“You and your bondmate must heed our laws

For we put these into place to protect you

Failure could put us all in danger.

Walk these lines of the world carefully.”

Hooded figures crowd together in an old atrium

Among crumbling walls

She slits her wrist

Hisses gather round her

Tails thump onto the ground

From up above, she is doused in pumpkin oil

She closed her mind off, eyes shut from the impending death

Beside her, a red and mottled-white dragon is doused, like his bondmate.

“Is this it, huh?”

She doesn’t respond, because if she responds she will think

The Family removes their hoods

The Father takes the first bite

Then The Mother, ever radiant in all her diamonds and pearls

Next, The Sister takes her bite, pulling back braids that dare get in the way

And finally The Brother, looking as elegant as ever, takes his bite

“This is the ultimate gift you could give to The Family; to return to us the power we gave—but doubled,”

More people from came to the girl and her dragon for their bites

The weak first, then the strong

“Your reward is a place among the Wishgiver’s consciousness.”

Screams are stifled by the pain-nulling substances that leak into the body from each bite.

The girl’s eyes are dilated, her mouth quivering

Her body shuts down as more and more members of the family invade the sanctity of her body

Her, and her dragon.

From afar, another girl and her dragon—disguised in his human body, watch everything unfold.

“I refuse,” she says lightly. 

He says, “I refuse to eat. I refuse to be eaten.”

They watch as hungry dragons and hungry humans devour the girl, until they are stopped by the sound of a low rumble

The dragons skitter back, reforming into their human bodies

The humans are slower to scatter, not feeling the same fear as their draconic brethren.

A large claw appears from the darkness, and drags away the remains of the girl and her dragon.

“The feeding lasted less, this time,” says The Brother, “they’re becoming impatient with us.”

The girl and dragon watching them slip away when no one notices.

“Nia, we have do it,” the dragon whispers, “I don’t care what the rules are. I won’t risk—“

Nia slams her hand over his mouth, “shut it!”

She looks around, no one is nearby

but with The Family, you can never be sure.

Nia grabs his hand and leads him away.

They’re going back into the direction of the feeding room, but with a plan.

Everyone seems to be occupied with cleaning the altar of oil and ...blood.

Nia averts her gaze, suppressing the urge to gag.

Deeper into the atrium was an opening to the upper levels of the complex.

“Fly me up there.”

Her dragon shifts into his wyvern body, she sits on his neck and holds onto his horns.

 [https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1053066395908329482/1078729033124151446/A54E9E1D-0C30-48CF-916B-8D4AA904106D.png]

The ascent is grueling. Her mind replays memories of when she first came to The Family. She wasn’t born within these walls. No one wanted to accept her, and her constant “outsider morals” proved their worries true.

When she was 12, the teacher was explaining the history of the earthbound dragons.

“When Wyrl and his brothers landed their ships on this planet, they set out—without authorization, mind you—they set out to create as many bloodlines as they could in the time allotted to them.”

A dragon egg rests on Nia’s desk. Her and the dozens of other children sitting with their eggs.

“We owe everything to our dragon, our wondrous Wishgiver. The Family exists to answer to their whims.”

Nia feels her egg pulsate and glow.

The teacher points to her, “Ah, a bond is nearly ready to form.”

The teacher turns off the projector and writes on the board, “Today, we will be making bonds.”

“Now, children. Close your eyes,” the teacher walks around the class room, surveying every student.

He speaks to the unhatched dragons. He knows they can hear. He repeats the bonding rules of The Family that is hammered into every teacher, “Your human will attempt to speak to you through thought-feelings. Eye contact needn't be necessary as you should have the ability to receive thoughts and peer into the mind of your bondmate-to-be.”

Nia feels herself connect to the other students

Their hundreds of thoughts flow into her head for a moment

and then silence, she could hear her own thoughts again, but with the addition of feeling the feelings of any student she focused her attention on, like the student who sits diagonally from her.

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She never knew her name but the students called her “Distressa.”

Upon successful connection, Nia feels Distressa’s apprehension

overwhelming, she must release it

she rubs her hands together but the stress is still there

a dark cloud in the back of her head

slowly overtaking her.

Nope, not her! Exit! Exit!

She focuses on the boy sitting next to her

upon viewing his feelings, she feels admiration towards the popular girl in class

she sits in front, always

she rarely pays attention to anyone but her clique.

So he has a crush on her?

However, she feels nothing from Brian.

“All of this would not be possible without dragons, and without dragons in our blood.” The teacher says without speaking a word aloud, “this is our birthright, as dragonborns.”

Nia takes a moment to talk to her egg.

“Hey, there. I’m supposed to bond with you, so...I’ll call you Brian. It’s basic but I don’t really know what to call you.”

I didn’t ask for you, either.

It was her thought, but it was probably felt by a student, and felt by Brian.

The egg’s purple glow is speckled with red hues.

“Sorry,” she mumbles.

Why did they leave me here?

“Our esteemed guest is here.”

The teacher pulls the door and a dragon prince steps through the threshold. The students gasp and whisper about the prince who graced their presence.

“Etere Karrucci, son of Seraphina, of this homeland.”

The Prince was there to observe the classroom

He gave his introduction, wowed the students, watched them make their bonds.

Nia stares at her egg. Bored. It didn’t hatch until it was time for Etere to leave. The egg pops open, and the tiny hatchling pokes his head out.

 [https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1053066395908329482/1078729033472299018/2D18395F-B03B-427C-9A4B-78DF2F84762D.png]

“Ah, what have you named this one?” Asked Etere.

Nia stares Etere in the eyes, but her stare morphs into a glare.

“I named him after my dead bird.”

Etere glares back. Her eyes feel familiar to him. Inside, he feels a kinship with her, like meeting a long lost friend. He utters, “you look like someone I know.”

He sighs and gives her words of wisdom that he doubt she’ll heed, “you are part of this family, just like them,” he gestures to the other students, “you will warm up eventually.”

Nia glares at the dragonling peeking at her.

He’s...kinda cute. Maybe he’s right...

Nia shakes her head. Now isn’t the time for remembering. She catches a glimpse of her dragon looking up at her.

“What?”

“I hear memory lane is beautiful this time of year,” he says.

“F-Focus on flying!” 

They reach the top of the tower. Nia opens a book she kept hidden in her cloak, “it’s here somewhere, the portal.”

When they walk into the middle of the room, the floorboards glow and a voice speaks to them, “I recognize you! Would you like to go to Vodlán?”

Nia searches for the source of the voice, but it comes from beneath them.

“Uhhh....me?”

“Not you, the dragon, but I could answer to you. Your family built me, anyway. I am grateful to them!”

“You, dragon, where would you like to go?”

Brian stammers, “oh uh um uh...take us to the place where the big dragon comes from.”

There is a moment of silence.

”Oh. Alright. Sending you there now. Please be careful.”

“Be careful of wha—”

In a flash of light, Nia felt her body fragment in and out of cold space.

She opens her eyes in another reality

a lone asteroid, drifting in space, and at its center

a dragongirl

“Who are...you?”

The girl—this dragonperson sits up, but...

She has no legs

Connected to her body is a long, gigantic mass

like a naga of the universe

Nia spots a few hands sticking out of that blob.

“What—what is all of that?!”

The girl’s face melds into familiarity

she looks like Nia, but with her hair in two ponytails

and green eyes—the telltale sign of a dragon.

“I am The Collected Consciousness,” they say with a double voice, “but you can also call me The Living, or The Beta, because I’m just a prototype,” it shrugs, “whatever name suits you. So, what brings you here today? I’m amazed a human can even reach this domain. It is—”

“Shut up.”

“....”

Nia holds out her arm, and a sword forms from wisps of light

The Consciousness’s eyes widen

A sword made of hard light and a hilt forged from the metals of a dead planet.

Nia remembers the day she set her eyes on it

Her and Brian were playing in the fields

It was a day when the children were allowed above ground.

They were watched by The Family and the council that formed the backbone of The Family’s tenets.

They find the sword among trash that was going to be thrown away

It whispers to them

tells them things.

Don’t let them take me.

The sword gave them its knowledge.

I can train you. Let me train you. Free me from this place and you can free your family from that terrible influence.

Nia followed the sword’s demands

Her and Brian would spar whenever The Pit wasn’t being used for training.

for years they—

She is called back to reality again.

“Nia, are we really doing this?” Asks her dragon.

“You’re second guessing me now?”

“No. I thought maybe...you had your doubts.”

Swiftly, she takes it and points at The Consciousness.

“I came here to put an end to The Family and rescue my family.”

“Your family?” The Consciousness points at its collection of mass, “you mean that?”

Nia bites her lip, “Yeah. That. Unmerge their souls from your cage.”

The thoughts, gifts and memories of people from The Family are embedded within it, both mentally and physically.

The bodies of the dead girl and her dragon lay within the dragon’s biomass, merging with the rest of The Consciousness.

 [https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1053066395908329482/1078729033765888101/F5D16DA5-5E71-4789-8C46-9C328C34FB37.jpg]

“You do that, and they won’t find their way back to their old selves. They’ll be a soup.”

“Part of me thinks they’ll know their old selves. They can...separate.”

Nia looks down, thinking of her parents. 

Would they be able to separate?

If they loved each other greatly, would they know who was who?

Would her mother know that she loved metal music and her father was the one who loved R&B?

Could they truly navigate their way to their old bodies without taking a piece of the other person?

“They’ll...”

Nia’s hesitation allows The Consciousness to attack with a sweep of her tail. The moment it made impact Nia was bombarded by the most important or most terrifying memories of the people that came before—her mother, her father, Brian’s parents, and sacrificed members throughout The Family’s history.

She feels them, reaching out to her...

She heard her mother and father, holding tambourines and cheering for her

You’ll do great, Nii Nii!

Nia comes back to herself, “They’re still alive.”

and lands safely atop Brian.

“Oh, you now figured it out?”

The Consciousness slithers back

Her collected bodies merge, giving her the form of a Wyvern

Her body shifts until she takes the appearance of Brian.

Nia grits her teeth, “you think looking like my bondmate will hurt me?”

“No. I’m doing this for my own fun,” The Consciousness’s double voice is changed when she speaks her next sentence, “I’m doing this because I am proud of the dragon you have grown into.”

A motherly voice, familiar

to Brian.

His tail twitches

She’s in there?

He looks up at Nia, “Please...can we kill this thing already?”

“Y-Yea.”

Brian takes flight, and Nia’s sword glows brightly as her intent is made clear

The sword failed to tell her the stipulation for using it on a god dragon

but it is a risk she is willing to take…hesitantly.

The Consciousness hisses, “kill me and you kill what’s left of your family.”

Nia denies her claims, “They are already dead. You made sure of that.”

Brian flies at full speed, but mindlessly. He doesn’t want to think about this.

“You’re willing to kill yourself just to be rid of me?”

Nia lifts off, her sword ready to be driven into the heart of The Consciousness.

“HECK YEAH I AM!”

When the sword made contact, the reality had shattered into light.

Nia, cocooned, disappeared into the light.

***

A dragon can be spotted over Lalibela

He landed at the dragon ruins of Lake Tana

crumbling pillars dotted the area

the remnants of the first migration

in his paws was his beloved Bondmate.

He cradled her over Tana’s waters,

whispering things to her soul

words forgotten by modern earth dragons

but known to The Family.

“I need the heart within these waters to bring back the person I cherish most. she is worthy, she is worthy. she paid the price, her identity for her life.”

He repeats this, in as many languages as he can pull from his memory,

it took a long time but she finally awoke

afternoon hours, drowsy, with a hole in her arm and her sword missing.

“Brian?”

“Welcome to the land of the living.”

Nia feels the world swim as she stands

she vaguely remembers two wishes deep in her heart: search for everyone that was freed from the Consciousness—whatever that is, and give Brian a name. A name was something her and Brian often discussed. She remembers that clearly but…

“What are you to me?” She asked, “and do you know my name?”

…she does not remember his importance to her.

“I am Brian,” he says, and wipes a tear from his eye.

“So, what do you want your new name to be?” she asked, “I remember something about a name.”

Hold on— “You just woke up and you’re already thinking about that?”

“Well yeah. We may not be in under the influence, but we still got a family to go back to. I remember that too. You can’t go back nameless.”

Brian’s smile softens, “I don’t know. I was thinking Dial, or Delun.”

[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1053066395908329482/1078729033975595129/61A2B0A5-E71A-4410-8CFD-F797E082A7AF.jpg] 

“Right! Hopefully you’ll have a name by the time we gather our old family. Do you uh, remember where to start?”

He shrugs, “not really. I could get us into contact with Etere but we have to go to the town for that.”

“Alrighty, then! Let’s go!” Nia jumps up and starts marching forward.

Brian—Delun, walks ahead of her, “you don’t know where you’re going.”

“Yeah but it’s better than sitting around here.”

As they leave the dragon ruins, The Family’s tenet still rings in her head.

“The ultimate gift you could give is to return to the Family with double the power.”

***

Outside of the earth, a dragon ship orbits the planet, commanded by an elder dragon and his crew. He assesses the damage done to The Conciousness via its vital signs and surveillance that had been set up on the distant asteroid.

Observing him is his son, a human-dragon.

“Another failed project, just like the Strigoi.”

“Updates on this project are specifically sent to Aronne. What do we tell him?” asks the human-dragon.

“No. Not him. Grandfather Thal, only. This was his project. We report this to him.”

The elder dragon taps the console, bringing up Hologram message.

On another console is the holographic video feed of Nia and her dragon from years ago, during the upbringing with The Family.

“You had to make my job difficult.”

[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1053066395908329482/1078729034235662487/DFBB5F65-5420-4B1D-A100-7235D8BA826C.png]