The Phoenix And The Dragon [Shadow]

@"Shadowborn"

Argya walked out of the water right behind Tao, shaking her fur immediately, splashing water literally everywhere. Ha! She could imagine her mother if she saw her acting like this, she would probably scold her because of ‘Acting like a lower-rank instead of a princess´. She smiled at the thought, but had to hold back a laugh to not look awkward in front of Tao. It wasn’t a normal thing to people to laugh because of nothing.

She sat, looking at Tao as he took off his soaked clothes. Ok, she actually didn’t knew how to feel about this. She knew that in human society, wearing clothes was a must, or at least that was what she had been taught during all her life, but this guy apparently didn’t mind taking them off at all. Well…he had his underwear on, so he was technically dressed…or not? Humans and their complicated dressing rules that somehow changed a bit too quickly over the years “Well, if you weren’t born, would you mind telling me how you came to be? You obviously had to start existing at some point, since as long as I know nothing simply exists without a beginning in this universe. Of course, I may be wrong, there are a lot of things out there that even my kin can’t understand just yet” She looked at her fur, now spiky and messy thanks to her previous action.

Immediately she started to use her paws to return the fur to its original state, or as close as it could be since it was still fairly wet.

@"Shadowborn"

Argya listened to him carefully. He was really quite an interesting boy, so, in few words he was the personification of all those life-changing choices that define who we are and how we reached that being. When she decided to ignore the destiny imposed to hen the day of her birth and follow the path of freedom…probably that’s an example of what this guy is saying, right?

Argya fell silent for a couple of minutes, thinking about what the boy had asked “You have two hard questions there you know? For what I had seen…you are a human, but at the same time you are a completely different being. Your body is that of a human, infused by the ancient forces of the Tao, it depends on you and the choices you make if you become more or less human. Look at me as an example. I’m a bjartskular, right? But what would happen if I…” A silver glow enveloped her, a tingling sensation allowing her to know that her transformation power was working. After two seconds, where once was standing a silver bjartskular, was standing a white tiger “…decide to change? Now, just because my physical form has changed it doesn’t means that I stopped being myself right? Since I know that deep within me, no matter how I look on the outside, I am and will always be a bjartskular. Of course, this is just my way of looking at it, maybe you’ll find a better or more convincing answer later” She sat, looking at the boy with a smile as her fur once more became dripping wet, as the amount of water that was on her on her true form remained, it just changed places and…well, the same amount that makes a bjartskular simply wet, makes a white tiger soaked.

“About your second question…well, that’s a lot trickier, you know? If you ask the people around you, and maybe even some creatures, each one will give you a completely different answer. What makes a human, human? If you ever find out I would be interested to know, if you don’t mind”.

@Shadowborn

Argya just chuckled a bit at the shocked face of the boy, the tip of her now feline tail twitching a bit “To be related to them one of my ancestors would’ve had to meet them or their own ancestors at some point, and as far as I know, none of mine’s had ever traveled to other worlds, Tao” She answered sincerely. She could guess until a certain point how important these mythical beasts were for him, but no matter how much he wanted it, she knew deep inside that she wasn’t one of them, and that there was at least 99% chances of her not being related to them in any way. After all, one of the biggest prides of her species was how pure their bloodline was, if any of her ancestors mated to another species everyone would obviously know, right? She never could understand why pure bloodlines were so darn important, and not only on her species, but in a lot of them.

“So, tell me Tao, how human are you? Or maybe you feel that being human isn’t your thing after all?” She asked with curiosity, lying on the soft grass under her as the sun stroked her fur. Hopefully it would help her to get it dry.

@Shadowborn

Argya nodded in understanding. She had exiled herself to seek for a better future than the one that her parents tried to impose on her, but she found herself missing her home from time to time, wondering if she should go back. She missed her home, a lot, but she had to get over it if she wanted to go on with her quest.

She tilted her head a bit with the guy’s words, so he had killed in the past? “And what was the reason behind that killing? You killed with a fair cause, or just because you could do it?” She asked seriously, her true age showing behind her words, along with the wisdom earned through all those years “A lot of humans had killed before, but there are differences between them. Tell me, what would you pick? Kill to free the ones you love from the chains of someone that only sees them as dispensable objects under their command, or kill to prove the ones around you that you’re the strongest or the worthiest, and earn a safe spots between the higher ranks of this world?” Her gentle eyes looked at him, carefully evaluating him and his reactions, wanting to know what he was thinking and how honest he was being to himself.

“You made the decision to kill, that can’t be changed. And even though killing is always a bad thing, at least you have a good reason behind it? Or you just acted like a coward hiding behind the title of barbarian, seeking for blood and destroying innocent lives for sport?”.

@"Shadowborn"

Argya nodded with his words “Your intentions were good, but I’m sure that you understand that the action that you took wasn’t the best one, right? In this world and from the point of view of my people, there is what is known as the spiritual scales, scales that are found deep within the souls of every living being” Using a small patch of dirt on the ground, she used one of her claws to draw a scale, which looked just like that that you could see Lady Justice[/s] holding, or like the one that the ancient Egyptian god Anubis used to weight the hearth of the souls that had died.

“On one side you’ll find the vilest things that can exist on Earth, the things that can turn those that possess them into the worst scourge that had ever existed, such awful creatures that even calling them animals would be like calling angel a demon” She made an irregular circle on one of the plated in such way that it looked full, dark if you want to call it like that “On the other, you’ll find the purest intentions, those that most creatures dreams to achieve, the perfection, or, as you probably would understand better, the pure human” She drew a perfect circle on the second plate, leaving it unfilled to make it look lighter than the other one.

“Most creatures lean to one side or another, increasing the weight of a specific plate over the other. Yet…for what I managed to get from your words, you are one of the rare creatures that, consciously or not, keep the balance between the two. So in few words, you have enough light in your soul to be called human, but at the same time, the darkness that had planted its poisonous seed in you stains the purity of the word, leaving you exactly in the middle of this battle of powers” She decided to use something that he could understand a bit easier as she explained this, and after looking at his clothes she knew exactly what to do.

Carefully, she drew the Ying-Yang on top of the scale “But tell me, Tao, which side are you willing to feed? And which side are you willing to leave to die? Or maybe you’ll keep your balance and be stuck like this till the end of your days?”.