Heir of the Dragon

A History Lesson

The log dug into my legs as I sat staring blankly into the fire at my feet. It had burned down while we'd sat eating. He'd finally built a fire tonight. I assumed he believed us far enough away from the Gherian scout settlement that the light and smoke of a fire wasnt a danger. I hoped he was right. We'd been running for three days, riding when it was light and hiding away when darkness had again creeped through the woods.

I brought the rabbit leg up as far as the chains would allow and compensated for their lack by leaning my head down to meet it. It tasted wonderful. I couldn't remember the last time I'd eaten meat. I shifted on the log, trying to ease the soreness in my joints. Riding double was certainly hard on all of us, in many more ways than one. The horse stood tethered to a neaby tree, aimlessly picking through the foliage. I could tell she was favoring her left hindleg. If he had any sense he'd let us all rest for a day. I glanced across the fire at his fire-lit form. He had finished his portion and was staring off aimlessly, glancing nervously once in a while up at the red line of smoke ascending from the fire. The amber in his eyes reflected the red-orange of the fire and glowed somewhat in the darkness. As I watched him subconsciously run his thumb across his upper lip, I suddenly realized that of all the reactions he somehow naturally evoked in me, curiosity was one of the strongest. He was so strange, so other worldly. All of them were. I'd spent my youth believing all of the myths within our great walled city were just that...myths. Nothing ever went past those walls, and nothing ever came in. My world had all been a giant game of pretend. Whenever I think back to the Elders, the great leaders who never seemed to grow old, and never addressed us but by proxy, I cannot help but loath them. They must have known, they must have been aware of the ingorance they had created. The people had all died in a horrid kind of nightmare, massacred by beasts that had only existed in ghost stories. I now hoped that that knowledge had burned in the Elders' souls until the moment they'd died. Shadaii glanced up, as if feeling my stare, and meet my eyes.

" What is it?" He said, breaking the silence in the air like glass and pulling me from my loathing.

" Uh...nothing," I mumbled and stared down at the ground. He continued to stare at me and, after a moment, I threw him a questioning glance. He pulled his lips into an unamused smile.

" I intrigue you, don't I?" he said, sitting back on his hands.

"...yes....among other things," I replied, making it appearent that I felt the information was obvious.

"You know nothing of my people," He stated, shaking his head as if he hardly believed it " We are the most powerful race of our time! What hole did you crawl out of?"

" You be surprised what a girl can gather..."I mumbled at the ground. He didnt seem to hear me but his features gradually took on an expression of realization.

" High gods...the city of Aristethia...." He meet my eyes through the red light of the fire with new disbelief "You're Aristethian.."

" I was. When it existed." I said tersly, lacing the words with accusation and all the bitterness I could muster.

" You defy all kinds of rules, " He said after a moment, abviously noting the poison in my words, but choosing to ignore it.

"I could say the same to you," I said, raising my eyebrows at him.

"Why?" He snorted "Because I can turn myself into a big scary monster or because I am one?" I took a deep breath and bit my lip.

"All of the above...?" My voice was giving away the fear he still evoked in me, but curiosity was stronger. He sat quietly playing with one of the coals in the fire for a moment.

"We aren't all like that," He said, breaking the silence again. I furrowed my brow at him though the thickening smoke from the dead flames.

"How do you mean?"