On the Hunt for Dragons

“Xaymond!” I yell into the doorway of our quaint house. Well, quaint for us, as dragons. To normal humans, our house was actually quite big. 

“Xaymond!” I try again, “Hurry, this is for you not me. You're the one who wanted to go in the first place, so hurry up!” 

I roll my eyes as Xaymond, in full human form, apart from his horns sticking out of his messy hair, appears at the top of the stairs.

“Oh come on, we’ll be there in no time, there’s no need to rush.” He tells me as he slowly descends.

“I'd rather show up early than late.” I reply sharply, my wings flaring open in annoyance. “You can show up late by yourself if you want.”

He smiles and steps closer. “But then how can I flaunt how great of a girlfriend I have?” 

He says as he plants a kiss on my scaled cheeks. I swiftly grab his horns before he can react. 

I look him in the eyes and say, “I love you too but we really have to go if we don't want to be late. We're already going to have to fly there if we leave now.” 

I let go and we step outside of our house. He opens his hand, palm up, and a little orange fireball appears. I wave my hand over it and the fire expands and changes to an aqua and purple from where my magic manipulates it and encases our home, protecting it from intruders. After securing our house, I close my eyes and quickly shift into my original form, a dragon. Xaymond does the same besides me, but taking a bit longer. Once his form settled, we took off, flying fast, hoping we weren't going to be late.

We showed up, barely on time, at the Cryllon Hall. It was decked from top to bottom in lavish decor. I tilt my head towards the doorway, which was widened to fit us by magic. 

“They always like a show. After all, what's more grand than two dragons showing up at yet another formal dinner?” 

I send to him telepathically through our mental link, activated by the natural magic of being in our dragon forms. He just shrugs and heads in. I follow him through the doorway to a crowd of people. Not all fully human, but all humanoid. They all stop conversing and turn towards us. I pick out Sir Krystain, the leader of the Nyrian, with my enhanced vision in the crowd. 

I watch as he stands up straighter and announces, “Please welcome Lady Kitanya and Lord Xaymond.” 

I can feel Xaymond trying to quench his laughter at the formalities through our telepathic link. Everyone starts clapping. 

“That's our cue,” Xaymond tells me. 

“You make it sound like I haven't been dragged to one of these events before. They only invite us to please us in return for not crushing them all.” I send to him right before I cut our link and start shifting. 

I change back into my human form, with my horns and wings out, but I shift my tail away. I made the mistake of leaving it out at one of these parties, and it kept getting stepped on. They were lucky I can't create fire myself or I would've scorched the whole building in annoyance. 

As Xaymond was finishing up his shift, Sir Krystain walks up to me and shakes my hand. 

“Thank you for making time to come today. It's my pleasure to have you here.” 

I smile back, as sweetly as possible, “Please, the pleasure is all mine.” I feel Xaymond walk up behind me and place his hand in the small of my back. 

From behind me he says, “Thank you for your invitation. We will be sure to enjoy ourselves while we're here.” Sir Krystain nods politely and walks off.

“Remind me why we had to come,” I breathe to Xaymond as we walk around the room, smiling and nodding at people. 

“Because I agreed when they invited us,” he murmurs, “and why would miss an opportunity to see you in stunning dress?” 

I loop my arm around his and pinch him. I did love this dress, it was a flowing pale aqua dress that faded into a light blue, almost white colour at the bottom. 

I tell him, “You look good in a suit. Maybe you'd see me more in a dress if you were a human more often.” 

We were halfway around the perimeter of the room. 

“Just because I'm in my dragon form,” he informs me, “ doesn't mean you have to be in it too.” 

I reach out and hug a few people as he shakes hands. Almost done the perimeter. 

“Well, it makes it terribly hard to communicate if we're in different forms. And you won't accompany me in human form, so I have no choice but to accompany you.” I turn and look at him accusingly. 

He chuckles, “ah, then I guess I'll just have to accompany you as a human more often.” 

“Lord Xaymond. Lady Kitanya. May I have a moment with the both of you?” 

I cock my head to the side in surprise, not having realized this man had crept up to us. I turn to look at him. He looked like a human, but he had an unnaturally dark shadow trailing him. Just a magician, a human who utilizes magic. This one was most likely carrying a magic object that amplified his shadow and softened his footsteps.

“Please, lead the way.” I reply, smoothing over any surprise that may have been in my voice. I chid myself for not noticing him. 

Magicians weren't that powerful, his footsteps were softer, not completely gone. The magician nodded and started walking away. I turn and look and Xaymond questioningly and he just shrugs. My wings twitch in annoyance from not knowing what was happening. My only comfort was knowing that the government wouldn't dare touch a hair on our bodies. 

We were led up multiple sets of stairs to a large, brightly lit room. There were large windows on all sides of the room, looking out over the city. They were no doubt enchanted so that no normal human would be able to see in. Besides that, the room was rather plain, save for the large circular table in the middle of the room. There were many officials of various status seated around the table, including Sir Krystain but when we entered, they all rose. 

“Please be seated,” Sir Krystain says, “we have important matters to discuss.” I make no move towards a seat, and smartly, neither does Xaymond. 

“What is the meaning of this?” Xaymond asks, stepping up to stand beside me. 

“Please, take a seat,” Sir Krystain repeats, “I think you'll like to be seated for the matters we’re about to discuss.”

I reach out with a small movement and tap Xaymond’s hand. I hear him take a shallow breath and let it out slowly, obviously annoyed at this man. Granted, I was too. We walk over to the table and everyone sits. 

“We’ve called you here today to address some matters that pertain to you.” Sir Krystain starts, “You, unlike most of us in this room, are not human but are dragons. And not any normal dragons, but shapeshifting dragons.” 

I arched an eyebrow and glare at him. Of course we know what we are, and everyone else does too. What a waste of breath. 

“There have been no dragons born on Nyria for over 4 centuries,” He continues, “and you are the only known dragons that can take on a humanoid form in an even longer time.” 

I hear Xaymond sigh in exasperation. Good to know I'm not the only one bored of this.

“We know that already. Get to the point.” I say calmly fixing him with a threatening stare. 

He flinched under my gaze, to my satisfaction. I saw some grateful looks from the people seated around the table. He looked away and cleared his throat. 

“There have been reports of sightings of dragons in the past few weeks.” 

That caught my attention. There are a handful of elderly dragons that still live on Nyria, but multiple slighting in a few weeks is astonishing, especially since they prefer to keep to themselves after the unrest a few hundred years ago. “Multiple sightings in a matter of weeks is nothing to scoff at but it could be nothing more than a coincidence.” Xaymond points out, “Definitely worth raising an eyebrow but why did you call us on ‘urgent matters’?”

“The thing is, they're not normal dragons.” Sir Krystain pauses and looks long and hard at us then continues, “they're supposedly all humanoid. There is no report of dragons, per say, but rather brings that resemble the two of you. Human-like beings with large glittery wings seen flying in the sky. Tails almost as long as their bodies. Horns and sometimes even scales. No other creature or species resembles that description besides the two of you.”