Chapter 13: 13. I am…

 

'Calm down Maxim, breathe in, breathe out. It-he-she-they whatever gender it is just talked… like it was normal. Ahahahahaha! I feel like the dumbest fish on this God-forsaken planet… and the language it spoke was strange… but reminded me of Old-Archaic English but without it being English..', his gill's slits opened wider as he took more water and calmed himself down. He would have facepalmed if he physically could.

 

~Oh, fartuous of We. Thou art still too young and We art the first of our Kind thee wilt has't hath met. The Tongue gift of Terra shall cometh with time and experience.~, Däŵr calmly spoke again, floating away, knowing that going closer will be unproductive and end with one of them dying.

Bäckahäst Däŵr didn't speak like humans or such inferior life forms, Elder Dragons spoke to one another through weaving and vibrating their bioenergy in extremely complex, precise, elaborate ways. These languages were on a 'frequency' that could only be 'heard' by Elder Dragons and some very rare and unique cases.

Though body language and basic animalistic sounds like clicks, howls, and growls were much more prominent, and thus talking for Elder Dragons was rare, if even ignoring that they essentially happened to encounter one another every or so century.

It was already old and as such was going to attain eternal peace in the Everstream and become one once again with the world. Nothing but death will stop this Elder Dragon from attaining its goal.

Elders rarely fought but when it happened, that both were high in the hierarchy of power and the fight was to the death, you could only hope to run as far physically as possible.

And it has come here for another thing, to protect its egg, it was both male and female. Which was why Maxim was confused about its gender. Also, the egg didn't create itself out of anything after all. It was the second and last egg in its two millennia-long life it has laid.

Though the term seed was more apt, considering this Elder possesses a lot of similarities to plant life. It was similar to how some hermaphrodite flowers self-fertilized.

There could only be two Kelpies alive at the same time, and Däŵr was the one too much and the Elder also started to feel the effect of time. Being long past its prime. And on the weaker end of the spectrum physically.

It knew Maxim pretty well, at least it thinks it does, having observed him for thirty years, arguably nothing in its long life. In those thirty years, it learned many things about the unfriendly neighborhood little terror mutant fish.

Outside of the general aggressiveness and ferocity, it remarked that he was studying the life and ecosystem of his surroundings as if trying to understand them.

And that was pretty strange and unusual behavior in the seahorse's opinion, studying your environment wasn't unusual per se but the time he took and how he does while his eyes looked at everything reminded it of those long-eared bipedal that archived and stored knowledge.

It was somewhat disturbing to see an Elder Dragon act this way, which also reminded the Kelpie of Elder Dragons it only heard of, the Black Dragons having such humanoid-like behavior and his strength too.

They are the equivalent of human royalty, even if for Elder Dragon it's only in terms of raw power over the other, they do not lead, not that they can't if they so desired to. They are as much respected as feared.

A hatchling of immense strength already capable of killing beings of its power if he goes all out. If they fought Maxim will not exit it without injury, potentially mortal ones but he would win. That was a certainty.

How strong will be when he matures? The mere thought was awe-inspiring, in Nature, only strength mattered, and only the strong had the power and right to decide.

Individual power was the deciding factor for Elders Dragon, as thus Black Dragons were immensely respected as well as feared.

This behavior became scarce as time went on but the innate curiosity and eyes exploring the world around him never got away.

 

~Me speaketh right!~, Maxim blurted out to the bewilderment of both, Däŵr not having expected this, it couldn't even speak til its second witnessing of the Elder Crossing.

'So 'speaking' is like this! The Old-Archaic part mixed in it is peculiar though. Can I change it?', he thought, left ear twitching, 'And my voice is… different from what I remember human Maxim had but I like it.'

Different as in, it 'sounded' just like a teenage boy in the middle of changing voice. If the teenager was a hybrid between, a growling tiger, someone extremely proud, and a dragon.

From this, he could suppose that it would evolve into something extremely deep and rumbling when he ages and he loved that possibility.

A wave of smugness washed over his body as he saw the other Elder's short break in composure, snorting the seahorse, flippers moving along the current it drifted alongside the current like a leaf in the wind.

~We might has't underestimat'd thy capabilities. Mayhaps can We knoweth thy name of such a hatchling? Or mayhaps thee doth not has't one?~, it asked, not putting 'little' in front of 'hatchling' this time.

Though for Maxim this first-ever dilution has drowned his fire for a good old death fight as if the other Elder Dragon calmed him down in some way. Something he could get off with extreme ease if he wanted to. A sort of calming aura, no, it's a very subtle smell drafting from the seahorse.

He felt like the answer he was going to give will change something in him, he didn't want to say his name, Maxim, feeling it was inappropriate, unadapted for who and what he is.

A name is an important part of every sapient being. An identity. An identity that Maxim has, he is Maxim but what Maxim the human one was long gone, and he comes to terms with it and didn't have regret about it.

The name Maxim was kept out of despair from the first few years after reincarnating, and it stuck.

 

Right from the moment where his brain was developed enough in the womb, he lost what made him beyond the physicality of being human. Brain chemistry, hormones, and body were fundamentally different, it was only his memories that kept the imitation of what was human ongoing. A very forceful but natural change.

Imitation that crumbled away with time. His memories while excellent in this life were not perfect and thus he changed more than he ever realized as he forgot things. No matter his will, the body, soul, and mind are interconnected on an intricate and fundamental level.

Though he was different mentally from other Elder Dragons as he knew how a human perceive the world and how they generally behaved.

 

'These are two distinct individuals… but both are me, me of the past and me of the present, I guess change is ultimately not all that bad… thirty years to fully realize this. Dumb fish. Fear of becoming a monster… that I already was at birth. And what is a monster for me anyway?', he thought, ears flattening before speaking up as a smile found its way on his snout.

He felt better, freer than ever.

~Mine own name is Arvinakon Dux'Maximus.~, he spoke those words in a trance, and felt something clicking inside his mind.

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He still kept part of his old name while using some of the ones given by the tribes. Everything was said on the go and it felt so goooood. He felt like himself for the first time in thirty years. A strange sensation that made him giddy, this was translated into him unconsciously purring, quite loudly at that.

~Thee seemeth joyous, Arvinakon Dux'Maximus. We art hither to inform thee of Our seedling, thou art only able to consume fleshes, We art not foe nor food.~, saying this it remembered the first time it saw him when Maxim/Arvinakon was fresh out of the womb and was exploring the outer rim of its territory.

The look of disgust after tasting a leaf from the black kelp and further testing on other plants later by the fish proved one thing.

 

Maxim/Arvinakon was an obligate carnivore. No vegan or vegetarian diet for him, ever, his body unable to extract nutrients from anything directly originating from plant life.

 

Däŵr as a kelpie had a skeleton wrapped in compacts but thin muscle and sinew, a nervous system, eyes, and a heart, and that was globally everything that wasn't an integral part of the black algae that constituted this forest.

It was as many plants as animals from a biological standpoint. Its relationship with the algae goes beyond symbiosis, they are one.

 

~Is this a threat?~, already having the hang of speech he growled out. This however informed him that the bioenergy at the center of the Midnight Forest was its offspring and that there was no point in fighting and he couldn't but agree, disheartened.

 

Killing and fighting for food and defense of yourself and your territory while sometimes enjoying the process was one thing but mindlessly doing it for pleasure and short satisfaction was simply unacceptable.

Coexistence was key here, nothing will come out of this fight but pointless death. The satisfaction of winning against a powerful and worthy foe was extremely enticing to the fishron battle-oriented instincts but the life of an entire ecosystem was worth more than a short moment of satisfaction.

 

Snorting Maxim, or now Arvinakon Dux'Maximus, Arvinakon for short as he just renamed himself snorted, backing off, he swam back to his territory.

He fully believed the other Elder. Lies were something unable to be told by them. He instinctively knew and he believed his instincts more than anything else. Their voices came from their hearts unless they could lie to themselves and what they believed was false, to begin with.

The truth of their intentions could only be revealed. A true heart-to-heart conversation.

The currents disappeared and the sea became calm once more, the other Elder Dragon felt a weight going off. This hatchling was intense. But it seemed that he could be reasoned with.

'What does the future hold f'r thee, little hatchling?', it couldn't help but think. Veering back to the forest, checking if it was ready for when it will be gone.

The next few months consisted of Arvinakon thinking about his encounter and testing this new way of speech and doing his usual thing, playing, hunting, and the like.

As of now, he couldn't get rid of the archaic part without completely reshaping the language. He tried to speak with the boaboas but as expected they didn't hear him but clearly were tender or it was just his presence who knew.

He was currently edging farther away from the floe. Having explored every nook and cranny, the entire areas, biomes, species, taste, and interaction stored in his brain. He started to feel, not caged but more in need of adventure, to expand his horizon.

This place will always be his territory, he swims extremely fast and could, in his point of view, do a full circle of the planet in less than two weeks if he took stops for food, sleep, and the route is also underwater. So more like three or four weeks if we go on something closer to reality. This planet was bigger than Earth by half.

He wasn't going that far anyways, only to see the Everstream.

Jumping out of the tumultuous sea he twirled in the air, gliding for three seconds before diving again. Enjoying the waves, rains, and wind from the ongoing raging storm against his scales waves strong enough to bash, fold and sink even the most advanced of ships from Earth. The storm was partially caused and greatly enhanced by his presence.

Waves taller than 15 meters (50ft) and half of the speed of sound were not rare. Winds of strength and speed are not dissimilar to a category two hurricane. A death sentence for land dwellers but a paradise for Arvinakon.

'Hn?', feeling something, something big filled to the brim with Thunder elements and it was rapidly approaching his position from deep below the murky water, flippers representing, he skilfully flapped them propelling himself backward and breaking through the current and waves.

~Ayo! What in the actual fuck doth thee bethink thou art!?~, he growled out, the storm getting even stronger in response.

Fangs and tusks bared; he glared at the creature that attacked him. His electromagnetic sense goes air wire with the electricity flying around the creature. It was a sun of electricity to his sense

A creature that was bigger than him by a bit more than two times, it is roughly 33 meters (108ft) in length from the tip of the muzzle to the tip of the tail. A Leviathan class monster, a lagiacrus, but not any kind of lagiacrus. An Abyssal Lagiacrus.

A body covered in lustrous black and deep blue scales adapted to the deep sea pressure, four small stocky palmed limbs, a head with a cobra-like hood, a reptilian muzzle containing a row of sharp, on top of its head were electrical blue spikes growing out, going from the long neck to the middle of it's back where the bigger could be found.

The crystals glowed brighter as the bigger beast glowing orange eyes landed into Arvinakon's own pair of burning yellow slitted-one. His eyes filled with anger, hunger, and bloodlust. He was blue balled from an interesting fight a few months ago and this creature seemed pretty strong in its own right. A worthy opponent and meal.

 

*RAAAWWRRR!!!*

 

Both roared and so the fight began.

 

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