Page 29 of Claimed By the Dragon
The sun had nearly set, painting the sky a mixture of orange, red, and blue. But he focused on Grace, who struggled to walk and leaned heavily on the pram. “What do you need, Grace? Tell me.”
She glanced at him for a second before sighing and looking straight ahead again. “Magic, so I can take away my friend’s pain, heal her friend, and stop being tired all the time?”
He frowned. “Magic doesn’t exist. What people deem magic is usually an optical illusion.”
Smiling, Grace glanced at him. “I was being fanciful, Trahern. Like if I asked what sort of superpower you wanted, what would it be?” He frowned deeper, and she added, “You know, like with all those superhero films? Surely you’ve at least heard of them?”
He adjusted his glasses. “Some of the patients talk about them. But superpowers aren’t real, or even feasible, in most cases. A spider bite will not give you spider-like abilities. If anything, that amount of radiation and toxic substance would’ve killed the spider outright.”
“Hmm, I suppose. Do you ever read fiction or watch movies just for fun and try not to dissect them?”
Trahern could brush aside the question. It would be easy enough.
And yet, he felt guilty for leaving Grace earlier, after she’d tried to surprise him with something he liked.
His dragon yawned and woke up to speak.Stop hesitating with Grace. She will not laugh at you or look at you with pity. She is kind.
He’d had his fair share of being ridiculed over the years.It’s not that easy.
Just try with her. Because to really help her, she needs to trust us. Only after she shares her recent past will she fully start to heal and truly be happy.
How do you know this? Happiness is subjective, not objective.
I’ve always understood emotions better. Won’t you trust me?
For most dragon-shifters, this would be a simple question. After the first few years of speaking, they rarely doubted one another.
However, Trahern and his beast had struggled. Especially when it came to females.
His dragon spoke again.I’m older and wiser now. I haven’t pushed you about sex since the incident, have I?
No.
All I ask is that you be honest and stop hesitating with Grace when it comes to talking. That’s all.
During the chat with his beast, he’d focused straight ahead. But now, he looked back at Grace, who met his gaze again. After a beat, he blurted, “Movies and fictional stories can be confusing for me, along with TV shows. So no, I don’t usually watch them unless it’s an instructional video or lecture.”
“Why are they confusing to you, Trahern?”
Glancing back at the cottages in the distance, he replied, “I’m rarely able to deduce a stranger’s mood or emotions. With time, I learn clues, such as body language, tone, and facial expressions, and can mentally construct a guide to decipher them. By now, I know Sid and Gregor fairly well. Same for Emily. However, small things most people would understand in a film or story fly over my head. And more often than not, it results in me not being able to follow the story.” He shrugged. “So I don’t watch or read fiction.”
“Hmm. I never really thought about that—the small unspoken clues in films and TV. But you’re right, they play an important role sometimes. However, I think you might enjoy answering silly questions with me. Shall we try?”
He wanted to brush it off. But it was getting harder and harder to tell Grace no, so he nodded.
She continued, “Right, then pretend anything is possible, putting aside science and logic, and tell me: if you could pickbetween being able to teleport anywhere in the world or being able to move things with the power of your thoughts alone, which would you want?”
“Neither is possible.”
“No. But if they were, which would you pick?”
It was on the tip of his tongue to state neither. Because it was a waste of time to posit the impossible.
And yet, at the curiosity in Grace’s eyes, he took a second to think about it. If this game made her smile, or eased her worries about Dawn for a bit, it would serve another purpose, a better one. Because he liked it when she smiled or laughed, or at least had fewer frowns.
He finally replied, “Teleportation, if possible, would be more useful.”
“Useful, yes. But it also means you could travel whenever you wanted. You could enjoy sunsets in Thailand one day and then the view from Machu Picchu the next.” She sighed. “That would be so lovely.”