Chapter 10 #2
I blew out a breath. Not yet, I said in a small voice. Is that okay? I appreciate you being willing to share it though.
He rumbled. It is okay, dear one. May I ask you a question about your health?
I straightened on the table a little, the sound of Alaric and King Draven’s voice a quiet drone in the background. Yes, of course!
Were medical professionals ever able to diagnose your health problems?
I sighed. Yes? To a point, I think. The last diagnosis was fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue.
But I also struggle with so many other things: asthma, stomach problems, insomnia.
.. And under the umbrella of fibromyalgia alone there were many symptoms that I dealt with daily.
The day before I became a raven I was...
in despair. It felt like I was grieving.
In fact, I think I’ve been going through the grief process for many years because of my health.
You feel like you lose so many things...
pieces of yourself, who and what you were.
You start to lose hope for your future. And what makes all of that worse is the isolation. I felt... very alone.
Tears pooled in my raven eyes, and I laid my head down on the table.
I was very tired. Suddenly, like before, the dragon rose out of Alaric’s chest. All conversation in the room instantly halted, and Alaric must have clenched the glass he’d been drinking from too hard, because it shattered, the sound loud in the suddenly quiet dining room.
The dragon’s head poked out of Alaric’s chest, reaching for me. I stood and wobbled closer to him until I could touch the wispy, gossamer threads of his head. Then I leaned into him and closed my eyes as he thrummed peace to me.
I felt the despair lift, and the grief transmuted to comfort. I had forgotten for the moment that I had hope again. That my shifter DNA would help me to eventually heal. It might take many years, but I would heal.
“You are loved,” the dragon said aloud. He gently rubbed the top of my head with his snout. His breath was warm, despite him being in this ghostly state.
“Thank you.”
Then he went back inside Alaric, and I slumped back onto the table in exhaustion. Most of my questions had been answered, and I now felt confident that I could ask anything of the dragon and he would answer me.
I just had one more question. What do I call you?
I am called Elandor.
Thank you, Elandor.
Always, Treasure.
“Well, that was interesting,” King Draven said. Mesmer who had come to stand guard just inside the dining room was gaping at Alaric, and I had the feeling the hulking gargoyle didn’t give that expression all that often. “I now understand why you are the strongest of the shifters.”
Alaric closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He looked like he was getting, or already had, another migraine. “I’m sorry. I have no idea why my dragon has been doing that lately.”
“I would think it would be self explanatory,” King Draven said.
Alaric raised an eyebrow in question.
“Your dragon loves her as well, and when she’s hurting, he feels it.
He feels it more than you can at the moment, until you are able to change into your dragon form again.
He’s trying to let her know he loves her and give her comfort.
The fascinating thing is the level of power that it must take for him to be able to do that. I’m curious, is he asleep right now?”
“Yes.”
King Draven nodded. “He’s using a significant amount of power to appear to her that way. Your dragon’s love for your mate is deep.”
A maid cleared away the broken glass from beside Alaric, and replaced his glass with another one. This one looked like a glass stein, with thick walls, and a thick handle. I snorted. Well, they learned quickly, didn’t they?
I let the conversation wash over me and closed my eyes. I wanted to rest with the dragon, and to see him. I wanted to offer him comfort and strength.
I got my wish...
I dreamed that I was in a large grassy field. The sun was high above me. A stream ran through the middle of the field, and large trees stood at the edges. It was an isolated spot, and I felt a sense of peace there.
As happened often in dreams, I wasn’t yet aware that I was dreaming.
I was just enjoying the sun on my face and body.
I closed my eyes and tilted my head up to the sun, letting its rays dance across my skin.
It wasn’t until I let the rays dance on the palms of my hands that I realized I was in my human form.
I sat down beside the stream, then stretched out on my back in the tall, deep-green grass. It tickled my bare legs and arms. The earth beneath me smelled rich and teeming with life. I opened my eyes again to stare at the puffy clouds as they wisped across the sky.
I lost all sense of time there, content to rest and watch the sky. To listen to the water as it flowed through the stream. To let the sun recharge me like one giant Everly battery.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen the sun like this. Had I ever seen the sun like this? I didn’t think so. I sighed deeply and smiled, closing my eyes.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
What the Jurassic Park?
I sat up in panic. Whatever was making that noise sounded huge! I craned my head behind me, feeling something there, and watched with wide eyes as a humongous black dragon cleared the trees and entered the clearing.
He seemed very familiar to me...
“Elandor?”
The dragon chuckled as he drew near, which hadn’t taken all that long considering his massive size.
“Yes.” He settled beside me, and, in the way of dreams sometimes, I had absolutely no fear, and moved so that I comfortably rested against one of his massive paws. I sensed he was being careful not to accidentally break or squash me. “I did not know you could dreamseek.”
I tilted my head back to look at him. “Dreamseek?”
He nodded. “Yes, dreamseekers are one of the masters of the dreamplane. There are quite a few masters, but dreamseekers are among the strongest. You can control the dreamplane, what happens here, and travel instantly through it. I have a feeling this is an important gift given to you.”
I sat up, no longer comfortable and drowsy. “Wait, you’re saying that I created this place? That I brought you here?”
His laugh rumbled through the clearing. “Well, I was very contentedly napping inside Alaric when I was yanked here, so I would say yes.”
I gaped at him. “I’m so sorry,” I whispered in embarrassment. “I had the thought before I fell asleep that I wanted to meet you in person, and that I wanted to offer you comfort, like you have for me the last few times.”
He rumbled, pleased.
I stared up at him, all at once struck by how majestic he looked.
He wasn’t all black. Toward the tips of his scales was a deep purple.
His eyes were huge and a deep-green with gold tints in them.
He had spikes along his spine. His huge wings, which were curled up beneath him, were mostly black with deep-purple at the outer edges.
In short, he looked like the Dragon King. He was nobility personified.
I gaped at him. “You’re... beautiful.”
He thrummed in pleasure. “Thank you, dear one. You’re beautiful as well.”
I ducked my head shyly. I couldn’t remember the last time someone had called me beautiful. It had probably been my Gran who had told me that last, and that had been many years ago.
“Thank you,” I said quietly.
“Come, cuddle up beside me. Let us rest together.” His nose twitched. “Unless you have another question for me?”
I couldn’t look at him as I asked. I just skated my open palm against the grass, letting it tickle my hand. “Are you sure I’m your and Alaric’s mate?” I whispered.
Elandor lowered his head so that it was level with my body.
His gaze was intent and kind. “I am sure.” He sighed and the hot air gusted all around me, smelling like a campfire.
“I know it’s difficult. You are not a shifter, not truly.
You don’t have our instincts. It must seem like a very foreign concept to you. ”
I made a face.
“It’s not?” he asked.
I shrugged. “Humans have... books and movies. Some of them paranormal. It’s not an unheard of concept among humans.
I’ve personally read many paranormal romance books.
I inherited them from my Gran. She used to read them voraciously.
” I tilted my head up. “She’s known about your world for a long time, but she never told me. Not until the night before I changed.”
He thrummed in thought. “So, you’re saying that it’s not too terrible a concept for you?”
I shrugged. “Not too terrible,” I agreed. In fact, kind of nice... I wasn’t sure how I felt about the concept of having a mate yet. It was too new. But with time... Love didn’t seem impossible. Alaric seemed like a good person.
“Elandor, can you explain the bond between you and Alaric?”
He thrummed in thought for a minute. “The best way to explain it is that we share a link. While I can think and feel independently, most often we think and feel as one.”
I pulled a few wildflowers and twisted them together to make a crown. I understood what he was saying, I think, but I was still confused about one concept. “Your and Alaric’s feelings for me, are they independent of each other?”
“No... and yes.” He laughed at the confused frown I shot at him.
“Our feelings mostly align with one another’s.
To such an extent that we often can’t tell where one of us begins and the other ends.
We, over the long years that we have been alive, have truly become one.
But, Alaric still has fears and thoughts and desires that are his own, just as I have my own.
At times, it makes it difficult to understand, even between us.
For example, I often want raw meat, but Alaric doesn’t like raw meat, and yet. ..” He smirked.
“Alaric craves raw meat sometimes.” I finished for him.
He nodded, chuffing. “But he can’t eat it, therefore I can’t eat it, because we are one.”
“But you’re not right now?”
Elandor looked thoughtful. “No, and I imagine Alaric is probably very worried right now. You yanked me out of him, separating us to bring me here.”
I winced, feeling awful for the worry I was causing Alaric. “I didn’t mean to,” I said quietly. “I’m sorry.”
He thrummed peace to me again. “He will survive. I have enjoyed meeting you.” He looked like he wanted to say something more, but chose not to.
“Sooo, let me see if I’m understanding this correctly.” I felt terrible that I had stolen Elandor from Alaric, but he was here now, and I had wanted the chance to talk with him. I didn’t want to pass up this opportunity. Besides, I needed clarification for something.
“If Alaric and I get together, and I’m holding his hand—“
“It will feel like you’re holding my hand,” he said gently.
I sat back, stunned. I knew that was how it worked, and yet... Fantasy and reality were different most of the time. Weren’t they?
“Does that mean, that every shifter relationship is between three people?” I wondered aloud.
He thrummed in thought. “Often four. Shifters tend to have other shifters as their mate. But you have to remember, even though we can be independent of each other, we are most often one with one another. So, in one sense, yes, it might seem a little crowded in the relationship. But in another,” he shrugged, “it’s not crowded at all.
I would just explain it as dual beings that are completely aligned in thought and feeling. ”
“That makes your feelings very strong, I think,” I murmured thoughtfully.
He chuckled. “It does, indeed. Being a shifter always means intense feelings. It’s both a boon and a drawback of being a shifter. It takes many years to master those feelings. Shifter teenagerhood is not pretty.”
I laughed. I didn’t imagine it was. Being a teenager was hard enough with one person’s thoughts and feelings. Add in another and it sounded like a recipe for disaster.
“Come, cuddle up with me.”
I shyly scooted closer to him and leaned against his foreleg again.
He thrummed in happiness, and I realized that I’d been able to decipher the meaning behind his thrums all along.
I didn’t know how I knew what they meant, I just knew.
Maybe it was part of the mate sense of knowing?
Whatever it was, I was grateful for it. Elandor seemed to speak just as much with his thrums as he did with his words and body language.
It was like a whole new language that I suddenly understood.
Not enough to thrum back to him, but enough to know the meaning and intent of his vocalizations.
Elandor wrapped his neck and head around me. His scales were warm, yet pliable. I didn’t understand how they could also be tough, but I sensed they were. You could probably shoot a missile at him and he’d be okay.
He rested his head on the ground, leaving me safely cocooned within the circle of his body, and we both eventually drifted to sleep.