68 Fragment 68

'Dragons of Science Song Share' grew far more quickly than Chris had expected. In the time it had taken one dragon outside of their small household to join, five more had joined. Five became thirty, and thirty became three hundred.

The strings seemed like a slow and inefficient method of communication, especially after having listened to Amaru grumbling about the time it was taking the echos to travel any significant distance as they thinned and fragmented, but it was the method dragons had used to communicate for millennia. The three hundred dragons within the growing online community quickly became three thousand. And then, almost suddenly, a new member became a rare event as a straggler joined now and then.

Chris gazed at the screen beneath his fingertips thoughtfully. Tanwen had quickly gotten bored with being the administrator, and he'd expected to have to take over, but another dragon had received the dubious honor. There were more discussion threads than there were members. A new one popped up as he read, suggesting that dragons have themselves declared an endangered species.

Chris looked up from the screen when Mac settled into the chair across from him.

"Interesting times," Mac suggested.

Chris grinned at the wrinkled old man that he'd known as a young boy. "There has never been a time that hasn't been interesting."

"Maybe before we were born?" Mac suggested. "They say that the world moved slower once."

Chris shrugged. Mischief sparkled in his eyes as how's fingers danced across the screen and he posted the question to the main chatroom.

It only took a moment for an older dragon somewhere on the other side of the world to reply. "The world moves very quickly, faster than anyone can fly, and it is actually slowing down over time."

Another dragon, one of the 'young ones' who was at least twenty times as old as Chris, immediately responded, "I think that the child wasn't asking about actual movement speeds. The development speed of the humans has been increasing for as long as I have existed. We were obviously wrong about them having reached their limits, as they are developing even faster despite the new encroachment of the unweavers."

"Life is always interesting, and life has always moved quickly," another older individual added.

Chris smiled wryly as he read the first replies to Mac. "The child," seemed to be sticking as his name among those of his own kind. Amaru assured him that there would no doubt be at least a few more children within the year, but he was currently still the youngest known.

Amaru and Tanwen were traveling the continent, locating the stone hearts that still stood and strengthening their alignment. Chris had wanted to go with them, but he had things he needed to stay for.

Mac chuckled as he listened to the quick flow of words from ancient beings that had walked the world when it was young. Chris read another, more philosophical reply, "The world is like a tree that blooms in its own time, and while the blossoms are engraved within my memory long after those moments have passed, time is the wind that carries them."

Mac's wrinkled face scrunched as he considered the reply, and then he nodded. "Sounds like one of those poems written by a man of war, whose memories are the bulk of his possessions. But it's true, events do seem to come in waves that could be called seasons."

"I will always remember you," Chris promised.

Mac grinned at him, unphased by the admission that he would be gone long before the youngest of the dragons. "I know," he replied simply.

--

"I've given up on getting revenge," Anne announced.

Chris didn't respond right away, and she wondered if he'd even heard her. He glowed brightly in her vision, and the waves spilling off of him danced with reflections as bright as a noon sun. Part of her felt a little bitter about the fact that the man with thousands of years ahead of him was learning to control that energy faster than she was.

A hundred years had always seemed like a nearly endless span to her. When she'd been very young, it had sounded like a goal, when she'd been alone in the dark it had sounded like a sentence. Now it was not enough, a fraction of the time she wanted to spend in this world.

Chris dimmed in her vision before he opened his eyes and asked seriously, "Do you want me to stop?"

She blinked at him. The words didn't make sense for a minute. "Stop? You mean… I didn't think you had done anything yet?"

Chris smiled at her, and his teeth looked disturbingly sharp in his draconic face, before his form shifted in a wave of light that only she could see. It blinded her for a moment, and when her vision cleared his too ordinary human face returned her stare.

"You didn't understand why I told Amaru that I couldn't travel right now because I need to keep my job?" he asked with amusement.

"Well… living expenses I guess?" she suggested hesitantly.

"I promised you your revenge. I imagine he's suffering quite a lot at the moment," Chris said a bit smugly.

"Because you work at a fast food place?" Anne asked doubtfully.

Chris nodded. "He lost his job, and he hasn't been able to prove that he's eligible for government support. I knew it was working when they asked me to prove my identity. I'm fairly certain that we both turned in the same documents, but I had his family members to vouch for me."

Anne gazed at Chris blankly. "Why wouldn't they vouch for him first?"

"I've been sending support money to Juan's half sister, who has two small children and has apparently been estranged from him for years," Chris explained cheerfully. "I speak to her once or twice a month now."

"He had a sister? I didn't know about her, how did you find that out?" she asked.

"I sent his grandparents a message claiming I was changing my phone number, and they called and scolded me about how I should be helping out more," he explained.

"You talked to them? And they seriously didn't realize you weren't him?"

"It's not that hard to imitate a voice," Chris said silkily, in Juan's voice. Anne shuddered, and was glad when he continued in his ordinary tones, "At least not for me."

"Oh."

Chris tilted his head and his smile was still disturbingly sharp even with his relatively dull human teeth, as he said, "I believe he's been living in the street lately. With his identity in question, he hasn't been able to get another job, and his girlfriend apparently threw him out recently. But if you are ready to let the matter go, I can stop maintaining this identity."

Anne discovered that she wasn't the nice person that she'd always kind of believed herself to be, despite some guilty moments, and self doubts. "Don't stop," she replied almost instantly. Guilt made her add, "Unless you want to, I mean, you don't have to live as that jerk forever."

As the word forever left her lips, she wondered when it had become false. A mere human lifetime wasn't even close to forever. She wasn't going to have enough time to learn as much as she needed to.

"It won't be that long," Chris assured her.