40 (DSV Nautica) Understanding
Loki sat before the Elder, whom took a seat as well, on the throne. They exchanged a flurry of mental images, without speaking one word. The Draconid processed these images. The preperations of a war against them, leading to the destruction of a star to force a wormhole into existance. This event had caused a major rift in their garden, but that would be addressed later. The first thing he requested: knowledge of the Ayr'ese language. It was an unusual one, even for aliens such as themselves. Loki nodded and brought forth all the information that she could summon from the depths of her mind, providing it to the Elder. He began to sift through the information. It was a massive amount of thought to absorb, but he was a Draconid. The minutes passed as they sat in silence. Loki took the liberty of looking around the land. Av'lhn was a beautiful place. The sand gardens here...quite extraordinary. They would love to study a place such as this...but there was nearly no chance of that.She closed her eyes and reached out around her, feeling the clouds of will around her. The Draconids were easy to detect. They were the most powerful beings known to them, so of course their will footprint would be absolutely enthralling. But what was more, was that though she was far weaker, Loki knew that she had a rather impressive footprint as well. Hence why they were here. Her race was not equal to them, but was the closest you could get.
The Elder now had a gift for her; the knowledge of the Draconid language. She took a deep breath, and let it into her mind. It wasn't as bad as she thought. The information would take her some time to get used to, but it was manageable. Each syllable carried extensive meaning and intent. It was as much a will driven language as the Dragons themselves. Each Syllable carried a thousand different meanings at once from user to user. The flowing tones were sung in sweet songs, which though short, painted a beautiful image full not only giving a description, but could tell the history of an object all in the same sentence. It all depended how much detail you wanted. With that, she began to teach herself the words and commit them to her memory. She reached back to the Mors, whom was listening intently.She informed them what was going on, and that she had received an understanding of the language, and was learning it now. The information provided by the Elder was copied back to the ship and crew. They all could learn the language now.
"Ayr'een..." The Elder spoke. He was done. She had a good grasp of the language, but still had quite a ways to go. He touched her mind. They would speak in her language for now."Your race...they are old." His voice was deep. She felt it deep inside her chest as he spoke. Such raw power..."We are...Millions of years old." She replied.He contemplated this. Yet another unexpected turn. It has always
been assumed the Dragons had been the first to evolve, but it seemed that The Ayr'een had been birthed into the universe at approximately the same time."Why...did you attack?"Loki smiled slightly. "I presume you mean 'Why were we planning to attack?'. The answer is...you were preventing us from seeing this place. This galaxy, as it is.""And why would you want to see it?" "It is a place we have not been. That has its own secrets. A place of life. We thrive on discovering secrets."A pause during the talking to digest the information so that both parties could pass the relevant information along."So...because we stood in the way of you examining this galaxy, you planned an attack?"
Loki simply bowed her head in a slow nod. "We gather the secrets of the universe and will fight for answers if we must." She took her time speaking, reflecting the deliberate slowness that she had sensed in the dragons. "We tried a covert approach. Its clear how that went.""We wish to be left alone.""We noticed. Believe me. We noticed." Aki let out a small smile. The Dragons stern, reserved expressions stood."We are the keepers of this Garden. As you call it, this galaxy. Nor do we wish to be exposed to the sentients of it. Then you come, making an unexpected appearance and foray into this garden. We will not have it disturbed.""Nor would we disturb it. We have never intervened in a society. We have never made contact with any other race, save those whom are matured enough to think for themselves. But they are few and far between. And for this galaxy, avoidable."The Elder nodded again. This was good news. As he spoke, she relayed the appropriate feelings to him as a gesture of honesty."I see...Ayr'een. We reacted in the best way we thought of, as we perceived our home to be under attack. We are glad this was not the case...at first." Though his voice didn't show it, her purposely let slip a feeling of resentment toward the Ayr'een for their recent mobilization.
"As I said before...we are a peaceful race whom simply wish access to the areas of the universe, and the knowledge that they contain. Our weapons have never needed use until we came here. Even then, we simply acted in a defensive manner."They paused again. The sound of the wind stirred again. A few clouds on the horizon. Loki took in the sights, not wanting to rush anything along."You have proven a formidable force indeed. And for this, in the name of your quest, we shall indulge you."Loki simply smiled. He began to project images to her. The world swam as it all changed in a blur of colors. He was showing her the past. The long distant past."Our race was the first in this Garden. We came long before any others. We have explored and discovered many things about it, but never impacting it. Rather we
take a subtle approach to our existance, only interfering when the situation requires it. And even then it is done delicately." His deep voice narrated for her.A battle between dragons was occuring around them, a vicious one indeed.
"Not all have felt this way, but it is the majority whom wish to maintain the life we have chosen. Conflicts have arisen, but our great seers always prevail in predicting these events."Future prediction? Loki knew it existed, but only by powerful entities. Impressive.The history of the dragons was long, very extensive in their dealings with the Garden, but never directly interfering, but rather nurturing the growing life around them. The scenes that Loki relayed back to the Mors was mind-blowing for an Ayr'een. A history of the Dragons. Quite a gift.For almost an hour they sat in silence, Loki contemplating the scenes before her. It was amazing they had lasted this long. So careful, meticulous, and long-lived were the dragons. Patient too."Now, Ayr'een. We wish to know of your own people." He nodded slightly.Loki bowed her head, showing the first days of the Ayr'een, millions of years ago."Most important of our history is that our home planet has been destroyed...naturally of course. Our original star was consumed in a supernova almost a million years ago. We have spent these millions of years traveling and researching the various galaxies around the universe, as well as our own."
The images of so many galaxies, all with life in one form or another, filled the Dragons mind. He took a moment to comptemplate the images before him. These were no junior explorers. They had covered a vast distance in the universe."Our home is close to 2 billion light-years from this place. We have found life in our own galaxy...but no sentients to speak of." The last statement left Loki's mouth with a bitter tone.A long pause. The dragon thought about the implications of a race developing all alone. Also...the race had to be incredibly strong-willed to make ships capable of traveling that far, never mind the wormhole that sparked all of this."Taking a step back...I'm sure you have met it, but Celeste is ours." Images of the massive ship, in the shape of an elongated triangle with a concave bottom, and with a similar shape carved out of the center, wherein lie the power core. That ship was indeed known to them. It had entered the Milky Way some 50,000 years ago, and was the only ship to have come from outside the Galaxy.
"Yes....we have. No one alive today has, but we remember well."Loki nodded."Ever since then we sought out all the galaxies Celeste has mapped for us. This one was of the most intrigue because of the emergency manuver that Celeste pulled. It was severely damaged in the process. The only time that has happened. We now know why."The two took some minutes to comprehend and process the histories of each race in comparison. The Ayr'een certainly were accomplished in their universal exploration, while the dragons were the absolute masters of their own galaxy.The Draconid was about to speak when he felt it. The cold and powerful blast, whos source was far away, but strong enough to be felt here. His immediate thought was the Ayr'een had done something. He motioned to get up, displaying a moment of anger, intending to demand what had caused the disruption. But he stoppedShe felt it too, and was equally put off. Her feathers rose slightly, emotionally agitated."What is this?" They demanded of each other. The feeling was ongoing and powerful. Very faint and distant. As if something tremendously strong was bending the fabric of reality somewhere far off.