The Pearl Ch. 07

"Have you ever had a favorite?" I asked.

He was silent for a moment, and his smile became bittersweet. "Of course I have" He looked at the both of us and made a grand, sweeping gesture. "I have had among my favorites high court ladies and goat herders. I even one time took my pleasures with a chângjì." He used what I assumed was a Chinese word, which he was occasionally given to do. When both Dakota and I looked blankly at it he translated. "It means prostitute. She was sold into that life by her family. Jiao was her name, a very sweet woman. I felt very bad for her. While the Middle Kingdom is my home, I would be remiss if I didn't see it's shortcomings, such as it's treatment of women. I was with her for many years."

He trailed off here, looking far away as he often did when remembering the past. He quickly came back to himself. "And that's not even counting the pleasures I've taken among the dragons," he added with a wicked, conspiratorial grin. "But we are here neither to discuss my past nor my future. It is rather your's and Dakota's futures we are discussing. But I will surely share some of these stories with you both at a more appropriate time. So, are there any further questions on the matter at hand?"

For a bit the only sound was the clink of silverware, or chopsticks, on plates. I mulled over my thoughts. There was something nagging at me. "Is there anything else I should be expecting?" I asked.

"Expecting?" Chang looked at me, puzzled.

"Well, this favorite thing appeared to come out of nowhere, at least to me. Are there any other surprises on the horizon I need to worry about?"

"Ah, I see what you mean." He leaned back in his seat. "Well, that's a little tricky to answer."

"How so?"

"There are many things you do not yet know." Chang excused himself to get another plate. When he sat back down, he continued. "Flying for instance."

"But I can't fly," I protested.

"You make my point," he answered.

"Look, I get how you can fly," I explained, gesturing about with my fork. "Storm dragon, air, sky, flying." I pointed to myself with my fork. "But river dragon, water, ground, not so flying."

"Your logic is sound," Chang acknowledged with a nod. "Ultimately incorrect, but well-reasoned."

"OK, so when does the flying start?"

"When the sky calls to you. You will know when that is." He took another sip of tea and continued. "At the moment, I suspect it's being overshadowed by the call of the river. There is a reason there are a hundred years accorded to learning. There is that much to be learned."

"Um, really quick," I interjected as a thought occurred to me. "When you talked to the other elder, you referred to me as fledgling. Do you mean as in baby bird?"

"No," he said innocently, which was completely at odds with his smile. "I meant fledgling as in baby dragon."

Dakota giggled. "How cute!"

"Oh, dude," I exclaimed, "I'm twenty years old."

Chang cocked his head. "And I am twenty one hundred years old. But that has nothing to do with whether or not you're a fledgling."

Though his tone was that of a teacher, I could tell he found this amusing. He and Dakota both. While I was definitely impressed by his age, I wasn't done grousing about my sudden demotion back to the nursery.

"Ah, man, I just got to adulthood and now you're telling me I'm back to childhood."

Chang shrugged, and his tone became a bit more serious. "In terms of what you know about being a dragon, you are an infant."

When he said it that way, I couldn't argue. "I guess I can see your point. And certainly compared to you I am. I can't even begin to imagine someone over two thousand years old."

"In time it will assimilate. Which simply goes back to what I was saying about how much there is to learn, and how best to teach it. If I were to try to teach all of that in a more linear way, it would swiftly become overwhelming. But if you are allowed to experience it first, then there is a context in which to further teach. I concede that this method can be chaotic, but in my experience it allows for a smoother integration. I apologize in advance to you both for whatever inconveniences this may cause."

Dakota and I looked at each other. Then Dakota started laughing.

"I guess we'll be living in interesting times," she said.

Chang nodded, smiling. "I suppose we will at that."

I couldn't have agreed more.

Early that next week, one of Dakota's co-workers came down with the flu, and Dakota had to cover some of the shifts. This kept her away for a few days. I resisted the urge to contact her mentally, as it struck me as a little intrusive. And kind of stalker-esque. You know, something Lifetime would do a movie on if they were owned by SyFy. Or maybe not.

There are five dams that are set up on the river. I haven't the faintest idea why they're there, or for how long, and getting an explanation from the river is close to impossible. The river doesn't seem to understand why people do the things they do. Furthermore, the river doesn't understand my definition of time. And I haven't experienced enough of the river's existence to completely understand the river's perspective. The river seems prosaic about the whole thing, though. From what I could tell, as far as the river was concerned, yesterday is not today and today is not tomorrow. The dams will come down in due time, and until then they would be endured.

In the present though, the water reservoir behind the particular dam I was at was fairly deep and made for very good fishing, with the occasional frog for variety. Though frogs are better tasting then rocks, on the whole I don't understand the gourmet appeal. Especially for just the legs.

I tried not to forage too much from any one area, so as not to deplete any one area of wildlife. Doesn't make much sense as some sort of guardian to do more harm than good. I had noticed it took less food when I foraged from the river than when I had, say, Chinese or fast food. This probably meant something important and profound. When frogs and fish started tasting better than the buffet or carry out, I would acknowledge it.

Now, what to do with the rest of my morning?

It was late morning and the sun was bright and strong. We were well into September, but it was still quite warm. I made my way to the edge of the dam and looked over into the spillway. The water cascaded over the side to be broken up at the bottom by spaced concrete blocks. The base of the spillway made a great place to lay in the sun. The dam was pretty tall, two, maybe three of my body lengths. With a wide grin I surged over the damn with the water and slid down the face, coming to rest by the pilings. I then stretched out along the base on my front so that the spray could sweep around me and the sun could hit my back.

I had never been much of a sun worshiper. I am of Irish descent on both sides and go straight to burnt lobster red in the sun. As a dragon I had come to love basking in the sun. The exquisite feeling of the balmy sun on my back and the cool water against my underscales was one of the more pleasant, and pleasurable, surprises of being a dragon.

As I settled into position, I envisioned spending at least the rest of the morning like this. Possibly part of the afternoon as well. This of course meant the river would need my attention.

trees

"Come again?" I asked, lifting my head a little.

trees cry

The trees are crying? I thought. Well, I was having a conversation with the river, so I suppose I shouldn't rule it out. "OK, I'll bite. Why are the trees crying?"

in pain hurt

Oh great, somebody is hurting the trees. "Well, I'm sorry the trees are being hurt. But who am I, the Lorax?"

TREES

The force of the communication jarred me. I jerked upright. "All right, I'll go see to the trees. Jeez. I wasn't aware you were contracting out my services."

I followed along where the river lead. We were heading down-stream. This section of the river was surrounded by park land. If some kids or something were messing around I could probably convince them to leave with threatening to get a park ranger. Some of the woods extended past the park itself. If some hunk of land was being developed, I wasn't sure what I could do. While I couldn't see any way I could be brought up on some kind of eco-terrorism charge, that didn't make it exactly a choice move. As I was walking along, I muttered the Dr Seuss rhyme under my breath.

"I am the Lorax, I speak for the trees.

For the trees have no voice, no voice save for me."

Soon, we moved past the park and were entering something like a no man's land. I was unsure who owned this land, but knew it wasn't a part of the park. I could hear a terrible racket, but couldn't smell any machinery exhaust. I could also feel the trees' pain and fear filtered through the river . It made my skin crawl. Whatever was going on, I had to stop it. Well, eco-terrorism it was.

I climbed out of the river and made my way through the woods. There were no paths here, and my bulk made it slow going. I contemplated taking human form, but then caught a glimpse of red-gold scales through a break in the trees. Terrific, the only thing that would make me prefer a construction site. I picked my way closer and confirmed my suspicions. Qiang. Standing amidst a small but growing pile of uprooted trees while ripping at the trees that remained upright.

"YO!" I shouted above the noise he was making. "QIANG!"

He stopped and looked around at me. The look on his face was no more pleasant then the previous times we'd met. I casually wondered if he ever smiled.

"What do you want?" he snarled at me.

"The trees say stop it."

He looked at me baffled. "What?"

"The trees." I raised my front claw and gestured around us. "They say 'stop it'. You see, your little deconstruction project here is upsetting them." I saw the look on his face turn to one of disbelief. Before he could start arguing with me, I continued. "The trees told the river, and the river insisted I do something about it. So stop it."

"The river," he began, getting indignant.

I cut him off again. God, I hoped he wasn't going to get peeved. Or more peeved. "The river isn't thirty feet from here." I gestured with my head back the way I came.

He glared at me for several minutes, and I thought he might pick up our earlier fight were it had left off. Instead, he took a deep breath and shook his head, as if clearing it.

"You are correct. I had forgotten how close the river is here. This territory was ceded to you. I am trespassing, and apologize. I shall go elsewhere." With that, he turned to go.

I was tempted to just let him go. But I could still feel the wounds he'd left on these trees, and somehow doubted whatever pissy mood he was in had passed.

"You know, unless you know where there's a copse of masochistic trees, I don't think any of them are going to appreciate being uprooted and tossed around like pick up sticks."

He gave me a withering look, but said nothing.

"Look, if some thing's wrong, why don't you talk to me about it instead of ripping up the landscape?"

He snorted derisively. "And why would I do that?"

I didn't rise to the bait. "Because it's better than destroying what little forest there is here and upsetting the trees."

He gave me a long once over. "How do I know you won't intentionally give me bad advice just to beleaguer me?"

This time I did rise to the bait. "Look, I get that you think that since I was born Caucasian, I effectively have the sense God gave a kumquat and I am missing some basic reasoning skills. At minimum. However, I am smart enough to know that if I were to intentionally yank your chain or fuck with you in some way Chang would be all over me for it. You may not trust the fact that I have a brain in my head, but trust I have enough of a survival instinct to not want to piss off Chang. Or any other dragon, for that matter."

He raised his head and looked down his snout at me. "Your tongue is very sharp."

"And your bigotry is very blunt. Looks like neither of us are ascending off this plane anytime soon. Now, do you want my help or not?" I paused for a moment, as a potential reason for Qiang to be angry struck me. "And it was not my idea to go to your place on Sunday."

He seemed to relent, at least a little. "No, I know it wasn't your idea or your elder's idea either. It was Zongxian. He is quite displeased with me and I can expect ongoing chastisements for at least the next decade."

"So what's this all about?" I asked.

He once again gave me the once over, but he seemed to be considering something.

"Is Dakota your favorite or your lover?" he asked.

My first impulse was to snap "None of your business," but I thought better of it. I suspected this was a test to see how willing I was to talk to him. I could play this game.

"Between those two, I would have to say lovers." I didn't think Qiang would get "friends with benefits." Not that in retrospect it was entirely accurate. Lovers was probably much closer.

"Why?" His face was like stone.

"Why?" I was taken aback by the question. I paused, considering my answer. "Well, it's like this," I explained. "Zombie Apocalypse 3 is my favorite video game. Blue raspberry is my favorite slushy flavor. When I could wear jeans, I had a favorite pair. And a favorite pair of boxers, too."

Qiang looked at me.

"But you see, all of that is transitory. Zombie Apocalypse 3 would no doubt have been replaced by the latest BioShock game. If they don't have blue raspberry, lemon-lime will do. And eventually my favorite jeans will wear out and be replaced. There's no deeper meaning there, no depth of emotion. You can have a favorite anything. What I feel for Dakota isn't transitory. It's-" I found I didn't have the words to describe what I felt. "It's more than that. We're lovers because I love her."

Qiang nodded and appeared lost in thought.

"Not to pry, but don't you love the woman you're with?" I asked.

"Mingzhu." He said the name with tenderness, then fell silent again. "How old do you think I am?" he asked when he did speak.

"I couldn't say, but Chang put you around two hundred."

"Two hundred and fifty, to be exact."

I nodded, uncertain where he might be going.

"How long do you think Mingzhu will live?" he asked.

Suddenly I saw where this was going and tried to back pedal. "Well, that depends on a lot of factors," I hedged. "You know diet and exercise, family history and the like."

Qiang just looked at me, waiting.

"OK," I conceded. "Nowhere near two hundred and fifty. But is that a reason to downgrade her importance, that you're going to spend less time with her in proportion to what she going to spend with you?"

He cocked his head at me. "In proportion?"

"Well, yeah. To you fifty or sixty years is a drop in the bucket, a pleasant diversion. To her it's her entire life. Kinda sucks for her to spend it with someone who can't bring themselves to love her."

I could see him grow defensive, but I was pretty sure it was because I struck a nerve.

"You don't understand," he announced.

"What, death? Sorry, but we humans live with death all the time. Just considering natural causes, there's a disturbingly large number of ways to lose a loved one. And when you factor in how well we can destroy each other, the chance a lover might pass before you is pretty sobering."

His expression had changed. He was still as imperious as always, but underneath seemed to be almost pity.

"What?" I asked.

"But you're not human." He paused. "And you will outlive Dakota. By many centuries."

I pulled up short. He was right, of course. That hadn't entirely sunk in yet. "I know," I replied. "But it seems to me that since my time with her will be brief, I should make all I can of it. I mean, is it really going to feel better when I lose her that I was distant to her?"

"Some would say so."

I had no immediate answer. Ultimately, all I had to say was: "You know, that may be. You gotta do what you gotta do. But I can't see distancing Dakota today for what will happen tomorrow. It's not fair to her." I thought about a Billy Joel song I always kind of liked, and quoted it. "'I won't hold back anything, and I'll walk away a fool or a king'." After a pause I added; "Maybe a little of both."

He sneered. "I would say you are both already."

"Could be, could be," I conceded. It was good to see him smile, even if was to be snarky to me. I considered what I was going to say next. It seemed to be dancing the edge of what would be acceptable, but it also seemed important. "And, you know, it's not fair to Mingzhu either. If you won't, or can't, love her completely, is it right to keep her from someone who can?"

Oh, that was so not what he wanted to hear. But even though he snarled something fierce at me, the anger didn't seem to follow to his eyes. I couldn't say what I saw there, but it wasn't anger. He shook himself once again, and was back to the familiar imperious condescension. But at least it wasn't gut-me-where-I-stood fury. Yet.

"When you became a dragon, why didn't you simply become your own kind of dragon?" he asked with some exasperation.

"My own kind of dragon? What, am I somebody else's kind of dragon?"

He fixed me with a look that said I was below his contempt, but he would manage it anyway. After a minute, I put together what he meant.

"Oh, you mean why didn't I become a European dragon instead of a Chinese dragon."

"Obviously."

"Well, to begin with there wasn't exactly a check list presented to me when I changed. Secondly, I didn't get up that morning planning on turning into a dragon that night. Trust me, 'Oh boy think I'll turn into a dragon tonight' was nowhere in my mind."

"How did you become a dragon?"

"Swallowed a pearl." I shrugged.

"Where did it come from?"

It appeared he hadn't been paying attention when Chang went over this. Somehow, I wasn't surprised.

"I purchased it set into a ring. But way back when, Chang created it."

"How did it get into a ring?"

I think this may have been the longest he asked me non-sarcastic questions.

"That no one knows."

"And what precipitated you swallowing the pearl?"

"I was being robbed and swallowing the ring seemed better than giving it to the thieves. Not that I exactly thought it through. It was more of an impulse."

He nodded. "Not unexpected. From what you're saying, it may well have already chosen you."

"Could be. And you don't like me? Trust me, the next guy in line was a serious rat-bastard. And a son-of-bitch, just to round it out."

"I'm quite sure there are many people worse than you. I never said you were a bad person," he said dismissively. "Just that you don't deserve to be a dragon."

"Why, thank you for clearing that up. I feel so much better about myself."

He just looked at me and sighed. "While this has been a maddening distraction, there are things I must attend to."

"It doesn't involve wholesale tree massacres, does it?" While I felt obliged to ask, he did seem much calmer than when we started.

"No." His tone was dry. "I will not destroying any more trees today." He paused for a moment, looking me over. I was beginning to feel objectified. "I suppose I should wish you well. Farewell." He rose into the air, cleared the trees, and was gone.

Well, hopefully this would be the beginning of a beautiful tolerance.

**************

I was at the Dragon's Garden with some women I work with after our shift ended. It felt strange being there without Sebastian, but it had been a long shift and I didn't feel like cooking. So we sat there much longer than we should have, gossiping and giggling close to when the restaurant closed. When we received our checks, mine had small note tucked underneath it.