As I entered his house, I took my human form, noticing there wasn't anyone else here.
The first thing I noticed was that there was a white box in the corner, it was a refrigerator. Its low hum was churning away during the summer heat. Up here in the mountain, it felt fresh and the wind blew in tandem. Then I noticed fans were hanging on the ceiling and lights too.
Dragan noticed me looking at them.
"We only get electricity for a couple of hours each night, it's lights out around 12," he said answering my question before I even answered it.
"And what about the fridge?" I asked, surely it can just run on its own.
"Look outside," he said, I walked through the bar in the kitchen and look out the window.
"Are those solar panels?" I said.
"Yep," he stood behind me hands at his hips, I had to hop and hang from the marble surrounding the faucet.
"Refurbished them myself, no one could fix them, so no one could use them, I struck a deal with the elders and they let me keep them if I could bring them back from death, that's why we have this little ice box to keep meat fresh.
So it wasn't a refrigerator, but a freezer. He opened it, blue ice came forth, my face froze as I looked down, he had several types of meat from what I'm assuming previous kills, just stored up in there.
"You kill these animals?" I asked.
"I had to, otherwise how would you survive," he said. I brushed off the ice from my face.
"I don't open the ice box during the night, it gets pretty chilly, so it's fine, but it kicks back during the day," he said. Of course that made sense, that's how solar panels worked.
Then he left my side and went straight to the other room, he started undressing,
AGAIN!
I turned around to give him some privacy, and he smirked, I could hear his smile.
"You're a little shy, aren't you?" he said from the other room. "We already saw each other naked, what's the problem?" he said confidently.
"You're the one who isn't shy at all," I said. "And what does that matter anyway?!" my cheeks were red, and steam was blowing out of my ears.
"And?! Is that weird?" said Dragan, I could hear him changing into something more comfortable.
"I guess, since it's just the two of us - it doesn't matter. But in the eastern part of my planet, people might call you promiscuous, on the western part people might celebrate you as a champion."
"Really!?" he said intrigued.
I looked back at the room, he was completely changed now, only now putting on an oversized black t-shirt with a blue gradient at the bottom. He had baggy harem pants and clean socks. He looked cute in a comfy outfit.
I finally locked eyes with him again.
"You wear that to laze around?" I asked incredulous.
"Sure do! - What do you think?" he said spinning in a circle showing off how big the harem pants actually are.
"Looks good on you!" I said with a confident smile. He stopped at me compliment, and scratched his face while hunching over. His face turned red, and his smile was suddenly shy and innocent. He looked like no one had given him compliments.
And his hair, he had finally taken off the snap-back and placed it somewhere on a hanging rack above the bed, he had other hats with different patterns and textures.
His hair drooped down backward, it was soft and spiky, like a mullet that extended down to his neck. Just now I was noticing his sideburns extended down to meet with the end of his ears - they were sharp and well-kept. His eyebrows were thick and bushy, extending across his face and ending in a pointy stream.
His face was sharp and square.
His hair was wild, the red color now shining more than ever.
"Well, I've lived alone all of my life, it was only recently that I started searching for a Zomearon companion," he said walking back into the main room. There was a long pause, I felt there was more, so I met his gaze, he met mine and smile, then he continued.
"I was abandoned as a child, and ended up here in Tarragon, I still don't know who my parents are. Every day I question my service towards Tarragon as if I'm not good enough, not good enough for them."
I corked one eyebrow.
"You're good enough for me," I said leaning close, I was being cheeky and trying to steal a kiss, but he grabbed me from underneath my armpits and carried me like it was nothing, I was sitting on his arms, standing one head above him.
I flushed red. I couldn't meet him in the eye this close, I tried anyway, while holding onto his shoulders.
"Tarragon is part of a long lineage of Oracles, the elders carry that tradition," he said.
"Oracles how?" I asked curious, he was still holding me up.
"Do I weigh you down?" I asked before he could give me an answer.
"Light as a feather," he said.
"The elders here specialize in divine reading, crystals, tarot, bone throwing, that sort of thing," he said.
"Tarot!?" I suddenly perked up. In my old life, I had a lot of friends who were Wicca they would read my fortune all the time.
"Why are you interested?!" he said smiling. He put me on the kitchen bar, propping me up like it was nothing. He turned the corner and reached for a small cabinet under the bar. Out of a drawer he took out a tarot deck.
"These cards were gifted to me by the elders, in hopes that I would pick up the trade when I was young, a gift of acceptance more than anything," he said placing the cards in arms reach.
"So pretty," I said looking at the cards.
"The face?" he asked, pointing at himself.
I snorted and scoffed at him.
I looked at him like he had made a very bad joke, and he smiled innocently. The tarot was beautiful, each card was laced with a gold lining on the edges, and a pattern with strange symbols on the back. Almost primordial. I couldn't understand them, or read them for that matter. They were different from the one's I knew.
I grabbed the cards.
Instantly they responded to me, the deck shuffled on its own, like invisible hands were guiding it, it was moving fast.
"Oh!" I said pushing back.
"That's how it works," said Dragan, the cards were still being shuffled. Then they stopped.
Um, now what?" I said and tapped them again, this time the cards started spinning around me, only ten cards.
"Woah, that has never happened before," said Dragan, taken aback. I jumped off the bar, and the cards followed me, not breaking the perfect circle around me. Before I could do anything, all the cards fell to the ground. They splashed to the floor in a perfect circle. Only trees were facing upwards.
The Tower, The IX of Swords but it was inverted, and The Lovers. Words started shushing into my brain, as I looked at the open cards, like they were whispering to me.
"Can you hear that?" I said to Dragan.
"Only you can hear the whispers, it's part of the divination, spirits inside the miasma know the past, the future, and the now," said Dragan like all of this was normal.
"This is very interesting," I said circling the cards.
"Why what does it mean?" asked Dragan, also looking at the cards, they had beautiful illustrations that seemed to move with the hint of blue moonlight.
"The tower is a break, a break in the foundation, I'm not sure what it means in the now, but it's probably meaning of my reincarnation," I said trying to make sense.
"The IX of Swords can mean Hopelessness, Anxiety or Disaster's, someone trapped in their negative thoughts, but since it's inverted, it's the opposite of that,"
"So freedom, liberty, and liberation?" asked Dragan. His comment was very on point.
"And well the lovers, it's not necessarily sexual, it can also mean partnership and union. Maybe the tarot knows about our soul-bound contract?"
A silence between us.
"There's something I've been meaning to tell you," he said, I sat back up on the bar, I opened my hand, and the cards collected in it. Realizing I had done this I surprised myself. He stopped for a second, I hadn't even thought about the cards doing that, they just abide by rules, but he continued.
"And now you're thinking it," I said.
"Just spit it out."
"Well…" he suddenly starts. "I think I might know why non of my other soul-bound contracts worked in the past,"
"And why is that?" I already knew the answer, I was just torturing him.
"You're killing me here," he said, kneading the back of his head with his left hand.
"Come on just say it," I said, a devilish smile on my face.
"You - understand now, right? When we do the ritual, you're gonna grow stronger, you absorb my seed, and power grows within you, that's why you can take a human form, to complete the ritual, otherwise there would be no point, but -" he stopped shying away from the answer.
Then he just said it.
"You're the first time I've given power to a spirit of Zomearon." Full stop.
I couldn't help myself, I put my feet on the ground.
"So you're saying, I'm the first time you've actively made a soul bound stronger,"
"Right,"
"And the reason you had so many other ex-bounds is because...?" I wanted him to say it. I had my suspicions.
"I could never give them my seed ... because I could never bring myself to 'finish" with them, that's why they all got fed up and left."
Ah! The cat's out of the bag!
I held both hands to my back, and circled playfully around him, like a tiger assessing a mate.
"And yet you could finish with me, because?"
"You're a male. There I said it," I circled my arms around his shoulders.
He placed his hand on my hips.
"A stronger bond, an unyielding fuse, a spark so bright, it forms a tune," he added to try and make this all the more normal.
I was curious what he meant by that, it seemed almost like a poem. I put a pin on that for now.
"And this body, it wouldn't have anything to do with that," I asked.
"The moment a bond is closed," he caressed my waist, his hands could grab me whole. He continued.
"The body you'll wear gets chosen when your soul is mixed with mine. It read my desires and innermost thoughts, my fears and anxieties, my deepest images, nothing stays hidden. So your body became what would be most attractive to me."
Now that I remember, I hadn't taken my human form, until Dragan decided to contract with me, and it had been involuntary.
This couldn't have been more perfect.
"You're into twink fem-boys, huh?" I said looking down at him even though I was lower in height. I had the upper hand.
"And the females, how did they look?" I knew what was coming.
"They looked exactly like you, except blond," he touched my hair and it changed color. My body was changing to meet his desires to a T.
"Blue eye, soft lips, fair skin, flat chest, skinny, just like you. But you - you are perfect in every which way," that last line did throw me off a little bit, but I was already full-on ballroom dancing with him. Like we were at our own private party, swaying together to the music, just the two of us.
I stood on my toes and closed my lips just barely touching his.
"You're lucky then," I said, tempting him for a kiss.
"In a past life, you'd be exactly my type." He grabbed me again and carried me like it was nothing.
"You are something, you know that, little one," he said and went in for a kiss, I met him halfway, this time I was the one who had to lean down to reach him. It lasted only a second. But I could already feel how intimate our relationship was going to be. Before we stopped kissing.
"So you could only finish then because I look like a girl and have a -"
The lights went out. The freezer stopped its hum.
We stopped, I looked at the ceiling, there was no more electricity for the day.
And the house was getting chilly.
I could hear the winds howling outside.
"Looks like it'll snow tonight, wanna warm up with me?" I only nodded and bit my lips. Hold on, in the middle of summer!?
"Isn't it Summer!?" I asked
"Yes -" he said incredulous. The force field controls the weather inside the dome.
"Why you ask?" he said corking his head.
"Sorry - where I'm from Summer is usually very hot."
"The elders decided it like that, gives us an opportunity to cozy up at night and have a chill day, lower temperatures and all that." he explained, poorly, but he explained.
I guess it was like AC for the whole village?
I didn't question it more and started getting ready for bed.
Just like that, we pushed into the blankets, in the darkness, his bed was tiny, but I took my slime form and cuddled up with him.
The night passed, and he fell asleep.
I just rested my eyes, and enjoyed his cuddles.
He had a slow hum to his snoring. I didn't mind, it was kinda cute. I didn't even know if slimes needed sleep, but I tried to anyway, it just made me feel groggy, his hand never left my side.
It was snowing outside, in the middle of summer.
The high altitude made the cold even worse. I saw through the window, and I could only see white as the moon reflected blue light outside. I still didn't fully get how this micro environment inside the bubble worked.
The big guy hadn't placed any blankets on top of him! I was only noticing now, and his grip on me was tight! I couldn't move!
Dragan started chattering his teeth, he was still asleep. But his body started shivering.
I had to do something, and almost as if it was natural, the water inside of me started boiling, and I became a sort of heater for him.
I didn't even know I could do that.
I stayed like that, resting my mind, trying to get some sleep, I drifted off, while my body remained awake, it was a strange feeling, and one I would have to get used to.
But we cuddled for the rest of the night. So many things had happened in one day, I was tired.
As our breathing synced up, I finally was able to get some shut eye.