After 'tending' to Rosalind and Phlagaea to the point of exhaustion, Alptraum decides to prick himself with the spirit dagger and see Kaira about some things…

Dragon's Garden
A static sun hangs overhead in a cloudless blue sky, shining down on grass, flowers and trees with colors that seem just a bit too vibrant to be real. The babbling brook nearby tends to repeat itself, and the grass is a bit overly cushioned and even. The center of the garden has a picnic laid out under the shade of a large apple tree, its limbs burgeoning with golden fruit.

It takes a moment for the Eeee to get his bearings, probably from being tired, because for a just a moment on arrival everything had a golden glow to it, similar to how things have a silvery glow in Barsunala-vision.

Alptraum yawns and blinks his eyes repeatedly as he tries to clear that odd golden halo surrounding everything in the landscape. Once his vision seems to clear, the Eeee starts looking around for a particular dragon. Or a particular albino elf, depending on Kaira's mood. She does strange things in her 'free' time, after all. "Come out, come out, little dragon-thing," he teases.

There is a splash, probably from the brook, and a blue-and-gold dragon trots up the hill, shaking out her mane. "Alptraum!" she says, smiling. "How did things go with the gypsies?"

"Oh pretty well. I found someone who is willing to go on one date with Mortimer. I doubt there will be any others, but I also don't expect to be killed over it," the Eeee notes with an impish grin. "There was one minor complication. I probably shouldn't bother you about it at all, really … but it was ah, a bit gross."

The dragon lies on the grass, crossing one paw over the other and giving Alptraum a curious look. "Something gross? That has to do with… me?" she asks.

"Well, maybe. I'm not sure. The gross part was when I pulled the dagger out. My hand was cold as usual from prolonged slotting … but something else also happened. The blade of the knife was covered in tiny blood vessels that connected up to three large ones. One red,one black, and one gold," Alptraum explains as he walks over. There's a pause as he settles down in the grass next to Kaira. "I popped each one and well … the red and black ones withdrew into me. The gold one withdrew into the dagger. The black one is most worrisome because it reeked of rot."

"Oh, so you wanted to know what those were then, I suppose?" Kaira asks.

"Well, yes. Particularly since two of them seemed to come from me," Alptraum confirms.

"Well, of course it was all blood," the dragon notes, flipping her mane to the other side of her head. "The black stuff was the dragon-shadow mix, the red was your own, and the gold was mine. You don't normally see the black and red separated of course – that was just from having to shrink the carapace."

"Wait. You're saying that black blood is normally just part of me? It smelled like rot," Alptraum says as he sits upright. "And why was it separated because the carapace shrunk?"

"Hmmm," Kaira muses, and rubs her chin. "It's complicated. Your forearm… well, when your blood goes in, it mixes with the dragon-shadow blood – which is different from the shadow dragon essence that already is a part of your blood. But when the blood leaves your arm, all of that stuff stays behind instead of flowing out."

"The mixing of the blood is sort of how it attaches to you," the dragon goes on. "So, by using the dagger to filter out the goo from your blood, the gauntlet has less 'attachment' and has to shrink, since it's more of your normal blood in the arm while the goo is kept in the dagger."

"And my blood is just there to sort of control the process," Kaira notes, trying to sound reassuring. "Hardly any of that bleeds through into your own blood. Probably just enough to explode the occasional frog."

"Really? Why does it stop from leaving my forearm? It's the same as the rest of me, right? Well, aside from the shell on it," Alptraum asks as he holds up his right hand in here and wiggles his fingers. "And it doesn't explain its smell. Is that just normal for dragon blood?"

"Vorgulremik's blood can smell pretty nasty, but this is a combination of his and the original Shadow's, and the Shadow was undead, sort of, at the time," Kaira explains. "The 'normal' dragon's blood can't go beyond your forearm for now though. I've assumed the Shadow was keeping it in check."

"It's also sort-of undead," the dragon notes.

"Would it be dangerous if it did go beyond my forearm?" Alptraum asks. "And you mean the shadow is sort of undead, right? I knew that."

"Dangerous? Why ask that?" Kaira asks, dipping and turning her head to look into Alptraum's eyes. "Has it been growing? Are you getting urges to cut it off?"

"I don't know, you said it's stopping at my forearm and your tone implied that was a good thing. It hasn't been growing and no I haven't had any urges to do horrible things to my arm!" the Eeee says flatly. "That makes me wonder, though, can the affected area … spread? For example, if I wanted to, can the chitin cover the underside of my arm too?"

"Let me see your arm," Kaira asks, holding out her paws.

Alptraum sticks out his right arm to Kaira. "Will you be able to tell anything in here?" Alptraum asks her. "I don't reflect everything about myself in here do I?"

"No, but it's still a good guide," the dragon says, as she feels the underside of Alptraum's arm. Since this is a spirit-world, Alptraum can feel her touch just fine – unless it's really due to having a little bit of her 'blood' in his arm as well.

"Your fingers are a bit cold," Alptraum remarks, "I guess from playing in the water?""

"Hmmm, I suspect that the chitin can't replace any more skin without triggering a rejection response," Kaira mutters, and then gives Alptraum an odd look at the comment about her fingers. "I wasn't playing, I was washing my hair," she contends.

"Replace … er, so that chitin … there's no skin under it?" Alptraum asks as his ears almost look … green.

"Well… no, of course there isn't," the dragon says. "It's chitin. Or really, chitinous congealed dragon blood. If you had skin under that… I imagine it would itch terribly."

"So … what exactly is under it, then?" Alptraum asks, though he has a feeling he shouldn't.

"Well… meat?" the dragon suggests. "You know, the stuff that's normally under skin. Gristle. Tendons. Something like skin where it needs to flex… "

"Haven't you ever had a lobster?" she asks. Then blinks. "Oh, right… vampire."

"Right … so what happened to the skin? Is it what turned into the chitin?" Alptraum asks.

"Oh, it was probably… recycled, somehow," Kaira says, trying to make it sound less horrible. "You've seen how the shadow can completely absorb flesh, after all… "

"Yes, I have," Alptraum says and swallows back a rather uncomfortable feeling in his stomach. "So, this can't spread, then, right? The more I hear about it, the more worried I get about it."

"Well… do you know much about organ or tissue transplants?" the dragon asks out of the blue.

"Nothing?" Alptraum answers.

"Hmm, well, you see… uh… your body knows what's you and what isn't you," Kaira explains, somewhat awkwardly. "It's how you recover from catching a cold, because your body eventually kills off the virus. And it's the same reason you can't just mix and match parts from different people and stitch them all together to make a working person."

"Okay … you're not making much sense," Alptraum admits and his ears droop. "My hand is me isn't it?"

"Mostly," Kaira says. "But it's also 'infected' by the shadow and dragon flesh. Normally, it would reject it by surrounding it with puss until it fell off, or your arm died. But you've got the remains of the Shadow's spirit attached to you, and that keeps you from completely rejecting the arm. While the spirit is integrated with you, more or less – and your Barsunala spirit is likely trying to reject it still – then having some of the physical flesh of the Shadow attached to you is safe."

"As long as you keep it fed, that is," the dragon adds as an afterthought.

Alptraum scratches his head as he's lost in thought for a bit. "So, the Barsunala is keeping it isolated to where it is," he concludes, "Good thing I have that spirit bound to me, then. My imagination is having a bit of a horror story adventure in my mind right now and the shadow flesh devouring me," he admits.

"Oh, no, the Barsunala isn't keeping the flesh at bay, it's trying to kill off the Shadow's spirit," Kaira notes. "It's just that if the dragon-blood tried to expand, it would cross the threshold where your spirit-integration wouldn't be enough to stop it from being rejected."

Alptraum falls back against the grass and grumbles, "I'm confused again. Maybe I'm just incapable of understanding this. Or maybe I'm just too tired from being a conduit for Melusine to suck energy from Draco County through the Countess."

"Oh, you figured out a better way to keep Mel fed then?" Kaira asks. "Good thing. You wouldn't want her getting too hungry, otherwise it's just a matter of time before she starts eating everyone. And you don't have a motorcycle, greasy hair or a lot of fire extinguishes to deal with her."

"Have a what and who?" Alptraum asks, his head rocking to the side to look at Kaira oddly. "Oh never mind, you're referencing something I would never understand. You do that too much."

"I don't have many references for your world, so I'm stuck with what I do have, sorry," Kaira says with a grin, then taps on Alptraum's gauntlet with a claw. "Maybe it will be easier if you just think of this as a baby shadow dragon. It has a nucleus, sort of like Melusine's heart. And shadow-flesh isn't all that different from steel-dragon blood, since that's where it comes from. It's just too small and stupid to do much more than cry when it's hungry."

"That makes me less comfortable to think about," Alptraum admits and sticks out his tongue. "It's creepy to think of a baby anything stuck to me."

"But it can't get the better of you," Kaira notes. "It can't think, or have any real will of its own. It doesn't really even have a spirit separate from yours. If it were a dragon hand, would you be as worried about it?"

"Yes," Alptraum answers honestly. "So … if I'm understanding you right now … it's a semi-separate shadow version of myself, mostly mindless and its spirit is my own?"

"Yeah… well, pretty much anyway," Kaira agrees. "It's hard to establish the relationship without making allusions to symbiosis or parasitism. The main point is that it won't eat you."

"Or you, or hopefully anyone else I like," Alptraum mutters. "At least I've finally gotten used to lack of much sensation it it. Well, except for when I'm with the Countess or Melusine."

"It reacts to other dragons, yes," Kaira notes. "Definitely a steel-dragon sort of trait, I think."

Alptraum sticks his tongue out at Kaira again. "So does that mean when we get … playful you're willingly enjoying the company of part of a steel dragon?" he jokes.

"My blood is in there too," Kaira notes, tilting her chin haughtily. "Well… I don't have blood, but… it still represents my influence. And it's not the flesh that matters, but the mind behind it."

"Oh, so if I was a scrawny little kavi, you would still enjoy it?" Alptraum teases more.

"I might fatten you up first then," Kaira notes. "But you aren't a Kavi. You're you. If you were a Kavi we'd have never met in the first place."

"Yes, I'm me. And I'm curious to see this albino elf form you hinted at," Alptraum notes with a playful grin.

"Ohhhh?" Kaira coos. "You'll have to close your eyes. I'm still not fully recovered from reshaping your gauntlet for so long."

Alptraum does indeed cover his eyes with his left hand. "Why do I feel like you're plotting revenge?" he asks.

"Revenge for what?" the dragon asks, her voice changing to something… subtler.

"For all the effort of reshaping the gauntlet," Alptraum says, "I didn't think it would be that much work for you, to be honest."

"I can get tired too," Kaira says, her voice much softer now. "I think I'm done, you can look now."

Alptraum slowly slides off his hand then opens his eyes. His entire demeanor is one that expects to be assaulted with a pie or something out of revenge, though. Oh the days and nights he must have had growing up in the gypsy tribe…

The elf before him isn't quite like Snow, since the build is slightly different from a human – more petite. The skin is also a more solid white, without the transparency that lets the veins and arteries show. Her eyes are pale blue instead of pink, and of course her ears are pointed. And for some reason, she still has a slender dragon tail, also white, but at least it has a pink bow tied to the end.

"You still have a tail," Alptraum points out the obvious. "What's it like having a tail? I don't." The Eeee then pushes himself upright so he can get a better look.

Kaira lifts up the tail, and glares at it. "Well, it shouldn't be there," she claims. "Must be a glitch. I'll fix it next time."

"No, no, leave it, I like it," Alptraum claims as he reaches over and actually picks it up. He proceeds to pet it.

"You are odd at times, you know that?" the elf mentions. "I think it's endearing."

"How am I odd?" Alptraum asks.

"Well, you asked how you were odd, for one thing," the girl says. "And you think I'm cute as an elf with a dragon tail."

"So … how close to Snow do you want to look?" Alptraum asks and gets a dangerous and mischievous glint in his eyes.

"I… what? How close do you want me to look?" Kaira asks, suddenly sounding a bit worried.

"I was just thinking of something that could be a little fun," Alptraum says with an all too wide grin.

"I've never been a shrine maiden you know," the elf points out. "I don't know what they get up to… "

"Well, let me ask you this. Do you trust me? Would you trust me enough to say … blindfold you for a little bit and do a few things?" Alptraum asks as he tries, and fails, to look completely innocent.

"Of course I trust you, Alptraum," Kaira claims. "Just… ah… will it tickle?"

"Oh, probably a little … but I'll make it up to you," the Eeee claims as he stands and offers the elf a helping hand to stand. "Let's go visit that place where we all had massages that day and I'll get to work. I think you'll enjoy it… "

"Oh, massages?" Kaira asks, perking up. "And Champagne? I think I have key to that penthouse around here somewhere… "

"Perfect. I promise it'll be … interesting," Alptraum says and even manages not to cackle. "Onward!"