What happens when quests seem to disprove your headcanon? You use different aspects of your headcanon and use them to make it all fit.

In other words, I've always headcanoned my Hero (Riese) having taught her dragon (Adriel) how to read, over the course of writing her journals (and many bedtime stories), and I'm too attached to let it go. So have a justification that didn't need to exist but does because I want it to. This has been in my drafts folder since a Dragon's Day Out was released and I only just finished it now because I felt like vomiting words. Hope someone finds this enjoyable.

The walk from Oaklore to Falconreach never took that long, even with dodging Rose patrols to consider (not like they needed to but Riese didn't want to give them more amunish—amewn—stuff to shoot her with unless it was necessary). Still, it gave Adriel more than enough time to make sure that she understood that even if he did like his new hat (and he liked it a lot) , he was still mad at her about the note she left.

Not because he couldn't read, that was just slander (or was it libel?). He could read just fine, thank you very much! He's been reading since he was little (and no one better say he's still little) but—

He can't read common.

"I'm sorry, it just… slipped my mind, that's all," she said, and not for the first time, his gift for her tucked carefully under her arm. "I mean, you understand it when I speak common so I guess I just… forgot I never taught you to read it."

He sputtered. "You have a Dragon Amulet!" The red-jeweled trinket gleamed faintly from where it dangled on her ear, proof that it was working even now. "Of course I can understand common when you speak it. It doesn't mean I can read it!"

Why didn't they have some kind of glasses version of Dragon Amulets anyway? Something that would let dragons read human stuff, like some kind of… Human Lens or something. It was unfair that humans got to understand Draconic so long as they had magic jewelry when nothing got dragons to read human writing except a lot of practice and effort.

She reached out to fiddle with the point of her Amulet, twisting it this way and that. "And it translates river-tongue, too, doesn't it?" She didn't wait for a response he wasn't gonna give; it was obvious and shouldn't need saying. That he's been able to understand her and Hae and Aloe regardless whether they were speaking in common or her mother tongue was pretty much solely because they all had Amulets now. "Ugh, I can't believe it slipped my mind…"

"I can," he grumbled. Honestly, he loves his human, he really does, but she was always so forgetful when it came to important stuff. Teaching him how to read common wasn't even the worst of it. For all that she nagged everyone to take breaks, eat healthy, and hydrate, she forgot to do just that herself all the time. At least she never forgot to give him treats. "I still don't know what that note even says."

"Well, that's simple enough…" She stopped, took out the note, flipped it over, then quickly scribbled something on the back. "In river, it would be… something like this."

She knelt so he could read it without having to look up, holding it out between her hands, Drahaj held afloat with telekinesis by her side. He came to his own stop just a little in front of her before looking at the note.

"Well, why didn't you write that then?" he grumbled. That was a note he could read just fine, her usual ugly handwriting aside. Have some stuff to do. Won't be long. Be good. Smiley face. Easy-peasy literacy. No one even wrote in common around home, except for when they were doing (ugh) math. And he's perfectly fine with the thought of never learning how to read math.

She reached out to run a placating hand down his head. Magnanimous and generous dragon that he was, he allowed it, even leaning in so she could give him a good scritching. If he didn't let her give him scritches, she'd feel even guiltier and he wasn't gonna let her feel guilty about that, too. Not more than she already did, anyway. The scritching was just a bonus. A really nice bonus. A really nice, relaxing bonus that he wouldn't mind going on forever and ever...

"I'll teach you when we have the time, okay?" she said soothingly, her hand gentle against his scales. "I'll see if I can't find something for us to read together when we get home."

His ears perked up. "Dinner first!"

"After dinner, of course," she amended, smiling at him, scritching him behind the horns in that spot he could never scritch by himself. His tail thumped happily with each scritch. "It's been a long time since we've read together, hasn't it?"

"A looong time," he confirmed, maybe just a little grumpily. Really, he's a big dragon and doesn't need bedtime stories anymore but that doesn't mean he doesn't want them. He loved it when she read to him, it was how he learned to read river. Hae tried to take over when she was frozen but he and Aloe agreed that it just wasn't the same. He never did the voices right. Aloe might've settled eventually but he was never gonna settle for substandard story-telling, not when he knew for a fact that Riese was gonna come back. Of course, after she came back, they got too busy for bedtime stories... but still! "We still haven't finished The Adarna Bird."

She laughed. "I hear you," she said fondly. "I think I have a copy of it in common. We'll pick up where we left off. Should be fun."

It was definitely gonna be fun, he's missed having story time. But he wasn't gonna say that. "It'll be easy," he said, instead, confident. "I already learned river no problem so common should be a cinch."

"Mm, I wouldn't say that..." To his displeasure, she stopped scritching him to scratch her own cheek, looking thoughtful. "It's not exactly a one is to one sort of thing. River and common... don't have a lot in common. I mean, the alphabets alone..." Her voice trailed off and she ran her other hand through her hair, letting go of Drahaj in the process, though the plush spun in place instead of falling. He waited patiently for her to get back to her job as his Dragonlord but instead, she stood, eyes distant.

"Maybe Hae should be the one teach you," she said, after a few long moments. "Honestly, he might be the better choice. He's apprenticed under bigshot sages; I just finished a HELPERs. And common's not my first language, so..."

He stared at her, aghast. "What? No!" He liked Hae and all but stories were her thing. Their thing! He didn't care about her husband's dumb apprenticeship. "You're doing it. No ifs or buts!"

"I'm not saying I don't want to," she said quickly. "It's just that—if you want to learn how to read in common, he's the better—"

"No! No ifs!" He flew up so that they were at eye-level, glaring. "I want you to do it! No one else!" He flapped a bit higher so that he was glaring down at her. "We never get to read together anymore! All we ever do is fight and save people and quest. I wanna just read with you for once! You're teaching me common and that's final!"

She stopped. Took a deep breath in. Grabbed Drahaj from where it was floating and held it to her chest. "Do you... just miss reading together, Adri?" She said, at last, Drahaj still in her embrace. "You didn't seem to miss it and I didn't want to force you... Aloe doesn't want to read together anymore and she loved reading, so I thought you wouldn't..."

He only stared at her, disbelieving. The answer was so obvious, it shouldn't need saying. Of course, he missed it. Outside of food, it was the only time they ever just got to sit around and relax together without worrying about what was gonna explode next or what the next villain was gonna do. She used to read to him every night even before she got her Amulet, even before he was able to understand her, the sound of her voice soothing him to sleep like nothing else could. He liked fighting, don't get him wrong, but he also liked just sitting together with a book between them, him looking at the pictures and her giving all the characters funny voices. Aloe could pretend she was too big for stories all she wanted, he wasn't gonna lie like that.

Thankfully, thankfully, she seemed to get it. Her face fell. She looked so legitimately dejected, it was hard to stay mad. Especially when she was still holding onto Drahaj as preciously as if it wasn't a perfectly usable weapon in its own right. He fluttered down to around eye-level before lightly butting her cheek with his snout, startlin669g out a breath that sounded almost like a laugh before she gave him a good scratch under the chin, making him croon.

"...Okay," she said, after a few moments, an almost-smile at the corners of her mouth. "I'll be the one to teach you how to read common, then. I'm probably not gonna be the best at it... but you don't mind that, do you?"

He snorted. She was his human, that meant she was the best human, end of story. The scritches alone made that clear.

"Alright, alright." Despite her words, she was clearly happy about the idea of teaching him how to read common (as she should, it was a great honor). She looked as twinkly-eyed as she was when she first saw her present. He liked it best when she was like that. One of the reasons he decided to make Drahaj was because he wanted to see her get all twinkly again. It was becoming rarer and rarer, which was just a darn shame.

(The last time he'd seen her get all twinkly was when Hae surprised her with a bouquet of belladonnas and a box of bath salts. He was happy to see her happy, don't get him wrong, but seeing her drag Hae off so they could enjoy the bath salts together was just... eww. Aloe was crazy to find it sweet and not disgusting and no, he was not being a baby about it, he was not!)

"We'll get started once we get home. After dinner, I mean," she continued, now starting to move again in the direction of Falconreach, forcing him to follow after her. "We can finish The Adarna Bird first then... we'll see about making a lesson plan. I'm sure we still Aloe's old books from preschool. She's apprenticing now so it's not like she needs them..."

She bit her lip, running her fingers across Drahaj's belly as she did, making him frown. As happy as he was that she liked her gift (though he wasn't surprised; he helped make it for her so of course she loved it), those were supposed to be his belly rubs. If she got too tired to give him his fair share later (plus headpats; he's been way more than just good!), there would be heck to pay. He flitted over to around chest-height before bumping her hand, startling her into giving him a headpat, Drahaj stumbling out of her hands and floating instead by her side.

"Let's think about that stuff after we finish The Adarna Bird," he said firmly, darting up so that he was at around shoulder-height, his wingbeats blowing her hair about. "I've been waiting to finish it for ages!"

Her lips quirked upwards into a not-quite smile as she nodded. "It is a bit of a big book, isn't it?" she said, reaching up to give him a scritch behind the ears, idly spinning Drahaj telekinetically as she did so, the plushie spinning up and down and up and down and—

That actually looked like a lot of fun…

He stared at the plush dragon spinning circles through the air before turning his stare to his Dragonlord. Staring.

It took a moment for her to notice but she did. She let out a sigh. "Always so demanding, Adri," she said tiredly. But she was smiling, her eyes fond as she waved a hand over him. "But okay."

Her eyes flashed lilac. That was the only warning he got before he felt a tingle against scales and suddenly found himself high in the air, his whole body aglow, the sunset skies all around him, Riese a tiny speck on the ground but her scent filling the air around him. It wasn't like flying, it wasn't like hovering, it was more like being carried away by someone hugging him from every direction all at once. It was weird and kinda ticklish and it was even better than he thought it would.

"Wooo!"

He spun three circles up then five circles down, meeting Riese' amused gaze upside-down with an excited bark:

"Again, again!"

"This is harder than it looks, you know. You're a lot heavier than a plush."

"Again! Again!"

"...okay."

It is like that they make their way home, a dragon whooping and cheering as he spun higher and higher through the air on his partner's power, moving forward all the while. As always, together.

end

Part of my Hero Riese's backstory has always been that she wasn't natively from the Land of Dragons, and only moved there at a very young age. It's not something she keeps secret per se but most never cotton on. Her accent makes her sound like she's from around Fairglade. She only speaks her native tongue around family members (Adriel very much, very obviously included). In common, her native tongue is known as the language of the river-folk or just river-tongue. She knows it as wikang taga-ilog.

The note is written in a modernized form of Baybayin (also known as Alibata). I'm not an expert or anything but it was fun to write out.