Dragon’s former lover?

"Why does the air carry such a foul scent?" Lucia pondered aloud, her tone tinged with confusion. "Surely, skipping a mere three days of showers shouldn't make me smell such a horrid stench."

"Lance, is it possible I'm afflicted by some bizarre ailment? Could I be nearing my end?" she queried, her voice quivering with a mix of fear and disbelief. "Why else would my scent be so overwhelmingly unpleasant?"

The young dragon, her scales shimmering faintly, voiced her concern with increasing anxiety. "Healthy beings shouldn't emit such odors without cause. Perhaps only the ill suffer this fate, is my time coming."

"Don't frighten yourself with such thoughts," Lance replied, his voice calm yet firm. "You aren't ill. The stench you notice is due to the medicinal concoction you drank this afternoon, intended to bolster your constitution. It purges toxins, impurities, and grime from within, hence the foul smell."

He advised with a wise nod, "Wash off in the ocean. Make sure to rinse with the fresh water from the island afterward."

With a playful grimace, the formidable dragon Lance extended his wings, pinched his nostrils, and soared away into the sky.

Lucia let out a relieved sigh, comforted by the knowledge that her condition wasn't as dire as she feared. Despite this, she cringed as she sniffed the air once more, the odor was truly unbearable.

Resolved, Lucia spread her wings and took flight toward the sea, eager to rid herself of the repulsive scent.

That evening, the meal was a hearty roast leg of beast.

Lucia found herself voraciously devouring three large legs, astonished by her own appetite, which seemed amplified by her vigorous activities earlier in the day.

She pondered with a touch of concern, "If I continue consuming such quantities, might I grow plump once I revert to human form? Surely, that would lead to an unwelcome gain in weight."

Resolved, she declared to herself, "No, no, I must practice restraint. Starting tomorrow, no more gobbling down meatballs in one bite or devouring roasted legs in two or three. I shall only eat until I'm eighty percent full."

She worried briefly about her transformation back. "If Lance and I return to our human forms and venture back to the imperial capital, would Eva even recognize me?"

In their quaint domestic arrangement, the formidable dragon took charge of cooking, while the younger one managed the household chores.

Marley trotted back to the orchard, two gnawed leg bones in his mouth, remnants from the formidable dragon's feast.

Lucia offered the leftover bones to Marley, who paid them no mind, his dual heads fixated instead on the bone still in Lance's claw.

"Does the bone from the formidable dragon's meal smell so enticing?" she mused, watching Marley's longing gaze.

For a fleeting moment, Lucia pondered the appeal of the animal leg bones the formidable dragon had enjoyed. "Could they actually be that tantalizing?" she wondered.

With a shake of her head, she promptly dismissed these odd musings. After all, Eva had cursed her into dragonhood not for culinary exploration but as a means to elude the pursuit of the odorous princess, a means to liberate herself from a royal nuisance.

Feeling a bit bloated from the hearty dinner, Lucia approached Lance with a hesitant inquiry, "Lance, I'm rather full from dinner. May I roam around the island a bit to settle my stomach?"

Lance responded with a nonchalant wave of his claw, "Don't be so reserved. Consider this island your home as much as it is mine."

"Thank you," Lucia said, gratitude warming her tone. With Lance's blessing, she quietly slipped away into the gathering dusk.

As night cloaked the island, Lucia knew it was the perfect time to hunt for voles and mice. Although she never dared to engage in such pursuits as a human, her current draconic form stripped away any fear of such small creatures. "How could they possibly intimidate a dragon?" she mused as she left Lance's sight and strutted towards the cornfield.

Lucia knew well that voles and mice frequented crop fields, wreaking havoc. "One must not merely squat anywhere; it's about strategizing near their burrows," she thought, recalling how city cats often guarded mouse holes with keen eyes.

After inspecting the field for nearly half an hour, she located a few promising holes. She positioned herself strategically near the entrances, ready to pounce. However, patience was not her strongest virtue, and after another half-hour of fruitless waiting, curiosity got the better of her.

Deciding to take matters into her own claws, Lucia began to dig at the first hole, but found it empty. The second burrow revealed only some twigs and hay, and the third was utterly barren.

Disbelief set in as she surveyed the expansive cornfield. "It's impossible for such a large field to be devoid of mice," she thought, determination fueling her resolve.

Unwilling to give up, Lucia extended her search to the nearby vegetable field. She scoured the area thoroughly, but to her dismay, she found neither mice nor even the slightest trace of their presence. "Not even a single dropping," she lamented, her hunt seemingly in vain.

For two long hours, Lucia toiled fruitlessly in the fields.

Her misdirected efforts stemmed from Turtle's misleading guidance. Despite Lance's ability to suppress his formidable dragon aura, his presence permeated Black Dragon Island. He roamed its lengths and breadths, leaving behind a scent that naturally marked his territory. This, she realized, would intimidate any small creature like mice or birds, discouraging them from making the island their home.

Reluctantly, Lucia ceased her futile search and returned to the dragon's lair, where she braced herself for what she expected to be a stern lecture from Lance.

Inside the lair, Lance, the formidable dragon, was found absorbed in contemplation in the study, his gaze fixed upon several human portraits adorning the walls.

Curious, Lucia approached quietly, her eyes shifting from the dragon to the portraits he studied so intently.

One depicted a tall woman clad in a brown leather jacket and trousers, a felt hat perched jauntily on her head. She sat astride a levitating staff, her lips curved in a mysterious half-smile. The other portrait showed a rugged man, bold and smiling, gripping a large sword as if ready for adventure, perhaps a former comrade of Lance.

Lucia pondered, "Whose stories are captured here? Is Lance reminiscing about the man, or perhaps the intriguing woman?"

The study was filled with various portraits, some solo, others featuring groups. Could any of these include dragon transformed into human guise? She wondered.

Her gaze returned to Lance. In her mind's eye, she imagined him in human form, perhaps as burly as a bear, with thick eyebrows and piercing eyes, a true embodiment of strength.

The portrait of the man with the sword seemed to align with this image. "Could this be Lance in his human form?" she mused. And the woman with the enigmatic smile beside him, might she be a past love from his human days?

Captivated by these thoughts, Lucia's earlier frustrations faded, replaced by a deep fascination with the stories hanging silently on the walls of the dragon's sanctum.

Could it be that the formidable dragon Lance was pining for a long-lost love?

As dusk fell across Black Dragon Island, Lucia mulled over Lance's earlier claims. He had asserted he'd never been in love, a statement that struck her as highly improbable. After all, a dragon who had lived for 3,455 years and frequently masqueraded as a human in their world must have had some romantic entanglements.

Lucia, ever the skeptical princess, certainly didn't buy it.

"The lady in this portrait looks quite striking. Was she a friend of yours? Or perhaps a foe?" she asked, treading carefully around her real question, wary of possibly upsetting him.

"Which one are you referring to?" Lance asked, his tone neutral.

"This one," Lucia said, pointing a claw at the portrait of the stylish woman.

"Ah, her," Lance began, his voice laced with a hint of amusement. "She was a debtor of mine. See the outfit she's donned, jacket, trousers, shoes, and that hat? She borrowed money from me to buy all that, promising an extra gold coin as interest once she made some money."

"And then?" Lucia prodded, intrigued.

"Well, she never did pay back that last debt," Lance explained with a resigned shrug. "It's not that she always failed to return what she borrowed; there were several times she did. But the last few times, she didn't."

Lucia's curiosity grew. "How did her story end?"

"I heard there was a monstrous invasion in her town. She unleashed a powerful forbidden spell in the midst of the chaos and perished during the attack," Lance recounted, his tone somber.

Lucia was puzzled. "But you were around. Couldn't you have prevented her death during the beast tide?"

Lance sighed deeply. "I was in a deep slumber during that time. By the time I awoke, three years had passed, and she had already fallen in that tragic battle."

"That's incredibly unfortunate. She might have had a chance if you hadn't been asleep. Perhaps even a chance to become more than just a friend," Lucia mused, hinting at the possibility of a deeper relationship.

"Do you miss her?" Lucia finally dared to ask.

Lance paused, a distant look in his eyes. "Sometimes, I wonder why I didn't summon her back from the underworld when I practiced necromancy."

Lucia listened, sensing the layers of regret and unresolved feelings that perhaps even a dragon as mighty as Lance couldn't simply shake off.