sixwordstories | (no subject)

You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family, or so I hear.

No more than we choose ourselves, votiid. Perhaps less so.

Are you having specific problems, or are you just venting?

Merely contemplating matters both ancient and new. Though in a sense, it all returns to one problem. Bahlok unslaad, the inborn nature of my kind, our drive towards power and domination. Dur se sossedov. Even to recognise kinship is to recognise the danger.

Family is a delightful burden.

What makes you say that?

Hmm. The contrast is apt. But to name it a burden implies... gronviingge, slowness. Bo zeim klo. A weight upon one's wings, borne with great effort. Is that the nature of family?

We do not always share the qualities we would wish. Fiik ni werid. Not all reflections are pleasing.

There is a certain weight in my family that must be carried.

Do you think your people have a greater drive toward power than other races? It seems to me that most beings have a need for a structured hierarchy, and a desire to advance up it.

A duty you are bound to, or a duty to family itself?

Paar alok. Many races strive upward. That is true. But most mortals are not driven by the desire for power over others, to subjugate or destroy. Hmmh. Though they may revel in it. Aan motmahus hind. Very few have a hunger as strong and ceaseless as that of any dovah.

I do it out of love. I do have a duty to some of my brothers and sisters, but it is love that keeps me with them.

Well...being neither a mortal nor one of your kind, I can't answer that for certain. My people tend to feel driven to obey rather than ascend, but hierarchy is still very important.

By the Gods....a dragon.

Duty and love. Sahrot aak. A powerful combination. But one can become the death of the other. Heyv kreh gron? Does the burden you share weigh heavily upon your bond?

Hmm. Your people are unknown to me, but I have seen those willing to serve. Wo alok? How do you decide who will lead?

[A particularly keen look from those pale eyes, Paarthurnax's train of thought taking quite an abrupt turn.]

Indeed. And you are known to me, I think.

[He has heard so few mortal voices in the last few centuries, and yet...]

Dahmaan Thu'um. I have heard your voice before.

The bond helps us. We share the weight among us. We are a very close family.

Generally age confers power. We're all meant to be in tune with the will of our Father...except he's unavailable lately. In his absence the oldest two of my kind more or less ran Heaven.

[He smiles ruefully.] I'm afraid I'm relatively young for my species. Only a few hundred million years.

But not, thank goodness, an unbreakable bond.

Pruzah. Perhaps I understand why you would call it delightful. Though, what weight is it that you bear?

My Father gave me the gift to see all things, past, present and future. The knowledge of everything.

Age is more than the passage of time. Bo se geinmaar. If it was, some of us might never change at all.

[A hint of amusement in his voice.] Ah, but that is mal kogaan, a small comfort when you are youngest among many brothers, hm? Kiin ko viingvokunne... born beneath their shadow.

Is it not? Sos bo mul. Can you change what is in your blood?