’t. She would follow him, he knew. Follow him simply because she had nowhere else to go and watch like a ghost behind a veil.

“If you are sure…”

And he turned and entered the village, his stride strong and confident even while Rakshiv stood small and vulnerable in her alter-verse.

I want to go… But I can’t…

I want to…