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Chapter Eighteen
“A person should not agree today to what he will regret tomorrow.”
– Saga Bandamanna
Yukon Territory, modern day, two earth years later.
“Come with us, Kai. It’ll be a good change of scenery. Lots of places I haven’t shown you yet in NYC.”
Ere’s biological son, Benjamin, also known as Ben (now that he was fully in his teens and had long since shrugged off his boyhood nickname of Benji), tried to coax Kai to change his mind.
“We don’t even have to take the plane this time,” he negotiated. “You can ride on Sorin in phoenix form. I just wanted you to have the experience last year. You should have told me you have a fear of flying and claustrophobia besides. Why didn’t you say something?”
It seemed a moot point to complain about flying when one was already shackled into a tiny chair by a contraption called the seatbelt and airborne, Kai thought. And if all those tiny, frail humans could withstand the torture with ease, then he wasn’t going to show weakness either.
Even if he did sweat buckets until his stifling clothes stuck to his body, which then stuck him to his seat. Thankfully, he had a whole row in “First Class” to himself, so the stink of fear was relatively contained.
Nevertheless, his struggle didn’t escape Ere and Ben’s sympathetic gazes. At least, Sorin kept his eyes closed and ignored him. Good man.
Kai merely grunted in reply, not wanting to argue.
He said no when Ben invited him to go to the “City” again. He’d refused every time it had come up since the first trip when he hadn’t known better.
Once was enough. The concrete jungle, as New York City was called, certainly lived up to its title. Kai didn’t belong there.
The Pure and Dark Ones that Ere had introduced him to were interesting enough. Immortals like himself, descendants of the gods of old. There were Elementals and Animal Spirits too.
Kai related to these latter Kinds best. They were more raw, untamed. The Pure and Dark Ones seemed closer to humans, while the Elementals were forces of nature, and the Animal Spirits could still take animal forms—raptors, predator cats and serpents.
But he much preferred to stay in his new home—in a cavern at the base of the tallest mountain in the Yukon Territory.
Ere and Sorin made their nest at the top. The Tiger King Goya’s Animal Spirit enclave was stationed at the bottom. And Kai liked to hibernate in his dragon form deep within the mountain.
Once in a while, they all took their human forms and ventured into town. It was sparsely populated, and everyone seemed to know everyone else. Occasionally, visitors wandered in, whether to sightsee or just traveling through. A few of them would stay, but most decided that such wilderness and lack of “civilization” weren’t to their taste.
Which suited Kai just fine.
Helikedbeing out in the middle of nowhere away from crowds. After millennia of existence imprisoned in the Celestial Realm only to be released to fight and die, he reveled in his new-found freedom.
To be one with the earth, sky and sea again. Close to nature as he was always intended to be.
“Stop nagging him, Benjamin,” Ere admonished. “He’s made his choice.”
But Ere turned to Kai and went on nagging in his own way, “You have enough food, right? Try not to eat all the moose and caribou while we’re gone. And don’t isolate yourself in the cavern for weeks like last time. You have friends here. Go into town on the weekends and socialize a little. You like Maddie, Yaz and Mike, right?”
Kai grunted again.
It was his default mode of communication in human form. He’d much rather speak telepathically now that he had access to, and could harness his dragon powers any time, but humans like Ben didn’t understand.
“I left open a tab for you on my account at Drink of Me,” Ere continued, referring to the diner and nightclub (the only one in town) that was owned by his friends.
“Given how much you like Maddie’s cooking, at least get a few meals in while we’re away. Mama Bear can make all your favorite desserts when we’re back.”
Mama Bear was Ere’s actual mother, it turned out. Everyone called her that, for her default human form disguised her as a plump, elderly, gray-haired woman who tended to spoil everyone around her with baked goods. Her real immortal form looked no older than Ere, who would always appear to be in his mid-twenties.
Whereas, Kai, Sorin and Tal, Ere’s sire, looked older in human years, early to mid-thirties. Perhaps it was simply the way of warriors; the battles they’d fought and the scars they’d acquired tended to wear even their immortal bodies down.
Though Tal’s scars didn’t look like he’d gotten them in war. They’d been carved into him deliberately.
