Private Tales To the City Between the Seas

[Phelaia Hope]

"I guess I understand that, Voe, your eyes are like a pit trap I just keep tumbling into if I don't watch my feet! And I dunno how I'd know, I guess I just would, not that I ever... I mean... I never had to worry much 'bout it before. Everybody I meet's mostly been human or catfolk or bugfolk, or chicken-dragons like the Quill, dragon-folk like the Komodi, or real dragon-dragons like Ketu. And Mr. Jhinn was a lot older, he was mostly interested in telling me 'bout the Tief if he talked at all. None of them are looking for that... this...? -at least, not in a way that wouldn't be awful. But they were headed awful close to Thanasis. I'm scared to take Ketu anywhere close to Thanasis. They hunt dragons to catch 'em to ride with saddles an' armor an' all. And they hate anybody as isn't human too. And me touching a dragon, and riding it? They'd chase us on dragons and try to kill us! I think Jhinn and Ysra might be from that village though, they were kinda headed from that direction it must be in. They were after riding lizards, so maybe they're already back, if they didn't get in trouble near Thanasis."

She turned, falling into the pit trap she just mentioned.

"Wow..." She blinked out of it. "So, how 'bout you, Voe? How do you think you earn a thing like twisting tails together whenever you wanna, and whatever else comes after?"

Voe

 

[Voe]

"I don't know. I suppose, ideally, you meet someone then get to know them and eventually... tail stuff follows but this?"

He was too taken with it all. Perhaps that was what was wrong.

"I think it's best we follow that instinct, to be cautious about, this!"

It was good to hear she didn't just blatantly accept it. Voe would not have been comfortable with that.

"Not that I don't... you know, want to. I just... I don't want to rush anything."

He really was bad at this and when Pelaia looked at him, caught his eyes with her own he stopped for a moment, just stopped and had to remember himself again when Phelaia blinked.

"But umm, yeah about those Thanasis people. They sound like a bunch to avoid."

Phelaia Hope

 

[Phelaia Hope]

Phelaia nodded, looking slightly upward at him. Wait, when did he get so close again?! She stepped backward, sheepishly smiling.

"Yeah, Voe, I think you're right. We oughta slow down until it feels right, well, between our horns, not just... well... everywhere else!"

Her tail was already reaching, trying to find his. She absently slapped at it. This was gonna be tough...

"We're getting pretty close, I think. The towers sure are getting big anyway! Tirnua ain't a properly kept city, you're in this fig jungle one minute, an' then the next it's suddenly streets full o' carters hawking wares and colorful banners."

Voe

 

[Voe]

"Sounds good."

It sounded dreadful. Voe preferred the outdoors, cities had too many corners and shadows. Liars and con artists and predators worse than any the wilds had to offer hunted there.

"So umm."
Wow his tail was really twitching.

"... what will they make of Ketu?"

Otho bugged his leg and got a scratch from his master for his trouble.

Surely a dragon turned heads and not all in awe.

As Phelaia stepped back he almost stepped forward and stumbled into her hands on her shoulders and in his flailing bumped her horns on his with a loud clacking sound.

Phelaia Hope

 

[Phelaia Hope]

Phelaia laughed throatily, and her toothy grin returned.

“They were fine enough with Ketu yesterday! I mean, he’s a dragon, so as long as he doesn’t smash a cart or eat somebody’s donkey, I don’t think people will make too much of a point of objecting. There’s no lord or temple or city watch here, just a bunch of trade cartels. And I’m sure some o’ them ain’t upright and forthwith or whatever, but that sort’re all about risk and reward, right? They say blue dragons can melt just about anything, so that’s a whole buncha risk to weigh, doncha think?”

Her mouth widened again as Voe tumbled into her and they fell backwards in a horn-clonking heap. She busted out laughing, and she waved up at Ketu as he buzzed overhead, blatting at Otho. She wasn’t in too much of a hurry to clamber back up. Their tails had tangled again anyway. She s’posed if that was where it stopped, it was still well in keeping with their slowdown pact, though, wasn’t it?

Voe

 

[Voe]

"I'm sorry"
Voe said, feeling extra foolish after his going on about restraint. Restrained now he was as his tail twisted and tightened about Phelaia's own. Now that it had a strong grip it was reluctant to let them go.

"Haaah!"
Since he handed half atop her Voe raised himself onto his elbows above her.
"So this is how we live I guess." Jesting seemed the best way to cope.

"Fumbling into each other every twenty paces until..."
It was hard to say it out loud and his attempt at tugging free his tail threatened to hurt if he stressed it so he stopped and hoped to relax. Not that it was easy so close to her, on the soft ground... together.

"This is going to be difficult isn't it!"
It wasn't a question and as he spoke he felt the compulsion rise within him again to indulge long ignored passions.
At the last minute he pulled his face away agonizingly close as it was.


Not yet. Not like this.

Phelaia Hope

 

[Phelaia Hope]

Phelaia’s eyes softened, seeing Voe’s embarrassment.

“T’ain’t your fault, Voe. An’ what’s one more curse for folk like us? At least this curse feels nice sometimes. Bein’ held close feels nice. I mean, there might be better times for it an’ all!”

Phelaia laughed softly, then caught herself lightly brushing Voe’s shoulder with her hand and pulled it back with a deep blue blush.

“Might be tough sometimes, yeah.”

Voe

 

[Voe]

"Is that true then? Are we a cursed kind?"

He had heard it all his life with no real knowledge of what it meant, only the shadow of some meaning half obscured.
Attempting to get up again he found his tail had loosened with the turn of his mood.

He got up successfully and while the brief contact of Phelaia's hand helped, it did not quell the question that had bore into him over decades and leagues.

As he sat on his haunches and gathered himself he found his stare at her full of expectant hope and the chill of the soured mood biting at his edges.

Phelaia Hope

 

[Phelaia Hope]

Phelaia snorted as she sat up.

“Everyone in Thagretis sure thought so! ‘Unholy child o’ the Ascendants, let the Elder Holy Dragon’s fire cleanse you!’, they’d say. Lost track of how many times some priest or other decided I needed cleansing with fire. At least I always got new clothes after. But as for what our folk think of us, I don’t totally know. Mister Jhinn talked about the Tief, but I don’t know if it’s an Ascendant blood thing like the priests always said or somethin’ else all its own.”

She grinned toothily.

“At least our little sit down loosened our tails up a bit.”

Voe

 

[Voe]

"Yes, at least we won't have to roll our way there. That would take some explaining."

Otho caught him unawares and stuck his nose onto Voe's face, lapping at his with his great wife tongue.
"Oh, I'm alright, I'm... Otho, stop."
With his hands he pushed the helpful beast away and instead Otho sought out Phelaia to bother and sniff. Checking in his own simple way that nothing was wrong.

"Well so far..."
Slapping his thighs and casting his glance upwards to watch for Ketu.
"... I'd say we are both welcomed by dragons. Given our companions."

Otho was far flung from what elitists might call a dragon but the lineage was there. A technical name written in a dusty tome in some far place where folk merely dream of the world instead of living in it did not change that fact.

Standing up he bent to offer Phelaia his hand.

"These Thanasians could stand to learn a thing or two about dragons from us and us from dragons."

He smiled warmly at her, even as Otho pestered her.

Phelaia Hope

 

[Phelaia Hope]

She snorted again, slapping her leg in amusement.

“If such as us started lecturing such as them about dragons…”. She made a neck-cutting gesture. “Thagretians - well, the human Thagretians as are allowed inside the temples - they worship ‘em and say nobody else knows their ‘divine truth.’ Thanassisers tame and ride ‘em, and they say they kill anyone who so much as breathes on a dragon, except for their riders.”

She gave Otho a smell of her hands, and then a hearty side rub with both hands as he pressed onto her lap a moment, cooing at him in that universal way he seems to draw out of everybody.

“Aren’t you just the sweetest fella, Otho? Oooh yeah, Voe, I’m learnin’ all sorts of things from Ketu. When to dig my toe claws in so as to not fall off when he starts goofin’ off in the air, when to dive for cover before the fish shower starts, to mind careful where he scats because it’s the stickiest, nastiest smelling stuff you ever saw…. It’s like the pinch to tell me it’s real. ‘Cause it’s so humblin’, Voe. Must be like what parents feel like.”

Phelaia accepted the hand up with a toothy grin. A tingle went though her, and she blushed.

Voe

 

[Voe]

The blush reached Voe's face also and as their hands left each other the air between them felt chill in the lack of the touch.

"I think so, times are often I think of Otho as a babe despite him being almost fully grown now."

The Drake-hound looked up at him quizzically as Voe looked down on him.

"It wouldn't kill you to act your age you know!"

Otho did not know and could not understand but he knew he was being spoken to and sat neatly at Voe's heel which prompted a laugh from him.

"Voe has taught me that life will hit you with the unexpected more than anything else."

Letting his eyes fall on Phelaia again he continued.

"You just have to go with it sometimes."

Phelaia Hope

 

[Phelaia Hope]

She nodded, smiling.

“You know, I think you’re right, Voe. All day long after I met Ketu, I try to go my own way and let him go his. But he wasn’t having it. Followed me an’ followed me an’ followed me. I tried splainin’ that he didn’t want my life, that he could go back to his, that he didn’t owe me nothing. ‘Ketu’s Phelaia,’ he kept saying. So I was gonna wake up and sneak off overnight, right? I wake up and he’s right over my face looking down at me. He says, ‘Ketu’s Phelaia sleep’ an’ gently pushes me back down onto my bedroll with his big ol’ paw.”

Phelaia laughed.

“That’s when I figured I was pretty much stuck with him, like it or not. I had to just go with it. Like you said.”

Voe

 

[Voe]

"Stuck is the right word I think."

He bent to pet Otho and scratch under his chin before standing and getting ready to move, dusting off his trousers and shaking the leaves from his coat.

"You say that Ketu came to you an adult already but I found Otho before he hatched."

The sun got in his eyes and he shaded himself with his hand.

"His mother had taken goats from a farmer and I was told to track down what done it."

Again he pondered what prompted this telling of the tale. He rarely spoke of it to anyone.

"I tracked her to her den and caught her in a trap, made it quick but then I saw the egg and I thought. That's my responsibility right there. I gotta be its momma now."

His accent slipped, the one the folk who raised him spoke in broke through for a moment.

"Ahem, so I took him home and kept him warm until he hatched and he's been following me ever since."

Voe was not much for telling stories, he always felt they were not very dynamic. Ispir was his superior in that.

Phelaia Hope

 

[Phelaia Hope]

Phelaia listened to the story, her smile broadening throughout. When he finished, she grinned that toothy grin of hers and poked him in the chest playfully.

“See? You’re a good one, Voe. Kind. You know what’s right, and you see it done. You see it through.”

Phelaia ducked as Ketu whooshed right over their heads, hitting the tieflings with a hot blast of air as he rumbled by, then started flapping back upward. Phelaia laughed and snorted.

“Be my guest, Voe, you go tell Ketu what an adult he is! I don’t know all bout dragons, but you know how people’s bodies grow up years before the hearts an’ minds catch up? That’s what Ketu reminds me of.”

Voe

 

[Voe]

Wiping a wad of hot condensed air from his brow Voe tried to ignore the fish smell.

"Good? hmm. Well I try to be decent but it's difficult sometimes."

On they went as Ketu flew above and Otho went ahead.

"I get tired of people quickly."

It was a beat too long before he caught himself.

"Present company excluded of course."

He had of course met people the like of which Phelaia spoke.

"Yes, I admit I find that type hardest of all and with that I'll pass on telling Ketu to grow up. I fear we will already reek of fish breath by the time we get to Tirnua as it is. I'd hate to think what state we'd be in if I crossed him."

Phelaia Hope

 

[Phelaia Hope]

Phelaia continued laughing, shaking the sleeves of her robe out.

“Yeah, I been wondering if you must really love the smell o' half-burnt fish guts for a while now, Voe. Been days since I last washed up. But there’s a river nearby! Right before Tirnua. Or right after Tirnua, if you wanna circle ‘round to the part all them traders ain’t dumping their trash into.”

Phelaia wrinkled her nose, remembering the stench of the polluted estuary that oozed through the slums of Thagretis. She grinned at Voe making a special exception for her.

"Yeah, some people ain't got much on animals, but some can be alright, too. I mean, not as alright as present company!”

Phelaia snorted at Voe's notion Ketu might attack him.

“Hah! You forgot, Voe, he already done decided you’re ‘Ketu’s Phelaia’s Voe,’ no matter what we got to say bout it. Part of his clutch. If you crossed him now, I bet the big lunk'd probably just half-step on you and pin you down 'till you behaved yourself again, like you was some bratty hatchling brother."

Voe

 

[Voe]

"Oh is that all he'd do?"

Voe looked up again and tried to not imagine all that terrible weight upon his chest. Holding him down, it did not please him to think on it.

"I think the river is a good idea, it will slow us down but. I'll get us a fire going and we can dry up quick."

He liked a swim and Otho should be okay in this heat. He'd dry quick enough.

"Just as long as there's not a giant flesh eating turtle or something."

Smiling, he let Phelaia lead him on to the river.

Phelaia Hope

 

[Phelaia Hope]

Phelaia grinned and shrugged.

“Could well be, for all I know? This being my first trip this side o’ the Teeth, I can’t rightly say what is or ain’t in the river water past the water. I’m willin’ to bet that there’s less in it upstream, though.”

They followed the ancient road through the fig jungle. Ketu walked with them around the ruined city. They had crossed the river a couple times as it wound under the road, which had risen into gently arched bridges that still remained strong through the ages, showing minor signs of repairs. The jungle got denser and denser as they passed the last of Tirnua’s towers. Another ancient road ran eastward, vaguely following the river as it wound uphill into the thickening jungle. Phelaia clucked her tongue, glad they had Ketu along with them. She remembered the warning that the Tokua Chi-Xilixi had given her about the Shaxa Chi-Xilixis claiming nearly everything to the south and east of Tirnua!

The road rose up to bridge a river gorge a couple miles east of Tirnua, where a tributary stream joined it from the north. Phelaia looked down into the gulch, which seemed open enough to keep an eye out. It bent out of view from the road not far upstream. She touched Voe’s shoulder, shivering at the tingle that passed through her, and she pointed.

“How ‘bout ‘round that bend of that stream over there, Voe? Looks open enough to see any trouble, but it oughta be out of sight from this road.”

Voe