Chp.29: The priest

Rhaegal looked at the man before him with extreme suspicion. Compared to Black Vulture that person didn't seem very strong, and in fact Rhaegal didn't perceive the typical sensations due to the instinct that warned him when he was facing a worthy rival, but at the same time it made him much more restless.

There was something terribly wrong with the man: Rhaegal sensed no sound, no smell, no movement of the air around his body. It was as if the person wasn't really there, yet they were. And that worried Rhaegal far more than Black Vulture did. Dragons, like all creatures in the world, enjoyed interacting only with things they knew well. Even though they were much more open-minded than animals, they still weren't calm when they came across something they couldn't explain. Of course, not everyone was as eager for knowledge as Haku, but everyone still wanted to have at least a minimal understanding of everything they had to hunt, deal with, defend and so on. Therefore encountering something totally incomprehensible, which clashed with their worldview, was quite disturbing for any dragon.

Everything in the world was made of matter, and as such it interacted with the rest of the environment through smells, sounds, colours, movements and so on; but not that man. The man was like nothing Rhaegal had ever seen or heard of. It was something totally foreign, alien, outside the canons known to him. And therefore Rhaegal was somewhat unsettled. If he hadn't been tied up, he would have recoiled.

At first glance, the man seemed normal. He was an ordinary human being, with pale skin and thin cheekbones and close-cropped brown hair. The only thing that hinted that he was no ordinary person were his flamboyant robes, far more refined than anything Rhaegal had ever seen, and the fact that his eyes were closed. He took a few steps forward and then, to the dragon's surprise, dropped his shoulders and brought a hand to his chest in a half bow. "My warmest regards. It's an honor to meet you, Rhaegal, you who will become the greatest general under the king of all dragons"

It took Rhaegal a few seconds to digest what he had been told. "Huh?" was the sound that came out of his mouth. What was that guy saying!? General? King of all dragons? And why was he speaking in the future? "Who are you?" he asked him.

"Just a humble servant of a great master. The greatest of all masters, who has allowed me to see a glimpse of what awaits you and your family" the man replied. "I am a priest of the God of Knowledge, the one who knows everything that happened in the past, the present and even the future. And he has set his eyes on you and all your siblings, because you are destined for a future such glorious that it cannot even be described with the words of the mortals"

If someone had spoken to Rhaegal like that, he'd probably think he was crazy, or at least that he'd recently drank a disproportionate amount of alcohol, and a high quality one. But for some reason, Rhaegal doubted the man was blustering. That priest was too strange and spoke too confidently. As absurd as his words were, Rhaegal doubted that they were the result of an early form of senile dementia or a party based on beer and other substances of dubious origin. Also, Rhaegal remembered Haku telling him that he had once met a priestess of the God of Knowledge. Haku hadn't gone into detail, he hadn't even told him what they had said, but he had limited himself to telling him that that woman had something terribly wrong, as if she didn't comply with the laws of that world, and on top of that she boasted prophecies even though they didn't not even knowing what she was talking about. Rhaegal, as well as all their siblings, hadn't understood much of it, but since their brother was clearly upset by that experience they had preferred to let it go. Rhaegal had never understood why Haku had been so disquieted by that priestess, but now that in front of him there was a priest of the God of Knowledge he understood perfectly. "I can't understand what you're saying. Me a general? Glorious future? Ridiculous. And there is no king of dragons"

"Not yet. Your brother has just begun the first chapter of his glorious life" the priest replied. "Haku still has a long way to go before he can wear the crown and flaunt it in front of the world with pride"

Rhaegal's eyes widened at not knowing what to say. Haku? What did Haku have to do with it? Wait... Was Haku the king of dragons that man was talking about? The situation was getting more absurd by the second. Was Haku destined to be a king? How ridiculous. Haku wasn't a king, he was...

His thoughts froze. No, thinking about it with a clear mind... maybe those words weren't so absurd. Haku was his brother, but he was also a leader, a planner, and though he had yet to learn how to truly earn people's trust, he genuinely cared about everyone he cared about, he didn't hesitate to put his own life in danger for them and whenever he made a mistake or a mistake towards them and realized it he always tried to fix it and improve. If Haku hadn't been a dragon, probably quite a few people would have thought he had all the qualities to be a good king.

Rhaegal shook his head. Even with these premises, that statement made no sense. A king certainly could not be born by chance. He needed a people to lead, a territory to found his kingdom, resources, loyal subjects, and many other things. Even if Haku had wanted to become the dragon king, and Rhaegal seriously doubted that his brother had ever thought of it, to do so he would first have to convince a good number of dragons to submit to him and serve him, which was impossible. Tracking down a dragon alone would have been difficult, let alone convincing it to swear allegiance to someone else. Dragons were free spirits, and in the case of adult dragons, they were also selfish, self-centered, fierce, and territorial. To say dragons could have a king sounded falser than saying the sun could fall to earth.

"Impossible? And why? In the ancient times there were many dragon nations, and even if today your kind has forgotten how to build a civilized society, that doesn't mean that they can't learn it from scratch if they find the right guidance" the priest suddenly said.

Rhaegal felt a shiver run up his spine. "Did you read my mind?"

"That is not my power. My god has simply allowed me to see all of this moment, including the doubts in your mind" was the priest's reply.

Rhaegal gulped. This situation was getting more and more absurd. He almost wished Black Vulture would come back to torture and taunt him. "Okay, you've piqued my curiosity. What do you want?"

The priest took a small step forward. It was strange indeed: although his eyes were constantly closed, Rhaegal hadn't seen him stumble once, or even move with the slightest hesitation. "I don't want anything. I'm here under orders from my god, because he has a message for you. The future of you and your sisters and brothers looks extraordinary, and your brother could become someone who will be talked about until this world will have left someone with speech, someone who will perform feats so incredible that you and I can only imagine at the moment. But this path isn't a road without obstacles. And an obstacle could very easily push your brother down a dark path. In either way he's going to be someone the whole world will know... but whether people talk about him with love and respect or with hate and fear, that's a decision only your brother can make"

Rhaegal's eyes narrowed. In those words there were many things that disturbed him. First, the fact that a god was interested in him and his family. Then the fact that apparently that priest knew that he and Haku weren't the only dragons in the family; he hadn't noticed it initially, but it was as if the man knew perfectly well that the two of them had many sisters and another brother. But what scared him the most was the fact that he found Haku's description of fate strangely accurate; even if nothing had happened yet, Rhaegal knew that there were as many shadows as lights in his brother, and that it took very little to unleash something terrifying, something that Haku continually tried to repress and erase but never quite succeeded. "If this is a decision only Haku can make, why did you come to me?"

"Because no creature in the world is an island. Everyone has a destiny, but how they fulfill that destiny is only based on the experiences they have received during their life, for better or for worse," replied the priest. "In the future many challenges will await you and you, Rhaegal, will have to make sure that your brother never leaves his path. You will have to make sure that he understands and above all remembers what is important in life. Just like Haku understood that the life of each member of the family is of immense value to him, now you'll have to help him understand that the lives of all his allies are also important, and that he must learn to care about them as much as he cares about you. Only then will he be ready to take his place as king of your kind, and only then can he accomplish the extraordinary feats for which he is destined"

Rhaegal let out a snort. "And how should I do it?"

"Oh, I have no idea about that" was the priest's flat reply.

Rhaegal nearly spat when he heard those words. So it was true that those priests were making prophecies whose meaning not even they knew! "Are you kidding me!? How am I supposed to keep my brother on the straight and narrow if I don't even know what the straight and narrow is?"

"You will have to follow your heart. I can only tell you what my god has allowed me to see" the priest answered. "But I can at least give you one piece of advice, which while it may not seem important to you at the moment, it will someday"

Rhaegal sighed. Well, still better than nothing. "Okay, I'm listening. What is this advice?"

The priest took another step towards him and lowered his head in his direction. Even though his eyes were completely closed, Rhaegal still had the feeling that their gazes were locked. "Three days, six hours, twenty-eight minutes, nine seconds. This will be the time" he said. "When you and your siblings will reach the ocean, fly into the sunset for exactly this amount of time. The place you arrive will be where you can make your home, a home that no army can ever conquer, and that will provide you with the key to create the mightiest army that this world has seen since the gods first came to earth"

Rhaegal nodded. "What's there? An island?"

"At the moment there is nothing" the priest answered. "In the future... there will be much more than an island"

Rhaegal understood that he wouldn't get much more out of the man. "I will treasure these words of yours"

"I know you will" the priest said, then his face became a little more serious. "The choice is yours, yours alone, but I suggest you not inform Haku of our conversation. It's best if people know as little as possible about their future. There's a reason my god allows me and everyone else to his servants to see only a small part of what is to come"

Rhaegal didn't respond. He wasn't sure if he agreed or not with that view, so he avoided giving vain answers and decided that he would choose calmly in the next few hours.

The priest turned and walked towards the door, then he suddenly said: "And one more thing. I know you are filled with anger at what they did to you, but please forgive these people. It will be easier for you to keep your brother on the straight path if neither you nor he will let hate taint your hearts. Again, the choice is yours… but keep in mind that every choice has its consequences, and that these consequences could affect much more than just you or the people that are hurting you"

And having said that, he opened the door and went out, as quickly as he had entered, without any of the guards trying to stop him or even just speak to him. Rhaegal remained alone in the room for a few moments, and even though Black Vulture then re-entered and picked up where he left off, he didn't stop thinking for a moment about that absurd conversation he'd just had.