Under Six Eyes I

"So ... what do you want to talk about?"

My question echoed through the cave. With every repeat it sounded less confident. The dragon seemed to ponder on my words for a while. She stared at me, her eyes jerking up and down, like she was scanning me line by line. The woman looked between me and the dragon back and forth, as if she was expecting something. After a while the silence became too awkward, so I tried another question.

"Hello Lady, what is your name?"

The woman's head jerked back. I had started her. She opened mouth and only one voice came out. It fit her appearance perfectly.

"My name is Ophelia.I am the tongue of the storm-mother. It's a pleasure to meet you, adventurer from outside the forest."

While she introduced herself, she grabbed the sides of her skirt and pulled them apart in a curtsy that would have befitted any noble's court, at least according to the stories I've read in my journal.

"And you are?", she asked, still with her single voice. The light in her eyes had dimmed down until only a glimmer remained.

"I am Nothol, nice to meet you."

"And what brought you to Hallow's Pond?"

Ophelia's voice carried genuine curiosity. I told her what I had experienced since I had left my village. How Skarra had saved me, our adventure in Bluestone and that I had followed the darkling here. Everything about the silent ways and our meeting with Ougen, I neglected to tell.

"... and well I started that journey to find amazing things in our world and document them in my journal but since we left Bluestone I kinda just go along with the ride. And I guess that's it."

I had spent at least five minutes monologuing, describing every detail of my journey so far (at least of the parts I was willing to tell). After hearing my words a growl arose from the dragon's body, echoing from the walls of the cave-like hall and causing my unbandaged leg to shake. Farheia's head laid down on the ground near Ophelia, like it was a fox, readying itself to leap. Her eyes began to glow once more. As she spoke her voice was layered again, her tone way more assertive.

"And I ought to believe that rubbish?"

Farheia stared daggers into my eyes, like she still decided whether to hear my answer to Ophelia's question or just bite off my head. Was it even her question? The wording and her whole tone was so absurdly different from what it was before.

"Pardon me?", I asked, my voice nothing more than a squeak against the growling of the dragon. "I don't think I understand?"

The dragon head rose up, slithered in a long circle through the air and came to a halt a mere arms length away from my face. Up close I could see the scales that paved her whole body, they weren't black, like I had thought, but white and blue. Farheia blew her breath into my face causing me to cough and take a step back. Problem was my other leg was still in no condition to carry the weight of my body and so it gave way and I fell on my butt. Pain shot through my body and mixed with my confusion produced rage.

"OUCH. FOR … SAKE. WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?"

I regretted the words the instant I had shouted them.

"My problem is that you want to make me believe that you are nothing but a countryside bumbling while carrying two artifacts around. You can't be stupid enough to think I would believe that. If you don't tell me the truth this instant, your injured limbs will be the least of your problems."

Fear grasped my heart. I grabbed my journal, opened it on the current page and held it towards Farheia. The dragon looked down on the book trying to read the strange language the words were written in.

"And that is supposed to prove what exactly?"Ophelia asked with her layered voices, before taking a few steps forwards and grabbing the book. Her next line was delivered way softer and with only one voice.

"If I may."

She flipped through the book until she reached the side Ougen had edged the pattern into. After a short inspection, she turned to the current page again.

"Can you make it write in our language?", she asked, her voice still soft as a falling leaf.

Note: The rest of this chapter was produced by the pattern in my native language, but after my experience I rewrote the chapter by hand, so you guys can read it.

"I can try", I said. Instead of the strange language I had learned from the book I tried to think in my native language again. Some would call me weird, but I found it embarrassing, like I was disclosing the inner workings of my mind. Ophelia nodded soothingly.

"It's working. The pattern in the front of the book will convey events as you perceive them, in other words you can willingly tell a lie towards this book. Please tell us again, was everything you told us about how you got here true?"

"Most of it. I left out that the second artifact I possess is a map that can guide people through the silent ways and that that was the way we got here, but everything else was nothing short of the truth", I said honestly.

Ophelia's shoulders relaxed a bit. She closed my journal and gave it back. After helping me stand back up, her voice parted again.

"I guess an apology is in order."

"Oh, no it's ok, really. Farheia startled me a bit, no need for you to apologize Ophelia. If someone should be sorry, it's her … not that I would dare ask a dragon to apologize to a lowly human like me."

Both the dragon and the woman looked at me like I was an idiot.

"Wait, you … you really don't know what a dragon's tongue is?

Ophelia asked me with one voice.

"The thing between their jaws?"

I point towards my own tongue. Farheia jerked her head up and a thunderous laugh came out of Ophelia's mouth. It took a long, demeaning while for Opheila to calm down. As she did, she asked me with one voice:

"Didn't you notice something when I speak?"

"Well, yeah. Your voice becomes weird sometimes."

"Every time you hear two voices coming out of my mouth, it's the storm-mother speaking through me."

The dragon's head sunk down and looked at me again. A single tear ran down her scaly cheek. Ophelia's voice changed again.

"I would speak this close to a human, even a whisper would tear your eardrums apart. So in order to communicate with humans, Ophelia here is kind enough to lend me her voice. That is what we call a dragon's tongue."

"So everytime her voice became weird…"

"It was me speaking, yes", said the dragon.

"That is so cool."