Back To It.

The lecture ended up dragging on for what felt like forever, and the longer it did the more details started drawing a little too close to me for comfort.

"Dragons go through a teething phase, similar to canines, but unlike canines dragons specifically feel the need to bite into flesh, rather than just whatever they see. This habit carries on into adolescence, sometimes going so far as to bite themselves. Their teeth, while short, are sharp enough to pierce through scales, and this habit carries on through adolescence, explaining why adolescent dragons are actually the easiest to hunt. Their scales are usually damaged and worn from they're partner biting them during mating."

I slowly slid back under my desk and curled up. 'So… I wasn't trying to eat him… But… This is so much worse…'

"Dragons also love heat, and apart from their internal body temperature rising, they will often secrete the same flammable slime discussed earlier while mating, allowing them to light themselves on fire, and fill the gaps between their scales to further insulate themselves as they heat up. It also makes everything slippery.

I gasped slamming my head into my desk and everyone paused for a second before aptly continuing.

He slowly cleared his throat. "Uh… Making them even harder to climb and hold onto… So in other words, even if they weren't killing you from the heat, it would be impossible to stay in their blindspot on their back without falling off from a simple spin. All this is just to say that unlike other monsters that can become highly vulnerable during this time… Dragons actually become more dangerous… This is especially because they are prone to extreme violence if they are otherwise interrupted… Still, just like every other animal, their senses are all effectively focused on other things, so that being said if you were planning on going unnoticed around one and avoiding confrontation altogether, this would be your only chance, as otherwise, they would be able to hear even your heartbeat from five miles away."

Isy looked down at me before leaning forward on her desk again. "Uhm. Teacher, ancient dragons had human forms right? And some people are still part dragon at least to some extent. How does this apply to them?"

'DON'T ASK THAT!' I covered my ears, trying to bury my head, of course, to no use sense, like a dragon… My ears were far too sharp to easily be blocked.

He chuckled nervously. "That depends entirely on the person… Genetic traits pass down unreliably when separate races crossbreed. Generally though, if they don't have scales, it would be similar to Beast Kin with extremely heightened senses. If they do have scales… Try to figure out where they don't and hit them there. Just be aware that dragons are the most emotional creatures in the world. Sometimes their desire takes complete control of them because of this, and it might be possible to use that to your advantage, even if they have only a little bit of dragon in them."

She raised her hand again but I reached over and pinched her. When she looked down at me her face suddenly went pale and she lowered it again. "N-nevermind, that was all I was wondering…"

'I'm so mad… He's doing this on purpose, isn't he… There's no way he just so happens to be teaching us about dragons…'

Despite how I felt, the class did eventually end and everyone slowly trickled out of the room until it was just the teacher cleaning things up, and me still hiding under my desk. 'They all left without me? Why did they do that? They're probably waiting in the hall… I can't leave now though… I'll just wait for him to leave first… Yeah, he has to go to physical training right? SO… he should be leaving… Soon… Why are his footsteps getting closer!"

Suddenly everything went quiet and there was a pause for a long time. Somehow I ended up mustering up the courage to speak first. "J-just a fair warning… But if I see your face I might punch you again…"

"Hm…"

Another long pause hung in the air.

"I'm sorry for yelling at you."

His footsteps slowly trickled away until I heard the door open and close again behind him, leaving me even more confused than before, but finally finding a sense of peace in the solitude. 'That's all he has to say? After everything that happened? He's gone… But my face still feels so hot…'

I calmly lowered it to my knees and relaxed, letting my body lean into the frame of my desk. After another few minutes went by I finally crawled out and left. 'I didn't need to know any of that… But now that I do there's no way I'll be able to forget any of it…' Letting out a heavy sigh I opened the door to my room, feeling relaxed not so much out of finding peace, but more so from fatigue, like a muscle that had worked so hard it simply failed, instead of continuing on.

"Siya! You're back! Did you break the curse!" Rune jumped up in the air and landed, leaning forward slightly and wagging her tail, making my brow raise. 'I forgot she was here.'

With the way she was leaning towards me, she was practically asking for head pats. So naturally I gave her some, starting to feel better, not instantly… But admittedly it only took a few seconds. "Yeah… It's all gone now, but I'm exhausted."

She smiled brightly "But that's ok because you're done now right? So you can rest."

I sighed, walking forward and giving her a big hug. "I love you," I muttered, squeezing her like a pillow… Which, if I was being honest, was probably the only other thing I had ever said that to…

Her tail straightened out like a pencil. "Wha-what!" All of her muscles suddenly felt stiff and the tips of her ear turned red, the skin showing ever so slightly as her hair stood up on end.

As I let go my fingers got caught in her fur, which was still a little damp. "You said you were going to try washing your hair on your own right? How'd it go?"

"I-I-uhm, what?"

'Did I embarrass her too much? Was it weird for me to say that? I guess it's probably something she's never heard before either…' I slowly pulled back a bit to give her some room. 'Well, I already have some experience being an older sister… Maybe I should take on that role for her too… It's not like she has parents to give her love…' I sighed, faintly smiling as I watched her eyes timidly try to find something to focus on. "Your fur, you washed it right? It smells nice."

She squealed, stiffening up even more and starting to stare at the ground. "I… May have… accidentally used too much soap…"

'Should I not have said that either? Hm… I'm too tired to spend energy watching my words…' "How much?" 

She squealed again, moving some of her hair behind her ear, revealing just how small it was as if it was almost a side effect of growing an extra pair on the top of her head. "Uhm… All of it?"

'She must have slipped and spilled it or something, but we have plenty of bottles in the cabinet that Mo made from all the grease that cooked out of the dire wolves. I still have no idea how she did that…' "Don't worry about it." I rubbed her head, her ears popping up again as she timidly followed me to the bathroom. 'I'm not sure if she's just embarrassed… Or worried I'll get mad… It's honestly almost funny… Somehow instead of being mad, this is helping me calm down. I can feel my heart relaxing.

I paused, staring at the scene before me. 'It's everywhere… Actually, I don't think she even finished washing it out of her hair either…' Slowly bending over, I grabbed the empty bottle and moved it to the counter pulling out a new one. "See, we have more anyway, but what happened?"

"I-uh… Hm…" She slowly looked at the mess, her eyes leading around the room to my feet on the soaking wet floor. She sniffled, pawing at her nose with the back of her hand as she teared up.

"Hey, hey… It's alright. You didn't do anything wrong…"

I had no idea how to handle the situation if she started crying… But I didn't want to get too close to her either since she still seemed skittish, so in the end I started freezing up too, feeling just as awkward.

She wiped her nose pointing to the shower curtain. "I tripped… And my claws tore when I tried to catch myself…"

'Who knew taking a shower was so scary…' I slowly pulled it out, sliding it on the rail. Unfortunately, the tear went all the way to the floor. It explained the water soaking everything, but I was more worried that it probably also meant she didn't manage to catch herself… "You didn't get hurt did you? Did you scrape anything?"

"I'm so useless that even though you made me better I still can't do anything without help…"

"No, I…" I let out a small groan, narrowing my eyes. 'What am I supposed to say? What am I supposed to do? It's not like anyone comforted me when I was useless… I never even imagined it happening…' I rubbed my eyes dry, starting to feel emotional for some reason, and that prompted me to hug her, nervously hoping that was the right thing to do… "You're not useless… You helped me break the curse, remember? And you did the laundry, and even if you couldn't do anything by yourself, you could still help me do things that I can't do by myself."

She let out a long whiny groan. "But I can't even wash my own hair…"

Her voice straightened out almost instantly… Somehow leaving me feeling like I was the one being comforted. "Of course you can't, no one ever taught you how to did they? It would be crazier if you could do something without someone teaching you first. Sometimes I still have to remind myself just to breathe, you know… I'm not joking by the way…"

She groaned again, her body steadying. "No one had to teach me how to eat… Or how to sleep… Or how to put clothes on…"

"Ok… But this is one of those things you need to be taught, like carving those wood blocks. And honestly, even little kids fail the first few times they try to feed themselves you know, but I guess you probably don't remember when you were just a baby… Well, then again you basically still are one."

She slowly turned her head to the side. "Am I… Really?"

I pulled back and patted her shoulders. "I guess not really… You are much cuter than a baby, and you can use the bathroom on your own, which is another thing people have to be taught by the way. There is nothing wrong with not knowing how to do something, and even if you do know, there is nothing wrong with messing it up one or two times before getting it right. I mean… A while back Issy wet herself… So that just goes to show that even after getting it right, you might not get it right every time… Though, admittedly… You know what never mind…" 'Maybe I shouldn't have told her that… But she seems to finally be starting to relax… Sorry Isy…'

"Ok… So… Can you teach me then?"

'Yeah… I figured that would be where this ended up going…' "Sure…" 'I just spent half an hour sitting under a desk… So washing my hair doesn't seem like a bad idea anyway…'