Dragon Envy

by Kelly Armenta

  “Just me.” She replied, while I did my best not to wince at the fact that she could hear my thoughts.

  “Sorry it’s a bad habit of mine.” I told her.

  “So I understand. Don’t worry, actions and deeds make history not thoughts and ideas. For those you’d need to consult your friend Academia.”

  “Perhaps I would if I knew who that was?” I told her with a puzzled frown.

  She tilted her head to the side for a second then smiled. “I believe you call her Mi.” She added.

  “Mi’s real name is Academia?” I sputtered. Wow, I’d known her all my life and it had never occurred to me that her name may be a derivative of something else. And such an interesting…hmmm, never mind. I thought glancing once again around the room.

  Immy flashed her straight white teeth and popped her sucker back into her mouth. “Yes I wouldn’t bandy that about if I were you. She wasn’t happy when the Sisters Keeper Council started calling her that, so she shortened it in protest. Sometimes she can be rather full of herself.”

  I choked on my saliva, sucking it down my windpipe and ended up coughing for several seconds. Every time Immy opened her mouth I just wasn’t sure what might come out of it. Goodness! When I could finally speak I asked, “Sister’s Keeper Council?” It was best for me not to dwell on Mi, or her…eccentric tendencies. That way could only lead to trouble for me. Just because the Elves couldn’t hear my thoughts didn’t mean Mi couldn’t.

  Immy wiggled her eyebrows and nodded. “Well it isn’t an overly large council; at least our branch isn’t what with only a few million members or so.” She informed me as if it was no big deal. “What, you didn’t think Academia and I were the only two Keepers in existence did you?” She asked with a mischievous grin, and then laughed when my jaw dropped open. “I’ll admit this isn’t the largest or most heavily populated world the Council oversees. However, it would be rather difficult if there were just the two of us to do so.”

  Truthfully it had never once occurred to me. Mi was just Mi to me. The term Keeper when applied to Mi, seemed like a surname. Not unlike calling someone Mrs. or Ms. She had been with me since birth. I’m not sure how large her span of keeping was. Growing up it certainly seemed she was not much more than Lexi’s personal Keeper. It had never occurred to me she was busy keeping others too. Or maybe she wasn’t. Maybe that’s one of the reasons they needed so many.

  “She was elected. The Council felt it was warranted. In retrospect I believe it was the right decision.” Immy advised while I mulled it over.

  Was it just me? Had my ten had their own Keepers? Neither Dane nor Marcus had said anything about a Keeper of their own.

  “There are other Keepers but it is extremely rare for one to have a single soul essence assignment. Most of us perform our duties in mass not in singular. At this time, it is just you upon this world.” Immy informed me with a sigh.

  This world….I suppose on some level I might have considered life on other worlds, briefly. But a couple million Keepers? What exactly was the Keeper to ah..kept ratio, in mass? Truly, were they all female? I actually felt a little light headed at the thought. How did one become a Keeper? Was there a selection process? Was one born into the job? Were they Gods? Or would that be Goddesses? How many worlds were we talking about here? Did they get to choose their location? Was it a job and did they eventually get to retire? If they retired, where would a retired Keeper go? Did they ever have kids? Were they mothers as well as Keepers. Were their children Keepers too? So many questions, it was all a bit overwhelming.

  Maybe I was having a sugar rush or just thirsty. It seemed forever since I’d had real food or drink. This day had barely begun and was already fraught with surprises I thought, and found myself munching on the sucker in my mouth. Apparently I wasn’t going to make it to two hundred and fifty whatever licks I mused, while gnawing the last of the center filling off my mangled stick. Ha, who was I kidding? Nearly every minute of every day since I’d been willingly dragged into the Salty Dog, had been fraught with surprise. It was the new norm for me. Why should the thought of a couple million Keepers and other populated worlds raise my brow in wonder?

  “So you never did say what you did with my men?” I asked after a moment of reflection. I’d been letting Immy lead me astray from my questions. Not that the few tidbits she’d dropped hadn’t been interesting, or that distracting me was all that difficult, given the circumstances.

  “I’ll tell you if you promise not to get cranky with me. I know what you did to the last female you got cranky with.” She assured me.

  “Ah…” I replied, suddenly feeling a knot forming in the pit of my stomach. If Immy was anything like Mi, there was no telling what she’d done with them. I’m sure I didn’t know what she was referring to. I’d left that black haired witch who’d lusted after Amras and apparently Tdem too, back in the hall in once piece hadn’t I?

  Immy frowned and her eyes widened suddenly. It didn’t make me feel better and I could swear she looked like she was in the process of biting her tongue. “Not the Lady Telrun!” She finally blurted out with a laugh. She then closed her eyes for a moment before adding in a more moderate voice, “Though it might…” She stopped suddenly, cutting her words off mid-sentence and shook her head. “No no no. There are few facts to support that train of thought, best not to go there.”

  Okay, that was nearly interesting. Hmmm…if not Lady Telrun, “Then who?” I wanted to know, feeling she had been about to say something I just might want to hear before she’d cut herself off mid-speak. Too bad I couldn’t read her thoughts.

  “The Troll.” She replied and gave me a look that said I’d better not try.

  I smiled contritely and thought to myself, oh yeah…her. “Well ah…I was provoked.”

  She smiled and rolled her now empty stick into the paper wrapper and set them both on the table. “Your men are fine.” She informed me. “No one was harmed and no one will be. I rarely revert to violence.”

  Oh good to know, I thought and suddenly found it difficult to swallow. A Keeper of History becoming violent wasn’t something I was all that eager to witness. Immy looked to me like a beautiful winged creature, all sparkly and dewy fresh. But I’d seen similar beauty turned to coldblooded violence and didn’t doubt for one second that she could and would take care of herself.

  Her wings fluttered once then stilled. “They think you are still with them, covered in the coccinellidae I sent to distract them.”

  “They haven’t noticed I’m no longer under the…what?”

  “Common name is…ladybugs?”

  Really? Surely one of my men might have noticed it was only bugs and not me? I realized they didn’t want to upset the bugs due to the noxious fumes but really?

  “Well, I sent a Golem too. It’s roughly the same shape as you and covered as it is, they haven’t noticed the difference yet. We have plenty of time before, or even if they suspect anything is wrong.”

  “Oh.” Well that explains that, I thought. And found myself wondering if I should ask what the Golem was made out of? On second thought maybe I didn’t want to know. “Must be pretty convincing if my men still think it’s me after all this time.” I added.

  Her wings fluttered once again and she reached down with one hand and smoothed what appeared to be an imaginary something or other at her waist. “You haven’t been here that long Princess. At least, not long, relatively speaking.” She added.

  Uh huh, “Relative to what?” I asked.

  She looked uncomfortable for half a second then announced. “Time is such a funny thing, don’t you agree?”

  I frowned and shifted from one foot to the other. “I’m not sure I follow. In my experience time is nothing more than numbered increments. It is fairly structured and constantly reliable.” Well, mostly reliable except when one was in a hurry and there was not enough of it. Or when you had to wait on something and there seemed an overwhelming amount of it. But I sensed that wasn’t what she was hinting at.r />
  Immy took a couple steps away from the table toward the doorway and motioned for me to follow. I raised an eyebrow but truly was curious about what might lay beyond this room. “Yes it feels like time does slow down when something important happens.” She offered as she moved toward the doorway. “How some moments in your life seem to take forever while others flash past?”

  I followed a few steps behind, my gaze focused on her back and the juncture of her wings and spine. Where the two joined it look like the bone was covered in soft fuzz, similar to the skin which covered deer antlers and most of her tail. I wondered distractedly if I touched it, would be prickly or was it really as soft as it looked. Could she fly? She looked comfortable in her boots and leggings. Whereas I was still wearing my ridiculous tangerine dress, a lopsided headpiece and those strappy heels! At least my feet weren’t hurting anymore. I sighed and couldn’t help admiring her outfit. I wondered if I could convince Kit and Owen to stop dressing me like a model from Fredrick’s of Hollywood, and more like Immy, minus the hole in the back of the pants. After all I didn’t have a tale and the last thing I needed was a peek-a-boo hole in the middle of my bottom.

  “I’ve noticed that it seems to speed up when I least want it to.” I finally muttered, thinking about my appalling lack of self-restraint and more frequent need of sexual interaction with my dragons.

  Immy stopped in her tracks and turned to stare at me, her tail flicking gently from left to right. “It does appear that is becoming a problem for you.” She agreed then flashed me a sympathetic smile. “You are not the first to wish it otherwise. You are not even the first upon this world to do so.” She remarked and turned back toward the door as if she hadn’t just blown a pound of Faerie Dust into my eyes and up my nose.

  Whoa, wait one second there! “What?” I all but yelped, her words shocking me to the core. “What are you saying? I thought only Golds were subjected to this cursed Fecundity!”

  She continued walking, but glanced over her shoulder. I watched as she pursed her lips and nodded. “That is true. But my dear, you are not the only Gold upon this world.” She informed me and I swear my vision developed spots so that I had to reach for the wall to hold myself up. My breath was coming in short gasps when she added, “And now you begin to understand my reason for inviting you to join me.”

  I swallowed and stood with my hand on the wall waiting for the dancing spots to disappear. I could still hear footsteps moving away and realized if I wanted an explanation I’d need to pull myself together. From the sound of it, Immy had already cleared the doorway and any hope of an answer was going with her. Inside me Goldy no longer had her eyes closed. I could feel the tension radiating out of her and swallowed painfully. Between the two of us, Goldy was the easy going one. Her infrequent moments of excitement or worry were usually overshadowed by a strong sense of boredom and a willingness to let me get on with life as I saw fit. At the moment she was anything but bored and if I didn’t know better I’d say my girl was, dare I say it, alarmed…scared?

  Her angst had me jumping. Pushing away from the wall, I forced my feet to move, though my steps were haphazard at best. Glancing around I realized the room was empty, except for me. A dozen or more paces and I paused in the doorway looking left then right in wonder. Grimacing, I realized I didn’t have time to gawk as Immy’s winged back and tail disappeared around a corner to my right. I could have called to her but something told me the chances were slim she would stop and wait for us to catch up. Her steps appeared purposeful. I suspected where ever we were heading she wasn’t stopping till she got there.

  Stretching my legs I hustled after her and nearly landed on my face as my dresses limiting capabilities made themselves known. Cursing under my breath I reached down and dragged the hem up over my knees and set off as fast as my heels would allow, making sure I kept to the center of the hall. I wasn’t certain what the walls were made out of out here in the hallway, and didn’t have time to inspect them. However that didn’t prevent me from trying to study them as I rushed past.

  Nebulous, is the word that came to mind as I quickly passed the pulsing, flowing matter that seemed to separate the space I had defined as a hall, from the huge cavern beyond. Though the walls weren’t exactly clear, I could see behind, or more accurately, through them. A huge space lay beyond the walls with thousands, maybe millions of small round door like openings that lined the cavern on all sides. In the middle there was water flowing in something slightly larger than a creek. Not exactly the Mississippi, more like the Russian River, during summer. Though the river, if that was what it was, looked odd to me. Almost as if it wasn’t water at all but some clear substance churning and roiling along between two, vegetation free banks. I heard nothing except my own breathing and the sharp staccato sound of my heels upon the marble floor.

  I slowed a bit before rounding the corner, not sure what lay beyond. All I could see was more hallway, strange walls, and Immy disappearing through a set of double doors a hundred or so feet down the corridor. Inside me Goldy bared her teeth and dug her nails into her dirt bed. A gasp and moan escaped me as I sucked air into lungs which felt like they’d been deflated. Covering my middle with my free hand, I fought the need to sink to my knees from the pain. Ahead of me Immy stopped in her tracks for a brief second, her dark up tilted eyes narrowing; tail flicking once, before she disappeared through the opening.

  We somehow made it to the doorway, though truthfully the trip was a bit hazy. At one point Goldy determined I wasn’t moving fast enough and forced the change upon us. I think our wing must have brushed the wall, setting off a weird warbling siren that nearly made our ears bleed. We arrived in all our glory, seventeen feet of angry scared dragon, wings tucked, nails scraping marble as we slid two thirds the way across the opening before managing to come to a complete stop. I believe Goldy expected to find the other queens in residence, possibly explaining her complete and utter lack of self-control. I wasn’t sure what the plan was. At the moment I was more concerned about annoying Immy and the potential ramifications of running amok in her domain while still in dragon form. Of course, Goldy had been ignoring my attempts to reason with her. And we were going to have to discuss her lack of control in the very near future, note to self. For now I was going to have to come up with some way of apologizing for the gouges in the marble all by myself. Because Goldy got a glance at the near empty room and immediately deserted me. Hard to say who was more surprised, Immy at our abrupt arrival. Or I, at Goldy’s presto chango vanishing act. Thanks to which, I found myself teetering yet again on the now nail grooved floor. I’m sure I must have looked like a complete idiot swaying drunkenly there in the middle of the doorway.

  “Ummm I can probably get your floor repaired.” I offered, wondering just who I knew that could accomplish that for me. Maybe Owen or Kit, on second thought, definitely not Kit. Surely somewhere around here there had to be a repository for histories. Just the thought of him loose in here made my hair stand at attention.

  Immy grimaced slightly then sighed. “Are you coming in? I can assure you I’m not hiding any other Dragons in here with me, at least none in the flesh.” She replied in a voice that sounded just a little strained. “This is the Dragon Soul Chamber. In case I wasn’t clear enough, the only thing kept in here is the history of Dragons.”

  I’m not sure but I think she rolled her eyes. Doing some wincing myself, I smoothed down my dress with palms that were surprisingly moist, took a deep breath and forced my feet to move me forward and into what looked like a cozy sitting room. Cozy that is, if you happened to be fifty feet tall and liked to roast elephants over an open fire pit.

  The room was nearly as large as my Grandmother’s throne room, had a fireplace I could have stood up in, and the ceiling was so far away from the floor I wasn’t sure I could actually see it. But what really caught my attention, was the floor to ceiling shelves lining three walls, and the little glass boxes covering the shelves from floor to ceiling. The room was lit well, with sever
al couches and comfy looking chairs spread about it. They appeared positioned to take advantage of both the light from the hanging lamps and the warmth from the fireplace. A large black desk and oversized chair stood in the far corner. The double doors were large and even thrown open as they were, I could still see they were carved with hundreds of dragons in all shapes and sizes. On one of the couches, facing the door, Immy sat patiently watching me. The coffee table in front of her held 5 little glass boxes. Each of them contained a small metallic piece of metal. On the table next to the boxes lay what looked to be a fragment of the same colored rock or metal.

  Chapter 14

  Immy watched me cross the room, her gaze a weight upon my conscious. I took a seat on the couch to her left. It allowed me a view of both the wall of boxes and the archway we’d entered through. Her small smile let me know she found my choice amusing but she refrained from commenting. I shrugged and flashed a smile back at her, after all, I was a Hunter and ingrained habits die hard.

  Nodding slightly, Immy pointed at the highly reflective metal, at least I thought it might be metal, item sitting on the table in front of us. “This is Ataxite, it contains meteoric iron, taenite, plessite, trolitie and microscopice lamellae of kamacite. I use it as a host for every lifeform’s essence. At conception, a sliver of soul is infused to the Ataxite. Each piece is kept within one of these little boxes. With this,” she told me, reaching down and lifting one of the boxes farthest away from me, “I can divine your entire history to date. For instance, this box,” she continued, “contains the essence of one of your sisters.” Then she motioned to three of the other boxes, “These are the others.” She then pointed to the fifth box, the one closest to me. “This contains your essence.”