Beyond Physical Pain

Zani landed on the large outcropping. Snow flurries were battering outside the mouth of the cave, but it wasn't bad yet, and he moved into it. He went as far as he could before he had to set Xerxes down and changed size becoming about the size of an average dog.

He sat there and stared at Xerxes, watching the hole in his chest close. When he was sure that he was going to come back, Zani bolted out of the cave and flew to the nearest human-populated area. He landed, found two humans, and picked them up on the fly. They screamed but it was easy enough to knock them out with a quick slam of their head against a wall as he flew by and took to the sky. The good thing about cities with horrible crime problems and living areas was that no one looked up. They kept their gaze down and to themselves.

He was back to the cave within ten minutes of flying hard and fast. Zani could feel Xerxes' hunger starting to grow. It was a ravenous thing now. He'd lost so much blood and would need this, or he'd start to fade. That was the price though heal amazingly well, but then you had only so much time to gain back what you lost. Zani dropped the humans in a heap on the platform area. Then grabbed one by the shirt with his teeth and dragged him over to where Xerxes was before getting the other.

'I will get more if you need it.' Xerxes's chest was raw and red and looked horribly bruised like someone had taken a metal pipe to him and beat him with it until every bone in his body broke. It was hard to pull in a breath and more work to open his eyes so he left them closed. Xerxes could hear his bones cracking, like rice krispies, that ridiculous human cereal. The splinters were moving back into place and he had to grow several ribs back yet.

"It…hurts…" He tried.

'Don't talk out loud you idiot. You'll do more damage trying to draw in too much air.'

'Yes, mom.' Xerxes said and regretted the feeling of laughing. The moment the bit of laughter hit him, pain racked his body and his back arced. He gave a sound of incredible pain. Zani crouched low and felt the pain in his chest it was that bad. He made a slight whining sound, they were completely connected this way.

Xerxes sat there a moment not moving, not even breathing. When he did manage to finally take a breath he opened his eyes. They were very bright and more elongated like Zani's. He made a grimace of pain and his teeth were sharper and longer than normal as well.

"I need one." He managed in a rush of breath and winced. He looked at the humans, they were still out, thank the creator. He couldn't deal with shouting right now. Or having to fight his prey.

Zani grabbed one by the arm and pulled him to Xerxes who just sat there for several more minutes before he could muster the will to move. He braced himself for the pain and even the slightest movement sent it through his body in a wave. He felt tears in his eyes at it, thick and wet. He knew that they had to be tears of blood and that it was that bad. Human movies were wrong, being near immortal did not mean you did not feel pain.

'I can't, it hurts far too much. Just let me lay here.'

'If you don't, you could start to fade. It is the only time you grow weak and so does the bond.' Xerxes looked at Zani, he knew he was right and he wasn't ready to die yet. The thought of making himself move… He didn't even think he had enough strength at the moment to wake the man and make him do what he wanted. That would cost a lot of energy.

Xerxes moved and let himself slide against the wall and waited for the pain to subside. He was against the man's upper arm and he just needed the major vein that ran through his underarm. Zani already knew what he needed and used his snout to move the man's arm and Xerxes bit down pulling the rich blood into him.

However, after a moment he tasted drugs, he ignored it and kept draining the man until he had to stop. The man's heart was laboring and he wasn't long to live now. He couldn't take the last drop killing him, it would make Xerxes' mind snap. He didn't know what it was, but some kind of natural warning. He couldn't kill that way.

"The other." He said in a stronger voice. Zani brought him the other one and dragged the now dead one from the cave mouth and picked him up growing in size and eating him. Xerxes drank what he could from the second man. The infusion of blood soaked into his starving tissues and it felt so much better.

"I want to lay down now," Xerxes said starting to slump to the side. He felt cold and that wasn't a good thing, his body temperature was normally high. Zani stopped by him.

'You must get up, we will go deeper where you can rest.' He said and made Xerxes get up and he really leaned on Zani to get into the cave. Once they came to a large hole in the floor Xerxes just looked at it and moaned. Fucking hell he had to fly down that.

'Who's the baby now?'

'I'm sorry, who was shot with a damn grenade?'

'You don't know that was what it was.' Zani said and Xerxes moved his wings appearing. 'Thank you by the way, we both could have died of course, but you just threw yourself in front of me.'

'You've done the same for me, many times.' It was easier to talk mentally than out loud.

'I have skin that doesn't get penetrated like yours. Look at the pain you are in, the fact that you could have died.'

'Well if we were going to die… I figured why not. What good are we if we can't protect each other when the need arises?'

'True, I'm glad you are my chi. That being said you do something that stupid again I will kill you myself.' Xerxes just smiled and spread his wings, pain lancing through his rib cage, but not as bad as before.

"I'm almost worried." He said and dropped from the edge, using his wings to land a couple of hundred feet at the bottom easily. However, he still crumpled with his landing and coughed up a bit of blood.

'Do you need another human?'

"I will but not now. I just want to sleep." He said and they came into an enormous cavern that had stalagmites and stalactites everywhere. But the place was filled with all sorts of things, treasures that the world had long ago lost. He kept them here, in a place that was impossible for humans to get to. It was too far up the mountain for them to even live and too deep inside for them to get to. At least without them noticing.

It was a worry when they had been gone for so long, but they had put a lot of magic safeguards on the place before leaving and it was undisturbed. Nature had blocked the entrance with a thick sheet of ice. They'd cleared it out once they'd come back. Guess you could call it their horde.

Xerxes moved to a part that looked kind of like a room with a bed and dresser and mirror. It was more for the novelty of it than anything else. There were a couple of wardrobes there that held garments from different eras. He wasn't sure why but he felt like he needed to keep them. Zani had things that he'd brought back. Dragons were known for being hoarders, and they had everything from their species and others in this cave, it was their inheritance.

There were a few other caves throughout the world that they had like this, but this one, this one had the most precious items in it. The rarest items that the world didn't know existed. Plus on one part of the walls carved into it was the story of his people. How they came to be, how the world came to be and carved below that was the story of the rest. They had it in stone, not paper or paintings.

Maybe it was true, maybe it wasn't, but it was there. Xerxes lay down, the room was pitch black at the moment of course, though they knew where everything was. Some of the minerals in the rocks gave off a phosphorescent glow. With the blink of an eye, several torches lit and the cave had a soft glow, some parts in shadow.

Zani sat on the bed looking at him and Xerxes just closed his eyes. Zani jumped down after a while and moved over to where a rather large-looking round object sat in this makeshift room area. It was more like an oval and had odd bumps all over it. The color was an opal and the light gave it a sheen, Xerxes glanced over at him and he felt the pang in Zani, as it was his own as well.

Far deeper into the cave there was a section that they didn't go into. It held a room where hundreds of objects like this one sat, but they were all stone. They were eggs, and this opal one was the very last viable one. It would stay that way until they died. Dragons had one mate, just one, Zani's was sitting inside that egg.

So long as Zani was alive his mate would sit there waiting for her chi to be born. To come to her and wake her from her slumber. To allow her life after all this time, however, there were no others, there was no one for Xerxes because he was the last soul of a dragon they called Chi. Other cultures might have different meanings for it, but this was what Xerxes was to dragons. This was how he knew that none of his kind was left because this egg had not hatched.

Before, when there had been many, dragons who lived without chi, it said so on the wall. They were truly immortal and their numbers fixed. They were unable to have children however at this time. History said one dragon, she had wanted to have a child. She'd prayed to the stars and their creator that she might have a child, a hatchling of her own.

A voice had sounded to her, it said that she could have that gift if she gave up her immortality. If she had a vulnerable spot that she could be hit and die. Seeing that as fair to have a hatchling, she gave up her immortality and so did her mate. In turn beings like Xerxes were born and forever connected to the dragons. They were their immortal soul living outside of their body.

Even if it was just a great tale, it was still a fact that a dragon's egg would never hatch unless it had a chi to attach to. Only beings like Xerxes could be chi to a dragon. It hurt to know that Xerxes would never have a mate and that Zani could but stare at his. The one egg that wasn't stone, the mate that he would never meet or know because humans had destroyed their kind. Xerxes always felt horrible seeing Zani with his mate he'd never met. Be so close to her and yet so far.

"I'm sorry Zani," Xerxes said into the silence.

'What for?' He asked confused.

"That I am unable to find a mate for you. I know it hurts you deep inside when you try to hide it from me. I'm sorry none are left to chance or survived."

'It is not your fault. It is fate, sometimes you can't help but want what you can't ever have.' He said touching his snout to the egg and then came back to the bed. 'Just heal and we will go and find more to join us. It is the best revenge for us to take on them. They stripped us of our parents, of our mates, of even companionship in the world.'

"We'll find more like that demon." Meaning ready to kill them. Ones that might get lucky and kill them. Obviously, it happened enough to make them the last.

"And we will destroy them just the same. It simply reminds us that we aren't invincible. Next time, please look before you leap.'

"Hey, you got a saying right. I'm marking it down, we should celebrate."

'Funny.' Zani said and moved up alongside Xerxes just to be sure that he was okay and laid down. 'sleep or I will make you.' Xerxes just gave a sigh and let his exhaustion take him.