Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ Eyes Of The Dragon ❯ Effect ( Chapter 8 )

 

 

Tiamat closed her eyes and held tightly to every last shred of control she possessed. She opened them again and glared at the Lord of the Southlands across the table.

 

“And precisely what would you have us do, Lord Radlan? Fly about and breathe fire on the errant humans?”

 

“It would be better than just existing,” Radlan said tightly, his hands clenching and unclenching on the tabletop. “We are vastly stronger than they are. Any one of us, even the weakest elder or smallest hatchling could annihilate thousands of them in one swoop. We should take back what is rightfully ours!”

 

“Have you forgotten that they almost hunted us to extinction? When they were nothing but rabble with swords and stones. Have you seen the weapons they possess now? Atomic bombs, sonic, laser and bio-weapons. We are not immune to any of these things. For all of our strengths, we can be killed by them. The Council has discussed this at length and decided that unless a direct threat is made to us we will not involve ourselves in a war against the humans.”

 

“All any of you do is talk because you're weak and unwilling to dirty your hands. Maybe it's time for a new leader,” Radlan said, eyes narrowing.

 

“I suppose you think you're strong enough to challenge me?”

 

He sneered at her. “You won't kill me.”

 

There was suddenly a gust of air behind him and double sets of very sharp claws encircled his neck.

 

“She doesn't have to,” Melee said into his ear. The tone of voice made the fine scales on the back of Radlan's neck stand on end.

 

“Tread very carefully, Radlan,” Tiamat said. “You might not like where you end up walking. Everyone is dismissed until tomorrow. We'll discuss this further then,” Tiamat said, standing and grabbing a piece of fruit off of a tray that was balanced on Akito's back before walking out of the room.

 

Melee withdrew the claws and smiled down at Radlan nastily. “Give me a reason you worthless waste of scales. Just one,” Melee said before turning on one heel and striding after Tiamat.

 

Closing the door to the Divination room Melee walked over to where Tiamat stood looking down at the tapestry as the scuttle moved slowly along the threads.

 

“A mad dog needs to be put down, my Lady.”

 

She nodded. “Before he infects others. Make sure it isn't any of your usual methods, Melee.”

 

“Already ahead of that, my Lady. It won't be traced back to me or to you.”

 

She put one shaking hand against the frame of the loom, a single tear falling unchecked onto the threads. “I didn't want it to come to this.”

 

“No one did. But he gives no other choice,” Melee said, squeezing her shoulders consolingly before turning to the task at hand.

 

***

 

Hatori had spent what was left of the day loafing for once. All of his work was finished anyway and there were no patients to see so he spent the afternoon working in the Zen garden and still marveling at the fact he could see with both eyes. He wasn't quite sure how to process it all, wondering if he'd wake up from some too real dream at any moment and find he really wasn't whole. He had kept the secret to himself for the past few weeks, not even telling Ayame or Shigure about it. Partially because they had all been busy doing various tasks and hadn't managed to see one another. He was positive he wouldn't be able to hide it from them when they actually saw him.

 

This miracle had been Tiamat's doing. He knew that as surely as he knew his own name even though he hadn't asked her about it. She had somehow managed to repair what everyone had said could never be righted. He owed her more than he could ever begin to express.

 

She had been his constant companion in the evenings for the past few weeks now. She did have a tendency to come and go at odd hours and he wondered how she spent her time when she wasn't with him. She had never told him the reason for her initial contact but he hardly had reason to complain. There was no awkwardness in him when he was with her, no need to be cool or reserved, things just simply were what they were and both were comfortable with it. They'd discussed politics, the state of the world in general, along with anything and everything else from religion to what restaurant had the best yakitori. He found himself quite content to be in her company no matter what the subject of conversation happened to be. He had also noticed they had a strange sort of connection, knowing one another's initial moods and occasionally their thoughts as a whole.

 

She had been the first and only person he'd ever willingly told about what had happened between himself, Akito and Kana. She had sat and listened, not saying anything until he got the whole tale out and when he'd really looked at her again he could tell she was beyond angry, she was livid. She had taken several deep breaths to calm down when she'd seen him looking so intently at her then taken his face in her hands and kissed his forehead as though he were a child. She'd said she would keep her opinions of the situation to herself as he wasn't ready to hear them just yet.

 

Though the situation was decidedly bizarre, he had accepted it more readily than he had anything else odd in his life. Including his own nature. He had thought that his coolness toward the world in general was just part of his personality but it had been Tiamat who has pointed out something to him he hadn't contemplated. He had been touch deprived almost since birth and had been forced into erasing the memories of everyone who had learned the secret of the cursed ones. Those things were bound to take their toll on anyone and perhaps it had been his form of preserving his sanity to detach himself. It had been at that point in the discussion when she'd hugged him, tightly and completely without reserve. To his shock, he had not found himself a seahorse.

 

His mind had started to process things he'd either ignored or thought impossible up to then. She wasn't human. He knew it in a sudden flash of clarity. He had noticed the faint, soft scales that ran the sides of her cheekbones and down her neck but hadn't thought much about it. The scales reminded him of Ayame's snake form, smooth and cool. He supposed that was why he'd not thought much of it initially. But as he mulled over what she had said about them having occasionally turning into a dragon in common, certain things made sense. He had read in books of folklore many years ago that dragons could take human form. That was what she was, a dragon, a real one. When he'd put this thought to her verbally she'd only laughed and said that for a smart man it had taken him long enough to figure it out.