Confessions (Part 2)

Kal POV

I was stunned. I looked at her, my world crashing around me, finding myself suddenly unable to speak. Would my children kill me? Why? I thought of Emma and Leo, thought of her gentle souls. There was nothing, not a sliver of darkness in either one of them – nothing even remotely evil or diabolical that the Beast and I could sense and if anyone could sense it out, we could. Something was wrong. Something was not adding up. Thalia came over and hugged me, her tears falling on me, saying nothing, just holding me as if I were a small child. I gazed upon her beautiful eyes and saw love and immeasurable sadness. “There is more Kal”, she said, and I did not know what more there was, and how and if I would be able to handle it. The Beast was breaking on the inside, roaring, wanting answers, but also wanting to understand what had happened, why this was the way it was, why our children would kill us. “There were two dreams though, Kal”, I heard his voice. “How do we know which one is true?”

“You were always smart my boy”, I heard my mother chuckle gently. Beast and she were connected in a very primal way, she could hear him in my head whenever she wanted to. "Indeed, we did not know which dream was true. Solomon has spent centuries looking for the answers, looking through old scriptures. In fact, he had recently found something, something very ancient. And as of now, a new Tribrid has emerged, giving us all hope, Kal”, mother continued. “Catherine never wanted to put you in that position. She never wanted to even chance that the nightmare may come true. That is why she came to me and Thalia. That is why we hid everything from you. That is why…”

Thalia was still holding onto me as if I were a pup, an infant of some kind. I was listening and processing everything, trying to understand why Catherine hid this from me. We were a team. We fought together, stood for each other, supported each other. We loved each other. She was my everything, my wife, my friend, the reason for my very existence. Surely, she could have told me. Surely, we could have found a solution to this as a family. Did she not trust me? Did she think I was going to hurt our children somehow because of some prophecy????!!!!! One thing that I knew from the long life I had lived, prophecies always did not come true exactly as they were foretold, especially if they somehow involved humans. Their ability to change their minds, their free will, and at times their faith in one another, their love for one another made things possible which at times nobody thought would be possible. As much as I hated them, I knew they wielded that power, at times unbeknownst to them. Mother really did give them everything, everything for humans - that ungrateful vermin. “Our children are half human Kal”, Beast reminded me unfailingly. I knew that from a rational perspective, but somehow, I did not see them like that. For what it was worth, I did not even see Catherine as human – she was mine, that was all. Just as my children are mine.

“When we did not realize which dream was true, or which one would prove to be true, I decided to hide them after they were born Kal”, Mother continued, speaking softly as if in a dream. I could tell that what she was saying was painful for her. For the first time, I started considering the possibility that even though they deceived me, hurt me, and betrayed me, that their treachery actually caused pain to them both. Thalia’s energy was mirroring that of Mother, their pain palpable, their hearts broken. I tried to open my mind and my heart, even though I was not only confused, but enraged and hurt by their deceptions. Sounded like more deceptions were going to be revealed and I was trying to rely on Beast’s strength as I felt my own was failing me at that moment.

“I thought about keeping them with me, but I knew they would soon be discovered if I did that. Now, I could protect them, but they would be in constant fear and hiding. I did not want that kind of a life for them. For a moment, Thalia and Elena thought about the children living with them, but as they are both dragons and humans, underwater life was not for them. I knew they would be hunted, I knew everybody would be looking for them. I could not give them the luxury and life they deserved, I had to hide them in plain sight”, Mother was explaining, tears running down her beautiful face. “So, I did what I thought was best. I locked away their dragon side, put it away until the time was right, hid it from them and the world, and then presented them off as humans, placed them in a human world. So many orphans go unnoticed there, so I thought it the safest – nobody would look for the heirs of the First Dragon in the human world. And nobody would presume them poor or orphaned. And I know that once word of their birth spread….”

“Wait a minute???!!!!! A word of their birth spread???? I did not know they were born, that they existed.. WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE WORD OF THEIR BIRTH SPREAD???” I now roared. How many people knew my children existed!??? None of this was making any sense to me, and the whole room was spinning. “Kal… my son…. Listen…When Catherine was captured…during that rescue mission... she was captured by Colonel Slater and his teams… they discovered she was pregnant”, Mother said, shattering my world into pieces. “He … he dared…” I started speaking, my voice quivering, images of horrors he bestowed on our kind flashing in my head.

“She did not stay captured for long, Kal… Solomon and I personally saw to it”, Mother clarified further. “I know what you are thinking, but, she did not end up in the torture chambers of the Raven Rock”, she said and I was relieved. “She was seriously injured and for a moment, we were worried about her and the babies making it”, Thalia chimed in. “I personally tended to her Kal until the birth”, my sister further clarified. “Hang on a second… I was told that she died during the rescue mission. Everybody was told that! Are you telling me she survived???? What really happened???”, I asked anxiously, not knowing if I was ready for the answer, if I could take any more of these revelations. Mother and Thalia exchanged a worried glance, and their energy shifted again. I always thought myself a strong man, the strongest creature. However, right now, I was doubting my sanity, my strength, my very existence. For a moment, I thought perhaps all this was a dream, a very bad dream that I would wake up from any moment now.

“Please let me finish the story, Kal. This is not easy to confess, this is not something I ever wanted to put you through. Let me tell you everything”, she said, wiping tears from my face. I did not even realize that I was crying.