Dragonland [Bunbun]

[Nightcrawler]

He did not stop this time, but kept on with the sparks until the charcloth caught. But he listened, nonetheless. And when she was done, he thought on the subject for a while longer, and his mind slid between his darkest memories. She was not wrong: an outsider would not hear what he had just said and fully grasp his meaning. When the kindling caught and the fire needed no more tending for the moment, he turned back to her.

"We were hunters," he said. "My people. We were chosen to reap for our god. We fought each other in His name, but...never for gold, or for parts, or to satisfy some thrill. We killed to feed Him and to feed ourselves. There is honor in some ways of killing, Lady Axia. And there is dishonor in others."

He paused. He contemplated the rest and wondered if he should set it aside. It came forth anyway in a cold, dead monotone.

"We were harvested by outsiders — first for our blood, and then for our horns. For gold. For greed. It is an ugly thing to witness. Senseless. Had I died in a skirmish with the hunters, as you say...so be it. They were not there to profit from my corpse. It is not the same."

[Bunbun]

"Oh. That's..."

Axia trailed off and considered his answer for a moment, staring deep into the growing fire as she thought to herself before eventually turning to meet his gaze. She still struggled to fully accept his argument- they would still be killing for their own selfish reasons, wouldn't they? Did it really make that much of a difference whether they killed someone to harvest parts or killed simply because someone got in their way? At the end of the day, someone was dead when they didn't have to be. But from the way he spoke and the look he gave her, she could tell that digging further probably wasn't a great idea.

For the first time in a while, the dragon found herself at a loss for words. What was the right way to respond to something like that? Should she be apologizing for asking the question? Try to console him, maybe? Did he even want her to say anything in response? She'd never been great at navigating conversations when they got too serious. They made her feel trapped, like there was no good answer for her to give. And she really didn't like feeling trapped, so instead, she decided to not-so-subtly try to shift topics.

"...Um. Are you still afraid of me?"

[Nightcrawler]

Lady Axia went quiet. This, Eln thought, was strange for her. In the short time that he had known her, she had scarcely stopped to draw breath. It made that silence hang all the heavier. He tended to the fire and allowed her the space that she needed to ruminate on the subject...or on whatever other place her mind had turned to. When it came time, he buried the bulbs he'd gathered in hot ashes and waited for them to cook.

He had just sat back from his work when she spoke up again. That sudden break in silence startled him. Or perhaps he was simply yet uneasy in the presence of a witch. He considered her question, though by the way he had just jolted at it, the Lady Axia already had her answer. Still, he thought he owed her a proper explanation.

"Not you," he replied solemnly. "Or I would not stay here and cook for you. It is your nature. The power that you wield. The...memory that it calls forth. That is what I fear." He inclined his head in apology. "Not you," he repeated.

[Bunbun]

"...I see. You mean my magic, then." She nodded, thankfully deciding against giving him another brief demonstration. While she couldn't say that fear of magic was particularly common around these parts, she supposed she couldn't blame him too much for being cautious, especially after witnessing the kind of destruction she was capable of. "So when I grabbed your arm back then, it must have been pretty frightening...

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to- it's just, well, sometimes I guess I just kind of do things without thinking them through all that much. And there wasn't much time, and... I'm making excuses, aren't I? Okay, the point is that I'm not going to do that anymore if you don't want me to."

With that, her attention shifted down to the ashes piled on top of the bulbs. She frowned a bit at the sight, clearly confused and unsure of the reason for his doing so. She'd never been a particularly neat or picky eater, but... surely getting food dirty on purpose wasn't going to make it taste any better, right? It took a moment of her shifting her focus between the fire and the ashes for her to make the connection.

"Oh!" She looked back up at him, her eyes practically sparkling with excitement and curiosity. "That's so smart! I gotta try that out myself sometime. How'd you learn to do that?"

[Nightcrawler]

He regarded Lady Axia quietly as she spoke. She was not wrong: she was wont to act impulsively. He had assumed that this was a matter of her age, though, and not inherent to her nature. Still, she seemed now to understand the nature of the fear that she had evoked, and that showed a wisdom he had not expected of her. "Thank you," he said simply, and inclined his head. He gave her an odd look, however, as she asked him about the bulbs. Did she not know how to cook?

"The men of my clan taught me this and many other ways to survive," he explained. "Did your people not pass down knowledge in song and demonstration?"

[Bunbun]

"Erm, not really? I mean, I did learn how to hunt and fly and stuff like that, but dragons tend to be pretty solitary once they hit a certain age. Gotta carve out their territory and build up their hoard or whatever. Anyways, they didn't teach me how to cook or anything like that. 'Cause dragon's don't usually... cook. Mostly they just hunt animals down and eat 'em raw. But this form doesn't usually handle the whole 'eating stuff raw' thing very well, so cooking is definitely something I've been wanting to learn about more. Mostly I just try to learn by watching what humans do since they seem to have a pretty good handle on it, and if what they make is okay for them to eat, it's probably okay for me too, right?" Axia answered him earnestly and eagerly- if there was any judgement or condescension behind his question, she was apparently quite oblivious to it.