by Dreagen
Now he could feel questions he had been giving little thought to in light of his grief, pushing to the front of his mind, and demanding answers. What am I? How am I able to change back and forth like that, and how did the others do it, too? He gave it some more thought, then remembered that DiNiya had not transformed like the other four. Her flame is like mine, so why can’t she—
There was a knock at the door, and almost as if by reflex, Rex jumped to his feet. He stared for a moment before there was another knock followed by a familiar voice.
“Rex,” called DiNiya. “Are you awake?”
Rex hesitated for a moment before answering, “Yes…I am.”
“Oh!” she exclaimed, sounding excited to have finally gotten an actual response. “How are you feeling?”
Sensing what she really wanted was a little face time, Rex walked over and opened the door.
DiNiya jumped slightly as he pulled the door back, and held her balled-up hands against her chest awkwardly. “I was wondering if you would ever come out of there.”
“So was I,” he said, turning back into the room but leaving the door open for her to follow. No surprise: she did, and stepped in after him, all the while respecting his space and keeping a bit of distance. For a moment they stood in the center of the room in complete silence, neither one of them knowing how to say what they both knew they wanted to the other.
“So are—?” Rex began.
“Are you—?” DiNiya started.
“Go ahead,” he ushered.
“No, you go first,” she insisted.
Rex thought of insisting she speak first but saw how this could easily go on all day. “I was just going to ask how things are going, you know, out there?”
“We’ve been treating the injured day and night, and we’ve given the dead back to EeNara.”
“The dead,” Rex repeated to himself, looking down.
Seeing his shift to a more solemn demeanor, DiNiya quickly tried to raise his spirits. “But it’s not all bad, you see. We sent word to all of the Northern Continent, and healers from all over have been coming by the dozens for the past four days now!”
“Lot of good that does the ones who died.”
“Rex, please…you don’t think I’m hurting here, too? We all are. I lost people I’ve known my entire life, people I’ve said good morning and goodnight to for fifteen years.”
“You’re right…I’m sorry. I forgot that this has to be even worse for all of you being that this is your home.”
“Rex, this is your home, too,” she said, reaching out and placing a hand on his arm. “You have just as much right as anyone to grieve.”
“Grieve,” he said, shaking her hand free. “That’s all I’ve been doing in here for the past…hell, I don’t even know how long!”
“Rex…”
“Grieving doesn’t count for shit because it doesn’t bring back the dead!”
“Rex, please don’t be like this.”
“Like what? Angry? Why not? Isn’t it better to be angry than sad? What the hell has being sad ever done for anyone? I’ve been sad the past few days and all it motivated me to do was sit here and cry! I’m tired of crying, DiNiya. Now I’m feeling angry, and at least it’s gotten me on my feet, and instead of making me want to cry more about what’s happened, it makes me want to do something about it.”
“Oh, come off it, already!” DiNiya cried out, taking him by surprise and making him instantly shut his mouth. “You keep talking as if we’re all just so stupidly oblivious to what has happened! I just told you that people we loved died, didn’t I?”
“Well…yes.”
“Then what makes you feel any of the rest of us are incapable of feeling angry?”
Rex slumped his shoulders and exhaled before shrugging and looking back up at her. “You’re right. Again…you’re right. Sorry, I cannot help being such a selfish bastard about all of this, but I’m still not used to thinking of myself as part of…well, anything. You’ve got to understand that it’s really easy for me to forget that sometimes, so if I come across as self-centered about this, then…well, just know I don’t mean it like that.”
Seeing Rex legitimately try to be sympathetic to the feelings of others brought a small smile to DiNiya’s face, and put some of her anxieties at ease. “Come on,” she said, taking him by the hand. “We need to talk. All of us.”
They made their way downstairs to where the other four were gathered, who perked up when DiNiya entered the room but immediately grew tense when Rex walked in behind her.
“So you finally came out of your room,” LyCora said. “We were beginning to wonder if you ever would.”
“I bet you would have felt a lot safer if I hadn’t,” Rex replied with the merest hint of sarcasm.
LyCora looked as if she wanted to retort, but instead just asked, “Are you all right?”
Rex, surprised by her candor, simply nodded.
“We need to speak with VayRonx and the others,” DiNiya declared. “Something tells me they know more about what’s going on than they’ve led us to believe.”
“What makes you say that?” AnaSaya asked.
“The fact that they haven’t been acting as surprised as they should be. I mean, they watched their children transform into DyVorians right before their eyes—hardly a common occurrence.”
“Still, it’s a big leap to assume that they would have known,” ShinGaru replied.
“EeNox, what do you think?” DiNiya asked.
Her brother did not say anything at first; rather, he just stood there, pondering the question. “I think you’re right,” he said at last. “I know they have their hands full with KaNar’s restoration, but if I were them, I would have at least spoken to us about what happened. Instead they keep us locked away in our rooms.”
“When you say it like that, it’s almost as if they’re hiding us from the world,” LyCora said.
“Maybe they are,” he said with conviction. “Maybe that’s what they’ve been doing for our entire lives.”
“How much do you know about your mother, LyCora?” AnaSaya suddenly asked. “Your biological mother, that is. Or you, EeNox? ShinGaru, what about you? Do you know anything about either of your parents?”
“Not much, I’m afraid,” ShinGaru replied. “They died shortly after I was born. All I know is that they were both scientists who developed new species of trees used to further flame communion with plants.”
“Is that why you became a scientist yourself?”
“It’s what gave me the initial idea, yes, but I have always found a certain pleasure from asking the basic question that fuels all science: Why? I imagine it was the same for my parents, so in a way I feel that I am able to understand a fundamental aspect about them.”
All eyes shifted to LyCora, who quickly waved her hand dismissively. “Don’t look at me. I don’t know anything about the woman who gave birth to me, or the man responsible for my conception.”
“Could you sound any less detached about them?” DiNiya asked.
“Anyone can create a child, but it takes a parent to raise them. That’s something I learned long ago from my mother, who I never once considered to be anything less.”
“But what happened to your biological parents?” AnaSaya asked. “Why did they not raise you themselves?”
“All I know is that they died in an accident when I was very young, but not before giving me up for adoption. I don’t know any more than that, and I frankly don’t care to. My life without them has not left me wanting.”
“Fair enough,” EeNox said. “All DiNiya and I know about our mother was that she was a botanist.”
“I’ve read all the papers she published with the Guild,” ShinGaru said. “She was working out of the Spire in her final years, from what I recall, advancing the telescope’s capabilities.”
“That’s right, but aside from that we don’t know anything else. Father doesn’t talk about her much. I think it’s hard for him.”
�
�Why the sudden interest in our family histories?” LyCora asked AnaSaya. “And what about you? I know VyKia is your biological mother, but what of your father?”
“My father was a sailor whose ship sank while crossing over to the Western Continent shortly after my mother discovered she was pregnant. As for everything else, I was just curious about where it was all of you came from,” she replied, clasping her hands in front of her. “I thought maybe if we all knew a little more about our parents, it might shed some light on why we are…well, the way we are.”
“Doubtful,” LyCora said. “If they had any kind of involvement, and I don’t see how they could have, then why didn’t DiNiya change?”
All eyes turned to the red-eyed girl, who simply looked away, before shifting over towards Rex, who in turn flashed them a stern glare.
“Don’t look at me. My earliest memory is from Earth with my fath—” He suddenly stopped speaking, as if the words had been pulled from his mouth.
“Rex,” DiNiya said, casting a worried look in his direction, “what is it? Have you remembered something?”
Rex nodded with a solemn expression. “I had forgotten everything when I awoke here, but when DayKar attacked me…it all came crashing back.”
DiNiya placed a hand on his shoulder. “Why did you wait until now to tell us?”
“Because when I remembered the DraGon who came to get me, I also remembered watching my father die right in front of me.”
Everyone now looked at him as if seeing him truly for the first time. Not as a figure of malevolent ferocity, but as a lost and wounded flame.
“So…you’re saying there were other DraGons before the attack on KaNar,” EeNox asked.
“Just one…” Rex could feel the raw emotion rising inside him. “He…was the one who killed my father.”
“You mean the one who raised you on Earth?”
Rex nodded. “His name was Philippe. He took me in when he found me abandoned inside a museum. He never found who put me there, or even why. Only that there was no record of me anywhere, nor any family.” A sad smile appeared on his face. “At least now I know why that was.”
“I’m so sorry, Rex,” DiNiya said, trying her best to console him.
“Don’t be. I was lucky. He was the best father I could have asked for. He never once made me feel unwanted or a burden. He chose to become my father even after they told him that he was taking in a child with numerous birth defects.”
“Birth defects?” AnaSaya asked, looking puzzled.
Rex bared his claws and teeth. “Naturally, I was considered a freak.”
“That’s terrible!” DiNiya exclaimed.
“It could have been worse. Besides, I had ways of keeping them at arm’s length,” he said, cracking the knuckles and extending the claws on his right hand.
“And none of them could ignite their flames?” LyCora asked.
“None, but then again, neither could I at the time. Not until I transformed that first time.”
“Wait a minute. You’re saying when you did six days ago, that it wasn’t the first time?”
“No, the night my father was killed was when it first happened, when my flame first ignited. It must have been something about seeing the DraGon. I really don’t know. But what I do know is that before that night, I never so much as sparked let alone ignited.”
“At least now we know we can probably rule out something having been done to us after we were born,” LyCora stated as she placed a hand on her chin contemplatively.
“Can we now?” EeNox replied sarcastically.
LyCora flashed him a less-than-amused look before continuing. “Rex was raised away from all of this, which means if whatever had been done to us was done so later in life, he wouldn’t have been a part of it. The fact that he managed to transform well before any of us means this goes back much further.”
“So you’re saying we were born this way?” Rex asked.
“‘Born’ may be a subjective word.” She glanced around at all their faces. “I think it’s time we go and speak with a few individuals who may have been less than forthcoming about how we all came to be. Looks like you were right to be suspicious about our pasts, AnaSaya.” The other girl blushed slightly and looked away, while the others just nodded.
“Where are they?” EeNox asked.
“Spread out all over KaNar,” DiNiya replied. “But I know VayRonx is helping with the tavern’s repairs this morning.”
“Then that’s where we’re headed,” Rex declared.
They all got up and proceeded on down to the tavern, all the while taking in the terrible sight of destruction all around them. Still, seeing everyone work together to put their home back together was a comforting sight to behold. Most of the rubble had now been cleared, and workers communed with massive trees were busying themselves with reconstructing many of the domiciles that had been smashed during the battle.
At last they reached the tavern doors, which were open to allow for the free flow of traffic as workers of all sizes moved in and out. They could not help but notice, however, that as they moved through the busy streets, people would stop and stare, all the while commenting under their breath.
“Everyone is looking at us,” AnaSaya said as she moved closer to LyCora’s side.
“Can you blame them?” she replied. “Don’t forget we did turn into DyVorians in front of them.”
“I wonder what’s more shocking to them,” ShinGaru asked, “the DraGons returning, or us?”
“Good question,” Rex replied.
They proceed on in, and were immediately greeted by a bustling scene of enormous tendril-like roots stretched out all over the massive space, clearing and moving workers quickly from one end to the other.
“Wow,” said Rex, “I didn’t realize just how useful your communing technology was until now.”
“Well, of course,” replied ShinGaru. “A reconstruction of this magnitude would take the better part of a year without it. Did you not have a similar form of technology back on Earth?”
“Not like this.”
“Interesting.”
At last they saw VayRonx hooked up to a large root system, which he was using to lift four women who were using their flames to mend a wide fissure that had opened in the ceiling of the cave by melting the rock around it.
“I’ll be right with you six,” VayRonx said without so much as stealing a glance in their general direction.
“There’s that nose of his,” EeNox said.
“Well, of course,” DiNiya replied. “Have you ever heard of anyone sneaking up on a TarBoranx?”
“Why would you want to?” he replied grimly.
They stood by and waited for him to be done with what he was doing, which fortunately did not take very long. After slowly bringing the workers down, the long spindly tendrils that were linking to his mind pulled free and disappeared beneath the ground. The alpha shook his feathers free of soot before turning his attention to the six teenagers at his feet.
“So the time has come, has it?” he said, eyeing them reflectively. “So be it, but not here.”
“I think we’ve waited long enough,” replied Rex.
“That you have. Still, it is not for me alone to tell. All parties involved should be present.”
“All parties?” he asked quizzically.
“I knew it,” AnaSaya declared with such enthusiasm that it took them all, including VayRonx, by surprise. “Our mothers and DiNiya and EeNox’s father do know!”
“Yes,” VayRonx replied with a deep sigh. “It is they you should learn the truth of your origins from.”
“All right,” Rex said. “When and where?”
“At midday, in the fields where you have been training. I give you my word that I and the others will be there and will give you the answers you seek.” They looked at each other before turning back to him and nodding. “Very well. Until then, you would all do well to rest at home. People are still rattled by what happened with you lot during t
he attack. However, I do not foresee any concern coming from you moving about freely, DiNiya.”
“Thank you,” she said. “But my place is by their side.” Is it really though?
“Very well.”
DiNiya did not know why, but VayRonx’s comments made her feel surprisingly unhappy, like she was being excluded from something. It was ridiculous, she knew. What happened to Rex and the others was not some sort of game, but she still could not help but feel that once again she was on the outside looking in, and try as she might, she would never be able to understand or be of any real help to them. Damn it, girl, this isn’t the time for you to go feeling sorry for yourself. There are more important things at stake here.
“So, what do we do now?” LyCora asked.
“I don’t know about all of you,” Rex said, “but I’m tired of just sitting around and hiding from the world.”
“All right, but again, what do we do now?”
Rex scanned their faces quickly before replying, “I’m going for a walk.” He turned and walked back from whence they had come. The others simply looked at one another and shrugged before joining him.
They spent the morning moving silently through town, which had an almost ghostly gloom hanging over it. The full extent of the damage was now becoming clear, and yet they were struck by the sense of community being displayed all around them. Everywhere they looked, they saw the tribe working together to put their homes, and by and large their lives, back together.
Rex marveled at the massive plants being controlled by the SaVarians and smaller DyVorians, who lifted huge chunks of rock and debris clear from the streets, while the larger inhabitants of KaNar managed to do so through impressive displays of physical strength. It was a scene that spoke not of a broken or conquered people, but rather of those who were unwilling to go quietly into oblivion, and whose greatest strength came not from their own individual prowess, but their ability to work together when a unified front was needed most.
