The Celtic Dragon Saga - 3. Chapter 2

Keiran began his life story once they were all comfortable in the living room of his apartment, “There really isn't much to tell about my past. My full name is Keiran Lugh Taliesin Drake, I was born in '87 so I am a year older than you two, something that we have in common is that I have never met my parents either, I am also an orphan. I lived in an orphanage about three blocks from here until the 18th anniversary of the day that I was found there. I was awarded a partial scholarship to go to the University here, and I work two full time jobs. That's about it for my sob story.” he ended with a self depreciating laugh.

Curious Brian asked, “Why weren't you ever adopted if you were there for so long? I mean as good looking as you are now, you couldn't have been an ugly child.” Brian said the last of this with a lighthearted laugh, but had he glanced at Keiran when he said that he would have known he had hit a sore spot with his comment.

Brigit noticing Keiran's reaction, subtle though it was, asked, “Whats wrong Keiran? You seem to disagree with Brian, but I cannot see where there would possibly be any room for disagreement. Please tell us what is wrong.”

Keiran stood up and started pacing the floor trying to gather his thoughts before saying, “The reason I was not adopted like the other kids is because of my eyes, before you say anything like 'They look fine to me' or whatever, these are contacts. Let me go into the bathroom and take them out and you will see the reason for yourself why no one wants to be around me most of the time.”

Brian and Brigit looked at each other to see if one of them had noticed anything odd about his eyes that would cause him to act like that. The only thing they could see on each others faces was a mirror of their own confusion.

When Keiran returned he kept his head down and wouldn't look either of the twins in eye until after he sat down on the couch again. As he started to raise his head towards the twins he said in an extremely depressed tone, “If you want to leave and never see me again after this, I will understand and I wont hold it against you.” He then raised his head completely and looked towards the twins. The look on his face spoke volumes about expecting them to freak out and run as fast and far away from him as they could. Even though he was expecting them to flip out, the one thing he was not expecting to see was awe and amazement, this shocked him because everyone who had ever seen his eyes without the contacts had run in terror.

Brian and Brigit noticed that Kieran's bright, luminescent eyes were a striking green encircled by a silver ring. Even more unusual was the reptilian slit running down the center of each iris. Keirans long, jet-black hair and pale white skin just helped to set off his eyes and made them seem to glow with their own inner light.

All Brigit could say about Keiran's revelation was, “Wow, I am seriously jealous now. Those are gorgeous.” she then got up off the couch that she was sitting on walked over to Keiran looked at his eyes up close then hit him on the arm. When Keiran looked at her, shocked that she would hit him like that Brigit started laughing and said, “ I am the woman in the room it is supposed to be me that gets all the attention drawn towards my eyes and you just stole my thunder, asshole.” She then crossed her arms and plopped down on the other couch and pretended to pout.

Brian just sat there stunned and staring at the eyes to the point that Keiran started to get uncomfortable and upset. Just as Keiran was about to pass that, nigh on invisible, line dividing upset and outright anger Brigit reached over and slapped him upside the back of his head knocking him out of his shocked stupor and back into reality.

Still rubbing the back of his head Brian said, “They look almost Draconic, their beautiful. Why do you hide them behind contacts? They are too beautiful to hide like that.” Brian slowly walked toward Keiran, never breaking eye-contact, until he knelt down in front of him, leaned forward and kissed him.

Brian quickly moved away and started to apologize, “I'm sorry Keiran I shouldn't have done that..”

Keiran jumped up off the chair he was sitting in, grabbed Brian, holding him with his whole body, he turned Brian's face back towards him and kissed him deeply, before saying, “There is nothing to apologize about.” then kissed him again.

After a few minutes of being, basically, ignored by the two guys in the room she called out, “Hey you two, get a room before you give me issues.” Brian and Keiran looked at her, neither one breaking their embrace on the other, curiously. Brigit seeing that neither one of them understood a word she said, followed up by saying, “Well I guess this proves the old adage that says 'all good looking men are either taken or gay'. To think I was going to give both of you my number when you left the pub this evening.”

Keiran looked at Brigit, then Brian, then back at Brigit and said with a merciless tone and a twisted grin, “It is probably a good thing you didn't because then you might have been dating your twin.” Keiran then watched the faces of both Brian and Brigit go ashen pale then start turning slightly green before both of them started to shake their bodies violently while at the same time laughing with a mortified look on their faces.

Keiran released his hold on Brian turned back to his chair and sat down with his head in his hands and started sobbing. The twins looked at each other before kneeling down next to Keiran's chair and lay their hands on his back. Brian looked at Brigit, and receiving a nod, looked at Keiran and asked, “What's the matter, babe, what is wrong now?” Brian hadn't even realized that he had used the term of endearment, but when Keiran's arms wrapped around him once more Brian saw the last piece of the 'hole' in his soul filled.

Still sobbing Keiran said, “You two are the first people that have seen my eyes without contacts that haven't started claiming that I am daemon possessed or thought I was trying to pull some sick joke on them. You have no idea what that means to me to have someone who doesn't think I am a freak or worse.”

Brigit looked at Keiran with a wicked smile before saying, “Don't worry I still think your are a freak for lusting over my brother instead of me, but I wont hold it against you too much.” Brian and Keiran looked at each other then looked towards Brigit. As soon as the two guys saw the look on Brigit's face all three of them cracked up laughing again.

After they had settled down into their seats again, except for Keiran and Brigit who swapped seats so that Keiran and Brian could sit next to each other on the couch, Brigit asked Keiran, “So to reiterate what you have said so far, you still have no idea who your parents are or were right?” at Keiran's nod she continued, “Did they leave any clues at the orphanage that might lead to tracking them down?”

Reluctantly, Keiran pulled two necklaces out from under his shirt. One of them looked like a black talon from a creature with a very large claw, it hung from a piece of leather that appeared to have a scale pattern on one side. The other was attached to a thick braided silver chain, it looked like an intricately woven knot basket of made of silver that, from the looks of it, was about the right size to hold the talon, as if it was made to hold the talon.

When Brian asked if he could examine the necklaces Keiran handed it over saying, “Both of these where found in the blankets I was wrapped in when the nuns at the church found me. According to Sister Mary Patricia, there was no one around and the carrier that I was in was not there when she walked into the front garden to choose a rose for the vase she kept in her chambers. She said she had only been out there for a few minutes and would have seen if anyone had passed by her to put the carrier on the step then turn around and leave. The only other thing that was in the carrier with me besides those necklaces was a note with my name written on it and a plea for the church to find a good place to raise me. It was signed MT and PD.”

Brian, who had been listening to Keiran while he was examining the two necklaces, asked, “Have you ever had these looked at by a professional? Because I think this silver basket is actually quite old, like a hand made heirloom type of old. And on the side of both of them there are scratches that look like a variation of the old Celtic Ogham script, I would have to look it up in one of the books I have in my car but I am pretty sure that's what it is.”

Keiran got a thoughtful look on his face and said, “ I took it to the university one time to see if they could find anything out about it and was told that they were dollar store junk. The guy barely looked at them, now that I think about it, but I was 14 years old and thought since he was at the university then he must know what he was talking about. I have examined every surface on there and I don't recall seeing any scratches.”

Brian looked up from the basket necklace at Keiran and said, “If you have a magnifying glass handy I can show you. The marks are right here on the side. Actually I have a really good one in the car let me go get it and the book and we might be able to figure out what it says on them. While I am gone could you start a pot of water boiling? It looks like there is a thick layer of wax on here and it makes it hard to see the marks.”

After Brian left to go retrieve the book and magnifying glass from his car while Keiran was putting a pot pot of water on the stove Brigit asked Keiran, “You said your name was 'Keiran Lugh' right?” Keiran just nodded so Brigit continued, “Has anyone ever told you what it means?” Keiran glances up thoughtfully and shook his head 'No' so Brigit told him, “Keiran means 'little dark one' but what is odd is your middle name is Lugh which means 'one of light' so your name means 'Little dark one of Light' so you are a walking contradiction in the flesh, so to speak. You then add Taliesin, who was a great bard and druid in ancient times but, who is more commonly known as Merlin. And if we continue in that vein of thought your last name, Drake, is another name for a dragon.”

At this point Brian returned with several books and a fabric case that was rolled up under his arm. Keiran noticed the pot of water had started to boil lightly and Brigit was raiding his cupboard looking for something. She turned around and asked Keiran where he kept his coffee at he just pointed at the freezer.

By now Brian had unrolled his case on the kitchen table and turned on the hanging light above it, once he had things set up the way he wanted them he asked, “Keiran is the water at a good boil yet? Yeah, good Brigit do you have any powder makeup with you? Go get it would you?”

As Brigit was getting the makeup she gave Keiran a confused look to which he just shrugged his shoulders. Brian brought the talon necklace over to the pot of boiling water and set it inside still holding on to the leather cord. After a few moments in the boiling water small blobs started beading up and floating up to the surface and off the talon. When the blobs stopped rising off the talon Brian swirled it around in the water and pulled it out onto a hand towel that Keiran had set there, he then repeated this with the silver basket. Once they were dry and cool enough to handle Brian walked over to the table with them and held them under the light turning them this way and that trying to descry what the marks might mean.

Brian looked up at Brigit as she walked back in from digging in the bottomless pit that women call purses, at one point it had looked as if she had been swallowed from the shoulders up looking for her makeup mirror with the powder in it, and asked her, “Did you get lost in that thing? I thought we were going to have to send in a rescue party soon.” which earned him a punch on the shoulder as she shot a murderous look at Keiran, who was laughing and shaking his head in agreement.

Brigits only response was to shake her head in frustration while muttering “guys” to amusement of Keiran and Brian. She then said, “My purse isn't that bad, I just cleaned it out about a week ago...or was that the other one? Anyways here is the powder makeup you asked for, but if you want my opinion this is definitely the wrong color for you.” she then pointed the case at Keiran saying, “it might work on you though.”

Keiran starts laughing and backs away from Brigit waving his hands and shaking his head, trying to avoid the threat inherent in Brigits actions. Brian reached out and took the makeup out of her hand, opened it and used a soft brush from inside the case he had spread on the table which contained a myriad of brushes, small shovels, and scrapers along with several magnifying glasses and other tools of an unknown purpose, some even looked to be hand made.

With the soft brush loaded with powder he carefully brushed the edges so that the, thus far unidentified, marks filled with powder and stood out from the surrounding materials. After once again observing the scratches at different angles in the light Brian said, “ I really cannot make heads or tails of these marks, they look to be either completely garbled, random letters, or... wait a second what if I...” he started to mumble under his breath, talking to himself as he held both items up to the light. He then said, “Yeah, I think that is it...” after which he slid the talon inside the woven basket and said, “Voila, the message is complete, which tells me that they were held together like this when the message was scratched on them.” he then looked up at Keiran and asked, “Have you ever tried to find out what these are made of? The reason I ask is because this talon looks and feels a lot denser and harder that any I have ever seen.”

Keiran started thinking about all the different things he had used to try to figure out what the talon was made of, because he had researched what animal it could have come from and had come up with zilch. After a few seconds thought he scratched his forehead as he said, “A while back I tried going to the museum in their natural history section, as well as surfing the net looking for some clue as to what kind of creature that talon could have come from and came up empty every time. I then tried several different things, from a utility knife to an ice pick but nothing I did even left a scratch on it except when the diamond fell out of my coworkers ring, I asked her if I could borrow the stone for a second while she looked for a coin baggie to put the ring in until the next day when she could get to the jewelers. She said 'Go ahead just don't lose it'.

I took it into my managers office because he had one of those flexible lamps with the LED bulbs in it. I then took the talon off and used some pliers to hold the diamond while I scratched at back of the talon on the desk, it actually worked because I saw a small curl of the talon come loose. But the odd thing is that when I ran my thumb over the scratch it almost felt like it wasn't there. So long story short the only thing that I have found that will do any damage, however minimal, to it is a diamond. The other necklace is the same way nothing will even scratch it except a diamond and once again that was minimal. Hell I think I did more damage to the diamond than I did to either of those. I say that because I looked at the tip of the diamond after I finished trying to scratch both of those and instead of the sharp point that was on it beforehand the tip was rounded. That's the last time I even bothered trying to find something to scratch them.”

Brian raised an eyebrow when Keiran said me managed to scratch both pieces on the back. He then took the pieces back apart and showed them to Keiran while saying, “ I think you only scratched whatever that waxy coating was because there are no scratches on these other than the marks on the side. It is interesting that it took a diamond to scratch the coating but yet the coating came off in boiling water, also interesting is the fact that apparently this is harder than the densest material know to man. I am not doubting your word but, maybe your coworkers ring was a fake diamond that would explain why it rounded the point without doing more than superficial damage to the necklaces.”

Suddenly, Brigit jump up and ran over to her bottomless purse with a giggle of extreme glee. “ I have just what we need right here.” she giggled, sounding like a little schoolgirl that got her birthday wish granted by a fairy-godmother. Seemingly only seconds later she came skipping back to the table with something held tightly in her left hand. “I told Donald I would find a use for this. Here.” She opened her hand to show them a necklace with a broken clasp. Looking closer the both Keiran and Brian noticed that the odd shaped crystal pendant hanging from it was welded on so the chain couldn't be removed.

Brian stared at her in shock for a moment before reaching into his shirt and pulling out a pendant that looked almost identical to Brigits and said, “This arrived on my sixteenth birthday in a box addressed to me with no return address on it anywhere. Inside the box I found this and a note that said 'With all my love until you are united once more' and signed S.B.M., where did you get yours?”

Brigit was shocked speechless, her mouth worked open and closed like a fish but no sounds came out. After a few false starts her voice finally came back to her. Still startled she said, “ I got mine the same way except it didn't come in the post, I found it sitting on table by the my bedroom door with my name on it but no one knew who put it there or who delivered it. As far as anyone knew it just appeared there. And the note inside was identical.”

Keiran,who had been standing there listening to the twins talk, took the pendant from Brigits hand and picked up the pendant hanging around Brians neck, then looked between two pendants for a moment before bringing them together in a V. When he had straightened the pendants out the twins noticed instead of there being two separate pendants in his hand there was only one in the shape of a thirteen pointed star.

Once the three had finished examining the pendant, Brian started to say something to Keiran but stopped when he saw the look of concentrated thought on his face. After a few minutes of just watching Keiran, Brian asked, “What are you thinking about and how did you know that the two pendants went together like that?”

With a snort Keiran said, “And I thought two heads where supposed to be better than one. Think about it for a moment that guy at the pub, Donald, said your mothers name was Sara Brigit Milligan, right?” the twins both nodded, “S.B.M. would logically be Sara Brigit Milligan. And the notes said 'Until you are united once more' correct? Now, follow my logic for just a moment, what if the that phrase wasn't just referring to the two of you? When I was looking at the pendants, I noticed that they were almost identical but not quite, like the two of you, so if the notes were referring to the pendants as well as the two of you then that must mean that the pendants are two parts of a whole as well.”

While the twins were still stunned Keiran said, “ I think it is time to get some rest and continue discussions of the past tomorrow morning or,” glancing at his watch, “rather later this morning seeing as it is 2am already. Brigit, give me a few minutes to change the sheets and you can take my room. Brian, since I don't normally bring my dates, and their sister, back to my apartment on the first date, you get the spare room just move the papers, books and stuff over to the desk,... and watch out for any sticky spots that might still be wet.”

Having said his peace Keiran left to go into one of the rooms, leaving the twins time to speak privately for a few moments. Brian was still grinning over the fact that Keiran had managed to get him back when Brigit asked, “Do you want to explain about the 'sticky spots'....never mind I don't want to know, that is just wrong on so many levels. But this is the second time you two have mentioned tonight being some kind of date and I guess what I am trying to ask is.... are you gay?”

Brian was slightly dumbfounded at how bluntly Brigit had asked the question. When he got his faculties back in order he said, “Yes tonight was an unofficial date for Keiran and I. The comment about sticky spots was to get back at me for teasing him when he got into my car since I had all my books and a soda bottle sitting on the seat. So that proves that you have a dirty mind, and yes I am gay. Is that going to be a problem for you.. I mean.. I know we just met and...”

Brigit noticed how upset and defensive Brian was getting while he was speaking so she cut him off saying, “ I don't care if you are gay but, if I catch you trying on my dresses and heels we are going to have a war on our hands. I don't think my size six stilettos can handle your size twelve water-skis.”

Before Brian could even think about what had been said he popped off with, “My feet are only size ten. They are not water-skis,” then the rest of what she had said caught up to his brain so he said, “besides the only reason you don't want me wearing your dresses and shoes is you know I will look better in them than you do.”

Keiran walked back into the room with his arms full of bed linens just as Brian made his statement. Stopping in his tracks he looked between Brigit and Brian, shook his head and said, “You two haven't even known each other for twelve hours and you are already bickering about who looks better in the others clothes. That is truly sad, but it does fit. They say twins like to swap clothes with each other. I just figured that ended after a certain age and I never expected it to be cross-gender swapping” With another shake of his head Keiran tossed the bed linens into the spare room and went back into the main bedroom to get a blanket to put on the couch for himself.

The twins followed Keirans movements with their eyes before looking at each other and making a few hand gestures to each other. As soon as Keiran finished opening the couch into a bed the twins grabbed him from behind, laughing like a pair of hyenas, threw him onto the couch bed sideways and started to close the bed back into a couch with Keiran still inside of it still laughing the whole time.

Keiran was stunned when they tossed him, bodily, onto the bed. Once his senses started working again he saw the bed closing on him, and heard the other two laughing like crazy. When he realized what they were going to do he, laughing, cried out, “Mercy, mercy, I promise I won't call either one of you a cross-dresser again. Just let me out and I will behave,” at this the siblings started to pull the bed back away from him, that is until they heard, “you can swap clothes all you want, I won't say anything about it.” When they heard him say that, they looked at each other and said, at the same time, “Swirly Bird? Swirly Bird.”

They then proceeded to unfold the couch again and each one of them grabbed an arm and a leg to carry him to the bathroom and dunk his head in the toilet. Brian held Keiran by his legs suspended a few inches above the water while Brigit reached around to hit the flush handle. Before she pushed the handle down she looked at Keiran, hanging there upside down then up to Brian and said, “Ready? Set? DUNK!” Just before she said 'DUNK' she flushed the toilet catching the end of Keirans ponytail in the spin of the water. To Keirans horror Brian, being the devious person he is, dipped his head closer to the water, soaking even more of his hair in the process, before pulling him back away from the toilet and lay him on the floor.

As Keiran lay there on the floor, Brian and Brigit were giving each other high-fives before walking out of the room and into their designated bedrooms for the night. Still laying on the floor Keiran started laughing until he was curled into a fetal ball and it hurt to breathe. Once he calmed down to just chuckles he got up off the floor and grabbed a towel off the rack so he could dry his wet hair, then went to bed himself.

***

The next morning when Keiran woke up he saw the twins already in the kitchen. Brigit was making scrambled eggs and the apartment smelled like coffee. It took Keiran a minute to halfway organize his fuzzy thoughts before he realized, 'Wait, I ran out of eggs three days ago and that doesn't smell like my Folgers Extra: Morning Blend...' Getting up he pushed the bed back into the couch with the thought 'I will fix it later.'

Walking into the kitchen, Brigit handed him a cup full of strong black coffee. With his head still full of spiderwebs he murmured, “Thanks” just before he took a sip of the steaming hot, life giving, black liquid. After a few sips his head started to clear and he asked, “ How long have you two been up? It's only 7 o'clock in the morning and we didn't get into bed till about three last night. Oh, and while I am asking questions where did this great coffee, the eggs and now that I look, bacon, come from? This isn't my regular coffee and I have been out of eggs for almost a week and haven't been to the store?”

Brian glanced up from the crystal pendant he had in his hand long enough to say, “ I always get up at about five o'clock every morning no matter what time I get into bed. I saw that you were out of breakfast fixings so I went over to the Whole Foods I saw down the road, as I was about to leave Brigit came out of the bedroom and decided to go with me so she could pick up the ingredients for her coffee. She wouldn't even let me, her twin, know what went into her blend, she made me go to the other side of the store while she added various things to the grinder. Even though I know I saw her use chicory I still can't figure out what is in this 'witches brew' and I am afraid to try recreating it, it would probably explode in my face.” before turning his full attention back towards the pendant.

Brigit just laughed at him saying, “No, it wouldn't blow up in your face, but it might put you in the bathroom for the next three days if you added the wrong amount of some of the ingredients.” Looking back at Keiran, seeing the look of worry on his face, she said, “Don't worry this blend has been perfected for a while, it was given to me by one of the mid-wives years ago back in Ireland. She said she used it for when she had to deal with a difficult birth, 'Be it human or animal birth, this mixture will get you through the night without keeping you from sleep when it is needed' she said, and I have to say I have used it to get through some of the worst tests the schools have been able to throw at me and still been able to lay down and go to sleep when I was ready to.”

Keiran let a look of relief flood his face before becoming serious once more and saying, “You two don't have to pay your way here. I understand what you are going through with your families, I have seen it happen with other families, and I have helped my friends out then just the same as I am with the two of you now.” When he had finished speaking he noticed that Brigit was furious then stomped off to the bedroom. She came back a moment later with her purse and backpack, which had been brought up last night from the car.

Seeing the bewildered and clueless look on Keirans face she walked up to him and slapped him before saying, “ I don't know who you think you are to give hand outs but I will NOT be a charity case. I refuse to allow someone to treat me like an invalid or throw a pity party for me just because I have a little hardship in my life. I have been through much worse than this and made it through. What the hell gives you the right to treat me like another 'poor pathetic me' case?”

At this point Brian stepped up beside Brigit and hugged her saying softly, talking to both her and Keiran, “Brigit, even though I agree with you that Keiran went about this the wrong way, we cannot stay here for free, but what do you mean 'throwing a pity party because of a little hardship' and 'poor pathetic me case'? Keiran never said anything like that he was just saying that he didn't want us to use our money to buy specialties for him and go out of our way to buy or do things for him, at least that is what I understood from what he was saying, even if I don't agree, but that is beside the point. So tell me honestly what is going on in that head of yours that would make you think that is what he was doing?”

Brigits strong and defiant facade suddenly crumbled, leaving her a bawling and blubbering mess in her brothers arms. Brian slowly and carefully moved her over to the couch and sat down with her holding on to her tightly the whole time. Brian looked up to Keiran and asked, “Do you have some Kleenex, and could you bring a glass of water here for her and my cup of coffee I have the feeling that this is something she has been holding in for quite a while and something you said must have opened the torrent.”

After Keiran had retrieved the requested items he sat in the chair across from the twins, reached out towards Brigit and said, “ I am sorry for anything I said that could have hurt you, that was not my intention. The reason I said what I did was because last night the two of you did more for me than you can ever imagine, just by not thinking I was some kind of freak with weird eyes you, literally, renewed my faith in people. Yeah there will always be assholes out there that will call me a daemon and worse but I know that the two of you never will.”

Brigit wiped her eyes on a Kleenex then said, “Brian is right. This is something I should have dealt with years ago, but didn't. My adopted father, Donald, doesn't even know about this. I think Angus might know about it, if he does he never said anything directly, so as far as I know the only person that knows about it is Pansy.” She stopped to take a drink from the glass of water before saying, “Once I start to tell this I don't want to stop, so get comfortable and don't interrupt me. If I stop I know I won't have the strength to pick back up and finish it.”

“When I was 15, just before my 16th birthday, I was raped and got pregnant....