Enola

Dad was right. Ketchup is delicious.

I scowled at the traitorous thought as I chewed on the roasted deer leg. It had taken all afternoon before Simon had finally said it was ready to eat... but as much as I hated to admit it, the wait had actually been worth it. There was still something extremely satisfying about eating a catch raw, with the warm blood still steaming through the meat... but... I could see why humans enjoyed eating meat this way, too.

And slathering ketchup over the still-sizzling meat I had plucked off the roasting stick only added to the taste. His annoying personality and stubborn persistence aside, this nuisance of a human had one thing going for him. He could make one tasty meal.

Even if it took him all day to do it.

The taste of the meat lingered on my tongue even after I swallowed the mouthful – something that happened far too quickly – and I happily tore another leg from the deer. Simon had thrown much of the animal away – the fur, the skin, some of the organs – but I had to admit that the texture was improved by that, too. This was a strange, almost wasteful way of eating, and one that took far too long to be practical... but as a treat on a special occasion, it could be nice.

Which, a small voice in the back of my head whispered, means you owe him.

I chewed on the second leg as I mulled over that thought. Simon had hauled that ketchup in from who knew where, even if the nervous horse watching us from the base of the hill had helped the journey go faster. The human had also mentioned that it was a special recipe meant for travel, which meant it had likely been even harder for him to get ahold of. And on top of that, he had sprinkled ground-up plants over the meat while it was cooking – something I still did not understand the reasoning for, but which my tongue was convinced had helped in some manner. I had expected the meat to be polluted with the taste of grass and weeds, but instead there was a spicy, almost sweet taste to the meat now.

So even though my mage senses had been dulled to the point that I couldn't feel it or determine the cost, I still knew I was building up a magedebt by eating the unfairly delicious meal. The fact that I had been the one to catch the deer in the first place only made it all the more annoying that I would owe Simon a magedebt over it. Even if it was only a day or three's worth of my magic.

Though for all I knew Simon had tricked me by dumping some rare, exotic weed on the meat, and I would find out later it had cost him a year's worth of pay, or some other such ridiculous trickery of humans. There would be no telling how long my magic would drain away paying that kind of debt, until after I had already paid it. And the last thing I wanted was to go even longer without magic. Even if it was only a day or three's worth.

It was smarter to just give him what he wanted.

I crunched down on the bones in the leg and swallowed, then sprawled lazily out beside the campfire. The gray horse made a nervous sound and backed further away from the hill, tugging uselessly at the lead tied to a stake in the ground, but I ignored the beast. 'Smokey' was Simon's problem, not mine. I took a moment to calm myself, and inhaled more of the delicious scent of the meat still roasting on the fire. Blasted humans. Bothering me and making me owe them. By feeding me one of the best meals I have ever had. Stupid jerks.

"Very well." I exhaled and looked over at Simon, who was sitting on a small rock between me and the horse while he chewed on a strip of deer meat. "What would you like to know about me?"

If Simon was truly here to learn about me as he claimed – which I still doubted – then the magedebt would consider that a fair trade for the meal. And if he was after something else, then I would squish him and just suffer through another day or two without magic.

Simon coughed a little around his food, likely not having expected me to speak so suddenly, then swallowed. "Um." He swallowed again, then took a drink from the waterskin at his side. I felt a vague sense of smug amusement at knowing I had managed to annoy him, then he recovered enough to speak. "I'm not even sure where to begin, honestly; there's so much I'd like to know." He paused and looked down the hill towards the entrance to my lair, then looked at the scenery around us. "Well. I guess first, why are you living here?"

"I like it here." I shot back the snarky reply without thinking... then sighed. That was a complete lie. I hated it here. If tomorrow the forest caught fire, and the lake boiled away, and the earth shook and swallowed up the human village, then I would be a very happy dragoness. At least for an hour or two. "I am sorry. It is not something I usually talk about."

I frowned as I tried to think. What would be close enough to the truth to satisfy Simon – and more importantly, any magedebt – without exposing things I did not want to talk about. "I am here to protect this area. This lake was cursed many years ago, and I am trying to contain that curse."

That seemed to get Simon's full attention. He put the meat down in the grass and stared out at the lake, as if worried the waters were about to swarm over the land and drown him. "Cursed? How? Are we in any danger?"

"Not so long as my spell holds. A naga sorceress placed a spell of some kind inside the lake, and now the waters of the lake are actively hostile to any humans. Drinking from it will poison you, and using its waters to grow crops or raise livestock will cause the crops to be blighted and the livestock to be sickly. We – other dragons, I mean – have tried to find the source of the spell and remove it, but it is hidden somewhere deep inside the lake, and so far no one has been able to find it. So I have a spell woven around the lake to neutralize that spell and prevent it from causing any harm." I felt a sense of pride at my own cleverness. Every word I had spoken was true. And I had answered Simon's question.

Even if it left out some very significant details.

"I see..." Simon looked away from the lake and down at the waterskin he had just taken a drink from. "Well, then in that case, please allow me to say thank you. On behalf of all the humans here."

I blinked at that. In all my dealings with humans, I could not remember any of them ever thanking me. Granted, I had never actually told them why I was here... but they had only seemed interested in what they could take from me. Gratitude had not seemed like something they were familiar with. I nodded slowly at Simon, still a little taken aback by his thanks.

He was quiet for a moment, staring nervously at his waterskin, then he shook his head. "Is it true what the king and the mages are saying? That you live in a cave full of magic crystals?"

I shrugged a wing at the question. "It is more a series of tunnels, but yes. My understanding from the dragon records I have read is that humans once mined the crystals that grew there long ago, and destroyed the entrances to the mine as part of some war. The tunnels near the surface are empty, but crystals do grow deeper within. The tunnels open into different chambers, some of which are large enough to serve as comfortable rooms for me."

Simon nodded, though he had a frown on his face. "Why do you live down there? I thought dragons liked to live on cliffs, up in the sky?"

I pulled my wing back in and looked towards the roasting meat, as if I was considering getting another piece of it. How to avoid answering that question? I did not want to tell Simon how much I relied on the crystals... though he was a human, and did not seem to be a mage – no mage would have needed to ask that last question, and would have been quite aware of the crystals in the ground beneath us. So it was doubtful he would understand how much power different magic spells actually needed, or of how little a dragon should need to rely on crystals for said spells. "The magic in the crystals helps with my counter-spell. It is easier to protect this place from the naga magic if I can draw from the magic in those crystals."

All technically true. The magic in the crystals were a significant help with my counter-spell. Since... I had no other way to power the spell.

If Simon noticed anything odd about my answer, he hid it well. He just nodded and picked up the deer meat he had put down earlier, then brushed some of the dirt off of it. "Are there a lot of crystals down there? Would it be a problem for your spell if the king took some of them?"

I narrowed my eyes suspiciously at Simon. Was that his game, then? Had he heard about the crystals here, and come looking for some he could take? Or maybe he was just concerned about my counter-spell failing, and endangering the humans here. I watched him closely as I answered. "The crystals grow as a result of a magic 'spring' beneath the ground. It acts like a river – some of the magic gets trapped in 'pools', which grow into the crystals, while the rest rushes onward. If need be a skilled mage is able to tap into the river directly, and fuel the spell that way." I left out that with my mage senses dulled, I was not able to do that.

"So if some of the crystals were to go missing, it would not prevent me from maintaining my spell. If all of them went missing then that would be a concern, since the flow of the 'river' would be disrupted for a time, the same as if you dug out the shore of a lake. It may even break the flow of magic entirely, and prevent any new crystals from growing. However," I paused and let a growl come into my voice. "That is my home. I would not take kindly to humans stomping around inside it, and making a mess of the place I live in. Even if they were to only take one crystal from me." No matter how good a meal they could cook.

I reached over to the campfire and tore the third leg off the deer, then began munching on it slowly.

Simon nodded thoughtfully. "Well. In that case, we better find some way to stop the king from trying to take them, then. But I promised you I wouldn't talk about that today, so I won't." He bit into the deer meat and chewed for a moment, then swallowed. "Do you have any family? I'm not really sure how dragon families work. Any children?"

I swallowed the mouthful of meat to answer. "No. I have some older siblings, but I have not talked to them in a while. Four brothers and two sisters. And one younger brother too. And of course, my parents." I carefully reached for the barrel of ketchup, then slathered more of the tasty sauce over the rest of the deer leg before taking another bite. It was hard to believe something this tasty could have come from a silly plant...

"Eight children? That sounds like a large family. Your parents must have had their hands full with all of you."

I shook my head as I finished chewing and swallowed. "Hardly. Most of my siblings were already grown when I hatched. And I was practically an adult when they decided to have another hatchling." I did some mental math in my head. "My four oldest siblings were each three years apart, and then after that it was closer to ten years apart." And... then my father's rider had died of old age. "My parents probably will not have any other hatchlings for a while, if they do decide to have more. Still, that is not considered very large for a dragon family. Some couples will have as many as twenty or thirty hatchlings."

That seemed to surprise Simon, and he coughed a little on his food. "Thirty?"

I hid my smirk at Simon's surprise with another bite from the deer leg, then gave a nonchalant shrug of my wings as I swallowed. "We live for a long time. That gives us a lot of time to work on a family." Though... we did not have forever. A rider would only live for so long. And a potential mate's patience would eventually fade too, especially when there were other dragonesses out there. Dragonesses that were capable of using magic, and able to weave the safety spells needed to keep a rambunctious youngster from hurting itself...

The smirk that had been on my face faded as my thoughts wandered into areas I would rather avoid. "What about you? Any human siblings?" I did not really care, but maybe the question would stop Simon from prying further.

Simon shook his head. "I have a few cousins out there, but I'm an only child. My parents decided I was trouble enough on my own without risking more like me." The human grinned as if making a joke, but something about his tone gave me the impression there was more truth to what he was saying than he wanted to admit... and he quickly changed the subject. "Is there a 'Mister Enola' out there? Some handsome dragon that you might be planning to start a family of your own with?"

The image of Cess came immediately to mind, and the gentle smile he had worn when he had left the last message for me.

I stuffed the rest of the deer leg into my mouth, chewing for a moment before noisily crunching down on the bones underneath the meat. I made sure to bare my teeth a little as I swallowed, then glared back at Simon. "No."

"Really?" Simon seemed surprised by my answer, though I was fairly sure I had kept my reaction to the question hidden. "I'm surprised you aren't beating the men off with sticks; you're really a very pretty dragon. There's no one you have your eye on?"

"And even if there were," I spoke calmly, though I could hear some of my anger slipping into my tone. "It is not something I would talk about." I reached towards the campfire and lifted the deer up by the stick, then pointedly tore into the center of the roasted animal. As I chewed I tried to think of the next way to warn the human away from the topic, since I was certain he would either fail to get the warning, or decide to ignore it if he did.

Simon seemed to actually get the hint, though, and he nodded slowly. "Of course." He took another bite from his chunk of roasted deer meat, then stood up from the small rock he had been sitting on. "I think I'm starting to get tired, and I still have to set up a camp somewhere. Preferably far enough away that Smokey won't be too nervous to sleep. Thank you for answering my questions and sharing this meal with me, Enola. It was nice to talk to you this evening – have a pleasant night."

I was still blinking in confusion as the human bowed, then untied the horse and began walking down the far side of the hill. I slowly ate the rest of the deer as I watched him go.