"Oh shi...!",
she thought, "That should not have had happened."
That wasn't the plan. But the plan never survives the contact with the enemy. Or reality. With more than often the reality as enemy. She knew it. She knew it beforehand, she knew it was a bad idea, she went with it anyway. It should have been easy. Finally getting recognized in the adventures guild despite her looks. Not that it mattered now. Not anymore.
She should run, but couldn't move, standing in front of him like a deer in headlights or more fittingly a bunny hypnotized by a giant snake. Which was quite fittingly, given his eyes were open when she expected to be closed.
His power literally rolled in thick waves off of him, and so did his anger, no, annoyance. And because of that, she knew she was as good as dead already.
She felt like a child which got caught with a hand in the cookie jar.
He slowly lifted his head, while staring at her through squinted eyes for a moment, before snorting at her and blowing her with a wave of warm moist air. A string of snot partially landed on her. Before turning away, but not taking his sight of her, and blasting a small squall of fire into the room.
Maybe he wasn't that mad after all, and maybe he would let her go and go to sleep afterwards, and maybe … No. Sneaking into a dragon's lair, either while said dragon was away or asleep, and try to steal from the hoard of a dragon, even if it is so little that he probably wouldn't realize it, just big enough to prove she has been there.
Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.
And then, as a stray thought, she wondered how she knew that he was … in fact, a He. Not that the genders of dragons, where that obvious. At least to humans. Or, more precisely, not dragons. Rarely anyone came close enough to a dragon to check, AND being able to tell the tale. Actually, she didn't heard of any case. Or more the other way round, if you got that close, you were dead. Period. All more reason the whole endeavour was stupid to begin with. But she let her talking into it by her greatest weakness, her pride. Way to prove the world, she was indeed an adult.
He inhaled and spoke to her, "Young lady, it is ru…"
Again she let herself overwhelm by her pride, "I have you to know I'm older than I look, I'm 17, almost 18, and therefore an adult for almost two years now."
He squinted at her. "So, still a hatchling then,", he resumed, "and it is rude to talk over your betters, your elders." he continued "As it is to enter another dragon's lair uninvited. Your mother should have taught you that.".
He looked around, "Where is she anyway?", he then asked.
She blinked. Having a hard time processing what he just said.
He didn't … Did he? He couldn't have implied.
She clearly was human. Sure, with the oddity she apparently hasn't had aged for a while and still looked like a child, despite legally an adult. For a human, anyway.
But did he really. Nah. That was impossible.
But …
It would explain things. Oh, it would explain sooo much …