A moment of Practice

"I fought your mother, I've flown on the back of a giant bird, and I've eaten raw fish."

"You did -not- fight my mother. She was out hunting when you found my egg." The dragon stuck out his tongue, and Kai laughed easily. Two truths and a lie was an easy enough game to play, and it was good practice for them both: It kept her ability to lie sharp when she wasn't trying to go easy on him, and helped him learn how to read people. "Hmm, I saved a duckling from drowning today. I was nipped by a crab, which I then ate, aaaand I watched two goblins try and get past the markers, but scared them away before they got too far into our territory."

"Ohh, that's a tough one. You did not, in fact, get nipped by a crab and then eat it."

"How do you always know!?" Viletongue threw himself down onto the ground, stretching out comfortably in the grass as the half-elf sat down next to him and started to inspect his claws.

"Because you did eat a crab, but it didn't nip you first. You're better than that."
"Bah! Your turn."

Keda-kai grinned, and pondered for a moment on what her two truths and her lie would be this round.

A lesson on Evil

He had no idea how something so big and blocky could move so smoothly across a log balanced on two other logs, but lo and behold. Squarejewel practically pranced across, barely causing the log to roll one way or the other, and dropped down into the grass from the other end.

"Your turn, Viletongue."

"Mnnh." Carefully clambering his way up onto the log, he started carefully across. Wings spread to help him balance, he made it but in twice the time and with none of the grace of the Eidolon, almost rolling the log off the edge.

"Hey, you did better than I did. I fell off half-way along, remember?" Kai lay in the grass, propped up on her elbows as she watched and grinning slightly. Grass stains on her pants only emphasized her words, and the dragon huffed.

"Well, yes. But you can do the rope, where I can't. Even -Squarejewel- can do the rope, and he outweighs me."

"You'll get it eventually. Keep practicing at it, and you'll do alright-" Kai frowned as the dragon spun and spat a stream of acid at the log, melting part of it and stiff-leggedly storming off. "Hey now…"

"Do you think he should be left to cool his head?"

"Nah, he'll just simmer for a while and won't try it again for a week. Keep an eye out, yeah?"

The Eidolon inclined its head as the half-elf pushed herself up and hustled after the dragon. She found him sunning on the angled rock in the front yard, sullen and staring moodily into the trees.

"Hey, you alright?"

A snort answered her, and the dragon shifted so that she wasn't in his field of view.

"Yeah, that's about what I thought." She paused for a moment, feeling for their connection and finding his emotions in turmoil. Shaking her head ruefully, she moved and sat down at the base of the rock, folded her hands behind her head and lounged much as he did in the sun. "I'm over four decades old, you know. I couldn't do the rope until I was just over three decades, and couldn't do the log until after my first. You're doing way better than I am, you know, being less than a decade yourself."

"You're saying I can't do it 'cause I'm -six-, then? Not because I'm all left feet, not because I'm ugly, not because I'm-"

"Oi, you stop that right now. You're handsome, sleek, the colour of the space between the stars. I couldn't even talk when I was your age."

"But your people are -different- than mine. Dragons are-"

"Dragons mature quickly, yeah. And you -are-, Starshine. You're almost the size of a horse, you can fly, you can swim and breath water as easily as air. You're -damned- hard to see when you're sneaking, and too clever by half. I don't even bother hiding things any more, you'd find 'em anyways."

The turmoil shifted, slightly easing, though there was still that undercurrent of sludge-like self-loathing.

"...Why did you ever raise me? I'm a monster. Black dragons are evil. You told me that yourself. Good for nothin'."

Kai frowned faintly, not having expected the question and spent a long moment frowning up at the sky. It was partially cloudy, and a slight breeze picked up and stirred the grass around her.

"... Lemme tell you a story, alright? Try not to interrupt."

The dragon grunted, but remained where he was laying.

"There's a place, far and away to the south east, called Nidal. It's an evil place, where the people live in fear. There is a dark forest known as the Uskwood, and it's there that cruel dragons guard the way into the Darklands."

"It's an evil place, not because it's an evil -place-, but because people who like nothing more than to hurt others make up the dominant force. It's ruled by the worship of Zon-Kuthon, the god of pain, and because of that the evil people in that place enjoy hurting others. The regular people, common folk like me, we lived in fear and hatred. People would disappear, never to return if they seemed like they'd strayed from the right worship or if we didn't behave and follow the rules. My parents, you could say were evil. They hurt each other and me, for as long as I could remember, because blood and pain on an alter were what had to be given to survive. We were part of a militaristic theocracy. A fanatical military-run society. Because my parents were evil, from an evil place, does that make me evil?"

"No. It means I have to fight harder to be good. It means I know what evil -is-, and that I know what living that way means. It means never being safe, it means doing monstrous things to survive. It means that, because I left that hell-hole and couldn't stand being there, that I didn't fit with their 'evil'. That I found it repugnant, but that I also understand that just because my parents weren't good people, that it didn't mean I had to be." Kai peered up at the black dragon, frowning. "Just 'cause your parents were evil, doesn't mean that you have to be. You're not a monster, you're not evil and you're not good for nothing. You don't go around terrorizing people and eating them just because it makes you feel good. You don't hurt people just because you can."

She sat up, reaching out to idly remove some grass that had gotten caught between some scales.

"If you put the effort in, it doesn't matter what you look like. Sure, you'll mess up on the way, but the only people who are born good at things tend t'be arrogant pricks who end up alone and hated. You can change your fate, change your destiny, and be a Hero if you want to go to extremes. Now, what say you we go fishing? I'm starving, after all that practice this morning."