Chapter 5 - Faint Possibilities

Here’s a little something for the quiz. This comes just after “Curse You, Jaheira” in Arelius’s story line. The romance is just starting to heat up in the story line.
 

Title: Faint Possibilities

Arelius sat motionless over looking the makeshift camp, his seat a fallen tree of many years past. The members of his party were exhausted after their march to the druid grove. Jaheira lie on the far side of the campfire, sound asleep, her dreams of Khalid and himself quiet for the moment. The others also fell fast to sleep to their own dreams and his was the first watch of the night. Only the sounds of the night befriended him.

What a week. Her curse now completely healed, she was beginning to feel more like herself. But here they were back in the foothills again on a daylong march. Seemed they had just returned from defeating Firkragg. Arelius was feeling like a rubber band at times, running all the over the place at everyone’s beck and call. And Jaheira was on his mind more and more. Things were progressing between the two, and his romantic thoughts for her kept interfering with his concentration. He could barely keep all the quests he had accepted in order with his thoughts constantly going back to her. Now, all he wanted to do was to leave it all behind and run away with her to some quiet place where they could be together.

Thank god for his journal. It kept reminding him that Imoen was still missing. Writing was becoming his way to separate the day from the night for him. And there were important notes to be copied into it before they were forgotten. But still, his thoughts kept wandering.

“Daddy?”

“Yes, Anala.” Arelius picked his little girl up and set her on his knee, wiping the brownish hair from her face that continuously clung to her golden skin.

“Um, daddy, did you ever kill a… a dragon?”

“A couple, actually.”

“Why?” her face clearly disturbed by the acknowledgment.

“Why are you asking?”

“I like dragons. They are so neat. Mommy was telling me you killed them, and I don’t want you to kill any more!” Arelius laughed at her emphasis. Some things were just beyond the understanding of a four year old, and he could tell that this would not be an easy explanation.

“It’s not always that way. Sometimes, dragons are mean and they want to hurt to people. Should we allow that?”

She looked quizzically at him, all her senses scrunched up. “But mommy says all creatures are of nature, and we shouldn’t hurt them.”

“Ah, yes. Mommy.” Arelius just rolled his eyes. That druid. He was going to have to have a talk with her. Funny how she forgot to mention that she was there when Firkragg and the Shadow Dragon were defeated. “Yes, well, that’s true, in general. We don’t just go looking for dragons to kill for the sake of killing them, though. Sometimes they come to hurt us, and that’s not very good, is it?”

Anala was doing her best to understand, and her face went through a number of arguments with herself as she started sentence after sentence, only to lose her train of thought. However, it was becoming clearer that the insistence on her argument was firm, and nothing was going to keep her from voicing it.

“Well, ok, but I don’t want you to kill any more dragons!” Anala exclaimed, pointer her fingers off into nowhere.

“I promise, the dragons we defeated were bad dragons. We also had a number of encounters with good dragons, big and beautiful silver and gold ones. They were very nice to us and helped us. Think on those Anala.”

“Ooo, tell me a story about one.”

“Well, once upon a time, a large, beautiful gold dragon lived in a cave on the highest mountain around,” he started with big, soft eyes. He knew they had never met a gold dragon, but perhaps one day they might. “She looked out over the forest below and protected the people of the village from danger. All the villagers looked up to her for safety, and they offered her cows and sheep to keep her fed.”

Anala kept her gaze on her fathers face. Her captivation with the story was only beginning to show on her face, and the images she drew in her mind were growing moment by moment. “How big was it, daddy?”

“Oh very big. Why, I’d say its wingspan was twice that of our house!”

Smiling in delight and wonderment she let out, “That’s big,” with an expressive sigh.

“Oh, you better believe it. Well, one day, the villagers were all ready to put their food up for the dragon to eat, but she didn’t come down from the mountain.”

“What happened to her?”

“That’s just what they asked,” he rewarded her question with a touch of her nose. “So they sent one of them up to look for it. Well, this villager was a bit afraid, but he went anyway. Slowly he crept up to the caves entrance. The smell was, oomph, horrible,” accentuating horrible with a twist of his head and a turn of his nose. “But he went in nonetheless.

“Still fearing that something might be wrong, he went further and further into the cave. As he approached what must have been the last bend, he heard breathing and he stopped. He listened intently and realized, he was not just hearing the breathing of one dragon, but multiple dragons, and small ones at that! He slowly approached the corner and looked in and do you know what he saw?”

“Baby dragons!”

“Baby dragons! You guessed it!” he held her high in his arms and she laughed loudly as he tossed and caught her. “Yep, she had two baby dragons she was suckling. The villager looked at the mommy dragon, and she looked back at him with just the slightest smile on her face. Her dragonets were tucked under her wing, and they were all relaxing peacefully. Well the villager knew that now they would have three dragons to feed, so he ran back out of the cave and down the hill to his village and told them all the good news.

“Well, everyone started preparing some extra food for the babies. They knew this was a special occasion and a good omen for them. When gold dragons have babies, the heavens sing with the arrival of the lands guardians. These villagers were proud to have been chosen to raise two, and they quickly went to work on making sure they were well taken care of. The end.”

“That was a nice story. I like that. But tell me you won’t hurt any more dragons, daddy.”

“As long as they don’t try to hurt my little angel, I promise. But how about… tickle monsters!” and he started tickling his daughter until she started screaming and struggling to get away.

“Arelius! What are you doing to that poor child?” Jaheira stepped into the room to break up the revelry.

“It’s ok mommy. Daddy was just tickling me.” Arelius let her go and she ran over to her mother and jumped into her arms, the child still breathing hard, a huge smile on her face.

Arelius looked at the sight of the two, and couldn’t help but be amazed at how perfect his life had gone. Somehow they had survived all the troubles and tribulations his heritage had thrown at them, and Jaheira was now more beautiful than ever, and Anala the splitting image of her. She had gained just enough of her mothers smooth, elven side, and she had the cutest ears. Just slightly pointed, but with a subtler, rounded shape. But her eyes were the most striking feature, large and wondrous. Almost like Jaheira’s would be, if they hadn’t been forced to look on so much death.

“Hmph”. He looked back down into the journal and started to relate the journeys adventures into it. Funny how the thought of death brings us back to reality so quickly.