Silence stretched for but a moment. Moving on instinct, Elegard raised a fist to hit the figure before him. The only one hurt by it was him, however, veins splitting as his hand became a bloody mess that rapidly stitched itself together. The dragon’s head didn’t even turn from the impact.
“I…” Mylo trailed off as he lifted a finger, then lowered it and glanced away. A flurry of confusing emotions passed over him briefly as his mind grappled with the human experience in front of him.
“I mean, you killed plenty of Munst yourself! Your humans did a lot more damage,” the answer was a deflection of blame. Mylo knew this would only make the man in front of him angrier, but his mouth worked faster than his mind. The coat that he was wearing was gripped as Elegard snarled at him.
“I don’t care about some monsters, or about how many humans you killed. I care about that human!” Unreasonably uncompromising, Elegard shoved Mylo, but only succeeded in pushing himself back instead. He turned his back to the dragon as he clenched his fists.
“You monsters are always like this. You just don’t get it. You don’t understand. You can never understand a human heart.” That much was painstakingly obvious to Elegard at this moment. Closing his eyes, he breathed in slowly, and then out. Watching this, Mylo cut off the sentence that had been about to leave him.
Staring at the back of this soldier, no words came to Mylo. Memories of all the humans he’d seen in the city, and of the many humans he’d mercilessly demolished in his attempts to get them to stop—both sides to stop. His gaze travelled to the city that towered over them both in these forms. Finally, words arrived at his lips.
“I’m sorry.” It was a simple phrase, one that forgave nothing that had happened. Each side carried deep scars that would never fade. While Munst were quick to forget it, Mylo never could. It was permanently painted into his memory. The day everything had gone so wrong. A hand lifted, and he ran it through the hair on top of his head.
“I don’t understand. I’m not going to pretend I do. But I do know something about loss. And for that...I am sorry.” Whether the words would carry the right message to Elegard, Mylo had no clue. But he still felt the desire to try, to reach out, even if it was to be cast aside.
“I just...I need you to remember them. Remember all that we sacrificed.” Turning around, Elegard looked at him with a steeled gaze, unaware that this memory was one being seared into Mylo’s mind.
“I couldn’t forget, our memory is—” Before Mylo could finish, he was cut off as Elegard narrowed his eyes.
“Yes, you can.” The two faced in a standoff for a moment, before Mylo turned away with a frown.
“I mean, I suppose I can add the memories to those to be carried over. But they are quite heavy. I’m unsure of how the rebirth would be affected by that.” Rubbing his chin, Mylo considered it for a time.
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“Then stop doing the rebirths or whatever.” Elegard shrugged the issue off coldly.
“You want me to abandon the rebirths altogether? You understand what you’re asking, right?” Leaning back in shock, Mylo couldn’t help but exclaim in disbelief.
“No, I don’t understand.” Folding his arms, he continued to stare with anger at the dragon before him, refusing to compromise on this. A sigh left Mylo as he deflated.
“I really cannot comprehend your kind sometimes. Very well.” Placing a hand on his chest, he began to speak.
“
“
“Memories are important to humans. To discard them so is disrespectful to us. To ignore that it happened even more so. The pain is important, it reminds us that we are still alive.” An olive branch, an attempt to bridge the gap. They continued to make their way further out for a time before Mylo came to a stop.
“You humans have such strength of spirit...To remember for a dragon is to relive the moment over again. I never wish to return to such a time.” Turning around, Mylo let out a sigh as his solemn expression echoed out against his bidding.
“The longer you spend as a human, the more you’ll realise that it’s not strength. We use our past to learn for the future. If you forgot, you’d be doomed to repeat it.” Looking up, Elegard moved to breathe in, continuing despite his better judgement. “Here’s a secret, dragon. We only had the one bomb.” A soft laugh left him as he looked down at Mylo’s shocked expression.
“...But...You said you had enough to level the planet…” The naivety in Mylo’s voice almost made Elegard want to send him home to ‘his mummy.’ What even was the parent of a dragon? The sun, maybe.
“We lied. As in, we told you the opposite of the truth to get the desired outcome. We lie about a lot of things. Why not give it a try. Lie to me, right now.” Elegard moved forward, wrapping an arm around the dragon’s neck and giving a brief smirk.
“W-but. But what would I even lie about? Why?” The dragon was absolutely flabbergasted. It took Mylo several moments to hear the human’s laughter.
“Because sometimes a lie is better than the truth.” Unlatching his arm, Elegard moved to step back and motioned to the field. “Well. Give it a try.” He waited quietly.
“Er...Perhaps we should just move onto the living mountain?” Trying to deflect the situation, Mylo’s smile was dashed as his head shook.
“Come on, tell me a lie, dragon.” He pressed him, folding his arms now. This was important. He needed to see it. Needed to see this dragon lie. Even Elegard didn’t know why he needed it so badly. Perhaps to see the creature was just as flawed as they were.
“I...er...eat….humans...for lunch?” It was terrible, awful, and clearly a lie. But Mylo had done it, and while he didn’t understand entirely what the reason behind it was, they’d both remember this. His mind would wonder if Elegard knew about his meeting with the dragon council, of their aversion to humans, and ‘catching human.’
But in the end: no answers would ever come.