Lets Do Yoga!

Lucia, with a gleaming spark in her eyes, proudly demonstrated her newfound mastery of ancient dragon words to the formidable dragon, Lance. Her heart raced with excitement as she flawlessly recited the ancient lexicon, a monumental achievement that just yesterday seemed an impossible feat.

Lance's method of teaching dragon pinyin and text was astonishingly effective. Lucia marveled at how, within a mere two hours, she had grasped the complex dragon script. Even mastering a single word felt like a tremendous stride forward.

The strokes of ancient dragon script were intricate, each character brimming with an almost tangible magic, making them challenging yet fascinating to write. Unlike the human world's simplistic depiction of the word "dragon," the dragon text version was ornate, resembling ancient runes filled with elegance and depth.

Post-tense, Lucia began constructing phrases with the words she learned. If Lance asked her to form sentences using the word "dragon," she would excitedly string together phrases like "black dragon," "evil dragon," "giant dragon," and "young dragon."

"Write it down, Lucia. Keep it in your memory," Lance would instruct.

On the evening of June 19, 3455, by the Emperor Black Dragon Calendar, Lucia sprawled out on the ground, her diary open before her. Under the moonlit sky, guided by the wise Lance, she penned down her achievements. She wrote about learning to articulate and scribe the word "Dragon" — a modest step for dragonkind, yet a giant leap for her, now fondly nicknamed "Baby Dragon Lucia" by Lance.

"Thank you, Dragon Lance," she wrote with a sincere flourish before snapping the diary shut. Thoughts of returning to the imperial capital filled her mind, where she imagined herself, not just as a survivor of a dragon's clutches but as a refined dragon scholar, perhaps even a master of dragon incantations.

"Maybe I'll surprise them all," she thought with a mischievous grin, imagining her sister's astonishment.

Drifting off to sleep, Lucia's dreams mingled with visions of her future, radiant and filled with the mystic allure of the dragon texts. With a contented sigh, she whispered to herself, "It's late; time for dreams to take flight."

Lucia attempted to walk away but found herself awkwardly anchored in place. Twisting around, she discovered the source of her predicament: the massive foot of the evil dragon, Lance, firmly planted on her tail.

"Did you mean to step on my tail, or was that your idea of a joke?" Lucia half-joked, half-complained, looking up at the towering figure of Lance.

Lance, with a mischievous glint in his eyes, simply asked, "Where are you going?"

"To sleep," Lucia replied, hoping to escape any further late-night antics.

"Not so fast," Lance countered smoothly. "Join me for a session of health exercises before you go to bed."

Lucia stared blankly for a moment. "Exercises? At this hour?"

"Yes, yoga exercises," Lance insisted. "Think about it. As a dragon, you could live to see many centuries. Don't you want to be fit to enjoy them?"

With a reluctant nod, Lucia conceded, following Lance's regimen. She mused to herself, "I, the princess of the Faloran Empire, never thought I'd be practicing nightly health evil rituals at the age of fifteen, let alone with an evil dragon."

The exercises themselves were a mixed forms. Standing still and closing her eyes was simple enough, but Lucia found the whole process more amusing than effective. As the night wore on, however, the routines grew increasingly complex, and her enthusiasm waned. "This is too much. I don't want to do these exercises anymore. I just want to sleep," she whimpered, feeling overwhelmed.

Lance watched her with an amused expression that suggested he was all too familiar with her thoughts. Lucia's face was an open book; a look of easy understanding when the moves were simple, and a frown of frustration with the more challenging poses.

Finally, as exhaustion set in, Lucia murmured, "Now I'm really going to sleep."

She closed her eyes, but a sudden thought made her open them again, casting a hesitant glance at Lance. She seemed to want to say something but was too embarrassed to voice it.

Lance, catching her gaze, teased, "Need a break? Or is it something else, perhaps a trip to the seaside restroom?"

Lucia blushed, realizing her predicament was quite transparent. In the dragon's cave, such conveniences were far from immediate. Resigned, she looked at Lance once more, turning away to hide her flustered expression.

Today marked only the second day of Lucia's acquaintance with the formidable dragon Lance, and her nerves were still tightly wound in his presence.

The psychological pressure of being near an adult dragon was more intense than Lucia had ever imagined, a fact that did little to ease her fears.

"Do you have something on your mind?" Lance's deep voice broke the silence.

Lucia flinched slightly before responding, "Ah, no." She quickly shut her eyes, hoping to hide her unease. However, curiosity soon got the better of her, and she peeked open one eye, then both.

"I do have a question," she admitted, her voice a mixture of curiosity and caution.

"Ask away. You should feel free to ask me anything, anytime. You don't need to be so guarded," Lance encouraged her with a softer tone than usual. "I know I might seem daunting, but I assure you, I'm not as fearsome as you imagine. Unlike the red dragons, whose tempers flare much more violently, I manage my emotions better. You don't have to worry about me losing control and lashing out at you."

Lucia, bolstered by his reassurance yet still skeptical, responded in her mind with a touch of irony, "Really, Evil Dragon? Doesn't your conscience sting a little when you say that? Did you forget how just this afternoon you threatened to strike me with your dragon fist? You bully me because I'm timid and won't expose you."

Changing the subject, she continued, "What I really want to know is, if your formidable enemies weren't banished to the underworld, would you still seek them out?"

"I wouldn't actively hunt them down," Lance admitted, "but if memories of them resurface or I find myself in need of confronting them, I might indeed search for them."

Lucia nodded thoughtfully, then posed another question, driven by a newfound strategic interest. "Your enemies are powerful. If I were to learn from them, could I grow stronger?"

Lance, amused by her line of questioning, said nothing but flicked his tail, a gesture that caught Lucia off-guard and led her to nod thrice in quick succession.

"Ow, that hurts!" Lucia exclaimed, clutching her head where his tail had struck. She looked up at him, a mix of frustration and accusation in her eyes. "You liar, Lance! Just moments ago, you claimed your temper was steadier than that of a red dragon, yet here you are, lashing out with your tail the moment I speak my mind."

Her words hung between them, a blend of jest and genuine reproach, as they navigated their complex new relationship.

Lance arched a brow at Lucia's ambitious declaration. "You are a fledgling dragon aspiring to learn from my formidable adversaries. If you pursue such powerful beings without preparation, who else but you would face defeat?"

Lucia fell silent, digesting his words. There was a sting of truth to his cautionary tone. She had expressed a desire to learn from humans, which might suggest to Lance that she undervalued the prowess of her own kind, though this was not her intention. She had no desire to belittle the mighty dragon before her.

"Does being misunderstood warrant a beating?" she thought indignantly. "Why shouldn't I learn from powerful humans as well?"

It then struck her, Lance himself had once adopted human form to glean knowledge from mankind. Gathering her courage, she retorted, "But haven't you, yourself, learned from humans?"

Lance was momentarily taken aback by her astuteness. "It's different," he responded gruffly. "In my youth, I lacked the fortune of your current circumstances. Had I encountered an adult dragon as affable and knowledgeable as myself, I would never have considered venturing into the human realm. I would have first mastered all the dragonic arts available to me. Only then, after fully understanding our own power systems, might I have compared them to those of humans to discern if there was anything worth learning."

His justification seemed to solidify his own beliefs. Indeed, had Lance been gifted with such mentorship, he likely would have remained isolated from human influences until he had absorbed every possible lesson from dragonkind.

Lucia was, in many ways, fortunate. Her timing was serendipitous; had she arrived centuries earlier or later, Lance might not have been inclined to harbor a young dragon on his island.

Lance's thoughts drifted, likening his newfound interest in mentoring to the peculiar hobbies human males often develop with age, like fishing, sipping tea, indulging in pedicures, or practicing health-yoga exercises. It seemed, at this point in his long life, mentoring Lucia was his new, unexpected diversion.