Not long into breakfast, Dri's tears stopped. She brushed at her eyes, pushing the remaining ones off of her face. She looked at Drake. He seemed upset too. Dri reached out and touched him on the arm. "Drake, are you okay? What did those women say to you?"
Drake didn't look at her. "They were wondering if I had ever thought about anything past eating and sleeping. Then they called me a 'useless shell' and laughed."
Dri felt her anger begin to rise. How dare they If they could just look past the fact that he's not human, they would see why I lo-…NO! You do not get to think that! Not now, not ever! "Not everyone thinks that way though. I don't, Arsmith doesn't, and nor does Benita just to name a few."
Drake looked at her. "I do feel though. Emotions, thoughts, it's all there. I'm not a shell."
"You're absolutely right. You're a person. The emotions part was obvious to everyone after they had insulted me."
"You were crying. I felt like I needed to fix it somehow."
"Thank you for that. No one really has ever done that for me before. I guess I just forgot how much I used to get made fun of for my ears."
"Your ears?"
Dri laughed. "After a month of following me around, you haven't noticed that I have pointy ears?"
Drake smiled. "I have. I have never thought about them though. They are a part of you."
"When I was little, the other kids used to make fun of me. Knife-ear was the kindest insult I can remember. My father's father came from the far west, where there is no duchy. He came to Cassardis looking for work, and he met my grandmother. They fell in love and my family's been there ever since. Or they were. Now it's just me."
"Is that why you want to start a family? I heard Benita talk about it last time we were in Cassardis."
"One of the reasons. I was looking to have a family before the dragon came. Marry somebody, have kids, grow old working on a boat. Simple things." Dri turned back to her plate to finish before her food went cold.