Mercy 5: Let's Go
#5 of Mercy
Motungo tried dozing after Hux told him to go home. When he didn't have to fly a delivery out to Firstfeather, he played the part of a horse. Usually pulling ore carts from one place to another, sometimes though they put his wings to work and let him fly tools or supplies from one side of the mine to the other. I thought after a year I would have gotten used to this. I am so tired.
Sleep couldn't come for him though. He barely got any sleep the night before, thanks to Mercy's visit. Her next visit was what kept him from sleeping in the last rays of the evening sun and most likely the entire night. He pushed himself off his side and lay on his chest as he gazed at the richly colored western sky.
During the hours he pulled the carts around the mine, he tried to come up with some sort of plan for Mercy's visit. Each time he started, something would interrupt his thoughts. Her offer seemed straight forward enough, and it would be the only way he would see Cellista again. He had seen other dragonesses, some in town and a few as he went to or from the mine, but none of them stirred his soul like Cellista did.
Since he couldn't go back to the Covenant for any reason on his own, the only way he would see Cellista would be if she became one of the few Guides for the other races, or was banished herself. Motungo couldn't see either of those happening. Banishment was such a rare thing, it almost never happened, except to him. For Cellista to be a Guide she would have to be on the council. He would have known by now if she had been chosen as a Guide, he asked everywhere he went if she had passed by that way. That left Motungo with no options, until he put Mercy's offer out before him.
It didn't take much longer for the last stripes of color to drain themselves from the horizon. He heard her first, the familiar sound of wins beating, only these had a slight scraping noise slipped in with the snapping of wings. Then he saw her shadowy form against the dark gloom of the sky. Motungo stood as he felt his heart sink with renewed dread.
"It's good to see you Motungo," Mercy said as she landed. "I've looked forward to tonight all day."
"I've been dreading it."
For a brief moment, Motungo thought he saw the look of hurt surprise flash through her bone-like features. Mercy gave a single nod as she walked towards him.
"I can understand that Motungo." Mercy sat before him, "I know something like this might be a little had to accept. Are you still willing to come with me though? If you aren't ready, I can-"
"Let's go." Motungo picked himself off the ground and stood before Mercy, "I want to be on the way before I change my mind."
"Very well then." Mercy stood and whipped around. With a grace that any cat or dragon would envy, she hopped into the night sky.
Motungo jumped forward and then struggled with his wings to keep up with Mercy. She was fast, unnaturally fast. It surprised him at first, then it dawned on him again that he wasn't following any normal dragoness. Then he had to remind himself that he creature he was following wasn't even a dragon, just copied the shape of one. Still, Mercy could make a beautiful copy.
After the mines became a round patch of darkness in the mass of darkness with everything else, Mercy finally stopped climbing and slowed down. Motungo found he could keep up the pace she set, for the time being. He hoped she kept the pace the entire way to their destination.
He realized then that he didn't know where they were headed at all. All he knew was that they were going to visit one of her friends. Motungo thought back to every scrap of story and history he could think of about the Virtues. He couldn't remember a single one having a friend. What sort of friends would a boneweaver have?
"Mercy?" As he called she looked around her shoulder, then fell back to fly abreast of him, "Are we going to the Ether?"
Mercy's mirthful grin gave Motungo the impression that they were in fact headed into the Ether somehow. No dragon he could remember had ever gone into the Ether, only pushed it further back. There were tales of what Ether could do to anything from the normal world. Clouds of some other world that could tear and bend flesh if not properly protected. Then the creatures that naturally dwelt within could do even worse, creatures beyond the boneweavers. Then Mercy's laughter broke his spiraling thoughts.
"No actually, we're not going into the Ether."
"Then why did you let me think we were? Since you watch all of so much you should know how much we fear that place." Mercy began to laugh which spurred him further, "You are as bad as the stories say. You enjoy torturing us, you enjoy pain and suffering. There is no mercy in you at all. You're just a-"
"Now, don't believe everything you hear Motungo. I'll be the first to tell you that. Besides, can't you take a bit of fun?" She smiled innocently, which again threw Motungo off. A Virtue could not be innocent.
"No."
"Really? I thought you always-"
"Just where are we going?"
Mercy's eyes narrowed slightly for a moment, then she sighed and drew her full attention ahead of her. "We're going to see a human and a bird."
"A human?"
The humans hated the boneweavers nearly as much as the red-backed dragons did, or most dragons for that fact. Granted, the humans saw the boneweavers more like a direct challenge to their faith rather than just an enemy. The religious hatred for the boneweavers made the humans a powerful ally against them when battles turned sour. Still, even in those circumstances, the humans were sour allies, their fanaticism made them a challenge to work with. Motungo didn't like humans a great deal, especially the religious ones.
"How can you be friends with a human?"
"A human and bird," Mercy corrected, "It's easy actually, you talk with them and sometimes you find common ground."
"What common ground can you have with any living thing?"
"Well for one," Her voice grew an edge of annoyance, "I am alive as well. Just not quite the same way as you. See that's part of your problem, you don't have an open mind. You won't even begin to-"
"Open mind? Who's killed more lives than I can begin to count? Who's the wings of the Thief? How can you lecture me on having an open mind when all you do is stomp around the world killing everything we love? How can you tell me about open minds when it was you that destroyed my whole life?
"There isn't a thing you say that I should take with any sort of open mind. By the gods, why am I even going with you?"
Motungo flicked a wing for a moment and turned himself around. Talking to the enemy of the Covenant felt like madness, and he had already had enough madness in his life. Being thrown out of the place you called home for something you had no control over felt like madness.
"Motungo wait." He heard her drawing closer again, "Do you think I enjoyed any of that? Your kind knows nothing about us. We're different yes, and we have had terrible pasts, but that doesn't mean that has to be the way things are."
"What do you mean?" He called over his wings, "That you can stop all the killing?"
"Maybe, with your help, I can."
Again, Mercy surprised him. A boneweaver willing to stop the genocide of countless lives, dragon and otherwise. Mercy turned all the knowledge he had about boneweavers upside down. He wasn't sure he could expect anything from her anymore. She hadn't killed him, apparently loved him, wanted to help him, and now seemed willing to stop a war that could draw it's beginning when the world felt fresh and new. Everything Mercy was, was different.
"At least Motungo," she spoke softly, barely audible over the rush of the wind as they flew, "At least come see my friend. We can talk some then. Maybe we can come to a better understanding. Please?"
Shaking his head to himself, he took a slow turn back to the direction Mercy had been going. He could feel her smiling, and he hoped that it wasn't a malicious sort of smile. She better not be lying. I'd be the most gullible dragon ever born.