Dragon Secrets 101
"...You never said it was forever."
The words were spoken minutes ago, but they still seem to hang unresolved in the air between you. The dragoness - who you notice is still kind of anthropomorph, so obviously the lava bath didn't do anything to her - looks sheepishly at you.
"You didn't ask," she says quietly.
You sigh. "Oldest excuse in the world! Though when I think about it, I should have guessed this was something special. I mean, I'm already turned into a dragon, and then you ask me if I want to be transformed! Mea culpa."
Her smile is a bit more hearty this time. "Does that mean you're not mad at me any more?"
"More at myself. And whoever is behind this crazy setup."
"What if they were the same?"
"What?!"
"I mean, what if you had created this place, then when you got out of control your assistants rebelled and made you part of your own project."
"Seriously?"
"No, it's just a theory I have. For all I know it could be me."
"Well, whoever they are they're obviously crazy. Unless I got their timescale completely wrong, they're expecting us to stay around for hundreds of years. How long do dragons live anyway? You said forever...?"
"Sort of. We are not truly immortal. We can be killed by knights, or commoners with the right weapons for that matter. We can get sick, and have accidents..."
"But we don't age?"
"Actually we do, albeit slowly. But then we can do this."
She walks to the edge of the cliff (Yes, I know the last chapter said they went inside but there is no previous mention of a place to be inside, so either assume they stayed outside or that they went out again.), takes a deep breath and leans forward. Searing fire leaps from her open mouth, streaming down the hillside for several times your height. (You notice that even though you are now a full fledged dragon you are still about the same size as the humanoid dragoness. Still some growing to get behind you...) The newfallen snow melts away, returning springtime to the hillside for a few precious minutes.
"That was impressive," you admit.
"Thank you. I think so too. But that's not what I wanted to show you. Watch this."
She repeats her previous performance, but this time the flames just keep streaming like from an oil well on fire. You start wondering where she gets it all from when you notice she's kind of deflating. Her body is getting smaller with less... mature proportions. When the fire stops, a little dragon girl stands in front of you.
Darn. And you had just started liking her to the extent of entertaining the notion of making a pass at her.
"How's that, Daddy?" she asks innocently. Even her voice has changed.
"I'm not your daddy," you protest. "If anything, you're my mommy... Only that won't work now either."
She giggles and hugs you. "You're funny, Dragon Guy! Anyway this is the secret of the dragons. Sorry if I'm talking fast but I have to get this out before I start thinking like a kid. We age like everyone else, but we can unage and be young again. That's how we can virtually live forever. Some say that age is a fire that consumes us all, but only dragons can get rid of the fire and be young again."
"I see, but why not just unage one year each year? This seems a bit... extreme."
"What, wouldn't you like a second childhood? Actually this is my thirteenth. And there are those who go even further and unage into an egg to start over with a new hatching!"
Suddenly a thought strikes you. "Wait a minute!" you exclaim, choking the protesting editor with his own rulebook. ;-) "Didn't you say I'm a dragon forever?"
"Yes, as am I. I'm still a dragon, right?"
"Yes, but..."
"Now look. Before you put on that costume you were a man<span class="female">woman, right? And long before that you were a little boy<span class="female">girl. What happened? No transformation, you just grew up. Dragons just reverse a natural process. It's a question of to-po-lo-gy..."
She slows noticably at the difficult word. "Okay, I'm starting to have trouble thinking like a grownup. I'll go play now. Your watch."
"My what?"
"You have to watch the pool now. I'm too young. In fact kids aren't allowed on the mountain except right after unaging. Don't worry, it's pretty simple. Just watch the lava, heat it if it gets cold (Be careful though, you do unage a little every time you breathe fire), and when someone comes along, explain things to them - I'm sure you can do that better than me - and give them a hand."
"For how long?"
"Until someone else comes along to take over. Dragons are eternals, so we have a rather relaxed view of time. Seeya!"
She turns to leave when you think of something. "Wait a minute!"
Written by Won-Tolla on 21 November 2007
