I raised my eyebrows, very amused by his comment.
"How so?"
He pondered for a minute and finally returned the reply.
"You are honest… but your actions have grown nearly half-witted."
His aloof nature blooming and the stoic expression glued to his face.
"Are you complaining?"
"No... I'm worried."
A subtle widening stirred in my eyes by his honesty. Worried for me? Him?
"You're a short liver, yet risk your life, as though you aren't. Our old dragon folk-tale always described a short liver to be one who hides and is afraid."
His voice subdued, sinking into the evening merrow lights. It didn't carry any hint of arrogance or pride. Just a perturbed man sharing his story with me. He pauses in between, taking a heavy whiff every now and then, and sometimes sharing a glance. Gentle evening spirits, aflame and glowing, cast their flickering lights over his ruby pupils. Giving me another chance to catch every glimpse and details on his face.
On his neck, a faint pattern of red scales appeared and vanished with each blink, a detail so elusive it felt almost impossible to capture. After a deep breath, he advanced further in depth.
"You aren't like them, none of you are. It's concerning." His stoic face cracked, just a little, and the furrow between his brows deepened with the weight of his emotions.
"It's more concerning that you see us as short livers." An awkward laughter eased from my chest.
"You are for us. We dragons consider ourselves as superior creatures since we are the longest livers."
(You aren't the longest liver..., if only you had known her pain.)
My mind drifted off to the memory lain, and I was only brought back by Tomb.
[She appeared to be lonely.]
(She is.)
[He is scared to be lonely as well. That's what his mana feels like.]
"Still a yapper." Tremious interrupted.
"Ah! Sorry to leave you off like that."
He grunted in response while rolling his eyes.
(Almost forget that he can hear you.)
[...]
(Better keep quiet from now on when I'm with him).
Her sarcastic, mocking echoes stopped from within, and I took my time again to observe the face beside me. The nape of his neck stirred with red scales, and his stare drifted into a pensive silence.
***
He rubbed his eyes again and trudged off to another place in the Usagiko estate. No eyes followed him this time, so he took his leisure walk under the glistening rays of the sun.
A mop of messy brunette hair and freckles dusted over his cheeks.
His height is taller than the first time he met the selfless black haired elf. He rubbed his eyes again and put both his hands in his little pockets. His senses have grown by now, and he loved the party very dearly.
Suddenly, a faint 'tis tis' noise came from the ground. Curious, he didn't waste a second and tilted his head to find the source.
His autumn brown eyes met with one's that was clearly not an animal or a spirit. It was a faint essence of something so extraordinary and bewildering. It's so tiny that it could be missed so easily, yet his eyes decided to meet it's.
Ororon stared, and his expression flickering every second. He took a while to observe, and later, he gave his soft smile, a radiant one at that. His smile flushed his freckled cheeks and revealed his two crooked front teeth.
The little baby blue essence trembled in the ground, and droplets of giant tears flowed from its two little pupils.
Ororon noticed yet again and just whispered with the clearest voice.
"Don't worry, I won't hurt you."
The little fragile fragment of essence took a few steps back, however, halted when it noticed that Ororon hadn't ever moved.
Ororon extended his fingers at it. Although the sheer fear was plastered over its tiny face, this time, it didn't back away. A little smile tucked under the fragmented face. The miniature joy was so fragile that it felt it could lose again.
Ororon breathed out a chuckle whilst looking at it and sat down on the ground to meet its gaze better.
"I'm Ororon. What's your name?"
The tiny shorts covered only half of his leg while the other half met with the mossy carpet of the Usagiko estate. Blades of prickly grass nicked his skin, but he barely felt it. His eyes were glued to the creature, its body shimmering like liquid starlight, every movement enchanting the air around it.
It didn't reply, more so it couldn't. It just waved its watery arms around and jumped closer to Ororon.
Ororon chuckled again, finding it adorable. But then?
It gave a stare, a stare filled with certain emotions that Ororon still had yet to discover. Desperation? Surrow? What was it that it couldn't say out?
Ororon didn't break the eye contact and gazed at it whilst pondering.
"You want me?"
The creature nodded in response, and Ororon fell to ponder again.
"Must it be I?"
The small nod came again as a reply.
Out of nowhere, a call came from the inner estate.
"Ororon! Where are you?"
Her mellow voice rang through his ears, and he abruptly got up, holding the creature in its arms.
The next moment when he took the time to look at it agian...it wasn't there?
"???"