Omnixius
patreon
DKP 8-18 What do you believe?
🕑 Added 2022-07-08 18:20:47 +0000 UTCGersius sat at the head of the table as Sarah served a meal that left the kitchen awash in a medley of scents that made it impossible not to be hungry. One by one, she set the plates before her family, each plate containing a well-seasoned fish, a roll of bread already split and slathered in butter. And a baked potato, also split, buttered, seasoned, and steaming as if fresh from the oven. She added an extra basket brad and a tub of butter for those who wanted more. Then, just to treat the eye, she placed a golden brown pie in the center near a colorful display of flowers.
Once Sarah sat down, Lilly was the first to dig in, humming the moment she tasted the bread. Gersius had to smile at Sarah as he pulled the warm bread apart to discover how soft and perfect it was.
“You have mastered bread?” Gersius asked in surprise.
“I cheated that,” Sarah admitted. “I just wanted everything to be perfect, but I did season and cook the fish.”
“Well, you did a wonderful job,” Thayle said as she tasted the fish. “The fish is divine.”
“What is this pointless behavior?” Rose asked from where she sat at the end of the table and sniffed at the plate of food.
“It’s dinner,” Lilly replied innocently.
“This is a human thing?” Rose asked, completely lost.
“It is very much a human thing,” Gersius answered. “Humans must consume food regularly in order to remain healthy. As part of our culture, we often sit down as families to share a meal.”
“I am a dragon. I have no need to consume this food,” Rose said as she wrinkled her nose at the plate before her. “All we dragons need is a pile of metal to lay on for a bit.”
“I suppose you think that makes us superior?” Sarah asked.
“Of course it does,” Rose laughed.
“I think it makes us pointless,” Lilly said before taking a bite of her bread. “All we do is sleep so we can feed,” she added with a full mouth.
“That is all we dragons need to do,” Rose protested. “It is a weakness of the rodents that they must labor night and day to produce this food so they can eat.”
“A very dragon-like point of view,” Thayle remarked as she used her fork to cut a bit of fish. “But then you haven't been brave enough to taste anything. So you can't be blamed for not understanding.”
“Are you accusing me of being a coward?” rose snapped and went to rise from her chair.
“Sit down,” Sarah commanded. “She wasn't saying you are a coward. She said you haven't eaten the food because you are afraid you will like it.”
“I won’t like it,” Rose insisted and folded her arms.
“She will,” Lilly laughed. “All dragons love human food. I can’t believe I lived all those years and never understood how good it was.”
“What are you blathering about?” Rose snapped.
“That every dragon that has tried human food has regretted not doing so sooner,” Lilly replied. “So, while you are here, you should try it,” Lilly said and gestured with her fork. “Just watch how I do it, and try a bite of the fish.” Lilly then demonstrated how to use the fork to cut a bit of fish away and then pick it up to eat. Rose's aura flared with annoyance as she looked down and roughly grabbed the fork.
“Hold it like this,” Lilly explained and showed her how to grip it. “Now use it to cut a little piece away.”
“Why not use my hands?” Rose asked in annoyance.
“Please do it this way,” Lilly asked. “It really isn’t that hard.”
“Let her use her hands if she wants,” Sarah suggested. “If she wants to eat like an animal, let her.”
“I am a dragon, not an animal!” Rose shouted.
“They are the same thing,” Sarah snapped. “Just because you can talk doesn't make you any better.”
“How can you say that about your own kind?” Rose shouted. “Have you abandoned your heritage completely?”
“Why don’t we stop asserting that dragons are no better than animals,” Gersius suggested with a glance around the table. “We are asking a great deal of our guest. Let her sample the food any way she wishes. If she desires to learn more after that, then we will happily show her.”
“You are taking her side?” Sarah questioned.
“I am simply being understanding,” Gersius corrected. “I saw how difficult it was for Lilly to adjust, and Rose has it even harder. She is here against her wishes and does not have a bind to help her feel anything. Of course, she doesn't see the need to use a fork; she is a dragon. Let's not forget Lilly grabbed her first cooked fish by hand.”
“And burned myself,” Lilly said with a smirk.
“You’re right,” Sarah said and looked at her daughter. “I apologize for being so critical.”
“You apologize?” Rose said as her aura flared with confusion. They could all see the woman was struggling with the idea that a more powerful dragon admitted to being wrong.
“Of course I do,” Sarah said. “I just wanted you to experience the difference between cooked food and how we dragons normally eat. It means a lot to me that you try the food, and I was hurt that you were being so hesitant.”
Rose looked at the fork in her hand, then to Lilly, who demonstrated the process again. She sighed and awkwardly sawed at the fish, finally managing to break a piece away and spear it on the fork. She placed the bit in her mouth and chewed as Gersius silently used the bind to suggest that they don't stare at her.
The others went back to eating as Thayle began talking about her temple. She shared the idea with Gersius and Sarah, who agreed she could have a temple if she wanted one. They all did their best not to see the flare of color in the angry dragon's aura or react when she quickly took another bite. Sarah especially found it hard to hide her smile as Rose began to devour the fish until Lilly intervened.
“If you like that, you should try this,” Lilly urged and picked up her buttered bread. She took a bite of the crusty loaf with a rich ten inner flesh dripping with whipped butter. Her eyes closed as she let out a soft hum, chewing on the delicious bread.
Rose picked up the bread and gave it a few deep sniffs. She looked hesitant to eat it and asked why this was alright to eat with her hands. Gersius explained that certain food items were expected to be eaten by hand, and others were meant for tools. He urged her to try the bread, as it seemed to be a favorite food of dragons.
Rose looked annoyed that he suggested she would like it but took a bite anyway. She chewed the mouthful for a moment, then quickly stuffed more into her mouth, smearing butter over her lips. Lilly giggled a little and took another piece of bread from the basket to butter and hand to Rose.
“Here, you can have more,” Lilly said and handed the woman the bread.
“Why does this taste so good?” Rose asked after swallowing the first roll.
“That is part of human culture,” Gersius said. “We need to eat regularly, so we have taken the time to learn how to make our foods pleasing. We have thousands of such foods, and it would take you many years to try even a small portion of them.”
“This is bread,” Lilly said as she picked up another roll for herself. “Humans make hundreds of varieties of it. They even make some with meat cooked inside it that I know you will love.”
“Do you have some?” Rose asked in earnest. “This is the dream. Surely you can cause it to be.”
Lilly looked to Sarah, who smiled and nodded as she willed the dream to change, manifesting a meat pie on the table before Lilly. Lilly used her knife to cut a piece out of the pie and placed it on Rose's plate while explaining this was a meal meant to be eaten with a fork. Rose quickly used her fork to tear the pie apart, shoveling a hung into her mouth as she started to hum just like Lilly did.
“You see what you have been missing?” Lilly asked. “All the years you have been alive, and it's only now you are trying human food?”
“I had no reason to try it,” Rose argued as food fell from her mouth.
“Well, there is plenty more for you to try,” Gersius said. “If you wish to stay with us a little longer, I will ensure you have different foods and treats brought to you regularly.”
“You said I could go after two days!” Rose shouted and dropped her fork.
“I will hold to my agreement,” Gersius said firmly. “But you can choose to stay on your own. If you do, you will be given a proper room and can come and go as you please.”
“I am not staying,” Rose snarled. “I will endure your test, but I am returning to my master.”
“He was only offering you the choice,” Sarah corrected. “You are free to do as you wish.”
“I still don’t believe you will let me go,” Rose growled.
“Then I hope when I prove you wrong, you will have the strength to say you are sorry,” Gersius replied.
“Why don't you eat more of the meat pie,” Lilly suggested. “Sarah has baked an apple pie for dessert. I know you will love that.”
“Is that a meat?” Rose asked as she picked up her fork to resume eating.
“It’s a fruit, but the way it’s prepared makes it taste sweet. You have to try it to understand, and we will all have some when you are done with your food,” Lilly explained.
They returned to eating as Rose devoured her fish, several rolls, and nearly all of the meat pie. She picked at the potato, saying it smelled earthy, but one bite later, she devoured that too. Lilly and Thayle went on with their talk about the temple, with Lilly suggesting Thayle build a big one into the cliffs. Thayle only wanted a little temple like the one in Pinehollow where she could resume her duties as a country priestess.
“Over what flock?” Gersius asked with a slight smile.
“I don’t need a flock,” Thayle replied. “I just need a place where I can kneel before my goddess and thank her for the gift of my family.”
“Why would you do that?” Rose asked as she worked through more of the meat pie. “Only Solesta is worthy of worship. The rest of the divines are pointless.”
Gersius and Sarah exchanged glances as Thayle kept calm and nibbled at her food.
“Well, we humans are given great blessing through the divine who ensure good harvests, healthy bodies, and abundant children,” Thayle explained. “They give a great deal of power in exchange for a little gratitude and the occasional praise. I love my goddess, so I wish to have a place where I can tell her just how much.”
“Dragons are a part of the divine,” Rose countered. “We don’t need them.”
“And yet you are trying to bring one back,” Sarah stated.
“The only one that matters,” Rose countered. “The goddess of true dragons.”
“That is funny,” Gersius said as he took on a serious tone. “Because when I fought your kin in the courtyard, he said Solest and Balisha were both wrong. He told me that your master-planned to fix their mistake somehow.”
“That is a lie,” Rose spat. “Solesta is our champion.”
“I am not lying to you,” Gersius said. “He made it clear that your master had some plan to do away with both of them.”
“You are trying to deceive me!” Rose shouted as she stood up and pointed her fork at him. “I know the truth, and we dragons were not meant to live like this!” She accentuated her point by throwing her fork down and storming out the back door into the yard.
“Well, you touched a nerve,” Thayle said as the door slammed.
“Yes, but why?” Gersius asked as he considered the outburst. “Why does she believe Solesta is coming back when her companion made it clear that was not the goal?”
“Do you think they were lying to her?” Lilly asked as she tried to consider it.
“They may have lied, but we will never be able to convince her of it,” Sarah said. “This is a foundational belief she holds fast to as her driving motivation.”
“You should talk to her,” Gersius said as he looked at Sarah. “She is angry at me but might be ready to air her confusions and frustrations.”
“I suppose I could try,” Sarah said and got up.
“Oh, take her a slice of pie,” Lilly insisted. “It might help soften her mood.”
Sarah smiled at how addicted Lilly was to sweets but took the advice and quickly cut a slice of pie. She took it out on a little plate and went looking for her errant daughter. She found her across the bridge, pacing back and forth as she muttered something that sounded like a prayer.
“Through the blessing of the divine dragon, I will not break. Her sacrifice is my shield against the lies of Balisha.”
“Forgive me for interrupting,” Sarah called out as she crossed the bridge.
“I sat down to your meal. Now leave me alone!” Rose shouted in anger.
“Yes, you did, and I am grateful you tried the food, but I thought you might like to try the final dish. It's made with something rare known as sugar, and I found it to be a very surprising flavor,” Sarah said and set the dish on the ground. “I will sit on the back porch and have some tea. If you have any questions or just want to talk, please come and join me.”
“Why are you doing this to me?” Rose shouted. “Just let me go home!”
Sarah was struck by the sudden plea to be allowed to run home. There was a strange light in her aura as well; it looked like doubt, but was there a touch of fear? Now was not the best time to push Rose, so she thought of a better way to have this conversation.
“Why don't I make you an offer,” Sarah said. “You taste the pie, and then you and I will assume our dragon forms. We will go for a walk across the valley, and I will do my best to answer your questions.”
“Why do you insist I eat this food?” Rose grumbled.
“I will answer that question now,” Sarah replied. “Lilly and another dragon named Shadros had a significant change of heart after trying human food. We hoped you would have a similar change, which would help us understand one another.”
“So this is all a ploy to manipulate me?” Rose asked.
“If I were trying to deceive you, I would not have told you why we were doing it, Sarah countered. “We have been very open with you. We are trying to show you that there is more to the human experience than you give it credit for. We are hoping to stir your curiosity enough that you will willingly give up more time because we will honor the agreement. When this dream ends, you go free. If you fly off, so be it, but if you choose to stay a little longer, I will show you everything.”
“I am not staying,” Rose said and looked down at the food. “Just one bite?”
“Trust me,” Sarah said with a smile. “You are going to eat the whole thing.”
Sarah tried not to smile as she walked through the valley as a massive red dragon, with the smaller one at her side. They left behind the empty plate, and its fork as a grumbling Rose asked if she could have more.
“Now, what can I tell you?” Sarah asked as they headed for Thayle’s distant forest.
“Why are you helping them?” Rose asked. “Have you no loyalty to the goddess that gave her life to protect us?”
“Child, I saw the world before that terrible conflict,” Sarah replied. “I saw the wonders and great advances that were made when humans and dragons mingled. You have to understand that, to my point of view, Solesta was trying to take all that away. She wanted us to go back to being nothing but flying lizards that sleep for years at a time in deep caves.”
“But that is how we are meant to live,” Rose insisted.
“But it isn't how we have to live,” Sarah replied and looked down on her daughter. “Listen carefully to how I explain this. We brought you here and gave you a room. Except for meal times, you are free to do as you wish and can choose to ignore us. When this dream ends, you can choose the path you want to walk. You can fly home or stay a little longer, but you are free to choose. Balisha wanted you to have a choice in how you wanted to live. You could live as a dragon always did, or you could mingle with the humans and experience what they had to offer. Solesta hated that you had such a choice. She hated that dragons were choosing to mingle with men and form relationships with them like I have with Gersius. So she wanted to remove the choice from all dragons and tell you how you had to live.”
“Because she was protecting us,” Rose insisted.
“No, she was enslaving you,” Sarah replied and looked up. “I have no qualms about someone having a strong opinion and believing they are right. I take no issue if they try to get me or others to see their point of view. So long as the choice to believe them or not remains, I will not object. But I cannot accept it when one says that this and only this way will be allowed, and all other thoughts will be purged. When Solesta demonstrated that she was willing to shed blood to remove the freedom of choice, I was forever turned away from her light.”
“And you aren’t shedding blood for the sake of your freedom to choose?” Rose mocked.
“Child, look at what we are doing,” Sarah insisted. “I am trying my hardest to give you a choice, and if you don't accept it, I will let you fly away. The only reason blood is being shed is because you and your kind keep trying to remove the choice from me. When I don't accept, you demand that I die for my heresy and force me to defend myself.”
Rose looked away as Sarah's logic washed over her, and her aura began to twist in knots. She was struggling to think of a rebuttal that she might counter Sarah's words, but she could not manage it.
“Nothing to say?” Sarah asked.
“I think those who hold to the truth have the right to deal with those who spread lies,” Rose replied. “It is our duty to stamp out the falsehoods that you and your followers spread.”
“You are trying to justify mass slaughter,” Sarah bellowed. “Didn't you earlier accuse me of being the one leading to the death of dozens of dragons? Are you honestly going to say I caused those deaths by holding a different opinion than you? That you can have no responsibility for those deaths because you know you are right, and therefore I must be wrong? Not only am I wrong, but I am so wrong that I am guilty of all the horrible outcomes of our conflict.”
“If you would just accept the truth,” Rose insisted.
“I will not accept any truth that requires me to destroy people for not accepting it,” Sarah snapped. “If your truth requires you to hate those who don’t share it, then your truth is nothing but madness.”
“You worship a goddess that would see our kind extinct,” Rose countered. “Is that not madness?”
“Firstly, I don't worship Balisha. I am priestess of Astikar. Secondly, I see no reason why our kind will go extinct just because we have a human form. If anything, it might encourage our kind to breed a little more often,” Sarah countered.
“Why would it encourage us to breed more often?” Rose said in a disgusted tone.
“That’s why,” Sarah said and stopped to look over her daughter. “That tone that said the whole idea of breeding with a male turns your stomach. We dragons only breed when the calling comes, and then we get as far away from each other as possible. But humans have an entirely different view when it comes to breeding. They do it often, sometimes daily. Males and females live together so they might breed as frequently as possible, producing children in numbers we dragons can’t fathom.”
“That’s horrible,” Rose replied and shook her head. “I had no idea they were so disgusting. Why would they do such a thing?”
“Because they love,” Sarah replied. “And the act of breeding is something so powerful and life-changing that every human seeks it as if they were always under a calling. You had no understanding of how different human food was from the raw meat we often eat. Well, let me assure you that when you mate in the human form, you will never be able to describe it. It will shake you to your very core and fill you with a sense of power and connection you never dreamed possible. In the blink of an eye, you will change, and you will never be able to reconcile what you were. The power of emotion flows like a great river during the act of mating, and when it is done, you are often left trembling and breathless.”
“I don't understand,” Rose said as she took a step back. “You mean to say that human mating is different from that of dragons?”
“They are not at all similar,” Sarah balked. “Dragons mate like animals, breeding because the season has come. Humans mate to share that power of connection and feed the need to experience the flow of emotions. Thus they mate frequently and for much longer than we do. They can only become pregnant for a short time, so their mating often does not result in children. Thus they are free to share this experience as often as they want.”
“This doesn’t make sense,” Rose said. “Why would their mating be tied to their emotions?”
“Child, I wish I could explain it to you,” Sarah said mournfully. “But this is one thing that words will never be able to convey. You have to experience it for yourself, but be warned; you never be the same again. No matter how you try to steal your heart, you will change, and there will be no going back.”
“I would never demean myself with a human,” Rose snarled.
“Then you will never know the greatest joy that exists under the heavens,” Sarah replied and walked on, leaving a stunned Rose to catch up.
The smaller dragon caught up but remained silent as Sarah looked at the distant mountains.
“Do you remember how you used to bury yourself in the hoard and then get angry at your siblings for stepping on you?” Sarah asked.
“They were doing it on purpose,” Rose replied. “I always went to the far side where they didn’t need to be stomping around.”
“You bit your brother’s tail once when he stepped on your head,” Sarah laughed. “He came running to me while dragging you across the floor.”
“He deserved it,” Rose said as she looked down. “But now I wonder where he is. It seems funny. I haven’t thought about him in a thousand years, but now I wish I knew where they both were.”
“Your sister is dead,” Sarah said in a somber tone.
“Dead? How do you know that?” Rose demanded.
“Because I killed her,” Sarah said and turned to face the smaller dragon. “I killed her when she came home brandishing one of your sides black spears. She said her master demanded that I be slain because I was a threat.”
“You killed her?” Rose said in shock.
“I tried to reason with her,” Sarah said as tears started to form in her eyes. “I did everything I could, but she was so consumed by Solesta's curse that nothing I said mattered. To her, I was the enemy, denying Solesta's power by hiding in that temple. The punishment for my crime was death, and she did her best to carry it out.”
“She tried to kill you?” Rose replied and looked up. “Her own mother?”
“You may not realize this, but you nearly did the same,” Sarah spat. “Did your dear allies tell you why Gersius and the others went to that city? Did you ever wonder how they knew to lay the trap there?”
Rose looked lost as to how to answer the question, so Sarah kept up the pressure.
“I will tell you why they risked their lives to fly into your trap. I was dying, wounded by one of those black spears. They needed a seal from any of the faiths, but your allies had carefully stolen them and replaced them with fakes. We learned they were being kept in that dismal city, and Gersius so loved me that he risked everything to retrieve them. If you had succeeded in your efforts to stop them, you would have done what your sister could not and slain your mother.”
“I didn’t know,” Rose said and looked away. “But you are my enemy. You are working to restore the false goddess that killed the true dragon power. How am I supposed to accept that my mother is working to destroy us?”
“I keep trying to help you understand,” Sarah said. “I am not working to destroy you. I only want you to have the choice to live as a dragon or as a human. What is the harm in that?”
“It isn’t our way,” Rose insisted.
“My daughter, please try to understand. Lilly is right. Our way has us living no better than a wild animal. We waste our long years, squandering them by sleeping it all away. When we do rouse from our slumber, it is only to eat something and return to our caves. The humans do so much in the little time that they have that we should be ashamed of ourselves. I don't care if you want to live as a dragon as I love you no matter what, but please, don't condemn me for wanting to live another way.”
“My master says that all dragons who choose to soil themselves with humans must be slain,” Rose countered.
“Child, don't you see how horrific that statement is?” Sarah asked as rose shook her head.
Sarah felt a deep sense of pain for the blindness of her daughter. Years of living under the curse and the words of this master rendered her unable to see the wickedness of her logic. The pain was intense, and she looked on the poor creature with pity. If this was truly what she believed, then Sarah would offer her the last gift she could give her daughter.
“Then, when we return to the waking world, I will let you kill me,” Sarah replied. “When you fly home to your master, you can tell him you obeyed.”
Rose's aura was filled with doubt, turmoil, and a flash as she deliberated on a terrible choice. Sarah didn’t care to know what that choice was, instead walking on to leave the stunned dragon behind. This time Rose didn't follow, instead turning around to head back to the house. Sarah couldn't believe how single-minded her daughter's point of view was. She clung to the belief that the dragon way of life was the only true way to live, and all dragons that departed from it were to be killed. She then heaped all those deaths on Sarah, claiming that if she had only held to the true path, none of it would be necessary. It was a terrible twist of logic, built on lies, misunderstandings, and a terrible unwillingness to accept the truth. It was a path of convenience, and her true anger lay in the fact that deep down, she knew she was wrong.
Sarah looked back to watch her go and prayed that her daughter wouldn't be consumed in the coming fire. In the days ahead, there would be war like never before, and more dragons would most certainly die. She hoped her daughter was troubled enough to stay out of the fighting and perhaps would survive the war to meet her mother again.
“I love you,” Sarah whispered to the departing dragon. “I only wish you understood what that means.”
