Week Five: China

  Xeq soared above the clouds. He hadn’t been up this high in days. Vile already headed to England so there was nothing he had to tell him. It was dangerous but he knew that he had to figure out how to fix this somehow. He didn’t like the random overbearing pain that encountered his passionate time with Zamer. The only way to truly heal was heal himself. No Phoenix magic would change that.

  Roaring in pain felt the Hydra’s heart beat within him. It had already been a week. Why hadn’t the damn thing digest yet? Unwillingly, Xeq felt his stomach do a flip and forced out a beam of light. Was he frustrated? Xeq had to wonder as he shot his head up so that any plane under him wouldn’t find unexpected turbulence.

  In his earlier days, Xeq could use fire but now, all he could use was light. It still burned like fire did. He didn’t understand it when he first used it but since that day he had forced himself to use it and it only. The fire element was burning him on the inside. (Not that the light wasn’t either) but he felt it necessary that he learn to use the light and use it at will rather than to use it when he really needed it the most. Like, for instance to save his brother.

  He didn’t know how far he actually flew until he started to feel dizzy. It had been so long since Xeq had reached his limit to fly but he had been so engrossed in his outburst of beams that he paid no attention to his sense of direction. Hearing a roar, one that he was able to label but not put a face to, Xeq shot down in altitude for landing. Eyes wide, the last thing he saw was a mountain and then it was suddenly black. Not only had he reached his limit. The Hydra’s heart beat next to his and pulsed hard enough to knock him out.

  When Xeq would awake he’d probably be in rubble under a mountain, hopefully in his true self form. If he were return to reflected form however, he’d probably be in the hospital. Then, the people would be wondering why he’d have two heart beats. Great. If Xeq could move his body he would take note that the source of regeneration of a Hydra is its heart so maybe, it regenerated a system within himself instead of digesting.

  Vision blurry at first, Xeq’s silver eyes sensed the different and new scents around him. There were many different auras. He wasn’t sure if they were good or bad since he was in an unknown place. He did recognize one thing. He was in a cave and something mouthwatering was over the fire.

  “Father.” Called a soft voice. “He’s awake!”

  “Come.” Said a masculine voice. “You’re just in time to eat dinner with us.”

  “Where…” Xeq wondered as he sat up with assistance. “…am I?”

  The man couldn’t have been much older than Xeq himself. “Don’t worry. You’re safe. That’s all that matters.”

  “You were falling for the sky.” The old man explained. “You’re lucky I was out surveying the land for any bad spirits of no one would have caught you. Even for you, that would have been a deadly fall.”

  Xeq looked at the man confused. “What do you mean, ‘even for me’, I’m no different from any other dragon of my kind.”

  The man shook his head. “Western culture hasn’t been around as long as we have.” He started. “Us eastern dragons have a thing or two to tell you about yourself.”

  Xeq’s eyes widened. “No… I couldn’t have.”

  The girl pounced and curled up beside him in her fox form and smiled. “But you did!”

  “How did I…?” Xeq’s voice was lost. How much time had passed between him taking off at home in an aimless direction and him actually going above the clouds? He didn’t know his altitude. He only knew that he went higher than normal because it seemed easier to not be spotted. And then when he began to upchuck beams of light he forced himself to go higher and concentrate on not hitting anything below because he had no idea how far his hyper beam would go.

  “When I grabbed a hold of you, I could hear you struggling to keep your hearts beats steady with one another.” The old man continued.

  So it wasn’t Xeq’s imagination. He could feel two hearts beating inside of him and even then, they weren’t beating at the same time. It gave him a rush and a sense of panic. He hadn’t felt that way in years.

  “The second heart you have.” The old man wondered. “How did you get it?”

  “I took down a Hydra that attacked my brother. The gang had disrupted the peace in our town. I couldn’t let them go so easily. Especially since they were after my girlfriend and then they got a hold of my brother.” Xeq explained mindlessly.

  It bothered him that he felt like he could the trust guy but then again, he was alive and apparently the guy saved him. That was enough for most people to say trustworthy. He never gave Eastern dragons a lot of a thought though. For the most part he thought they’d have a language barrier.

  As quickly as the thought came to him the old man smiled and commented. “Dragons have their own language young one. Our ‘reflection’ selves as you call it are mere shells that can only hear what they want to hear.”

  "You can say that again" Xeq smiled. He could tell that the old man understood him even if he didn’t speak but he chose to anyway.

  “So then, what do you look like in the water?”

  The old man smiled as he got up. “Follow. I’ll show you.”

  Xeq didn’t know what to expect. Eastern dragons didn' look the same as western ones. He didn’t look into it much. He let his human life take over him for the most part. An exasperated gasp left Xeq’s lips as the guy stood back to a water fall within the cave.

  Was it ten legs? It was more than four was all Xeq knew. The style of his head was different from anything that Xeq would have imagined. The little toy dragons he would see dancing around in those Chinese tinker shops wasn’t down to scale. His eyes weren’t googly like the toys. They were fierce yet kind and brown. Nothing really special about the color like Xeq’s. He had whiskers and pointed ears but they were set farther back and placed farther up than Xeq’s. Actually, it reminded Xeq of his brother’s fin like ears except these were more like a fox. Well, technically… The scales of the dragon weren’t a red like on the trinket. They weren’t black like most ‘normal’ dragons were depicted. They were every color that Xeq could imagine. Like a… What was that thing he saw in that store? That fish with the many colors. Xeq thought hard but eh old man spoke for him.

  “It’s called a koi fish.” He replied.

  Xeq shook his head. “Incredible. You’re magnificent.” Was all he could say as he stared at the waterfall not completely done gawking in the real scale of what seemed to be some mockery of a dragon.

  “Don’t worry.” The man laughed. “It’s the best that human’s can do with their limited technology of tradition. It’s fine.”

  “But if they knew they you were…” Xeq’s voice trailed off again.

  “It’s fine.” The old man said again.

  “Listen, young one, you have much to learn and I don’t believe we’ve introduced ourselves.” He said with a small smile.

  “I’m Xeq.” Xeq said after he finally snapped himself out of his mesmerized trance.

  My reflection name is Mioko.” The now named old man smirked. “Welcome to China, Xeq.”