FSE

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"Does this world have a name?" I asked, wiping my mouth with my shirt to clear away the remains of the feast I had just enjoyed.

"Not that I am aware of." Arh replied. "If this world has a name then the gods haven't seen fit to inform us of it."

It felt strange to accept that gods existed after refusing the idea for so long. But I guess if dragons were real, gods could be real too... and the way that he spoke of them told me that there was more evidence of their existence than a mere book.

"How did this world come to be?" I wanted to know.

"To be honest with you, all that we have are legends passed down from long ago. But what legends we do know of speak of the gods above and below coming together to make love in the way gods often do... with song." He said.

I leaned back, letting my now-full belly relax, and looked up to him. He was staring out across the forest with a look of pleasant awe on his face.

"Before the gods was the void. An empty nothingness. It is said that not even time could assert itself."

"A land before time." I mused with a chuckle.

"If land existed back then, most likely." He looked at me, curiosity in his eyes.

"This is all mostly from what scraps we were able to preserve from before the dark times. It is said that their song burst forth and filled all corners of the skies with an energy that lasted for eons. From there, light and shadow were born."

"Born? Like, from a womb?" I asked.

He looked at me. "I doubt it would be so literal. Legends are often heavily steeped in metaphor."

I chided myself inwardly for asking such a silly question.

"In any case, for quite some time that is all there was. It is said that they spent much of their time admiring the fruits of their passion." His eyes now fixed on the horizon as before, watching the sky slowly take on different hues as the sun slowly sank from view. "But as much as they were content, they were still lonely. After a time their own company failed to bring them joy."

I wanted to say something. Likely something sarcastic, but I didn't want to interrupt him with more of my nonsense. "So they came together once more to make love in rapturous song. But this time light and shadow joined in. The new voices added a depth and complexity to their love that filled their hearts to the point of overflowing. From there the elementals were created."

He looked down toward me and leaned in to steal the scent of my hair.

"Their children were something quite different from before. Rather than the calm serenity of light and shadow, these new creations were at times tempestuous, and at times rigid and stoic."

"Elementals?" I asked. There had been so many differing depictions of elementals in the stories I read that I had a difficult time picturing what they'd look like.

"In a sense, yes. They are the very foundation of the world you now live in. But much like a newborn, they grew intemperate and listless over the eons. They wished to create. They wanted to show the love they held for their creators in the purest way they could.

"So they came together and their rapture echoed throughout all of creation. While their voices were unique on their own, together in song they managed to capture such bliss that the gods are said to have wept joyous tears."

The two of us became silent. Arh, clearly caught up in the tale while I waited for him to tell more of this story.

With a sigh, he continued. "What you see all around you is said to have been the result of their passion, though it was not as vibrant as the continents and seas they gave birth to were devoid of any life. But they continued. Every time they came together in song, more and more was given form. But in their zeal to create, to impress their parents, they were giving up some of their vital essence to bring forth such wonders.

"Eventually the gods started begging them to stop. If they continued, it would reduce them to nothing more than echoes of their past majesty. But as their children were many, and given the wonder they inspired in the eyes of the gods, they insisted that they continue.

"They created all the spirits and other spectral beings. All of them were loved by the gods and that love was the undoing of the elementals. After they had depleted themselves to barely more than a whisper, they must have known their time was limited because they begged and pleaded to the gods to give them their blessing to love once more. They could not have done so on their own, and the gods, wracked with the fear of seeing their children wither away consulted with light and shadow. On their advice, and aided by them, all the forces came together to bestow the elementals one last gift. A piece of themselves to be wroght into the life they wished to create."

"When they came together, aided by light and shadow, and the power of the gods, they made love one last time."

"Did they die?"

"Oh no, little one. The elementals did not die. They do not know of death. To them, all was eternal."

I hugged his tail close, soliciting a purr from him.

"There was mercy in their passing. They were able to see what came of their union before they vanished into the forms we now know of. Dragons were one such creation. That is how the first clutch is said to have been created."

"First clutch? So, no mother and father dragons?"

"No, we are creatures of magic. Or so that is what the scholars tell. But that is not where this story ends." He said. "When the elementals passed, the gods wept once more, but this time from grief. They had never known of death, and they had never known sadness this deep.

"The gods grieved for so long that they did not see until their grandchildren pleaded to them to return to see what came of the corporeal beings that were recently created."

"I'm guessing they eventually returned and saw." I said with a yawn.

"Yes, little one. They did. They saw the spark of their children within each of us, and their own spark as well. And although the elementals were not present in the same manner as before, inside of us they recognized that this is where their children truly resided now. The elementals had transcended their previous existence to be given a chance to experience all of creation in a way that the gods never knew was possible."

"Didn't they see it in the others? The first ones?"

He shook his head. "No. While they have their own spirit, they are not touched by mortality in the same way we are. As such, they do not view the world in the same way. Mane of them do not know of how precious life is because they do not comprehend what it means to lose it."

By this time the sky was dark and I was fighting to keep my eyes open. The past few days had taken its toll on me.

Arh'eoban noticed and readied to stand. "It is about time we sleep.

He moved to the back of the cave and showed me his bedding. It was simple enough. It was a pile of furs and quilts layered many times over on what appeared to be a pile of coins and jewels. I immediately thought to all the stories I had been told as a child of dragons sleeping on their vast hoards of riches. I guess this was closer to the truth than some of the other stories I had read.

"I hope this is acceptable to you." He said.

It looked more than acceptable. Quite the contrast to the mattress and bed-sheets I had laid in at home, the furs layered one over another were quite soft.

But rather than getting in, he was shifting from side to side. "To be quite honest with you, little one, I welcome sharing it with you, but I do not wish to impress on you the need. As I said before, if you are not comfortable sleeping with me, I will respect that and take the floor."

"It's okay." I said with another yawn. "I said I was fine with it."

"I remember. I... I merely wish to make sure you are comfortable."

"Get in, and I'll climb up with you." I directed him with a smile. "Besides, I would hate to be the reason you were deprived of a good night's sleep."

"Very well then." He climbed in and took one side. It truly was a vast bed to sleep in and the way it shifted and moved to embrace the contours of his body looked quite inviting.

I climbed in after him and found a spot by his side, his foreleg as a pillow and his chest behind me. The smooth tan scales of his underside was the softest parts of him, and I felt secure in his embrace as he clasped his free arm over me to hold on to me like I was a stuffed bear.

He continued to tell me more stories of his world, though as much as I heard his words, I didn't make sense of them because my mind was drifting off as sleep came over me.

I was asleep quicker than I thought, especially in a bed that my mind told me should feel unfamiliar, but I had no trouble at all because it felt more than familiar, it felt right.