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“Not really,” Reka agreed, as unconcerned as ever.
Heath sighed again. “It must be nice to be immortal.”
“Well,” Reka reasoned, still speaking casually, “I don’t know if I’m immortal, do I? I haven’t yet made my decision.”
“You know what I mean,” said Heath impatiently. “Just the ability to make that choice is something a lot of humans would kill for.”
“Then it is fortunate that there is no way for humans to attain that ability,” Reka commented.
Heath had to agree, although he didn’t bother to say so. For all his talk of it being nice, he wasn’t at all sure that he would choose to be immortal at the cost of being able to one day have children, as dragons could if they wished.
“We are agreed that the dragons have no need for concern, but it seems that you are worried, my friend,” Reka said unexpectedly. “Why does the fear of others concern you? Haven’t humans always been afraid of magic?”
Heath frowned. “Maybe. But it’s one thing for humans to have been afraid of magic when dragons were the only magical creatures around. In case you’ve forgotten, some humans carry magic now, too. Humans whom I happen to care very much about. Who aren’t invincible like dragons.”
“Such as yourself,” noted Reka.
Heath shrugged. “Well, no one’s really sure about that, are they? But my sister, my brother, my father…all of my cousins…I don’t like the idea of them being at the center of all this suspicion.”
“You have magic too, Heath,” said Reka, sounding as close to impatient as the placid dragon ever did. “I have told you many times. I’m just not sure what it is.”
Heath remained silent, uninterested in entering into the familiar topic.
“Is he gone yet?” he asked, after a prolonged minute of listening to the sound of the waves lapping against his little island.
Reka glanced back toward the shore. “Well, I see a horse being led to the entrance of your home,” he commented.
“Really?” asked Heath, perking up. “Hopefully that means he’s leaving.”
Reka shook his vast head slowly from side to side. “You really can’t see the horse for yourself? Human eyesight is extraordinarily inferior.”
Heath smiled. The criticism was a little out of place in this instance, but he felt no need to defend himself. Reka had spent almost no time with any other human. The dragon didn’t quite realize how unusual it was for Heath to even be able to see the shore from this distance. Heath’s excellent eyesight was the only sign of a potential magical ability that his family had noticed in his eighteen years. It wasn’t much to boast about.
“I suppose I should head back soon,” Heath said, his eyes resting wistfully on the horizon. “Perce will need someone to vent to.”
Before the dragon could respond, Heath glanced down into the water, and his attention was distracted from his brother’s inevitable irritation.
“What’s that?” he asked, speaking mainly to himself as he crouched down on his rock. The water, which had momentarily been smooth in the patch just below his feet, was once again choppy. It was difficult to make much out beneath the waves, even for him.
“What?” asked Rekavidur curiously, snaking his long neck down so that his bearded head hovered just above the surface of the water.
“I thought I saw something on the bottom,” said Heath, squinting as he attempted to find it again. “It almost looked like a structure of some kind.”
“A rock formation?” Reka suggested.
Heath shook his head slowly. “Maybe. But it didn’t look like it.”
“I’ll take a look,” offered Reka, a familiar inquisitive light in his eyes. Without waiting for a response, the dragon slid off his rock, disappearing beneath the waves with barely a ripple.
Heath waited above the surface, trying not to let his human limitations frustrate him. He had always been jealous of his friend’s ability to explore below the water, but it wasn’t Reka’s fault that humans needed to take in air much more often than dragons.
It was only a couple of minutes before Reka reappeared, slithering back up onto his rock with surprising grace for a creature his size.
“What did you find?” Heath asked eagerly.
The dragon didn’t immediately respond, stretching his neck out over the space between their bastions. Heath suddenly realized why his companion wasn’t speaking. He held out a hand to allow Reka to drop his burden into it, freeing up the dragon’s mouth for speech.
“I think you’re right,” Reka said, his tone communicating the faint surprise it always held when his human friend showed any sign of intelligence. “I think there was some kind of structure there, once.”
