The land of bearded kings (solo)

Richard gave a cough that erupted into a thick cloud in the cold air. The moisture of the hot breath only adding to the white crust of frost in the thick beard around his face. It had been a year since the dragon eyed human found himself in this land of ice and snow.

A year since he joined forces with another that had eyes like him. They were the only living creature he had encountered in his life that he could relate to with no fear or secrets. And to think of all things the said person was a woman. Well, at least that was what she appeared as most of the time. She had another form.

Richard stirred the pot of hot boiling liquid over a fire in the cave and grunted at the figure in the blizzard that went from all fours into a human form. He did not even bother looking up as he tossed thick furred cloths. "Du vil fange din død av kulde."

The once dragon formed woman did not give a reply but instead sat on a large backpack like a seat at the fire pit and boiling pot of food. "Dragetungen din blir bedre halvrase". She said plainly with hands warming near the fire.

"Your dragon tongue is not bad but you still need to work on your accent if you don't want my kin to eat you." Richard took the ladle out the pot and sipped at the thick meaty fluid and gave a pleased deep sigh of pleasure.

"You taught me well but you can only teach me so much scholar. I doubt my accent would make much of a difference the same as my eyes. Dragons as a whole don't respect anything." With that he paused before speaking. "To dragons meat is meat."

"Til drager kjøtt er kjøtt".

The woman narrowed her serpent eyes and let out a none human growl that Richard replied in kind. "The fact I have not eaten you yet is prove of the stupidity of your words. So just shut up and cook." She said with irritation.

Richard stopped stirring the pot to look into the dragon shape shifters eyes. It was a long hard stare that a alpha would do and the female turned her dragon eyes away from his after a bit. Out of submission or shame was anyone's guess.

Richard continued to stare at the lady for a few more moments with his dragon eyes before he returned his attention to the pot of cooking food. "I wish you had left me there." He said sadly. "I wish you had eaten me. I died, and yet you stood over me and carried me off that battlefield of corpses. You robbed me of the one thing I wanted. Death".

It was a difficult thing to talk about but still Richard talked. "I died that day, yet I came back to life. I would have returned to the dead had you left me. But you did not".

"I am a ghost, a wandering spirit denied death with no reason to live. I don't understand why you carried me in your claws off that field of death. You, you, were eating the dead. Why did you not eat me? I should have died a hero but you did not let me. I don't know if I can forgive you for that.

Richard scooped up the contents of the pot and handed the steaming wooden bowl to the women. She took the bowl without comment seeming content in watching Richard scoop up his own bowl of food and eat.

"I told you before," the woman said lowly as she blew on the bowl of food. "I have been studying humans as long as they have existed to study. Even had a few children for a human father for the purpose of study. When I learned all that could be learned I ate them of course."

Richard tensed up and said a few dragon words less then polite. "I did not eat you because you serve a purpose, and that is all." The lady said blankly without emotion. "You faced down a monster horde, challenged its alpha, and killed it in single combat. In doing so you caused the horde to be scattered to the four winds."

She sipped the meaty stew from the bowl and let out a sigh of contentment that could be seen in the cold air as a visible cloud. "You died in the process yet you came back." At that she took another drink of the bowl before looking at him. "That is something I find interesting. But make no mistake pariah, I will eat you when you no longer serve a purpose."