Path watched Dainin eat. All of this was overwhelming to think about too much. She did feel a lot better after Elene healed the worst of her injuries, and she did not feel the fuzzy feverish sensation after riding all night. She did still feel tired though, and a bit grubby and like she didn’t like the feeling of either the shirt or the skirt she had been forced into by the pushy innkeeper lady against her skin.

If she had a tail she would lash it, but she did not, so she tapped her foot instead. Concentrated human smell, and… rot? Fermentation? It was strong and she did not care for it. People had stared at her when she had come in, and she felt like some were still staring at her now.

She glowered at Dainin, who was eating happily. She poked at the bread on the table. It squished beneath her finger. It was warm. It smelled a little good. She tore off a piece and tried it. It was warm, fluffy, her mouth felt different than she was used to as she chewed it. It was all right. The stuff in the bowl looked better. She reached forward and tried to pick a bit of meat out of it only to find that things could actually come in too hot for her to handle. She withdrew her fingers with a hiss.

I detest this body, she thought. She put her fingers in her mouth, and she watched Dainin waggle a stabby-looking thing in his hand. Path breathed out slowly, waving her slightly burned fingers in the air. “I…” she wanted to tell him she has spent no time with human things. She is not some dragon from the country where the dragons participate in ruling it. She is a dragon from a long line of dragons with only themselves to account for. If she had her ears, they would be flat, but she did wrinkle her nose at him and show her teeth with some disdain for a second.

He had the audacity to smile at her.

I do not even have the energy to detest you, she thought as she fussed with the shirt and skirt.

She was hungry. She was grouchy. She was tired.

“Path,” Dainin said softly. He took a piece of bread and used it to swab up some of the stew with a bit of meat. He put it in his mouth.

She felt color come to her cheeks. I did not admit to anything, so why do I feel like he saw through me. She almost did not want to imitate him, but a growl from her center made her pick up the bread and do just that.

It was messy, some dropped off of it and onto his shirt, but it was his, so she did not care as much.

He seemed only slightly perturbed by it, so she worked slowly through the bread. By the time she finished, the stew had cooled enough she picked up the bowl and tipped it into her mouth. Human hands, human joints, human awkward mouth. She was slowly getting used to it.

Dainin was yawning, sipping a drink she could smell from across the table. She had never been a fan of fermented things.

“The bath in your room is ready,” a barmaid said as she brought two little plates of some sort of bread thing, with a white paste, and some fruit on it. Path took the water cup and drank until it was empty. She held it up to the woman, like she had seen some of the other patrons do, as a way to ask for more.

The woman smiled and took it, and came back with more citrus-scented water.

Dainin had already eaten the little bread thing. Path tried hers. The white stuff was a strong flavor, she was not sure she liked the bite of it. But the bread was a little sweet, and the berries on it balanced that flavor in a way she really liked.

“Goat cheese,” Dainin said. “That’s the strong flavor. It’s a pastry.”

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“I do not care,” said Path with a lofty tone and putting her nose up a little to emphasize how above it all she was.

Dainin smirked. She glowered. I do not care, she thought defiantly. She felt a little seen through. The vulnerability made her squirmy inside.

“What is your favorite color, Path?”

“Why?”

“Clothes. I promised some, did I not?”

She wrinkled her nose. “These ones are terrible,” she picked at the coarse skirt again.

“Barely better than nothing,” he said as if in agreement, that hint of a smirk at her on his lips. What had him so damned amused at her?

She huffed, “I do not know. Green?”

He smiled a bit, “Very good. Try the lemonade, and then I will take you upstairs and show you something humans do that even you will surely find nice.”

She stared at him. “I doubt that very much.”

He only shrugged and pointed at her cup.

She tried the sour tasting liquid, and it tingled across her tongue in a way that made the muscles in her face tighten, and then there was a floral sweetness that alleviated it. She … didn’t hate it, and then the more she sipped it, the more she came to like it. Soon the glass was done.

She felt more tired with food and drink though. “This way,” Dainin said, standing and guiding her toward the stairs. Two legs and stairs made it so she had to hang onto Dainin a little. This damn body. The minute I get some time and energy, I am going to figure out how to break this curse and change myself back. I hate this so much.

Dainin took her through a hall, and into a room that had a single bed, but extra bedding set out nicely on the floor, implying a second bed. Behind a screen at the foot of one bed, steam rose off of tub that had been filled with water. “This is a bath. I am going to go out and get you better clothes, I want you to stay here and soak in the water. When you’re done, you may relax in the bed. I should not be gone that long though.”

She took a deep breath in, and a slow breath out. “All right.” She had used to soak in the water by the sea to soothe aching muscles, but it was a cold water bath, she was not sure how warm was going to be. It sounded like a promising way to get rid of Dainin for awhile though.

“Good. I want you to know,” he said, “part of my blessing to look after you, is that I have an idea where you are. So… can you please not try anything clever?”

She gave him flat eyes and said nothing of the sort. He grinned and ducked out of the room.

She slithered her way out of the coarse skirt and the dirty shirt immediately and then tested the water with her finger. With her soft human skin, the warmth felt more intense than she expected, but it was also inviting. She slowly climbed in, sitting so that it was up to her neck, teasing her jaw, soaking into her green and pink hair. She closed her eyes.

Heat, warmth, and exhaustion were a combination that made her sleepy almost instantly. She half dozed in the water until it started to get a little cold. It felt good on the most healed injuries, though it did detach the bandages. She just gathered them up and stacked them on the edge of the tub.

There was a bar of something that smelled like flowers near the tub on a tray, along with some sort of … thick potion? She sniffed, but the smell was unfamiliar. She sighed. I am not equipped to deal with any human customs or this body. So, logically, it must be here because she was meant to use it. Or Dainin was? She picked up the bar thing and brought it into the water. It was really slippery. It left a film on her skin as it fell from her fingers into the tub on her legs. She wiggled her fingers in the water. It came off. She sniffed at her hand, the floral smell clung to her and it seemed to have stripped away most the other smells. She felt the skin, and it seemed… cleaner?

So, she stood up, picking up the slippery thing and slowly worked it over her body. The air was so cold against her skin. I do not think I even used to feel the air when I got out of the sea before, she thought with a huff. She also dropped the slippery thing several times because her fingers remained clumsy and not claws.

It burned against the scabs on her wounds, but it felt like a good sort of burn, so she ignored it. She crouched back into the water, rinsing off, seeing dirt float off of her and settling in the bottom. She tried it on the end of her hair, but it seemed to make it worse. I see, that is what the potion-thing must be for, she washed her hair in it, finding it was a lot silkier feeling, more like Dainin’s hair.

She left the chilling bath, tracking water across the floor as she burrowed in the blankets. The were softer, smoother than the shirt and the skirt. They also started to warm her again. I have time alone, I should work on my magic. She worked on meditating, to try and teach it, but exhaustion tangled with the warm the of being full and in a nest, and she drifted off to sleep.