Anya was so sure that her detection magic had succeeded. Why wasn’t there anything here?

She reached out her hands to search the area, but as soon as she stretched them out, her hands touched a smooth, scaled surface.

As far as her eyes could tell, there was nothing here, but her hands definitely felt the presence of something.

She sighed in relief and excitement. I thought my magic failed, but it did not fail after all!

She wrote in the air in the fairy runescript, “Hello. I am Anya. I was watching the tournament of Wairua Cruin, but I got lost. Could you please help me get back?”

The invisible presence did not respond, but Anya believed that she could feel a slight shift in the scaled surface she was still touching.

“Can you read this writing? I cannot speak, so I do not know other means of communicating…”

She worried that this magic user might not be able to read.

The surface she was touching shivered, and the appearance below her hand changed. Bright violet scales appeared, and formed the appearance of a dragon not too much larger than herself. Anya immediately withdrew her hand in surprise.

The dragon snorted and stood up. Its slender body twisted like a snake as it turned to face her.

“I can read something like the fairies’ runescript. Do not patronize me, little elf girl,” it scoffed.

The girl could not move at all. She knew that dragons existed, but she had heard that they would take a humanoid form amongst other races. Seeing a dragon in its original form was incredibly uncommon. There was another reason why she was so stunned by the dragon, but…

The dragon’s eyes were highly intelligent as they observed the young child, their color like liquid mercury.

“Are you just going to stand there like a statue or what? Do not act like you have never seen a dragon before. Our dragons and your elves interact frequently.” The dragon’s tone was mocking the girl.

Anya blinked a few times before recovering from her stupor. “My apologies. I am-”

“Why do you write? Are you unable to speak?”

She bit her lower lip as she nodded. “That is right.”

“We are similar then. I cannot take a humanoid form, and the dragon race cannot form words with our mouths if we are not in our humanoid form.”

Anya blinked in surprise. “I thought telepathy was a forbidden magic. I heard that from Queen Kiridian. Have I misunderstood something?” She was certain that the queen had mentioned this. Otherwise, the young girl would most likely have asked about how to use it already.

The dragon snorted in amusement. “Fairies look down on magic that affects the mind. Even though telepathy is inherently harmless, they do not use it. However, dragons are able to use telepathy from the moment we are hatched. Our parents will speak to us telepathically as they wait for us to hatch from our eggs. It is an innate skill, so the fairies neither praise nor criticize us for using it.”

Anya nodded, though she was not quite certain she understood. “I see,” she wrote.

“Actually, I am confused by something you have said. You said that the Fairy Queen herself told you about that. How would an elf hear that for the very first time from her? An elf would normally not be able to speak to the queen without a certain status, but those of that status would already know about the taboo. Just who are you?” The dragon did not have eyebrows, but Anya was certain that the dragon before her would be raising an eyebrow in curiosity if it could.

“I am Anya. The queen took me as her disciple not too long ago.”

“Why did she take you in, though? What qualifies you to learn directly from the Fairy Queen herself?”

Anya shook her head. “I do not think that I am qualified. A fairy brought me here to Emmeralde Verthaven because I was abandoned by my village, and Queen Kiridian took me in on a whim.”

The dragon shook its head in confusion. “I must be missing something. Even if you were abandoned by your village, usually the fairies would just send you to another village to let the elves take care of you themselves.”

Anya’s eyes widened in realization. “I was a human when the queen took me in. She gave me the Siol Draiochta at that time and I ate it so I became an elf.”

The dragon nodded. “I see. You are very young, so I suppose it is not that strange that you could see fairies. I have never heard of humans becoming elves! This is interesting! I can tell that you are not lying either, which makes me all the more intrigued. I feel that I want to observe you. It may be sudden, but dragons are true to their hearts and instincts. Form a contract with me, Anya. Allow me to stay by you.”

“A contract?”

“We will become each other’s power, and I will protect you until you are strong enough to protect me as well.”

“The queen is protecting me right now. I do not need more protection.”

“If the queen is protecting you so well, then how did you get lost and end up here, asking me for help?”

Anya pursed her mouth. The dragon had a point. She had gotten separated from Rau and become lost. If the one she had encountered while trying to return was someone who wanted to harm her, she would have been unable to do anything to stop them.

With that in mind, having a bit more help and protection could not hurt, right? It did not occur to her that the dragon may have had ill intentions towards her after hearing that she was related to the fairy queen, but she was only about seven years old, and even if she was a bit more clever from the Siol Draiochta, there was still a limit to her critical thinking.

She nodded at the dragon. “Then, allow me to form a contract with you.”