Dragon Frost (11 page)

"That's why you came to Aster and took so long to find a host. You wanted someone strong, and with a similar past so that this one could hide behind it unnoticed. You found that."

"Did I?" Loki asked, unsure of himself. He had disillusioned himself into thinking that he was stronger now. Little of him felt like he actually was.

"But you're happy now, I can feel it. Nafury and Xirel make you feel less lonely, and you're important to your Tribe. That's what's important, isn't it?"

Loki caught her hand, then nodded. "I suppose for the most part I am. The question is though, are you? Will you ever tell Nafury and Xirel the truth?"

Ubi pulled her hand away and lay back down, then stared at the ceiling. She knew that he had seen her thoughts, just as clearly as she had seen his. The psi memory trip worked both ways. "I'm like you right now. I need to keep disillusioning myself until I believe it. Fake it until you make it, or in my case, become it."

"Is that a saying on Earth?" Loki asked.

Ubi nodded. "I will tell them--I just can't tell them now."

"Alright," Loki said and got to his feet. "But I'll agree to this only because I believe you can be happy if you try. Promise me that you won't let me down."

"I promise," Ubi replied.

"Then let's leave it at that," he said and headed for the door. "Goodnight, Princess, and thank you."

"Goodnight, Master Hunter."

Loki closed the door as he thought about the name she had just given him. His last memory was of failure, but there were many more that had not been. His Sentry half just got tired of being on the front lines of so many tragedies. Even now, Loki instinctively kept his distance from conflict. It wasn't that he was scared of it, it was because he had witnessed enough lifetimes filled with pain.

"Is she alright?" Nafury asked, stopping before Loki.

"She's fine." Loki returned his thoughts to the present and looked up at Nafury. "She just fell asleep right now." He left for the deck at that.

Nafury double checked by psi on Ubi, and saw that she was indeed asleep. Then he turned his focus back on Loki who was acting unusual.

SEVENTEEN

Kenshe didn't know that he still had it in him to be so brilliant. He had reached a new record with feeling completely full of himself. His plan to get near Ubi was ingenious. It was the same tactic that he had used to get close to her mother. How fitting, he thought, that it would work on her daughter.

The chimera around him paid him little mind, and he kept a perfect cool as he pretended to blend in. Even when a large ball hit him in the head. Even when a bowl of water was flung at him, complete with bits of meat. Even when one of the plumas sunk their teeth into his fluffy, grizzled brown tail...and didn't let up.

Kenshe clenched his phelan teeth together and slowly turned to look at the winged kitten. A warning flash from his red eyes put out the bright green eyes of his attacker all at once. The small pluma let go of him, before running off with a small cry.

"Aw, did the kitty bite you?" Ubi said as she walked over to the True pup and lifted him up from under his shoulders. "Silly kitties."

Kenshe couldn't have asked for more luck. He was literally purring from it which helped with his act to put his best cute forward. He had her right where he wanted. All he had to do now was--

"Ubi, what are you doing?" Nafury asked from the doorway to the nursery.

Ubi turned around and lifted the True closer for him to see. "Isn't he adorable? I was going to die from the cute overload in this room alone. I can't believe he can purr!" she said and hugged it. "It's like he's half cat!"

Nafury lifted an eyebrow as he studied the True pup. He hadn't see one in centuries. He could only gather that they were impossible to see being what they were. Anything stupid enough to trip past a mother True phelan would have been dead. Instantly. "Eh, yeah. Sort of. But he stinks. You should think about giving him a bath."

Ubi sniffed the pup's head. "He doesn't stink. He doesn't smell like anything."

"Maybe it's what he ate then," Nafury said and looked around at the chimera nursery. All sorts of combinations of animals were around him. Some had already been possessed by fallen Sentry and had become Awls. They stood out as the more mature, less trouble making of the lot. He thought that it must feel odd to have their mature minds fused into such small bodies, but it wasn't his business. If Xirel didn't alarm to their presence, he wasn't going to start something. "Are you sure they're all accounted for?" he teased.

"Seriously, uncle? He didn't eat any."

Nafury smiled and shook his head. "Don't be too long. Xirel is enjoying tormenting me by keeping me out of his conversation with Loki. I'm getting bored from being out of the loop. I need you as an excuse to get back in it." They had returned to the Efereal Mountains after their horror cruise to the Torian Continent. Their fear was that it would get hit next, while it was still recovering from Kenshe's attack. Despite being in a mountain of Awls and chimera, Nafury still felt vulnerable.

"Alright," Ubi replied and watched him go. She turned her focus back on the True in her arms and smelled him again. "We might as well give you a bath just in case I'm nose-blind or something..." She carried him over to a large bowl and sat him down in the icy water. Finding a brush, she started to scrub him down.

Kenshe's mission could wait, as the full body scrub he was getting was just too enjoyable to turn down. He struggled to keep his focus and his size for that matter through the whole bath. When she was done, he was left half-tranced from bliss as she wrapped him in a wool blanket.

"Ow!" Ubi squeaked.

Kenshe's giant ears perked up, as he hadn't bitten her, yet. They simultaneously looked down to see where a kitten's claws had raked her calf. The pluma had scratched her hard enough to make her bleed.

"That wasn't very nice!" she said and crouched down to shoo away her attacker with her hand.

Kenshe jumped out of her arms and quickly played the hero, gently licking her wound. Luck favoured him today, as he wouldn't have to bite her, after all.

"Ew...okay, that's great," Ubi said and picked him back up. She wrapped him back in the blanket and left the nursery.

Every breath Kenshe took now was focused on keeping his form small. Her endless memories raced through his head with no sign of slowing down. Sybl's blood had been an intense heat, but Ubi's was a blistering cold that stabbed at his inner veins. He could take the pain, as he had anticipated it. Her soul was much older than he originally calculated. Easily as old as his own soul as his mind worked fast to sort out the images he recognized of the first Aster. Of the Dragon Moon's attack on it. Then the timeline pushed forward and he saw her last dozen lives, and how she was murdered. Her rage and hate was insatiable and wasn't limited to just Earth. He didn't know how she had built such a solid concrete wall around all of it, but she was no novice with psi Thread. She was very likely the most masterful deceiver he had ever seen.

Ubi set him down on the bed in her room. He pulled his mind back to the present as he watched her like he would watch an adversary. Nafury and Xirel hadn't the slightest idea what they were dealing with. A very large piece of the enemy they searched for was right in here. Her very blood was what was poisoning the Awls and dragons into becoming puppets. They could have only taken that from her when she was on Earth. What angered him is that she knew this already. The only thing she didn't seem to know was who was behind it.

He didn't look away as she changed into a clean, cream tunic and pants. It was awkward to watch her as she looked just like a female Kas might. The scars on her pale body were real. She had been a prisoner and test subject through this incarnation. He would have felt sorry for her if she had any kind of real emotion in her to justify her as a person, let alone a Fay.

Nafury had sealed his own doom. Ubi felt little for him aside from using him as an extra shield to hide who she truly was. He could feel her attraction for Xirel, but he doubted that would last long once her true self showed its face. Either way, Kenshe had got what he wanted and didn't care about the rest of her story. This Fay was lost, and he had enough of his own problems. He stood up to leave, before stopping when Nafury appeared in the doorway again.
Curses! Go away you infernal bastard!

"I'm ready, let's go," Ubi said and picked up the True to take with her to show to Xirel.

"You're still carrying that mutt around?" Nafury sighed.

"I gave him a bath," she said in its defense. "See, smell," she said as she lifted him to Nafury's face.

"I'll take your word for it," Nafury replied as he leaned away from the pup. They continued walking for Xirel's makeshift throne room.

While being carried like a stuffed toy, Kenshe pondered all the consequences of biting Nafury's useless head off right now.

EIGHTEEN

Nafury stopped in the hallway leading to the cavern where Xirel was. A glimmer of gold had caught his attention. When he looked closer, he saw that the object lying on the floor of the connecting hallway looked a lot like his helmet.

"Nafury?" Ubi said.

"Go on ahead, Ubi. I think one of the chimera found my helmet for me."

Ubi briefly glanced at what he was looking at, before nodding and heading the rest of the way on her own. She pushed open one of the two heavy wooden doors and went inside. Xirel was sitting on a higher, intricately carved wooden chair. Loki was also there and sat before him. They both stopped conversing to acknowledge her arrival.

"Princess," Loki greeted.

"You're not back to talk about sailing over to dragon island again I hope?"

"No," Loki replied and finished with a laugh. "We were actually just talking about you and how to go about training you to learn Thread."

Ubi sat next to Loki with her pup and looked at Xirel. "Here I was worried about that too, as I didn't catch any fish..."

"Xirel," Loki playfully scolded him. "That was rather mean."

"It was one of my few attempts at humour," Xirel said and leaned his cheek against his hand. "I've learned my lesson. It won't happen again." He sounded like a child who had just been reprimanded.

Ubi smiled at him, and Xirel seemed to cheer up a bit when he returned it.

"Soooo," Loki said, interrupting their staring, "we've taken to adopting stray True pups now? I didn't think they ever strayed..."

"He was being tormented by the other babies in the nursery. I felt bad for him, so I took him with me," Ubi said.

"Loki here is much like your True pup that you carry," Xirel started, shifting to lean back in his seat.

"Oh?" Ubi asked, interested. "Come to think of it, you do seem rather young to have known my mother..."

"Heh, that's because Awls don't physically age." Loki pulled off his silver mask, and then looked her straight in the eyes.

The light green stars over his eyes were still there, and just as neat to look at. His orange eyes conveyed to her that he intended to keep her secret from Xirel, but she would have to play his game in return.

Loki smiled and looked away from her. "Do I look like a human from your world, Ubi?"

"Some contacts for your eyes and maybe a bit of hair dye and you'd be set. You have the most interesting birthmark ever, and I don't think I could bring myself to put makeup over it." Ubi leaned closer for a better look at him. "What did my mother think of you?"

Loki's smile grew wider. "She got mad at me when I refused to take off my mask. When she hit it off by accident, she got even madder. Sybl didn't take well to anyone thinking that she was shallow." Loki's smile faded from another memory of sadness, and he took the mask in both his hands and began to manipulate it with his power over fire. "When is your birthday, Princess?"

"Uh, February fourteenth. I only remember my human one," she replied.

"Valentines Day, interesting. Earth's designated day to show your significant other how much you love them. How fitting." His fire grew hotter and larger, until the silver mask took the shape of a slender dragon. In the figurine's hands, it held a large heart-shaped card. He made sure it was cool before handing it to her. "I'm sorry I missed your birthday by over a month."

Ubi smiled and shook her head. "There are like none of Earth's customs here. You don't have to apologize."

"On the contrary, you are here, which means all of Earth's customs and celebrations are now as well," Loki replied. "Most of them are rather fun. Knowledge of both worlds is important to Awls. That's why despite being a nobody when I was a dragoon, I was chosen to lead the Eastern Tribes on becoming an Awl. My mother may have died when I was still young, but she left me one of the greatest gifts in the eyes of Awls."

"Oh?" Ubi asked, curious to what the rest of his story was.

"My never-ending curiosity and creativity."

The True's ears perked higher.

"Yet Xirel is the chimera's chief leader, right?" Ubi asked.

"Yes, Ubi, but my time is coming to an end," Xirel explained. "I think that Loki would the best choice for taking my place."

"I don't understand--you look fine," Ubi said in concern.