The Other Way - Part 1

The following comes from a brilliantly written unfinished short story that was based on the concept of actions and choices having resonating consequences in history. The idea of this story, 'The Other Way' was a second generation of this idea, coming from the original 'The Way it Should Have Been' in which the choice one character makes completely changes the outcome of the story (Emperor's Blood) in a seperate reality. This is how much I think about my stories. 'The Way it Should Have Been' was rather mystical in a way, while 'The Other Way' was based upon the choices of the human character Evangaline Chard or 'Eva.' Eva plays a fairly big role in EB, even if she rarely if ever appears - she is Ki, the protagonist's surrogate mother and it was in thinking about her during the writing of my graphic short 'My Brother is Weird' that I thought that her choices would have had a huge influence on Ki's life - and how it turned out the way it does. Eva, being Ki's foster mother, is responsible for his health, but she doesn't know that he is not human so she has no idea that his needs as a carnivore are very different from a normal human child's like Hunter's. Thinking about her, I tried to figure out why this character, this caretaker guardian, doesn't do something about the fact that something is obviously wrong with Ki as he suffers under the heavy yoke of how humans live their lives. You would think that any logical mother would call a doctor when their young son's body temperature rises above 100, yet Eva doesn't. In the end, I came to the conclusion that some legends from our modern culture, such as governments dissecting new species such as aliens if they find them, would transcend into Rimarian culture and thus into Eva. Eva knows something is gravely wrong with Ki, but because she is afraid of what the government might do to him, she doesn't tell them. She doesn't take him to the doctor.

But that is all canonical - the concept behind 'The Other Way' is that Eva does bite the bullet. She does take Ki to a doctor - and ultimately, he is discovered by his own species, far sooner than he is in the real story. This is particularly interesting, because when Ki is a child - or rather, a kitten, he's a very different person than when he is older. As a kitten, Ki's still waiting for his real parents to come for him and he is in fact very cynical of his human family, but as he gets older and he gives up on his blood family finding him, he loses that cynicism, turning it towards his unknown relations who in his head never bothered to even look for him. That's Ki. Imagine how affronted he is, as a near adult when his own species comes to town and he is forced to face them - as well as his own identity. In this story, Ki is in the transition between feeling cynicism towards his human family and to his real one.

'The Other Way' is incomplete. However, the parts that are, are written quite beautifully and are a personal model for how I want EB to be written, so here's the first chapter.

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It just didn’t look right. Even with looking at illustrations of dragons, Ki’s dragon didn’t look like he wanted it to, but there laid the problem, because he was not sure what it was supposed to look like, just that everything he was doing was wrong. He was trying to draw a particular type of dragon he knew, but he had no idea what kind it was. He had tried describing it, but he didn’t even know what colour it was, just how it felt, big, full of teeth and powerful, a king predator of predators.

Perhaps the problem was that he usually drew horses. He wasn’t used to drawing dragons. Dragons were different; they had wings, spines, claws and teeth where horses were gentle and hoofed. You couldn’t make a horse scary, at least in Ki’s opinion, but he had never been afraid of a horse and he was afraid of a dragon. How did a dragon make itself scary? Just by walking up to you and hissing? Maybe you didn’t even see it coming. Maybe a dragon would come from behind and bite the back of your neck like some falla did. Maybe dragons just seared you dead in an instance with their fire, than ate your cooked flesh. Was that how dragons hunted? Was that how they killed?

Ki usually didn’t really care much for dragons, but drawing a dragon was his homework for Art Class, so he wanted it to be better than everybody else’s. Hunter’s dragon was horrible looking, a big ugly red thing that didn’t even look remotely real. Its jaws were twisted and gnarly and a gusher of drool was falling from them, while a spurt of orange colour represented fire. Its eyes were yellow.

Yellow. Ki thought that that might be right. Dragons and predatory animals usually had yellow eyes didn’t they? He grimaced. He didn’t know for sure. He didn’t like adding a detail if he didn’t know for sure that it was real and factual. What would become of his standards if he just used any old colour? He might be too clumsy to draw something absolutely realistic, but he could at least give it realistic colours. He owed it to himself and common sense. Ki hated things which didn’t make sense. Mathematics was a good example of nonsensical things which he hated, which also happened to be the homework that he should have been working on but wasn’t, preferring the dragon assignment.

But what colour is a sky dragon? wondered Ki in frustration. All his references were black and white. It said in the description of the Tarnese Indigo Dragon or Sky Wolf that those were blue, but so were Wind Drakes. Tiger Dragons weren’t blue. They were green or grey, with splotchy, stripey markings to make them blend in with the old growth forests where they lived. Ki liked the idea of tiger dragons, but they looked nothing like his dragon, whatever it was. It didn’t feel like his dragon was blue. He would have known if it was blue, but what other colour could it be? Wraith Dragons were tawny and grey. Ki’s dragon looked nothing like a wraith. He frowned at the heavy spines he’d put on its tail, wondering if they were right, laboring yet again over the addition of them. Why couldn’t he just decide and be simple like other children?


“Ki! Are you doing your homework?” called his adoptive mother Eva.

“Yes!” said Ki, staring angrily at his drawing. Why can’t I get this right? It’s going to bother me for ages if I can’t!

“Are you working on your math?” called Eva again.

“I’m not done with Art!”

“Ki, it’s almost time for bed, you know you should work on your math!” called Eva.

“Yes Mom!” said Ki, ignoring her suggestion as he continued to eye the paper. He had no idea what colour to make his dragon, though he was pretty sure he wanted to make its eyes yellow. Beautiful, golden yellow with a hint of orange, like his eyes. Ki grimaced; he really wasn’t sure whether to hate or like his eyes. They were too unique. He’d never seen another person with eyes like his.

A cacophony on the stairs announced the arrival of his brother, Hunter, raced into their attic room and leaped up onto Ki’s bed, displacing some of the mattress’ lumpy stuffing as he leaned over Ki’s shoulder.

“I knew it! Momma sent me to see if you’d switched to math yet!” hissed Hunter. “Why haven’t you coloured your dragon yet? Just pick a colour! Teacher won’t care if it looks real or not!”

“I care.” grumbled Ki. “Hunter, can you tell Eva and Mattie I’m on math anyway?”

“Nooo.” said Hunter, hugging Ki around the waist. Ki tried to wriggle free, grabbing at Hunter’s wrists, but Hunter was stronger than him and squeezed him instead of letting go.

“Hey let go!” hissed Ki.

“Work on math then. Colour the dragon purple.” said Hunter.

“Dragons aren’t purple.” snipped Ki.

“Do you want a mark in art or not? Colour it purple.”

Ki wanted to kick Hunter in the crotch. “Dragons aren’t stupid purple! I’m not colouring it purple! Absolutely not!”

“So it’s a white dragon?”

“Shuddup! It’s dark I think.” said Ki angrily, almost crying.

“Hey Ki it’s alright.” said Hunter, loosening his grip and rubbing his face in Ki’s hair. Ki shook him off grumpily.

“No it’s not! I have to get this dragon right! I have to!” snapped Ki. He gulped, realized Hunter had been apologizing and immediately felt bad. “’m sorry Hunter. I’m just frustrated.”

“I know. Why don’t you leave your drawing and sleep on what colour it is?” suggested Hunter.

“Mattie told you to say that.” grumbled Ki.

“Momma’s smart.” said Hunter. “Now do math!”

“Can’t I sleep on it?” demanded Ki.

“Momma said if you sleep on it you won’t do it. She also told me to hug you and help you get it done an’ that you can’t go to bed until it’s done.” said Hunter bossily.

“She never said that.” said Ki, crossing his arms. “That’s all you.”

“Yeah but it’s better than me tackling you right?” grinned Hunter. Ki giggled.

“Maybe, but no hugs! I don’t like them!” said Ki. Hunter stuck out his tongue at him.

“Hug’s the trade for the help. Y’gotta let me hug you or I’ll give you no help.” said Hunter stubbornly. “You should like hugs. Hugs mean you’re loved.”

“I know I’m loved without being touched.” said Ki, wrinkling his nose. “Besides, your armpits smell. I don’t want to smell like your armpits because you hugged me.”

Hunter glared at him. “My pits don’t smell! I sniff them all the time and I never smell anything!”

“Well your nose doesn’t work.” Ki pointed out. “If it did you’d know day old fish still smells good.”

“No it doesn’t. It smells rotten, like feet but worse.” said Hunter. “Only you’d eat nasty rotten day old fish Ki.”

“Why not? It’s free and I’m hungry.”

“It’s gross!”

“No it’s not!”

With a cry Hunter tackled Ki, who was pinned against the bed and Ki had to struggle madly to get loose, only eventually achieving freedom because Hunter gave it to him. Next Ki thumped Hunter in the head with his pillow and then it was a war, Ki chasing Hunter around the room as Hunter tried to find something to hit him back with. Almost crying with laughter they fell in a tangle and could not stop in time as Hunter’s stout, pudgy mother made it up the stairs. Before they could move she had swept them both into a huge hug from which there was no escape, but Ki didn’t mind, not really. He hugged Hunter and his mother with all the small might that he could muster until Mattie put them down, smiling from ear to ear. She brushed each of their cheeks with the back of her hand ever so gently, than she hugged them again, tenderly this time.

“Now then my sillies, what caused the riot?” asked Mattie gently.

“Hunter’s armpits stink.” declared Ki.

“Ki’s not doing his math an’ I offered to help him, then we roughhoused.” said Hunter more factually.

“Neither of you are old enough for stinky armpits.” said Mattie, shaking her head. “And you need to do your math homework. What if both Hunter and I help you?”

“I guess so, but th’won’t make me like it.” said Ki boldly.

“I know, but it has to be done little one. Won’t your teacher be unhappy if you don’t do it?” said Mattie.

“’an we have a test tomorrow.” said Hunter.

“Right, so if you do your homework with us now, it’ll make the test easier.” said Mattie, nodding. Ki didn’t believe her even minutely, for math was always ridiculously hard, but he knew the homework would be less painful if they helped him. They spread out their work on the floor, the boys sitting on either side of Mattie, who very patiently walked Ki through his homework, always making sure he thoroughly understood a question before moving forwards beyond it. When it got dark in the attic they moved down to the kitchen table and by candlelight they worked with mugs of sweetened peppermint tea in hand, until Eva came around to see why Hunter and Ki had yet to go to bed. Ki finished his last question, roughed in some purple crayon into his dragon drawing as he ceded to Hunter’s logic regarding the matter, then they all shared some celebratory cookies and drank the last of their tea before they went to bed with a story about a friendly magic dragon named Puff.

Ki fell asleep wondering if dragons really could be friendly and smiled into his pillow at the crazy little thought. Still, at least it was a cheerful idea.

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Another concept I explored in this piece was the concept that while Ki has absolutely no memories of his past (this is not like J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter) he might still subconsciously know that he is a dragon. The dragon Ki struggles to draw in this piece is an as-dragon drakoon - Ki's own kind, a species which bares a distinct resemblance to the death god Riveera's species because it is from Riveera's extinct species that Ki's sprang. Ki's even right when he says his dragon is a dark coloured one, because his species are black when they are dragons. I have noticed, watching my own art, that when I draw things, I often end up drawing somewhat to my own emotions - and this can colour my writing too. If I am very lonely, I draw lonely things and write of characters who love each other, because I miss loving. In this, Ki draws a dragon not because it's his art class project really, but because he misses his own kind, whether he knows it or not and is trying to bridge a connection, whether he knows it or not. As a child, before he is fully 'domesticated' by Eva and Mattie, Ki's survival instincts are a lot sharper than when he is older. Ki chases chickens. He doesn't know what to do with them, yet he still chases them, just like a kitten plays with a fly or a border collie puppy herds a duck across a yard. It's in his instincts and it's in his subconscious. This is a huge difference between what we understand (humans) and what we don't understand (animals.) What does it feel like to have a strong driving instinct to do something like hunt? We cannot really know. Our instincts as humans tend to be very muted, at least from my asexual female perspective.

I hope you enjoyed this installment of 'The Other Way.'