Black Rock Shooter's second visit to the Iron mansion felt far less intimidating than mere hours earlier, but this time, those same halls she had walked through were now accompanied by the scent of cooked foods, the aromatic medley was quite soothing, making her feel just that little bit more at ease.
"Right this way, Lilith is already waiting for us."
Julius smiled at her slightly distracted expression, holding out his arm to indicate which direction they were headed.
She quickly followed him through a pair of doors that were flanked by servants, and were greeted by a long dining table, at the far end of which sat Lilith, a small smile forming on her face as soon as she laid her eyes on them.
"Hello again, my dear. Sorry for the confusion and such, but this second visit is a... tradition, for this contract." Lilith explained as the duo sat with her at the end of the table. "And knowing my husband the way I do... I already know he gave you your phone and told you about the... 'stalking' we did on you these past two months."
[He told me, yes.]
"Are you hungry? I assure you, the kitchen staff are well prepared for any specialty diet you might have."
[A little. And I don't have any special diet details.]
"Out of curiosity, do you eat more of a carnivorous diet, or omnivorous? I ask since dragons are mostly known to be carnivores." Lilith asked, since she herself was part elf, so she mostly ate a vegan diet, and Julius, being a human, ate a mostly balanced diet.
[Mostly carnivorous. My teeth are more dragon than human. Most vegetables are hard for me to chew, but I can still process them once I manage to get them down.]
"If I may, Julius is having steak this evening, would you like one as well?" Lilith smiled at the new knowledge about Black Rock Shooter.
[Yes, please.] Black Rock Shooter nodded along with her sign language, but Julius smiled slightly.
"How do you eat your steaks?" He asked, which made her blink in confusion for a moment.
[I don't understand.]
"Have you... eaten steak cooked before?" Lilith asked quietly, almost curiously.
[I usually hunted in the forest for my meat. Ate it on the spot after I made the kill.]
"Well, for the sake of the kitchen staff, for your first steak, we'll have it prepared in a manner known as 'rare'. It's lightly cooked, so as close to a raw kill as we can get it." Lilith explained. "All that we ask is that you use a fork and a knife to eat it, alright?"
Black Rock Shooter started smiling, letting out small sniff-like bursts of air out of her nose, almost as if she was laughing.
[I may be part dragon, but I still know my manners.]
All three of them laughed again, and with that, Julius held up his hand for a staff member to approach, then instructed them on how to prepare Black Rock Shooter's steak. The order was swiftly accepted with a bow, then the servant left through another set of doors behind them, obviously towards the kitchens, leaving Julius to refocus his attention on the two women seated with him.
[So, Lilith, you mentioned your elf side is Drow. What are Drow?] Black Rock Shooter signed to Lilith across the table, whilst taking in her features; lightly grey skintone, long white hair, brownish red eyes, and of course, her long pointed ears, which Black Rock Shooter noted moved up and down quite freely as she spoke or listened to her surroundings.
"Drow is the proper name, but we're also known as Dark elves. In the past, we were from an underground region known as the Underdark. But, over the past few centuries, we left the Underdark in favour of living on the surface." Lilith explained. "But, since I'm only a half-elf, I was born on the surface; my mother was Drow, and my father was a human, just like Julius."
[I know at least that all elves live much longer than humans, just like dragons do. So...] Black Rock Shooter paused mid-sentence, then glanced at Julius for a moment before continuing with what she wanted to ask. [How old are you?]
"Thirty two." Lilith laughed, a musical giggle to Black Rock Shooter's naive question. "Julius is older than I am. He's thirty four. What about you, darling? How old are you?" Lilith knew at least that Black Rock Shooter was an adult, but none of their previous looking into her revealed her age.
[Twenty three.]
"Hmmm... well, since you're of age, would you care for some wine with dinner this evening?" Lilith smiled, her expression somewhat sly. "I assure you, if you don't like it, you won't have to force yourself to drink it."
[Sure, I'll try some wine. Do you make it yourself?]
"Julius is the one that got me into it, yes. Although, I did learn a few tricks from my mother." Lilith giggled again, pleased that Black Rock Shooter was willing to try her homemade wine. "I'm sure it's of no concern to you, but I do only use natural ingredients and some Drow techniques in my wines. I will admit, the last contractee we had was not a fan of my wine at all."
[I'm also pretty sure they weren't half dragon, now were they?] Black Rock Shooter smirked as she signed her cheeky question.
"No, they were not." Julius chuckled, letting the conversation fade off as the sounds of the kitchen staff approaching reached their ears, signalling the arrival of their meals, which were laid before them with fluid efficiency, along with a bottle of wine at the end of the line, which was poured into three gleaming glasses for them.
Of course, Black Rock Shooter's eyes went from their usual narrow slits to nearly full circles at the sight of the beautifully prepared steak on her plate. Her dragon half was smitten with the scent of the beef, and she could feel the urge to dig in rising in her mind, but after a small exhale to steady herself, she managed to tear her gaze away from the meat to gather herself, and her gaze landed upon Julius' amused smile.
"You're right, Lilith, I do quite enjoy those eyes of hers. That had to have taken quite a bit of willpower to resist tearing into it, as much as you wanted to, yes?" Julius teased her, and Black Rock Shooter couldn't help but nod before she signed her reply.
[Even though it's been cooked, it still set off my hunting instincts.]
"I noticed." Julius smiled. "You don't have to worry though, the steak isn't going to run off anywhere."
Normally, any sort of teasing like that about her dragon side would make her uncomfortable, but somehow, the way Julius had said it made her feel... good. He wasn't mocking her, and he certainly wasn't trying to insult her either. It was just a joke, and of course, it had amused her. Why was something like that so difficult for people in the city to do? Why did something like that always destroy her self-confidence when it wasn't Julius or Lilith saying it?
Dismissing the thought from her mind, she retrieved the knife and fork that had been laid at her side, and began slicing into the soft, mostly pink meat, and found the mutual lack of conversation comforting. Lilith and Julius, clearly eating, seemed to want her involved in any chatting that took place during the meal, another far cry from her life in the city. So many simultaneous conversations going on during the few get-togethers she had participated in, never really being included in the discussions until someone just happened to realize she was still there.
"So, my dear, I wanted to ask you something, but wasn't sure when best to approach it." Lilith's voice caught her attention, and Black Rock Shooter's gaze lifted away from her food. "I'm rather curious about your name itself, is there a story behind it?"
Black Rock Shooter nodded, but in the back of her mind, knew to finish chewing her current piece of steak before continuing the conversation, so she did such, then gently lowered her utensils to begin signing her reply.
[My father named me Black Rock, since I had inherited his scales when I was born, and my mother's surname was Shooter, so I was given that by default. My father, obviously, is a dragon, specifically a species known as an Obsidian Stalker, named after their black, stone-like scales and their sleek, agile shape.]
"An Obsidian Stalker? He must've been one of the last in the region, there hasn't been many seen in the past thirty or forty years, as far as I know. If I may be bold, even the fact he's a Stalker species as well is more reason to be amazed, since smaller dragons like Stalkers are more prone to poaching compared to say, a Great Wyrm or Eastern Serpent species." Julius was clearly intrigued by the revelation of her father.
"My, if possible, I would greatly wish to meet your father someday." Lilith smiled slightly, then added. "And your mother too."
[She died a few years ago. Cancer that was detected too late even for healing magic to save her in time.] Black Rock Shooter shook her head as she signed, but then added more after a sip of wine. [My father is still alive, but because of how rare his species is, he doesn't visit the city at all, by personal choice. His den is a few miles from the lake, in the hills.]
"Well, someday, I would love to meet him. Might I ask his name?" Lilith queried.
[He had no name until he met my mother, she named him Emerald, since, unlike me, he has green eyes. You could almost say she tamed him, kinda like what I can do with the creatures in the woods... and at the animal shelter.]
"An amazing feat, in and of itself, for certain." Lilith nodded, very impressed.
After the conversation died down, they went back to eating, and by the time they had finished both the wine and the food, Black Rock Shooter almost found herself picking up her utensils and plate out of pure habit, to begin cleaning up after herself, but in doing so, she immediately noticed that Julius and Lilith were smiling at her.
"It's okay, you don't have to do that here. We have staff that will take care of the dishes. Would you care to join us for a bit before bed?" Julius asked, watching as she returned the plate in her hands to the table so that she could reply.
[What are you planning to do?]
"Well, typically after we eat, we spend the rest of our evening relaxing, and how we go about that varies with each day. Things such as reading, watching a movie or a show we enjoy. Julius sometimes researches his magic, I call my mother if she's available. From dinner to bedtime is our mutual downtime, and you're more than welcome to join either of us, if you so wish." Lilith explained.
[I'd like to spend some time with both of you tonight, if that's alright.] Black Rock Shooter glanced back and forth between them as she signed, and of course they smiled and nodded.
"Hmmm... I think we could find a movie or a show to watch on Netflix, would you enjoy that, my dear?" Julius suggested, and both ladies nodded in agreement. "Right this way."