by Eric Vall
Her pale cheeks were tinted pink from crying, and her icy blue eyes seemed even brighter than before as she stared into my eyes. Her hand was still pressed to the stone, and a single word fell from her mouth.
“Mother…” The Qianlong whispered as her hand fell from the pillar and rested on her chest where her heart was.
Guoshe, though raised by the Akalongs, was originally from Nekoka, and we’d found the Qianlong breeding ground just as Heijing wanted. The Akalong blood flowed through her veins, but I could tell that the dragon was relieved. Heijing loved her father, but I could tell that part of her despised her Akalong heritage. This place, this temple was where her mother’s egg was stolen from and replaced with her father’s.
This was the place where the final attack against the Qianlong’s took place, where the Akalong’s devised a plan to destroy their enemies from the inside out. Their plans had failed miserably and, in the end, the two great tribes had come together to create the small girl standing in front of me now.
She looked so tiny and frail in her white robe as her blue hair fluttered around her. Her eyes were huge and sparkling in the dancing light between the leaves in the trees, and I felt my heart pound while looking at her. I knew that Heijing could perfectly protect herself, we’d seen it while she was in her dragon form, but suddenly, I felt, not an urge, but a need to wrap her in my Underdark power and protect her from all things around her.
I knew that she felt it too, but neither of us brought it up. It wasn’t the time yet, Heijing had been with us for nearly three days, and I needed to feel her out a bit before I decided to bring her into the party fully. I’d felt this way once before when I’d decided that Haruhi was more than just an ally but part of my family. I pushed all of those feelings away as Heijing took a moment to collect herself, and I turned my back to her to look at the strange stone structures with a pounding heart.
After a long moment, Heijing came to stand at my side, and her calming scent washed over me as her cerulean hair shifted slightly. She stared down at the stone structures too, but her eyes weren’t filled with confusion like mine were.
“What are these?” I asked after I cleared my throat.
“Ah yes, I’m unsure what the names for them are, but the eggs were placed here,” Heijing nodded as she stepped closer and ran her thin fingers over the bowls carved into the circular structure then she bent down at the base of the item. “Low fires were built up inside, and they would incubate the eggs. The parents would stand by and turn the eggs every once in a while, unless they were of royal blood, then servants would do it for them.”
“And is that how your parent’s eggs were switched?” I asked, and Heijing’s eyes bit into me as she turned to look at me.
The Qianlong always looked at me this way, but it didn’t make me feel uncomfortable. It felt as if there was something between us that my minions couldn’t understand. In a way, Heijing and I were both beasts, though two different kinds, beasts still recognize beasts akin to them. Her icy blue eyes always seemed to slice right through me, slash through my avatar to the essence placed within, and I couldn’t deny that I liked it.
“Yes, servants would spend days here. It typically takes three weeks for dragon eggs to hatch, and they need to be turned every few hours,” Heijing told me as she ran her hands over the polished stone. “The servants stayed here during those times, small huts were built for them, and they would take shifts turning the eggs, but…it seemed that the servants weren’t paying much attention that day when my mother was stolen from her rightful tribe.”
“Heijing, I’m sorry,” I uttered as I reached out for her.
The dragon didn’t pull away but let me touch her, and she looked into my face with confusion.
“Why are you sorry?” the Qianlong questioned as her brows furrowed.
“All of this happened to your people because of the Akalong tribe. They did terrible things to the Qianlong’s,” I stated as I looked down at the petite, blue-haired woman.
“There is no reason to be sorry,” Heijing smiled as she tilted her head at me. “Yes, the Akalongs were horrendous and attacked the Qianlongs constantly for thousands of years, but without them, I wouldn’t be who I am, I wouldn’t exist without them. My father had the purest Akalong blood flowing through his veins, and he could be the kindest man that I ever knew. My mother, the true Qianlong, killed with a blood-thirst that could never be quenched, they are a part of me just as much as I am a part of them…just as you are part of your parents.”
There it was, the thing that she wanted to bring up earlier but hadn’t. I squared my shoulders and looked down at her coldly for the first time. Heijing’s expression didn’t change, in fact, hers seemed to harden to match mine. We stared evenly at each other for a few passing moments until I opened my mouth to speak.
“What of my parents, Heijing?” I inquired in a voice that dripped with malice.
“Why haven’t you told your women about your true name and past?” The Qianlong asked back, and I gazed at her as I took in all of her features. “The cat-girl, Haruhi, she knows, but she doesn’t speak it in front of the other women. They are curious about it, they want to know but are afraid to ask.”
“How do you know this?” I questioned as I took a menacing step toward the tiny woman, but she stayed firmly in place.
“I hear their thoughts, only at night when they’ve bedded down,” Heijing admitted to me easily, and when I looked deep into her clear blue eyes, I saw she was honest with me.
“It is not the right time to tell them,” I stated as I stood firm and watched Heijing’s reaction.
“There is no right or bad time to tell them. Haruhi already knows because of her vast knowledge, and I only know because Liang taught me about the gods and goddesses, it was one of my lessons. It seems that the studies of the gods had been lost to time though.” The Qianlong said as she took a step closer to me, and our chests nearly bumped into each other.
“Then what do you suggest, Heijing?” I questioned with a tilt of my head as I looked deeply into her huge eyes.
“You must tell them, maybe not today but sometime in the near future. They do not doubt you, and their loyalty to you does not falter, but it is a constant question on their minds.” The dragon told me, and I inclined my head as I thought deeply on the matter.
I already knew that I needed to tell my women. It weighed heavily on my mind and had been for a long time. I’d told them a bit but not enough to satiate them for as long as I’d hoped. I had more pressing things I needed to attend to, but yes, I would tell my women my true name and my full past before we took on the heavens. They needed to know before we attacked the god’s realm, then they would understand my hatred of my parents and all other gods.
“I will take your advice into consideration, Heijing, thank you for telling me,” I said as I bowed my head to her.
“As I’ve told you many times, I am a valuable consort to you…and your women.” Heijing paused emphatically as she raised a single eyebrow then let it drop as if it had never happened.
The rest of the temple was empty and barren of any artifacts, but I could tell that the Qianlong was just happy to have found it. She didn’t need anything to take back with her, just the memory of finding the last remaining place tied to her parents on the islands was enough for her. She showed me around the temple and pointed out a few things to me on the pillars and quietly explained them to me. We stayed there late into the afternoon then sat together on the stone stairs to the entrance of the temple.
Heijing sat a few steps above me and stretched out her short legs as she sighed. This was the first time I’d seen her so relaxed, and it made me happy that the Qianlong was becoming more comfortable around me. The Qianlong yawned lazily and fanned herself with a tiny, delicate hand.
“I think I understand you a bit better now, Kazama,” Heijing stated, and I glanced over my shoulder at her.
The tiny woman was reclined back against the steps, and unknowingly, he
r robe had opened to expose her pale, thin legs. I looked them over for a minute then averted my eyes from them.
“What do you mean, my dear?” I asked lazily back, and Heijing’s blue eyes lifted toward the sky as she began to speak again.
“You are evil and hateful. Vengeful and hell-bent on revenge. I admire those sides to you if I’m quite frank. I too have those feelings built up inside of me, but I know that is the Akalong blood within me that makes me that way. You were not born to be like me, torn between sides, you were born to be the way that you are.” Heijing stated, and I scoffed loudly as I turned to look her in the face.
“And you admire me for those things?” I chuckled deep in the back of my throat, and the sound vibrated up like the sound of distant thunder.
“No, I admire you for accepting yourself as an evil being and still finding some good in the earth when all those who created it have turned against you.” The Qianlong said nonchalantly as her eyes moved over the treetops then slashed down to meet mine. “There is something admirable in that. I hold hate in my heart for the gods for what they did to my people, but I do have the Qianlong side to me that urges me to be at peace. That is why I call myself the Qianlong because that is the dominant side that resides within this being, not because of the colors of my scales but because of who I am.”
I looked at her for a long time as she turned her head and some of her long, wispy blue hair came undone and fluttered in the breeze. She was right, we were both beasts, but she’d experienced things growing up that I had not. Heijing had known kindness from her people and love from her parents. I’d never known those two things until I found my women. I felt that Heijing and I had an understanding between us, quite like Haruhi and I, but this was different. Both women, the cat-girl and the dragon knew very different sides of me, and yet they still saw something different in me than the gods did.
The gods knew that one day I would attempt to overthrow them if they let me stay in the heavens and that was one of the many reasons that they decided to banish me, not just because I fell in love with a mortal but because I was a threat to all of them. My women and Heijing didn’t see me that way when they looked at me, they saw me as a leader and the ruler of the new world. I would take them into a new era and carve out a new world for them.
I would destroy all the old gods and step foot into their place as the single god worshipped by the entire earth, and if anyone was opposed to this, I would annihilate them without a second thought. There was no stopping me, everyone in my path would die if they didn’t bend at the knee for me.
Chapter Seven
The journey back down to the city of Mauntenraion was quiet, and Heijing didn’t speak much. When I glanced over at the tiny female, a smile played about her lips. She was happy that she had been able to find the breeding grounds of the Qianlongs, and I was glad that I was able to give that to her. The dragon may not have been one of my minions, but she was still my consort and ally. She’d done something for us and promised to help us in the future, and this was the least I could do for her.
I didn’t want to return to the city, not yet at least. I knew that once we reached there, I would have to create my second avatar and split from three of my women. I didn’t even want to imagine being away from them, but as their leader, I needed to soldier through and keep a strong front for my sensitive women. Heijing seemed to sense the change within me and kept her icy blue eyes on my face as we walked shoulder to shoulder.
Heijing had admitted readily that she could hear the thoughts of my women occasionally, and from the way she looked at me now, it made me wonder if she could read mine too. I figured not when her eyes broke away from mine and stared straightforward. The Qianlong seemed different after seeing the temple of her mother’s people. It wasn’t the same as the sanctuary where she’d spent most of her life, the breeding grounds were a place she’d never been to. If the dragons had survived, I imagined she would have visited the island of Mauntenraion with her chosen mate. That wasn’t possible now, the Qianlong was the last of her kind, and there was no hope of her nesting down with a male from her tribe.
The thought saddened me in a way, Heijing had told us prior that she had a decision to make at this turning point in her life. She would either have to find a human male and disappear into the life of a human or return to the sanctuary and die there, eventually. The Qianlong was intelligent but not only that; she was absolutely stunning in a way that didn’t match my other minions. I loved all of my women and thought that each of them was beautiful in their own way, but Heijing was different. The dragon had an unearthly look to her, her pale skin seemed to glimmer in the afternoon sun, and her hair shifted and moved almost like the calm waves of the ocean.
The Qianlong reminded me of the goddesses who I grew up around while still in the heavens. She moved gracefully with her head held high and her thin shoulders thrown back, and I could almost imagine her moving through the busy city of the Qianlong tribe like this. The dragon caught my eye once more, and her elegantly arched blue eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
“What is it, Kazama?” Heijing murmured, as one of her slippers stepped out of the grass and on to the stone walkway back toward the city.
“I was admiring your beauty,” I stated nonchalantly, and the Qianlong blinked rapidly in response. “Is there a problem with that?”
“No, but it is strange how you can say such an embarrassing thing with a straight face.” Heijing giggled as she walked alongside me and our hands bumped into each other softly.
“If I only speak the truth, then it is not embarrassing,” I told her through a wide grin, and her round cheeks dusted pink.
“Then you do not embarrass me, my lord, but your words do.” Heijing bowed her head and hid her small face from me.
“Who do you look like more, Heijing? Your mother or your father?” I asked out of curiosity, and the dragon raised her head and thought for a moment.
“I would say a mix of the two, but I received most of my more prominent traits from Guoshe,” Heijing told me as we neared the edge of the city and more cat-people bustled around us. “Both of my parents had dark hair, but my hair and eye color are inherited from my Qianlong ancestors. My mother was a small woman, only a bit taller than I am now and petite in build. They said that in the Akalong tribe, they sometimes referred to her as the ‘Ko Omo’ which means ‘child lord’.”
“I’ve only seen a picture of her, in one of the books from the library,” I told her, and Heijing nodded vehemently as if she knew precisely what drawing I meant.
“My parents’ wedding portrait, with their dragon forms?” the Qianlong asked.
“Yes, she had dark hair, done up similar to yours but her hair was black, like oil,” I stated as I looked down at her sharp features.
“The Akalong warlord knew that my mother would not look like the people of his tribe but surprisingly, she did,” Heijing told me in a soft voice as we move closer to the apothecary. “Her hair was dark, and her complex pale, the only sign that she wasn’t his was the color of her eyes, they were the icy blue of the Qianlong tribe.”
“You said before that they accepted her as their own, correct?” I inquired, and Heijing smiled as me softly.
“That is correct, my father may have had the Akalong temper, but my mother had the blood-thirst that he did not. They dressed her in the ceremonial reds and golds of the tribe, rouged her cheeks in blood and made her into a warrior, a trait that she passed on to me,” the Qianlong stated in a cold, unfeeling voice, and I looked down at her in surprise. “The last battle the Akalongs and the Qianlongs fought, my parents were pitted against each other. They had no way of knowing, and they may not have even seen each other out on the battlefield, but the two tribes had something like a bet going. Whoever’s side won would unify the islands and be the ruler over all.”
“And what happened? I know that they came together in the end, but what’s the whole story behind it?” I asked as Heijing’s eyes met mine.
&nbs
p; “The Qianlong council saw Guoshe destroy all those in her path. She could take out whole lines of attack in one breath of fire,” Heijing told me excitedly, and her icy blue eyes glittered happily. “They were impressed with her and her prowess on the battlefield, but despite her attempts, the Akalong tribe lost to the Qianlongs in the end. My mother was then offered up as a prize to Anteng for winning the battle. You know the rest, my mother and father despised and avoided each other at all costs, then accepted each other slowly over time.”
“Their lives were fascinating, Heijing, the more you tell me, the more I want to know.” I grinned as I reached out impulsively and stroked her cerulean hair.
“I miss them more than anything. My father was filled with infinite knowledge that he received from the Qianlong elders, and he would feed me the tiniest of tidbits each day. I wonder how much I missed and will never learn since he was taken from me.” Heijing said slowly and sadly.
I stopped in my tracks and looked down at the blue-haired dragon for a moment. The Qianlong was heartbroken from the loss of her parents and her tribe, and it left deep scars within her that no one could heal, but I possibly could…
“I cannot replace your parents, nor do I want to, but if it helps heal a bit of your heart, I will wake up each day for the rest of our lives and teach you something new. You will never miss out on my infinite knowledge. Your father was taken away by my kind, and I will do this for you as an apology. It’s not enough to bring your parents or your people back, but I hope you will accept it.”
“Thank you, Kazama,” Heijing whispered as she bowed her head to me and closed her eyes softly.
We stood outside of the apothecary together, and the door swung open as my women piled out excitedly. Carmedy was the first to reach us, and she grabbed onto Heijing eagerly.
