A Shared Secret

 On an old world that used to teem with dragons a glow lit a blue green waterfall eerily from behind. What lay behind the crashing waters to draw the two within to this old dragon's lair?  Deep within the damp cave hidden behind the waterfall the walls glistened as the flames of a fire making them sparkle.  A low murmur wafted toward the front, the words just barely audible.

Coming to this old cave had been arduous, but it had been a place that they had both longed to see and explore.  It was near impossible to get to this cave as it hung high above the river strewn land below that had been scraped out by a catastrophe eons ago.  There was only one small strip left of the cliff that held the river and the cave far below it behind its crashing water.  It had taken all day to finally break through the cool waters.

Now in the depths of night a man and a woman sat near a fire both of them having a secret that they wanted to share.  Both loved each other, but had yet to confess something that stymied their relationship.  This place that reminded them of the tales of old and the magnificent dragons that had once lived there was the perfect place to do this.

"Can you keep a secret?"

The woman was the first to brave her fears of revealing her secret.  Her words were tense.  The question hung heavy in the air as she sat with her back to the sparkling wall facing the man that she loved.  She feared what he would do when he knew her secret.  Will he run away from me or will he accept it, accept me? She wanted nothing more than to let him know what she had been keeping from him since they had met.

He was taller than she even as he sat looking at her perplexed.  The air cracked with tension as she waited for his answer. He was quite handsome.  She had seen none that could match his allure.  He alone made her forget her loneliness in this old world. His long dark locks bound within a braid and the beard that was just as dark marked him as different than most of the men in town.  His piercing gray eyes bored into her making her question whether she was doing the right thing.

"I can."  His low voice vibrated in answer.  His mind wandered a bit questioning how she had managed a fire with damp wood and no fire making tools.  He could do it, but she had no clue of what he really was. He had not noticed any supplies for the fire laying about and they had carried none with them.  It was perplexing.

She released the breath she didn't know she held.  Her green eyes sparkled as a small smile appeared on her pale face turning an ordinary beauty into something extraordinary.  With a wayward hand she brushed her smoky gray hair back before she began.

"Maerik, do you know of the legend of one of the most unusual dragons that had once lived here?"  She asked her heart thudding at a frantic pace.

"Are you referring to Kaayle’s tragic triangle?"

"I am!" Clayre was relieved that he knew of this fantastic love story.  Her face grew pink as she remembered how potent that love was.  Kaayel had looked beyond what was normally acceptable to love whom he wanted.

"It was a beautiful example of how love can overcome anything.  It is an utter shame that love like that no longer exists.  Between the deadly sickness and the war that killed all the dragons our ancestors did not have a chance for more of that type of love."

"Indeed. This world seems empty without them and their powerful love here."  He agreed, his voice dipping on the husky side as his love for her grew.  In his mind he knew that that kind of love could be again.  Though he did not want to give his own secret away to her just yet.  He was afraid that she would run away if she knew what he really was despite her words.  He loved her and wanted to keep her love no matter what.

Her throat constricted, as if her own body was trying to keep her secret.  He has to know.  I cannot lie to him anymore.  Drawing in a ragged breath she gathered her courage to blurt out her big secret.

"That love is not lost forever to this world.  Dragons and their ability to love so strongly are not entirely gone either, Maerik."

He froze in his spot not believing what he had heard.  Does she already know my secret?  How could she possibly have found out?  I have been very careful.  "What exactly do you mean?"  He asked, his dark brow arching high.

I-I am a dragon."

His heart leaped in his chest.  This could not have been more perfect.  He would never have guessed that this lovely creature that he had only known as a human and loved anyway was in fact a dragon.  This made his own secret so much better.  He could already feel the bloom of love grow in his heart.

Clayre fidgeted when he did not say anything.  She worried that he would turn and run away never to see her again.  She wrung her hands and bit on her lip as the time grew longer and longer.

"Prove it."  Maerik said so suddenly, his voice ragged. His unexpected tone and sudden break in silence made her jump.  He had to see what she looked like as a dragon.  He hoped she would still be as beautiful to him as she was now.

"Really, you want to see?"  She wasn't sure if he wanted to see her to be repulsed or otherwise.

"I do."

She could not refuse him. How could she refuse this man that she loved? Within moments her human figure shimmered and grew into a huge gray dragon with sparkling pewter horns and shocking green eyes. In that moment as she revealed herself she could sense more than she ever could as she played the human.  A scent caught her attention surprising her.  It was another dragon.  How can that be?  I am the only one left since the others had died.  It had to be an old lingering scent.  What else could it possibly be?  She gazed at Maerik trying to figure out the enigma around her as well as waiting for his verdict of her.

"Beautiful."  He whispered, amazed at how lucky he was.  He had never seen a dragon so beguiling.  He had to be fair, beyond his now dead family he had seen no other.  He had thought that he was alone.  "You are the most stunning dragon that I have ever seen, Clayre."

She shot a piercing glare at him as she rolled her eyes.  “I am the only dragon that you have seen.  I am the last.”  Her tone was sharp as the fact that she was alone hit her.

Maerik held back a laugh.  She did not know what he was yet.  He needed to calm her.  To make her see her beauty.  Slowly he got up and took the one step it took to come within reach of her.  Looking up into her large green eyes that wanted to believe what he said, but held a sorrow that was not warranted.

“May I touch you?”  His voice was soft, almost a purr.  His hands ached to do this.   She merely nodded in agreement.

At first he touched her smoky gray wing feeling the taut membrane that was so delicate.  That was not enough for him so he moved closer running his hand along any part of her that he could reach in his puny form.  Her scales looked harsh, but were smooth and soft contrary to their armor like appearance. Still, this was not enough.

“Come closer to me, Clayre.”

Without question she lowered her long neck so her large wedge shaped head was mere inches from me.  Her eyes looked warily at me wondering what I would do. With a small smile I drug my eyes from her and looked with longing at her graceful jawline.  Without hesitation I grazed my hand along the smooth scales reveling in their feel.  With her this close my human nose could finally catch her scent and it was a drug that I only wanted more of.

“Beautiful.”  The word came out as a whisper.

"You think I am beautiful?"  She couldn't believe her ears.  He wanted her just as she was.  She wished that he could feel the emotions that she felt right now, but he was merely a human.  Either way she wanted to stay with him as long as she could.

"I would want you no other way."  His eyes caught hers smoldering as his feelings overwhelmed him.

"But I am a dragon and you are a human.  How would that even work?"

"Do not worry about it."  Maerik smiled mischievously ready to let her know his own secret.  "I have a secret of my own."

Without waiting for her response he backed away, immediately noticing the sadness that crept into her eyes.  He tried to reassure her with a look before he closed his piercing gray eyes.  His form changed from this puny human to his natural state, a dragon.  His dark shape grew much larger than her own.  Before long he became a stunning ink black that towered over her in this dragon sized cave.  His gray eyes shone happily as he looked to his smoky gray Clayre with her shocked expression.  He was always meant to be with her and now he was.

When she was finally able to find her voice after gawking at him for several minutes her words rushed out in an ecstatic jumble.  "I am not alone!  I will never be alone again!  My Maerik.  The world has not lost the love of dragons.  It begins anew with us.”

“Yes, and we can live here in this cave where love abounded so many, many years ago. Though we still have our secret to share that we must keep from the others.  We cannot just abandon the humans because we are not.  It would look too suspicious.”  

He wanted nothing more than to stay here and revel in their love, but reality would not stay at bay for long.  The humans would come looking if they did not return.  So they had to keep up pretenses until they could find a way to leave without suspicion and start their dragon lives.

The two came together, gray to black, the last two dragons left on a world that used to be governed by them.  With their love they would begin to repopulate the dragons to their world and the love would once again be bountiful and glorious.