He giggles.

"You're - you're a dragon, why would you even be attracted to human women?!"

"You're so small and fragile and helpless! What's not to like?"

"The fact that we are physically incompatible, that's what! I mean unless your, your shapeshifting is complete enough to - to - but as a dragon you would not fit!"

He laughs. "My shapeshifting is as complete as I want it to be."

"And what, there aren't a lot of available female dragons flying around, and it's just easier to snatch up a princess instead of going looking?!"

"I'm not actually sure there are any female dragons right now."

"Have you checked, you should check, if dragons are shapeshifters I'm sure the both of you would have lots of fun, no need to bring silly humans into it, I definitely can't compare!"

He shakes his head.

"I'll tell you a secret," he says, "we all start out as humans. Dragon, griffin, unicorn, whatever, we grow up human and only get mythical later."

"I, what, how?!"

"Magic?"

"But - then - why do you often go and cause trouble and need slaying, why don't you live with your families with some major lifestyle changes and otherwise be the neighbor who also just happens to be a dragon, or whatever!"

"...well in my case my family's been dead for thousands of years," he says.

"Okay, but why hang out in a mountain palace and kidnap girls, why not fly down to some out of the way town, turn into a human, walk in and introduce yourself? I can't imagine you have many friends, being a dragon that kidnaps girls."

"I really hate lying. Pretending to be a nice harmless ordinary human and then having people be terrified of me when they find out does not sound like my idea of a good time."

"So be the, the, friendly neighborhood dragon for a while, chase away wolves or hostile armies or something, then once everyone is sure you're not evil introduce yourself?"

"Yeah, that does sound like what I'd do if I wanted to go out of my way to get people to like me."

"So you're just okay with people hating you, sending the occasional doomed dragonslayer after you, as long as you pick up some unfortunate girl for - what could generously be called companionship?"

"I mostly just want to live in luxury in my stunningly beautiful mountain lair," he says. "And I apologize if I've left you with the impression that I don't get anything out of kidnapping girls in particular, I absolutely do. I'm not going to assume out of hand that it's definitely better than the other option, but it's nice."

He leans against the ornate stone railing.

"The trouble is that I really can't just go looking for companionship of the non-kidnapped kind, not casually. As you've pointed out, I could sink decades of work into it first, but I don't see that I have a good reason to. And I think you're underestimating how attached people are to their preconceptions. I've been 'the evil dragon on that mountain' for longer than any neighbouring kingdom has existed. It's not uncommon for me to go half a century without so much as snacking on a stray sheep, let alone kidnapping anyone, and yet when I do I always find my reputation has persisted in my absence."

"... That sounds really lonely and sad," she admits, a lot of her fear and indignation bleeding out of her, precisely like she'd just been stabbed in the emotions.

"Yeah, maybe a little," he acknowledges wryly.

For a few moments she's just quiet, wondering what she could possibly say to that.

"... Do you want - help? Figuring out something that's less..." She waves a hand, awkwardly. "Lonely and sad?"

"Can't say that I've thought about it," he says. "You're, uh, being much more sympathetic than most kidnapped people."

"I was hiding behind my sardonic wall of emotional protection, so now that I've actually poked my head out from behind it to feel emotions, I'm not reeling as much as I could be. Plus I seem to be slotting myself into a category you don't know what to do with?"

"...I'm not sure that's quite the right way of looking at it," he says. "If what you mean is that I don't seem like I'm going to rape you, well, you're not wrong. But it's not like you're - some kind of fundamentally incomprehensible thing. I enjoy your company and you're not terrified of me, that's fairly straightforward."