Tarot Stories: A Guardian's Companion, Part Six

[rowyn]

River flowed down the street faster than Aunbrel could run; when the viper-dragon realized he wasn't keeping up, she scooped him into the curl of her tail and carried him. It was the most undignified mode of travel he'd ever experienced. Even when they reached the nest, she didn't stop. He had never been inside its labyrinthine halls before, but River bore him inside now, slithering through passages into a wide low-ceilinged chamber at its heart. The room was packed with seething viper-dragons in an echo of the situation he'd first seen them in: medium ones watching, big ones circling, Ember at the center. River bored through the pack. hissing "Stop," in their native tongue. Aunbrel could not speak it, but he'd learned to understand a bit of it by now. She deposited Aunbrel in the inner ring, between two of the large viper-dragons. They hissed their displeasure.

Aunbrel got to his feet, straightening as much as he could, though the low ceiling forced him to stoop. He stumbled to Ember's side. She was missing a half-dozen scales around her neck. "How bad is it?" he asked. She met his gaze with blank orange eyes, as if she couldn't remember how to speak his language. That bad, then.

River coiled between them and the other viper-dragons, repeating, "Stop" again and again, and then something longer that he didn't understand until she repeated it in the human tongue. "This one has protected the samassas. He has a right to be here. He is ifisith. He has a right."

I am what? "Ifishith"? That's ...a nest role? Leader? Aunbrel boggled, watching the viper-dragons around him. Frequent contact had given him a better feel for their moods, and he realized that the nest was not only angry and hostile, but pained. Wounded.

"Then he should stand with us," hissed the turqouise dragon. "Why does he stand by the samassas-fith?"

"And he must agree with the amendment," the indigo viper-dragon hissed.

"No." Aunbrel hunched, his head pressed against the too-low ceiling. "You're not fixing anything. Not like this." Like a wounded animal, gnawing at its own limb in an effort to stop the pain. "Tell me what's wrong."

A half-dozen voices called out answers in the dragon tongue: even if he understood it like a native he could not have made them out. River again slithered a circle just inside the ring of the leaders made, hissing a warning. They fell silent, then spoke one at a time.

"She defies the natural order."

"Refused work."

"Spoke against the will of a leader."

"Encouraged willfulness in others."

"Resisted all prior amendment."

"She must be amended." All of the leaders hissed in unison on the final words.

This is unbearably petty. Aunbrel licked dry lips. "Who was hurt?" He turned, looking from one viper-dragon to the next. They returned blank, uncomprehending gazes. "What did she damage? Because the only injury I'm seeing right now is on her."

"You do not understand." River slid into place in the circle of the other leaders. "She damages the order. The nest cannot continue like this."

Aunbrel choked. "Is your culture so fragile it cannot abide one tiny creature questioning it?" Then why am I here?

"This is the moment of amendment. We cannot lose it," the turqoise dragon hissed. "You need to understand."

"Well I don't! She's not broken!" the elf guardian growled, "And if she was, this wouldn't fix her! This is madness!"

"There is no other way!" Coils bunched about them, necks drawn back to strike.

Aunbrel shifted to a fighting crouch over Ember, truncheon in one hand and guardian blade in the other, painfully aware that neither was likely to do him or Ember much good against six dragons several times his size. He looked from one pair of dragon eyes to the next, waiting for the first strike. The elf's eyes fell on River, as ready to attack as any of the others. Why did you bring me here? To approve? You had to know I wouldn't. Is that a dragon custom too? What are you waiting -- Realization hit him. "You don't want to do this."

"Of course not!" River roared. "Do you think we would, if we had any choice at all? The nest cannot abide this turmoil."

'And where else am I going to go?' Ember had said.

"Ah." Aunbrel blinked, twice. "Ahh. Of course. Miss Ember, would you like to join my nest?" His tone was almost conversational. Around him, viper-dragons gaped, astonished.

Ember rolled her head back to stare at him, her eyes still blank. After a moment, she gave an all-over shake of her body, as if coming back to herself. "... what?"

"I know it's not an actual nest, as such. Just a flat. And I don't have any nest-partners so it'd be very different from what you're used to. But you don't seem exactly wanted here, as you are, and I'd like your company -- I hate living alone, in truth -- so. Er. Would you?"

Ember considered this for another two and a half seconds. "Yes."

"Splendid. That's sorted, then." Aunbrel holstered his weapons and lifted Ember. "Which way is out?"

The nest around them seethed in confusion. River sidled over to make a gap in the ring. Stooped by the cramped ceiling, Aunbrel made his way to the opening.

"Stop!" the indigo dragon cried.

"This is impossible," said the turqoise. "He is not even dragon!"

"I don't see how that enters into it." Aunbrel didn't stop. "Mistress River called me ifishith. You've let me protect your nest-partners before. If I am ifishith, I may lead my own nest. You cannot abide my nest-partner's behavior, and have failed to amend it to your liking; I have no such problem. Miss Ember is no longer your nest-partner, so you need not concern yourself with her any longer. Hence. Good night." Aunbrel moved forward on chutzpah alone. If I pretend convincingly enough that this makes sense, maybe we can get out of here before they realize it doesn't.

River slithered in a U-shape around the two, leading the way to the exit as her broad length shifted aside any other dragons. She ignored the protests and confusion, and Aunbrel followed suit. When they finally cleared the labyrinthine tunnels into open air, Aunbrel straightened, flexing his shoulders backwards and sighing. "Thank you, Mistress River."

"And you, Guardian. May your nest prosper. Farewell, Ember. Know that you both are always free to visit here." The giant dragon lowered her head to Ember, who lifted hers to bump noses gently, tongues flicking out. River turned and slithered back into her nest.

Aunbrel helped Ember up to his shoulders, wincing as his hand brushed one of the bare patches of skin where a scale was missing. "Will those grow back?" he asked quietly. "Do you need medical care?"

"I'm fine, now. They'll grow back in time." Ember rested her head on top of his. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. That is, you truly are. Honestly, I hate living alone, and I enjoy your company, and ... " A sudden horrible thought struck him. "... and ... and ... I didn't just ask you to, er, become my mate, did I?"

Ember convulsed with mirth, her coil shaking around his shoulders.

"You're laughing. That means no. Right?"

She bobbed her head, gasping. "No. Nest-partner is different from mate."

"Ah. Good. Good." Aunbrel exhaled in relief, and started walking home. "You know I don't have any idea what I'm doing, right?"

Ember nodded again. "Me either." After a moment, she added, "I think I like it. Oh, and samassas aren't normally allowed to mate. That's why it was so funny. That and your panicked tone ... you don't mind that I was laughing, do you?"

"No. Why would I?"

The little red dragon nestled her head in the elf's dark hair. "No reason," she said, with a happy sigh. "No reason at all."

Comments

[alltoseek.livejournal.com]

See? See?! I'm right! Aunbrel/Ember all the way! :D :D :D

I like River too :-)

[rowyn]

This would have been much more difficult without River's cooperation. :)

[minor-architect.livejournal.com]

I've grown rather fond of Aunbrel's ability to say - and politely, to boot - that if X is the problem the solution must be Y, and if it goes against custom, well, you can bloody well get over it.

...even if he doesn't know what Y might actually entail. :D

Good work!

[rowyn]

He's very persistent. :D

[terrana.livejournal.com]

That's a useful social trick no matter where you are. Act like you own the place and half the time people will assume you actually do.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

It's called the Intimidate skill. The problem is that after it wears off they're set to Unfriendly.

[rowyn]

Unless you do it to a viper-dragon, in which case it may make them friendlier. Depending on circumstances that you will not have a chance of understanding at the time. >:)

[rowyn]

The importance of "look like you know what you're doing and that you belong here" is part of guardian training, I'm sure. :)

[terrana.livejournal.com]

I wonder if it's part of a modern police officer's training.

[jordangreywolf.livejournal.com]

Har. :) I find it intriguing (perhaps a little disturbing) that dragons require any "corrections" to be made in the HEAT of the transgression -- that any sort of punishment MUST happen in the fury of the moment. I'm curious what might've inspired it. it makes me think of the conventions of how we can forgive certain actions that are taken "in the heat of the moment," but if someone were to take the same exact actions 5 minutes or an hour or days later, the moment would have passed, and it would seem cold and calculated ("premeditated") instead, and therefore unacceptable.

It makes me imagine that perhaps there's some sort of ridiculously idealistic code that the dragons have developed for themselves, such as, "NEVER bring harm to a fellow nest-mate!" and then there were some sorts of exceptions made, such as, "Well, if you break this rule in a fit of passion while righteously punishing a fellow nest-mate caught shirking its duties / offending the nest / etc., then you can be forgiven for it," and then this idea evolving over time into a formal code in which punishment may be meted out by the nest only under such circumstances ... probably, in a way, the very antithesis of the original intent of instituting the idealistic rule of never harming a fellow nest-mate in the first place.

(Kind of like, I suppose, stretching allegory thin, a steam-boiler and the deliberate weak point in the design that provides an outlet if the pressure gets too high. In a PERFECT world, the pressure should NEVER get too high, and making such a safety measure is a concession to imperfection! Gasp! ... But then, if it ever should do so ANYWAY, and there's no such escape valve, the whole boiler's going to explode past a certain point. Kaboom. Hence, in striving for idealistic perfection, and never accounting for the reality of imperfections, we end up with a big 'splodey mess whenever something goes wrong.)

[rowyn]

That's an interesting theory! I actually do know the reason why, and it's partly biology-based. There are two aspects to it. One is that consequences must be linked to transgression: for viper-dragons especially, there's a sense that if you find out about a wrong and don't respond immediately, it must not really be a problem. So there's no use in applying punishment long after it was discovered: the connection won't be made. The second is that the leaders are forced by the nest's turmoil in the wake of a transgression to take action. Without the freshness of the injury, they would not be able to inflict (what they regard as) the appropriate punishment. The leaders don't *want* to hurt Ember: they are *compelled to* by tradition and their sense of what is needful for their nest to be peaceful and happy. They literally do not know what to do with her, as a nest-partner.

[jordangreywolf.livejournal.com]

Hee. Now you remind me of ANOTHER aspect of "immediate punishment": training cats/dogs. In order to make an impression on the cat that YOU DO NOT GO THERE, you have to make a loud scary noise RIGHT THEN. Talking calmly to the cat later, after the fact, isn't going to do a bit of good. ;)

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Meow! ^_^

[rowyn]

It was possibly somewhat inspired by the necessity of teaching animals by catching them in the act. }:) Although as sapient beings, 'in the act' isn't necessary, just coinciding punishment with catching, whenever that is.

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

D'awwww. ^_^

Of course now he's going to have to afford food for his adorable little dragon now. Hopefully she doesn't eat too much! Well, she's a little dragon, not a big one...

[rowyn]

"That's right. It's not as if she has an income of her own ... Er. I'm sure something can be managed."

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Maybe Aubrel can get Ember onto the payroll as his assistant! How's her tracking?

[jordangreywolf.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I dunno. We know Ember can read. However, all we really know about her work ethic so far is "other dragons are not pleased with her." It might well be that they are unfair, unreasonable, and any number of things. However, just because someone is cute and yet is being oppressed doesn't mean that he or she is perfect in every way. For all we know, Ember might really BE a laze-about.

It's sort of like how I don't put much credit in the stereotypical image of the knight in shining armor rescuing the damsel in distress and then they go off and get married and live happily ever after. We know the knight is capable of violence, but that's hardly a measure of whether or not he's a NICE GUY. We know that the damsel is capable of being in distress, but that's about it. Either might be a misfit, or both, for all we know, from such little information to go by.

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Well, clearly, the only way to resolve this is for Rowyn to write more. ^_^

[rowyn]

I admit, this story could've been a lot shorter had I only been willing to settle for "damsel in distress rescued by knght". Aunbrel could've offered her a place to stay when she implied from jail that she had nowhere else to go. Yay, happy ending! But noooo, my characters wanted to get to know each other and demonstrate a basis for common ground and friendship beyond "person needs help and person who can help".

[jordangreywolf.livejournal.com]

Well, you COULD have done that, but I think the story is far more interesting with a bit more context, and a little more discretion on the part of Aunbrel. Casual heroism is boring by comparison, I think. ;)

[jordangreywolf.livejournal.com]

I dunno. Looking at that icon, she looks to be comparable in size to Aubrel. Not quite the same as taking in a stray housecat.

[rowyn]

I envision her as about the mass of a large dog, overall. Nose to tail, she's about as long as Aunbrel is tall, but she's not nearly as wide -- her maximum diameter is maybe 7" -- she's only about as big around as his head. She probably weighs around 60 or 70 pounds.

[ladyperegrine.livejournal.com]

I love the ending. :-)

[rowyn]

Surprisingly, not quite over yet. :)

[alinsa.livejournal.com]

Interesting. Isn't River bringing in an outsider (even if he's not really considered an 'outsider' now) the same as many of the things they accuse Ember of? This seems very much like speaking against a leader, encouraging wilfulness, etc. What happens if the nest is divided on whether or not someone should be punished?

Do you think we would, if we had any choice at all? Admittedly, a crappy situation. I have a vision of my parents telling me "this will hurt me more than it will hurt you" (... even though I'm pretty certain it didn't! Ow. ow. ow.) Still, I know that at least in a work context, all it takes is one bad egg to completely bring down a team, even if that person is amazing in some ways -- and I'm pretty certain the same is true of a household!

So I wonder, was this River's plan, to have Aunbrel show up and give Ember a new home? If so, why didn't she just say that to start with? :) Seems like a very annoying situation to put the guy into. Or was River just somewhat desperate to find some resolution and was willing to bring in the outsiderthink to try to find a solution the den hadn't thought of?

Aunbrel moved forward on chutzpah alone It's amazing what you can get away with if you sound like you know what you're talking about! At least in human society. I'll assume it's the same elsewhere. :)

Nest-partner is different from mate. Awwwww. That would have been really quite funny. :)