~ 2 ~

Don't Trust the Name "Bad Dragon"

"I'll do it."

Those weren't the words I wanted to say. In fact: those were the words I shouldn't have said. Because that statement was an obligation. A promise. The agreement that, sometime in the future soon... that I would have to do something.

Half of the reason why I became a dragon, I think, is for the ability to sleep for fifty years and not have anyone give you trouble for it. Once you've earned your wings, gotten your cave, and settled on a tiny hoard, there isn't much to worry about in terms of food or water if you keep your bodily functions low.

"But I've gotta warn you... I'm not like other dragons."

The princess arched an eyebrow. "Oh really?"

I glared at her. "I'll kill you."

"Good boy!" She patted my snout. "Now then! Just go ahead and fly into the wedding spouting stuff like that. I think we'll be able to hook the audience with that."

"But I'm not actually going to kill anyone."

"Of course not!" The princess tapped her finger into the air. "You're just going to fly in, proclaim yourself to be an evil, bad dragon, who wrecks the castle a little bit and steals me away."

My face winced at her words. Bad dragon. I gulped and looked left and right. There was still so much I had to tell this lady about myself and about my past. I didn't know where to begin. I didn't even know if she would ever believe me.

"How about we don't go with bad dragon."

"Aw! How come? Is the big dragon secretly a good dragon underneath all those scales?"

More like a bad dragon relates more to the underside of a dragon.

"Nothing like that—just... trust me on this one, alright?" I hoped she wouldn't question me further on that. Once she was out into the world, it wouldn't matter what a strange dragon like myself had once said. "I'll swoop into the wedding without words. I'll blow fire in the air for dramatic effect. Then I'll capture you in one of my claws and fly off."

The princess pushed her lips to the side. "Aren't those sharp?"

"What now?"

"Your claws. They're sharp, aren't they?" She walked around my muzzle and to the end of my right arm, examining my claw planted into the ground. She lifted onto her toes to see over my rows of knuckles. "They say dragons have enough strength in their claws to crush a boulder."

My eyes twitched. "Where the fuck are you finding these case studies?"

"That doesn't matter." I rolled my eyes at that but, if she was going to drop the bad dragon bit, then I had to allow her the same on this. She laid her hands on one of my talons, and out of instinct, I yanked my claw from the ground into the air.

I looked down at her from the left of my face, my mouth awkwardly open, dust pouring from my raised claw. The princess coughed into a hand, impatiently tapping her foot. She cleared her throat before speaking. "Do you mind?"

"Uh..."

The princess forced a smile. "It's okay. I don't think there's a way an itty-bitty girl can hurt you."

It wasn't that I didn't trust her not to hurt me... even though such was impossible. It was more like I hadn't touched anyone for the X amount of months I had been here. I nearly had forgotten what human contact had felt like.

And it made it worse that it was a princess out of anyone to touch me first.

"Who knows?" I chuckled upon returning my claw to the ground, which rumbled from my weight. "Maybe you have a poisoned knife able to phase through scales?"

"If such a thing existed," the princess deadpanned while laying a hand on my knuckle, "then I would have used it at the start."

"Ah. Good point.'

"...idiot."

"Hey! Now you're just cutting at my feelings!"

"Huh," the princess muttered, her hand following the hills of my knuckles, feeling their shapes and curves. "To think that it only takes a few unkind words to take down the giants of the sky."

I was starting to think it would have been better to tell her that I was afraid to be touched by a girl—but then I realized that, on top of giving away my weakness, she would have even more ammunition to use against me. I took the hit in silence as the woman felt my hand all over.

She took a few steps back and looked up at me. "Could you turn your claw over?"

"Uh, sure." I lifted its weight and laid my palm facing upward, some dirt and dust blasting out underneath it. The princess strode in the gaps between my talons, and I spread them further for her sake. "What's going through your mind?"

"At least fourteen ways that your claw could kill me."

"Hey-hey! Fourteen isn't a terrible number." I huffed as I felt her hands touch the webbing between my talons. "One of your knights could kill you at least in a hundred ways. You take that into consideration."

The princess hoisted herself onto my palm, and a part of me wanted to help her up, using one of my digits to either push or give her a lift. But with my luck, the sharpness of my talon would probably have ended up impaling her. That would take a guess away from one of the fourteen ways my claw could end her life.

That... and I didn't trust myself touching her.

Creep.

"That's if we're counting their whole bodies," the princess rose from her knees onto the stage of my palm. There was an urge to curl a fist with her inside. Not that I actually wanted to crush her. But it's like seeing a cute puppy. You just wanna hug them super tight for whatever reason. "That fourteen was just your claw. If we're going off the total amount of ways you can kill me, that number jumps to—"

"That number jumps to a number that I really don't need to be hearing right now."

"Hey! I should say that it would be unintentional kills!" The princess walked around my palm, rising onto the hills subtly rising beneath my scales, the underside of my knuckles. Spreading her arms, she hopped from one to the next. "I couldn't say the same about the guards back home. Nowadays, I only trust myself to prepare the tea."

"Oh." I blinked as the means behind her words suddenly clicked. "Assassinations. I guess a princess would have to worry about those from time to time."

"Yup." She jumped to my last knuckle, nearly losing her balance, though I tilted my claw to help her. "They try really hard to kidnap you when you're six. Once you've become a little too smart at twelve, that's when you've got to look out for the poisons."

She rose and settled perfectly in place. "It's after eighteen that's the worst. That's where the daggers and blades come out. Traitors and assassins are bolder in trying to take your life. I was the only woman in my family blessed with magic. My sisters... I... i-it would be nice... if they were still here."

Youch. Now wasn't the time to crack a joke—but the urge always tickled the tip of my tongue. People never talked seriously with me. In fact... people rarely talked with me at all. It was hard to remember how to be social, the correct manners at the proper time. It was a struggle for me to be normal in such an abnormal world.

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"Do you get that a lot?" the princess asked and, before confusion could settle, she corrected herself. "People trying to kill you, I mean. Heroes and wizards or maybe other dragons." She hopped down from my knuckle, walking the narrow bridge of the underside of my talon.

I thought about it. "Sometimes. I haven't really met other dragons. The only one I knew died shortly after I met him. He taught me some of what I know in dealing with humans. But the problem is that you're a crafty bunch."

I shook my head as I remembered her question. "As for people trying to kill me? I guess that's a constant threat. Well, not really a threat. It's more so I worry about hurting them than me being hurt. I haven't killed anyone yet. Came close a few times and—I'm rambling, aren't I?"

The princess kneeled before the thickness of my talon, feeling its curvature with her hands, noticing how bulbous it was. "Not at all. Please continue. I'm happy that you're giving me an honest answer."

"Then in that case," I started before the princess slid a bit, and I tilted my claw to the right to counteract her momentum. "Hey. Careful there. It might not be much of a fall—but your head won't tell the difference."

I cleared my throat before continuing. "But what I go through is the opposite of what you've endured. Hunters hidden in bushes will attempt to throw spears at my eyes when I go for a drink from the lake. It's annoying. It's frustrating. But I've never felt fear before. Never had to worry if this was going to be it."

The princess hugged my talon, and confusion and warmth appeared. Was this her way of comforting me? Hugging my digit tightly, the princess crawled up it like a tower—wanting to reach its top.

It made sense.

Though I was still left disappointed.

"But I know how it feels to always be on guard. Waiting for the next problem or trouble to appear." I nodded at her as she reached the top of my claw, where the scales narrowed into sharpness. She delicately felt across it. "But that's the best answer you're going to get out of me."

I coughed. "Now, then, time to get one out of you." I then cocked my head. "Just what the heck are you doing?"

The princess slid down my talon and kicked off at its middle, coming to land and roll onto my palm, leaping into a gesture at its center. She looked at me with controlled panting. "I... told you!" She inhaled deeply, catching her breath. "Testing all the ways that your claw could kill me!"

I slapped my other claw over my face. "I'm not going to kill you!"

"Not purposefully!"

"Purposefully. Not purposefully. Not one way or the other."

The princess rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "Just how many people have you carried in your claws anyways."

I snapped my other claw in memory. "Yesterday! Just yesterday! Some dude was being sacrificed to me, and I whisked him back to my cave!" I held my other claw over her, flexing all five of my digits. "In my claw! And he got here—safe and sound."

"Ohhh."

My eyebrows narrowed. "Ohhh, what?"

"So you held a guy in your claw."

"Yeah! Took him straight back to my cave."

"Oh? So you picked up a guy and brought him straight back home?"

"Duh! Of course, I did! Why wouldn't..." My shoulders clattered to the ground as death exhausted my expression. My claw tightened into a fist. "Oh. Har-har. Yeah. I've used my claws to pick up guys before."

"Pffft!"

The death across my face had then phased through my scales, infecting my flesh, draining my soul. "Okay. Yeah. Go on and have your little laugh. Don't mind my falling fist.”

"No-no! It's okay! Really, it's alright! What you do on your off time is entitled to you."

"I could kidnap princesses if I wanted to."

"Aha! Is that so? And how many have you taken to your lair so far?"

I stared at her with an empty face and blank eyes. I blinked for some sort of retort. It was then that I realized how screwed I was. "I have this one girl. Not quite a princess—but definitely looked like one."

"You've kidnapped her before?"

"Not exactly." I winced. "It was when I saved that guy from the cultists. She was really down to get swallowed by me. No chewing. The whole tour. It.." I removed my fist from over the princess, scratching my neck. "Was actually creepy."

"How do you know she was into you?"

"Come again?"

"Maybe she just loves to be swallowed by a dragon," the princess fired back. "She could be out there as we speak—happily in the stomach of another beast."

"... you're pretty twisted for a princess."

She rolled her eyes. "Why do you think I'm trying to get out of this tiara?"

"Fair enough!" I said as I took a moment to breathe, to clear my mind, and once that was done, only one doubt was left on my mind. "And listen. I feared you touching my claw because you were a girl. Now you go ahead and think about that."

I'd never seen her smile wider.

And I'd never felt more like an idiot.

"Actually! Do me a favour," I said to her. "And don't think about it."

The princess laughed. "Only if you promise not to carry me too tightly, love."