Kaara looked around the cemetery of blades once more, “One dragon ate this many?”

Septis nodded, “And if I’m lucky, I will also be eaten one day.”

“But I don’t want you to get eaten, papa!”

Septis ran his fingers through her hair, “You won’t have to see that for some time, but death comes for everyone someday. Even dragons. Even gods.”

“But why do we let the dragons eat us?”

“Because they let us eat them.”

“They do? I don’t think I could eat something that big, even if I was super hungry.”

“They do. Consuming the flesh of a dragon that’s been given willingly grants us incredible power. It allows us to mark our souls and draw upon the strength of our ancestors. It’s a ritual you will be undergoing very soon, along with the Xirxus and other nobles who will accompany you.”

“But why let us eat them too? Why not just kill and eat us all?”

“They don’t usually have a reason. And it’s not as though they die when they offer their flesh to us. A dragon will usually cut off a chunk of its hide for us, and regenerate. They get more from allowing us to gain power through soul marking and eating us at the ends of our lives than they would by eating us in droves. Dragons are massive, some can shame mountains with their size. They would either starve or consume every creature in the world if they did not have powerful magical beings like us to consume.”

Kaara tried to imagine such a creature. She had never seen one before, but she had always been told xiozi shared some sort of blood with them.

“But then why not find anyone strong and eat them?”

“Because flesh which is given willingly is far more nourishing than one taken by force. If our bodies are consumed, but our souls are not willing, then our souls can keep fighting and poison them.”

“Where’s the dragon now? The one that ate grandpa and grandma?”

“You’re looking at her teeth right now.” Her father chuckled, gesturing to the massive stone pillars which surrounded them.

Kaara’s jaw dropped as she gazed at its teeth. Mountain-shaming was an understatement if its teeth alone could scrape the sky.

“Malikala is a god eating dragon, so she’s a bit bigger than the typical dragon.”

“A god eating dragon?”

Septis nodded, “Remember what I said about unwilling souls being poison to a dragon? Well it’s more or less the opposite when it comes to gods. Dragons are the end of a life cycle to us, but they are also the end of a life cycle to gods whose minds have degraded. There’s a certain insanity that eventually consumes you the longer you live. And a god who has gone insane is one which needs to be eaten for the good of the world and the universe. That is Malikala’s duty.”

“So her favorite food is crazy old people?”

Septis laughed, “You could put it like that, yes.” Her father grabbed her by the waist and lifted her off his shoulders, holding her out in front of the two weapons, “Do you want to say hello to your grandparents?”

“Hello!” Kaara’s tail was wagging about, causing her body to swing back and forth.

“Mom, Dad, this is my daughter, Kaara. She’s completed her first cycle and will be marking her soul very soon.”

Kaara waggled about with unrestrained enthusiasm.

"Calm down Kaara, you don't need to try and fly away." Her father chuckled.

Kaara stopped, and her father sat with her. "You'll never guess who the mother is. Remember Tika? You guys were right about her, she was perfect for me." Her father said, "I wish you two could see how much everyone's grown since you guys left. Remember Rux? Runt Rux? He's taller than I am now. Taller than everyone, actually."

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“I killed a kervaza today!”

“Ah, yes, Kaara managed to hunt a kervaza today. It was a very big one too. Probably one of the cleanest kills I’ve seen.” he wrapped his powerful arms around Kaara, hugging her to his chest.

“There’s a lot of new faces around the camp since you guys left, young and old. Kaara has made friends with a Xirxus called Tulos.”

“I help him collect bugs!” Kaara added.

His father chuckled, “Yes, she gets up to quite a bit of trouble with him these days. The new generation looks incredibly promising.”

His arms relaxed and Kaara noticed the tone in his voice change, “I bet you’re both happy huh? Dad finally has a peaceful place to rest, and mom has a beautiful forest filled with things to explore, and see...”

Kaara watched as her father spoke to the graves, talking the day away with the two crossed weapons. It was strange hearing her father. He sounded so happy and yet grief-stricken at the same time.

Her father was content. He’d come to grips with his loss, but that didn’t mean he no longer felt the pain of them not being around.

He was carrying something heavy around with him, but he was happy to carry it.

Kaara smiled, and closed her eyes, listening to the many stories she’d never heard before. One name kept coming up in his stories which she vaguely recognized, but she couldn’t remember when she’d heard it.

“Who’s Kadmus, dad?”

“Kadmus, is an old friend and rival. We’ve saved each other quite a bit in the past, but eventually we had to go our separate ways. You’ll be meeting them later today actually. He’s the head of the Xirxus clan. Did you not meet Tulos’s father?”

Kaara perked up excitedly, “Oh! Tiger man!”

“Tiger man?”

“I met him briefly and he looked like a big scary tiger.”

Septis frowned at the comparison, his eyebrows raising in affirmation of Kaara’s comparison, “Not an unfair thing to call him I suppose.”

“So he was your friend?”

Maybe Kaara had misjudged him.

Septis nodded, “I owe my life to him, and he to me. It's been a long time since I’ve seen him. I bet he didn’t even think you were my daughter when he saw you.”

Kaara had taken the majority of her looks from her mother, and from what Septis told her, she looked more like her grandfather than she looked like him, “He called me a street rat or something.”

Septis sighed, “That does sound like something he’d say. I’ll give him some shit for it when he comes here, don’t worry.”

“Yeah! Shit on him, dad!”

“I meant crap. Ugh, don’t tell your mom, or she’ll give me way more shit than I could ever give Kadmus.”

Kaara smiled and nodded, leaning back into her dad’s chest. Her father's embrace was comforting, and warm.

A soft, pleasant breeze blew through the clearing, carrying the scent of flowers with it. She could hear them rustling, waving back and forth in a chorus of nature. This was a place of peace; a place of safety. Kaara didn’t know when she fell asleep, or if she had just closed her eyes and gotten distracted with her thoughts.

She’d been awake all night hunting and didn’t realize how tired she was.

"...Well, we should get going. Tiksu's watching the camp for longer than I intended. Oh yeah, I guess you guys don't know. I'm the chief now. Just like Dad. Dunno why everyone voted for me, but I'm doing the best I can." He looked at Kaara who was now climbing back upon his shoulders, "Say goodbye, Kaara."

The xia slumped over her father's head with a yawn, her eyes half-open, "Bye-bye."

Her father stood up and walked away.

A breeze pushed against Kaara’s face and caressed her cheek like a gentle hand.

“Be safe, Bavijka.” A voice whispered in her ears. Her father?

She looked back at the cemetery of blades to see faint golden apparitions of hundreds of xiozians. Kaara blinked, seeing the army vanish, with only two remaining. One xia with shoulder-length hair and mischievous eyes, who held the blade of her scythe upside down in front of her mouth like a smile. The other looked a little like Kaara. His horns were almost the exact same wavy curls that she had. His face rested in a stoic grimace, his arms crossed over a halberd. He only smiled when the xia wrapped her arm around his neck and waved to Kaara with a carefree grin. Even his shark-like teeth were similar to Kaara’s.

The xia made a peculiar gesture with her hands mouthing the words 'I love you'.

"Dad, Dad! Look look look!" She yanked on her father's horns. "Ow, Kaara. What do you want?" her father said, turning around.

Kaara pointed to where she'd seen the two, "Grandma, and Grandpa!" Her father looked at the empty burial ground, "That's not funny, Kaara."

"But they were-" She whipped her head around, seeing nothing, "over there…"