Eszter silently regarded Shallan for a long moment, staring at her with a mix of disbelief, skepticism, and curiosity. Having gone your whole life without having even heard of a dragon, it was just unthinkable. If she was telling the truth, she couldn’t help but pity the poor girl.
“Are-” the dragonkin started before stopping herself, resting her hand over her mouth for a few more seconds as she continued to try and process what she was hearing. “You’re not kidding, huh?”
“No, no I’m not.” Shallan replied, shaking her head with a mystified look on her face. “Is it really such a surprise? Perhaps, in this world, every house comes with a roof, a door, and a dragon?”
“Tch, wouldn’t that be something. Just leave out the vermin living there and that’s the dream.” Eszter muttered, keeping the latter half under her breath. Well, if this Shallan girl was truly clueless on draconic matters, then it was her responsibility as queen to educate her. Dusting off her hands, the demi-dragon rose to her full height, looking the stranger over. Shallan seemed a good few years younger and a good few inches taller than Eszter. This irritated her, as most things did, but it was at least on the shorter end of annoyances.
“Right, well, dragons are headstrong, sure.” the dragonkin nodded. “And strong, and beautiful, and majestic, and-”
“And humble?” Shallan ventured, the corner of her mouth quirking up into a small smirk.
“Humble?” Eszter repeated, raising an eyebrow as the jab sailed over her head. “Dragons are the most incredible creatures in the world. Humility is… unnecessary.”
“Ok…” Shallan nodded, unimpressed by the praise Eszter was showering on herself. “But that doesn’t really tell me what a dragon is.”
The demi-dragon stopped in her tracks, realising just how carried away she had been getting. She would have gotten more carried away given the opportunity, but she begrudgingly decided to answer Shallan’s actual question.
“Well…” Eszter began, already knowing where this conversation was going. “Dragons are really magical, so their exact appearance varies a lot, but generally they’re huge reptiles with horns, claws, sometimes wings, and the ability to exhale some destructive force like fire or lightning.”
A heavy silence hung in the air after her description as Shallan stared at Eszter and Eszter stared at Shallan.
“Did you leave the claws at home?”
“It’s complicated!” the dragon queen wailed before the girl was even finished, ready for the comments. “My past selves were proper dragons! But the vermin on Erde Nona can't go ten minutes without trying to kill a dragon and my essence faded until I could only reincarnate like this!”
Shallan blinked, opening her mouth to voice a smart comment but finding that she had none to give. There was a lot to unpack there. Not only had this (dragon?) girl been hunted down and killed several times, but it had caused her to turn from some big winged lizard into a person?
Curious.
“What was that like? Do you remember your past lives?” Shallan asked excitedly, leaning in a little further. “Were you born like this? Were your parents-”
“Whoa, Ok, Ok.” Eszter replied, her anger being overcome by her surprise at Shallan’s intensity. “I can’t remember my last lives, and my parents were elves… Er, basically graceful humans with pointy ears…”
The demi-dragon trailed off a little at the end, wondering if elves existed in Shallan’s world and forcing herself to explain what they were in humans terms. Truthfully, humans were more like blunt-eared, clumsy elves to her, but that would have done little to help Shallan.
“So… you didn’t come out of an egg then?”
“No.” Eszter shook her head. “I was actually born completely normally for an elf. No dragon traits. It sucked, looking back at it.”
“Did they grow in then?”
“Yeah. Puberty was rough.” the dragon-kin winced, gently rubbing the bases of her horns. “Oh, and no, they’re not that heavy. Not to me, at least. I’m pretty strong.”
“Interesting.” Shallan murmured, rubbing her chin lightly before chuckling lightly to herself. “Maybe one day your claws and wings will grow in too.”
“That would be nice.” Eszter sighed longingly, looking at her decidedly blunt nails before glancing up at the younger girl, squinting at her skeptically. “Wait, are you taking this seriously?”
“Hmm? Of course!” Shallan said, raising her right hand innocently.
“Hmph. You better be.” the demi-dragon sniffed, crossing her arms. Yet another long silence hung over the pair as Eszter gazed off into the distance, deep in thought. Grinding her teeth a little, she raised a leg and gently placed her boot against a tree. Anger brewing, she lightly pushed against it and pictured herself smashing the thing in two. Then, without turning to Shallan, she broke the silence with a question. “So, you’re a competitor. Met your bond yet?”
Then, before she could answer, the dragon queen tacked another thought onto the end of her sentence, throwing ‘proper’ etiquette to the wind.
“Let me tell you, mine is a fuckin’ doozy.”