Chapter 2

Moonflower

Vera watched with wide eyes as Juan doubled over, seemingly in agony. Then he had announced to the whole town, asking who was speaking to him. Vera exhaled with sadness as she watched him appear to go mad. The elder pushed his way through the crowd and lifted Juan.
"Perhaps he is healing him. Perhaps he will restore his sanity."
The elder reached into the brazer and the fire roared once before settling down again. Juan appeared to be surprised and his robe creased as if another being were curling about his neck and waist.

The elder smiled as he stepped away from Juan. Juan stumbled towards a log laying near the brazer and sat on it, looking at his Marked arm intently and apparently listening to different things around him. The townspeople returned to their seats and waited while murmuring at the strangeness of this Revealing.

Now it was Vera's turn.

Taking a shuddering breath, she stepped forward towards the waiting elder as he announced her name.

"Vera Hilt. Come forward for your Revelation."

'Vera is a pretty name.'

Vera pricked her ears and slightly gasped at hearing the voice seemingly in her head.

'Who's there? I didn't call you.'

As suddenly as the voice came, Vera felt the release of a presence. Someone didn't want her to know that it had been there.

It had always been difficult to hide anything from Vera. They had always wondered how she was able to seemingly read their emotions. Well, she could. She didn't read their emotions. She read their minds.

Even now, she could feel the barely blazing consciousnesses around her in the minds of the people of her town, of the students behind her and the shock that Juan projected.

She didn't know how she earned this talent, if that is what you could call something as strange and psychic as that. She usually tried to hide it, unless someone really needed her support or she needed to know what was wrong. She despised secrets, but tried her best to keep others. Her parents didn't even know how to react when she had told them that she heard voices more often than not.

The voice that had spoken to her was different though. She had not only heard its thoughts, but it must have intruded on her own.

Vera pushed the thought aside as she stepped towards the elder who was patiently waiting for her at the platform.

Juan was still looking intently into the fire, but his initial shock seemed to have disappeared. Vera could feel confusion rolling off him in waves. So strong, it was almost nauseating to her psyche. What in the Ceremony could possibly be confusing to him? First madness, then complete confusion. Vera mentally exhaled. Some people were so complex, it was hard for even her to understand their intentions or their actual feelings.

Vera tightened her grip on the handle of the bronze dagger, which was studded with black diamonds. Something to hold onto during the Revealing.

Her heart pounded as she took each oath, the elder's thumb on her forehead. As he did so, Vera could not help but sense the thoughts of the man.

'A Fire Spirit! How rare and inexplicable to come from such an unseemly boy! Perhaps we shall have more spirits than one. Oh what good tidings that would be! An omen from the Spirit itself!'

Vera smiled as the elder gestured for the dagger. Sometimes knowing what others thought could be good. Especially when filled with so much hope.

'So Juan did unlock a Spirit. I knew he had it in him.'

Vera hardly noticed the prick as the knife dug into her thumb. She was too ecstatic for Juan and hoping that she herself could possibly hold such an honor.

Finally, the concluding words were uttered as the blood began to dry. Vera smiled, not caring if she had unlocked herself or not. Either way, she was determined to help anyone with her special gift in any way possible.

As she was about to step down, a strange tingling went through her arm, almost as if the skin wanted to crawl off of her arms and her cheek.

Vera glimpsed down at her arm to see the blood was flaking away and revealing something underneath.

Something darker than the blood had been.

Vera gasped.

So did the consciousness that had first touched her mind before.

Like ink, the mark on her arm darkened and bled black, obscuring the area where the blood had originally been marked. The same rushing feeling spread on her cheek as well.

Finally, the tingling stopped as the marks gleamed with a pitch black glow, searing themselves permanently within her flesh.

She had been Marked.

Marked with the profile of a Black dragon.

The consciousness spoke again, this time rumbling with laughter and lightness despite its appearance.

'Vera. What a lovely name. Yes, I shall be proud to call you my kin. I have much to show you. And you have much to teach me! I should love to know more of your race. I have found such a liking towards humans. Perhaps you can enlighten me?'

The Spirit was brilliantly black with hints of silver hidden in its jawline and its neck crest. The scales appeared to be made of liquid oil and the Spirit moved as fluidly as the night. The Black dragon. The keeper of night.

The Spirit pressed its long snout into Vera's palm as she reached out to touch it. She could hear some sort of purr come from its deep throat as the dragon began to speak again.

'Vera. I wish I had such a name.'

The dragon made a purring laugh as she continued.

'The voices you hear. It's no wonder we belonged. There were a few things you elder did not mention about us.'

The dragon drew back, tipping its head.

'Such as what?' Vera inquired.

The dragon sighed as it looked up at the moon.

'I have much to tell you. We shall leave the stage. Many others wait for their chance to reveal their Spirits.'

The Black dragon moved towards Vera again, but instead of feeling a comforting pressure on her hand, the dragon disappeared into conspicuous shadow and seemed to be absorbed into the inky black clawlike marks on Vera's cheek.

For a moment, Vera's eyes adjusted to the night, seeing a horned deer at least 500 yards away. Near the Blackwood's edge.

'But how?' Asked Vera.

The dragon laughed throatily again, still sounding as merry as before.

'Like I said, young one, you elder left much out when he spoke of the legends. Let us sit with Juan. Perhaps we can speak with him and Requiem. I've missed her very much.'

'Could you tell me whom you are, Black dragon?' Asked Vera.

'Of course. I suppose this is our first leap in our bond, is it not?'

'I suppose it is.' Said Vera as she neared Juan and the Red dragon, Requiem, who she could now see as plain as day.

She also stared towards the elder, who was now sealing the vows with another pupil. She could also see the Green dragon curled soundly around his shoulders.

'But first, Black dragon, since you know of Requiem who is a red dragon. Could you reveal to me who the Green dragon is, that bonds himself with the elder?' Asked Vera.

The Black dragon was silent for a moment, as if contemplating if she did, in fact, know this dragon in question.

'No. I apologize. I am not quite as familiar with this one. Perhaps, perhaps not. If so, I have not seen him for quite some time in the Afterlife.'

'The Afterlife?'

'Certainly Vera. All who die go to a certain Afterlife. We may not be summoned to a Purple dragon's court, but we most certainly die, letting our spirits fade into the world around us. It is where we seem to be most spiritually connected that we lay. Sometimes, though, of a true bond was to be formed between two, we may share the Afterlife together, to frolic and to remain youthful together forever. All spirits can visit any other. It is but the matter of finding the correct wind or Breath of Life to take you to them. After all, dragons are the most eternal creatures, forging bonds that cannot be broken for millennia. We always remember a grudge or an assistance, and we make sure that one is rightfully given the correct justice for it.'

'So, Xantina, the Great Talon. Does she live? Does she fly upon these Breaths of Life with all other spirits?'

'No Vera, I am disheartened to say, but she truly lives. Many of us have died at her claws, assisting those who wished to destroy her.'

The dragon was silent, as if reflecting. Finally Vera heard a shuddering breath, as if the dragon were crying.

'I was one of the first. She was a creature, no longer a dragon. She was not whom I remembered her as. I begged her, but she did not relent. I__ I__ I remember. Oh Spirits. I remember.'

Vera lowered her head as the words resonated in her. Her Spirit has died protecting humankind, whom it hadn't even known.

'You were in the Great Council, weren't you?'

'I was.'

'The Black Dragon. You were revered for raising and lowering the moon, sleeping in it by day, carrying it upon your back by night.'

'I was.'

'Then you must be no other than the Mistress of the Moon. The Dragon of the Silvery Carriage.'

'I am. Do you know my name, Vera?'

'I do.'

'Tell me who I am. Tell me that someone remembers!'

'We all remember you. We honor your night with this Ceremony. We thank you for defending us always.'

'Yes, yes. Tell me who I am!'

'You are Moonflower, the Dragon of Dreams.'

Moonflower's voice silenced, only leaving a ringing in Vera's mind. Finally, a choked whisper came from the mighty dragon.

'Yes, Child, I am Moonflower, the Dragon of Dreams. You, Vera, are my Spirit Bond. My True Kin.

Help me to live again through you.'

Vera responded silently, but aloud for the whole world to hear her oath the the mighty dragon.

"I shall."