Palpable

What May Come

What May Come 
Challenge: Uncertainty 

» She might be scared of dying, but Victoria always laughed about it because laughter made her feel brave.

UNCERTAINTY

The grass prickled her arms. Gentle snores from her companions harmonized with the crackling of dying embers. The night sky was startling clear, the stars twinkling so brightly that they reminded her of home and that song her maman used to sing to her and her brother. Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder where you are ...

Tori pushed herself up, walked over to Draco, who had taken watch in these dead hours of the night as usual, and settled down beside him. He didn't say anything, and she did not either for a while either. She didn't know how he could look so calm, not when tonight could be the last they saw.

"Aren't you scared?"

Draco didn't make any indication that he had heard her question, but she knew that he had heard her, no matter how softly she had spoken. He was a dragon: his hearing was better than a human's.

"Of what?"

"I don't know. I guess it's weird to think that any day might be my last, with Ambrose ..." She left the rest unsaid. With your sister and your father constantly tracking us down and trying to kill us. With not knowing what tomorrow might bring.

"I am not scared of dying, Victoria." He smiled at her slightly, a fang curling over his lip. "Are you?"

"Of course!" She laughed a little, because laughing made her feel braver. She'd rather laugh than cry anyway. "Why else would I be fighting so hard? I don't want to die."

He tilted his head, a strange emotion in his eyes. "I like that about you. We fight amongst ourselves to die. But you fight so hard to live that it is ... bittersweet."

She didn't know what to say, so she stayed silent. She often forgot that they were worlds apart – he seemed so human to her. But then he would say things like this and remind her that the way they thought were so different that it was a miracle that they could find common ground. He was still a dragon, and she was just a human.

Draco bumped her shoulder and she jerked, catching his gaze. There was a sad smile on his face, as if he knew what she was thinking.

"I am going to show you the canyons one day, okay?"

"Canyons? I didn't know Dracónia had a canyon."

"My mentor told me that the Great Earth Dragons of Old hallowed out the earth so that the Great Water Dragons of Old could move the Sea into Dracónia, but made a mistake in their arrogance when they thought they could pervert nature. So, the Earth Mother fixed their mistake for us Drakóns by making this Sea long and narrow, like a serpent, so that it will chip the earth away until it is no more."

But then again ... sometimes, they were so similar that it surprised her.