Mindshard (ON HOLD)

Chapter 7: The Drax

     Vaughn blinked in continuing astonishment.  Dragons?  Real live, fire-breathing, virgin-eating, knight-slaying dragons??  Yet there was no denying the presence of the massive creature in front of her, coiled around a rubbed smooth jut of stone.

  “I, I have three children.”  She stammered in a voice barely above a whisper.  “And was married for nearly six years.”

     The blurted confession earned her a querulous look from Ixim, clearly puzzled at her strange behavior.  The great beast curled on the floor in front of her, however, threw back its massive, reptilian head and roared with laughter, shaking the very walls around it with the force of its mirth.  Ixim hastily changed targets for his confusion.

  “Master?”  He said, staring at the dragon.

     The question, though hardly loud enough to be heard over the draconic laughter was somehow enough to bring the massive being’s mirth under control.  His body still shaking with hidden chuckles, he lowered his head to gaze with his massive golden, slit pupilled eyes at the frowning drax.

  “It’s an old story, Var Ixim.”  The dragon rumbled, his voice an avalanche of unleashed sound.  Then the eyes were falling onto Vaughn.

  “Much before your time.  Apparently not beyond the memory of this remarkable people, however.  Just to let you know, colonel, my people no longer eat virgins.”  He then leaned forward, bringing his head with those massive fangs uncomfortably close.

  “But you’ve certainly stimulated my curiosity as to what, exactly you do know about dragons.”  If there were any hesitation in using the label Vaughn had pulled from the depths of her childhood memory, she didn’t hear it.

  “For it seems you recognized me readily enough, though my people haven’t dealt with humans in millennia.”

  “Mostly from fairy tales, really.”  Vaughn began before stammering to a halt once again.  Wait a minute; did this dragon just say that they once had dealings with humans??

  “Fairy tales.”  The dragon chuckled again.  “An interesting choice of names, all things considered.”  Then he grew abruptly serious.  “Forgive me, colonel, I seem to have forgotten my manners in the depth of my amusement.  I so seldom laugh nowadays, it took me quite by surprise.”

     The dragon uncoiled itself from around the stone, which Vaughn then noticed was glowing a dull red.  Uncovered, it also radiated a great deal of heat, instantly bringing perspiration beading up on her forehead.  The dragon then reclaimed her attention by rustling its massive wings and settling down on its haunches in front of her, focusing every iota of its powerful gaze directly upon her.  Now fully revealed, the emerald green and burnished gold form of the dragon was quite magnificent.

  “I am called Crux, Master of the Ninth Order of Evideen and Lord of the Crimson Shadow.  And I have traveled thousands of parsecs to meet you, colonel.  For it’s been three lifetimes of a master since we last spoke with a human, shortly after the great migration from our home.”

  “Home?”  Vaughn squeaked.

  “Yes, colonel.  Home.  I believe it’s a little planet on the edge of the galaxy your people euphemistically call ‘Earth’.”

     Vaughn’s knees nearly buckled as Crux’s revelation rolled over her, a tidal wave of shock.  If dragons were actually from Earth, like the dragon claimed, then the possibility that other parts in the fairy tales she used to read as a child were true was now as undeniable as the dragon sitting calmly in front of her.

     But hold on!  If the dragons were from Earth, yet played a central part in the creation and maintenance of the Pax, did that also mean the Sidhe were from Earth?  Vaughn swallowed hard and willed strength to her legs, her mind in turmoil.