She wouldn't shut up.

The woman… the dragon… in front of him was nothing like Amaru, and that wasn't because her human form had curves a succubus would envy and nearly metallic copper strands of hair that reflected sunlight in the colors of flames. Actually her almost inhuman coloring was the only non human thing about her, unlike Amaru.

The elder dragon was usually convincing enough, but often seemed oblivious to the more subtle nuances of human anatomy and behavior, although fortunately there were plenty of humans like that too. This dragon was obviously well aware of the nuances, she was just ignoring them whenever she pleased.

“I even told him I was coming,” she protested with a very human pout.

Actually, Chris’s first clue that the woman was a dragon had been Anne’s reaction. He had recognized what Amaru was by meeting his true eyes, but this dragon hid her eyes from him until he revealed his own.

With his true eyes open he could see her light. It was far brighter than any human, but it was a much smaller light than that of the elder dragon that he was familiar with. As soon as he had revealed his own identity, she opened her own true eyes and her behavior changed, even though the flow of words only slowed instead of stopping.

"A child! Are you his? No… but whose?" she muttered.

"How can you tell that I'm not?" Chris asked a bit crossly.

His doubts about his own identity rushed back to the surface. New questions were forming with every passing moment. Was the brightness related to her age or her gender, he wondered. She was also carrying everything that Amaru had lacked during their first meeting, including a phone, a tablet, and real clothing.

“Information for information. Between two dragons there must always be a balance, so what will you teach me in return little one?” she sang with amusement.

Anne's eyes widened at the rumbling song of a dragon, even though she had been the first to see the woman for what she really was.

Chris blinked at the dragon. So much was implied in that question, including her immediate certainty that he was also a dragon. Amaru had sung him the guiding songs, reinforcing what he had barely remembered, so he understood her demand. But the elder dragon had always answered his questions freely, and had never asked him to keep a balance between what they learn from each other.

His eyes moved toward the mobile devices that she held as more casually than most older humans, and definitely with more ease than a certain elder dragon had originally displayed. "I don't know," he admitted. "What kinds of things would you like to learn?"

"Oh, you can choose anything! I've so rarely had the opportunity to be the generous elder who can even teach the patterns that form clouds in the sky in return for the pattern of a simple flower!"

Chris almost opened his mouth to admit that he couldn't see in enough detail to see the 'patterns' of things, but another objection occurred to him. "In some ways, I think a small flower actually contains a great deal more information than a weather pattern."

"I guess I don't need to ask for proof that you have been taught by a certain elder who ignores songs and messages in the most aggravating way," she growled.

--

He had crossed the world faster than ever before in his long existence, but the journey across the mountainous region had become frustratingly slow, increasingly so as he neared the more coastal region.

After a while he realized that he was nearly inaudibly singing his irritation. It was becoming difficult to find a spot where he could listen to the strings without the songs being drowned by the cacophony of human noises, but just because he couldn't hear them clearly, it didn't mean that the strings weren't resonating, and the strings nearby were magnifying the sound of his irritation. It was also difficult to tell if their connections to the songs of the world were fading, or if they were simply being drowned out.

The hive-like city that had grown up at the foot of the mountain where he'd been sleeping was dwarfed by the density of the mankind here. The self declared emperor of the tribes of this region had gifted them with more stability than the wild tribes held, and they had always been numerous than the others. He had doubted that such an expansive and nomadic species could be trusted to maintain a heart which stood immovable, but what he'd heard before descending from the quieter mountains told him that he had also been wrong about that.

He didn't understand how a relatively young dragon could sing the influence of a season across an entire region, but he did not doubt what he had heard within the strings that merely echoed what had already been sung.

He moved away from the roads and found a brighter string to sink his claws into. He listened with his bones as much as his ears, and verified the direction he wanted, before compressing himself further. His hair darkened and his skin changed its tone.

He had thought he should be able to blend quite well with his new appearance, but armed men rushed out to stop him when he passed through the gate, as though they could see him for what he was.

--

His emperor was nervous. Another dragon had evidently been caught sneaking into a nearby city. The elderly custodian, whose title hadn't changed even though he hadn't lifted a cloth himself in months, wondered if he should fear that the self declared emperor was about to be deposed.

The dragon who normally assumed the form of a plump man for formal occasions, was currently curled up around his usual seat in his serpentine form, and gouging claw marks into ancient decorative flooring in a way that tempted the custodian to dare to slap the large scaled hands. Instead he cleared his throat and pointed out, "The floor cannot be mended cheaply."

Large eyes blinked as though sending a 'wait for processing' signal, and then the emperor glanced down at his own claws and apologized in a very uncharacteristic manner, "Pardon, I wasn't thinking. I suppose I can ask him to mend it for you when he arrives."

It was the custodian's turn to blink. "The… ah, guest we are expecting, he is good at repairs?"

The emperor shrugged his scaled shoulders. "That one can see the structure of things. Actually, I don't know if he can put it back together… but he can easily slice the palace in half."

The custodian tensed, and glanced around the room that was decorated with ancient historical treasures. Now that the emperor had privately been acknowledged by the government, he probably wouldn't be executed if any of the treasures were destroyed by a dragon… but…

"Do you think you could persuade him not to?" he requested hopefully.