Boat Parade: The Ruvuah Story

My attention has been fixed on the human girl for the past hour: in confusion, in annoyance, in unbalance, in... disturbance.... I do not understand entirely why I saved her, and that disturbs me. She is staring just as fixedly into a ball of her magic-stuff, which ripples and shivers, and that disturbs me, as well.

The little ship is now drifting, stationary yet moving, cloaked in some fashion I also do not understand, above the far side of the planet from the station we left not so long ago. Since then, time has gone slowly, and I have no way to count the time passing. I have never before cared to mark the time passing... this disturbs me, as well.

We have also had no explanations, to my frustration and my warrior's confusion-- and my drone's silence, as if he has always known something like this would happen, and is pointedly keeping from scolding me. Me! His Queen! As if he would ever have the gall to tell me he knew this would happen.

Well, I am a Queen, and I am going to get answers, even if it means I must make demands, threaten, and brave magic.

She seems oblivious to my attention, all of hers focused on her magic-- as it has been, off and on, for the past time since we left behind the abomination which I could not kill. I do not know what she is doing, or why; magic is alien to me, just as it is dangerous, for I have no protection from it, and have no way to protect my small hive from it. My senses show it to me like heat, or like vibration, but also like neither, like something that is entirely its own. That disturbs me, as well.

Finally, I tire of waiting for her to notice me-- I, a Queen, who should be noticed first and foremost! My teeth bare with impatience and annoyance, and I prepare a mental jab which will catch her attention-- as well as be quite painful.

"I'm watching my brother," she says sharply, distracting me.

::The one who--::

"I was trying to rescue before, yes."

::The one with--::

"The not-magic that nearly cause you and Charliss to plummet to the station floor, yes."

I snarl. ::Stop interrupting me!::

"I'm saving time anticipating your questions. Do you want to see what I am seeing?"

Fury and impatience war with a completely unQueen-like curiosity. I should squash her, I should bite her head off, I should blast her mind into so many tiny pieces she would never have a full thought again-- but I don't. Instead, I settle down a little closer, focus more fiercely, and say, ::Yes.::

"Here."

Her mind touches mine with an ease that disturbs me, all over again, but swiftly I forget this, as what she sees does begin to make itself clear to me, and I watch with interest despite myself. Within her little pool of magic, a small window to another part of the universe, she sees another place, in full sunlight-- how do I know all that brightness is sunlight? I have never felt sunlight, much less seen it-- and full of people.

Not just people. Creatures. Monsters. I stare through her eyes, fascinated by all the different things she sees in the crowd. Humans, yes... human-like creatures which I somehow know are not actually human... "dragons", whatever those are... even-- do her eyes deceive me?-- even one of my kind! Though... smaller, and shaped more like the mindless creatures that perpetuate themselves through other species, rather than hatching like a true member of the species.

"That's a xenomorph," the girl informs me. "You are a xenodragon."

::I am not a dragon,:: I spit at her, though without as much venom as I am wont, too distracted by her mental reflection of what she sees. I have never "seen" before.

"Well, that's what humans call you, anyway," she replied with a shrug, and goes back to watching her magic window.

Now I "see" the one she calls her brother. I did not get a very good look at him, before, but now I see, using her eyes, that he is smaller than she, dark of skin, stark white of hair-- "white"? Is this what "white" looks like, to one with eyes?-- and looking around as if for his own eyes to alight on something would cause him pain. He looks strange.

"He's worried," the girl murmurs. "His nothing is unbound and free, and he doesn't want to hurt anyone with it." She snorts, as if disgusted, but the words only confuse me.

::Nothing,:: Bristaness whispers to me. ::Nothing is what you fought on that station. Nothing is what he carries with him. Nothing is... a kind of power.::

I toss a growl over my shoulder at him. ::Stay out of my thoughts, drone.::

He recedes, and I snort with satisfaction. ::Why are you watching him?:: I ask the girl, turning back to her images, her magic.

"Because I don't know what he's doing down there," she explains, a frown darkening her features in my own kind of vision. "And I want to know. Hush, now, let me watch."

The command is distracted, and just this once I choose not to take offense or wreak punishment upon her. I find this "sight" that is hers to be fascinating, and her interest in the boy's activities is infectious. He is now surrounded by all those people, creatures, and things, in the sunlight, within sandstone walls. Dragons are everywhere-- big ones, small ones, brightly colored and drab ones, wildly designed ones and plainly simple ones. I haven't the faintest idea what they are doing, the small ones weaving among the other creatures there, stopping at one or another, moving away from the crowd with that chosen one. What are they doing?

The girl's attention sharpens on two of these such small dragons-- both of them wildly strange and wildly different from each other-- dragons which her brother seems to be focused on, as well. One, serpentine and blue, studded with round, light-catching protrudances; the other, bipedal, double-headed like the abomination, furry and walking with a slink in her step. They approach the boy, each with a rolled piece of paper in a forepaw, speak briefly, though I cannot hear them, and first one, then the other, touches him with the scroll. There is light....

I catch only the glimpse of sudden focus, great relief, and tremulous joy on the boy's face before the vision is abruptly gone, replaced by a full shriek of fury which I can hardly believe has come from the mouth of this puny human thing! I stumble back in surprise as she surges to her feet, hurling her piece of magic into the wall, where it sparks and snaps and seethes like she does. "How dare he!" she screams. "How dare he, after all I've done for him! After everything I've planned! How dare he! --How dare they! They've stolen him! I'll kill them--"

The rant continues for several long moments; the child does not even seem to take the time to breathe. I am torn between smacking her into a wall to silence her, slipping away before she remembers I am there, and joining her in her unreasoning fury. I do none of these, standing frozen against the far wall, even more disturbed than I have been, yet, for I know not why I might wish to do any of those things.

Charliss and Bristaness both poke their heads through the open door to the rest of the ship, surprised as well. She focuses on them, suddenly silent, and then points imperiously. "Send your drone back to the station. They don't know him; he can keep watch, he can find allies, and he can kill those little monsters who dared latch onto my brother!"

This brings back a habitual response, a response with which I am once again comfortable. ::You dare to order me, a Queen, to deploy her hive in what manner you see fit?:: I snarl at her, swelling my wings half-open and lashing my tail with my own indignant anger.

In answer, she calls up two handfuls of her strange, magical power, and I instantly step between her and my faithful. "You send him, or I will, and you won't like the way I do it," she hisses.

::I will go, my queen,:: Bristaness' soft mind-voice tells me, interrupting my scattered thoughts as I try to find a way to protect him. ::Do not fear, I will not forget who I serve. I swear I will remember you with every moment that passes while I am away from you.::

Before I can protest, he scrambles back and away, off to find some way to get from this place to another. I know not how he will do it, unless he plans to fly straight through space, but that, his mind assures me, is his own problem, and he has his own solutions. I focus again on the girl, who disperses her magic and slumps back down into her chair. "I will get you back, Lant'ien," she growls to someone who is not there. "Even if I have to kill everyone around you."

At this point, I take my leave of her, as well. There is only one explanation: she is utterly mad. She is mad, and there is nothing I can do about that.