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Aberrant - ‘departing from an accepted standard’
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It was still so terribly strange to be walking the paths of the Churning Mists, walking upright with the feet and toes of a girl rather than the claws. She still remembered the day she was struck down and sank beneath the waves of the Ruby Sea, the day her life forever changed. In the eyes of a human, it had been a millennium. For most dragons, it had only been yesterday.
To her…to Kadlin, it felt like eons.
The wind around her shifted, a strong gust bearing down on her from above and the light horned auri woman turned her gaze to the sky as the great, white feathered wyrm, Hreasvelgr, floated down to land in the clear beside her. She smiled softly and followed him, standing before him as he lowered his head to her.
“Kadlin, my daughter,” His rumbling voice soothed her as she embraced his snout, rubbing her cheek and scales against his fur, “I have missed you. It is good to see you well and safe.”
Kadlin nodded, looking up into his eyes with a sad smile, “I’ve missed you too, father.” She was glad the ancient tongue of her scaled ancestors had not left her just yet.
Hraesvelgr hummed, “Your eyes always remind me of your mother…And she would have been proud of you.”
“Perhaps not of everything, but hopefully most things she would have. I at least avenged her partly…in some way perhaps.”
The wyrm sighed in a low hiss, “Revenge was never Ratatoskr’s way. Her nature was far too kind and understanding…but yes, you have set that vengeful spirit free.”
Kadlin nodded, “I um…I’ve had a lot to think about lately and…” She stepped back from him and moved to settle herself on a rock behind her, pushing back the skirt of her red dress to not bunch up the fabric around her scaled tail, “And I think…I have an answer for that question finally.”
Hraesvelgr knelt down to lay in the grass, curling his tail and wings around her as he listened. She took a deep breath before looking him in the eye, “I…I wish to remain amongst the mortals. Amongst man and his world.”
“Thou wouldst still trade thy wings for legs?” He replied, “Even after so long of being without them and being so far from home?”
“Please, do not misunderstand, Father. Full glad am I to be able to come home again and you know not how happy I was to see you all again and to still be able to see you when I like…but I have also lived in another world. I have seen its joys, its sorrows, and I have felt them myself. There are experiences I would have never dreamed of having while clad in the scales of my youth.”
“You say as if you are not still young,” He chuckled, earning him a look from the little blonde form of his daughter.
“The point I mean to say is…I love my home here, but I also love my home there…and I wish not to have to choose between them…if I may. Meaning i wish to be able to choose freely between my wings and my flesh as a please…if possible.”
The white dragon pondered this for a moment before a question rang through the air, “You have already learned to call upon your scaled form again after your battle with Nidhogg’s shade, but I sense that is not the issue. What made you come to this decision?”
Kadlin smiled weakly and looked down at her hands, fiddling with the ring on her finger, “I don’t mean to answer your question with a question but…do you remember…what it was like when you first met Shiva?”
Hraesvelgr growled softly at the mention of the Elezen woman, his eyes turning to the clouds where the setting sun was streaming through them, “I shall never forget that day. The moment our gazes met, our hearts never parted, and never have to this day.”
Kadlin smiled up at him, “I never understood what you meant as a hatchling when you would say that. I thought it was such a crazy notion to think about, but…now I…”
“You have found your heart in another then?” Kadlin froze, listening for the anger in her voice or the disappointment, yet it was entirely unreadable, “And He is a mortal, isn’t he? A son of Thordan.”
Kadlin’s hand shook as she fiddled with the ring more, swallowing hard, trying to keep herself calm in the face of the powerful wyrm, “Are you angry with me?”
There was a silence that felt as if it lasted a century until saw his shadow shade her and felt him push his nose against her head with a soothing purr, “Never, child.”
Tears spilled over from Kadlin’s eyes as she nuzzled against him again, smiling gratefully as he continued, “ I have learned thy heart enough now to never be angry with you for following your heart. As I said, your mother would have been proud.”
She wiped her tears as he drew back, confusion rewriting her features, “You knew? How?”
The great dragon laughed, pointing his nose to her ring that she was still fiddling with, “I may be an old wyrm, but I still know the customs of man.”
She scoffed lightly, “I never said you weren’t! But I am sorry if it seems I deceived you or hid something from you. It was not my intention.”
“I know this. Your intention is ever the purest one,” Hraesvelgr lowered his head until he was eye level with her and they gazed deeply into one another eyes, “I have spent centuries isolating myself from the world, pining for the loves I have lost. ‘Tis a fate I choose for myself in remembrance of those we have lost, but I would not wish it on anyone, especially not you, little one.” He touched his nose to her hand and said, “Kadlin, my daughter and daughter of Ratatoskr, first of the name ‘Sailehsdran’…of the dragons chosen by Hydaelyn, you are always welcome home, my child, and you have my blessing to follow the path your heart leads.”
Kadlin smiled brightly through her tears, wiping her damp cheeks with the back of her hand again and again to be able to see him clearly, happily laughing at her inability to stop them, “Thank you, Father. Thank you so much.”
“But tell that son of Thordan that if he dares to harm thee, I will see to it that there will be ought left but ash.” He chuckled darkly.
“I highly doubt you will need to worry about that with Ser Aymeric, but I’ll be sure to let him know, just perhaps a bit more gently so as not to scare him away,” Kadlin laughed with him.
He hummed in response, “I expect to see you before you are given away to him. Both of you, of course.”
“Whatever do you mean? I wouldn’t think of anyone else giving me over to my husband to be but im father. ‘Tis how the tradition must go, after all.”
It was sure to be a wedding Ishgard would not soon forget.