The Council Tent had been setup for dinner by the soldiers of Vuthe’s army, as per usual. It wasn’t anything lavish, Vuthe would slap anyone who would try giving her more than the rest of her troops, but it was filling. Truth be told, the draconic members of the Council didn’t need food, but the chefs knew how to enrich it with the magic they required, and it would feel rude for the others to eat while the main players just sat there.
Therefore, everyone ate together. By the time Vuthe, Tizanta, and Scarlet entered the tent, the rest was already present. Major Blake sat together with his two brothers, although Calagrophy did steal Castaphiel’s lap to nobodies surprise.
As the Queen and her sister entered everyone fell silent and looked at them. „Evening. This is Scarlet Savart, my Sister. She will be with us as a sort of personal advisor, so treat her well“, Vuthe said then started pointing at each of the Council members, „Scarlet, this here is Calagrophy de Thal. Next to her is Castaphiel, Corellanium, Major Blake you might already know, Apocalyptica, Archangel, and last but not least Vixus Umbara.“
„A pleasure to meet all of you“, Scarlet said with a bow of her head, before she and Vuthe sat down. Tizanta sat down on the other side of Vuthe.
„My sister has told me a little about each of you. And while I’m curious to hear more about your side of the story, I doubt it would be a fitting topic for a dinner“, Scarlet said, looking at each of them outside of Blake, „Therefore I wanted to ask if you would be willing to tell me more about yourself before you wound up in this world you call Satien?“
Calagrophy shrugged, „I guess it won’t hurt anything. And I’m pretty sure we will end up talking about it some point anyways. Well, outside of Tizanta of course, but that’s her choice to make, not ours.“
Scarlet looked curiously at her sister’s girlfriend. Tizanta shrugged. „I don’t really wanna talk about it. I’ll say I’m from Switzerland, but that’s all I’m saying. I left that life behind and am very glad for it.“
„Well, I’ll start then“, Calagrophy said, trying to prevent anyone asking more questions. Tizanta had her reasons and Calagrophy was not about to leave her in the crossfire, depending on how Scarlet or Blake would react. While she trusted Vuthe and by extension Scarlet, she didn’t know the woman.
„I used to be called Katarina Erin and I’m from Nebraska, USA. Before all of this I was at a High School and in an exchange program, which is where I met Vuthe the first time actually. Well, met might be a little strong a word, I saw her a few times. I don’t have much in terms of family connections I would want to get back to, but if I can visit home, I guess I could look for my best friend. Or maybe former best friend, who knows how she thinks of things.“
Scarlet nodded in appreciation, „Is there a particular reason you don’t just fly over there? I mean, from Vuthe’s stories it sounds like you could go there rather quick.“
„A few, actually. First and foremost, while we can get there really quick, and probably unnoticed too, considering how weak earth magic infrastructure is, no offense, we still have a lot to do here. I’d rather deal with all of this first, before I decide to make a trip. Secondly, I don’t really feel much in the way of connection to my old life anymore”, she explained with a shrug, before hugging Castaphiel tight, „All I need is right here. I have my beloved, I have my friends, and truth be told, this is more of a family to me than my old one. I will meet them again, eventually, if only to let them know I’m back, but I simply don’t feel any urgency on the matter.”
Vuthe could see from her sister’s expression that she disagreed quite heavily, but she didn’t refute anything that was said. In the end, it was Calagrophy’s decision.
Just when Castaphiel was about to open his mouth to add something, the tent flaps flattered and Kalaria ran in, jumping at Tizanta with her usual energy. „MOOOOOM!”, she yelled in glee as she hugged the woman tight, nearly throwing Tizanta off her seat.
„Hey, hey, you need to be more careful!”, Tizanta admonished gently.
She turned to Scarlet, a motherly smile on her face, „This is Kalaria, one of my children. She’s still young and very energetic. If she gives you any trouble just tell me, and I’ll make sure she leaves you alone”
Vuthe couldn’t help herself but giggle, at the shocked look on her sister’s face.
„A pleasure to meet you”, Scarlet said, after she had recovered from the rather energetic entrance of the young dragon.
„Hello! I am Kalaria! You are a human, right? You look like her Majesty, but old and wrinkly. Are you her mother?”, Kalaria immediately began to speak, and only Tizanta’s hand on her mouth stopped her.
„Kalaria, what did I tell you about blabbering on and on to people you don’t know?”, Tizanta asked admonishingly, trying to hide her amusement at her daughter’s guess of the relationship between Scarlet and Vuthe.
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
The rest of the table chuckled, Scarlet included, amusement written all over her face, „No, child, I am her sister. My name is Scarlet.”
„I am not a child!”, Kalaria protested, „I’m already a hundred and twelve!”
That took Scarlet and Blake by surprise, both of them staring at the young dragon with their mouth wide agape.
„That makes you still a child, Kalaria“, Vuthe said with a smirk, ruffling the young dragon‘s hair, which she acquitted by pouting.
„A hundred and twelve?“, Scarlet asked in disbelief, not that Vuthe blamed her. Her girlfriend’s daughter looked to be eight to human eyes, so such a reaction was expected.
„Well, we are dragons“, Tizanta said with a smirk, „Or draconics in any case. While we are essentially immortal, why would we grow at the same rate as humans do? Actually, that would most likely kill us. Draconics are beings of magic, we collect quite a lot of it during our youth and grow steadily pretty much forever. If we would grow at the same rates humans do we would run out of energy faster than we could eat.“
Blake piped up, „I haven’t even thought of that. I know quite a few magical races, elves, dwarves, beastkin, vampires, fey, but all of them do grow and mature roughly the same as humans do. Sure, fey tend to need a little longer, and elves can live extremely long, but so far they seem quite similar. Why would that be?“
This time it was Calagrophy’s turn to answer, „Well, you kind of just answered your own question. All races you just listed are humanoid, maybe even evolved from humans in cases like elves, dwarves, and beastkin. Well, at least if the historians of Satien are to be believed… Anyway, we are dragons. Despite us having a humanoid form, we are not humanoid whatsoever. Quite the contrary actually. It would make more sense to compare us with magical beasts, or if you want to be rude even predatory animals. We don’t share any ties with humanoid species in our evolutionary history, if you can even call it that.“
To Vuthe’s delight, Scarlet was quick on the uptake and asked the one question that should be obvious by such a statement.
„Then why do you even have a humanoid form? Vuthe told me that dragons, or pardon me, draconics, aren’t true shapeshifters. You have different forms yes, but only your draconic form, the humanoid form, and the hybrid inbetween, all of which you cannot change. What reason would evolution have to give you a humanoid form?“
The draconics present smiled at her, and Vuthe gave her a nod. „That is rather simple: We were created that way.“
While essentially true, it left out a lot of details, so nobody was surprised when Blake asked what that meant.
Calagrophy continued the explanation, „The question of where everything came from is one every sentient race has asked themselves. Some think gods did it, others think that it was all coincidence, but nobody has the correct answer. Now, we don’t have it either, don’t get me wrong. We know a lot but we don’t know everything, not by a longshot. However, we, or rather a friend of Vuthe’s, has dug up some info on that.“
With a wave of her tail, Tizanta summoned an illusion in the middle of the room of a gigantic dragon, easily a kilometer in length, with three pairs of wings and eight eyes. There was only one word that could even come close to describing it: Majestic.
Calagrophy continued, „This is Bahamut, the Dragon of Origin, Goddess of all Dragons. Although that title is not correct, she does not fall under any normal definition of divinity, she is the mother of all dragons. She was born from a being whose name has been lost to history, as one of three children: Bahamut, Dragon of Origin, Seriou, Serpent of Origin, and Orochi, Hydra of Origin. That’s the legend anyways. Whether they were born from some fantastical being or not, one thing we do know for sure: For whatever reason, she has decided to give dragons humanoid forms. The same goes for Orochi and Hydras, and Seriou and Serpents.“
She shrugged, „We don’t know why they would choose to do that, but my guess would be, since legend has it that they visited worlds where other races already lived in, that they wanted to give the draconic beings a way to better intermingle with the other races, to prevent hostility.“
At this point Vuthe cut in, „Mind you all of this is conjecture. We have no solid proof for any of this, however the legends of origin for all draconic beings is the same. No matter who you ask, Dragon, Hydra, or Serpent, they will all tell the same tale, even if you ask draconics from different realms. The details might differ, of course, but the basic legend remains the same. So there must be some truth to it.“
Scarlet sighed, „If you think a legend is enough proof for a theory of yours, does that mean that the legends and myths here on earth also hold some amount of truth in them? I mean, you are dragons, so the myths and legends about dragons from ancient past are more or less proven I guess, but what about other cultures and religions? The maya, the aztects, egyptian mythology, norse mythology? What of the gods?“
Vuthe smiled wryly but didn’t say anything. She was not quite ready to talk about gods and such, especially not with Blake present. As much as she liked him, her opinions on that matter could very quickly end up with her having to face the wrath of the church, and while they probably couldn’t really pose any danger, why book trouble? They had enough of that already.
Tizanta was the one to speak in her stead, „The topic of gods is not something we are not quite ready to discuss yet. Our opinions on that would probably not go too well. Safe to say, there might be some truth to the old legends of yonder. As for mythology in general, I think it‘s quite likely that there is truth to it, and more than one might suggest. Magic is real, and while earth magic is quite young it is not impossible that it was more present in ancient times, or that it was brought here by someone else entirely. Magic itself lives and grows through the understanding of the user. What we consider a normal spell to know, or a normal view of magic might differ from one from a different realm. And should magic grow to the same heights here as it was in Satien, it might look different still.“
Just when she wanted to continue the tent flaps moved again, and Vuthe’s Soldiers marched in, armed with plates, drinks, and food. „Pardon the intrusion, your Majesty, the food is done“, said Chester, the Beastkin man that had waited for Tizanta and Dave the day prior.
„Thank you, Chester“, said Vuthe and nodded. Chester and his fellow Soldiers turned wait staff sat down the plates around the table, and served drinks to match. Once they were done they bowed and left.
„Now then“, Vuthe said with a smile, looking around the group, in specific at Scarlet and Blake, „I hope you will enjoy this otherworldly cuisine.“
----------------------------------------