Welcome to Gaia! ::

The dragon settled on the ground, making itself comfortable, and lowered its head to be a bit closer to the travelers.

"You are very welcome, Miyuki," it replied in its deep, rumbling voice. It turned to look at Kyrie, and it seemed to be grinning. "You see?" he said to her. "I told you that they wouldn't be horrified."

"Know-it-all," Kyrie retorted, but she looked both amused and impressed.

Both Shiro and Kaito were eying Kyrie, looking specifically at her tattoo. It was identical to the dragon, as if the dragon had posed for it, and just as lifelike; yet both were convinced that the dragon was not the tattoo summoned to reality, as some in Gaia were able to do, because the tattoo was still on her body.

Kyrie didn't seem to notice their attention, as she was looking curiously at Iorlas.

"How did you know the child was in there?" she asked. "He still hasn't made a sound."

It was true. The child hadn't shouted, cried, or even so much as whimpered or sneezed. How then had Iorlas known it had been so deep in the house, under all that debris?

Iorlas had been watching the child as he drank, making sure he drank it very slowly, and now she glanced over at Kyrie. "I heard him," she said simply.

Iorlas nodded in answer to Lin's question. "Yes," she murmured, looking down at him again. "And ... I could smell him ..."

Through the stench of burned flesh and smoke, she had smelled life. She couldn't explain it, except that her senses were more keenly honed even than a regular elf's due to her past. It was the only thing that made sense to her.

"Incredible," Kyrie murmured. "I would never have believed it possible ..."

"Then again," Lancaeriel pointed out, "most people would have thought it impossible that we could be traveling with a dragon."

Her comment seemed to bring Kyrie out of her reverie. The half-blooded woman blinked and her brow furrowed slightly. "That reminds me ... how is it that none of you are surprised?"

Earendil chuckled. "If you had been through the same experiences as we have," he told her with a grin, "you wouldn't be surprised either."

Iorlas smiled at Miyuki. She remembered well how Miyuki hadn't batted an eye when the truth about her being a dragon had come out. By this point, she guessed that to Miyuki, everything was normal, no matter how abnormal it was.

"All so young, and yet it seems you've seen more than I have," Kyrie murmured, shaking her head incredulously. "Unbelievable." She began rubbing her arms, and after a moment she knelt and pulled a cloak from one of her bags.

As she slung it over her shoulders, Kaito commented, "I didn't think you had one of those."

"Nonsense," Kyrie chuckled. "Everyone has one, if they're not White or Water Elves."

"To be honest," Kyrie said bemusedly, "I usually can't tell."

"Why not?" Wren spoke up for the first time since they'd arrived at the destroyed settlement. "And where did the dragon come from?"

She wasn't bothered by the dragon, but she was very curious.

Kyrie looked up at the dragon and smiled warmly. "Uruloki and I have been together his whole life, and most of mine," she replied. "He hatched when I was ... how old was I?"

"Young," the dragon replied, looking around and keeping watch for them all. "Barely grown."

Kyrie shrugged. "Anyways, he's a volcano dragon, a species unique in many ways. First of all, as a subspecies of fire dragon, he can produce his own heat rather than relying on external heat sources. It's not that he's warm-blooded, it's just the fire inside him."

"And with all the northern traveling Kyrie does, it comes in rather handy," the dragon added with a deep, rumbling chuckle.

Kyrie had to process that question for a moment before she could answer.

"Uh ... not ... exactly," she said at last. "Volcano dragons have the unique ability to bond with someone, as long as they are of the opposite gender, but no mark is required. I got the tattoo so that people around me wouldn't be able to tell whether or not we were bonded."

She smiled. "I once visited Lara and Cantor after a ten year absence. Lily was twenty five at the time, and I had only seen her a handful of times ... that was just after Luk's parents disappeared. I sent Uruloki to see how Luk was doing, and despite not having seen me in ten years, Lily realized not only that Uruloki - my 'tattoo' - was gone, but when Uruloki returned the next day, she could tell that he was in a different position. So I got the tattoo not only so that people couldn't see if we were bonded or not, but also so that when he returned, he knew where to go."

She chuckled softly. "Not that he always does go to the same spot."

"I go where I'm needed, you know that," the dragon rumbled. "And if you're cold you could always just say so."

"You need to stretch once in a while," Kyrie protested with a smile. "It's been a while for you."

"Well it's not as if I'm doing any stretching," Uruloki pointed out.

Wren laughed. "You two sound like siblings."

"That's what Ahkshi says," Uruloki chuckled, his laugh a deep rumble.

"But what happens when you bond?" Andarien asked, trying to be patient. She hadn't explained, after all, what happened when the two of them bonded -- or for that matter what it meant -- only told them that somehow it was possible and that she had gotten the tattoo to camouflage him.

Again, it took Kyrie a moment to answer.

"I ... can't really put it into words," she said at last. "We bond. We merge. We become one. It's not only that he becomes an image on my body, but I gain his senses, his abilities. His hearing, sight, smell ... I don't feel cold ... and he's not limited to a single place on my body, either, he can move at will and still have control of his own senses as well. It's saved my life more than once."

She shrugged. "It's an ability unique to volcano dragons, and only if they are the opposite gender as the person they imprint upon."

"Imprint, like a duck?" Kaito blinked.

Kyrie nodded, smiling. "Exactly."

"Balance," Iorlas spoke up softly, her eyes on the child in her arms. "In order for two to become one, they cannot be the same, just as in order to create new life, both male and female must be united."

Kyrie was surprised (and she wasn't the only one) and she looked at Iorlas, eyebrows raised.

"And how could you know that?" she asked curiously. "Uruloki and I have been bonded for nearly a thousand years, and we have never been able to find that answer."

Iorlas looked up at Kyrie. She had been distracted by the child, and hadn't really been thinking; but now that she had spoken, she had to explain her knowledge.

"You trusted us with your draconic secret," she murmured at last, alarming Daeron. She waved him off. "It is only fair that we do the same. I was born a dragon, a silver dragon, many Ages ago. In the form of an elf, I met these people, and fell desperately in love with Daeron."

She smiled up at Daeron, and he put one hand on her shoulder and squeezed it gently. Then Iorlas looked back to Kyrie, who was staring in shock.

"You may suspect how powerful a magic-user Lancaeriel is," she murmured softly. "It was she who changed me truly into an elf. This is now what I am, but I have my knowledge from my entire life before this."

Kyrie shot a glance at Lancaeriel, who was smiling modestly.

"No kidding," Kyrie breathed.

"That's not to say that Uruloki isn't impressive," Iorlas added with a smile. "He's beautiful."

"Thank you," the dragon said, sounding rather pleased.

Kyrie glanced up at Uruloki, then back at Iorlas. "Careful," she warned her. "His ego is big enough without adding to it." She looked down at the child in Iorlas' arms. "How is he doing?" she asked quietly, serious once more.

Iorlas's brow furrowed as she looked at the child again. He wasn't drinking much, and he didn't seem to be responding to anything around him.

"I don't think very well," she murmured. "He's drunk a bit, but ... not much."

Kyrie ran her fingers through her short hair. "I have to be honest ... I don't know what to do," she admitted. "I trained for emergency surgeries and ... broken bones and such. Not things like this."

Uruloki raised his head slightly. "Do you think he needs Ahkshi?" he asked her.

Kyrie nodded, her eyes still on the boy. "The question is, how," she murmured.