Once more Johan is swept up by the ever enthusiastic Rheal for a wild adventure to a lost temple, but this time something awaits neither expected, and Rheal has a new promise to try and keep... which will be tempted, relentlessly.


“So what is it this time, Rheal?” Johan was leaning against one of the tall stone pillars that marked the entrances to their office, it was warm with the midday sun, as fine a place to stop and eat the pastry he’d been treating himself to that morning… Rheal’s, entrance, was convenient timing. His office had a feel of grandeur about it, but it was only paint deep. His official employer had a big dream but a narrow viewpoint. The ideal to make his little establishment the centre of trading for old relics… not that the man cared about them. Johan was different. He knew he was a rare breed, for now, but there was so much to be learned from these things, not just a profit to be made.
His eyes ran along Rheal, the rich, golden brown dragon the size of a large shed, not including the wings or tail. A very large shed. It was their third meeting, and, so much of his fear had gone. He didn’t doubt Rheal wasn’t here to eat him. He didn’t put it past the dragon, one day… their relationship, in his opinion, was a tenuous one. Rheal seemed… oblivious to the issue. Dragons were predators of mankind, in a passive way. They were easy enough to avoid, so there was no conflict. Dragons who came too close or tried to eat someone in view of others, was attacked. They didn’t seem to, object… no more than a fox would pout if the points of a hedgehog were too sharp to eat it. Defending themselves was their right… as much as trying to eat was the right of a dragon. Still… so long as one stayed out of dragon hunting grounds, being eaten was, very unlikely, more likely to trip down the stairs in the morning. Of course, Johan had been into such regions a fair few times, even before Rheal. It was a contract with nature… the wilds were the dragon’s home, to enter them was to enter the dragon culture, and abide by its rules… just as Rheal was trying to abide by human rules while out here… he had realised, coming home from their last trip. That was how Rheal saw it… how dragons saw it. Human controlled lands, human rules, dragon controlled lands… dragon rules, which just so happened to be nature’s rules.
Still… he was beginning to find it more comical than unnerving how Rheal acted in town… people had stopped fleeing when he arrived, but for most, who had not come to terms with the risk of death in their line of work, Rheal was still an object of fear. Those jaws could… and potentially would, eat a person alive… the reality of a dragon’s needs, he understood… but he still felt a little ill seeing it… and it was a conversation he felt he had to have… much as he disliked the idea, but he wanted to have it here… while the dragon was binding himself to human rules.
“Oh, well, I was off looking for old human things… and stopped off in this really nice dragon’s territory, quite an elder, huge… even bigger than my father, I swear, if he hadn’t been so big he could flatten half of this place, I’d have invited him to come tell you his story personally…” behind Rheal, an eavesdropper hurried faster past.
“And I assume he had a story about some ruins you want my help getting into…” Johan noted with a little smile… it raised an intriguing thought.. how long did a dragon live? How much of human history, might an old dragon simply… remember. Then again, he noted, the high mood dulling before it truly rose, most dragons barely noticed humans. They had their own, practical lives, their ways, their language even. He guessed it was as if he found a collection of mice building a home under his bed… would he stop to think if they might be as smart as he was… a nest looked like a nest. He wouldn’t contemplate the history of a mouse nest, what mice had lineage to the founding mouse, the era of materials for them as they built their homes… it was too short term to be of interest, and frankly, he’d be more concerned with chasing them away. Why would a dragon, except an especially obsessed dragon, give any more thought to human history? He felt as his own kind had been developing, more dragons were beginning to notice they were a little different, but… how many dragons would still remember, personally, when humans were… hardly as civilised or bright as they were now.
“Mmm, he told me there was this old, wild pack of humans in the deep jungle under his ridges, and they used to worship him… or still do, he was shaky on that bit… I guess he got bored of it”
“Bored… of what exactly”
“Oh… sitting on the perch they made, holding still while they carved or drew things…” he lowered his voice “honestly, I think it was driving females away… it’s kind of weird letting humans crawl all over you, you know?”
Johan didn’t say a word… though he was rendered briefly unable to function with the sheer force of willpower he had to exert
“…and I hear a lot of older dragons get stomach troubles from eating humans… I guess there’s not enough fur, you know, roughage”
“That was something I never needed to know…”
Rheal chuckled, he had such an… unconcerned, easy way around him… and when the sun wasn’t setting his scales agleam, they looked like delicate little plates of dark gold. The treasure of their last adventure still hung around Rheal’s neck. The gold coated, jewelled band looked good on him, it suited, shiny against the rough texture of his scales. Still Johan wondered, about letting the dragon keep the odd item, which seemed to have an alluring power over metal objects… but he honestly wasn’t that interested in it… it unnerved him, and… he assumed it was some sort of permanent static… he knew he could make paper stick to the right things with an uncanny attraction. He had already written to some of his friends about the item… for now, Rheal was the safest place for it… his official employer would want to sell it. Unlike papers and tools, there was no way he’d manage to keep such a shiny item to himself… no… in the interest of preservation, it would remain Rheal’s neck chain. And, he liked how pleased Rheal looked when he pawed at it. The dragon deserved it… he had an archaeologist’s spirit, and it wouldn’t have been discovered without him.
“You are coming, aren’t you?”
“Have I turned you down yet?” Johan bounced his rump to the pillar to sway back to his feet, putting himself closer to Rheal’s huge looming muzzle… he reached to stroke a hand down the scales. Yes, he was growing fond of Rheal… fond enough he felt he had to have an uncomfortable talk “Just wait here… don’t break anything… keep an eye on that tail of yours. I’ll just go get my things… but don’t grab me up, alright… I need to talk with you about something.
Rheal’s head cocked, but he made a light hum Johan took for agreement, and quick as he could he fetched his supplies, gave his boss a quick wave and hurried out the door. He loved it, his employer never complained to him escorting the dragon from outside the building… oddly enough, him sitting there didn’t get customers through the door… but him having sat there, did bring them back later. Overall, the dragon was proving good for business.
He found his way outside to… more or less what he expected, Rheal was looking behind him, a wheelbarrow by his tail being refilled with an enthusiasm which had nothing to do with work ethic…
The dragon looked to him, and he could swear he saw a redness around those scales “I was being careful, I promise… I made sure there was nothing in my tail’s arc… but… but he came out of nowhere…” the barrow, refilled, was whisked away quickly by its minder, Rheal turning his head “Sorry…” he bellowed out after the cart, the jolt the sound gave the pusher almost unbalancing it again. Rheal sighed “the only time I wish I wasn’t so big… or you weren’t all so small”
“It’s alright, no harm no foul” the head came back down, and, though he hesitated a moment… the approach of that muzzle always, nerve-wracking, he managed to run a hand along the snout again in what he hoped was a comforting way…
“Your world is so…busy and tight” Rheal looked around, eyes scanning the city with, a certain gleam in the sharp irises “it is fascinating… but there are so many of you, and everything is built, human size… even if I wanted to, I couldn’t… interact. Trying to explore this place would end up… a problem, wouldn’t it? I’d break a nest, or tread on something… and when something really gets my attention… makes me curious my… my tail sways, I can’t help it, and when I’m so focussed, I’m not thinking about it… in the hills, worst thing is it bumps stone… it’s scaly enough to not be hurt, and the rocks don’t mind either… in the woods, unless it’s a young tree, their roots are still strong, maybe they lose some branches… but… you humans make such pretty things, but you make them so… fragile” he gave Johan a look “that’s why a lot of… my kind, look down on humans, you know… you’re bright creatures, you’re sure to build a lot of odd little structures, but they’re so fragile… you build nests that can be blown down by wind or storm, rattled when the earth shakes, knocked down by a clumsy sweep of our tails… they look to you and snort, thinking you are not smart, or, not as smart as you think you are, they just see you being foolish. A cavern is stronger, larger than your homes, trees have firmer roots… it sometimes seems, that you put so much effort into doing things there is no point to… they look down on it, as impractical, foolish, ridiculous… they see humans as touched in the head… if they catch one of you to eat, the others often never flee, even if they have no way of doing otherwise… they often see you as insensible things… we value sense, practicality… ingenuity, when it has a clear use…” Rheal sighed… his tail was very still, now “but… they don’t see what I do… you little things are so, creative… you make mistakes, lots and lots of mistakes… but you make things that are new… you’re like nature herself, so creative… and she makes mistakes. You’re just… a lot younger than she is… I think sometimes you don’t realise how young you are… you look and you see mostly creatures that, get on with their lives, and don’t, do what you do, and so you don’t understand them… just as most dragons don’t understand you. You humans… have a lot to teach us, I think… it why I love seeing everything you make, because… you’re indomitable little things” he purred a little, looking down to Johan “I love that… any problem you come across, you… you always find a way around it, and the way you work together… so many little paws, you accomplish feats the size of dragons… I guess, we don’t always notice that, you do things, we could do, but… but they don’t stop to think, how amazing it is, you can do things on a scale we can, despite being so small… when you work together… I like it… it’s, interesting”
Johan sat against Rheal’s forepaw, just listening… he would have called Rheal an open book before, but… he’d never had the dragon open up to him like this… and it, was touching… he liked, understanding the dragon’s motivations better… he, found he felt surer Rheal would never want to eat him.
Rheal hummed, and flicked his tail, slowly, watching it carefully “anyway… I talk and talk, you had something you wanted to say?”
“right… yes” Johan cleared his throat… he felt bad bringing this up, after Rheal had spilled his heart and his passion out so thoroughly “It’s… about your diet…”
“Oh…” Rheal settled down, looking to Johan “what about it… have I done something?”
Johan drew in a long breath… how to approach this… “it’s about… eating people, Rheal…”
“I haven’t eaten anyone here, promise” Rheal blurted out, lifting a taloned forepaw, pressing the palm to his chest. The digits flexing against the rising and falling scale “Hand on heart… that’s what you say, right? I’m trying to be good…”
“No… nobody here is missing… you’re not in trouble” he continued, hurriedly “it’s, about you and me… and when you eat people… away from town”
“Oh…” Rheal lowered his head, his normally perked ears drooping a little “of course… you… um, you’re all pack… so… you feel an urge to protect anything human… right? I heard that somewhere… even if you don’t know them?”
“Yes… something like that”
Rheal sighed, the heavy gust managing to blow over an empty crate “I’m sorry… I, forget how much you humans dwell on such things… it just doesn’t come naturally to me… we don’t have your.. um, packbond. Is that what you call it? We call it that. If I saw another dragon eaten then… well, unless they were family, friend, or ally… I’d learn from their mistake but not try and stop it… we are not above nature, only part of it…” he gave Johan a look “are you… are you saying you don’t want to work with me, if I eat humans… because, sometimes I don’t have a choice… and it’s… it’s how we do things… I, I have to hunt for all my food… and most of my prey escapes my talons… I don’t… don’t have the luxury to be picky, or else I’d never eat a human, I swear… they are pretty good.. and such a nice shape… but I swear, I would… I just…”
Johan was, taken aback… he hadn’t expected this much, distress. He waved his hands to try and calm Rheal down “easy… easy. I understand… you don’t have the same luxuries we do… food is scarce… I’m not saying… I won’t work with you if, you eat people… but I will ask, that you not eat any when you’re with me… can we agree to that?”
Rheal looked at him for a long moment, before nodding vigorously “oh, yes, of course, I can do that, anything to keep you happy. You’re precious, I want you to keep working with me”
Johan smiled a little, that went better than he thought… “and maybe, if it forces you to go hungry we can make it up to you… you already help me discover so much, maybe we could organise a meal when you come back.
The dragon’s nose noticeably wrinkled “I wouldn’t take an animal you… farm. We… don’t agree with the practice. It shows the animals and nature no respect…”
“Some of us do still hunt… I’m sure we could stretch the budget to something caught, right from the wild”
He seemed to consider that “well… I suppose if I got really hungry. Some dragons, I heard they are trying something like that… if they catch an unlucky human, they offer the human’s clan a trade… though it’s on the edges of our rules… it’s not fair to give any one breed of prey an advantage…”
Johan rolled a hand along Rheal’s snout “well… let’s leave our deal simple for now, I’m just glad you agreed. Both times you took me out I had to watch you eat people…”
“Believe it or not those were out of the norm…” Rheal eased back up to his paws, yawning “sitting too long, are you ready to go now?”
“Ready as I can be” He bounced his bag on his shoulder, and bracing himself for what he knew would come next. Really his answer was true, but he wasn’t talking about his tools, he’d just about readied himself mentally for another day out with a dragon.
Rheal raised a taloned paw, claws almost as long and thick as his forearm. The scaly palm settled to his stomach, he felt one claw supporting his backside, the others pressing his bag tight to his back. The dragon picked him up, and it still gave him a moment’s pause… just, lifted from the ground in one hand. For all his, friendly demeanour, Rheal, was huge… Not as large as some dragons of legend, Johan wasn’t encapsulated in that paw, only held around the middle, but it was big enough. He doubted he could save himself now, if Rheal was inclined to eat him. His full strength couldn’t push that muzzle away. But Rheal gave him only a bright smile before looking away, back stepping carefully into the middle of the street, especially careful of his paws. Those wings flared, blocking the sky from Johan, casting the ground, the houses, the very air in a dim tan pallor, before they surged, Rheal sprung, and the ground fell away again. Once more for parts unknown. Johan sighed a bit to himself, this time he was facing Rheal not the ground… though the view was… interesting. He just hoped it wasn’t too long a flight this time.
Time passed faster than he’d expected… with his focus on the dragon, he found an almost hypnotic fascination with watching the colossal beast fly. He could see the muscles swell and relax at Rheal’s chest, distinct from the dragon’s deep breathing, but only slightly. Actually, the two processes found a curious, lack of motion, a stillness in the chaos between the two processes. When the muscles for his wings relaxed, the chest swelled with air, when they contracted and bunched up, the air left… his chest, didn’t rise or fall that much overall as a result. It was intriguing also to really watch the joint of his wing in motion, each long, billowing flap, how he kept his wings angled when he flew, watching, when they passed through cloud or fog, how the misty vapours moved through the angles of those wings, faster, or slower, as was needed… it was, almost inspiring, to see how a dragon could command the winds to carry them, just by having their wings just so… If they can do that… so huge, maybe we could too he let the thought linger in his mind for a long moment before dismissing it. If humans flew it would be how he was, carried aloft. Still, he had to admit, if he wasn’t so devoted to archaeology, he might have been tempted to study the flight of dragons, after seeing it up close.
What was more surreal, was how much more he noticed the movements of Rheal’s paw this time… before he’d tried not to think about the dragon carrying him, but… as they flew, he felt, small changes, a squeeze more to the chest, a sliding of… what he could only call thumb, though the word didn’t truly fit, down his body to support his weight differently when Rheal dove or rose. It made him think of his own hands, he carried things so, stably, but he never thought about it… that same, subconscious knack keeping his flight stable… or stable enough.

For once he was almost disappointed when Rheal began to slow, wings going wide as they would, flaring out like sails, the dragon descending. Though he got to watch how a flap pushed Rheal’s upper body back, the hind talons swept forward, before the sharp jolt that ran through his very bones. Rheal had landed. Dragons were more interesting than he had thought, he pondered, as Rheal put him down with the care he’d show an ornate vase.
Around him was… jungle, he’d known the word, but this… this was the reality. Walls of green, they looked as impenetrable as if they were made of stone. Their landing spot was a rock, a sizable boulder not even the plants could shift… it was shockingly pale, and it wasn’t alone. There were a trail of them, leading to… something he hadn’t been able to make out properly before. It was almost reclaimed by the greenery, walls draped with vines and plants he didn’t have a word for, a temple, if a broken one, the pale stone looked bright as the moon in the shadowed depths of tree and bush. The comparison to a strewn skeleton though were too clear to ignore, despite the immediate cliché. The ruins just looked so shockingly pale amid the reclaiming plants.
Without a word, Rheal wandered over him, belly something Johan had to duck. Briefly there was a scent, not… quite unpleasant, but heavy, but it was gone as soon as the dragon’s hips were past, Rheal bounding from stone to stone on his way to the temple. Johan followed… it wasn’t that he was unenthusiastic… but his approach lacked the bounding energy of his larger companion. He took the time to really consider the place… it was, simple, overall, but the crafting looked anything but. It was more minimalist, really. A long staircase led to a high dais, crumbled remains of… from the shape and angles of some of the fragments, he assumed had once been statues… the pieces of one they were moving across. It looked like the lower level had once held accommodations, but those were crumbled. But… the overall shape had survived, and he felt reasonably sure it wouldn’t collapse, after watching Rheal bound up the staircase and perch on the dais, looking around with a low pleased growl.
Johan followed at a slower pace, the staircase up was built for humans but it was very high, it rose up to the trees. Still… the place was obviously a wreck, but it looked… clean. These steps were clear of rubble. They were chipped, but the chipped stone wasn’t there anymore… would rain explain that? For the moment he shrugged it off, Rheal’s presence was a comfort. He might be ever wary of the dragon, but he trusted few things would dare touch him within the dragon’s shadow.
Rheal seemed to have gotten bored by the time Johan got up top and was nosing around, paying particular attention to what looked like a long stone alter, but when Rheal was around it… it made Johan think of a table, for a dragon. But… the difference was probably non-existent, given this place.
“It has a nice view, for something humans build”
Johan gave Rheal a glance, the huge wings… well “I imagine nothing we can build compares to a dragon eye view”
Rheal rumbled, padding around atop the perch, peering down into the woods while Johan observed the space… so much was degraded, likely just by the weather. It was sad… but he observed the alter a little more, it had little muted carvings… dragons, he could make those shapes out. He was sure he saw at least one figure depicting a dragon eating someone, but maybe he was pushing his own perceptions on it. He knew nothing about this new culture after all.
He was contemplating asking Rheal to dig out some of the lower floors when the dragon made a high whistle of a sound “oh, there are some humans down there”
Johan didn’t find the news encouraging… interested though, he hurried over to Rheal’s sat hips, leaning to a settled forelimb for support as he peered down where the dragon was looking. Indeed, there were some people down there… their attire was as… minimalist as the temple, and they held some sort of weapon. Long, sharp tip. Looked like a spear to him. And they were gesturing up at the dragon crouching on the edge of their temple. He could see a trail of them making their way to the stairs. They were shouting, something… in a language he didn’t know. It was hard to judge their tone too, their speech included clicking, it threw off his assessment. Whatever it was it was loud and excited… but angry? Maybe…
Rheal seemed unconcerned. He turned and wandered to the top of the stairs, watching the humans hurrying up. Johan kept close, against the leg of the dragon, trusting if they wanted to throw a spear… they’d have to deal with Rheal first.
Certainly, they didn’t seem aggressive, as they got close. Their weapons very much in hand though. Yet, as they rose to the high plinth, the situation changed dramatically. Wave after wave of them moved before Rheal, and dropped to their knees. Soon the full gathering of locals were bowed before Rheal, the dragon cocking his head “um… this is strange”
Johan sucked a breath through his teeth “well Rheal, I think you just replaced that dragon you were mentioning”
One of these locals stood, his body… impressive and largely on display, apart from a, slightly more thorough amount of clothing around the waist, the man was decorated only with bracelets and a necklace of bones and feathers. The man spoke, incomprehensible to Johan, but he did get the feeling it wasn’t quite like the voices he’d heard before.
Rheal slowly nodded “oh…I see, ah…” he paused, and… spoke? He made a series of growls and low whistling sounds, huffs, and something that could only be described as a muted roar. It was… nothing Johan could even begin to understand, but it sounded, expressive. The dragon language?
“Rheal, do you understand them?”
The dragon finished, and looked to Johan, bobbing his muzzle “uh, huh. This one anyway. It’s not very good, but he’s mimicking dragon words. And I think he understands me a little…”
The man had turned, speaking to the others in their own language. From the way he threw his voice and arms high, John had the impression he was telling them to celebrate. It was a guess, but a good one he assumed.
Rheal chuckled “it’s quite entertaining, they seem to think I’m the other dragon, reincarnated. I think so… they’re calling me immortal… and a word that… um, it sort of means… it really doesn’t translate well… it’s the word we have for… paragon, sort of… for a dragon who is very very powerful, like an alpha, a dragon so powerful and impressive you’d not want to challenge them, out of sheer respect. I suppose… like a god, or a king? Like one of your kings, if they were king because they were very powerful, physically and in size and age”
“Let’s leave it at god…” Johan murmured “I think that’s what they intend to call you, judging by this place”
Rheal nodded, purring, licking his chops “better yet, he told me they want to feed me”
“Really?”
“Not in those exact words…”
“What words then” Johan mused “it could be important”
Rheal rolled his shoulders “it’s not that easy Johan… I don’t think he really knows what he’s saying, he can’t structure a sentence well, and he gets words wrong… and our language isn’t as structured as yours to begin with. He says, best as I can translate, sit god, and offering comes for your happiness and our forever joy under appreciation of god” he shook his head “bearing in mind I am using god for that word that doesn’t quite mean that… I assume offering means food”
Johan sighed “probably. So, dragons have a word for offering?”
Rheal nodded, and whistled, it was a slow sound that came from deep in his throat… it almost sounded sultry “mmm, it is a sound for food given to another dragon because you like them or want to placate them. Like, a mate you want, or an elder dragon you want to not take your territory or drive you away”
Johan mused on that “makes sense… so… they think you’re their god finally returned, and want to feed you so you will be happy with them, and probably bless them…”
“Bless them?” Rheal cocked his head
“Yes…” Johan shrugged “it’s how old god legends go… give the god a gift, it will not destroy you, and maybe use their presumed mighty powers to make your life better… bringing rain when it’s dry, or destroying an enemy. This is a curious case because, well, their god is real, sort of… it’s possible what they expect of their god is very real too… it’s also possible that man speaks so, inarticulately because… well, how many generations might have passed since a dragon came here? They are probably more or less meaningless to him… just sounds, passed down. I’ll assume he knows they’re dragon language, maybe even knows… what he’s been told they mean. I’d be wary of assuming he understands anything you say… or at least, understands it to have the same meaning you do”
Rheal nodded along “yes… I’ll be careful. I am hungry though… I hope they bring me something nice”
There were sudden, sharp words that drew both their attention. In the native tongue. The locals were moving away, but a few of them were eying Johan… their weapons looked a lot, readier.
“No, no” Rheal moved the limb between Johan and the locals, before making a soft roar of a sound. It seemed to relax them instantly, and they even waved to Johan as they left.
“Rheal… what did you say?”
The dragon rumbled “oh… nothing, seems they do know a few basic words”
“Rheal…” he asked, the low warning tone seemed to be useless on a dragon, for Rheal just turned and wandered to sit behind the alter “what did you say? They wouldn’t have turned so suddenly and so, friendly, if you’d just told them no… what did you say”
Rheal cleared his throat…and the dragon actually looked sheepish as he averted his eyes “that was… well, the word for, servant”
“I see” Johan looked back at the disappearing locals before joining Rheal… the dragon looked thoughtful though “I hope that’s what they heard of course… for us similar meanings have similar sounds… I suppose it makes, slightly different meanings easier for the, untrained”
“Like what…”
Rheal shook his head “slave, consort… that sort of thing”
“Charming…”
“Then again, we don’t really have specific words for those things… they’re just in the, intonation”
“Them thinking I serve you is enough, explains why they’re so happy… means I’m one of them, I guess”
And so, they waited, the sun was beginning to set, but the locals were moving around the temple, lighting stone braziers, decorating the shrine with flowers. Johan didn’t really know how to feel. He wasn’t exceptionally curious, but he felt he should be. History he was interested in, the fact this culture was still alive somehow ruined it for him… but, he did continue to ponder over the marks on the alter, taking a few rubbings of them. Rheal on the other hand seemed to be enjoying himself… or enjoying the attention anyway. A few of the locals had come and started grooming his paws.
“I wonder what they want in return” Rheal mused aloud after some time had passed
“Hopefully they’ll tell you, and hopefully it won’t be anything awful, like eating some other tribe they have issues with”
“mmm… I couldn’t do that”
“I know” Johan smiled to Rheal, but the dragon was pawing his belly “a tribe? I mean, I could barely eat a few humans and be able to waddle”. Johan sighed.

Time passed, and it truly began to touch into night, but the whole temple was alight with fires now, and the ceremony was beginning to heat up. From below they rose in pairs, lines of natives lit only by the flaring torches they carried. Forming a ring of fire around the alter and the dragon who sat before it. A booming had begun to surround them, somewhere drums were echoing, more felt than heard. Johan’s heart was matching the beat that stirred the air as the tempo rose and with it rose what he could only call a vast stone plate, it took eight of them to carry and atop it was just one. A delicate girl, eyes wide and gleaming in the flickering firelight, escorted in pride of place as before Rheal upon the alter she and the circle of stone was placed, the bearers bowing and retreating, only one… that same decorated native from before remained close, gesturing to the presented mouthful as the drums fell to a quiet, ominous hum.
Johan looked between the sacrifice and Rheal, dead for words. The dragon’s head had lowered, and his eyes were wide but focussed. His muzzle hovered so close. The girl’s chest rose and fell with… excitement? Fear? He could see her hair blown back from her face with the dragon’s own breathing. There was a tension to the muscles of his neck and jaw, his chest rose and fell in time with his prey. Should he intervene? Johan bit his lip, this could be dangerous… could he just let Rheal eat though… surely, he should…
Rheal’s head rose, and one clawed hand rose, nudging the plate away from him with a wistful smile “no thanks, I’m on a human-free diet at the moment” he blinked, seeming to come back to himself a little before presumably saying the same thing, or close enough, in the dragon language. The dragon shot Johan a bright smile. He could only press his head into his hands and silently scold himself for how much in that moment he really wished Rheal had just eaten what they’d given him. Silence had descended, nobody moved… long enough that it got awkward, even Rheal seemed to notice it, his smile turning a little sheepish “sorry… I’m just, not in a human mood…”
Briefly Johan wondered if the dragon was speaking in his language for his benefit, or actually kept forgetting these humans didn’t speak it, but before he could clarify in dragon, the natives had begun to inch closer, lifting the plate to take away. They moved with notably less enthusiasm and spirit than before. Most of the torches had gone out as those gathered also shuffled away.
“This… is just embarrassing” Johan groaned, hoping deep in his heart that despite how painfully awkward this anti-climax was, that it continued. It was better than anger, slightly.
“I feel bad” Rheal murmured “it meant so much to them, I think, that I eat her… especially when they probably haven’t gotten to do this for a few generations”
Johan almost laughed “we ruined their big moment, the elaborate ceremony to feed their dragon god a human sacrifice… this is so surreal I don’t even know how I should be reacting…”
Before long some returned, the plate once more rising up, hurried to Rheal, although now the occupant was a lot less willing and significantly less human. What looked like some sort of hairy pig was tied down to it, it managed to squeal briefly before Rheal’s muzzle swept down, plucking it from the natives before they even put the oversized plate down. His muzzle flicked back, a single jab up, and the shifting beast sank, a lump that flowed down the dragon’s long neck. Every human eye watched the intimidating show, ten seconds was all it took before the faintly shifting lump in the scales disappeared from sight, forever, past the dragon’s collarbone. Rheal roared something to them, and they bowed, hurrying away. He licked his chops “not bad”
“You ate that pretty fast”
“What? I was hungry” Rheal shrugged, easing to his belly “that whole show before really gave me an appetite”
“That isn’t encouraging…” Johan murmured, but, he placed a hand to the dragon’s thigh, rubbing “I appreciate you did that for me though…”
Rheal’s snout came down, lapping along Johan’s fore, leaving his clothes wet and sticking to him “I like you happy”
Johan couldn’t help but smile, rubbing along the energetic beast’s snout, fingers playing along the fine scales. It was bizarre, in his day to life he never encountered something so big that was, alive “you know, before I met you, I never thought I could get along with a dragon… least of all one who ate people but… you really open my eyes… I suppose it’s just, correcting my assumptions… any human who kills other humans… well, they’re highly unpleasant, they have to be nasty enough to overcome the urge to care for other people. But you, a dragon… you’re not human, you never had an instinctive urge to protect humans, rooted right into your mind and lineage. So, you’re… really a nice dragon, despite that… it’s a real mind twister, two things that clash so drastically, if seen together in a human”
Rheal’s tail thudded behind him and Johan quickly let go of the dragon, reminding himself that they were still at the top of an old relic… and Rheal’s tail had a destructive reputation “anyway… hopefully they are content… I wouldn’t want them to attack”
“Oh, I don’t think they will” Rheal looked off, from his height, Johan assumed the dragon could still see some of them. “They are, confused, but only confused”
“I’d be worried they reject you as their god… didn’t you say they thought you were resurrected or reincarnated… presumably to explain your new look, immortal god…”
Rheal hummed “well, I’m here, I’m a dragon, they can’t question that. Their old god, a new god. I’m real, and sitting here”
“That’s a fair point…” Johan shrugged, packing the rubbings he took into his bag “are we leaving?”
“Soon” Rheal murmured “they’re coming back… I want to know what this, blessing is, I want to repay them for the food” He glanced to his companion “so, are you feeling ready to leave? We didn’t find any treasure…”
Johan nudged his bag with his foot “it’s fine, I got some rubbings of their markings to examine. That’s the real history to me, you can learn a lot from the stories they put down… and, well, if we leave on good relations, we can come back, maybe I’ll even be able to learn their language after I study these”
Rheal rumbled with a nod “yes, that is good, personally I’m quite happy, it’s nice to meet a group of humans who really, really want me around”
The dragon didn’t look at him as he spoke, but Johan still felt a slight pang… it must be hard, to be a dragon who wanted to know humans… nobody really wanted them around. Even if he’d never seen Rheal eat someone, even if the dragon claimed never to… what human would trust that? Trust it long enough to get to know him… if he hadn’t been assigned that first day, he’d have never given Rheal a chance. It made him uneasy to think that.
Three of the locals returned, gesturing, and speaking to Rheal in the broken dragon language, but Rheal must have understood, for he rolled to his paws “seems they want me to follow… you come too, Johan”
Rheal followed the locals and Johan hurried after… lucky enough that Rheal’s pace was being restricted “I’m starting to think I should learn a bit of… dragon, do you have a name for your language?”
Rheal shook his head “for me it was as simple as dragon language and human language… well, till I realised humans had more than one… it’s that simple for most of us. Unless we try to learn to speak with humans, we have only one language. They only need names if you need to distinguish between them… so no, our language has no name”
Johan nodded a little “can a human even make those sounds you do?”
“Not really” Rheal admitted “they seem to know words, and what those words mean. They just say a list of words… context narrows down what each word is, as well as the other words they use next to it. Like, my word for tail is very similar to the word for sitting down… but if they say, ‘Please tail” I might assume they actually meant please sit…maybe sway my tail a bit for good measure…” he hummed, looking off “though… what if they said tail, thinking that meant happy, because a swishing tail can mean that, and mean please be happy… that sort of makes sense” He shrugged, shaking his head “if we come back I’ll need to work on their pronunciation and check their understanding… it will be difficult if I don’t know what it means in their language though… still, we can communicate”
“You make a lot of, sounds in your throat… are those actually just, sounds, or are they words too… I would have assumed a roar was a sound before today”
Rheal chuckled, leaning his head down, a deep note like a purr echoing in his neck, but it almost sounded smug “those are for emotions. Deep from the throat means emotion. That’s the easy way. If it uses my tongue and breath to shape it, it’s a word, if it stirs only my throat, it’s an emotion… I suppose it may be difficult to you, the changes in pitch and duration say much…”
“I’d have never known… I suppose I get the rough impression though”
Rheal nodded, looking back to their guides “you always seem to get the idea, in how you react. Our language is a lot, simpler than yours. That is lucky for your kind, some dragons teach the human speech, it is a lot more expressive, a lot more in depth, a lot clearer. Since your kind came along, we live in closer proximity than ever before… your language was fortunate, it has helped us to communicate. Before, our language was only as detailed as it needed to be, interactions were brief, and purpose driven. We didn’t, chit-chat. It mostly came about as a way to diffuse disagreements without fighting… we used to fight a lot, hence the scales and the claws, we’re strongly built… eventually it reached a point where we were, in danger. We’d kept growing, bigger and stronger, our fights more dangerous to both… speech, language, it developed under that pressure… although it meant we grew even more. The danger of fighting, was keeping us from overgrowing, to a point… now, fully grown dragons, they almost never fight. If they do… they do not fight, fully; they would both die” he rumbled “language made us more placid, we are powerful, but we risk so much to use it, our power forces we be humble, or die… humans often seem the opposite”
Johan pondered that, shrugging a little “I don’t know about that, we certainly don’t seem to handle an excess of power well… we have many a cautionary tale. Language is how we survive on a much more basic level, I think. We wouldn’t be humans without it… dragons would be dragons without it”
“Just much shorter-lived dragons” Rheal mused “we’d never come to peaceful solutions… Curious isn’t it… we found fighting, and language gave us peace… you found language, and… now you try to use power as a threat for peace… it seems an invert of us…. I haven’t said it well though”
Johan smiled softly “I should take you to a city, there would be crowds of people I’m sure who would be delighted to discuss philosophy with a dragon, the open minded would adore such a, novel perspective, as the musings of another species entirely”
“Interesting” Rheal admitted “I’ll think about that…”

They were led into the jungle, the heat got oppressive, the calls of strange creatures in the thick plant life. The surroundings felt dangerous in a basic way, to Johan anyway. He had ventured out and about before, but it was nothing quite like this place… the density was frightening, it felt so, crowded.
In time, a curious sweet smell touched to the edges of his senses, and the cause soon became apparent. They wandered into a strange grove, strange because in the rather vast space only one sort of tree stood. They were relatively squat things, bearing fruit, though the fruit didn’t look healthy, and for that matter, neither did the trees. There may have been no other trees, but these were still looking overgrown, yet, the competing plants didn’t look especially healthy either. They were short and… somehow just the wrong colour. They were rotting even as they grew, or so it looked.
“Is this place infected” Johan recoiled with some disgust, covering his nose… the sweet smell had become, sickly.
“Oh…” Rheal padded closer, he sounded like he’d had some epiphany “I know these trees”
“You do?” Johan was incredulous, but Rheal seemed, enthusiastic
“Oh yes, they only grow in one sort of place, that I know of, they grow back home too at our… um, leavings ground…”
“Leavings ground… what do… oh” Johan looked to the ground… so this was where all the sacrifices had ended up “So… why is that?”
Rheal shrugged “dunno, but they grow really well in it, and they bear these fruits. It lures prey. I love these trees…”
Johan looked to the natives, they looked, expectant “I’m surprised dragon dung would be good for growing things in…”
“Oh, it’s not” Rheal rumbled “something about it makes plants just die… it’s why we often do it in the same cluster of area, or places where few plants grow… a single time amid plants won’t be a disaster, of course, only if it’s done a lot…”
“charming… so why do these trees do so well then?”
“Because nothing else does” Rheal shrugged “see these, they’re being outcompeted by sickly shrubs. I think they only survive if dragons cause a place they can live. I think they must be immune to whatever toxin hurts the others. Nothing else can live in these spots, so they thrive in them… it works. I guess it benefitted them to grow such tasty fruit too, it makes us really want to keep them around” he looked to the natives as well “I guess they must like the fruit too… or like the way it can draw prey, or both. When the last dragon stopped visiting he must have stopped leaving here… if that’s the only blessing they want, on the harvest of these trees, I can and will gladly help them”
“Yuck” Johan replied with a flat tone “if you don’t mind I won’t watch… you’d better make sure if that’s all they want…”
As Rheal began to dig a hole with his hind claws, to the approving calls of the locals, Johan took his chance to turn and walk away a bit. It did make a sort of sense… the occasional loss of a mouth that needed feeding, in order to give a dragon a meal, who would in turn indirectly increase their food supply. It would be interesting to know how this relationship began. With luck, such a thing would be present on the rubbings he’d taken from the temple itself.
Soon enough the familiar tremors alerted him to Rheal’s approach and he turned to face the grinning dragon “You’re finished, I take it”
“I am indeed, they were quite grateful” Rheal glanced back the way he had come “I think they returned to their village, I think they mean to celebrate. Our time to leave maybe. I like them, if this means so much, maybe I can take time out of my normal routes to come here sometimes, keep the grove clear”
“Are you intending to become their new god, Rheal…” Johan asked warily. He could imagine the line of human sacrifices already
The dragon clawed into the earth a little, looking off “well… I don’t need to, it’s not like anyone they feed me is likely to end up in that grove anyway, so, I could just, come, leave there and, be done”
Johan shrugged with a sigh “I hope so… they’d keep feeding you their own if you kept coming often, I’m sure… they probably don’t understand why what you do helps their grove, it’s just the blessing of a dragon… strangest blessing I ever heard of”
Rheal rumbled, and his clawed forepaw reached, lifting Johan gently and easily to his chest, before the dragon leapt, the jolt always uncomfortable for a human passenger, but all the same, rising into the skies “don’t worry Johan, I like these people, I want to help make them happy”
“That I can believe” he clung to the digits, even though he did trust Rheal’s grip, trying to relax for the long journey home. Rheal’s stamina surprised him. He didn’t know when the dragon had last slept, but even as the sky went dark, Rheal flew on. Eventually Johan dozed off, and when he woke, it was to a thud, a thud heavy enough to shake him awake. His town was before him, and the claws released.
“Rheal” he murmured “did you, fly all night?”
The dragon did look… sleepy, but he rumbled, diverting his muzzle when he yawned, sparing Johan a deep view “oh it’s fine, I’m going to go somewhere to relax for a while. I’ll come visit sometime”
Johan checked through his bag before nodding “I have plenty to get on with, but… you know, you can come see me even if it’s not for business”
“I can?” the energy in the question shocked him, but Johan nodded
“Of course,”
He heard the familiar beat of tail on earth “then I will, and don’t worry, I’ll do my best to avoid eating humans around you, like we promised. I think I have a solution to the food problem anyway”
“Solution…?” Johan still felt half asleep, but he felt that was important “what solution”
“Oh… nothing, but I think I’ll get by” The dragon’s head dipped down, licking Johan strongly enough to knock him over, the dragon giving a purr before flaring his wings again “I’ll visit soon”
Rheal took off before Johan could catch his breath, shouting after the dragon “Rheal! What solution!” but the dragon was gone, leaving Johan to shrug off the dragon’s enigmatic spirit, and wander back into town… he had lots to work on once more, after all.