*Back*

Clementina and Liaxeri went back to the Library, eventually - once the initial learning phase of how to ride, and how to use whatever powers the dragoness had, was over.

It was during that time that Lia and Clem got to know one another. And Clem learned of Lia's 'failure' in her prior life, how she came to be a dragon in this.

"There's no resting, if you know that there was more you could have done," Liaxeri said. She was clearly more comfortable talking about this in her dragon form, she never mentioned it while she was the adorably-cute little girl she appeared to be in her 'human' form. Perhaps it was too painful to speak of, Clem realized, because it was in that form which she ...

"Their numbers were great," Clem said, "you couldn't have defeated all of them. Not with one spell."

"And that was all I had time to perform, but... There was time, before they came close. I should have used other spells, I should have known they'd come for us. The monastery was not safe and we all knew it."

"People attacking monks, devotees," Clementina grumbled, while arranging notes about her adventure. "I mean, the Library's got defenses, magic and otherwise, but that's just ... uncalled for."

"When you are an enemy of their god, I suspect it is," Liaxeri said, flatly. "And we both know that there are many gods who fight one another as well. Sending their worshippers against each other is a time-tested method."

"It doesn't make it right," Clem replied. "But I understand. And... you're very far away from your old world, your old realm. We're not from the same world, are we?"

"No, indeed not." Liaxeri shifted down into her human form, which was quite a lot smaller than Clem and slightly more bubbly than one might expect of a truly devoted member of a religious sect. Their religions were not wholly different, Clem's was all about the written word and how it kept communication going. Lia's had been dedicated to the task of preserving things, books and culture, life, honor. They were always called upon to document great events, they were almost always asked to help defend towns and villages which were too far away from their kingdom's center to be helped easily by Knights.

Lia herself was a mid-ranked member of this order, and had thus been given the skills of the blade necessary to defend herself - not great at it, either, she admitted, because she was quite weak in the arm. By the time she was in her mid-teens she was also sent to learn protective spells, a long process of magic and worship would have made her a reasonably good protector.

But for the attack which took the lives of everyone in the monastery that night.

"I do not believe that every god keeps watch on their followers all the time," Liaxeri said, "but ... I know that mine was watching while we perished. The fires were..."

Clem put her hand on Lia's shoulder, "it's okay. You don't have to."

"I do, I do," Lia continued. "There had been a bright flash on the sky, none of us knew what it was, but ... I had a feeling it would be bad, and sure enough there they came - hundreds of men, and beasts. I've never seen such beasts, but ... Now I am such a creature," she lifted her hand and it turned to a clawed, fur-covered paw. "I think they came from elsewhere, maybe they were enlisted by the dark god's forces. But ... what they destroyed that night was far more than lives. It was history - all the books, the tapestries, our records and our magic items. I don't think anything was left." She pulled in a sob, "if only I'd sent out a messenger, maybe we'd be saved."

"Or, maybe... that was your purpose that time around," Clem said. "I've read about our other gods here," she looked at the books upon her dorm's shelf. "They are not as active as they once were, and we've only one who looks upon everything at all times. But she says and does nothing. So we don't even know if we're being judged by her, or if she even cares to judge."

"That sounds so cold," Lia said. "But then our gods were... are, I suppose, quite violent, very opposed to one another. If one finds that another's looking at him wrong, there's another war. That is probably why there is only one generation of them..." Lia managed a chuckle. "They can't stand one another long enough to breed - and the only one I know that's their child was killed to bring all human life about."

Clementina gave Lia a bit of a worried look. "And... I'll bet that child was the product of a rape, right?"

"Oh, you know it. But at least my god felt it proper to defend the humans under his care, give us the way and the tools we needed. If anything, we were the last step between all gods killing each other's followers off. Someone has to maintain order."

They toasted one another with cups of water, and headed down to the courtyard. Since her return, Clem found herself asking to be placed on Duty more and more often - she had the means now to travel more quickly and widely, and even to pursue those who'd stolen their books. With Liaxeri beside her, Clem would don the armor and take up the satchel she needed, almost every other month. She did understand when the elders asked that she not try to get the position made permanent, "others must learn how to do this duty, in case you are not here to do it yourself." It was wisdom, she took it to heart.

She ... took a vacation. She'd learned there was another library on another continent, and begged of her superiors to allow her to visit it. They gave her leave, and told her to enjoy herself - which she was clearly capable of doing, she was still young and vital, and had a lovely friend to show off as well.

They made it to the library, after Clem's many letters to the keeper of this place she was expected. Liaxeri caught their interest, but not too much, they were in no danger. Clem would have scolded the keeper of the library here for not organizing his books quite well enough for her taste, but she knew she was in a foreign land - the last thing she wanted to do was upset their balance.

"But where to now?" Liaxeri asked, "we've days and days before the next full moon, I dare say you read too fast."

Clem laughed, "I think I do, but I can't help it!"

It was nearing mid-Winter, on their own continent, while this one was still bright with Summer. "I think I want to go where it's snowing," Lia commented, wistfully. "I used to see a lot of snow, but not for years, and it was quite warm and dry all year before ..."

"Well certainly!" Clem said, "but I can't ride you this way!" She waggled her fingers at Lia, who laughed and shifted back into her draconic shape. Riding was no easy feat, she wasn't all that large, but was surely strong enough in this shape to carry more than just Clem.

"Go where it's snowing," Clem said, and they teleported.

Weirdly. They wound up ... somewhere, they weren't sure it was the same world - Lia wasn't perfect with her teleportation and had occasionally brought them to odd locations before; but it wasn't anywhere either of them expected. It was a wide, bowl-shaped plain, surrounded on all sides by huge towering mountains. They were capped with snow and there was plenty of it on the ground - but also plenty of green.

The green appeared to be competing for space with the snow, it was almost as though something was removing it and laying more down as they watched!

"That's... odd," Clem commented while dropping to the ground. "Look at that, it's like something's running through it."

"I think... something is running through it." Liaxeri said, her dragon eyes squinting and peering into the mottled distance. "Do you hear something?"

Clem did hear something. Faintly at first, but now more clearly. "Bells?"

"And plenty of them," Lia added.

All of a sudden, a yellow-and-black form galloped by them, stopping on a blade of grass (since they had no dimes) and looked at both of the females. He had a deer-like shape, long face and elegant antlers bedecked with bells. They barely got a look at him - his eyes widened, he blinked once with those long eyelashes flowing, and then appeared to wink at them - and then he vanished again in a plume of snow and glitter.

"Well that was odd," Clem said.

"... He was beautiful," Lia whispered. Clementina turned to look up at her dragon friend.

"Ooooh really," Clem said, watching the way Lia stared out after the bells noise in the distance. Now that they were there for a bit, they could hear the bells constantly - just sometimes closer and louder, sometimes quite far off. "Why not go catch him?"

Lia shook her head to clear it, "I--I can't do that! He's so fast! I can't go that fast!"

"Who says you need to run after him to catch him?" Clem laughed. She looked around, found what looked to be a fairly safe large rock to sit on, and waved her hands at Lia again. "Why not... just stand there looking pretty! After all, I think he liked you. Didn't you see his look?" She mimicked the wink that the deer-creature had given. Lia's own deer-fox like face wiggled over itself with distraction.

So it wasn't all that much longer, while Clem tried to figure out where exactly they were (they weren't anywhere), Liaxeri found a spot near a more bare grassy portion of the plains, and lay down. Clem looked up at her, and jotted down a note: Liaxeri can be quite seductive.

Clem heard the bells, probably long after Lia did. Once more, a blurry yellow creature zipped past, but he slowed up, trotting, and then finally standing with a snort and heavy breaths before Lia.

Whatever it was that passed between them, Clem wasn't really privy to. For a moment later, Lia had vanished along with the deer-dragon.

She wasn't worried. There was exactly no reason that she thought she needed to fret about this. After that longing look that Lia had given the dragon, and that adorable wink he'd shot at her? Clementina hummed to herself and caught up on some overdue writing.

***

"He told me about the rest of the Nexus," Liaxeri said when she returned some hours later. Both dragons looked... a little disheveled. Lia's feathers and fluffy fur were all out of sorts, and the bells around the male dragon's limbs were halfway tangled. He shook his hind leg out, flinging a tiny pair of bells, which Clem went off to retrieve. By the time she got to them, he had sped off once more.

"And... what's that?" Clem asked.

Liaxeri told her in simple words about how she'd reached this place - if they looked quite closely there was a cave opening off to one side, if they tilted their heads a bit the sky turned from snowy cloudy white, to a weirdly grey tone, the kind of color that a bustling city illuminated dark clouds, or - an allusion which neither of them would understand for weeks to come - the color of a television without a channel on.

The Healing Den's parking lot, in other words, had parked itself in this wide open plain nestled among rocky peaks and grasslands in Winter. Just for her? Perhaps. S'onmul was the male's name, and he was one busy dragon. "He gave me gifts," Liaxeri said dreamily, while preening.

They went back to work for a bit, but Liaxeri steadfastly refused to shapeshift. For at least four weeks, in fact, she maintained her draconic form. While others didn't think much of it, Clem wondered - for about half that time. She realized that her dragon partner must be pregnant. Why else would she keep her body in one form? It might be dangerous for the ... kits? Eggs? Babies? Fawns?

"So do you think you're going to need a place to nest?" Clem asked, when it was pretty obvious that Liaxeri was needing such a thing.

"I'd like to go back to that Den place, it will always be Winter there, it's nice for a switch.

"How can it always be... never mind, I trust you, I'll put in for a leave. You can pack for me, okay?"

***

It turned out that Liaxeri wanted some space for very good reason. Plus, bearing her kits on the outside of the Den's influence had some kind of weird effect when it came time to name and send off these kits.

They were live, but quite small, when they were born. And there was another gift on the way: apparently, Liaxeri and S'onmul were having several of these litters.

"You sneaky little thing!" Clem laughed. She hated to be parted from the little kitlings - they were adorable! Wobbly on their hooved hind legs, and clearly not bipedal like their mother, but they had strong thumbs on their forepaws, and would obviously have their father's antlers. All had small nubs, oddly shaped with a spade on the front and two prongs off the back. Unlike him, they did have wings, and only two tails, a compromise between Lia and his rear ends.

"They're stunning," Clem said, while S'onmul zipped away and back to bring small pieces of food and fruits, gifts and ribbons to decorate them. He also dropped several handfuls of bells on strings in Clem's lap, with the clear indication that they'd be given out with the offspring.

Twice more they went back to the Den's Winter resort, and every time, when the younglings were ready, S'onmul gently picked them up one by one, and delivered them to wherever they would do best. They needed attention, but not necessarily maternal care - they could feed themselves, and showed early on that they all carried one or another of their parent's powers.

Some sped off following their sire, while others gave half-strength attempts to shapeshift. Others beamed with a glow indicating they had light magic, while others clearly were adept at either teleporting or moving through dimensions - or both.

Thus... a large number of offspring were distributed around the Nexus. Proud parents both - their children would need caring partners, and something to do: if they could stand still at all, it would be a good day!

"I think we'll see him again, some day," Liaxeri said as they parted for the last time, nuzzling muzzles and S'onmul's long tail whipping around with a cheerful noise.

*Next*

Name: Liaxeri
Gender: Female
Bond: Clementina
Species: Unnamed ("One of Integrity") -- reincarnated Lawful Good human
Abilities: Shapeshifting (see above); Verbal Speech; Very strong Order magic; Strong Light magic; Average Healing magic; Below Average Psionics (Telekinesis*, Bending another's mind**, illusions**, mind-reading*, telepathy*, teleportation* - * average, ** quite poor); Below Average Fire magic
Ban: May not naturally breed purebloods. Purebloods will be reincarnations of Lawful Good humans.
Personality: Gentle, Supportive, Stalwart