✿–;
The wood of her sandal clapped against
her feet as she slowly but surely made her ascent up the mountain. The stones beneath her feet echoed with each movement and she stood at the mouth of the cave as the wind behind her whipped through her dark hair and she peered into the abyss. Small hands clung to the offering before her and the sleeves of her yukata billowed briefly. Another was upon her back.
Years of the beast tales swam through her head and she tentatively stood. The light caught his hoard and she took a step back. Hanako believed herself to be a logical girl. She readily accepted facts and truths but longed and wished for those that were beyond the realm of her understanding. As he shifted her heart stopped and she quietly waited though for what she was uncertain.
The scent of smoke shocked her and she moved in closer. One step, then another just a little bit away from the entrance she stood in the threshold as the uninvited guest she was. Hanako held her breath and she watched him move. Kissed by moon beams his scales shone and glistened like the reflection of the lunar orb upon a river.
She watched him watch her and canted her head to the side in tandem as wonder filled her marred face. “…I was…afraid all this
time…when people…People left things down below…someone else
was…taking it but it looks like it’s you,” it truly was. Hanako
knelt which lead into a bow before she untied the satchel that rested upon her back with a small king’s ransom. She rested the one she’d been holding upon her lap and quietly began to untie it.
{♞} — Dragon bowed his head a bit, a sign of submission as he listened closely to her words. It had been decades since he last had a visitor, but he could discern her human tongue without too much trouble. He inched closer to her, carefully planned steps as the girl knelt down to the ground, his curiosity getting the better of him as he caught hint of glimmer coming from that old satchel of hers. The moonlight caught a bit of gold, and the dragon was suddenly very intrigued by his new, unexpected guest.
“*Mun kiir, hi lost bo pah daar ven wah kelnat hin ofanaat ko jor?” The beast drawled, the words growled out quietly from his throat. The soft, deep words echoed off the damp walls of his cave. Another step or two and he was just a few feet away from her now, towering over the pathetically small human before him. Grey eyes focused on her hands as she shakily dug through her leather bag, and it was then that he noticed that what he had previously perceived as painted markings were, in fact, just her marred skin.
Hatori snorted again, smoke rolling from his nostrils in waves. His long neck craned, his head bending down and using his long snout to nudge at her chin. Encouraging the girl to tilt her head back a tad, the pale, glowing moonlight caught the scarred side of her face, and he was able to examine it closely.
“**Kiir, hi los ahraan,” Hatori noted pointedly, a bit of concern lacing his dragon tongue. “***Aalkos hi los gein do vogaan wo aus nol sahsun yol decenninum vod?”
It seemed like just a few days ago he swooped down to the village after nightfall; a fire ravaged the stone and wooden home mercilessly. The second the creature had seen smoke billowing in the wind from atop his mountain, he sprang into action. He had torn through the roof and snatched up the tiny human child he found inside. Carrying her in his mouth, he placed her outside the home engulfed in flames. He returned again to rescue the other humans inside, but he had been too late. The much larger, older anthropoids had already passed, their bodies charred and smoldering by the time the dragon had stumbled upon them. The flames were already dying down, soon to fizzle out. Ashamed, he guiltily slunk off into the night and back to his mountain, remorseful that he had arrived so late. He was able to save the human offspring , but her progenitors perished. It was an unspeakable oversight.
That was a decade ago, a blink of an eye in his lifetime. It was enough to make him shudder.
Realizing she didn’t understand his ancient dragon tongue, the creature sighed. How was he going to be able to communicate to the child? His cold, wet nose pressed against her cheek, the one with marred and wrinkled scar tissue. Perhaps she would understand that he was trying to ask her about her scars.
*Human child, you have come all this way to deliver your offering in person? **Child, you are wounded. ***Perhaps you are one of the few who suffered from the village fire a decade ago?
A Grumpy Little Dragon 