Brieanne kicked a loose stone out with her toe and both she and Gazalarnith watched as the crystal shard tumbled through the air and shattered on the rocks below.
"But I still don't get it. All this fuss and fighting for some busted up bit of stone and scraps of metal. I mean, why do you even care what he has when you already have all this?" Genuine confusion was written as clearly on Brieanne's face as it was in her voice. "It's not like you can live in two places at once, and while you're there you'll have to worry about here."
Kicking her feet again, Brieanne sent a shower of tiny crystal shards raining into the open courtyard below. She watched them fall, sparkling as they went, until only a few fine bits of dust remained drifting through the air. While his 'guest' sat and contemplated, Gazalarnith grit his teeth, inhaled deeply and took a firm grip of his temper.
This, he reminded himself, is exactly why a dryad was Chosen. They never want what someone else has. Jealousy and greed are simply foreign concepts to them.... I'd have thought her father's blood could have tempered that somewhat. Of course it's more than all that... But how does one explain the reality of it when no other creature can ever understand... Can never appreciate what it is they have and hold and spend while we long.
Stretched from the top of the broken tower where his guest perched, down to the battlements below, the massive draconian bought himself a moment to think while he pretended to scratch an itch. Sunlight glinted off the gold highlights that still remained on the edges of some of his scales. The bright bits were all that was left of the colors of his youth. From the rainbow hues of red and orange and yellow he had darkened to ember red and gold. As centuries past the red had deepened to black, and now only flecks here and there contrasted with the shiny ebony that covered the rest of his form.
How do I explain this desire to her in any fashion she'll understand? With a deep, frustrated, grumbling sound that caused Brieanne to look up concerned, Gazalarnith scowled out at the clouds. While I'm at it I can try to understand how I was maneuvered into this conversation in the first place.
"I have no interest in the old keep. As you have said, it is just a pile of broken stones. I only want to have it long enough to get the gold Zebadalia has collected there." Besides, he added mentally, the old snake won't long have more use of it and then every hatchling in the Realm will be fighting over it.
"But you've already got a mountain of it yourself!" Brieanne sat up, exasperated. "That pile is longer than you are and most of it taller than me. You've got crowns! With great big gems. You've got coins from mortal kingdoms that don't even exist anymore! You've got chalices and rings and bracelets and nuggets and more and more coins than my Aunt Flora could even spend. Why do you always want more? Is that just all you do with life is want what isn't yours?" If she hadn't arrived being who she was and escorted by Mith' le akrea herself, Brieanne's impertinent, accusing tone would most likely have gotten her eaten. Or, at the very least, singed. As it was the ancient dragon snarled and pulled away.
"I do not expect you to understand, childe. Beyond the realm of dragons there exists no one with ability to comprehend the world as we do. You see it simply as something to hold and spend. Your perceptions are limited." Angered as much by her words as his inability to effectively explain it all, Gazalarnith reply was as much snarl as sneer.
"Well then, show me!" Brieanne climbed to her feet, balancing on the edge of the shattered wall and proffering a ring she'd taken from his hoard. "Show me what this is really worth if it's more than just something to trade for a nice bolt of silk. You've said it doesn't have any magic and I can see it doesn't have any gems. So what makes it so special to you? You said you'd know it from a hundred that look just like it. How? It can't be something you see and you don't eat it and it doesn't have anything to smell. How do you know this one from another? It's like you want to show me all the frame and little, disjointed pieces but don't want to show me what the picture really is."
For a long moment, Gazalarnith stood and stared at Mith' le akrea's ward. Somewhere he felt the wheel of fate turning. That she could comprehend that there was more to it's worth than she could touch or see and that she was willing to challenge him on it, caught his interest.
Such a feisty little thing. Though if she knew what she asked she would not be so brave.
Wouldn't she? A voice in his head answered. She's standing on the top of a wall a hundred feet above the ground with nothing to hold onto while she yells at You, almighty Dragon Lord. So much for dragon-fear...
Gazalarnith frowned. No. She wasn't afraid of him. While others would run in terror from his shadow she was staring him in the face, with a bit of His gold, demanding an explanation. Perturbed, his pride and ego kicking into high gear, Gazalarnith inclined his head til his nose nearly touched her's and stared deep into her eyes.
"Do you truly think you could stand to know, dryad's daughter? Do you truly think you could know the world as dragons do? I think you'd more likely go mad and then I'd have explaining to do when that old witch came to recollect what was left of you." His voice was the deep rumbling of distant thunder. A voice that demanded and expected attention and respect, and never failed to earn it.
"Try me." With the bravado only a teenager can muster, Brieanne crossed her arms over her chest and glared back at the leviathan staring down at her.
"Hang on." With a succinct command, Gazalarnith twisted and Brieanne climbed into the small, bony spot between his wings. The rush of wind lifted her from his back and she clung to the base of one wing for dear life. She managed to hang on and resettled herself as they landed on the far side of his keep and the dragon slunk into his lair with her aboard.
It was a sight no other being had seen and lived. A huge spill of gold that filled most of what had once been an enormous ballroom. And Brieanne still held onto a small piece of it.
With what magic he had, Gazalarnith had cast light spells on the crystal chandeliers overhead, and the light sparkled and glowed along his treasures, filling the room with glorious light. It was more than enough for Arden's young princess to see by as she slipped down his shoulder to the ground. With a twist and a hop she popped the ring into the air. It arced neatly over her head and back into the mountain.
"And your telling me you can pick it out from everything else."
Without answering Gazalarnith stalked over to his bed and looked down over it. For a moment he seemed to relax... almost droop... his eyes half closed, his wings folding closely along his body. Like a cat resting over a prize, he dozed there. Then he deftly reached out and hooked a small ring on the tip of one claw.
"This is it."
Brieanne didn't reach for the ring. She didn't doubt him. But she stared at him long and hard. There was something familiar here, something about the way he had paused that had rung bells with her. Something.... Brieanne struggled. It was like an almost forgotten dream. Something that she could no longer quite put her finger on. But, it was as if.... as if he'd been listening...
"Show me how you did that." It was not a request. Gazalarnith gazed down at the diminutive sprite too bemused to really be angry. He was one of the Dragon Lords. Arguably the mightiest dragon in the Great Counsel of Wryms. That such a tiny creature would dare take that tone with him... Ivory, black tipped horns wove back and forth through the air as he shook his head.
Bossy little thing...
"And you still haven't shown me what makes it so special!" Stamping her foot, Brieanne scowled up at the dragon like a child being cheated.
"Do you actually think you could handle it?" His head lowered so he was eye to eye with her, Gazalarnith's voice was a low, ominous hiss. Brieanne was unfazed.
Grabbing hold of each wickedly tapered horn, she pulled him even closer, meeting his gaze without flinching.
"Try me."
It was reflex more than a planned action. In fact, if Gazalarnith had paused to think, he wouldn't have risked it at all. But he didn't pause. Goaded by a large ego wounded by Brieanne's impertinent, unimpressed attitude, he brought down the mental barriers that stood between them. He brought the dryad's daughter into contact with his mind and enveloped her with his perceptions of the world around them.
At first Brieanne didn't notice much difference. The wider set of the dragon's eyes shifted the angle of things and the colors were flatter and less varied, the contrast stronger. Smells were sharper, but she knew her hounds perceived them just as clearly. Sounds seemed clearer too... Sounds...!
Gazalarnith watched closely as the auditory impact hit her. He was already regretting his action, but loath to break the link unless he was sure she was in danger. Some part of him wanted to lash out at her for questioning him, for challenging him. He wanted to show her how great this thing was that she could not truly be a part of.
He too shocked by what happened next to be disappointed.
The music started slowly. A low welling of notes like a symphony just warming up. Brieanne focused on it and became aware that the music did not come from her reluctant host, but from the myriad of treasures behind him. She turned toward it, a look of both surprise and recognition on her face.
Every coin chimed, each unworked nugget hummed and drummed, every ring and crown sang with fluted metallic notes that rang off the crystal walls. Gazalarnith's own NameSong wove in and out of the other melodies seamlessly and the ballroom filled with music more rich than any orchestra could ever produce; the crystal walls resounding more elegantly than the finest amphitheater.
Instead of drowning in it as he had expected, Brieanne soared with it. As his NameSong repeated itself Brieanne's own voice joined in. Where before it had been a choir of horns, and chimes and other things metal, now a melody of strings sounded out above it. Delicate notes, different than the music that preceded it, but complimentary. The orchestra was complete and the experience as close to religious as these two beings would ever get.
How long they stood there, the dragon and the dryad would never be able to tell. Finally though, they fell back into there own respective selves and the music faded from them til they were just themselves, standing in an old ballroom, next to a mountain of gold.
"I did not know other creatures had NameSongs." Gazalarnith cleared his throat and broke the awkward silence that had begun building between them.
"All beings have a Lifesong." Brieanne stood staring at the gold, dazed, still hearing in her head the exquisite music that was the Dragon's Gift. "Your Gift is to hear your own and this magic from the metals dug up from the bones of the earth. The Dryad's Gift..." Brieanne lifted her eyes to meet his, the joy and wonder of her world filling her words. "We hear that of every living thing."
"Show me." It was an echo of her earlier demands, but in a tone more gentle then any would have believed possible coming from between Gazalarnith's wicked teeth. Brieanne smiled and nodded.
Within seconds the two were sailing through the clouds. Onward and outward, high above the forest laden mountains as they dwindled into hills and Brieanne's meadow became visible in the distance.
Now how many people get to do this? Cradled in his arms, Brieanne relished the mode of transportation as much as the trip itself. No one's ever going to believe this. Though I bet I'm not supposed to tell. And I can't believe I'm showing a dragon where my tree is....
Still shaking her head at the wonder of it all, Brieanne pointed and guided Gazalarnith down to the massive oak dominating the skyline.
There wasn't a sign of life to be found in the meadow when Gazalarnith backwinged to a halt and landed. Brieanne didn't expect there to be. Dragons were not to be tangled with, and there wasn't a faerie creature living that did not know that rule. Wyverns might fall victim to Brownie pranks... Parties of Drow might take out an occasional hatchling lurking in the fringes of the Underdark... Warriors from the Seelie Court might do battle with a Firedrake if it decided to try expanding its territory and it's hoard... But to be confronted by one of the greater dragons.... One of the Lords.... Most fey would rather find someplace else to be. And mortals were known to simply faint. It wasn't until she was lying quietly in her bed many nights later that Brieanne thought on why she herself was unaffected.
But now there was no conversation or time for idle thoughts. Climbing up to a comfortable height in her tree, Brieanne bid her draconian companion to wait, and merged. Gazalarnith made himself comfortable as well, and when Brieanne reappeared minutes later, the tree was wrapped securely in scaly coils.
She sat snuggly in a crook in the truck, looking slightly vacant and Gazalarnith's head slid slowly through the air toward her until tip of his muzzle touched her stomach. Leaning back against the truck of her tree, Brieanne wrapped her arms around the dragon's head and gently brought him into the merge. As ancient as he was, for all the things he knew and suspected, Gazalarnith was awed... and humbled. He relaxed into the dryad's embrace, and if dragon's were capable of such a thing, he'd have wept for the beauty of the Song.
The sun was sinking beneath the upper reaches of the trees when the two roused themselves. Like a pair of spent lovers, the two moved lethargically, slowly separating and taking their time with waking up. For a long time, neither said a word.
"Well dryad, Daughter of the Mighty Oak... and sister to my soul it seems... You have proven that even an old dragon still has tricks to learn." The dragon's voice was soft as wind through the trees. A whisper for a creature so large. Brieanne simply nodded and stroked his nose. The music was still fading from her and she was reluctant to speak, for that would end the last tenuous notes.
Their final words were few, little more then a good-bye until next time. But yet another unlikely friendship had been formed. For the dryad it was not so strange. She had many friends, who had many forms. There were princes and witches, pixies, nirads and satyrs, bears, and horses and hounds... any number of beings with just as many perspectives on life and the world through which they moved. But for the dragon... Few of his kind formed permanent relationships, the nature of their being often precluded that. They could seldom stand any company, much less withstand the strains and stresses that come with any relationship. To have found someone to trust, someone with whom he could truly share his life... and to have found it in such an unlikely place. It was profound and Gazalarnith remained where he was long after Brieanne had returned to her father's realm. He could smell where she had been sitting, like summer rain and wild roses....
Did the old witch intend this? Did she know what we would find? Does she know we have this in common? Even with the deepening shadows, the tiny faeries who lived in Brieanne's meadow could see the movement of his head as he turned to stare toward a distant knoll.Before he would not have considered it possible... now he was not sure.
Memories of the soul wrenching music turned his thoughts to his keep and his gold. But to go there, meant to leave this and Brieanne's earlier words came back to haunt him....
Why do you always want more? Is that just all you do with life is want
what isn't yours? It's not like you can live in two places at once, and
while you're there you'll have to worry about here.
He tensed, coils of bone and muscle tightening painfully around the massive tree. It wasn't greed so much as pain at having to let go of something precious. But the dryad was quite right, he couldn't be in two places... and this wasn't his to have. A dragon without his gold was unhappy, a dryad without her tree was dead.
Carefully, so as not to disturb a single branch, Gazalarnith peeled himself away. And as he soared around the meadow on his way home, he came to a decision. He may not be able to take it with him, but he could make certain no one ever took it from him.