The First Dragon of Marble

Chapter 3

The next time I woke, I felt much better and more myself again, instead of a mess of emotions I could tell my arms and legs along with my head which seemed to be laying on soft plump flesh rather than a soft pillow. I open my eyes to see Tiamat looking down at me smiling and smoothing my hair as she hummed a tune I had never heard of before. “Ah, you are finally awake. Though I knew the soul shock wrecked your soul I did not imagine it would leave you this exhausted…hehe…its fine though, I’ll take care of you while you are here my little fire.” Tiamat said as she noticed me look at her. I blushed realizing my position and sat up slowly so as not to headbutt her. I noticed that I had my body back and turned to Tiamat to ask why I wasn’t a wisp anymore, but she beat me to it. “It takes time for souls to form into anything else other than their base structure. It took you about a month for your soul to take the shape of your body again. Pretty impressive too since it would take most souls decades to form back into their original self after so long.” “Does she really think I understand anything about this soul shit?... It doesn’t matter I need to ask the right questions as to why I’m here and what are they going to do with me from now on. I still don’t trust that this isn’t a coma induced dream. My biggest concern though is her calling me their child yesterday and she just called me her little fire.”

Tiamat smirked and said, “I don’t need to read your mind to see you are still apprehensive towards us. To be honest its Odin who knows more about souls than I do…haha…he is the brains, and I am more the brawns of our union.” Then she blushed and her mouth opened and closed trying to say something. She stood and kneeled before the bed and grabbed my hands held them in hers. After taking a deep breath she says, “We cannot tell you everything Aiden, but there are many reasons that we want you as our child. The main and most important is that when I pulled you from the Well, I felt deep within myself that I knew you were the most worthy and the most honorable to become the first-“ She was interrupted by the door opening and Odin stepping in and looking at each of us. He smiled and gestured for us to come out of the room. We went back into the room that I arrived in first.

“Have a seat Aiden we’ll be with you in a moment.” Odin says and turns to Tiamat and walks to the kitchen. They started talking in low voices where I could only catch little from their conversation. “Honey, we must be careful with how much we tell him, or he will just think about everyone’s needs above his own. You want to live a better life not like his last, right?” “I know Odin I can just sense the self-doubt and distrust towards everyone after what those pathetic mortals did to him. I sometimes think we should just wipe out humans from the realm. They seem only to destroy and waste away anything and anyone if it is for their gain.” “You do know he was human and still is right now, yes.” “Not for long if he agrees to be our child. He will be so much more. He will struggle at first, but I can just feel that our son will be even greater than us when we were still mortals.” I couldn’t catch much after that and tried not to think about what was said so that my mind was not read. I waited and they brought back some tea and snacks.

            “Okay… Aiden, I know you have more questions, and we only have a limited amount of time so let’s get those out of the way before we get to main reason you were brought here shall we.” Odin says after sitting across from the table from me and taking a sip from his tea. I look at both the both of them with cautious looks after what I heard knowing that the conversation, they had was probably the main reason I am here right now. “You said that it has been 125,000 years since I died…I guess my main question is why and what are you going to do with me?” Odin looks at Tiamat with a look that says to answer, and she says, “I brought you here from the Well of Souls to become our child and to start our own race on Marble.” I look at her dumbfounded. “What do you mean new race?” “When the other gods and us came here to the Realm of the Cosmos, we almost wiped out everything unintentionally with the energy from the Realm of the Mystic. The others used the Well of Souls to create other races on Marble such as elves, dwarves, minks, and other races…Odin and I wanted to as well but we…have been busy with other duties stabilizing the Cosmos. Even in the Mystic we wanted to have offspring, but other duties and the war put all of that on the back burner.”

Tiamat takes a deep nervous breath before continuing, “As for what we are going to do to you…nothing. We want you to live the way you want on Marble. We want you to be happy and live for yourself.” She smiles at me filled with motherly love. Confused I say “Wait…you are sending back to Earth? Why? I have nothing there and if I’m going to be your child why send me there?” Odin is the one to speak this time saying, “Yes, we will send you back to Marble to live as you like and please. A mortal soul cannot stay in our domain for long. You will not be sent there as a child though do not worry. We have already prepared  for you, a suitable body made from ourselves for you. Unlike the other souls from the Well of Souls that the other gods used, your memory will stay intact. When you arrive, you will struggle at first though, Aiden. This is all of course if you agree to become our child. We will not do this against your will.”

They still don’t seem to understand that I have nothing there, no one to lean on or how the human mind works. I narrow my eyes at the two who seem to keep smiling at me and clearly hiding some things from me. My experience of being played with in my past resurfaces and in a low almost threatening voice I say, “You two are hiding something from me. What is it and do not lie to me. I am done being used by people.” Sensing my emotions rising, Tiamat unexpectedly rushes to my side of the table and hugs me. Caught off guard, my rising anger washes away and I am left confused when a tear hits my cheek. I realize it came from Tiamat as she whispers in my ear “Peace, Aiden. There are other reasons for us to ask this of you. The main reason and most important one that matters to us, is that we want a child to truly call our own.”

Tiamat leans back but still hugging me to look into my eyes and smiles. I’m still having my doubts on reading people, but I feel this strange emotion that is not my own being transferred to me. Emotions of longing, caring, and…love…run through me. This surprised me prompting me to ask Tiamat, who was the one I felt the emotions coming from, “Why?” “Oh Aiden, it wasn’t by accident that I was drawn to you out of all the countless other souls still left to be reincarnated inside the Well of Souls. I do not know for sure why, but your soul was like a blazing sun among the others. I knew by instinct that we were supposed to be mother and son. Even Odin felt a draw towards you when he opened the Well.” I look at Odin who was smiling like a caring father would at their child being born for the first time.

I have never felt like this before. Is this what a family should be like, so…caring…loving? I feel I can at least acknowledge them as family at least. I do not know about calling them mother and father right now, but maybe we can get there. “If…if I am to become your son,” I look shift my eyes between the two, “then what does that entail for me? You said mortal souls cannot stay in your domain for long so how are we even going to be a family? I am a little old to be having y’all taking care of me. Haha” Hearing me awkwardly laugh they both beam with the brightest smiles I have seen yet. Tiamat just hugs me tighter. Odin speaks with a voice with more life and says, “Well like my wife said you will live how you want and please on Marble. We can’t help you too much, but we can still give you advice and help where we can. This will not be the last time we will see each other.” I think for a moment sensing no falsehood in their words and feeling a wanting of belonging of a family. I look at Odin and then Tiamat and stuttered out, “If…if…if you think I am worthy of being your son then I would like to be considered as so.” Tiamat hugs me even tighter and says happily “YES, YES, YOU ARE MORE THAN WORTHY SON!!!” After a few seconds of feeling that my soul was going to be extinguished by her hug she finally let’s go enough for me to talk again. “There is one thing I would like to ask if I am going to be part of your family.” They both nodded prompting to ask, “I would like a new name to carry with me to Marble. This will be a new life for me, and I would like a name from the parents who want me and not from the parents who didn’t.” Tiamat tears up and nods and looks at Odin who nods for Tiamat to have the honor of giving me a new name. “How about Ladon? In human stories of gods, it is the name of Hera’s dragon, and it so happens that Hera is one of my names the people of Marble have given me. Gods do not have family names so you can come up that one down the line, yeah?” I nod smiling ear to ear feeling honored by the name and then for the next few hours we chatted for some time about the state of the world I left behind when I died.

The burst of energy that caused so much havoc in the Cosmos has been dubbed mana on Marble. Before the gods from Mystic got the mana under control it caused natural disasters and mutated life quickly in the Cosmos therefore spawning monsters that can only be found in stories. Civilization did not become stable again until about two-thousand years ago. Most knowledge of modern society has been lost and the countries from before are no longer around. Kingdoms have become the norm for the political system of Marble where there is habitable land. Tiamat told me that they will be sending me to a kingdom called Akan. She says it’s one of the more acceptable of different races. “Great, seems even after the apocalypse and 125,000 years discrimination is still a thing.”

Due to the mana mutating life, the gods created a system for the different races to combat against the threat of monsters. This system also gives everyone a fair chance in their lifetimes though it still seems that the survival of the fittest is the law of nature. Magic has also been developed and broken in the system by elements. “Awesome! Magic is real now. Wait a system what does that mean? Eh whatever. Fucking Magic WOO!”

“Well honey, I believe it is time.” Odin says finishing off his tea and looking at Tiamat. Looking sad as our time together is coming to an end, unglues herself from me and walks outside with Odin and I following behind her. I am blinded by the sunlight for a second but before long I see a gigantic egg being hugged by Tiamat. I stop in my tracks and ask, “I was under the assumption that I was the only child.” “Oh, you are sweetheart. This is your egg.” Tiamat says with a sweet smile. Confused and mentally exhausted I just go along with it. “Haa…nothing has really made much sense to the reality I knew before so why make a fuss about this.”

“So, how is this going to work…ya know sending back to Earth or I mean Marble.”

“We are going to transfer your soul with my magic into the egg. Then send you down to Marble where you will hatch into a mature body where you will carve out your own destiny.” Odin says with a hint of pride when he says my magic. Still confused I look at Tiamat who comes up to me and grabs my hand to lead me over the egg. The egg cracks open revealing the soup of life to give birth to a new being. She turns to me and hugs me and says softly in my ear, “I am so proud of you taking this risk my Ladon.” I shiver when says my new name. It felt like my being was being rewritten with new meaning. “We will be watching over you and will soon talk again. Live life to fullest and regret nothing. Care for the ones who deserve your love and destroy those who dare make light of you, for you are the son of Tiamat Goddess of Dragons and Love.” She broke the hug looked into my eyes with the fierceness of a mother dragon. I nodded surprised by the change of my new mother, but all the same wanting to live up to her expectations. Tiamat lets go and looks at Odin who gives me a fatherly hug and holds me at shoulder length and says, “What your mother said is what we both want for you son. For me though I want you to keep your wits about you, learn what you can, use what you learn for yourself and the ones you care about. For you are the son of Odin God of Magic and Wisdom. Now step inside the egg and start your new journey of life.”

Even though it has only been a couple of days for me these two truly feel like my parents. I nod and step into the soup and soon after, the last thing I see is Tiamat's teary smile before complete darkness and loss of consciousness.

[Tiamat and Odin]

            The egg looked whole again after Ladon stepped inside and Odin closing back up, before Tiamat picked it up and carried it towards a magic circle with runes. “Are you sure we shouldn’t have told him about the Voidans that followed us through the bridge Darling?” Tiamat asks Odin as they made their way to the circle. “We will when the time is right honey. For now, I want him to enjoy the new world that awaits him. I have a feeling he will find more enjoyment in his new life than his last. Besides he will have to become stronger before they can be confronted.” Tiamat sets the egg down and looks at Odin with a smirk, “Oh, he will be strong. More than anyone on Marble or of the Mysticals that came with us. Once he levels up enough, he will truly be our son in both name and blood.” Odin slits his wrist with a sharp ceremonial magic knife and passes it to Tiamat who does the same. They let their blood drain into a basin before healing their self-inflicted wounds.

            Odin and Tiamat pick up the basin together and hover it above the egg and tip it over together letting the blood cover the egg. Before their eyes the blood coats the egg completely and changes color from sapphire to a mix of crimson red and midnight purple. Tiamat eyes widen and exclaims “I knew it!!! That’s my son for ya haha! Gorgeous just like his soul.” “I couldn’t agree more my love. Now let us finish so he can start his new life. By thy name of Odin God of Magic and Wisdom, I name thee soul, Ladon my son and heir.” With tears of happiness Tiamat begins, “By thy name of Tiamat Goddess of Dragons and Love, I name thee soul, Ladon, my son and heir.” With both finished, they both say in unison, “May thee live a new life full of happiness and fulfillment. May thee bring about a new race for the good of Marble. May thee become a power to be reckoned with. May our son find greatness.”

            With the last syllable the circle glowed with a blinding light that even blinded the two gods before dimming leaving burnt grass in its place with the egg nowhere in sight. Odin grabs Tiamat’s waist and says “Now we watch and guide our son when we can. I know he will make us proud. “Yes, I cannot wait to see him again.” Tiamat smiles as they walk back to the cottage.

Meanwhile above the skies of the remnants of the continent of North America a meteorite could be seen crossing the skies. A few minutes after the meteorite was seen a loud explosion could be heard inside a forest not far from the small city of Melcox. At the epicenter of the explosion, small animals and monsters could see an egg the color of crimson red and midnight purple appearing from the dust cloud.