A/N: Thank you FraterFrag for telling me about the formatting problem with this and the next chapter.

This chapter entails discussion of religion. Like Temeraire, she doesn't understand the concept of faith and questions everything Alexander says about it. Alexander, on the other hand, has lost much of his faith in lieu of the hurricane.

R&R!

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Historians have long debated over how Hamilton managed to keep Calliope secret until April of 1775, when he joined the militia and therefore the Revolution. Many have theorized, that since Calliope was half sea serpent, she lived in the Hudson, eating fish instead of meat, as was tradition. According to Hercules Mulligan, Hamilton preferred studying by himself, outside when the weather allowed, and even during winter he enjoyed long, solitary walks, which, in retrospect, were obviously times used to visit Calliope. It is a miracle Calliope survived her first two winters in New York, being half sea serpent and half Yupanqui (as was revealed later). Sea serpents are known to prefer warm waters of the equator and Yupanqui were bred in the jungles of South America to serve as companions to the Sapa Inca, both species who prefer warmer climates. But her experiences then may have helped her survive the harsh winters during the Revolution.

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Aaron was spending the summer in New York. In autumn he would return to his studies in Princeton, but for now he would enjoy the peace and quiet of his leisurely walk on the western shore of the Hudson. Most people wouldn't find walking by the river enjoyable, but he had always liked the breeze and the sound of nature that Elizabethtown lacked. It wasn't that he was a naturalist, but the peacefulness of nature had always calmed him when being around people became too much.

Up ahead was coming a little cove he liked to sit in and read, but this time it seemed to be taken.

Someone was reading the Greek myths aloud in classical Greek.

Someone interrupted them. "But Alexander! If the apple belongs to the most beautiful, why don't the goddesses rank each other? One ranks the other two, and the one who got two votes gets the apple."

"That would have been the logical thing to do, but none of them were the goddess of logic, now were they? Sure Athena was the goddess of wisdom and battle strategy, but both of them are applications of logic, which could very well mean that she was illogical in other things, such as when it came to her vanity and personal relationships. Hera, on the other hand, was never logical in her personal affairs. As for Aphrodite… well, love is never logical, so we shouldn't expect the goddess of love to be either. Also, it wouldn't be a very good story, would it?"

"No, I suppose not," admitted the female voice.

Aaron peeked form behind the tree, and stared.

It was a young man, about Aaron's age, with a – a dragon curled up in the shallow water, sunning itself. Its long body was curled up like a snake, and its wings… God, it had four wings. It didn't match the description of any dragon Aaron had read of. Its color scheme was something exotic, a bright green that seemed to be darkening to a forest green and a light pink that was brightening to an attention grabbing pink Aaron had only seen on the brightest of flowers. If he couldn't see the wings, he'd have claimed the dragon was a sea serpent, and if the body hadn't been that long, he would have claimed it was an unknown dragon species.

"Alexander, why are these gods and goddesses myths, but not the one in your Bible? Aren't these gods older? Isn't Judaism older than Christianity too? Wasn't Moses a Jew and freeing slaves in Egypt, which, again had its own gods?"

Aaron felt both like he'd been slapped and that the world had suddenly been turned upside down. No one he knew questioned the Scripture. He bit his lip to keep from going over and giving the beast a sermon worthy of his grandfather. No one argued with a dragon, they might eat you if you annoyed them enough.

The young man spluttered, likely wordless, Aaron thought.

Or maybe not. "Calliope! We don't question the Bible. Religion is a matter of faith, not whether or not it makes sense."

"Well, I'm not going to believe just because I'm told to," the dragon huffed. "If this god wants me to believe in him, he can come down here to meet me. We could have a long talk about his view on slavery, since the Bible so clearly accepts it while also saying all men are his children. And yet, isn't Jesus referred to as his only son? What are the rest of the male humans? And yet Eve was the creator of original sin. And what is this hell all about? If Jesus sacrificed himself for all of humanity, wouldn't all of you go to heaven anyway? And what about the flood thing? Animals can't reproduce an entire species from one pair of male and female specimens, Ned says they'll inbreed and become sterile in just two or three generations. And where are all the dragons? What happens to our souls after we die? Do we have souls in the first place? Because morals are not just a human thing. Also, if there were so many miracles two, three thousand years ago, why did they stop? And if King George derives his right to rule over us from god, why isn't he a better king? One would think an omnipotent and omnipresent god would have something to say about him breaking his promises. Does that count as lying?"

The young man the dragon had addressed as Alexander groaned. "Please slow down, one question at a time. But… I don't have all the answers. Except that if there is a God, he must be taking a hands-off approach in governing us. I've never had my prayers answered, so either they are drowned in other people's prayers, or he's not listening to prayers at all. His Angels too. On the other hand, how do you explain all this? Us humans and dragons and the world? If God didn't create us, who or what did? As soon as you can give me a viable alternative, I'll discard the story of Adam and Eve."

"But not your god?"

"Well, I like to think I'm a good person and that God wouldn't be very petty if I had my doubts of His existence, so I don't think my life would go any differently in either scenario. I will not commit myself to either cause before either side has presented me proof one way or another."

"I don't think there is a god. Why would he allow such things like hurricanes and earth quakes and malaria to exist? No, whatever created us, also created them, and is nothing to worship."

"Very well, shall we go back to reading?"

"Yes please."

Aaron leaned against the tree he had been hiding behind. Over hearing that simple conversation made him question everything he had considered fact in his life. Every religious thing, that is. For the past year he had been studying different parts of the Bible and how to interpret them. In a few months he would go back to Princeton to study more, and he wasn't sure he would be able to do so as objectively as before. Or maybe he would be too objective? How would he be able to ignore the doubts the dragon had planted in his mind?

In a daze he returned to Elizabethtown.

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It was two days later that he was introduced to Alexander Hamilton.

They keep meeting that summer.