Chapter 5 -

Chapter 5

The sun had set and it was twilight. The stars were beginning to peep through as pinky-blue sky continued to darken. I was depressed and tired. I sat down on the ground, rested my back against the rock I'd been sitting on, turned off my mp4 player as the music playing was making me sadder. I fell asleep which was not a good idea in the land of orcs and whatevers but fuck'em. My attitude was still with me.

I awoke suddenly when something or someone nudged my foot. Instantly I sprang to the top of the rock ready to do battle.

It took me a few moments to realize that the nudger was not here to attack me as he moved back a couple of steps. I saw his dimly glowing eyes and knew it was Arvin.

"Gladimhere, it's me, Arvin. You need to come back to the cave. It's not safe out here alone and I would still worry about you all night that I couldn't sleep. Besides Zeek is beside himself and driving me up the wall. Every night bat that screeches he thinks it's you being roasted alive. He is so totally in love with you."

"No he doesn't," I said dejectedly, "He wouldn't even look at me after the fight. When I left to come here he turned and walked into the cave. When we were swimming today I lent into give him a kiss and he swam away from me."

"Of course not, he's an elfin boy. He's not supposed to show his emotions especially towards another boy. He shows them to me because I'm his best friend and I'm a dragon. Even though you are human you two are physically similar. I saw him swim away from you and I saw the disappointment on your face. Give him time. He doesn't have a nice life partly because of me and partly because he's not like the other elves."

I jumped down off the rock.

"Why do you put up with me?" I muttered.

"Because I love you. You were amazing today. What you did in a few seconds would have taken me a few minutes. I would have probably gotten a few wounds but there would have been three dead orcs. It was strange that they even approached us because normally orcs stay away from me."

"Why?"

"Well, when I first came here I injured a few of them. It's how I met Zeek."

"Tell me about it," I said as we walked slowly back to the cave.

"He was on the narrow part of Dragons tail and it was quite late he'd fallen asleep and an orc was about to spear him. He was the first elf I'd ever seen and he was so pretty I could let the orc hurt him so I hurt the orc. Of course Zeek was terrified. I think he thought he'd be my dessert. He started talking to me. His voice was like music and it matched his beauty. I was so fascinated by him I really wasn't paying attention to what he was saying. He seemed almost as magical as you."

Arvin let out a chuckle and then continued, "He asked me if I was going to eat him. I told him I could never eat anything as sweet and beautiful as him. I told him I would protect him throughout the night. We ended up talking almost all night. We poured our hearts out to each other. He was a complete stranger and yet once I got started I found I couldn't stop opening up too. That night I fell in love with him not from a mating point of view because he is an elf and I'm a dragon, but it was the purest love there is -- complete and total trust in each other."

"When I returned home I told my family that I had met an elfin boy who was so beautiful and kind. When I said how much I loved Zeek my father was infuriated with me. How could his son love some low creature like an elf and a boy at that. He decided to sell me into servitude for two years to an orc family," Arvin chuckled.

"What?" I queried.

"I basically told him to eat orcshit and I left never to return. When I got hear I met Zeek here. He refused to talk to me which I later found out was because of being friendly with me but at the time I was angry and I let it show and he fainted. I gave him the dark cave treatment. He pretty much was like you, except he didn't spend an hour listening to his echo," laughed Arvin.

"Hey for a while it was fun."

"Now I have a question for you. Have you told Zeek that you love him?" asked Arvin.

I realized that we had talked, more socially than on a personal basis. In fact I knew very little about him or his life and he knew nothing about my life. I had stopped walking just outside the cave. Was my attraction purely his physical beauty? That's pretty shallow. I don't even know how old he is or what his favorite color is or a million other things.

"No."

"You know I think I'll do a little star gazing."

When I entered the cave I saw Zeek sitting with his arms wrapped around his knees in front of a small fire. He looked at me. I smiled. He returned the smile. I joined him at the fire. As I sat he stared at the fire. My heart was beating so fast. I looked at him and he was still staring at the fire.

"I found what I lost at the point," I said.

"That's good," he said looking at the fire.

"Then I watched the sunset. It was a beautiful sunset but I didn't really notice it because I was feeling sad." I sighed as he continued looking at the fire. He said nothing. I think maybe Arvin was wrong about his feelings for me. I'm trying to talk to him and he just looks at the fire like he's not interested. I thought of giving up and crawling away and going to sleep.

I took out my mp4 player. I put on the earphones. I started humming the song that I listening to while I closed my eyes. The song was called `An Angel'. It was one of my favs so I put it on repeat. Music soothes my soul. Music is my magic. By the time it was on the third repeat I began singing along with the song. As I finished singing I looked up to see Zeek staring at me.

"Sorry, I got carried away. I probably sound horrible, huh?"

"No. You sound beautiful," he said softly, "What are those things you put in your ears?"

"Earphones and they connect to my mp4 player which luckily is a solar powered mp4 player. I have over five thousand songs downloaded on my player. Here you want to listen?"

He nodded so I stop the player and I reached over hooked the earphones over his ears.

"You push this if you want it louder or this if you want it softer and this button starts and stops the song," I explained and handed him the player.

I pushed the start/stop button.

His mouth dropped open and his eyes opened wide and after a few seconds he said loudly like people do when they have earphones on, "It's beautiful!"

When the song finished I took the player from him but not the earphones. I was anxious to see what he'd think of a purely instrumental piece of music so I selected the theme song from Braveheart. It was fairly short and had numerous instruments. I saw a tear roll down his cheek which I gently wiped away. He smiled at me. I smiled back.

I then selected a techno song by Nemo. He really loved it I could tell because his feet were moving to the beat and a huge smile was on his face.

"It's magic!" he said.

"Music is magical to me, but this," I pointed to the player, "This is science and science doesn't believe in magic. Where I come from magic was lost a long time ago and most people don't believe in it. It only exists in stories and folklore. I don't know how or why I am here. I think there is magic in all of us we just have to believe it's there. I think life is magic."

"Today, when I fought the orcs it was because I was afraid they would hurt you and I-I really like you a lot and so I did what I did. Afterwards, I thought that maybe I'd lost you and Arvin as friends and it saddened me because I was alone again with no one who cares about me."

"But that's not true!" exclaimed Zeek

"I know that now. Arvin came to get me which showed he cared. I told him that I really liked you -- A LOT! But I didn't think you even liked me. He asked me if I'd told you how I feel and I realized that I hadn't but not only that I realize that I knew that I knew nothing about you -- what your favorite color is or what your life is like or what you believe in or even what you hate. And you know nothing about me really. I want to know everything about you - the good, the bad, the ugly and the beautiful. And I want you to know everything about me too. Do you want that too? If not that's fine, too. I guess." I started looking at the fire.

"My favorite color is brown, like your hair but I also like blue like your eyes," Zeek said softly.

That was the beginning and after several hours we ended up falling asleep next to each other.