Dueling Dragon's

[Lucas]

Sergei looked at his completed drawing, the grin still on his face from joking with Lucas. He was a good guy and they had a good time working together. The drawing he'd finished was different, definitely something he'd never done before. The images were very stylized since little attention was paid to realism. The the idea or the story was the more important thing in Mayan art. Still, he was proud of the piece. He'd drawn a serpent with a bird like head, complete with a wickedly sharp beak and a mane of feathers- Quetzalcoatl, one of their gods, he thought- but he gave it a modern twist, the lines more sinuous and sleeker, the edges of the beak and feathers sharper, the eyes and mouth more sinister. It was colored in turquoise, red, black and green. From its mouth protruded a curled scarlet forked tongue. He thought about having it eat its tail- it was common in the old Mayan images he had looked at- but decided not to. He'd play with the motif again in other works.

He looked up in time to see Lucas and his not-girlfriend walking to his chair, probably to get started on her tattoo. It was a nice design. Lucas had a clean hand. Thalia had that pretty and open smile she usually wore and he smiled back at her. She still looked wind-swept, but it suited her. He remembered the hours and hours he had spent working on her back. He'd talked a lot that day, about nothing mostly. It was just to pass the time. At times she talked and at others was dead silent. It was a big piece, a mural of a girl surrounded by poppies in the Mucha nouveau style, with its clean sharp lines and bright vivid colors. But the pain had been considerable. He had had to ask her if she was sure more than once because this was not going to be easy. But she had endured it. Indeed, she had been so silent and still at times that he'd have to see if she had fallen asleep. It was ridiculous, he knew, and yet the way she lay there, eyes closed, breath even and relaxed, skin cool against his hand...well he wondered. In the end it was beautiful. It was one of the pieces he was most proud of.

He stood up and went back over to her, his smile remaining. He really did enjoy her. She reminded him of a bird flitting from flower to flower, sampling life at every opportunity."All right gorgeous. Let's sit down and you can show me your latest masterpiece."
He led her over to his chair and made room for her to sit down.