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Kai didn’t say anything to that, not even a grunt of acknowledgment. His chest moved with long, deep breaths, looking for all the world as if Ere had bored him to sleep.
This was just like the earth dragon Ere used to know as well.
When Rai talked too much, and Kai wanted a reprieve, he simply shifted his scales into the semblance of a boulder and dozed. No matter how Rai poked and prodded, the boulder remained unmoved. Left with no choice but to give up, Rai would often curl next to the warm, living boulder to take a nap as well.
And be comforted by Kai’s muscly tail that would wind around him, tucking him into the earth dragon’s side.
“You know, retiring in the longhouse is likely much more comfortable for these human flesh and bones,” Ere pointed out.
Kai made no sounds, other than his deepening breaths, interspersed with a vibrating rumble, like a low-humming purr.
Ere stretched his jaw in a joint-cracking yawn and laid his head on Kai’s meaty shoulder as he sat back against the tree.
Almost silent footsteps approached them, and Sorin’s long legs came into view.
Ere looked up at his mate with a soft, sleepy smile and extended his hand.
Sorin took it as he sat down on Ere’s other side and pulled him half into his lap, his thick arms wrapping around Ere in a loose but protective embrace, immediately making him deliciously toasty.
Ere sighed and squirmed a little to get even more comfortable. His head listed to the side until his temple touched Kai’s shoulder again. It was as if he needed that connection to remind himself that the earth dragon was really here.
Warm and alive.
Ere vowed that he would keep it that way.
He would do everything in his power to help his big brother trulylive.
~ * ~* ~ *~ * ~* ~ *~ * ~
Kai’s brow twitched with discomfiture when he felt Ere’s head settle lightly against his shoulder.
It was a barely-there touch, hardly a graze.
And yet, it was a connection Kai loathed to form. He told himself sternly to shove the pesky male away. Perhaps even stomp off to another, hopefully isolated, location to be alone.
He didn’t need attachments. Couldn’t afford them. Even one as simple as friendship.
Brotherhood.
Kai allowed himself to feel comradery every once in a while, given that sometimes on his missions he stayed for longer durations. Months, or even years. Comradery with other warriors was inevitable. Especially if he was to lead men into battle.
But friendship was another matter. And brotherhood…familywas completely out of the question.
He was put on this earth to fight and die. This was the only role he’d ever known. He was a weapon of the gods. Though many who were ignorant celebrated him as a savior of men.
Mortals did not know how pointless and ephemeral their lives really were. So many sparks could be snuffed out with a god’s single, careless blow.
A whim. Like child’s play.
Why Kai was sent on his missions to “help” mankind since his first death he did not know. He simply did as he was instructed because…
Because fighting and dying in the heat of battle, whether victory or defeat, was the only time he felt truly alive.
Opposites brought each other out in stark relief, after all. There was no light without darkness. No truth without lies.
For a brief moment, in the process of dying a good death, Kai felt the beat of his heart, the pulse of his blood, and reveled in the light that entered his eyes just before the dark descended.
But most of all, if he were honest with himself, he waited for that soft touch upon his shoulder, that whisper of breath in his ear…
When he gazed into the clearest green eyes across time and space—
That.
That was the moment he truly lived.
