The news of Gikka's passing due to old age filters its way to Wraithvine. The immortal dragon healer, in hir guise as a gnome, placed a gentle hand on Wraithvine's. "Never gone as long as she is remembered, and I'm not leaving your side any time soon, my friend. For I live as long as you." -- Anon Guest
Wraithvine hated goodbyes. Ze had had far too many of them in hir time if service. Outliving enemies and allies alike could easily make immortality a depressing slide into darkness. It could rot the soul if one wasn't very careful.
Bibrid had almost fallen into that pit. Then he met an Elven Wizard and a Kobold thief, and learned to love the world all over again.
Who could have thought, at the beginning of the world, that an Elf and a Dragon could walk side by side as friends? Not Bibrid. Not any of the Dragons who started the first of the Xenophobia Wars.Thousands upon thousands of years had passed between those early days and now. Thousands more may yet pass before either of them met their eternal rest.
Some Dragons - or Dragonkindred - do not live forever. Kobolds can last up to one hundred and twenty years. Some can make it longer if they look after their health. Most end young, as a brief, crunchy squeak under the weapons of larger Adventurers. As a species, they were lucky that they were fecund. Nevertheless, they were mortal beings.
Even such a long-term friend like Gikka.
She'd had a good retirement as an adopted auntie, and seen more than one farmer foundling into a far safer adulthood. She was happy, according to the letter, and had passed peacefully while napping in the sunshine.
Wraithvine stopped where ze received the letter. More or less. It had reached the both of them in another little stop full of little troubles that needed helping hands in many places. Now Wraithvine had hir own little trouble in the shape of one more absent friend.
Even though ze'd experienced such millions of times by now, it still weighed hir down.
Bibrid helped Wraithvine to a seat by a little cafe on the corner, ordered a calming tea, and sat with hir. Both those sitting at that table could remember the era in which Kobolds were created. One was there, and had objected to the idea of using created, lesser Dragonkindred as fodder for the wars to chew to pieces.
That was the first time Bibrid had been imprisoned. The reasons may change, but the stone walls and magical restraints were rendered dull by frequent familiarity.
"She had a good life, and she was a good friend," said Bibrid. "Her memory will stay with the both of us, and thus a part of her will live forever."
Wraithvine had shed more than a few silent tears. Ze sipped hir tea and managed, "That, and Dragonkindred reincarnate. We'll see her soul again, in a different form."
Bibrid raised his teacup. "To a different form, a different face, and meeting a friend all over again."
"To the love we still have for what is gone," said Wraithvine. Sipping hir own toast.
"To the most fun I've had in five million years," said Bibrid.
Which lead, eventually, to reminiscing. Laughter in amidst the tears. She would be missed, true. But the laughter she let them have would last for hundreds of years more.
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