“You have always been someone very special to me,” SaRa plunged forward, trying to keep her voice level.
“How does it feel to be coming back to your homelands?” SaRa asked, linking her arm around Kudako’s arm.
She never knew how he felt about the interaction… but she had done so since she could remember. And he had never pulled away from her. She always marveled at the feeling of the raw strength under her touch. It made her feel safe and protected, though she rarely had a chance to spend time in the Dragon’s protection anymore.
“It is strange,” Kudako answered with the charming sort of honesty he had. At least, she thought it was charming. It was even more charming that he didn’t even realize it.
He leaned forward, both palms planted on the stone railing that ran along the edge of the platform at the top of the stairs of Lion’s Keep. His golden eyes were sharp as they surveyed the Spiral lands stretching in every direction. His lips were pinched, a sign of some sort of emotion – though one he could not figure out for himself.
“Does it make you sad?” SaRa asked him.
Questions, she found, were the key to guiding conversation with the Dragon. He was quiet, often, because he lacked thoughts on what was best to say next.
“Sad… I’m not sure it’s sadness,” he told her. “I have never missed this place since I chose to leave it and come into the service of Lord Zemi. But that does not mean I wish ill on the Spiral or the people. I simply do not feel as if…”
“As if…?” she tilted her head, encouraging.
“Perhaps I don’t feel as if this is so much a place to call home, despite the technicality of being born in this land,” the Dragon finished. He dipped his head, wild hair falling into his face. His ears twitched at the tips as if reconsidering what he just said. “Is that a bad thing to feel?”
“No,” SaRa told him, hugging his arm tighter. “Not with all the bad memories that you have here… and all the bad things that some people have done to you.”
“Bad things sometimes happen,” Kudako told her gently. “Holding on to them gives them power over your life. I choose not to let them have that power.”
“That’s why you’re strong,” she said aloud, not realizing she had spoken the words until he responded.
“Hrm?”
“I mean…” SaRa straightened a bit, trying to cover her sudden awkwardness. “You’re a strong warrior. One of Zemi’s best. You always have been.”
Kudako looked at her with an arched eyebrow.
“Anyone who could knock some sense into Zento had to be?” she added quickly. This seemed to work.
“Well… Zento was certainly not who I expected to find when Lord Zemi sent me to train a warrior at the Host Gate,” the Dragon smiled just a hint, a look of memory in his eyes.
“No… I guess neither of us was exactly what you were hoping for,” SaRa answered quietly. She leaned her cheek against his arm, just as she had done ever since she was a young girl. And she felt the giddy flutters in her chest as she did… even if she was getting too old for girlish fluttering.
“It wasn’t at first. But of all places I have been to in my time, that was the one place that was most like home to me,” Kudako told her.
She turned and peered up with a surprised look. It was always unusual to hear the Dragon speak sentimentally.
She must have looked so surprised that that he felt he had to add more, “You asked about home?”
“Yes, I did,” SaRa nodded slowly. “So… you were happy there?”
“I learned what it meant to be happy there,” Kudako answered. He paused for a moment, lips pursed together before speaking again. “You may argue, but I feel that you and Zento taught me more about how to live than I could have ever taught either of you.”
SaRa smiled softly. “Kudako… that was a beautiful thing to say, you know?”
“Was it?” he asked, seeming a little puzzled.
“Yes. Even more so because I know that if you said it, then you meant it.”
“Always.”
There were some things in life that one couldn’t always count on. Things were always changing, often not for the better, she knew. But Kudako was one of those things that never changed, not at the core of his being. Time had helped him to learn to feel and appreciate life in different ways. But time and trouble did not take away his steadfastness, no matter the situation that he faced.
And now… they faced the most difficult of any situation. With battles and darkness and the fall of their homelands. The fear of Zerom’s Chaos… the loss of TsuYa. So many terrible, terrible things.
Yet, Kudako stood resolute. And SaRa knew, as she had known for so long, that she had more than just admiration for his strength. But she didn’t know if he realized this.
“Kudako,” she began, hesitating. She could hear the shift in her own voice. The hint that something important and dangerous was about to be said.
But she couldn’t help it. Battle after battle, the Dragon went out to fight. Anyone could be his last. He would be lost and she would never have told him.
Kudako turned, fin-ears perked in her direction. His golden eyes gazed down at her with the calm, stoic expression that he always had. All the while, she fought to keep him from feeling the way her heart had begun to beat, almost out of her chest.
Dragons, she knew, could sense things like that.
“You have always been someone very special to me,” SaRa plunged forward, trying to keep her voice level. And failing to sound any better than a silly grade-school child.
“You are someone who is very special to me, too,” Kudako answered.
It was so hard. It was so hard to tell how he was responding. If he was responding at all, or if he was just reading and imitating her cues. Even after all these years, she didn’t know if he had any feelings for her beyond his duty of chivalrous protection.
“No, Kudako…” SaRa forced her voice into firmness. Then she reached out and pulled his hands up with both of her own, forcing him to turn and look her in the eye. “I mean that you are someone very special to me.”
For a long moment, he just stared down at her, at a loss as to how to respond. She held her breath… she was accustomed to the Dragon’s silence. But this was a silence of a different sort.
When he finally answered, there was a strange glimmer in the depths of his golden eyes. “Yes. And you are someone very special to me, too.”
SaRa’s eyes widened, breath whooshing in a gasp. She didn’t realize her hands were shaking until he steadied them in his solid grasp.
“Then… why..?” she began to ask, not really knowing what it was she meant to say.
Why didn’t you tell me sooner? Why do we pretend it doesn’t exist? Why don’t we do something about it? It could have been one of many, many “whys.”
Kudako simply lowered his head, answering without the question to guide him, “Because I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
“Hurt?” she asked.
“Because I am what I am. A warrior whose first duty is to fight at the orders of Lord Zemi Dreigiau. I am only here because I was given the chance to serve,” the Dragon told her. “My duty is important to me. And because I am a warrior, I don’t know if I would ever be proper and good enough for you.”
“Kudako…” her voice sounded slightly broken. “I have known you since I was very young. I understand your dedication to your duty — I have always respected it. And I have always been willing to accept that part of who you are… if you were ever to allow me to be… a part of your life.”
He watched her for a long moment, weighing the importance of his answer, “Things are dangerous right now. There will be a lot of fighting coming up. But I will have to think upon it… once things become quiet again.”
SaRa straightened, green eyes reflecting up at him, “Does that mean that you’re willing to give things a shot… once we get all of this sorted out?”
“It is… a strong possibility,” he told her.
She swallowed, knowing that those words, while not a “yes,” were the best that she could hear from him right now. And they certainly were not a “no.” Her face must have been flushed at that point because Kudako reached down and touched her cheek lightly.
“I’m happy then,” SaRa smiled for him, laying her cheek against his palm.
He gave a faint smile in return. A smile that, for once, touched his eyes.
They stood together for a long time in complete silence. The world around them passed from day into the twilight, the sky spreading color for them in a quiet celebration. Quiet was the way it always was between them… and perhaps, even unspoken, things had always been.
But SaRa couldn’t have been happier than she was then. Sharing the time with Kudako, as they used to when they were both younger. Before there was a Nefol… before Zento had taken up the robes of the High Guide. When things were far simpler and the world breathed in peace.
It was theirs again, for that moment.
Until the world called them back from their shared serenity.
“Aunt SaRa! Aunt SaRa… I need to talk to you!”
The winged woman took a short step away from Kudako, turning to see who was calling her name. Concern marred her features as she called back, “Lucci? What’s wrong?”
The young Sygnus raced up the stairs, taking them two at a time. His silver eyes were wide with the hint of panic. His breath heaved in shivers as he stopped to stand before them. It was the first time Aunt SaRa realized how tall he had become.
“Aunt SaRa…” he choked out her name again. “I had a dream…”
“A dream?” she echoed, taking a few steps towards him. She reached up and pulled him down, cupping his fevered face in both hands. His skin was clammy and sickly feeling. “What kind of dream, Lucci?”
She had seen this all before. Back when TsuYa was suffering from terrible nightmares of Nefol. Nightmares that became all too real, leaving him injured upon awakening… and eventually leading to his capture by the Chaotic forces of Zerom.
Dreams were serious things to her. And the thought that Lucci was having them now, too, was absolutely terrifying.
“Don’t get mad at me,” the young Sygnus began, face pleading. He was just as afraid.
“No… of course not. I want to hear. And I won’t get angry,” SaRa stroked the boy’s hair out of his eyes.
Lucci swallowed a few times, his throat working as he began to describe the images in his dream. The Marked armies of Zerom, coming across the Passage. How they were following TsuYa, the new Marked Champion. And how Lucci believed that Zerom was using TsuYa’s previous connection to Zemi to activate the Passage to get them across.
When he finally finished describing it all, it was hard for them all to breathe.
“I don’t know if it’s real or not, Aunt SaRa,” Lucci warned, looking concerned. “I don’t want to call a false alarm. But if it is real…”
“You did the right thing,” Kudako grunted.
“You mean… you believe me?” the young Sygnus looked up, questioningly.
But the Dragon didn’t explain. He had already reached for his staff and was making his way across the platform.
“What are you going to do?” SaRa called after him.
“I’m going to talk to ShinRe. And I’m going to start gathering the Spiral warriors together to brace for an attack. We’ll scout. But I want us to be mobilized. There’s no need to take any chances,” Kudako answered gruffly.
“Please… be careful,” she said.
The Dragon peered at her with a silent nod. Then he turned and rushed off, vanishing into the colors of twilight.
