The Squire and the Dragon [Pigeon and Noise Prince]

[Noise Prince]

Elye actually liked being touched this way, and was a bit disappointed when the dragon stopped.

 

'What am I thinking?! I'm engaged… sort of.' He scolded himself for having any sort of lewd thoughts- especially with a dragon! He watched the dragon take a skull from a large animal and throw it against the wall, smashing it to pieces. The act was a bit unnerving. It served as a reminder of the dragon's power…

 

Elye picked up his undershirt, and began to slip it back over himself. He was a bit hungry, actually. And he expected to have to camp out for a while during his dragon-tracking, but now he himself didn't have to hunt.

 

"That would actually be quite nice," He answered the golden-haired beauty.

[Kotorichan]

Aiya stood up and slipped his clothes off, not really caring that he was seen naked. "alright, I'll head out then... Stay here okay?" He smiled back at him before turning back into his dragon form and bounding off into the forest.

 

He spent about half an hour hunting in the forest. Finally he came back with a wild boar and a deer clutched between his jaws. His face was covered in fresh blood from the animals. The dragon tried to walk into the cave quietly so he wouldn't scare the human too much.

[Noise Prince]

Elyre watched the man undress, before thinking that was indecent of him, and looked away, acting as if the gold coins he had been sitting on suddenly became very fascinating.

 

"Y-yes, I will remain here." Elye replied, a bit surprised. He hadn't even thought that he could escape, but did he want to? He was actually enjoying his time talking with a dragon, as odd as this was. He was scared for his life not too long ago, yet now he wanted to stay here with the dragon.

 

With an unimaginable ease, the man filled the space with his larger dragon form, and took off. Elye sighed, and fanned himself with his shirt, opting to only wear his under shirt for now. Why did he need to wear the chain mail for now, anyway? He really doubted the dragon was going to cause him harm at this point. After all, he still had a lot of human knowledge to offer, right? The dragon wouldn't risk eating him now, right?

 

He had gotten lost in thought, and before long, the dragon returned, with two great beasts, dead in his jaws. Elye's eyes widened in shock. The power of this dragon never ceased to amaze him, at every turn he was either in awe at his beauty or his power.

[Kotorichan]

Aiya dropped the animals at the cave entrance and wandered off into the forest for another moment. He took a couple branches in his jaws and carried them back into cave. The dragon turned back into his human form and sat down on the floor, still covered in blood and completely naked. "humans eat their meat cooked right? I don't want to burn it by breathing on it..."

 

He easily arranged the sticks into the proper formation for a fire. Aiya lightly breathed on the sticks, causing them to light fire. "there you go... You can have the boar and I'll take the deer and anything you don't want to eat." He stood up and pushed his hair back before walking over to deer and sitting down next to it.

[Noise Prince]

Elye watched the two large animals fall from the great dragon's clenched teeth, before the golden creature again took off. Not for very long, this time, as he returned with branches in its mouth. What were those for? Before he could ask, the dragon became human again, blood covering his human face. It was an eerie sight. Elye then remembered he was naked, yet oddly enough now that didn't bother him so much. After all, they were both men, and one had touched the other just earlier that day.

 

Then he explained why he brought the branches, and Elye smiled. He knew about that, and remembered it when he brought him food? Elye figured he'd just collect his own kindling once the dragon returned, but there was no need.

 

"You are correct, yes. Thank you," Elye gratefully.

 

The dragon arranged the fire quickly and with ease. Elye wondered if he had seen many fires being constructed this way… if Elye was really his first human.

 

You can have the boar, the dragon says. The human squire, with the one and only form, who had done no hunting, was given first helping of the boar.

 

"Thank you, that is incredibly kind of you," Elye said, and he opened his traveling sac, and took out dagger he brought specifically for cutting up any meat to roast, when he thought he'd be hunting, eating, and sleeping alone. He stood up, the coins tinkling against each other as he did, and crouched beside the boar. He lifted a leg, where the skin would be thin and easier to start cutting, he began skinning it.

[Kotorichan]

Aiya watched the human skin the boar with wide eyed fascination. "Why are you doing that? It's easier to just eat the whole thing..." He suddenly torn his teeth into the deer, and ripped out a chunk of flesh with a visceral sound.. The dragon barely chewed the meat and completely ignored the skin as he swallowed it. He looked over at Elye and wiped his mouth on his arm. "see? it's a lot easier like that..." he smiled brightly, his sharp fangs slightly blood.

[Noise Prince]

"I'm skinning it because I can't eat the pelt, it-" Elye stopped as it was mesmerized by the way the beast bit into the deer, ripping a large chunk out, and watched it swallow, the bite slithering down its lengthy neck with ease. He wasn't sure if he was horrified or in awe.

 

"I-I'm afraid I'm not able to eat it quite like that…" Elye replied, looking back down at the boar. "I have to skin the pelt off, then slice the meat from the bones, spear it, then roast it." It seemed so simple to him, but to a dragon who ate it all raw, it must seem like a lot of work.

 

"Humans can't just bite into a dead animal the same way you can."

[Kotorichan]

Aiya nodded slowly at the human's words. "I see... that sounds so inconvenient though..." he shrugged and turned back into his dragon form to set to work on the dead animal. It was a quite disgusting sight, he didn't chew much and ate everything, only pulling the large bones that he couldn't swallow out of his mouth. The deer was reduced to a skull and a few larger bones in a matter of just minutes, some of the bones were even cracked in the dragon's careless jaws.

[Noise Prince]

"Not if you're used to it…" Elye stated, spearing a thick slab of boar flesh on a stick he had sharpened, and carefully rested it by the fire.

 

"Have you ever tried anything cooked?" The squire asked, trying not to watch the dragon eat the deer, though he wasn't eating for long. "I'll roast some of the boar for you, too. Then you can see if you like the taste of what humans eat." He offered, taking another stick to sharpen.

[Kotorichan]

Aiya turned into his human form again and grabbed a robe from his pile of stuff. "I'd love to try some... is it good?" he slipped on his clothes and wandered over to Elye. The dragon plopped down next to him and watched the human with wide eyes. "I've seen humans eat lots of different things... is it all meat made on a stick? or do you make other things?"

[Noise Prince]

Elye laughed a bit.

"Well, I think it's better than raw meat," He replied. Elye sliced out a new piece of meat, a bit larger than the piece he had prepared, since his partner was a dragon, and skewered it on the sharpened stick, and set it beside his own piece.

 

"No, not just meat. We eat a lot of different things, in a lot of different ways. I am no cook, so I don't know how to make many things. But we eat fruits, and vegetables, and grains. We can make and eat bread, cakes, and pudding. Lots of things." He explained.

[Kotorichan]

Aiya nodded slowly with a frown. "that sounds so complicated... Humans are so confusing" the dragon huffed and flopped back down on the floor. "do dragons really cause that many problems for you humans? you said that we always steal your livestock and stuff... but humans cut down trees and chase the deer away... we're just trying to survive"

[Noise Prince]

Elye smiled.

"I guess it would seem so from the outside," Elye responded, turning the speared meat on the fire. "After all, if you asked me to make a cake, I wouldn't know where to start. But that's what cooks and bakers do all day long." He added, watching the lithe human-formed dragon lie down. But then he asked about the harm dragons did...

 

Elye had almost forgotten all about that. He had come up to kill the golden-haired man, after all, and now they were roasting meat together. The question made him antsy, not sure of how to reply.

 

"Well… I've never seen a dragon in my lifetime, except for you. But the parents of my parents have seen dragons. Every once in a while in history, we have tales of a dragon around the kingdom, choosing a village or town in which it will devastate…" He looked up at the man with a perplexed expression.

 

"I supposed when two groups are fighting for survival, the side of good and evil is determined by which side the individual stands on."

[Kotorichan]

"hm... I guess so... It's just that I always think that there must be some way for us to live together..." Aiya groaned and shrugged. "but maybe not... There's not much I can really do about it anyway" He rolled over onto his back and stared up at the ceiling, trying to keep his mind off such serious things. He suddenly sat up and crawled over to his pile of gold. "so how long is it going to take to cook the meat?" the dragon asked, flopping down on the coins.

[Noise Prince]

Elye sighed. The idea of dragons and humans coexisting didn't seem possible. The only way they seemed to have peace was when they avoided each other.

 

"History changes over time constantly," Elye finally said, a bit hopefully. After all, he was talking to a dragon he intended to kill, didn't he? How impossible was it to think that over time other humans and dragons could talk the same way?

 

"It looks brown on the outside, but it'll be raw on the inside. Of course, you might like that." The squire replied. "But if you want it all the way cooked, it will be just a little while longer."

[Kotorichan]

Aiya sighed as he heard that it would take awhile. "I'll just wait..." he mumbled. He took a deep breath before letting out a burst of flames from his mouth, melting a large portion of the gold into a molten mess. The humanized dragon crawled into the hot goo and curled up to watch Elye keep cooking. "is there anything you'll need while you stay here? or do you have everything in your bag?"

[Noise Prince]

"Good things happen to those who wait," Elye replied, chuckling a bit. For a dragon who could just swallow up a kill, this must be extraneous. The entire cave was lit up with the dragon fire, and Elyre felt very warm basking in the heat. Elye watched in awe as the gold started melting from the flame, their form dripping into liquid.

 

"Nn…" Elye let out a sympathy whimper as the human-shaped dragon eased into the molten gold. It was weird to see a human do something like that, even if it was a dragon who probably enjoyed it.

 

"Ah, yes, I have everything with me. I camp lightly." Elye told the dragon. "Thank you… and thank you for your kindness so far."

[Kotorichan]

Aiya tilted his head to the side slightly noticing the whimper that Elye let out. "hm? is something wrong?" he looked down at the metal that was slowly cooling around himself. "oh, is it this? Don't worry, I don't expect you to touch this stuff... My parents explained that humans get burned really easily"

[Noise Prince]

Elye turned the sticks on the fire, estimating that they're close to being done.

 

"Ah- thanks. I was actually more off-put by how easily you embraced the melted gold." Elye said. "Since you're in human form, I didn't consider you'd be fire proof. But your parents are right, at least compared to dragons, humans burn very easily. That's part of why we're so afraid…" He explained.

 

"Anyway, are you ready to try roasted boar?" He asked, putting the stick with the most meat, the one he prepared for Aiya, and put it on the other side of the fire so he could easily get it when he was ready. Elye removed his own skewer from the flames, just to keep it away from the heat, so it could cool.

[Kotorichan]

"it just feels nice and comfortable... so warm..." Aiya sighed happily and closed his eyes for a moment. He opened his eyes at the offer to try the boar and jumped up. "yeah!" He quickly brushed off a couple globs of gold and hurried over to the stick. The dragon picked it up and examined it for a moment before taking a careful bite. His eyes widened in surprise at the unfamiliar flavor then narrowed in disgust. "this is weird..." he mumbled through the food in his mouth.

[Noise Prince]

"Yeah…?" Elye looked at the liquid metal oozing out from the source, thick and shiny. Dragons were very much a different beast. He wondered how much gold was just melted down, how much wealth was liquified by dragon fire for the sake of being rolled in by a dragon. The squire wondered where he got all this treasure, and again, Elye wondered if he was really Aiya's first human…

 

Elye pushed the concerns away, and smiled as the dragon took the skewer, and tentatively bit into the browned boar meat, watching his reaction eagerly and he couldn't help but laugh.

 

"It may be an acquired taste," Elye stated and took a cautious bite of his own roasted meat. The outside was a bit charred, but the inside was cooked properly at least.

 

"Sometimes humans get sick if they eat raw meat, though I suppose that isn't the case for a dragon, so cooking it probably doesn't have many benefits if you don't like the taste."

[Kotorichan]

For a moment Aiya tried to chew and swallow his food, but the taste seemed to just get worse the longer he kept it in his mouth. The dragon finally spat it out in the fire and wiped his tongue on his sleeve to get the flavor out. "god, you ruined it..." he grumbled. "if that's how your food tastes then you might as well eat carrion..."

 

"I thought that it would taste better since you spend so much time cooking it, but now I'm even more confused..." Aiya rubbed his forehead, trying to understand this human. It was all so strange and confusing... Why would humans waste perfectly good meat by turning it into a tough, brown, flavorless lump? The dragons should be more upset about their hunting grounds being taken over, since the meat was clearly going to waste.

[Noise Prince]

The fire cackled and snapped around its new addition to burn, and Elye frowned.

 

"Like I said, I'm not a cook." Elye reminded him. "I've roasted it- something which makes it healthier, mind you." Elye took another bite to prove his point. It really wasn't bad at all! It certainly wasn't good, but with raw meat and a fire, it was the best he could do. After all, he didn't have any salt or spice.

 

"For someone who breathes fire, I would have thought you would have liked the taste of fire-and-meat." Then he wrinkled his nose, but laughed at the comment. "Carrion is rotting. This is fresh. And if you do it right, it stays fresher longer. I bet if you had something made by a real cook, you'd never want anything raw again!" He commented.

[Kotorichan]

"I think that if you could taste how raw meat tastes to me, you wouldn't want to eat this cooked stuff again"Aiya laid down on the stone ground. "it's so soft and tender... And the flavor is always strongest when it's fresh, and it's perfect when it's still warm and dripping with blood..." he sighed happily at the thought. "your cooked things are nothing compared to that... it's nice that it's warm but you took away the flavor and made it a strange texture." he shook his head and sat back up.

[Noise Prince]

Elye kept ripping bites from his own stick, swallowing them greedily. He had been hiking all day, and was very hungry. Even as the dragon talked, and described gruesomely how it was to eat raw meat, it still couldn't deter his appetite. He was even reminded of when he did eat raw meat- back when he couldn't properly roast his game. It was mushy and luke-warm, the texture was gross, and the taste of the raw meat surrounded by a charred skin was nearly enough to make him ill.

 

"The only humans who eat raw meat are those who fail at cooking it." Elye replied. "Bloody meat is fine for beasts- and dragons, it seems-" He caught himself, not wanting to offend his new friend if he didn't want to be referred to as a beast. "But no human would willingly eat raw boar unless there was no other alternative and they were starving."