Memory Bonds

Harmoni didn’t feel so good. She swayed on her feet. Black spots danced in her vision. The sun baked down on her, and sand stuck to her like a second skin, not helping at all. When she stepped forward, she stumbled. She wasn’t even sure what was ahead of her. Maybe she should lie down, and get some more sleep.

When she first started feeling bad, weak, she was worried. Now she was too tired for such a strong emotion.

She turned, blinking without really taking in her surroundings. But she did see a space between two buildings that was small. It would give her some shade and keep her out of the way while she rested.

She moved towards that spot. She remembered stumbling again, and remembered the world going dark as soon as she closed her eyes. She wasn’t sure if she even made it to the little alcove.

~~~

Harmoni had a hard time explaining what was going on. She felt sort of like she was floating through the dark. Her mind was too aware to claim she was sleeping. In fact, she had the distinct feeling she’d had a dream she couldn’t remember, one of those things just on the edge of your mind that you couldn’t reach. If she was no longer dreaming, and no longer remembered the dream, she was probably awake. And yet, her senses didn’t seem to be working.

She tried to calm her turning mind, and see if there was anything she could focus on.

And there was. She could smell things. It seemed like soaps, those flower-scented ones. There was enough of the smell to be a little overwhelming.

When she focused on touch, the ground below her was soft and comfortable. It sloped a little, lifting her head. Very different than where she’d been sleeping lately.

Sound came back next. She could hear multiple things moving around. One of the sounds seemed like regular footsteps. Well, another sounded a bit like footsteps as well, but too heavy, and there was a sort of low rumbling sound coming from that direction too.

And OK, it was time to find out what was going on. Harmoni tried to open her eyes. That was a struggle, a far greater one than she’d wanted or expected. For a while, she could just feel her eyelashes fluttering, without really opening and letting her see. But slowly and surely, she managed to crack her eyes open, and keep them that way.

She was lying in a bed with about nine different pillows used to support her head and shoulders. On both sides of the room she could see shelves along the wall. They had what looked like bars of soap, bath bombs, bubble baths, and more like those.

Across the room was a wooden door, different than the almost yellow stone surrounding it. And to her right, in front of a shelf, was a person.

The person was a human man. He had dark skin. His eyes and short hair were dark too, although the hair was graying in places. He sat on a wooden stool, staring down at a wooden bowl while he stirred whatever was in it. Probably soup.

For a second, she was able to just take in him and the room. Then he slowly lifted his head, definitely noticing her open green eyes, staring at him.

“Oh, thank God. I don’t want to know what it would’ve looked like if you’d died here.” He looked down. “Aqua?”

Something shifted below him, too low for Harmoni to have seen before. A long scaly head with a few pointy teeth poking out rose into her field of vision. Harmoni gasped, and the only reason it wasn’t more obvious was because she was still so weak. It wasn’t much of a gasp.

The dragon in the room was blue, a darker shade on the back than the belly. The pattern where the two shades met sort of resembled waves. It had some spikes along its back, but the spikes were connected by webbing. The spines seemed more like bat wings, or frills on some reptiles, than a weapon. It was probably large, but its serpent like body let it sit comfortably in the room. Really, all those things made the dragon look like it would be better off in the water than a desert.

The dragon also had red eyes, and it was intimidating to be so close to one. But all the dragon did was bring a cup up with its foot, webbing between its talons as well.

The man took the cup and brought it to Harmoni. It looked like regular water. Tasted like regular water too, as Harmoni was in no condition to resist drinking it.

“What’s happening?” Harmoni croaked out once she could speak.

“I found you passed out along the side of the road,” the man explained.

The dragon watched from over his shoulder. It looked suspicious, but maybe Harmoni was just bad at reading a dragon’s emotions. She already might have underestimated their intelligence. This one had responded to the man calling for it by bringing up a glass of water, and was watching like it understood the whole conversation. She knew they had some brains in there. The other dragon had been helping the alchemist after all. But this went past even that.

“When I realized you weren’t dead, well, I figured I’d better make sure it stayed that way.”

The man got the bowl of soup and brought it over. This time, Harmoni was a little more skeptical. Still, it smelled good. And the man was good at getting the water and soup in her mouth without making her choke on it.

According to his story, if he’d wanted her dead, there were much easier ways to do it. So she accepted the help, for now.

“What were you thinking?” the man asked, after getting some soup in her. “And where are your parents?”

That was a good question. Harmoni tried to focus, but she couldn’t think of an answer. No ideas popped into her head, like when someone asked her name. And she wouldn’t say she didn’t remember. That would open up a completely different bag of worms. She wouldn’t be telling a man she just met that she had total amnesia.

“Why would I tell you?” she asked.

“Aqua or I could let them know you're still alive.” The man nodded to the dragon. “And I’d feel better knowing you got home after all this.”

“I don’t have any parents,” she answered. She was ready to add to the lie, say she had an uncle in another town waiting for her, should she need it. You were safer if someone was expecting you. But she sort of wanted to see how he responded, get a hint on how to play this.

“Oh.” The man paused for a moment. “Oh, I see.”

He was clearly thinking about something. He looked to the side and covered his mouth with his thumb and finger, the other fingers curled up, but at least he didn’t look overly sad about it. She didn’t want him pitying something that was possibly a lie. Well, if she was from that destroyed town it was probably true. But she still couldn’t remember any parents. It would be silly if he was sad about her hypothetical parents while she was not.

The man meanwhile, had apparently come to his own conclusion. “Tell you what, I’ve been looking for an apprentice recently. Would you be interested?”

Harmoni’s fear was forgotten at that. She bolted into a sitting position, fast enough to make her hair swish. “Yes!”

Both the man and the dragon stared at her, and the fast movement made her head feel worse.

“You don’t even know what I do yet,” the man pointed out.

“Sorry. I am interested. That was what you asked,” she pointed out. “I’m good at a lot of things. But I could change my mind later, if it makes you feel better.”

She really, really wanted an apprenticeship. And he was the first one to offer, without her even asking. But she wasn't stupid. A healthy dose of skepticism was good. So she hadn't committed to anything yet.

“I see,” the man said. Harmoni didn’t like the way he was frowning, but he let it go. “My name is Udo. And the dragon is Aqua.”

She nodded. “Harmoni.”

“Well Harmoni, finish up your soup first, and then I can show you around.”

Then Udo sat down on the stool, and started eating a second bowl. Turned out, he had his own soup.

Well then, Harmoni could manage that. It felt good to get a real meal into her. So she sat on the bed and finished her soup.

When both of them were done, Udo moved to the other end of the room, gesturing for her to follow.

Harmoni got out of bed. She wobbled slightly, but was able to stay standing. She didn’t even feel that tired any more. Her legs were just out of practice.

The dragon, Aqua, stayed behind her as she joined Udo. He opened the door, and when they stepped out, they were literally in his business.

The place they’d just stepped into was large. It was at least two stories tall, and large enough to have multiple dragons the size of Aqua inside. It seemed he’d gotten away with this by not having a fourth wall. There was a wall on the front and along either side, and the roof seemed to slope in that direction, making it taller in the back than the front. But then the back just opened up, creating more open space if you needed it.

The walls that did exist were a pale blue. The floor had what Harmoni realized, after a moment, were pools. (They had the same pale blue tiles.) There were different sizes, but two of them were big enough to go past that missing wall. There were carts along the sides with herbs, rocks, and more bath supplies on them, easily able to be wheeled around. She saw things like brushes or clippers on one of them as well, but more heavy duty than anything she'd seen for a bath before. The brush looked like it should be scraping rust off of metal instead. Up at the front was a door, and a desk in the corner. There were two doors along the wall, one of them the one they'd just come from. And above them was a narrow metal walkway leading to more doors on the second floor. Looking to the side, Harmoni could see the staircase leading up there.

Compared to this place, the room they’d just come from must’ve been a storage closet.

“Well, here we are.”