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 Posted: Tue Jun 07, 2011 4:16 pm
Everyone in the room stared at Miyuki (except for Amalirahc, whose eyes were still seeing nothing but white).
"There ... are no dragons that can take elven form," Iorlas said slowly. "It was not by choice that she is in this form. She has always hated elves. She can't hurt people, not physically, the way she is now ... but that is her wish. She wants to do all she can to hurt the elves."
"Why don't you tell us your story from the beginning?" Amalthea suggested.
Iorlas folded her hands in her lap and leaned forward. "It may take a while," she murmured.
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Posted: Tue Jun 07, 2011 5:04 pm
"It's okay, we have time," Miyuki replied.
She couldn't see so she wasn't aware that people were staring at her, even if they couldn't do it by choice it wasn't like it was the most awful thing that they were really dragons.
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Posted: Tue Jun 07, 2011 5:19 pm
Iorlas nodded.
"My sister and I were born ... well ... we lived in the time of Melkor," she began. "She and I ... were of his creation, originally. I was once quite the same as her. We both killed many people, elves especially. The purer the people, the greater our hatred. It was ... such an easy way to live, really it was."
She grew silent as she thought back to those days. It had been such a long time ago ... but the memories, now that she was thinking about them, were so fresh ...
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Posted: Tue Jun 07, 2011 5:22 pm
It was one of those basics of history that Miyuki had only begun to learn from her parents. She really couldn't imagine Iorlas being made by Melkor because her mommy always grew very serious when she talked about how Melkor made bad things.
"But something changed," Miyuki replied.
Because Iorlas was nice really nice.
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Posted: Tue Jun 07, 2011 5:46 pm
Iorlas's eyes flickered over to Miyuki, and after a moment, she nodded slowly.
"Yes," she murmured. "Something changed."
She folded her hands again and cleared her throat before continuing. "When the war against Melkor ended, Ioreth and I had survived. We were consumed by hatred. To be brought into being just to be ... hunted and ... everyone wanting to kill us ... there was no reason for it, not that we knew of. My oldest memories were of elves chasing us down to kill us, and we just didn't know why."
She paused, and a look of wonder crossed her face. "One day ... a hunter nearly succeeded. What struck me, what made me the most furious, was that ... he wasn't after me to feed his family. He didn't want the power of my blood, my scales for armour, my heart or my horns. Nothing. He just ... wanted me dead. And looking back, after all the elves I had killed, then perhaps I can understand it by that point, even if I still don't quite understand why they wanted us dead before we had done anything.
"At any rate, this man got me, and nearly finished me off," she went on. "I was just ... lying there ... bleeding out ... and this woman appeared. Out of nowhere, she just ... showed up. I was angry, I wanted to hurt her ... but I couldn't move. She knew I wanted to kill her, but still she came ... she healed me."
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Posted: Tue Jun 07, 2011 6:06 pm
Miyuki couldn't help but wonder who that had been, that must have been quite the person to look pass the scary dragon, and she knew dragons could be huge and at first look very scary.
"What happened after she healed you?"
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Posted: Tue Jun 07, 2011 6:21 pm
Iorlas looked away from everyone. "Ioreth killed her."
There was a stunned silence, and then River blurted out, "But she helped you!"
Iorlas nodded. "I know. She healed me fully, and I was so filled with wonder that by the time I could react, by the time I even realized Ioreth was there, the woman was already dead. It was then that I realized exactly why the elves were hunting us, why they saw us as monsters that needed to be killed. Yes, they had been the ones to start it in our eyes, but in their eyes we were the killers. It wasn't until later, much later, that I found out that we were not the first dragons, and that those other dragons had been killing elves for years before we arrived. Knowing that now, I understand. But that woman, the one who healed me, she changed my life. I fought with Ioreth then, furious with her for killing the woman who had saved my life, but ... I couldn't leave her. She's my sister!"
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Posted: Tue Jun 07, 2011 6:37 pm
"What happened? When you two fought?"
Miyuki couldn't imagine Iorlas fighting her sister because she always seemed to be scared of her sister. The idea just seemed so strange to her even though they were both dragons and dragons by nature were considered quite dangerous even if they were nice.
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Posted: Tue Jun 07, 2011 6:50 pm
Iorlas shrugged one shoulder. "We fought for a long time. Chased each other down as we took turns weakening and regaining strength. And yet, though our fights, we helped each other - hunting for food, watching over each other as we rested ... I know, it doesn't make much sense, but even for dragons, there are such things as familial bonds."
She put her hands below the top of the table and fidgeted with her skirt. "She is my sister ... I fear her, I hate her ... and I love her."
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Posted: Tue Jun 07, 2011 8:32 pm
Miyuki supposed she could understand that, of course she couldn't imagine disliking anyone in her family. She just never had that kind of family.
"But how did you two become to look like elves?"
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Posted: Tue Jun 07, 2011 8:48 pm
Iorlas nodded. "Yes ... I won't bore you with the details of what we did over the next several thousand years, but eventually, only a few decades ago, we were resting for the winter in the Westland, on the west coast, right by the sea. There was a couple who were traveling ... Ioreth and I had just eaten a large meal - fish - and we were napping on the top of the cliffs there, when this elven couple appeared. Ioreth's hatred of elves was as intense as ever, and before I could stop her, she had killed one of them. She went after the other one as well, but I arrived in time to stop her from killing the woman."
She shook her head. "We headed back to the cliffs for the rest of the day, and that night, when Ioreth was asleep, the woman showed up. I thought she was brave, coming after two dragons that had killed her husband or whatever he was to her, and foolish as well. But Ioreth was asleep, and I had the opportunity to talk to her for a while. She wanted to know our story, since we so clearly had conflicts between us, and I told her ... and she said that she had a way to help us, at least temporarily. She explained what it was, and without conferring with Ioreth, I agreed."
"And just what did you agree to?" the king asked firmly.
Iorlas inhaled deeply. "To a life as elves, living with them and as them, for as long as I wished. The conditions were these: that while my sister and I remain in an elven form, she is incapable of great violence, or of killing anyone save in pure self-defense; that she be incapable of any true magic; and that I can change back to my true form at any given moment, but she cannot unless I do first."
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Posted: Tue Jun 07, 2011 8:52 pm
Had Miyuki's mother been there, Lin would have wondered how that was possible. That kind of magic, as far as Lin knew had died out with the druids which she didn't even know a lot about in the first place. It was the kind of magic one didn't hear about in this world all that often.
Of course, Lin wasn't and Miyuki again used to the Gaian way didn't question it. Only that whoever this woman was had to be a really powerful magic user.
"She must have been angry with you..." Miyuki murmured wondering if this was why Ioreth didn't seem to care if what she did got Iorlas into trouble.
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Posted: Tue Jun 07, 2011 8:58 pm
"Absolutely furious," Iorlas agreed. "As long as I don't revert, she is stuck in the body of the beings she hates most. If I die in this state, she will be trapped as an elf forever. Her only hope of returning to her true state is if I choose to revert. As such, she does everything she can to attempt to force me to do so ... getting me blamed for the things she does, those are her attempts to force me to change back. If I get into a dangerous enough situation, she feels sure that I will change rather than lose a limb, or die."
She smiled faintly at the people around her. "But she doesn't realize just how much I love the elves ... for how horrible I was for all those thousands of years, I have been shown such kindness by them. I really would rather die or be dismembered than allow my sister to return to her true form. If that were to happen, she would go on a rampage, I fear, and kill as many people as she possibly could."
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Posted: Tue Jun 07, 2011 9:03 pm
That was actually really sad to Miyuki, sadder than only knowing half of it because Miyuki didn't want to see Iorlas hurt or sad.
"That's sad... and I guess it doesn't help that she won't get to know any of us," Miyuki murmured.
She wasn't sure if anyone could get make her stop hating but it was kind of obvious that Ioreth wasn't going to try and make best of the situation.
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Posted: Tue Jun 07, 2011 9:10 pm
Iorlas shook her head. "She would rather see all of you dead, and though she can't do anything herself to you, she will do everything in her power to bring it about."
"That still doesn't tell us how she vanished, or how she got in or out of here," Amalthea pointed out.
Iorlas nodded. "Though she can't revert to her own form permanently, she does have the ability to revert for seconds at a time, once every few days. She still can't do any physical harm in that time, but it allows her to get into places that many other people can't get to, places you would need wings to get to. To vanish, she has that bright light, the same light that blinded Lady Kirahn and the children."
"So it's not that she actually vanishes," Lady Kirahn spoke up, trying to make sure she had it all straight, "but that she uses that light to blind those around her, and while they're blind she reverts and escapes in the air in the few seconds she has in her true form?"
Iorlas nodded. "Yes."
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