Second Mercy - Video; after Darkness

[returnsmagic]

[ The view shows the city after Dark, illuminated by its sparse, lukewarm lights that dotted the streets and the buildings. It seems like the recording device is floating in the air, thanks to this view. There is a heavy, repeating noise, like massive wings flapping in a steady, rhythmic beat.

The NV's owner is not seen, but he speaks, a heavy, clearly inhuman voice. ]

So much despair and bloodshed in these past nights. By evil or by evil's victims, it is hard to say.

In some ways I miss the evil of home, where it is clear where and how to fight. There the causalities, and they are either missed or celebrated in its demise. But here, the difference is not as so clear, even to me, who has lived for so long. A shame of my fault. As a son of Paladine, the god of justice and all that is good, I should have hold the wisdom to know the difference.

But I do not, it bothers me. So tell me this: how can you tell?

Comments

[summing_it_up]

Telling- telling what???

[returnsmagic]

Difficult to say, when you cannot hear their words.

If I speak dragon right now, you will hear nothing but growls and rumbling. But you and I, right now, understand each other perfectly, all because I wish to understand other people, and thus learned new languages.

Do you understand the difference between me talking to you right now, and another dragon roaring at you?

[summing_it_up]

And that's the weird part. Just talking like this like it's nothing new. But I can tell the difference. You sound like...a human. On a more, y'know, awesome level.

...I'm sorry, it's- this doesn't normally happen back where I'm from.

[returnsmagic]

Are the dragons in your world come into constant conflict with you and your people?

[summing_it_up]

[He snorts.] Yeah. All the time.

But for good reason! It pretty much boils down to food sources being stolen and having to rebuild our houses whenever they're destroyed.

[returnsmagic]

And yet, you are still unable to hear what they are saying.

[summing_it_up]

This is starting to sound just like the talks with the unusually large cat floating around!

[returnsmagic]

I have no idea of who or what you are referring too.

Let me put this an example. You come across a dog, and you take him as a companion. You cannot speak Dog, and the dog cannot speak Human. Yet, you and the dog are able to understand each other, whether the dog barks at something in the woods or when you whistle for the dog's return.

My point being, you and the dog have created your own words to understand one another. You can truly hear.

[summing_it_up]

[He looks away for a moment, frowning in thought. A short shrug is given.]

Well...that does make a lot more sense...And it also applies to dragons.

But. Do you just...know when you're able to get what either of you are trying to say??

[returnsmagic]

It takes patience and mercy to understand one another. All it takes is to drop a sword, or lower a talon, for the first communication to take place.

[summing_it_up]

...Iii think I might have already done something to that extent.

[returnsmagic]

Then you are taking the first steps to friendship.

[summing_it_up]

Really? I mean, it sounds great, but...it wasn't the best time to start one.

[returnsmagic]

[ There's a chuckle emerging from that serpentine neck. ]

It wasn't a best time for my brother Darlantan to save a griffon from a very violent, very painful death from Blayze, another brother of mine. But if it haven't been for the griffons' appreciation, the world would have been a much colder place.

[summing_it_up]

...Wow. I never really thought about it that way.

[returnsmagic]

Like I said, it is the gesture that makes everything worthwhile.

[summing_it_up]

It- it does.

I never thought I'd be told this from a dragon, though.

[returnsmagic]

Wisdom is not an innate force. It must grow, like a sapling, into something great and can reach to the heavens.

[summing_it_up]

I wish I heard something like this more often, actually. But...it doesn't seem like there's enough time for that.

[returnsmagic]

Ah, time. It is a foe to many.

[ Except not to Aurican, who is only at the comfortable old age of six thousand years old. ]

Then the first order of business in gaining wisdom is to simple stand still.

[summing_it_up]

Stand still?

...But I am standing still. Unless you mean watching and learning from everything.

[returnsmagic]

You are standing still because I caught your interest.

Don't tell me you don't have any interests that pertained to you.

[summing_it_up]

I...do. It just. Never fit with any of the interests the other Vikings had.

[returnsmagic]

Then do not fit your interests to theirs. My brothers never cared for my likening for meditation, history, or magic, and I never did expect them too. I didn't even obtained my own lair, filled with treasure. Some say this is very un-dragonlike behavior, but I do not mind.

[summing_it_up]

Huh. Treasure in a lair? That's...hard to imagine. [He shrugs.] I'm still surprised that your interests are really normal. Un-Vikinglike - just like some of mine.

...I don't know if I can fully commit into this, though.