Chapter 3 - Discussions

Chapter 3

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"Thank you for waiting for me." Said Lenna as she approached Airah.

The dragon -who had a hard time calling herself that- nodded as she looked at the woman. She was...looking noticeably better than before. Probably because she wasn't as disheveled, and was wearing a practical looking set of pants and shirt, with an accompanying coat, and not full blood spattered battle armor. She looked cute, actually, with her piercing purple eyes -not a natural human occurrence, Airah noted- and raven black hair. She was also quite tall, although not nearly as tall or stacked as Airah's new human body.

"It is quite fine lady Kostner. Your men are still busy with cleaning up the battle. May I help you?"

Airah was being very polite, but truth be told she had no idea what she was doing. At this point she was more or less winging it, taking inspiration for her lines from bad chivalry novels and some vague sense that she was supposed to be greedy, at least to some extent.

"Well, no, I just wanted to thank you. You saved us from certain death, lady Starfire." She bowed, and her soldiers followed suit. "I will forever be in your debt."

Airah didn't know what to say for a solid second, before Stallyra facepalmed and clapped her hands.

"Ah, uh, do not worry lady Kostner. All in a day's work as some would say." She chuckled. "I will consider the appropriate reward more than enough."

"Of course. If...If I may be so bold, would you like to give me the location of your hold?" Lenna immediately held her hands up as Airah looked at her questioningly. "F-For delivering the reward, of course!"

What's a hold? She asked mentally to her AI.

According to the briefing package, it's kind of like a dragon's residence, and where they store their hoard. Think part private collection, part bank vault, part luxurious palace, all fortified to hell and back. Usually in the mountains, as they're easier to defend if you don't have to worry about accessability because, well, dragon.

Airah shook her head.

"Please, no need to be afraid. I have not set it up yet, I only moved into the area recently. Very recently in fact, I was on the last leg of my journey when I came upon you."

"Oh. Do you wish to drink or otherwise refresh yourself? We don't have much fresh meat, but we do have travel rations, and I'm sure my men could hunt down a suitable animal if given a few hours!"

Airah smiled, accidentally baring her teeth, which immediately made everyone around her recoil, before correcting it to a toothless smile, causing them to relax.

Note to self: showing teeth is fine when your canines don't look like longswords.

More like daggers really.

Shut up.

Make me.

"It won't be necessary, lady Kostner. I am quite capable of eating human rations in my human form."

Everyone froze.

Airah panicked.

Did I say something wrong? Are dragons not supposed to be able to do that? She asked through the mind link.

The files says it's natural, but I-Oh.

What?

It's only for Great Dragons.

And?

Well....the files aren't complete, but its implied Great Dragons are to dragons what a T-rex is to a lizard. A thousand times more badass and powerful.

Ah.

"You...you're a great dragon?" Hesitantly asked Lenna.

"Yes." Airah, in her slight panic, immediately flexed the muscle, and turned into her human form in a flash of light. "See?"

Lenna looked at her, staring in surpise for a solid few seconds before suddenly finding the sky extremely interesting, alongside her entire escort, except a handful who promptly got elbowed out of their stupor into following the example of their comrades.

Airah froze, and blushed as she remembered that she was, oh, completely naked, and prayed that her tan and the fact that they were looking up would hide it.

"I see…ah, lady Starfire, could I interest you in some of my clothes? They could be considered an...advance of your reward. And I am sure it would be more comfortable for you."

"Of course! Go ahead." She was having a hard time maintaining her composure, and Stellyra's avatar facepalming then rolling around on the ground laughing wasn't helping either.

It took less than a minute for Lenna to return with a modest sized chest, opening it to reveal neatly arranged clothes, somehow managing to avoid looking at the dragon the entire time.

"Please, help yourself."

"Thank you!" Airah dove immediately into the clothes, and threw what looked like some simple, but well made and sturdy travel clothes on. It was surprising, given the fact that the baroness was significantly smaller than her, that there were some that fit her at all, but the noble apparently believed in coming prepared. "There, I am presentable."

Everyone looked back down, and some massaged their necks, wincing. A few were looking at her oddly, while others were very busy looking at anywhere but her, probably unwilling to risk her wrath. Lenna was of the latter category, so Airah smiled at her. After all, the girl was a noble, and Airah would rather not be on her bad side. Besides, cosying up to the higher ups was always useful!

So long as you don't get too cozy. Don't want a repeat of the Hizumi debacle, eh? Said Stellyra, and Airah realized with a start that she'd leaked her thoughts into the mind link.

It's nothing like this!

Oh really? Exotically colored eyes, long raven black hair, tall, fit, independent and strong? Not to mention noble and apparently dedicated as well? Really doesn't remind you of anybody?

Shut.Up. Said Airah firmly, before focusing on reality again.

"So, lady Kestner, first I'm very sorry about what happened, sometimes I forget that-"

"Humans are uncomfortable around nudity, I totally understand." Quickly said Lenna. "I'm sure that it must feel constricting, what with your original form being...free of such constraints as clothing."

"....Quite so." She supposed that being a walking, flying tank covered in scales that even what looked like decent quality iron swords had trouble penetrating did negate a lot of the advantages of clothing. Not that she had any idea how you would clothe a dragon anyway even if you wanted to. She had a feeling it would be something of an exercise in futility. "So, we were talking about rations and refreshments."

"Ah, of course!" She clapped her hands, and her soldiers leapt into action. They pulled out ration packs, some of them started picking up wood while others made fire pits. It was exactly the kind of barely organized chaos the military was famous for, and Airah felt a distant pang of familiarity, as if her psyche, deep down, recognized it as something she'd longed for once.

It took less than ten minutes for everything to be properly organized, and although Airah offered to pop back into dragon form to light the fires, the soldiers were very quick to reassure her that she didn't need to. Which was actually true, as they pulled out lighters. They were the very early industrial models, with a slow match to be lit instead of gas, but they worked quite well, and before long the fires were lit and food was cooking.

She was politely guided to a sitting spot next to Lenna, and offered a bowl of water to wash her hands off with, which she promptly did. After that pots were put over the fires, and bread as well as various packages ration foods, such as dried fruit, meat, and such were passed around.

Airah sniffed the bread she was offered, and suddenly realized that she was ravenously hungry, and broke a large piece off, before eating it. The speed at which she ate it seemed to surprise some of the soldiers, and that was when she realized that they were partitioning the bread off and putting it in bowls, probably to go with the stews they were making. Few were trying to eat the bread directly, and those that were appear more to be chewing it to occupy their mouths than anything else. It had to be some kind of those long duration, tough as rock breads, which given the fact that she hadn't even noticed, meant her jaws must have some serious strength behind them.

"So...." Said Lenna as she looked at her. "Lady Starfire. Where are you from?"

Airah stopped. She didn't just slowly stop chewing, she just straight up froze like an android that had run out of power. She took a deep breath, and trying not to show the overwhelming sense of sadness and grief that had overcame her as she realized she might never, ever see her home again, answered.

"I...do not wish to talk about it."

Clearly something must have shown because Lenna kept her mouth shut except for some perfunctory small talk about the quality of the food, and most of the soldiers stopped starting at her all the time when they thought she wasn't looking.

The meal took a solid half an hour, and no one commented as Airah basically ate an entire cauldron of soup on her own. She was hungry after all, had a dragon's appetite, and surprisingly it was a very good stew!

After the soldiers cleaned up, and everyone began to move onto their horses or the carriage to move out, Lenna stepped onto the miniature ladder on the side of her carriage and looked back at Airah.

"Do you...wish to join me or will you turn back into your original form?"

Airah looked mentally at Stellyra, who shrugged.

Hey, if you want to disrobe in front of all of them, again, its your choice. Well, you could ruin the clothes...

I'll pass.

"I would love to join you!" She smirked. "If nothing else, I would like to keep my presence here discreet, if not outright secret."

Lenna's eyebrow rose.

"You do realize several bandits got away, right? They aren't going to be shy about spreading the why they got their asses kicked."

Airah chuckled.

"And if some disheveled bandits, probably your underlings or comrades, told you they were attacking a noble's convoy and they got massacred by a golden dragon descended straight from the skies, would you believe them? Or would you rather assume that the incompetent idiots got wiped out by a vastly inferior force and are grasping at straws to justify their incompetence and failure?"

Lenna laughed out loud, joined by some of her men.

"No, fair enough." She stepped down, and gestured for Airah to go first. One of the mounted soldiers -which had stayed by Lenna's side the entire time, even during dinner- was looking vaguely rebellious, but a simply look by the baroness made him go back to a neutral expression. The guard was probably nervous about his charge sharing a closed carriage with an unknown, but hey, she'd saved the lady's ass from being turned into sushi, that should buy her at least that much trust. What else was she going to do, enchant her something?

Wait. That might actually be a possibility.

Stelly, what do we have on magic in the briefing?

The basics, but not much else. It's...complicated, why?

Please, tell me everything. As G had said, we can't make assumptions here, stuff that would have worked or made sense on Earth won't here. And if magic is widespread...

Right, I'll get on it immediately.

*****

Lenna tried her hardest not to stare at the woman -Great Dragon!- she was sharing the carriage with. She hadn't just been rescued in the nick of time by a dragon. Oh no. Apparently the Divines had seen fit to send a Great Dragon her way!

Great Dragons were the stuff of legend. Powerful beyond reckoning, shapers of the world! Archmages or even emperors, they had left their mark on history like no other species.

And one had saved her. One which, if her own estimations were correct, was very young -for these immortal creatures at least, she probably was older than Lenna herself in sheer years-, in a strange new land, probably forced out of her homeland by some terrible tragedy if her expression was anything go by, and the first person she met was her.

It looked like her family's fortunes might be turning around after all!