"I don't talk to other dragons much," he says. "But from what I can tell - when someone turns into a dragon, or whatever, they turn into the specific kind that suits their personality best. So dragons tend to be the kind of person who'd hole up somewhere and cause trouble. On the other hand, I'm that sort of person and if people were less afraid of me I'd probably cause less trouble, so..." He shrugs.

"Huh," she says, blinking. "Okay. So it's partially part of the system and partially provoked by society. That's interesting." She has a thoughtful bite of cake.

"I was the first dragon," he adds. "I've been around a while."

Blink.

"The first dragon? So did you set the standard of what a dragon is supposed to be, or did you slot into a category that hadn't been filled until you became a dragon, and you just happened to be first? I suppose you wouldn't know, I'm just curious about the mechanics of this all."

"Kind of hard to tell from my perspective, yeah. And I don't talk to other dragons that often. But all the ones I've ever met... reminded me of me, but not all in the same ways."

Saveth tilts her head, thoughtfully.

"Not in all the same ways? Like, they resembled you more than they resembled each other, or?"

"Yeah."

"Huh. That's... I'm not sure what that is. I suppose that implies you did set the standard for dragons, though."

"Yeah, it does."

"This is really interesting, though. It's tempting me to do something ridiculous and crazy like find and poll all of the mythical creatures in the world to see what the personality types are like. If that were at all a safe and rational thing to do and would not definitely get me killed, anyway."

Giggle.

Smile.

"I should probably distract myself before I'm tempted to figure out what the hypothetical set of questions would be, uh - do you have a place for me to sleep? I assume you can just make clothes to go along with the food making, so that seems handled."

"Yeah, this place has way more bedrooms than it needs, I like decorating 'em."

"... That's adorable. Any you're particularly proud of?"

He laughs. "Yeah, but it's a bit of a walk from here at this size, should I carry you again?"

"Sure, why not. Let's see if I can successfully avoid the indignity of squeaking."

He scoops her up.

She successfully avoids the indignity of squeaking, in that she instead makes an undignified eeping noise. Being scooped by a dragon is very different from being scooped by a dragon in human form. For example: wow, she sure has been confronted with the fact that in his human form he's rather attractive. That's a thing, yep. Also that he sure did that effortlessly. This is also a thing she's now aware of. Yep.

"... I think I'm done with my cake," she says faintly, blinking up at him like she's just seen him for the first time. "W-we should probably do something with it so I don't, um. Accidentally stab myself. With the fork." This is very clearly not at all what she's thinking about right now, but she's saying it anyway, because the rest of her brain is not up to saying things and she feels like she should say something.

"Wouldn't want that," he agrees. He shifts his grip on her slightly, freeing one hand, with which he touches the fork and plate; they and all the attached cake crumbs flicker with red light and disappear.

He can effortlessly carry her with one arm how is that fair did he steal his strength from the rest of mankind with magic oh wait no he is magic, he's a dragon and he is naturally this strong and can effortlessly carry her wherever he likes in his large pretty mountain palace -

"... Good. Good, that's. That's taken care of." She swallows. And now she is out of words, whoops, she's just. Going to be here. Being held. With one arm. By a pretty human-shaped dragon. Yep.

...he carefully sets her back down on her feet. "Are you all right?"

"Um." She clears her throat in an attempt to clear her thoughts. "Yes, I-I just. You're, um." She gestures vaguely at him, like this will demonstrate her point.

"I can't possibly be scarier as a human than a dragon, can I?" he says, perplexed.

"Thaaaat is not my problem," she asserts, with a self conscious little laugh. "Um. Being picked up and carried at all is - is a new one, people don't actually go around carrying royalty, it's. Not practical, for. For most people. It's - it's not that you're scarier, quite the opposite, it's. I-I don't really have any context for a dragon picking me up and carrying me off, it's a thing I hadn't expected to happen. I - admittedly didn't expect a man to pick me up and carry me off either, but there's. There's some social context there and it's. I'm. You."

Her ability to finish sentences seems to have stopped. Is she blushing? She's pretty sure she's blushing. She tries the sentences again, that was almost going well until her ability to finish them just evaporated. "So that just completely caught me off guard and because I have the - the romantic experience of freshly fallen snow I am, um. Making a complete idiot of myself, sorry."

"...oh."