Leo scribbled along, white words filling the stone floor. He bit his lip, enveloped in his task. As if a dam had been unleashed, the words spilled from him, rushing without stop. Far away from him, the words began, four words scrawled over the carved-stone floor. Elly crouched to read them, squinting against the slightly messy handwriting. She took a deep breath.

“A long time ago…”

--

A dark cave, empty and bleak. Alone, a yellow dragon dragged a clawful of hay into the corner, tossing it atop the rest. Though the hay had a dreary, gray cast, it warmed a bit in the single spot of sunlight that fell into the cave in this late hour. Turning about, the dragon gathered another clawful of hay and crawled back, piling it up with the rest.

At last, most of the hay laid under the sunlight. With a satisfied sigh, the dragon curled up in the dim rays. A few blue scales shimmered amongst the yellow as he curled up.

The doors slammed open. Mildly interested, the dragon lifted his head. Food?

A girl stumbled into his chambers, pushed by two dark-robed figures. They slammed the door shut behind them, leaving the girl alone in his room. Staring at him, she trembled like a leaf in the autumn wind, eyes big as dinner plates. Dark hair hung long over a ragged, simple white dress. Big brown eyes stared at him, tears welling up in their liquid depths. A round nose and cheeks lent her a youthful appearance, face making her look younger than her height would suggest. She clutched her hands to her chest and stared, terrified.

Leo stood. He walked over to her slowly, lowering his head to be less intimidating. The girl stood still, but her shaking grew worse. Her whole body twitched, as if it would flee on its own at any minute, regardless of what the girl wanted.

Leo sighed. He turned around and walked back to his hay pile, thumping down in it and curling up, his back to the girl. Not food. Another of those things.

I don’t want one of those. I want a real toy.

Time passed. Thumping caught his attention. Leo raised his head.

The girl hammered at the door with a chair, smashing it into the stone. One, two, three, and the legs broke off. The seat went flying. The back cracked, but still she slammed away at the door. At last, the back snapped in two. Screaming, the girl threw the broken half away. She thumped to the floor, her head bowed, chest heaving.

Leo began to push himself to his feet. The second his scales scraped against stone, the girl whipped around. Wide eyes stared at him in horror. She backed away, putting her rear to the wall.

Halfway up, Leo huffed a sigh and plopped back down. Boring. Don’t just tremble every time I move. Ugh, I want food.

Maybe I’ll go hunting again, if they won’t feed me. That’ll show them. Lost in his thoughts, Leo began to drift to sleep.

A warm hand pressed against his back. Leo startled, jumping up. The girl screamed and fell backward, throwing her hands up.

Leo snorted at her and shoved her with his nose. That’s your fault, not mine.

The girl looked at him, then at his nose, then at him again. “You aren’t going to… eat me?”

Disgusted, Leo shook his head. Tastes like pig. I don’t like pig.

“But… they said…”

Leo hesitated, then shook himself. His body grew smaller, until he was the girl’s size. Soft skin replaced hard scales. His vision grew weaker, and his ears, less strong. He held his weak arms out toward her, a gesture of goodwill, showing her his weak body, his thin legs, all of his soft, pink skin. Look, I’m weak now, too. Don’t be afraid.

The girl screamed louder than ever before, kicked him between the legs, and fled.

Hands over his aching bits, Leo slumped to the ground. Damn… humans…

--

“… that was the first time we met,” Elly read.

“He didn’t know what clothes were?” Jet asked.

“More like, he thought dragons were too good for clothes. Actually, that would’ve been pretty funny. Hell of a prank to pull on their deity from the cultists’ perspective, to never tell him about clothes,” Gideon remarked.

Leo blushed furiously. He shook his head and pointed at his overalls and ragged shirt.

“You did figure it out eventually, but…” Gideon shook his head.

“This is coming from the guy who stripped in the middle of the street because his robes were a little dirty?” Jet asked, cocking an eyebrow.

Gideon pointed at him. “That was for a good cause!”

“The good cause of…?” Jet asked.

“The good cause of getting me new robes!” Gideon replied, indignant.

“The High God didn’t mention that part in my vision of you two,” Elly muttered under her breath.

Angel nudged Elly. “Don’t stop there. Keep reading, come on!”

Elly took a deep breath.

--

Dressed, Leo sat in the corner, his back to the girl, drawing on the ground with a bit of hay. Whenever it ran dry, he put it in his mouth again, then kept drawing. Stupid humans. Stupid human rules. I don’t need them anyways. I’m a dragon. He tugged the robes tighter around him and kept drawing. I’m not in the wrong. She kicked me for no reason. My bits hurt a lot! For nothing. Because I didn’t put cloth on? That’s stupid. How rude.

“Um…”

Leo glanced over his shoulder. The girl stood over him, her hair falling over her shoulder. She bit her lip, then looked at the ground. “What are you drawing?”

Leo leaned forward, hiding it, and scowled at the girl.

“What? Why can’t I see?” she demanded.

He growled at her. The sound came out stunted, half swallowed by his throat. He scowled deeper and turned away.

“Eh? Do you not know how to talk?” the girl asked.

Leo glared at her. He jabbed his finger at his throat.

A horizontal scar marred his flesh, right in front of his voice box. Little more than a slightly paler strip of skin, it had already faded away in the years since. He lifted the piece of hay and wrote, dipping it in his mouth occasionally to wet it again. I used to cry at night when I was little, because I was lonely. They took my voice.

“That’s…” the girl frowned. Tears welled up in her eyes again.

Leo scowled and kept writing. To protect me. Bad men would come and kill me if I kept screaming, they said.

“So why didn’t you stop?” the girl asked.

Leo pointed at because I was lonely.

The girl hesitated. She crouched down beside him and looked at him. “You… I thought all dragons were mindless killing machines. I had no idea you could talk, or turn into people. Or… feel lonely.”

Leo frowned at her.

“I—guess that was rude of me to say. I’m sorry. I…”

She backed away suddenly, grabbing her hair. “They kidnapped me! Why am I apologizing? I should, I should be—”

Pointing above them, Leo mimed flapping his wings with his other hand.

“You’d… take me out? But… they already took your voice. What if they took your wings?”

Leo shook his head. They wouldn’t do that. Never. Ground me like a wyrm? No! I’m not little anymore. I can fight back.

“Oh, that’s… that’s true,” she said, nodding. She took a deep breath, then hesitated. “Not yet. The cultists said they’d bring a new girl, if you didn’t… er, take a liking to me. If I go back now, they’ll just kidnap someone else.”

Leo tilted his head, then shrugged.

“Unless you’ll come with me?” the girl asked, tilting her head.

Leo froze. He shook his head vehemently. Bad people live outside the forest. If I ever leave the forest, I’ll die.

“That’s… that isn’t true,” the girl said, but hesitantly.

He pointed at her and scribbled on the floor. Would you have killed me if you saw me outside?

“Me? How could I kill a dragon? But… I guess I would have told a hunter. Dragons usually eat people. They’re dangerous creatures.”

Leo pointed at her again, then shrugged. He shook his head.

The girl laughed suddenly. “No way. You’re afraid of humans?”

Indignant, Leo shook his head.

The girl stood up and feinted a kick toward his legs. Leo flinched away, instantly protecting himself.

She laughed again. “You are! A dragon afraid of humans. How ridiculous. I can’t believe it!”

Leo narrowed his eyes at her and growled.

“Oh, fine, fine. I’m Rosy, by the way. And you?”

Leo, he wrote.

She held out her hand. “Nice to meet you!”