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He either was an idiot or had a death wish.
The man edged closer.
I stood. “What part of don’t take another step do you not understand? I’ve never met someone so…”
I trailed off because what I was going to say was stubborn, bold… obnoxious?
I see why you didn’t finish the thought, Seren said.
I resisted a smile.
The man spoke. “You were about to thank me.”
I blinked. “Excuse me? Thank you for what? For sneaking up on us in our sleep? You have no idea what you’ve stumbled upon.” Seren, follow my lead. “Now that you’ve found us, we can’t let you just walk away. Seren, show this stranger what we do to—”
“To someone who’s here to warn you,” he said.
As I squinted at him, I wished I could see him in color instead of in my nighttime dragon vision of black and gray, but I wasn’t floating an orb of light above us and giving away my powers. I scoffed. “What could you possibly warn us about?”
“You were spotted. You and your flying lizard.”
Seren rose to all fours, and smoke puffed out of her nostrils, followed by a stream of flame. “I am no mere lizard, you contemptuous, assuming mortal.”
He stepped back, lifting his hands defensively. “She speaks and breathes fire. This is magic.”
I rolled my eyes. With Seren huffing flames, I could make out the man’s brown, scruffy hair twisted into haphazard spikes, as if someone had grabbed chunks of his hair and lobbed them off a few inches from his scalp. Seren huffed again, and his blue eyes gleamed orange. The man was young. Barely an adult. A youth by Gorlassar’s immortal standards, but he was a couple of inches taller than average height and not as muscular as my sparring mates. I was intrigued. My first human interaction.
He’d be no danger to us. I was sure of that because of what I sensed inside him. His naïveté bolstered my confidence. I caressed Seren’s body and trailed my palm up her neck as I brushed past her tail, which was still tucked around her, to gain a closer inspection of our guest. “Now, Seren. Maybe we’ve misjudged this man.”
“Owein. My name is Owein.”
I smiled. He certainly wasn’t afraid. That could have been why mortals were the inferior race. They didn’t know when they should fear or when they should mind their own business. I supposed I didn’t blame him. He lacked the ability to sense my emotions because a human’s light was insignificant compared to an emrys’s light and was unable to harness power. He wouldn’t know I was deceiving him.
“So what are you, then, mighty beast?” Owein moved to my left, as if sidling around an imaginary campfire. “Seren’s a pretty name for such a creature. Who’s your rider?”
I mirrored his movements but paused when he sat on a rock. He slid a knife from his boot and pulled an apple from a bag slung across his body. He didn’t look at me as he carved white pieces of flesh off the fruit and popped them into his mouth. With every bite, he smiled around his mouthful.
Seren dug her claws into the soil. She gauged my assessment of him and considered my appraisal, but she didn’t relax. I, on the other hand, wanted to burst out laughing.
A low growl rumbled from Seren’s throat.
“It seems, Owein, you perturbed my friend here. You’re a fool to enter the camp of a dragon.”
Owein arched his eyebrow. “Dragon? Tell me more. What does she do, other than fly and smoke like a chimney?” He pulled another apple from his pack and chucked the golden fruit at me.
I caught it, one-handed, with a flick of my wrist. I tried not to wince at the show of my skill. I had excellent reflexes and was an accomplished warrior in Gorlassar, but Owein didn’t need to learn that.
How long will this charade carry on? Seren asked. We don’t really mean to threaten him.
Interested in gleaning information, I gave up our ruse. I’m done. “Tell me, who spotted us, and why do you need to warn us? Surely they’re not as curious as you are.” I bit into my apple. Not as sweet as the ones in my possession, but it would do.
He swallowed. “More like scared. You should hear the stories they’ve come up with.”
I sat in the moss and crossed my legs. Seren remained a statue. “Oh please, enlighten me. If I like one, I might tell you who we really are.”
Owein leaned in. Seren had stopped puffing smoke, so I wondered just how much of my features he could distinguish in the moonglow. “Tell me your name first, my lady.”
“I’ll do only that. Niawen.”
