The Squire and the Dragon [Pigeon and Noise Prince]

[Noise Prince]

 

Hey! I have a loooot of explaining to do… But to be honest, I took on a lot of role-plays before the term started with the heavy workload, and I got overwhelmed when the classes became busier and I had to juggle more and more assignments, and YO started getting pushed back. I returned after mid-terms for a few roleplays, and I regrettably couldn't keep it up. But well… I'm on break now, and next term I'm taking one class, so the workload shouldn't be overbearing me, and I'll be more active.

 

I'm so sorry, that I've been gone so long with nary a word, and I'll understand if you're no longer interested in this role-play (or roleplaying with me) but I'll reply now just in case ^^;

 

 

"Now, don't say that." Elye groaned, hating to see that expression on that lovely, distinctive face. He would love to cave in and let the dragon have his way. Though the squire felt that he was already far too enamored with him than he should be, only knowing each other for such a short amount of time. But Aiya was already sprawled over the coins, unfurling into his impressive dragon form, lightly brushing against Elye. There was a large patch of ground exposed not far from the pile Aiya was sleeping on, and Elye cleared a few coins that were in the way and started making himself comfortable. He might as well go to sleep as well.

 

Though Elye wasn't sure how well he'd sleep. On top of being in a cave with an honest-to-god-dragon, he was going to bring that dragon back home and hide that fact that it was, indeed, a dragon. On top of all that… his sword was missing now, and he had to find a way to explain how he lost his beloved weapon. Though now he wasn't so upset about it, priorities tend to shift when faced with the challenge of convincing people a dragon isn't a dragon...

[Kotorichan]

Aiya lay awake for what felt like hours, all kinds of possibilities for the next day going through his mind. He wanted to ask Elye all kinds of questions but was still set on pretending to be angry at the human. After what felt like a long time, but was really only a few minutes, the dragon drifted off into a deep sleep. His heavy breathing filled the small cave, and at times he let out a low growl in his sleep. His dreams were also filled with excitement for meeting other humans.

 

Just before dawn Aiya woke up and turned back into his human form. He yawned and stretched his arms before looking around sleeping for Elye. He couldn't help but worry that the human might have run off in the middle of the night...

[Noise Prince]

Elye had trouble falling asleep at first, but the cave was surprisingly warm, which he credited to the dragon's breath. His thinking of virtually every horrible scenario that could go wrong combined with the day's journey made him incredibly tired, which made it easier to fall asleep after turning around for about an hour or so.

 

The squire always said he was very alert, and a light sleeper, which made it difficult to sneak up on him. Though anyone who had ever seen him sleep knew Elye had no idea what he was like when asleep. He was an incredibly heavy sleeper. While dreaming of everything going wrong, and everything going well, he had rolled himself into a fairly tall pile of coins opposite of him and Aiya, and the top of the hill toppled over him. Now most of his body was littered with shiny gold coins, and still he slept.

[Kotorichan]

Aiya frowned deeply and crawled over to the human. He lightly brushed the coins off him and leaned a little closer to listen to him breath. Once the dragon was satisfied that Elye was still alive and well, he ran out of the cave to go hunting for breakfast. He spent about half an hour wandering the forest in his dragon form before he found a large deer which he immediately ate. On his way back to the cave he caught a rabbit for Elye.

 

The dragon tried to be quiet as he reentered the cave, but his bright scales scraped up against the stones and the sound echoed loudly throughout the small space. Aiya dropped the rabbit and quickly turned back to his human form, hoping he hadn't woken his guest.

[Noise Prince]

Elye ended up having very pleasant dreams by the end, enjoying his slumber even more than usual. Despite the cavern floor and the coins, and the dragon swiping them away, he was very comfortable sprawled out slumbering the the lair of a powerful dragon.

 

He would have slept an hour or two longer than he normally did, despite his heavy sleeping, he had a decent internal clock, if it weren't for a sudden scraping noise. It was so unpleasant, it hurt his teeth, and he could feel the sound radiate off the floor he slept on as it echoed deeper into the cave.

 

He hummed to himself, unwilling to get up. But then he remembered everything that had happened, and shot up immediately, eyes darting around, as if making sure it was all real. He turned and saw the Aiya as a human, a rabbit near his feet. Elye smiled. As odd as this entire scene was, this felt very warm and homey. Nurturing would never be a word he'd assign to a dragon until actually meeting Aiya, but looking at the rabbit sitting there, completely uncooked or unprepared, made him rather hungry. Perhaps Aiya was already influencing him.

 

"Good morning," He said with a smile, standing up, a few coins falling to the floor as he did so.

[Kotorichan]

Aiya let out a sad whimper as he watched the man stand up. "Sorry... I didn't mean to wake you up..." He brushed his fingers through his hair and looked down at the floor, looking like a puppy that had just done something wrong. "I thought you might be hungry when you woke up so I got you a rabbit..." The dragon pushed the small body forward with his foot. "Want me to make a fire for you?"

 

His gaze moved back up to Elye's face, staring at the man with wide eyes. He still found the human's appearance amazing, like some kind of mythical creature. The dragon's excitement for visiting a human town was growing again, he could barely wait to meet more humans.

[Noise Prince]

Elye shook his head.

 

"It is no problem. I don't like to sleep in too late, so it is actually helpful." He told him. He couldn't help but think that his expression when he apologized was particularly cute, more like a small pet than a ferocious dragon.

 

"Thank you so much, I'd appreciate a fire." He said, stepping out from the gold towards the pit they used the night before, but stopped when he found himself caught in the dragon's gaze.

 

Aiya's stunningly beautiful eyes completely ensnared the squire. Elye hadn't been this excited about meeting someone new since… since Alnosie, actually.

[Kotorichan]

Aiya managed to tear his eyes away from the human and went back out of the cave to grab some sticks. He still hadn't put on any clothes because it was so easy for him to forget, leaving his body completely exposed except for what was covered by his long hair.

 

The dragon came back in and arranged the sticks in a proper pile before breathing some fire on them, just enough to light the fire. He sat back and looked up at Elye with a slight frown. "I don't know how you cook stuff so you'll have to do it yourself..."

 

He wanted to watch how the human cooked the meat, it tasted disgusting but it was still interesting. The closet that Aiya had ever come to cooking his meal was eating a bear that he had killed with fire.

[Noise Prince]

Elye took a deep breath when he left. This no-clothes thing was something he couldn't get away with around other humans. The squire began skinning the rabbit, and reused a skewer from the night before, as he waited for the dragon's return.

 

He smiled when Aiya returned, and lit the fire.

 

"Thank you, I can cook it myself." He replied. "But… you might want to learn how to eat cooked food. Unless you think you can think of an excuse everyone would buy to eat raw meat…" He said, roasting the rabbit meat.

[Kotorichan]

"Couldn't you just say I come from a country with different customs?" Aiya whimpered, flopping down next to the fire. "That would explain why I think your food is disgusting... And if I stay there more than a day then I'll have to sneak out to catch a deer because you humans don't eat enough for me to stay alive..." He puffed his cheeks up in a pout. "You'll make me starve on your tiny little rabbits and cabbages" the dragon didn't really know much about humans, but he had seen them eat cabbages and rabbits so he assumed those two things were the stables of their diet.

[Noise Prince]

"That could work for a lot of things," Elye replied. "But eating raw bears isn't something many cultures do, I don't imagine. None that we've come in contact in enough for them to believe you speak our language, anyway."

 

Elye couldn't help but chuckle.

 

"That's true enough… but I have to say in our defense, we eat much more than rabbit and cabbage." He added, spinning his skewer, the meat gradually roasting. "Besides, will you really have to eat so much when you'll be in human form a majority of the time? That small form is easier to maintain than your large, beastly one, isn't it?" The squire chuckled once more at the expression the fair dragon man made. The ferocious monster of legends was childishly stubborn, it was very endearing.

[Kotorichan]

"I'm not beastly!" Aiya protested loudly, bolting up to a sitting position. "you're just little and whimpy! and it's not easier, it's actually harder because I have to use energy to make myself look this little and weak" he glared at Eyle, clearly offended by the human's words. "I know I can't eat raw meat in front of humans, I'm just gonna have to sneak out at night" he flopped back down on the ground and rolled over so his back was facing Eyle before suddenly changing back into his dragon form.

[Noise Prince]

Elye laughed.

 

"I'm not so whimsy, when within the proper standards!" He reminded him. "I'm training to become a knight one day." He nearly lifted his sleeve to demonstrate his point by flexing, but his pride stopped him from doing something so childish.

 

"I see, then… okay, we will definitely find a way to get you more food. But we're definitely going to have to be careful. The last thing we need is more dragon sightings… and with a lot of villagers who live closer to the forest on edge, it's going to be quite tricky." He remarked, thinking out loud.

 

"Nnng… I'm starting to get used to that shifting of yours…" Elye commented, not sure if that was good or bad.

[Kotorichan]

Aiya turned his head to look back at the human, his eyes narrowed in a glare. "I'm not stupid, I would be careful not to be seen" He growled, his voice low and rumbling like an earthquake. "I have no plans to wander about in this form, even if it's tiring to be trapped in a tiny human body"

 

His tail lashed back and forth like an angry cat. He felt so angry at the knowledge that he would have to put so much effort into fitting in, just to visit a human town. "Why are you humans so cruel? I only want to visit, it's not as if I want to take anything or hurt anyone... And yet I must fear for my life if they find out I'm not one of you..."

[Noise Prince]

For the first time since Aiya had first grabbed him while first revealing his dragon form, Elye felt a little intimidated. He glared at him, and with such a deep voice, he felt like his core was being rattled.

 

"I-I didn't mean it like that," Elye replied. "We're in this together, so I was thinking out loud. I, too, have a part in keeping this secret safe." He elaborated. "Besides, you don't have to be seen. There have already been sightings, so anything too suspicious might cause some villagers to become upset."

 

He grimaced, noticing Aiya's agitated tail swishing.

 

"We're... not so cruel." Elye remarked. "Last time there was a dragon 'visiting', it was an attack. Someone thinks of a dragon, and images of hellfire and devastation comes to mind. It's not cruelty, it's self preservation. I didn't come out to the woods to slay a dragon for sport, I did it because of the fear the idea of another dragon here causes."

 

Elye stood up, looking the dragon in the eyes. If his sword wasn't a melted waste, he'd have sworn on it.

 

"You needn't fear for your life. They will not find out. If they do, they will not kill you, or hurt you. Because I'm going to be protecting you." He vowed. "As long as you're with me, I'm going to keep you safe."

[Kotorichan]

Aiya stared at the human, his tail stopped moving as he calmed down and he gave the man a toothy grin. "A tiny human protecting a dragon?" He commented. "Sounds silly..." He lifted a clawed hand and rested it on Elye's shoulder, letting him feel the weight and strength of it for a moment.

 

"We have reasons to attack your villages too... Some of your kind hunt us for sport or to sell our scales..." He changed back into his human form. "Or hunt in our territory... And I've even heard of humans destroying land that is sacred to tribes..." He sighed and pushed his hair back. "I know not all humans are like that, but some of us become so enraged that they can't think reasonably..." The dragon's gaze dropped to the floor, his expression sad. "But it just makes things worse..."

[Noise Prince]

"I'm not so tiny," Elye insisted. "In your human form, you look much smaller." He reminded him. "Besides, there are a lot of things your dragon strength won't be able to protect you from that I can." The squire insisted, trying not to show how intimidated he felt, feeling that claw rest against his shoulder.

 

"Hm..." Elye turned his gaze to the ground. Hunting dragons, while rare, was an incredible feat, and would grant one great prestige. Elye himself had come into the mountains after Aiya out of motivations less pure than to protect the village.

 

"To be fair... no one knows that dragons are... so human." Elyre replied. "Or that you had tribes or societies... if we did, I'm sure relations would have turned much more diplomatic."

 

"Why do you want to visit humans, then? Aren't you scared?"

[Kotorichan]

"Because you're all so interesting... our species are so different and yet there's a bunch of similarities... I want to learn more about your kind and see if there's some way that we can work things out..." Aiya changed back into his human form and sat on the floor, lightly combing his fingers through his hair.

 

"There was a southern tribe that was having some problems with humans taking away their hunting grounds... And the dragons just tried to ignore it and go about their lives... but one human wanted to kill a dragon so people would be impressed or something... and he went into the mountains and killed the tribe's elder, who was almost three thousand years old and could barely move but was so, so wise..." he stared at the floor sadly. "the whole tribe, and even other tribes nearby attacked the human city and completely destroyed it... a bunch of the dragons got killed too and... I don't know, I just thought that if humans could understand us then they would do that kind of thing... but I need to understand humans more if I want to convince them to listen to us"

[Noise Prince]

Elye sighed a bit. It was an admirable goal, but a lofty one for one dragon with the assistance of one squire.

 

He listened to the human-shaped dragon's story, rather surprised to hear such a thing had happened. He felt incredibly guilty for ever wanting to kill Aiya, now. Though he could never imagine killing an old one that could barely move, how cowardly. The squire wondered if his dragon knew that elder, the way he looked when he spoke of his death.

 

Though his blood ran cold when he told him about the retaliation. An entire village as atonement for killing their elder dragon. Dragons lived for a very long time, so perhaps death was more devastating since it was rare to them, or they had such tight-knit communities, and valued each other so greatly that they'd risk more lives to avenge one. Elye tried to compare it to if his king was killed. If it was a political killing, and a foreign kingdom was responsible, it would most definitely lead to war. But if it was a lone rebel, or a small group, acting alone, they alone would be killed.

 

The squire looked at Aiya as he comes his hair with his elegant fingers. Was the elder like a king, and that was why they reacted so? Or was it because they loved each other so greatly, despite being relatively solitary, that when one was slain, they reacted so violently. Aiya must be loved, Elye determined. He felt more inclined to protect him.

 

"What do you think you'll need to learn in order to reach the others?" Elye asked.

[Kotorichan]

"I don't know..." Aiya sighed and looked at the human. "I'm just gonna try to learn as much as I can and see if there's anything that ends up being useful... There might not be, and then I'd have to start thinking of a completely new plan, but it's better than just sitting around and hoping someone else will figure it out" He stood up and got himself dressed in some clothes. "I kind of hope that I can make some of the people in your village like me enough that they won't mind when they find out that I'm a dragon... Or that I can help with some sort of problem that might happen" he laughed softly "it sounds kind of unlikely though..."