Constellations

The river moved quietly, not silently, just quietly, peacefully one might say. It dragged itself over smooth stones with soft, almost hypnotic motions. The night above it was wide and black and full of stars, bright pinpricks scattered like holes poked through a great dark hide. Bhramari sat at the edge of the water with her long insect legs folded beneath her. She was small, especially beside the thing coiled next to her, but she did not seem bothered by that. Her colorful wings were tucked close, bright even in the dimness. The only thing noticeable that was glowing were Anomaly’s eyes, bright and watchful.

They stared upward from the skeletal cage of his face, pale and watchful, reflecting the stars in a way that made it hard to tell where the sky ended and he began. His red body lay in a heavy coil beside the bank, his form both there and not there. His long hooked claws rested in the grass. His tail curled behind Bhramari like a wall, not trapping her, but sheltering her from the wind.

Bhramari’s antennae twitched.

“Do you think that one looks like a beetle?” she asked, pointing one thin forelimb at the sky. “Not a proper beetle. More like a beetle if someone stepped on it...” She made a clicking, buzzing noise in her throat, then answered herself before Anomaly could respond. “No… maybe not... but that one there.” She pointed again to the constellation in the sky, “With the little bent part. That’s definitely a beetle.”

Anomaly tilted his head and his beaks clacked together once. Clack.

Bhramari’s round green eyes turned toward him and she chittered back, Anomaly’s beaks clacked twice this time, slower. Bhramari tilted her head this time and then made a shrill little insect trill that faded into giggling. 

The big red dragon did not speak. He rarely ever did, at least not in any way Bhramari understood as words. He had gestures, though. Slow turns of the head. The tapping of claws. The twitch of his long tail. The dreadful clack of those long beaks, sharp and hollow, like stones knocking together.

When they had first met, the sound had frightened her badly enough that she had flown straight into a bush. Now she found it comforting, because it was something that was so totally him and no one else. The river gave a small wet slap against the bank. Something beneath the surface shifted, sending rings across the starlight reflected there. Bhramari leaned forward, curious, her wings raising slightly.

Anomaly’s claw moved before she could get too close. One huge talon pressed gently in front of her chest, not touching hard, only blocking. It was almost as if he was nervous to let her chance entering the water, despite her being a water dragon. She chittered playfully, perhaps reminding him of that fact. Anomaly lowered his claw, clacking carefully but he made no move to stop her again. Although she wasn’t too interested in a swim anymore, content to remain by Anomaly’s side, to not stress him out unnecessarily. 

Bhramari’s wings trembled and she chittered again, a happier sound. She scooted closer, her small body pressing into the curve of his massive coil. He was a strange texture, not wet but unpleasantly cold in places, he didn’t stick but the ooze of his body never stopped, but she did not move away. She settled there as if this was exactly where she belonged. Above them, the stars stared down, waiting to be watched again.

Bhramari pointed again. “That one is you.”

Anomaly tore his gaze away from the little bug dragon to glance up. “It’s big,” she explained. “Strangely shaped. A little scary if you don’t know what you’re looking at.” Her voice softened. “But it stays there. Steady.”

Anomaly was still. Then, carefully, he lifted one long claw and pointed to a smaller cluster beside it. Bhramari leaned forward. “Is that me?”

Clack.

She made a tiny chirring sound, almost too soft to hear. The two dragons stayed that way beside the dark water, one small and brightly colored, one vast, dark, silent, watching their crooked stars until the night seemed a little less empty.