The growl set the hairs on the back of Maurice's neck on end and he drew his hands away. He'd never seen the dragon's eyes do that. Over the past two days after being put to work, he'd started to forget that his boss was a huge reptile.
When Hanna spoke again, Maurice gathered up his nerves again. "That would...I would like that." He finally sat down at the table and rubbed his chin to feel this 'fetching' stubble. He just made the ink smears worse. "You didn't answer my question."
"You should wash yourself before you eat, the ink is getting everywhere." He comments, thinking that the more dirty Maurice gets, the less fetching that stubble looks. But, returning his mirror to his gold pile, his ears twitch, perhaps slightly irritated.
"Not all dragons have jobs. We don't waste our lives away as you humans do, doing menial tasks for pay. I could just as well pillage and burn to earn my place on this earth, but...if you must know," He nods to the work table that is set aside from where they had sat to eat twice now. It was filled with papers, vials, mortar and pestle, and other assorted things. "If you hadn't gathered from my collected works, I am a mage."
Maurice held his hands out in dismay and searched for something to wipe them on. He didn't want to swallow any more ink because it gave him nightmares. His knees would just have to do. Ugh, how awful. He felt like a kitchen boy wiping away blood and grease.
But!
He was getting answers so Maurice tried very hard to make it apparent that he was listening. He looked at all the odds and ends Hanna had decorated his home with and while most of it was just clutter, he recognized a few things--either from stories or from the one wizard his parents employed.
He took up his plate, shaking his fingers from how hot it was. "Why? I mean...you obviously know what you're doing, but...why? Why aren't you out there running wild and eating cattle and burning down houses?"
If he were a dragon, that's what he would do--he'd be a majestic, terrifying beast.
Dragons did not accumulate clutter, they horded and they loved it, thank you very much.
Hanna shook his head, unsure why Maurice was so concerned about him not 'living up his dragon life' and murdering as he pleased. "Rats are pests because they carry disease and steal. Wolves are pests because they are dangerous and steal, and what do you think a dragon is, if he does either of those?" Hanna was smart, if not cautious about his life, and while he did hunt and ate as he pleased, he was cautious about his interaction with humans. To be quite honest he was surprised Maurice knew of him and where to find him.
"I rather like my life and head where it is, and I like doing magic and if I don't disturb the peace, no one disturbs my peace." He paused a moment, giving Maurice a pointed look, "Usually."
Maurice met that pointed look but finally turned his eyes down to his plate. "I'm not sayin' you should change, I just--I don't know..."
The prince wasn't sure if he needed to dig deeper to get what he wanted or if he was being punished for his curiosity and needed to be happy with his new life as a dragon's scribe. He finally started pulling strips of meat from his plate with his fingers and eating them.
His heart wasn't in it though and he didn't even finish. Instead, he started scooting bits around on his plate. His mind was somewhere else.
"I am curious...what is the point?" He has to ask, focusing on the ingredients list he had been fussing over before Maurice had shown up to eat. "As a Prince, I can't imagine you know much about discrimination or hatred. Or at least, not experienced it first hand." Perhaps he was being too harsh, but there was something irritating about being questioned by a man who had wanted his head.
"Have you ever been challenged to fight in a battle you didn't ask for with your opponent dreaming of your head as their prize to take home to their family to show their worth? The royal taxidermist just waiting to stuff your skull?" He huffs, smoke starting to rise from his snout, "Those are quite enough reasons why 'I just, I don't know'."
He felt his face turning red. Shame wasn't something he was terribly familiar with and he didn't like it--not a bit! He couldn't look up at the pink monster now. He'd pried and now Hanna was prying back. Another new experience.
"The point is..." He tried to find a way to say it that would let him keep his head...and to make the blow easier for himself, regardless of any beheadings. "The point is, I didn't know, alright? I didn't know you were a-- a person!"
A person with mountains of JUNK to sort through.
"I thought you would be like--like this!" Maurice shoved his half eaten plate forward and buried his face in his hands. He didn't even care about getting dinner in his hair. "It's a lot to think about! My parents. My brothers, my sister, they all did it!" Maurice had sort of entertained the idea of Hanna being under some kind of curse or maybe just very well trained, but the more he spoke of 'we dragons' this and 'we dragons' that, the more it became horrifyingly clear. "They're all murderers...we're all murderers!"
"Oh, I'm well aware of what your kind thinks of mine." If you remember the comment about the wolves and the rats? That is one he's thought of many a times. "And of other species as well. There are many creatures in this world that are just as intelligent or more, than humans are. Though I doubt you've ever gotten educated about them." They were just things that were pests, dangerous, in the way.
"More than a decoration on a wall." Another snort, Hanna turns away from his tinkering, resting on his haunches, his eyes starting to do that thing again, though at the very least he isn't growling, just smoking. The temperature in the room is rising. "I'm so very sorry your revelations came too late." There was a story in that comment, as well as the next line he practically spit out, "And you should be thankful mine came far too soon."
If dinner weren't such a precious commodity, Maurice would have most likely been ill. He didn't understand the dragon's last words but they hung in his skin like arrows and he bowed his head further so that his hair was dragging the table.
And he could only wonder what would have happened if he had brought his bow.
He couldn't undo it. Apologizing wouldn't bring back the grizzly, scaly heads that loomed over the dining table. He couldn't stop other humans in other kingdoms from going out and fetching their own. He couldn't do anything. He felt like a ghost with early onset carpal tunnel.
"They're probably...looking for me now. I should have ridden through the gates hours ago. They're going to come and I can't stop them. Even if I ran out and waved my arms, I'm--sorry."
His mother's guards were far more skilled at the whole monster slaying thing than he was.
At his apology, Hanna took a calming breath, trying to reign himself in. Maurice had spared his life the night before, hadn't killed him when he had the chance, and he had felt some warmth for him, enough to treat him well. Voicing prejudices he knew were there now shouldn't change that. "Don't apologize for things beyond your control, my lord, that isn't your fault."
He sighs, long and breathy, and forgets his project for the moment, wanting his happy place. His head dips down when he reaches his bed, sliding into the pile easily, disappearing underneath, snout, ears and horns all that were visible aside from his long tail. Breathing deeply, he opens his mouth again, finding his mood much improved, a calm blanketing him. "I am not worried about tomorrow, and you shouldn't be either. I have a few tricks up my sleeve, and if my plan works, your guards should leave without a scratch on them."
When the dragon started moving, he lifted his head along with his arms, prepared to defend himself. Once he was sure his head wasn't going anywhere, he lowered them and watched Hanna slip under the treasure like a gator into a moat. It was impressive how easily he moved under the heavy gold.
The prince hesitated, then got up and followed, stopping at the edge of the coins and crouching where the beast's nose poked out.
"Dragon! How can you not worry? I don't know how long you've--well, no." He had a pretty good idea of how long Hanna's been living in this hole because of all the junk he'd collected. "You just. You don't know my mother! She won't stop!"
"I have a name, use it." He returns, not appreciating being called just 'dragon', especially after Maurice's new revelations. "I am smarter than most would think a dragon is, if you'll remember. If I have to send them away a hundred times, it would be worth the cost of living still, don't you think? I don't give up on my life that easily."
This dragon had far stronger self preservation skills than his human counterpart in other dimensions. "Don't let it concern you. This is my battle now, and not yours. You'll work on your writing tomorrow just like you did today and I'll have dinner as usual waiting for you." He takes in a deep breath, amazing that coins didn't get sucked up his nose, "I promise."
The prince withdrew the hand he didn't even realize was reaching for that magenta snoot. He felt the urgent need to nudge him, to pull him up out of the gold by his chin so he could see just how distressed he was. Why wouldn't he just move? Skip the country! Why live in a country with a chain like The Queen's Wings at all? But his employer was a mage and if all the scrolls he'd cramped up his hands copying told him anything, he did in fact have tricks up his non-existent sleeve.
He also wasn't entirely sure how to go about learning Hanna's name. Somehow outright asking felt silly, something he might get scolded for. But he would worry about that if the two of them made it through tomorrow.
He stood and glanced at the half a haunch still left left on his plate. Suddenly, Prince Maurice wasn't the least bit hungry.
"I hope you're right...good night. Sir."
The prince took up his gloves and shuffled off back to the study. He knew he wouldn't sleep so he lit a candle and started copying the next volume of that enormous scroll.
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theattic2014-11-09 08:06 pm
no subject
When Hanna spoke again, Maurice gathered up his nerves again. "That would...I would like that." He finally sat down at the table and rubbed his chin to feel this 'fetching' stubble. He just made the ink smears worse. "You didn't answer my question."
no subject
"Not all dragons have jobs. We don't waste our lives away as you humans do, doing menial tasks for pay. I could just as well pillage and burn to earn my place on this earth, but...if you must know," He nods to the work table that is set aside from where they had sat to eat twice now. It was filled with papers, vials, mortar and pestle, and other assorted things. "If you hadn't gathered from my collected works, I am a mage."
no subject
But!
He was getting answers so Maurice tried very hard to make it apparent that he was listening. He looked at all the odds and ends Hanna had decorated his home with and while most of it was just clutter, he recognized a few things--either from stories or from the one wizard his parents employed.
He took up his plate, shaking his fingers from how hot it was. "Why? I mean...you obviously know what you're doing, but...why? Why aren't you out there running wild and eating cattle and burning down houses?"
If he were a dragon, that's what he would do--he'd be a majestic, terrifying beast.
no subject
Hanna shook his head, unsure why Maurice was so concerned about him not 'living up his dragon life' and murdering as he pleased. "Rats are pests because they carry disease and steal. Wolves are pests because they are dangerous and steal, and what do you think a dragon is, if he does either of those?" Hanna was smart, if not cautious about his life, and while he did hunt and ate as he pleased, he was cautious about his interaction with humans. To be quite honest he was surprised Maurice knew of him and where to find him.
"I rather like my life and head where it is, and I like doing magic and if I don't disturb the peace, no one disturbs my peace." He paused a moment, giving Maurice a pointed look, "Usually."
no subject
The prince wasn't sure if he needed to dig deeper to get what he wanted or if he was being punished for his curiosity and needed to be happy with his new life as a dragon's scribe. He finally started pulling strips of meat from his plate with his fingers and eating them.
His heart wasn't in it though and he didn't even finish. Instead, he started scooting bits around on his plate. His mind was somewhere else.
no subject
"Have you ever been challenged to fight in a battle you didn't ask for with your opponent dreaming of your head as their prize to take home to their family to show their worth? The royal taxidermist just waiting to stuff your skull?" He huffs, smoke starting to rise from his snout, "Those are quite enough reasons why 'I just, I don't know'."
no subject
"The point is..." He tried to find a way to say it that would let him keep his head...and to make the blow easier for himself, regardless of any beheadings. "The point is, I didn't know, alright? I didn't know you were a-- a person!"
A person with mountains of JUNK to sort through.
"I thought you would be like--like this!" Maurice shoved his half eaten plate forward and buried his face in his hands. He didn't even care about getting dinner in his hair. "It's a lot to think about! My parents. My brothers, my sister, they all did it!" Maurice had sort of entertained the idea of Hanna being under some kind of curse or maybe just very well trained, but the more he spoke of 'we dragons' this and 'we dragons' that, the more it became horrifyingly clear. "They're all murderers...we're all murderers!"
no subject
"More than a decoration on a wall." Another snort, Hanna turns away from his tinkering, resting on his haunches, his eyes starting to do that thing again, though at the very least he isn't growling, just smoking. The temperature in the room is rising. "I'm so very sorry your revelations came too late." There was a story in that comment, as well as the next line he practically spit out, "And you should be thankful mine came far too soon."
no subject
And he could only wonder what would have happened if he had brought his bow.
He couldn't undo it. Apologizing wouldn't bring back the grizzly, scaly heads that loomed over the dining table. He couldn't stop other humans in other kingdoms from going out and fetching their own. He couldn't do anything. He felt like a ghost with early onset carpal tunnel.
"They're probably...looking for me now. I should have ridden through the gates hours ago. They're going to come and I can't stop them. Even if I ran out and waved my arms, I'm--sorry."
His mother's guards were far more skilled at the whole monster slaying thing than he was.
no subject
He sighs, long and breathy, and forgets his project for the moment, wanting his happy place. His head dips down when he reaches his bed, sliding into the pile easily, disappearing underneath, snout, ears and horns all that were visible aside from his long tail. Breathing deeply, he opens his mouth again, finding his mood much improved, a calm blanketing him. "I am not worried about tomorrow, and you shouldn't be either. I have a few tricks up my sleeve, and if my plan works, your guards should leave without a scratch on them."
no subject
The prince hesitated, then got up and followed, stopping at the edge of the coins and crouching where the beast's nose poked out.
"Dragon! How can you not worry? I don't know how long you've--well, no." He had a pretty good idea of how long Hanna's been living in this hole because of all the junk he'd collected. "You just. You don't know my mother! She won't stop!"
no subject
This dragon had far stronger self preservation skills than his human counterpart in other dimensions. "Don't let it concern you. This is my battle now, and not yours. You'll work on your writing tomorrow just like you did today and I'll have dinner as usual waiting for you." He takes in a deep breath, amazing that coins didn't get sucked up his nose, "I promise."
no subject
He also wasn't entirely sure how to go about learning Hanna's name. Somehow outright asking felt silly, something he might get scolded for. But he would worry about that if the two of them made it through tomorrow.
He stood and glanced at the half a haunch still left left on his plate. Suddenly, Prince Maurice wasn't the least bit hungry.
"I hope you're right...good night. Sir."
The prince took up his gloves and shuffled off back to the study. He knew he wouldn't sleep so he lit a candle and started copying the next volume of that enormous scroll.