Chapter 3: Chat with the Shadow

-- Danny's Room --

Danny sighed. Ember was sitting next to him on the bed cross legged and Draconum was leaning smugly against the wall across from them. They were trying to finish the argument they had been having earlier, but Draconum's lack of moral value and cold ruthless logic was winning the argument. Ember fell back on the bed in defeat.

"I give up. Lets just admit that he is right already!" She whispered.

Draconum snickered. "Giving up already, but I was just getting started."

"Fine!" Danny threw his arms in the air in defeat, "I give up."

"It was just getting fun too." The ancient creature shrugged.

"What are you doing back here anyways?" Danny asked.

"Didn't we discus this already?"

"Yes, but we had other things on our mind at the time you know."

"Besides I wasn't paying attention." Ember said with a grin.

Draconum sighed mumbling something about the weak brain power of mammals.

"Hey, I heard that you stupid lizard!" Ember's already pale face went paler when she realized what she had said.

Draconum just laughed at her though. "Your temper matches your hair I see, hatchling. Very well, I will humor you. I am here because I decided to pay you a visit, nothing more nothing less."

"Thats it?" Danny asked.

"That's it." Draconum shrugged, "I just have good timing I suppose. My turn. Why did you stop me from killing that cretin?"

Danny sighed. "Didn't we just go over this?"

"No, we had a discussion on moral values, which I believe we agreed are useless in combat. Now tell me why you stopped me."

"I..." Danny sighed. "It just wasn't right. You shouldn't just kill people like that no matter how much they might deserve it."

Draconum tilted his head to the side in that lizard like way of his. "I don't understand. If someone deserves to die why not just kill them?"

Danny stared at Draconum not believing what he had just heard. He didn't understand?

"It... It's just not right, ok? You can't just kill people because you can!"

"I wasn't going to kill him because I could, I was going to kill him because he was a threat. Not just to you and Ember, but to humans in general."

Danny blinked. "That still doesn't make it right. You shouldn't kill something just because its a threat!"

"But all life must destroy another life in order to preserve itself. So killing an enemy to protect yourself or those you care for doesn't seem wrong."

Ember finally chimed in. "Not all life lives by destroying other life! Plants don't kill other things to preserve themselves!"

"I can understand how you would think that, but you are wrong." Draconum sat down on the floor. He looked like a teacher trying to explain a very difficult subject to the 'not so smart' kids.

"What? Plants don't kill things to eat! How can a plant destroy something?!" Ember asked angrily. She was sure she had him here, he was just bluffing.

"In order to survive plants absorb sunlight, you know this correct?"

"Yes!" They both answered.

"So that means that there is only so much sky to cover. Not every plant born lives to grow into an adult. Most are killed because other plants are already taking the sunlight above them effectively starving them to death. If the plant that was already there allowed new plants to grow it would have to compete for resources and therefore it existence would be endangered. So it simply strangles any young plants in a manner of speaking."

Both Ember and Danny were staring at him.

"Other plants," Draconum continued ignoring their stares, "have such expansive root systems they can literally strangle other plants by wrapping around the other's roots cutting off its supply of nutrients. Still others actually poison the ground around them so that only plants of the same species can grow ensuring their species survival by killing off all the competition. Oh and Ember?"

"Yes?" She answered weakly.

He smiled. "There are carnivorous plants in the world, though the larger types seem to have died out long ago. When I was a boy there was a kind of flower in the forests that could literally devour a young hatchling whole."

"That's... horrible!" She whispered.

"Not really. If we eat other creatures to survive why shouldn't something else be able to eat us."

"Because we are human!" Danny sputtered.

"I was never human, hatchling, though i will admit our races look very similar. That's not a reason anyways. A human is a human true, but what does that mean? A deer is a deer but that doesn't save it from the wolf now does it?"

"But a deer is just an animal! People are not animals!"

Draconum scowled. "You humans are arrogant beyond all belief, do you realize that? What makes your race or mine different from any animal? Our ability to think on a higher level?" He laughed, "That's just a different path of evolution, it doesn't make us any different from any other creature! An ape is about five times stronger then the average human and yet it is nearly as intelligent. Raptors were almost as smart as an ape and they were closely related to my people but out matched us in speed tenfold."

"So then you are saying the ape is better then a human because its stronger!" Danny asked. He felt insulted beyond reason.

"No, that does not make the ape better then a human just because it is stronger and similarly a raptor was not better then one of my people because it was faster."

"Then," Ember said thoughtfully, "what is better?"

Draconum sighed, "Different paths do not mean one creature is better then another and it certainly doesn't mean it is no longer an animal. A creature could be superior yes, but that doesn't make it better. A living thing is a living thing and all life is equal in the eyes of the truly wise."

"But... but you just said if something is a threat..."

"Kill it yes. You are learning something I think! The problem is you humans seem to become fearful of an entire species when one does become a threat and carry your defense a little to far. You nearly hunted the noble wolf to extinction from what I understand and wolves have a natural fear of other predators. Tell me what threat is a creature that runs at the sight of you ninety-nine times out of a hundred even when it outnumbers you?"

"There is still that one chance though..."

"Indeed, there is that one chance. And yes sooner or later someone will probably get killed by said rouge wolf, but dieing is the price we pay for living." Draconum shrugged, "The only creature on this planet that doesn't seem to understand that is humans. You become bitter towards an entire race just because one wrongs you. You don't see deer hunting down wolves because they probably will kill their herd mates. Yet humans will eradicate entire species just because they are seen as a threat."

Danny sat back holding his head. He had a sudden headache. "I think we need to change the subject."

"So you admit defeat then? Very well what next?"

"What were your people?" Ember asked immediately, "You said they weren't human just similar."

"I said similar in appearance. We evolved from large warm blooded reptiles. Raptors were related to us in the same way apes and monkeys are related to humans."

"So... you were always a lizard then?"

Draconum chuckled. "Yes, I was born from an egg instead of being born live like a human, I had clutch mates instead of siblings, and I was referred to as hatchling instead of child."

Ember stared at him. "You were born from an egg?"

"Yes is that so strange? Many creature lay eggs."

"It isn't that, how many... clutch mates... did you have? I mean your mom couldn't of... had... many eggs could she?"

"I only had two, my little brother and sister." Sadness crossed Draconum's face. He looked down as memories flooded into his mind.

"I... I am sorry... Drac." She said quietly.

He looked up at them and shook his head. "No, you merely asked a question, there is nothing to apologize for. They both died long ago."

"What... What were they like?" Danny asked quietly. He couldn't help but ask. He wanted to know what the real Draconum was like, his life before the curse had consumed him.

Draconum's snake eyes seemed to go unfocused for a moment as he remembered.

"My little sister, Senria, was probably the kindest being I have ever met. Just being around her could make people happier. She was a little bit of a scamp though always getting into some kind of trouble and dragging Errsinor, my little brother along with her. Despite all the trouble she always got them into though she always knew I would be there to help her whenever she needed me. Even after I was cursed I helped her from the shadows and I was with her when she died. She... she told me that she would wait for me, no matter how long it took... she would wait for me and Errsinor. The day she died... it was the only time I cried in my entire life."

"And your brother?" Ember asked in a whisper.

Draconum smiled. "He was shy and bashful, but no one could have a better friend then him. He could be the greatest of warriors if someone he cared for was endanger despite his shy nature. He even fought off a pack of predators we called Uzzar, a kind of large cat, to protect Senria and me when we were injured hunting once. He could be funny one moment and crying the next because Senria hit him on the head for saying something he shouldn't. All the arguments they had," He chuckled shaking his head, "it was a wonder they didn't kill each other before they became adults." Draconum's eyes grew sad again, "He told me when he died that he would wait for me with Senria."

"You must miss them." Ember said feeling tears threating to fall.

Draconum looked up at them again and nodded. "I do miss them. I thought that they would be waiting for all time for me, I thought I had damned them to eternal limbo. But now some day I will see them again." He smiled, "Thanks to you Danny, darkness isn't my future or theirs. I owe you a debt that I can never repay, not if I lived ten times as long as I have now."

Danny stared at the man standing there. He could no longer think of him as a creature, he was not the monster bent on destroying everything, nor was he simply a thing that lacked a place in the world. He was a man that had endured a curse that had damned him to eternal suffering and at long last he was free. Danny couldn't say a thing because there was nothing that he could really say.

'It's alright little brother.' Draconum's voice whispered in his mind, 'You don't need to say anything, I already know.'

He could only nodded. He felt Ember squeeze his arm. When he looked at her she was smiling up at him proudly. Draconum pushed himself off the wall.

"I should get going." He said quietly.

"No wait!" Danny said standing up.

"You don't need to go." Ember said.

He looked back at them. "I have bothered you two long enough already. I do not need to be a burden to you or your family Danny."

"You're not a burden really. Please you don't need to go. You can stay here!" Danny pleaded.

Draconum stared at him uncertain. He was obviously running it over in his mind, but he didn't want to intrude on his only real friends.

"Please..." Ember said.

Draconum closed his eyes a moment then opened them again. "If... if you are certain... then I suppose..."

Ember squealed and ran forward giving the ancient being the first real hug he had gotten in ages. He was so stunned by the small show of affection that he literally didn't know what he was supposed to do. Finally he decided to just give her a hug back and picked her up off the ground in a light bear hug that had her laughing when he put her back down. Draconum looked at Danny who grinned at him.

"Welcome to the family big guy!" The ghost boy said happily...