WHITE, dry light. The morning light filters through my eyelids, and its shine stirs me. Cracking my eyes open, I reflexively grope around beside me. My fingers brush along a thick fabric. It’s on the ground.
“Princess!” I sit up—jump up. My consciousness snaps awake in an instant. “Princess! Where are you?!” I shout. “PRINCESS!”
Only rustling trees answer me. Flustered birds fly away from their perches.
“Restrain yourself, Knight. Your voice is grating.”
“Princess isn’t here!”
“What?” Dragon rises, sitting on his hindquarters.
His movements are swift and agile for such a massive body. Boy, am I glad I didn’t have to clash my sword against his claws yesterday. No, now’s not the time to be thinkin’ ‘bout him!
“Why did you not notice?” Dragon accuses me, “Protecting the princess is your duty, is it not?!”
“…I was asleep.” Like a log. This is why aging sucks. “What about you? What were you doing?”
“…Sleeping.”
“Then get off my back! She was clingin’ all over ya too!”
“The little lady is too tiny and light. Therefore, I failed to notice…that she had moved.”
“Hah…if you say so…”
Knight and Dragon, facing each other, yet standing dead still, since early morning. The flock of birds flies back to their perch once they determine the danger is gone.
“Let us find Princess.”
“No objections here.”
I throw my cloak over my shoulders and put my hat that’d slipped off back on. I latch my shield on my back, my sword to my waist. Didn’t take me long to get ready since I’d kept most of the clothes I was wearing on.
“Don’t you come with me,” I say to the dragon.
“Why not?”
“You’re too big.”
“Hmph. Foul biped!”
He fancies himself an intellectual all right. A sharp glint flashes through his golden eyes when he shoots me a glare, but he shows no signs of preparing an attack. But he hasn’t let his guard down either, as his scales are sticking up, sharpened to a spike. They’re less menacing now than when I ran into him yesterday, but it’d be a stretch to call his scales silky smooth now.
“If you go slitherin’ and stompin’ ‘round with that hulking body of yours, you’ll erase any tracks Princess left behind. You get it, don’t ya?”
“Hrm. You do make a valid point.”
The dragon shifts. My arms itch to jump into action. My instincts yell, “Draw your sword! Hold up your shield!” I desperately fight the urges that years of battle have seared into my muscles. Calm yourself, Gideon. He has no bloodlust. Watch and wait.
See? He isn’t lunging for your neck. His foreclaws aren’t sinking into your fleshy neck…
“Hey! Why’re you groomin’ yourself here! Quit groomin’ your scales!”
Dragon pays me no mind. He gracefully manipulates his claws and peels off a single scale. Those are some dexterous claws he’s got there.
“Take this with you.” Dragon’s foreclaws thrust out in front of my eyes. Or should I call it his hand instead?
“Doesn’t that hurt?”
“It doesn’t. If I were to put it into terms your barbaric mind can comprehend, it is a sensation akin to removing a strand of hair.”
Interesting.
I rip the scale off the large dagger-like claw. The scales look small when they’re attached to a dragon, but it’s surprisingly large holdin’ it in my hand like this. ‘Bout double the size of a silver coin. The red color gradually dulls as it spreads from the root to the point, and the edges are partially transparent. It’s still slightly warm. It was spiky when he plucked it from his back, but now it’s round. Is it because the scale’s been removed? Is this its base form?
“So? What do I use this for?”
“Hold it in your bare hand. And then close your eyes.”
“Sure, sure. In my bare hands. Whatever ya say.” I remove my glove and rest it directly on the palm of my hand.
What in the seven kingdoms am I doin’? Obediently following what a dragon—my mortal enemy—is asking of me.
There’s only one reason for it. For the princess. In order to find the princess.
I close my eyes.
There should be a limit to how foolish I can be. There’s no guarantee he won’t take a bite outta me in a second. For all I know he was askin’ me to add a bit of seasoning before he eats me. Naturally. He’s a dragon. But there’s one thing I know for sure—he’s trying to protect Princess. He’s takin’ action for her. At least that much is the same as me.
“Whoa!”
Light flickers behind my eyelids. Scattered ruby sparks fill my sight and spread through my body. My blood boils and gooseflesh prickles across my skin. Even my hair stands on end. To be short, something like a tremendous, gigantic wave washed over and through me.
“What…is…this…?”
“Hm. It appears you have what it takes. Open your eyes, Knight. Slowly.”
I lift my eyelids like he said.
“Hh…haah…hh…haah.”
Sweat soaked through my clothes and I didn’t even realize. But I feel strangely comfortable. Actually, the fatigue that was weighing down my body’s core—frankly put, the exhaustion I haven’t been able to get rid of these past few days—has been removed.
“Oh, my body feels light.”
“Probably so. You just resonated with me.”
“‘Scuse me?”
Resonated? What the heck is that?
“Never remove that scale from your person. Oh, but you are not required to hold it directly against your skin anymore.”
“Wait. Wait. Wait a sec’! Explain what just happened in a language I can understand.”
“Did I not already do so? I told you, we resonated.”
“Please, Dragon. I’m a knight. A KNIGHT! Swingin’ around a sword and riding a horse is my job. I haven’t a jot about magic or curses or whatever ya did.”
Dragon silently narrows a single eye on me and suddenly spews a single hot breath from his nostrils. Warm steam brushes past my cheek.
“…My apologies,” he says.
Did he just sympathize with me? This stupidly huge brute of a bright-red, golden-eyed dragon pitied me?! You gotta be kiddin’ me! Without a doubt, this has gotta be the greatest humiliation in the world!
Suck it up. This is also for Princess. To find her.
“Our senses have been connected through that scale. Through our resonance, I’ll be able to see what you see, and hear what you hear, no matter how far you go. We can even converse.”
“…I see.”
“Now I will not have to worry about you ransacking the forest.”
The more eyes and ears we can get on the lookout the better. Even if they’re the eyes and ears of a lizard with horns and wings.
“Hang on. In other words, as long as I’ve got this on me, everything I hear and see will be leaked to you around the clock?”
“As long as you desire it so.”
“Relieved to hear that.”
“Do not fear. I’m not so bored as to spy on you at all times. I am fully aware you bipeds have an excessive need to rut.”
“…Then you will watch if you are bored?! I didn’t need to know that, stupid lizard!”