21. The Bond
It was early the next morning before Arxet left the safety of her private room again. She couldn’t stand to face anyone after the events of the previous day.
She felt disgusted with Rubis. She felt disgusted with herself. Somewhere deep down in her deepest most ignored depths she knew she had been unfair to Rubis. But that word… did Rubis even know what that meant to her? Would she care or just say Arxet was overreacting? She hoped Rubis wouldn’t even come to the bonding ceremony today. That conversation sounded about as fun as food poisoning.
She didn’t regret her actions at the jewelry shop. If anything she regretted slipping up and saying she loved Rubis before, and bringing her along on the plan at all. She should have just gotten down to business and confronted the jeweler immediately and avoided this whole mess. At least it had given her a chance to see Rubis’s true colors.
Thankfully, she had learned to be as quiet on four feet as she was on two now. The rest of the household was none the wiser as she crept out of her room and through the hall to the exit into the courtyard. She took a moment to sniff around the entrance and listen close before slowly and gently cracking open the trap door and slipping out into the courtyard.
As it turned out Tifse had been camping out here the last few days in a sleeping bag under the awning. She was still sound asleep as well. Arxet figured she might as well stay quiet for now, she didn’t want to deal with another argument until it was actually time to go to the ceremony.
Finally, she’d be done with all the ceremonies soon. Now she just had to get through rider training and the hunting and combat training Amjazel had promised was next, and after that she could finally be rid of this city. Arxet knew a little about hunting. She was never the most rugged survivalist, but she learned a few basic traps for getting from city to city back in the day. Preserved road rations were expensive, wild rabbit was free. However, it was time for her to learn how to take down big game like deer, boar, and even lions and bears if she were pressed. The combat training would probably also be needed for that. The bipedal hand to hand she’d learned some of at the academy wouldn’t be useful to her again until she figured out how to change back to an anthronoid form.
The dragon slipped into the pool as quietly as possible to begin scrubbing herself off. Her scales were still coated in dust and rubble from breaking down a wall the day before. She hated getting her bed dirty, but she was too much of an emotional mess to risk bumping into anyone else last night while trying to wash off.
At her size it was difficult to scrub herself down and get the gaps in her scales clear without loudly splashing dozens of gallons of water around. About a minute in the sounds of Tifse stirring reached her ears and she gave up on doing it herself. “Hey, you. Get the brush and help me with some of these difficult spots, okay? I’m covered in shit from the shop.”
“Good morning to you too, sunshine. Didn’t your rat-mom teach you to say please?” Tifse grumbled as she wriggled out of her sleeping bag. “Maybe if you didn’t go collapsing walls of buildings on yourself you wouldn’t be so filthy.”
“You gonna help me or not? I asked for a brush, not for a lecture.” She growled and tried to splash water onto her rider. Luckily for Tifse it was a bit too far.
“I’m coming, I’m coming. I didn’t exactly sleep great on the fucking ground out here.” She straightened out her sleepwear and shuffled over to the edge of the pool where a wooden brush with metal bristles was hung up. Arxet had only allowed Emren to use the brush on her once, the metal bristles were admittedly perturbing, but quite heavenly on dragonscale.
“Ah yeah- that’s the spot. Get behind my wings, I can never reach there.” Arxet relaxed against the stone edge of the pool to let the fox scrub her down. Dragon scale didn’t require quite as much maintenance as fur or skin had as a rat, but Tiamat’s tail was the maintenance process itself so much more pleasurable. “YEAH- oh yeah that’s nice. Get my horns next, make sure you get in between them nice and good too- yeah right there.”
“Hey, is your- was your coldmark that big before?” Tifse stopped her brushing to get down on her knees and squint at it closer. “I swear it didn’t quite reach your-”
“Oh come on, not you too. Did you just overhear Idami the other night? I know you’re just trying to fuck with me. It’s the same size it’s always been. More brushy brushy!” She huffed and jerked her forehead away before presenting the side without the cold mark.
Tifse only grumbled “Not my business anyway...” in response and got back to work. The cleaning was finished in a tidy amount of time, after which Arxet had Tifse bring out some of the preserved meat and a few loaves of bread from the pantry inside for a quick and light breakfast. She didn’t need much to get by. One morning without a huge meal wouldn’t kill her. It was nothing compared to true hunger anyway.
Once she was done eating and quite dry again she had Tifse put the saddle on. If these two were going to be bonded she’d have to get used to wearing it more often, and Amjazel had already finished with the adjustments. “Come on, let’s go before anyone else wakes up.”
“What, don’t want to bring them along?” The rider climbed up onto the saddle and started strapping her legs in. The biggest adjustments were moving the stirrups up to where the short fox could reach.
“No.” She waited just long enough for Tifse to be strapped in before leaping over the wall without any warning and into the air. This time she even managed to stay airborne all six blocks to the rider academy, even with the extra dead weight.
A crowd had already formed out front of the gates before she arrived. Many of the wannabe riders still hadn’t gotten the news. Too bad for them. Soon enough the doors would open and they’d all be turned away. Arxet couldn’t wait to see. She slammed down onto the roof, nearly sliding to the edge and over into the courtyard in the process, before turning back around and leering down at the crowd. Suckers. They’d just wasted three months of their life on this.
Other dragons began to filter in over time too until just about the same crowd from two days ago had filled the roof. Eventually Tiamat, in the guise of Fatima, as usual, came out and slipped between the front gates. “Ahem! Everyone! I require your attention!” She closed the door firmly behind her.
Slowly the noise from the ‘prospective’ riders and priests died down, and Tiamat began to speak again. “Due to the ministry’s stance on coldmark discrimination, and our renewed efforts to create a better Ti’Aval, I unfortunately must turn you all away today. There will be no selection ceremonies for anyone here.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” A voice rang out from the crowd. A murmur passed through them and began to raise until it was a commotion. Arxet made out distinct cries of “This isn’t fair”, “I never did anything to anyone with a coldmark!”, “What moron even decided this?” “Oh come on!”
“QUIET!” Tiamat’s voice roared out over the crowd again, louder than any mere mortal woman should be. “I have personally worked alongside coldmarked members of your session to know who has and has not upheld the ministry’s standard of conduct against discrimination. After the actions of Miveri, the high priestess of Fellrock, two months ago, and the treatment of Arxet and Tifse in their time in the class we have found none of you fit to serve.”
“And who are you to decide, huh? I want to talk to whoever’s in charge!” One of Tifse’s former ‘friends’ jabbed a finger into ‘Fatima’s’ shoulder. “Tifse’s a liar, we didn’t even know she had a coldmark til’ two days ago, and Arxet’s a sneaky little bastard. He’d say whatever he could to get out of the expulsion you hit him with after he bit Tifse!”
Arxet spotted a dangerous glint in the goddess’s eye as the man dared lay a finger upon her. “Oh this is gonna be good.” Tifse just covered her ears and shut her eyes tight.
Tiamat slapped the hand away and responded as evenly and dispassionately as possible, each word clearly taking care and control. “Do not touch me again. I am the final voice in affairs of this nature. I trust Arxet’s word, and I have witnessed many of the injustices against her myself.”
Arxet cringed a little at the ‘her’ slipping out of Tiamat’s mouth. It felt… right. But why did it also make her embarrassed to hear addressed to this asshole?
“Final voice in affairs my ass.” The human got up in her face as close as he could without making direct physical contact. “What kind of bullshit agenda are you trying to pull? You’re seriously going to turn away everyone here over the feelings of one rat?”
“Tiamat herself has-” She’s cut off by the man as he jabs her with a finger again.
“I don’t believe it! You’re going to-” A sickly crack rings up the wall to Arxet. She and Tifse both cringe at the sound. The man was hanging by his wrist, struggling and kicking at Tiamat as she had her hand clamped down hard over his.
“I told you, do not touch me. None of you are eligible to join the ministry in any respect at Tiamat’s discretion. This scene has only reinforced our decision.” She let go of the man’s hand and grabbed him by the collar before dragging him out to the street, the crowd parted around her like a school of fish around a shark. Arxet could see from atop the wall that every bone in the man’s hand seemed to have been utterly flattened. The skin hanging off his wrist was simply flopping around like a glove filled with water. Tiamat dropped him at the edge of the property, pulled his hand back up, and healed it. “You all have until the count of thirty to leave the property, or I will kindly ask one of the dragons on the roof to remove you. One, two-”
The rest of the ex-students stampeded out of the entryway without any further prompting. Tiamat was directly in their path, but the frantic throng of bodies took great care not to bump or crowd her, even if it meant cramming themselves through narrower gaps along the left and right sides of the exit.
Only one student remained, the other member of Tifse’s little posse. The red fox girl just waved up at Tifse and Arxet on the roof with a solemn expression. “Doubt it’s worth much, but… Sorry, Tifse. If you see Arxet pass it along for me, would you?” With that she quickly ducked out of the area with only a few seconds to spare as Tiamat’s counted to thirty.
“What do you think that was about?” Arxet snorted. “I’m not accepting any-” She was interrupted by Tifse making a loud sniffling sound next to her. Tifse actually looked on the verge of tears. “Oh don’t tell me you’re actually-”
“Shut up. Just- just shut up. I don’t want to hear it.” She shoved the dragon’s snout away. “It’s none of your business.”
Arxet rolled her eyes and turned away to watch the reactions of the dragons present. Most seemed annoyed or disappointed and one by one began lifting off and leaving. However, one seemed to be on a direct march straight for Arxet, a pink-orange almost iridescent dragoness.
“Yeah, what is-” Arxet began to snark at her but was cut off as the other dragon charged and locked her horns with her own. Tifse was sent scrambling to make space between the dueling dragonesses.
“Nice fucking going, Arxet! What the fuck am I gonna do now?” She snarled and bared her teeth in the blue dragon’s face. “I don’t have any fucking hands! I was supposed to be able to get a rider! Are you and Brin just gonna hog them all and leave the rest of us out to dry?” Ah, this would be Layna, Brin’s twin sister.
“Not my problem!” Arxet gritted her teeth and dug her claws into the stone roof. Layna had laid her out on the mat twice, wouldn’t now be a nice chance to get some payback? Much like she was with Brin, Arxet was taller and slightly bulkier. She might have some small advantage here!“Maybe those assholes should have minded their own BUSINESS!” She managed to slip her head underneath the other dragoness and lift her up off the roof to slam her back down, even cracking the stone below her. Her horns found flesh and even dug in a little, splattering hot blood across her face as she impaled the other fresh dragon’s shoulder. “One point for Arxet!” She cracked a cocky grin and did a little prance around the other dragon. “You were too slow to pick anyone, not my-”
Layna had flipped around and back onto her claws in a flash and opened up her maw. Flames spewed forth and engulfed Arxet, and it burned. Oh it burned. She was screeching and roaring in pain as the heat seared her scales and the flesh underneath. The intense dragonfire cut right through her scales and into her flesh as if a claw came down from the sky and ripped it off of her.
All reason had left her as she attempted to drop down onto the ground and roll around to extinguish herself, but the stone roof was too hard and flat, and with the odd angles her wings created she couldn’t quite snuff it. Something heavy and golden slammed on top of her and she found some sweet relief as someone else’s bulk smothered the flames for her, even if her bones complained at the weight. Her lungs were screaming at her from the broiling smokey air she’d inhaled, but her heart raced so hard that she couldn’t force herself to stop gasping out quick and tortuous breaths. The entire left side of her entire body was numb, and the rest screamed through her in unadulterated agony. She couldn’t see out of her left eye.
“Hold still!” A masculine voice entered her mind. It felt even older and stronger than Amjazel’s. “You have at least fourth degree burns, maybe worse.” It seemed as if the golden dragon from two days ago had leapt on top of her and used his wings to snuff the flames. Once he was sure that she wasn’t still alight anywhere he began to slowly ease off. Bits of Arxet’s scales and skin beneath peeled off as he did so, stuck to his front. It was a lucky thing Arxet seemed to have no feeling in those areas anymore.
“How did she- But- but- but dragons are fireproof-” Her mind reeled at what had just happened. It shouldn’t be possible. The heat from a dragonflame should be blinding and disorienting for another dragon at worst, certainly never able to harm them.
“Then clearly you’re not a real dragon!” Layna spat. “Look at the mess you’ve-”
“ENOUGH!” The entire roof shook as Tiamat’s voice rolled over the scene, stopping everyone in their tracks. “Layna, if I hear so much as one more word out of you-” Tiamat had arrived on the roof at some point, and despite still hiding in the guise of Fatima the growl she let out at the copper-pink dragon still sounded like it came from a dragon the size of a ziggurat. She seemed too outraged to finish a coherent sentence toward Layna.
“Yes, great grandmother, my apologies great grandmother.” Layna backpedaled away from the goddess so hard she nearly backed off the edge of the roof.
“Heh.” Arxet barely wheezed out in her mind. “That’ll teach-”
“You too, Arxet. For once in your life shut your mouth and let the adults speak. I am sick of you unnecessarily escalating every situation!” She marched over and dropped to her knees to begin applying a healing spell. “I have several words for you about your actions yesterday, they will come before your bonding is done. Brin, go and complete your ceremony, another Fatima is waiting to help you on the stage below. Layna, go home. I will be speaking with you and your father about this.”
Somehow, having burns healed hurt even worse than having them applied. She let another screeching roar of misery as the flesh knit itself back and returned to its prior state. Every nerve was briefly exposed to the open air and the hot flesh around it before being safely sealed away within muscle and meat and fat again. Her vision returning to her left eye was the most unnatural and disquieting part of the whole process. She was able to see out of it for several seconds before it fully reformed, and all she received were hazy headache inducing visions of harsh daylight, gorey red, and blackened flesh before returning to normal. Several large patches of her body were now a lighter shade of blue, and lacked the same depth of shine as her original scales. Even if the pain was gone she couldn’t stop shaking.
She rolled back onto her feet and took a few uncertain steps towards the dragon who’d extinguished her. “H-hey, uh- thanks, big guy.”
He only dipped his head. “My sister would have done the same for any of my children. Send Amjazel my greetings when you return home after your ceremony.” He took a claw and tried to scrape off what was left of Arxet’s flesh and scale off of his underbelly. Somehow watching that was more horrifying to her than the process of being healed.
Oh, shit, was this guy supposedly her uncle or something? She really didn’t need more family to keep track of right now of all times. “Y-yeah, will do.”
“My office. Now.” Tiamat interrupted the moment. “Thank you for helping your niece, Aurjeule, but we have other urgent matters.”
The colossal golden drake simply nodded and took off from the rooftop. One by one every other dragon present left, until only Arxet, Tifse, and Tiamat were left on the roof. Without another word she led the two back downstairs.
Tifse seemed especially shaken after the incident. Arxet could smell vomit on her. When had she had the time to throw up?
“You didn’t sever the direct mental link before she set you on fire.” Tifse’s mental voice was like a pained croak. “I felt that too.”
How did that somehow make Arxet feel sorry for her? “Yeah. Not my idea of a good start to a day either.”
“I’d heard you couldn’t breathe fire either.” Tifse stated. Arxet was surprised that there didn’t seem to be a hint of malice in the statement. “I don’t- people like us… we aren’t meant for this.”
“Well I’m already stuck as this, and you’re stuck with me, so people like us had better learn to suck it up and deal.”
Tiamat led them both through several winding passages until the trio arrived at a large set of double doors labeled ‘Fatima Mattar – Ministry Consultant’. She opened the door for the rider and dragon, and waited for them to pass through before slamming the double door behind them from the outside.
There was already another Fatima in the chair inside. The room was just wall to wall shelves covered in records with a small writing table surrounded by five cushions on the ground.
“Is this about the fight? She tried to-” Arxet began to unsuccessfully try defending herself.
“That is part of it but not the main reason I called you here. Arxet, what the hell happened with Clem’s Gems yesterday?” She sounded furious. Arxet had never truly felt reason to fear the woman before now, but the goddess was livid. What kind of consequences were there for people in the family? Did they ground dragons? Would they take her dragon blood back?
“We just- well we-” She stammered over the words under the pressure. She thought she’d be in the clear to get back at the shopkeeper. Tiamat seemed very pro-payback. “Rubis and I-” She faltered at the name of the red dragon. That argument from the previous day was still more raw than the burns. “We started by going around to different jewelers and suppliers, spreading rumors. Well- not rumors, everything that we were telling them was true. But we were trying to mess up his reputation so he wouldn't be able to do business anymore.”
“I do not care about any of that. I gave you permission to seek justice for his actions against you. Destroying his livelihood is a fair response to him trying to ruin your life. But how did he find out that you’d gone from being a rat to a dragon?” The woman’s voice was clipped and barely restrained. “He spent all of last night praying to me for forgiveness, and saying he had no idea that ‘the rat’ would ‘become a dragon’ when he turned you in.”
“Um…” Arxet thought back on the incident. It was honestly a blur. She barely remembered anything other than breaking the wall and grabbing the safe. Part of her felt confused about it in retrospect. “I don’t… actually… knooww…”
“You don’t know? What did you say to him? Do you remember, Tifse?” She turned her harsh gaze upon the fox, who until this point had seemed relieved not to be the center of attention.
“I-I-I- was- she went down the street while- I-” Tifse awkwardly pointed back and forth between Arxet and herself before stammering out: “I wasn’t there for it.”
“So neither of you have any proper explanation for any of what happened less than a day ago?” She’d leaned her elbows on her table to rub the bridge of her nose. “This is serious. Arxet, I told you it was a secret that people could be turned into dragons. Only trusted friends and family are supposed to be let in on it. People from your old life that you want to keep in your new life.”
“Like I have anyone who fits that description.” Arxet still didn’t understand the big deal. “It’s one guy, who’s going to believe him?”
“That’s not the point and you know it, Arxet!” Tiamat threw her hands up. “You told someone!”
“So what? People know about dragon reproduction? Why is that so dangerous?” She rolled her eyes.
“Because people have hunted dragons for their blood in the past!” The woman finally snapped and shot up from her seat. “Three thousand years ago it got out, and it was catastrophic!” The woman paced the room, a tail appearing from her lower back to whip back and forth with frustration. “I am the only deity of my power left on this continent but there are many other spirits and entities that people in the far flung reaches of the world still worship like gods! I am on good terms with some, and others are dangerous! They covet the power that I’ve shared with my family, and try to find ways to steal it for themselves! Some of Ninazu’s serpents are still out there and all I can do is pray to myself that none find out the secret, because while my horn does help to transform dragons it is theoretically possible without it! My second born child was murdered for magical experiments with her blood! She was the second oldest living flesh and blood being on the continent, and they killed her for the blood she carried in her veins! Do you understand me, Arxet?” She leaned over and growled at the pair.
“I-” The dragon had shrunk back at the tirade. She had never heard anything like that before. Who could think of hunting a dragon? Killing dragons happened, sure. Sometimes someone wanted revenge (like Emren at one point), or saw a dragon as being in their way. It was the stuff of legends and fables. But a dragon being hunted and harvested like a common animal or magical beast? She had never been a huge fan of dragons before meeting Amjazel, but the idea still sickened her on some level.
“I said, do you understand me, Arxet?” She leaned down and slammed her hands on the table. “You are a part of this family, and I love you, but I will. Not. Allow.any member of my family to knowingly endanger another with this sort of behavior. Are. We. Clear?”
“Y-yes, ma’am.” Arxet whimpered in response and shrunk down as far as she could into a prone position. She hadn’t been made to feel like a disobedient child in so long she wasn’t sure how to even act. Tears were welling up in her eyes as the fear of possible repercussions for a repeat offense. She wasn’t even sure what Tiamat would do to protect her family from her family. What could be done to silence someone sharing forbidden knowledge besides killing them or imprisoning them?
“Good. Come here.” Tiamat stepped around and protectively wrapped her arms around her granddaughter’s neck. “I am sorry that you had to see me like this. It has been a stressful week. And please, stop picking fights with family. I know Layla started that, but you shouldn’t just egg her on. I am talking with her right now as well.”
“How- she set me on fire. It shouldn’t have hurt-” She leaned away from the hug slightly. She still felt frightened of the goddess after that display.
“I don’t know, my love.” She began stroking a hand down the back of her granddaughter’s neck in an attempt to calm her. “I’m beginning to think that your coldmark has drastically changed how your draconic magic has set in, so to speak. You’re the first of your kind. I… I am worried for Idami. I was sure when I chose her that your breath would come in soon, but still not even a spark after two months…”
“Hey, at least she’ll know what to sorta expect! I’m making a pretty good trial run!” Arxet tried to bring back her usual cockiness, but it was full of holes.
“Try to be there for her. Please. You two know what it’s like more than anyone. I know Amjazel and the others sometimes fail to understand you.” She sighed. “I worry I will run into the same problem.”
“I’ll do what I can?” Arxet was surprised that the goddess would request her help. Maybe it was more obvious to everyone than Arxet realized that she was struggling to adjust.
“I’m sure she’ll try to support you as well, my love.” Tiamat finally broke away from the hug and wiped the tears from Arxet’s eyes. “Are you two ready for your bonding? Brin should be done by now, and I’m sure your family is excited to see your first bonding.”
“Can we do it in here?” Tifse finally spoke up for the first time since Tiamat’s tirade. “You can just show us how, right?”
The goddess seemed bewildered by the request. Arxet was as well. “What for? I’m sure Arxet would love for her family to be there?”
“Yeah, what’s the deal?” Arxet asked privately. She wanted to do it away from Rubis, but she wasn’t sure what Tifse’s stake in doing it away from everyone was.
“Just trust me on this. I know you want to do it in here, so we’ll do it in here, okay?” Truly, today was a day of non-sequiturs. Dragons were getting burned and Tifse was being considerate of Arxet’s feelings. Two impossible things were hitting back to back.
“I agree, after speaking with her in private.” Arxet turned back to Tiamat. “Let’s just get it done here and go home. I… am not big on public spectacles.”
Tiamat raised an eyebrow in response and considered for a moment. “Well, it’s ultimately both of your decisions. It’s nice to see you two agree on anything at all for once. We can do it here if it truly is what you prefer. Allow me to bring some materials in, and we can begin.” At the end of the sentence the woman simply… turned to mist and drifted away into the corners of the room.
“How am I supposed to get used to her doing that? She’s not even trying to act like a normal human in that form around me anymore.” Arxet whined. “Is that supposed to be a good thing?”
“No, no, it weirds me out too.” Tifse rubbed her temples and winced. “Like- I feel like I just watched someone die, even if I know she’s fine.”
“Right? It’s so jarring.” Arxet giggled. “What do you think would happen if we caught some of that mist in a wax-lined pot or something?”
“Best not find out I think. She might be protective of her mist.” The fox can barely stop herself from laughing out loud at the thought.
The door creaked open again a moment later and another body of Tiamat stepped through and laid out a silver goblet, a knife, a mortar and pestle, a wine bottle, and a wad of herbs. “I got these from the store room, rather than the ones I brought out for Brin, so they aren’t fully prepared. Tifse, if you could just grind up these herbs for me, they don’t need to be too fine, just enough that you can mix them with a liquid well enough.”
Tifse dutifully picked up the herbs, stripped them from their dried and brittle branches, and got to work grinding them into a rough powder. Tiamat uncorked the bottle and filled the goblet to be almost a third of the way full, and then slid the knife to Tifse. “I’ll need a bit of your blood, just a few drops will do. Arxet, if you could get a claw between your scales I will need some of yours as well. No, no. Try here, between the toes is going to be your weakest point in your armor. There we go.”
Each of them ripped open a small cut in their hands and one after another dropped a few into the goblet to swirl together with the wine. Tiamat dumped the herbs out into the goblet as well before passing it to the fox. “Now, for the ritual proper. You’ll both need to repeat after me, mentally at least of course, my love, I know you can’t speak aloud again just yet.”
“Today I bind my soul to another’s. Our minds and souls shall mix as do the waters of an estuary.” She waited for them each to repeat after her before continuing. “We shall bind ourselves to one another in love and understanding. We shall keep no secrets. Our beings shall become mirrors as our strength, our knowledge, our very hopes and dreams, and our doubts and fears shall become one boon to share and one burden to carry, together.” The goddess took Tifse’s hand and placed it on the goblet. “Drink half, and pour the other into your dragon’s mouth.”
Tifse plucked the goblet from the table and swirled the contents beneath her nose as if it were a fine wine. “Sorry, habit.” She gave the two an apologetic grin before tipping it back for a large gulp. Her brow immediately furrowed and she nearly dropped the cup as a coughing fit racked her. “It’s- bold.”
“I personally cultivated and bred the grapes for this wine myself. Most grapes have a maximum number of years you can age it, but my wine has been aged for a little over two centuries. I only break it out for these occasions.” She seemed proud of it, despite Tifse clearly not enjoying it. “Now, your turn, Arxet.”
The dragon lowered her head and opened up her mouth at an angle where the wine should be less likely to spill out. Tifse tipped the goblet over and dumped the remainder into her gullet. Arxet fought the urge to cringe at the taste in front of Tiamat. She already generally disliked wines, but this one truly tasted like rotten grapes mixed with pulverized grass, with a coppery aftertaste from her own blood.
“Disgust is a powerful emotion, it can help to bridge the gap.” Tiamat informed them with a serene smile
Arxet could feel waves of revulsion emanating from… not herself. Disgust really was powerful, huh? Strange confusion mixed with her own, it felt alien. It was different than just feeling shared sensations through a normal mental link. They were difficult to distinguish from her own emotions. She felt so scared that she had made a mistake- or was that Tifse? Wait, who was feeling what? This was getting aggravating. Of course some emotionally stunted dragon wouldn’t be able to- hey!
“Would you stop mixing my head up with yours, ice for brains?” Tifse winced and gripped her head in her paws. “Those are supposed to be private insults, you weren’t supposed to hear those!”
“As if anything is private now, tiny. We just had that whole speech about-”
“I KNOW what that speech meant but-” Arxet felt the strongest urge to strangle herself, as well as mixed and contradictory feelings stemming from Tifse to want to beat the shit out of the fox. Damn the fox had issues.
“Oh please, like my issues are any worse than yours!”
“Your self loathing is on a whole other level, tiny. It’s a wonder you even-”
“Don’t go there. That’s none of your business!”
“Of course it’s my business! Weren’t we supposed to-”
“GAH! What was I thinking agreeing to any of this? This is no different than an arranged marriage! Fuck me! At least I’d have my own private inner thoughts with some asshole husband!”
“How does anyone ever get used to this? It’s- I can’t even tell what I’m thinking and what she is sometimes!”
“It isn’t easy, dear. No one ever promised it would be. I did try to warn you, my love.” Tiamat placed one hand over Arxet’s claw and one over Tifse’s. “Now, you two are going to either figure this out, as thousands of dragons and riders have before you, or in a year or two you’re going to crumble as many hundreds have. It’s perfectly normal for a bond not to work out. It requires work, from both sides. Do you understand?”
“Yes?”
“Yes?”
“Wait, which yes was mine? Who thought that? Okay Tifse you talk out loud and I’ll talk mentally that should clear it up. But I still have to think internally sometimes too, dumbass! I’m not going to think out loud like you!”
“Deep breaths, you two.” Tiamat gripped each of their forelimbs, leading to a strange disembodied physical echo coming across the link. “It’s always messy at first when a new bond forms. You’ll find how to sort things out eventually, I promise. Amjazel and Emren know the ropes and they’ll help teach you good bond hygiene. Okay?”
“Right, yeah. Okay. Arxet, let’s- let’s just go.” Arxet shot up onto her hind legs and collapsed backwards, breaking through the door. “What the fuck! OW! Use your legs, not mine!” The dragon wriggled out of the wooden splinters and shook off. Tifse shook too.
“I felt that too! I didn’t- ugh I don’t know where my mind is even!” Tifse shakily stood, leaning on the table for support.
“I think you two are… hmm.” Tiamat took Tifse under the arms and placed her into the saddle on Arxet’s back. “Most bonds don’t start so suddenly, usually they start slowly and ease you in. You’ve both been thrown into the deepest depths of this problem immediately. It’s quite unusual.”
“Lucky us!” They both struggle to think simultaneously, the thought coming out strangely painful and warped. “Take turns would you? We can’t just keep doing this at the same time! We have such a headache…”
“Um- am I interrupting something?” Idami stumbled around the corner to the office, tiptoeing around the shards of wood from the door Arxet had thrown herself through. “I just needed to ask mom something, you- two? Is that both of you at once? What is happening? You know you’re both thinking out loud, right?”
“Trying not to, thanks for noticing!” Tifse growled at the weasel as if she were a dragon.
“Hey, don’t use my voice! Growling with my voice hurts!”
“Their bonding ritual seems to be… going faster than normal.” Tiamat explained to her daughter. “Was it anything urgent, my love?”
“No, no, nothing like that, I just-” She trailed off as her eyes locked onto Arxet’s brow, at the cold mark. “Arxet, bring your head down here for a second.” She reached up and pulled the dragon down by one of the spikes on the back of her jaw. “One, two, three… Arxet, your cold mark…”
“Oh like I need more bad news. What, did the burns fuck it up?” The dragon managed to think through her own thoughts.
“No! It’s doubled in size since I counted the scales two days ago!”