Sometimes he just wished he'd stayed buried.
Now was such a time.
If Veritas had been human he would have cursed out loud and thrown something across the room in frustration, he had faced all number of dark creatures before- from the days before the Shadowlord as well, he had fought the Ak-Baba at a time too and even engaged in scuffles in the sky with his fellow dragons-- and through all those things he had survived.
But if this stupid-pitiful-tiny- bumbling ball of scales didn't quit it now he was going to dig himself a grave and jump on in.
"Ow!!!" Veritas roared suddenly his purple eyes widening, he grit his fangs in anger and turned his thick neck to look at his tail glaring daggers of purple flame at the small silver colored dragon that had sunk its needle like teeth into his tail—for the third time today.
The young dragon did its best to look innocent staring up at him with silver orbs open and bright with just a hint of tears. Veritas couldn't believe it, the thing was pouting, actually pouting!
He took a deep breath filling his massive lungs and let it out, trying to restrain himself from eating one of the last great hopes of Deltora.
The diamond dragon grinned its teeth still clinging to Veritas tail, she giggled loosed her jaw and fell to the ground with a soft thump, she paused for a minute as Veritas looked at her before giggling again and curling tightly into a ball and rolling circles around the elder dragon leaving tracks in the sand.
Veritas grit his teeth and mentally counted to ten—something Doran had done whenever he got worked up—as the silver ball stopped in front of him and began bouncing up and down slowly gaining altitude, high pitch gurgling sounds coming from with in.
The ball bounced higher and higher, reaching his eye level and making the ancient dragon go cross-eyed watching it ' one breath' he thought desperately, 'just one, I could make it look like an accident'
In his thinking he hadn't realized he had closed his eyes but when he felt a sudden weight add to his snout they snapped open looking down his nose at the dragon perched on the end grinning as mischievously as a dragon could.
A moments tense pause and Veritas hissed " don't even think about—OW!" he cried out the last as the silver dragon dug its fangs in half way through his warning.
His teeth bared in rage his purple eyes shooting blades at the small reptilian like creature still clinging to the end of his face. The silver dragons smile dropped her large eyes widening for an instant, but a second before Veritas could open his jaws to swallow the little appetizer she let go swishing through the air, tail rising by gravity before hitting the sand with a small thump.
The tiny dragon squeaked looked up at her mentor one more time before curling into a ball once more and rolling in reverse, quickly backing out of the cave entrance and rolling and bouncing down the rocks outside its exit.
Veritas chuckled humorlessly—some days he'd still prefer to be buried, but for now teaching when he finally caught up to the amazing bouncing enigma would be just Satisfying enough