It was the day after the dance, the group making their final preporations for leaving the next day. Lei, who had left the dance early (though he expected no one to notice with how much fun they had been having), spent much of the night with himself and trying to deside on something. Finally making his desision to tell everyone in the morning, his fear came back when he woke, and considered keeping quiet. No! He had to tell them before leaving the valley, he had lied too long! If this continued on any longer… they might never forgive him.
With a sigh Lei headed off to find Iris, desiding that he wanted to tell her first. She was probably the only one who wouldn’t blow up at him for this and… if she didn’t forgive him for his lies he knew no one else would.
Iris had retired early from the dance as well, not used to being celebrated like that and no one inviting her to dance. Come morning she went to the lake to wash and refresh herself.
After a bit of searching Lei had found Iris, walking over beside her and smiling a little. But this smile was forced, unlike his normal one and probably looked stupid on the dragonkin. “Morning Iris.”
Iris looked up as she dried her face, smiling. “Morning L…Lei?” She saw the forced expression, and stood, “What’s wrong?”
Lei sighed a little, sure, the one day he needed to act well… calm he couldn’t even smile right! “Um… Iris there is something I wanted to talk to you about… well everyone but… I wanted to tell you first.”
The wocky looked troubled by how this issue seemed to be affecting Lei but she smiled gently. “Okay, I’m always here to listen to you.”
Lei nodded, but moved to sit down by the lake and patting the ground. “Iris… The truth is there has been something… that I’ve been lieing about. To you… and everyone around me. I… want to tell you all the truth before leaving the valley.”
Iris looked surprised at this, and sat down beside Lei. “What do you mean?”
Lei sighed, looking at the water. “When I was younger… so about… 100 years ago I started this lie. I pretended to be something I wasn’t. And… living with this lie for so long… its… hard to admit it now. I…I want you to know that I didn’t want it to go this far with you all. I see everyone as my friends… the first I’ve had in so long. I’ve wanted to tell the the truth a couple other times but… before I could build up the courage… something else happened and then it wasn’t the right time.” He exlained, fidgeting a little. How would she react to this…? Would she be mad? Disgusted…? “I’ve been lieing about my gender. I’m… well I’m a girl.” Lei said softly.
Iris sat and stared in shock. She was speechless for some time, trying to process this revelation. “Y…you’re a girl?”
Lei didn’t look at Iris at all, and she just nodded. “I… started pretending to be a guy when I was… about 24. After living in Shenkuu for yeras… I hated how girls were always treated so much lower then guys. So when I moved to Altador… I started pretending to be a guy.”
Iris looked down, thoughtful. “And you just grew used to being a guy?”
Lei nodded, “I didn’t mean for it to last so long. But… when I moved back to Terror Mountian… by then if felt too weird to… go back to being a girl. That and… I wanted to open up a martial arts school in the town. If I had been a girl… I don’t think anyone would have taken me seriously. But… as a guy so many people came to the school. When I was run out of town 50 years later… by then I just couldn’t admit to myself or others what I really was. I never expected to make such good friends… or leave my home like I did. Before you guys came… I knew people for three days tops. There was no reason to tell them the truth.”
Iris sighed, “And it’s taken you this long to tell us? Any of us?”
Lei winced as she heared that. “I wanted to before this… I really did! But… building up the courage to admit it… was hard. And by the time I gained the courage we were… attacked by red dragons, or pulled into the rescue of slaves, or running to find a place of saftey. But… I wanted to tell everyone, before we left the valley.”
Iris smiled slightly at that. “Yes, it has been rather hectic for us, hasn’t it?” She edged closer, and hugged Lei.
Lei was suprised at the hug, when Iris’s arms went around her she could feel how much Lei was shaking. “S…So… you don’t hate me…? For lieing to you for so long…?” She asked quietly, head hanging forward in shame.
“Of course I don’t!” Iris said, hugging her friend closer, “Of course not…”
Lei trembled more, then moved to hug Iris back. “T…Thank you…”
Iris smiled faintly, laughing slightly before pulling back after a while of holding Lei close. “You know… this is rather awkward…” She said, “I… kind of… well, liked you…”
Lei blinked a couple times before chuckl;ing nervously, “Guess its good I told you now huh…?”
She giggled faintly, blushing. “Yeah… it might have been even worse later on…”
Lei nodded, a bit of blush on her cheeks as well. “Yes… that would have been I think.” She said before letting out a small sigh. “Now I jsut… have to tell everyone else the truth…”
Iris smiled kindly. “I’ll be there with you.” She said.
Lei looked at Iris and smiled at her. “Thank you. For everything. I was so scared that you would hate me for my lies. Though… I’m still scared everyone else will. Do you know where they all are?”
Iris chuckled, “I think Bast is still asleep.” She got to her feet, dusting off her dress. “He got pretty drunk last night.”
Lei laughed and nodded, standing. “I saw him stumble in with Jing last night. He was wasted. Might as well check and see if he is awake.”
Iris grinned and nodded, walking back to the house. “I’ll make some tea with herbs to help the hangover.”
Lei nodded “Proably for the best.” She said, walking beside Iris. “Do you think… Bast and the others will hate me for lieing…?”
“I don’t think they’ll hate you Lei…” She smiled, shaking her head. “They may be disappointed you didn’t tell them before.”
Lei looked at Iris, but she was still scared that everyone might hate her for this lie. “I hope your right Iris.”
Iris moved to hold Lei’s hand, squeezing it gently. “You’re a good friend, Lei. They’d be bad friends if they could not forgive you this.”
Lei smiled a tiny bit, holding Iris’ hand back. “Thank you. And I hope thats true. I really do.”
Iris walked back inside the house, and moved to the kitchen to prepare breakfast for everyone.
Lei went around to check on the others, mainly to see if Bast was still passed out. She was suprised to see Jing sleeping with him, but then smiled a little.
Bast was out cold, snoring loudly and still hugging Jing, one hand comfortably resting cupped over her breast.
Jing was still asleep as well, curled up close to Bast and her tail around him. It was probably the only reason Jing wasn’t beating Bast up for grabbing her breast. Lei shook his head, leaving the door open a little that way when the house started smelling of food it would hopefulyl wake them up. She then went back to the kitchen and smiled at Iris. “Want some help?”
Iris smiled, nodding as she gave Lei some tasks. Soon after, Rena came into the kitchen, yawning sleepily and rubbing her eyes. “Morning…” She said, slipping into a seat at the table.
Lei looked over at Rena and smiled “Morning. How did you sleep?”
Rena smiled sleepily, “Good. I had fun yesterday!”
Lei chucklde and nodded “I’m going to go wake up Dalit.” She said, heading to ehr and the silver dragon’s room.
Dalit lay curled up on Lei’s pillow, sleeping soundly.
Lei smiled, going over to the bed and bringing her hand onto Dalit’s head lightly. “Dalit…? Its morning. You hungry?”
Dalit stirred, waking as he looked up at Lei and smiled groggily. ‘Hi Lei.’
Lei smiled back, “Hey Dalit. You hungry?”
Dalit nodded, ‘Yup…’ He sat up, sniffing the air and eyes widening. ‘PANCAKES!’
Lei laughed as he saw Dalit’s reaction and nodded. “Yep. So we better hurry before they are all gone.”
‘Okay!’ He shot past Lei and glided down the stairs to the kitchen area.
Lei laughed more, and quickly followed after the young dragon.
By the time Lei got down, Bast was also up, looking like a shipwreked pirate as he draped over the table moaning at the kids to pipe down. Iris grinned faintly, setting a strong-smelling black tea in front of Bast. “Drink up.” She indicated.
Jing was sitting beside Bast, face bright red but she tried to hide her blushing. It seemed she had realized how she had slept with Bast last night and how he had been holding her. Lei chuckled, sitting down at the table. “Your own fault for drinking so much last night Bast.” She said, looking around at them all. “So, where is Silver?” She asked, noticing the Jerboa was the only one missing.
Iris shrugged, “I looked in his bed, but he didn’t sleep there.” She said, “He must have slept elsewhere.”
Lei nodded, realizsing the jerboa could be anywhere. She looked around at the others but shook her head, she 3would tell them after breakfast, and after hopefulyl the tea helped with Bast’s hangover.
Bast was drinking the strong tea, making faces cleary indicating his thoughts on the flavor, but he drank it all anyways, mostly not noticing Jing’s bright color. Rena had noticed though, and she giggled. “You two slept together last night!”
Jing’s face went bright, BRIGHT red as she heared Rena, and the girl’s tail poofed out to twice its normal size. She didn’t say anything, but her hands went over her face to try and hide her blushing.
Lei chuckled as she saw Jing’s reaction, but didn’t point out her reaction at all. Knowing it would make things worse.
Bast grinned, “Yes we did.” He said, finishing his drink. “We should do it more often!” He patted Jung on the hand. “You make for a comfortable bed companion, and that tail of yours is SO warm!”
If it was possible Jing would have went more red, and right now she was just wishing she could dissaper.
Lei chuckled a little, looking at the two. “You must have had a good sleep Bast, from where I saw one of your hands this morning.”
Hearing this Jing’s head went on the table, hands over her head now. “Please can you all just be quiet?!”
Bast laughed, scratching the back of his head. “What can I say, they make good hand-placers.” Rena blinked, “What does?” “Never mind that!” Iris laughed, as she set breakfast down to change the conversation.
Lei laughed and nodded “This smells amazing Iris! Best not to let it get cold.” She said before dishing up.
Jign didn’t move, still to embaressed to show her red face to the others.
Bast dug in with gusto, obviously feeling better thanks to the tea, and the two kids followed suit.
After a couple minutes Jing calmed down enough to lift her head up, and then started to eat as well, refusing to say anything, or look at Bast at risk of going red again.
They all ate in mostly silence, though there were some comments about the night’s dance party, and as they were finishing, Silver barged in, holding an incense burner under his arm. “Morning!”
Lei looked over at Silver and smiled “Morning. I was wondering when you would show up. Iris made pancakes.”
Jing looked over at Silver and sighed. “Where did you find that?” She asked, motioning to the incense burner.
Silver looked at it, blinking, and setting it down on the table as he sat, Iris giving him some pancakes. “Found it at Cade’s house.”
Lei nodded, “I see.” She said, chuckling. “Maybe you should take it back later?”
“Oh no! I couldn’t. It’s mine now, see? A genie lives inside and she says I’m her master.” He nodded. Bast rolled his eyes. “That’s some imagination there… did you have too much to drink last night too?”
ing sighed, shaking her head as she heard Silver. “He is always like that Bast.” She said before looking at Silver. “Come on, after breakfast we willt ake it back.” She said before having another bite of her pancakes.
Silver frowned, “It so IS true! I’d show you but maybe later.”
Lei chuckled, continuing to eat. Soon enough she was done, sighing and looking at Iris. “Thank you for the food Iris. It was amazing!”
Jing nodded in agreement, finishing her last few bites.
Iris smiled, “It was just pancakes, they’re always amazing!”
Lei nodded “True enough.” She said, looking around at the others, and struggling to keep her cool. How would everyone else react?!
Iris stood, taking the plates away and serving more tea, then glanced at Lei.
Lei looked at Iris for a moment before sighing, looking at her cup of tea. “Um… guys… there is something I need to tell you…”
The others turned to Lei, silencing what they had been talking about.
Lei bit her lip, once again looking at Iris for support before sighing. “There is something I have been… lieing to you all about since I met you… Well… been lieing about to everyone for… 100 years…”
Jing blinked a couple times, looking at Lei, obviously confused.
Bast frowned, wondering what Lei meant. He was quiet though, looking at Lei expectantly.
“I’ve been lieing about my gender. I’m… well I’m a girl.” Lei said softly, looking down at her glass of tea and too scared to look at anyone else. Jing looked at Lei in shock, unsure what to say… this was a joke right?
Bast’s jaw went slack as he stared at Lei, also trying to see if he should be laughing or not. But he could see Lei was serious. Silver blinked, “Oh that? I already knew.”
Lei blinked in suprise, looking at Silver. “Wait… you knew…?! How?”
Silver nodded, “Heck I thought everyone knew by now!” He said, rummaging in his pouches and finally finding a photo that he showed the others. “See?” Bast looked at the picture of the small silver draik in a pink dress, and started laughing.
Lei was shocked to see Silver with the picture. “Hey! When did you find that?!” She asked. Jing laughed as well as she saw the silver draik in pink, shaking her head.
Silver grinned, “Oh ages ago… back when we first met you!”
Lei was still shocked, but mainly for one reason. “Why didn’t you tell anyone?” More like HOW? He didn’t see the jerboa as able to keep a secret.
“I did…” He blinked, “I told Grisfam, and then… I suppose I forgot about it. Then I just thought… well i thought everyone knew and was just acting like you were a guy.”
Lei was confused, but sighed a litle, thankful he was able to tell everyone, indead of Silver telling everyone. “I’m sorry I kept this secret from you all for so long…”
Bast sighed, “So… why the secret anyways?”
“When I was about 24… I was living in Shenkuu, and moving to Altador out on my own. I had hated how… girls were treated below guys, and I desided to pretend to be a treated I went to Altador. And I was treated with a lot more respect. Years later when I moved back to the mountians… I wanted to open up a martial arts school… but I was afraid if I went back to being a girl no one would take me seriously… and by then I had gotten so use to my lie it just… felt weird to go back to being a girl.” Lei explained, looking at Bast then the others each in turn. “I…I wanted to tell you all the truth sooner, but… I just could never gain up the courage before something happened.”
Dalit was staring at Lei, wings twitching faintly. Fianlly though, he looked away, jumping off his chair he scrambled to an open window, hopping out and flying away from the house.
Bast winced at this, sighing. “You should have done it sooner…” He said, looking at Lei. “I think I can understand, but I thought we all trusted each other.”
Lei was about to say something when she saw Dalit run off. “Shi- Dalit!” She called out, quickly heading to the door so she could fly after the dragon.
The others watched, but no one moved to follow, letting Lei handle the situation herself. Iris sighed, sitting at the table.
—————————————————————————————-
Dalit had half flown, half dashed down the trail away from the habitated part of the forest, not looking back.
Lei followed after Dalit, trying to catch up with the small dragon. Between him dashing off and Lei needing to run out of the house through the door, he had quiet a head start. “Dalit! Dalit please stop!”
Dalit put on a burst of speed as he heard Lei, ‘Don’t follow me!’.
“I’m not letting you run off! Dalit please stop!” Lei pleaded, continuing to run after him.
Dalit didn’t say anything, just dashing through the underbrush away from the town. ‘You liar!’
Lei winced as she heared that, struggling to keep up. “Dalit I didn’t mean to hurt you! I really didn’t!”
Dalit didn’t stop, but the small dragon eventually tripped, rolling down a hill and crashing into a thicket.
Lei quickened her pace, getting over close to Dalit, and down on her knees close to the dragon. “Are you okay Dalit??”
Dalit sniffled and cried, curled up between the branches, wings and feet akimbo. ‘Why did you lie to me!?’
Lei winced, bringing a hand to Dalit’s back. “Dalit please… I didn’t mean to lie for so long… I’ve jsut… this is something I have lied about for about a hundred years. It was… hard to admit the truth after so long. To anybody.”
Dalit struggled to get out of the bush, ‘You didn’t have to lie to me! Back in the cell, when I was all hurt and… and I called you my mom… You… you LIED!’
Lei looked at Dalit, obviously hurt at his words, but she used her ice breath to freeze the branches around Dalit so they would break and allow him out easly. “Dalit I’m so sorry. I really am!”
Dalit jumped out of the bush, turning on Lei with tear-filled eyes. ‘Why didn’t you tell at least ME!?’
Lei was obviously hurt at how Dalit was reacting, and she started to tremble a little. “Dalit its… its not that easy. I’ve been living with that lie for so long… I’m scared to tell anyone. It took me ages to build up the courage to finally tell everyone!”
Dalit looked betrayed, and hurt as well. ‘I hate you!’ He turned, limping away.
Lei didn’t move, looking at Dalit and trembling more as her head fell forward in shame. “Dalit… I’m so sorry…”
Dalit was crying as he limped away, tail and wings dragging on the ground. He looked as dejected as when Lei had first seen the small dragon, newly born and mangled by the black.
Lei looked up at Dalit, still trembling. Finally though she shook her head, standing and going over to Dalit to pick the small dragon up in a hug.
Dalit didn’t struggle, sobbing against Lei.
Lei fell to her knees, just hugging Dalit and crying softly, her wings wrapping around them both. “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…” She whispered.
After what seemed like a long time to them both, Dalit relaxed somewhat, curling up in Lei’s embrace. ‘Does this mean you CAN be my mommy?’
Lei looked at Dalit, still hugging the dragon and bringing one of her hands down his back. “I can be… as much as it is possible Dalit. But you know… tommorrow I have to leave with the others.”
‘Don’t leave me!’ Dalit whimpered, ‘I don’t wanna stay all alone here…’
“You won’t be alone Dalit. Rena will be here too. And you both will be well taken care of ehre. And its safe.” Lei explained, hugging the dragon.
Dalit sniffled, ‘But… but… Why don’t you stay with us?’
“I need to help the others Dalit. And… I want to do my part in trying tos top this darkness from spreading everywhere.” Lei expalined.
The small dragon hiccuped, ‘Then I’m going too!’
Lei shook her head, “Dalit, you have to stay here.”
Dalit looked up at Lei, ‘I don’t care if it’s dangerous, I wanna be with you!’
Lei hugged Dalit, “I’m sorry… You have to stay here Dalit. But I promise I will be back as soon as I can.”
Dalit obviously didn’t like this at all, and he wriggled out of Lei’s grasp, hopping to the ground in gront of her. He turned back, ‘How do you know we’ll really be safe here?’
“I jsut have a feeling Dalit. And the barrior around this place… its kept out the black dragon that attacked Jing and Bast.” Lei poitned out.
Dalit looked up, as if trying to see the barrier that protected the forest. ‘What about the dangers inside the barrier?’
“Cade said he purifyed this place a long time ago. There is no danger at all here.” Lei explained, smiling at Dalit. “Besides, I ened you here to take care of Rena.”
Dalit frowned, ‘I’ve seen him head out to ‘cleanse’ more evil from this forest.’ He said, half defensively. ‘It’s not all that clean yet!’
“Nothing bad has happened in the forest since we got ehre Dalit. Past experiences show if something bad was going to happen, it would have by now.”
