For a time, Anaya lost herself in the voice of the dragon. It was as deep as the deepest seas, as light as a snowflake landing on her cheek. It carried the feeling of the endless depth of a clear night sky on a cold night. She dove into the vastness of it for a heartbeat, a day, a thousand years.
One of the others moved behind her, the sound drew her back. Even then, it took her a moment to recover, staring at the dragon. She took a deep breath.
"Where is home?" she asked, her voice sounding wrong in her ears.
She wasn't yet prepared when the voice filled her mind the second time, and she almost slipped right back in.
'Far from here, in the North, where the ice never fully melts and colored lights dance in the dark sky with the pale moons and the shining stars.'
"How did you find us here?"
'Your friends sing a song in the tongue of the people who live home.
"Are you talking with the dragon?" Madiza's voice came from behind her. Her voice, only moments ago (had it only been moments?) so clear and bright, now grated against her ears and mind like a cracked stone in contrast with the dragon's.
"You can't hear her?" Anaya raised her voice just enough for the others to hear her. Everything around them was turning white now, the moisture in the air condensing and freezing on every surface it came in touch with.
The others only gave her confused looks. She dismissed them as an unnecessary distraction and turned back to the dragon in front of her.
"Why aren't you talking to them, if they are the ones who drew you here, if they are who remind you of home?"
'Their tongue reminds me of home, that is all. Among you only you remind me of home.'
Me? How? Why?
The dragon didn't answer. Anaya gave up the questions.
"If your home is in the North," she asked instead, "how are you here now?"
'I went after something I should not have. It was foolish of me, and I lost myself. Now I cannot find my way back home.'
She could taste the regret of the dragon at the back of her throat. It was too sweet, and too sharp, and it stung like a thorn.
"But you're half-way across the world from home. All you need to do is go north, and you will eventually find your way. It shouldn't be hard. You can't get lot in the forest, or in the mountains, walking in circles. You see the whole world from the sky."
'If I saw the whole world I would know where to go. But I do not.'
"Is that why you were at our town? Because you were lost?"
'I sensed a spirit of someone there whose language I recognised. I followed the only familiar thing in this land that I could find.'
She wasn't there for me, for us. Kimo was wrong. The thoughts flashed through her in an instant. Then, slower. He was wrong about everything. Except that she wants something. Then again, most things do.
"How can you find your way home? How do you stop being lost?"
'With your help.'
"My... what?" Anaya fell silent, confused and weary. "I don't think there's anything I can do to help you."
'You would be surprised, little human, at what your kind is capable of. And what mine isn't, no matter how powerful you perceive us to be.'
They stood there, looking at each other, deep into each other's eyes.
'I need your help. I have lost myself, and alone I cannot find my way home.'
The dragon paused.
'But first, you need sleep. I know your minds cannot keep going for much longer without. So rest now, my guide, and after we will begin.'
Anaya bowed to the dragon.
"I don't believe there is anything I can do to help you find your way home," she said, and straightened, "but if I am mistaken, if there is something, then I will help you, and together we will find a way home for you. I promise."
_______________________________
So I am very very busy for a couple of days now. I only managed to squeeze in a bit over an hour to write this about an hour after the previous part was finished, so maybe you'll excuse me if this is very short and turned out to go in circles.
(Or maybe circles are all I ever do either way, just usually with less excuse.)
The topic for tomorrow is Ground.
~matleena
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