The being who was currently known as Amaru Drakon was irritated as he moved slowly through the stone and earth beneath the surface of the world. The children, both dragon and human, still viewed his ability to swim through the earth itself as magical. His careful explanations of the skills needed, the control and understanding of what was I, the feel of the form of what was not I, and how to move through the space between, did nothing to lessen their insistence that it was magical.

That was not what irritated him at the moment though. Nor was it that the drain of the activity on his energy would be difficult to replace quickly. It was the human, and the word itself carried all of the scorn that he'd ever attached to the mankind, concept of possession of even ideas.

Amaru understood possession. He understood because dragons had once shared their minds directly, rather like hive members in a human science fiction novel, but now were separate. The very separation created the idea of possession, because what was part of I was no longer part of all. Having knowledge that another did not have was a form of riches. One displayed those riches by imparting them to those who did not possess them. One hoarded every scrap of new information that one could obtain, so that one could maintain the status of one who knew more. Wealth was being able to share more knowledge than was traded for it.

What irritated him was the human idea that one's knowledge must be kept secret to have value. It was so backward, when the value would increase and grow with the number who shared it. They demanded to be paid for their knowledge. They screamed and fought, called each other thieves, and acted as though knowledge was something that could be held in one's claws like a rock.

The human concept of possession was wrapped around not sharing, and it was beyond vexing. Oh, the general concepts of things were widely shared on the human's internet, in an almost draconic fashion, except that often the identity of the one who taught was obscured. But the core details were hidden. Secrets were sold for money, for material possessions, and that was as far from what a dragon would do as his ability to swim through stone was for a blind human.

Their concept of possession was so tangled and conflicting. They tried to display their wealth to each other without sharing it, in a tangled dance of flaunted secrets. It made him feel like there must be some key concept to their idea of possession that they could not explain even to each other. His current theory was that it was tied to the concept of clothing.

When one wore an item of clothing, all could enjoy looking upon it, but only one could wear the item. If one hid the creation or acquisition of a new item of clothing until it was displayed in the wearing, then extra status could be gained as many were surprised with the new knowledge at once, when it was finally displayed. Possession, secret, and display were combined in this display of artwork.

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Artwork had been one of the interesting things that humans had created early in their existence. And artwork had developed into writing, and writing had led to the creation of their worldwide network. It was beautiful. Other creatures, even dragons, had never developed their way of copying the form of one thing into another substance.

Amaru had always intended to carry the concept of artwork long past the decline of this dreadful and wondrously unbalanced species.

He was starting to wonder if perhaps artwork itself could carry the concepts of humans and dragons long past the decline of his own long lived species. Nothing made of common substances would outlast even a single dragon, but there were a few substances that were basically inert, and mostly immune to the interactions of time and loose fragments. He tasted the fragments of gold in the stone around him, and stopped to gather the fragments to his claws.

--

Sarah stared doubtfully at the young woman who had knocked on her door.

"I told him that we needed to ask for permission, but um, it would really be good if we could have your permission to look at your garden," Anne explained nervously.

Sarah peeked at the two men who waited in the distance, at the entrance to her driveway.

Anne turned and looked, and seemed to sigh with relief, as she added, "He agreed to wait until after I asked."

"Who's the other one then?" Sarah quibbled, without being able to guess which of the men 'he' was.

"Chris, he's still learning just like I am," Anne explained quickly. "Amaru wants to teach us both about how your garden was created."

Sarah gulped. Somehow they knew. Someone knew. This man named Amaru somehow knew that her garden had been rearranged by a dragon. She wanted to ask, but she was afraid to find out, how he knew.

"I… if I allow your teacher to use my garden as an example, can I hear the explanations?" Sarah asked uncertainly.

Anne turned back to her and visibly hesitated. "I don't, I mean that's a totally reasonable request," she stalled while trying to come up with any kind of reasonable explanation. "It's um, it'll probably sound a little crazy? Very new age? Even though it's really old age," she babbled uncertainly.

Sarah blinked at the girl. Her gaze turned toward the men waiting at the end of her driveway again. They looked ordinary. One was a little shorter than average, and the other was larger than average, but his body language wasn't threatening. The big one was looking around curiously, while the smaller one seemed to be returning her gaze. She looked away quickly.

Dragons were both new age and very old weren't they? She needed to know why a dragon had come to her garden. "Okay, just let me get my shoes," Sarah replied decisively.