Beneath Ceaseless Skies 414

Conversation with a Dragon: “It was dark and cloudy, not many stars out. I didn’t think anyone else was out there, not till I heard the girl talking. I crept up on her, but I couldn’t see who or what she was talking to, because nothing was answering back, as though she was talking to herself. I couldn’t make out the words, which were in some twisty language that sounded like hissing and rocks grinding together.”

At the Stopping Place: Jinnie tentatively decided this person was human; he was dressed in serpentine high style, all flowing pastel colours and no visible hair, but he lacked his companion’s drawling grace. He had also, she noticed with a sigh, left a trail of ashy mud from the door to the table. “I was expecting riddles or puzzles or mysterious hints,” he was saying, “but I wasn’t expecting to be lectured like I was three years old and had interrupted my elders.”

Interlude: Shelter From the Storm : “Those with power who do not act? I do judge them.”