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The Gift

Edward's Storyline, Chapter 3.4

copyright comidacomida 2018

Green, who was face to face with Red held up his talon and pushed it against the furry dragon's face, moving him backward. He stalked over to me and spun me around to face him. Lowering his face so he could look me in the eye over the bridge of his snout, the Dragon stated simply "You are special, little boy... in a way your mother was, but more than that. YOU are going to be the solution to our dilemma. Maybe you believe it or maybe you don't, but we don't need your belief-- we just need your decision."

Red's tail slithered around the scaled Dragon's leg and pulled him back away from me. "You know Humans are not comforted by your touch, Green, and yet you still do it anyway."

Green stared Red down, a few licks of flame emerging from his nostrils as he seethed at the interruption. Ch'upikaq, on the other hand, chuckled quietly next to me, one of his wings brushing my shoulder as he spoke softly "Though he was quick to complain that you did not know what you wanted, sometimes I believe that he is the one who is most confused about his own truths."

I glanced around at the blackness and the three separate aspects of The Ancient One near me. The dream, if that's what it was had been confusing but, in that chaos, I felt as though some small amount of understanding was also imparted. I was still stuck on what Ch'upikaq had said about Green. "When you said you think he's confused, what did you mean by that?"

The winged Serpent remained close to me, his lipless mouth and flickering tongue barely an inch from my ear. He spoke quietly as Green and Red continued to argue. "We have spent almost two decades Bound to your mother, Edward. It was the first time Green had the opportunity to really be a part of something beyond the three of us. He has never been connected to a Human in any sense, let alone part of their life. Despite having spent millennia separate from Humanity, he has begun to feel what it is like to be connected to it."

Although I wasn't really listening to the argument between Green and Red (they'd switched to a language I didn't know) I was still watching it even as Ch'upikaq explained. "Green doesn't understand relationships or interaction. It took him centuries to even become manageable within our partnership, yet we are little more than cohabitants; we are other spirits with whom he is forced to cooperate. When we joined with your mother he finally had the opportunity to interact with a Human and face emotions from the spiritual source."

I continued watching the two Dragons as they continued their debate, complete with Green sneering and gnashing his teeth while Red simply rolled his eyes and waved away the proposed prospect of violence. "So... Green learned a little more about dealing with people? I'd have hated to see him before that then. What about Red? He still doesn't seem to get it either and he's supposed to be the smart one, right?"

Ch'upikaq pulled away, a patient-but-disappointed expression on his surprisingly malleable scaled mouth. "Red is incredibly intelligent, Edward, but his intelligence is in logic and thought, not emotion. In this regard, it is far harder for him to learn the rules that govern the heart because he hides behind a shield of reason. He will eventually, with your help... but I believe that Green is far closer to a well of emotion than Red-- after all, Green is driven by base instinct and desires, and much of that goes into true, unbridled emotion... granted, those motivations are tempered by the heart, and that is the lesson he must learn."

The argument between the two Dragons came to an end abruptly as Green turned, the slit-pupils of his eyes expanding into ovals as he stared at the two of us. "What is going on over there? What are you telling the boy, Snake?"

Ch'upikaq eased away from me as he settled back into his coils. "I was explaining that you do not hate Humans... you are just confused."

There was something about the way that the winged Serpent spoke the words that made me realize he was trying to get a rise out of the scaled Dragon. It worked. "I am not confused, and I do not hate Humans... I just find it surprising that they survived as a species. First they fought the wilderness and then, once they tamed it, they fought one another. Without even finishing that fight they decided to turn and fight nature, then they fought their own views of the world... and they still continue to fight one another. Humans make no sense, Ch'upikaq; there is no reason for me to hate something so... inane."

Red entered into the new argument. "So inane that they are not worthy of your time... and yet you miss Sofia."

Green went rigid, as if punched by surprise, and he turned to stare at the furry Dragon, a hissing growl coming from deep in his chest. "She was a means to an end. We have the boy now, so she is no longer needed."

The two lengthy tentacle-like 'danglies' at the end of Red's muzzle perked upward, mimicing what looked like a wry grin. "And yet you do not deny missing her."

I jumped back as Green bodily pounced on Red and began to tear into the furry Dragon with tooth and claw. A coiled tail gently circled my ankle and gave a light tug. "They will not hurt one another, Edward, but it would do no good for you to be struck by an errant blow."

Despite the dream-like nature of the-- well... the dream, I still found it weird that the Spirits seemed so much more physical. The way that Ch'upikaq was able to keep hold of my leg was just another example of that and I honestly had no doubt that if one of the two combatants struck me I'd probably feel it. True, I didn't know if I'd really be hurt if they hurt me in my dream but I wasn't really interested in testing it. I took a step back per the winged Serpent's request, watching Green and Red tear into one another (without apparently causing any real harm) and I asked Ch'upikaq "What's this about, exactly?"

My companion spoke plainly. "Green believes if he can be subject to emotions then my reason for continuing to exist may be valid and I will not be as weak as he believes I am. It is getting harder for him to continue denying that he is developing feelings."

The statement seemed out-of-place based on what I knew of Green. "Really? Feelings? About what?"

Ch'upikaq refolded his wings and settled down more fully into his pile of coils. "About Humans. For your mother. For you."

I had trouble accepting what he was saying. "He seems like he hates me."

The Serpent chuckled, his tongue flicking out with the sound. "Quite the opposite, Edward. We were there when you were born and we watched you grow until your mother was separated from you. You are the closest thing we have to family and, for Spirits, love is without limit and without assignment."

What Ch'upikaq said sounded powerfully unconditional, but it was a strange way to put it. "What do you mean without 'assignment'?"

Rather than answer my question, the Serpent's head tilted as he asked one of his own. "Have you ever been in love before, Edward?"

I remember thing it was a stupid question; of course I had. I started answering it as if it were a stupid question until I caught myself wondering if I didn't understand it correctly. "I love my grandmother and grandfather. I loved my mom. Of course I've been in love-- oh-- or did you mean like, a girlfriend or something?"

Ch'upikaq's eerie smile returned and his tongue flicked out. "Mother, Father, Brother, Sister, Lover, Girlfriend, Boyfriend, Wife, Husband, Cousin, Friend-- there are so many kinds of love a Human can experience, but Spirits are limited; we do not have a family and we do not form bonds beyond that which we can have with a Human who is able to see us. We can only love without limit or assignment, so the Human to whom we are bound becomes everything to us."

While it didn't make a whole lot of sense, I thought I could at least partially understand what he was getting at. Looking between the two Dragons, who had finally disengaged and were staring at one another while panting, I glanced back to Ch'upikaq and I--