The Dragon's Soulmate

Brother and Sister

Peter knew about her nightmares though too. In an effort to help her they began playing Dungeons and Dragons earlier on. He thought he was helping her pull information from her dreams that she couldn’t identify with as it was and it would work, to a point. They always worked together to continue the dream, to see past where it would stop, if ever the capability arose as new campaigns. Peter would even have her craft things for him to try to get her creative juices flowing imagining ways that she could beat the darkness that lived inside her mind.

Their game truly did help to an extent. They still came, forcefully so, but she fought back. She tried to at least… and now? Now she just gets up and deals with it on her own. But Raine is never alone, and best of all, she knows it.

“Another dragon trinket?” Peter lifts his eyebrow at Raine who is finishing the last detail on her necklace.

She doesn’t look up, stopping would loses her place.

Raine only nods at this since it is painfully obvious. Her room is decorated in them. Some hang from form busts she uses to create them and their chains. Others have been put away, and some have been sewn into leather bound wrist wraps or ornate bodices she’s worn in the past. Each fulfilling a small bit of protection against whatever is calling her, but nothing has kept it away for more than hours at a time.

This piece calls to her even while she’s awake. It means something, but she isn’t sure.

“Yes,” Raine finally answers softly. 

“Are you almost ready?” Peter counters trying not to get back into it. Not today at least. Today he had plans.

“Are you excited?” Raine snorted playfully. 

“Well, it’s at a new place. Somewhere called,” Peter brings it up on his phone, “Nera… no wait, it’s Nerranne State Park. I’ve never heard of it, which probably means there’s no parking...”

“And I know how much you love to walk...” she retorted.

“That is not the problem,” Peter starts waving over himself with a simple expression of being more than capable for a walk. “The problem was it just rained and there weren’t any signs... the trail wasn’t even marked. What was going to stop us from going miles in the wrong direction?” Peter reminded her about the other one that was far off the beaten track.

“You’re being dramatic.”

“Says the one with the nightmares...” Peter’s round face suddenly narrowed at the drop of his jaw. He could not believe he said that to her. Where was his head? “That was wrong,” Peter corrected himself quickly. He could feel her glare even though she kept her focus down at her workstation.

“Low blow, bro...” she sling back at him.

“You know I didn’t mean it like that...” he said, stumbling on his words.

“Yeah, yeah... Let me get dressed and then we can go,” she says, adding “asshole,” under her breath as she secures the last piece to the chain.

———

The ride to Nerranne State Park takes them an hour and a half south of their usual stomping grounds. As they get close, Raine’s brow furrows seeing a wall within the tree line. It looked as though this was someone’s private property. The closer they got to the grassy, sectioned off parking lot, the more she really listened to the space. It was almost as if she heard something. It’s a breath among whispers lingering with an oddly familiarity. Out of habit, Raine reaches to pull up the button on the door to automatically roll her window up. Her fingers jump at the sound of her metal rings sliding across the plastic found there but nervously pull up several times anyway.

Peter watches as carefully as he can while maneuvering the swampy field they’ve been directed to park in.

“So, this place?”Raine asks, “How did you hear about it?”

“One of the girls I know mentioned it,” he answered carefully.

“So, this is more like a date for you then?”

“I was gonna tell you...” he replied nervously. These fairs were really for them, but there was this girl...

“I really don’t need to know. Your business is your business...” she says as taps her ring on the side of the door several times before deciding to exit his Ford Taurus. The band, too, is a dragon inspired hoop made out of filed copper for the texture alone. The others she wears religiously are filigree bands holding garnet and onyx stones her fingertips.

Peter always assumed she picked those colors to keep her strong. Every fair she would find another piece or outfit that called to her was either black or red, only slightly tinted was acceptable too, but she seemed to know exactly why she was after like an entity was guiding her to it. The colors, Poe discovered, meant protection and passion which he thought was a bunch of nonsense since they’re colors, but Raine believed in them wholeheartedly.

“They don’t mean anything but maybe sleep for black, because you know, people sleep at night and stop for red,” he remembers telling her when they were younger. He even remembers the lasting glare on her face that lingered there for days. It took nearly too much time to explain he was kidding and only wanted to see her smile.

Peter sighed then checked on his own outfit, asking if he would look silly with a wide, thick belt around his vest or if he should keep it as it was. 

“Oh, I don’t know,” Raine could feel the question building before Peter said another word. “Maybe leave it. Depending on your date today, I would think the addition to be a little much, given your obvious interests.”

“Oh, ouch! Did you just burn my attempt at fashion for date possibilities? M’lady, I would never…” Peter began trying to keep his growing smile at bay. 

“I did and you know you would,” she laughs.

“There it is,” he replied gleefully. 

“What?”

“Your smile,” he answered as it faded. “Come on, not everything is a battle. You may even find yourself your knight in shining armor,” Peter chuckled as he looked around through the windows of his vehicle. “Maybe not at this one. I mean, I don’t know. No one’s good enough for my campaign sister.”

It was Raine’s turn to laugh again, “Alright, alright… let’s go and find your princess already.”

For this fair she wore her usual fitted red dress with flared velvet sleeves and a long skirt that hung just low enough to reach the ankles of her low, calf wrapped sandals. Underneath she wore long bloomers stopping at her knee. While it was warm out and she probably didn’t need the extra length, Raine opted for it hoping to avoid another tick finding its way up her thigh.

Around her neck is her newest creation, which shifts with her movement, finally finding its rightful place, hanging over her heart like armor. Maybe this time she would be protected. Maybe it would keep the shadows from coming, she hoped.

Her hair is tied back in two braids that wind tightly into a low bun encased in, yet another filigree designed net of sorts keeping her hair locked tightly within it using a couple of long metal needles adorned with two raw onyx stones.

While Raine looked the part, Peter did not. He looked like he was straight out of the nineties with his ripped dark wash jeans, white shirt, with the exception, of course, of his weathered brown leather vest. He got that thing years ago, and for the life of her, Raine couldn’t understand why he didn’t just get a black jacket instead. They were the same price, but Peter insisted on it saying if he went with black it would make him look stunted. Of course, she needed clarification, but his logic got her nowhere. The fact that his jacket would match his hair and in turn would make him look shorter was the dumbest thing she had ever heard. All he had to say was he liked the brown one better and she could let it go.

Regardless, there they were, parked and marching through the swampy field to first look for food and then for anything that called to them.