by Renard, Loki
“I closed that portal and I got interrogated and I figured I was just sick with nerves or a cold or something. I didn’t even realize I was late,” Kate said. She looked up at him, her expression earnest. “I had her alone, but there wasn’t a minute I didn’t think about you. I’ve been telling her about you from the day she was born. I was always coming back, Vilka, and I was always going to bring her here. I just didn’t know if I was coming back for her to meet her father, or to see his grave.”
He saw the emotion and the strain in her face and felt a huge wave of pity for her and grief for what had not been.
“I am so sorry you did all this alone.”
“I wasn’t alone,” she said. “Not really. I had Mika, and she is so like you in so many ways, Vilka. She is a bossy, determined little thing. She knows what she wants, and she gets it. Every time I looked into her eyes, I knew we were connected. Forever. And I knew I had to be patient—and that I could be patient and careful, and not just build a damn portal and throw myself through it. It’s not what either of us would have wanted, but there was no other choice. It had to be this way.”
“You’re right,” Vilka nodded, holding her close. “It was necessary, but I wish I had been there to take care of you.”
“You can take care of both of us now,” Kate said. “For the rest of our lives. Deal?”
“Deal,” Vilka agreed, beaming broadly.
Chapter Nineteen
“I am a dinosaur!”
“You’re a dragon.”
“I am a dinosaur .”
At five years old, Mika was still absolutely certain of her identity. No matter how many times her peers and others informed her of her dragon heritage, she rejected it outright. It had been cute at first, and still was at times, but Kate was starting to realize that it wasn’t just some game of make believe Mika was engaging in. It was something deeper than that, a mismatch of identity that played out over and over again every time Mika tried to engage with others.
Kate often encountered the coldness herself when interacting with other dragons. Vilka was now a hero, worshiped as much as he had once been outcast and as a result his presence was much sought after socially, but entire parties would go by at times without anyone beside him so much as acknowledging her presence. Her humanity didn’t just make her different from the dragons. It made her less than them.
Somebody had even inquired as to why Vilka allowed her off a leash, as if they were expecting her to be kept as a chained pet. That inquiry, once made, had not been made again after Vilka’s reaction was observed by all and sundry. The gentleman who suggested Kate be tied to the table found himself forced to take dragon form after being summarily ejected out of a rather tall window. The matter was never brought up again.
Vilka could control what was said in his presence, but he could not control what was not said. He could not control the lack of warmth or even interest toward Kate, and he certainly couldn’t help the way the whelplings treated Mika.
“Dinosaur, dinosaur, dinosaur!” Mika stood at the doorway and shouted the words after her playmates, who were fleeing now, giggling among themselves. They only came to play in order to torment Mika, as far as Kate could tell, and their play sessions often ended with Mika in tears of frustration. They were only small, but Kate could see the future playing out in their little interactions, and she did not like it one little bit.
She had to do something about it. Now. As happy as she was with Vilka, time was passing, Mika was growing by the day and matters were coming to a head one way or another.
“Vilka, I need to talk to you about something,” she said, listening to the pounding of Mika’s feet as she ran up to her room to play alone.
“What is it?” His casual drawl told her he did not sense what was coming. He did not seem to notice the subtle cruelties inflicted on the female members of his family. Perhaps because he had been through much worse in his own youth.
There was no way to be subtle about it. She just had to come out and say it.
“I don’t want Mika to live in this realm. She doesn’t fit and I don’t think she ever will.”
The flash of hurt she had known would appear burst across Vilka’s face. “What do you mean?”
“I want Mika to grow up around humans,” Kate attempted to explain. “The others are already noticing how different she is, and she’s too headstrong to just be quiet and try to fit in. I can see her spending the rest of her life fighting just to be what she is, and I don’t want her to grow up as an outcast. She’s too precious for that, Vilka. And she’s more human than she is dragon. I think we should return to Earth.”
His brows drew down, perplexed. “You want to be free of me?”
“No! I want you to come there with us. I want to live there with you. I want you to be a father to Mika and a husband to me. Haven’t you spent enough time here? Don’t you want to see the world half of you came from?”
Emotion flashed in Vilka’s eyes. “The world which my mother had to flee, and in which I was at risk of being harmed as an infant? That world? The world which would still harm me if it knew what I was? And Mika too?”
“Yes,” Kate nodded. “That world. I know it’s not the safest choice. I know it’s safer to stay here and sit at the end of this rock, but I can’t. I want more for us.”
“And what will stop us from being detected the way my parents were? They tried to live an Earthly paradise. They were not allowed to.”
“You’re just afraid,” she said. “That’s not a reason to stay away from Earth. It’s not as bad as you think. It’s full of all sorts of thing you don’t even know about, like public education, and advanced technologies… and Chinese food!”
“I do have something to fear,” he said solemnly. “I have two someones to fear losing. You and Mika. Whatever Chinese food is, it is not worth either of your lives.”
“You know you can’t hold me prisoner this time, Vilka,” she said gently. “I have to do what is best for Mika. This is not her world, and I don’t think it ever will be.”
There was an unbearable tension that made tears bead in her eyes. She really didn’t want to be without Vilka, he was her heart and her soul. But Mika needed more than what the dragon realm could provide her with. Vilka had suffered for being raised there, and he was half-dragon. Mika’s path would inevitably be more painful, and that Kate would not watch.
“I am not going to hold you prisoner,” he replied. “Not of anything besides your conscience, which will hold you as it will. You are safe here. Mika is safe here. And she will not necessarily grow as an outcast. I am not Vilka the pariah any longer. I am Vilka, he who bested Avastias. We could enjoy a long life of great riches here. And you, you came to study, and I have shown you much in the way of this realm. I have shown you how we coax precious gems from the rocks, how we work the elements with our skin. Mika may yet have some of these talents…”
Kate had been impressed with the way dragons manipulated metals and precious stones. They were masters of solid material; something in their very makeup allowed them to restructure the bonds of rock and turn it to gold, or lead or even diamond if they so desired. As a result, the realm was utterly festooned in the kinds of riches that would have made the wealthiest people on Earth appear mere paupers. But material magic was not enough.
“It’s not about what I can learn, Vilka,” she said. “It’s not about me at all.”
“I will give you permission to visit Earth as you please…”
“You will give me permission ?” Kate growled the word at him. “You haven’t heard a damn thing, have you, Vilka?”
“I have heard it,” he said, stony-faced. “And I have made my decision. Mika has seen dragons here. If she tells people of the portal, if she speaks of the dragons…”
“She doesn’t talk about dragons. She talks about dinosaurs. Even if she did, every kid her age talks about dragons,” Kate sighed. “It’s all anyone back on Earth talks about ever. There are entire groups of people
claiming to be dragons. They put on fake claws and wings and they go into the woods and pretend to fight one another.”
Vilka looked at her with an expression of extreme incredulity. “Why?”
“Because people are silly,” Kate said. “And you’d know that, if you visited.”
There was a very long silence in which Kate’s stomach churned. Finally Vilka nodded. “Very well,” he agreed. “One day. I will give you one day to convince me as to why Earth is a better place for us than our native realm.”
“Your father’s native realm,” she mumbled under her breath. “As a group, we’re about as native to this realm as kangaroos are to fishbowls.”
“Kangaroos?”
“You have a lot to learn, mister,” Kate said, kissing his cheek. “I’m going to get us ready.”
Chapter Twenty
“You’re sure we can only stay a day?” Kate was not at all sure how she could possibly show Vilka that Earth represented a world worth living in within twenty-four hours. She couldn’t even show him all of New York in that time.
“That is ten days for Mika,” he reminded her. “She will miss you terribly.”
“She will barely notice I’m gone,” Kate laughed. “She loves your parents. Especially Vyktor.”
“He is so soft with her,” Vilka agreed. “I believe he would let her do anything she pleased. I do not know what happened to the man who raised me.”
“That is how it is,” Kate said. “Parents get the tough stuff, grandparents get the fun stuff. And think, when we live here, a week’s vacation taken from here will be more than two months there. She will have the longest vacations.”
“As long as nobody notices that our daughter appears to be growing at an astounding rate relative to her peers,” Vilka said.
“True,” Kate agreed. “It will be awkward if she ages a year over summer break for sure, but we can work around these things.”
“You continue to think anything is possible, don’t you,” Vilka said with a certain fondness.
“I know it is,” Kate replied. “Mika is evidence of that.”
“Alright, my love,” Vilka said. “Show me the wonders of this world of yours.”
They held hands and stepped through the portal.
* * *
“What is…” Vilka’s voice trailed off into silent, stunned incomprehension. The first hour or so on Earth had been spent in Kate’s apartment. That had been doable. His first cab ride had been an adventure, but he’d taken that in stride too. Now, Kate was wondering if she had pushed him too far too fast.
Standing amidst bustling crowds rushing back and forth between brightly lit high-rise buildings, Kate watched a wide variety of expressions flashing over Vilka’s face. She did not know that she had taken him to the right place to make an introduction to the human world, but Times Square was iconic and so much of what was different about the human world could be seen there.
Billboards flashed high above their heads, entertainers moved among the crowds wearing various cartoon suits, some dressed as dragons, which made Vilka snort. Jutting out from one of the buildings, a large animatronic dragon hung out over the crowds. Vilka made a beeline for it and laughed roundly at it.
“Mika’s dinosaur drawings are closer to the real thing,” he snorted. “That is what they think we are? Pot-bellied lizards with stumpy little wings?”
“That’s for kids,” she tried to explain. “I told you dragons are in right now.”
“Yes, but so small, so cheap…”
“Don’t get the urge to show them your dragon form,” she reminded him. “It won’t go down well.”
“I am not foolish, Kate,” he reminded her. “I know better than to be reckless.” He turned around, looking around the crowd with an expression of wonder. “There are so many humans.”
“Six billion or so,” Kate nodded. “Total, on the planet, I mean.”
His expression became one of confused distaste. “Six billion? That is far too many. Every crevice of this realm must have a human stuffed in it.”
“Not entirely, no. There are places where there are no humans for miles around. Relatively few of them now,” Kate admitted, “but they exist. And there are wild spaces left too.”
“Hmph,” Vilka said. “I see no evidence of that.”
“Because we’re in Times Square,” she replied. “This is one of the most populated places on Earth. There are people from all over the world here.”
Vilka stood out, even in that crowded square. There was nothing obviously different about him, he was tall, but not outlandishly so, and he was broad, but again, there were other men with similar proportions. What made him so different was how very raw he was. There was something wild and unfiltered about him, even in his buttoned-down shirt and sweater and chinos.
She was not the only one to see it. It soon became apparent that women were looking at him, their gazes lingering and appreciative. Kate curled her fingers in his a little harder as they moved through the throngs of people. Vilka did not seem to notice them, until…
“Why is that woman dressed so scantily?”
He was directing his attention to one of the street walkers, a woman in very high heels and a very short skirt and a top that was more like a bandage around her breasts than any kind of covering.
“Dragons don’t wear any clothes at all,” she reminded him.
“Humans do,” Vilka replied. “Besides, what she is wearing is somehow more suggestive than her being outright naked would be. Why is she an exception?”
Kate sighed inwardly. This was not going to please him at all.
“She sells her body, to make money.”
Vilka looked at Kate, his brows hitting his hairline. “That is what women do here, is it? Sell themselves to men? This is where you want our daughter to grow up?”
“Well, not all of them,” Kate said. “Not many, even.”
Vilka’s expression remained stony. Kate’s heart sank. Nothing seemed to please him the entire day. He had an almost perpetual scowl on his face as he encountered each new experience.
“This place is crowded, decadent, and dirty,” he said. “Look how the debris clutters the streets and these car machines, poor substitutes for wings. They are noisy and they smell…”
“Let’s get something to eat,” she suggested finally. “I like this Chinese place.”
They got some food and sat in the little hole in the wall shop to eat it. Vilka didn’t seem comfortable with the chopsticks or the fork, but followed her mode of eating as well as he could. She looked at him, sitting there stiffly on a chair that was too small for him and felt an odd sadness. He was so out of place. Was it even fair to ask him to try to live here?
As they were eating, a police car sped by, lights and sirens blaring. It pulled to a halt down the block and officers exited the vehicle.
“Who are those men?”
“Police,” Kate explained. “Guards of a sort.”
“Who do they report to?”
“I guess the mayor.”
“So the mayor is the king?”
“We don’t have kings anymore. Not real ones anyway. The people vote for leaders. We have a president, but only for eight years maximum.”
“So your realm must be in constant unrest,” he observed.
“Well… I guess,” Kate admitted.
“No king,” he mused to himself. “Interesting. And this works?”
“Well, it’s what led to all of this,” she said, gesturing at the city.
“Everything is faster here,” he said. “It is more different than I could have imagined.”
“It used to be like the dragon realm,” Kate said. “I mean, hundreds of years ago there were still kings and fortresses, but things have advanced since then.”
“An advanced civilization built on the backs of mayflies,” he said, shaking his head. “This world is an exercise in contradictions. It never stops moving. It never stops to think. It goes on and one, one thing happening a
fter the other, people rushing here and there…”
“Oh, my god,” Kate said, dropping her chopsticks into the box. “You like it.”
“I certainly do not.”
“Yes, you do,” she laughed. “This is just like when you used to lecture me for being willful and careless and all the rest of it. You love this place and you can’t admit it to yourself.”
“It is interesting,” Vilka admitted. “There are so many things here I do not understand. I admit, I am curious.”
“You defeated Avastias,” Kate reminded him. “You can handle anything this world has to throw at us.”
“My father thought as much…”
“Your parents tried living on an island with a running portal months after the biggest military strike in history,” she said. “We can live here, hidden in plain sight. I can continue my research at the university, we will never have to want for money thanks to your ability to manipulate precious metals.”
“And what happens when we wish to travel between the realms?”
“My portals aren’t big and noisy,” she said. “Mine are discreet. They’re not going to be detected. We can use the funds from the jewel working to buy a place—nothing too extravagant… we can have a life here, Vilka. And Mika can grow up as the dinosaur she really is.”
* * *
Vilka smirked at his mate. She was right. The city was intoxicating, the sheer mass of humanity, each going about their various businesses in a great sprawling, interlinked mass. This was what he had been missing. And this was what Mika would miss too if he denied her the chance to be human.
“It’s probably not always going to be perfectly safe here,” Kate admitted, fidgeting nervously. “It will definitely be messy. Humans aren’t creatures of order. We’re little sparks of chaos who come together to make great things. But that’s part of you and it’s part of Mika and…”
“Kate,” he said suddenly, standing and offering his hand to her. “We are going back to the room. Now.”