Unlikely Pairs - The Dragon Ch. 02

DISCLAIMER:

The following starts off as a slow-burn romance without any spicy action for a while. As well, this is my first time putting to words a story idea I've had for a long time, and my first foray into proper writing in general.

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[Late January]

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In the large cavernous chamber, filled with furnishings across the past few centuries and lit up by orange crystals, the most attention-drawing subject was the massive purple dragon curled up in the centre of this space. After having spoken with a soft and feminine voice, the dragon had waited for her nominal guest to speak up. For his part, the odd homeless artist was left staring in awe and wonder at the magnificent creature before him for several seconds straight; the dragon seemed rather annoyed at his lack of response or reaction.

"Excuse me, but.... are you alright, human? What do I even call you?"

The artist was snapped out of his stupor by this annoyance-laden response from the fairy tale creature that shouldn't exist.

He began to stutter a bit as he spoke. "Oh, uh, my name's Lewis. Lewis Greene."

The dragon cocked her head a bit. "Lewis? Very well, then. My name is Jiva, and you are very lucky to be in my presence."

At this comment from Jiva, the artist looked down at his bandages and scars, then looked back up at the dragon. His eyes betrayed the sheer wonder and excitement he felt gazing upon this beautiful beast, a fact that Jiva seemed to have picked up on; she raised her eye ridge in curiosity. Lewis slipped off the bed and onto the rocky floor, and then looked down at his feet; the floor had been warm and smooth despite the cold rocky appearance. The odd man looked back up at the dragon before him, and couldn't help but break out into a huge smile as he looked over the entirety of her body.

"You're a dragon!"

"Yes, I.... You're unusually excited to meet a dragon for the first time." She said this with quite a bit of confusion in her voice.

It was clear that she hadn't expected the human she rescued to not be scared or shocked, let alone outright enthusiastic about meeting a creature of legend.

Like a little kid getting to see the animals at a zoo up close, Lewis walked up to Jiva's body and began examining her up close, inspecting her scales and framing her body parts in his fingers as though he were trying to gauge the right angles to take a picture or draw a portrait of her. This had confused Jiva greatly, but since the man was no threat and there were no weapons in sight for him to even attempt hostile action, she allowed this intrusion of her personal space from this tiny mammal.

The artist marvelled at every inch of her body with enthusiasm. "You're absolutely beautiful, Jiva."

"Beautiful? You.... you think I'm beautiful?" She seemed to be quite taken aback by this brazen comment, although not necessarily in a negative way.

"Absolutely! I've always loved dragons when I was growing up. Hell, drawing dragons for fun was how I developed a love for art, even if I could never turn it into a real job." Lewis's excitement was quite evident as he spoke.

"I must say, I never expected to meet a human this bold when I rescued you from that bear down below."

At the mention of his rescue, Lewis stopped eyeing every part of Jiva's body and looked up at her directly into her eyes. The realization of what she just said, as well as the circumstances around his current predicament, finally set in. As the two of them held their gaze, a kind of unspoken understanding seemed to come into existence between them, one that both felt; neither quite understood what this feeling was. Lewis was the first to speak up after several seconds of this held gaze.

"You saved me." There was reverence and gratitude in Lewis's voice, as the impact of Jiva saving his life truly dawned on him.

Jiva snorted. "I did. I don't know why I did, but something about you piqued my interest in a way I can't explain."

Lewis seemed puzzled at this admission. "Really? Huh.... didn't think anyone would be interested in me. So.... what now? You saved me, but does this make me part of your hoard or something now?"

At this questioning of his fate, Jiva let out a low guttural sound that seemed very much akin to a human's chuckling. This little human was certainly a surprise in many ways, and she was rather amused by his reactions and observations, but he was still a human at the end of the day. In her experience, humans couldn't be trusted as easily as you could burn them. While this particular one was relatively harmless, the dragon still needed to be sure, and she needed a bit of an investment return for her troubles.

She stood up to her full quadrupedal height, putting her several elephants high at the shoulder and taking up a much greater volume of the cavernous chamber than before; even then, the enormous cavern still comfortably dwarfed her. Jiva turned around in the opposite direction of the bed and looked behind her, gesturing for Lewis to follow with her head. The artist dutifully followed, not caring at all that he had no shoes or shirt on and was left in only his jeans. For him, the experience of meeting an actual dragon far outweighed any kind of embarrassment or self-consciousness he might've felt ordinarily.

When they reached what looked to be the end of the rocky chamber, the wall split in half and slid away like automatic doors, allowing both Jiva and Lewis to walk through down a corridor or tunnel that was lit up by smaller clusters of purple glowing crystals. As the two of them walked down the tunnel together (or lightly jogging in Lewis's case given the dragon's larger stride length), Lewis couldn't help but marvel at the magical sights he just witnessed and stumbled over his words a bit.

"Okay, okay, I'm just-- I don't--"

Jiva snorted in a manner that seemed like a scoff. "Never seen dragon magic before?"

Lewis continued to marvel at everything. "I'm not even gonna question how it works, I'm just in awe at suddenly being thrust into a whole new understanding of reality!"

The little human's curiosity and wonder had certainly continued to be amusing, earning another guttural chuckle from the dragon before she continued on.

"It's nothing, really. The environment shapes itself to suit a dragon's needs should they decide to set up a more permanent lair. We are some of the greatest creatures to have ever walked this planet, and the very lands either tremble in our wake or submit to our will."

Lewis nodded. "Seems pretty convenient. Us humans tend to use a lot of very noisy equipment to do anything close to this. Though as an artist, I prefer to keep things looking naturally beautiful."

"Like me?"

At this little teasing, Lewis stopped looking at the dragon and brought his eyes forward with a bit of embarrassment in his cheeks, garnering a much louder rumbling roar from her which was likely a dragon's equivalent to a hearty laugh. While Lewis was still reeling from that bit of prodding, he couldn't help but smile at having made a majestic creature like Jiva audibly laugh out loud, even if it was at his expense. It had felt nice to simply interact with someone else that seemed to enjoy his presence, and the fact that this someone else happened to be a giant magical dragon that could bend the very earth itself to her whims only barely registered to him; he was simply happy to feel noticed and involved in something important.

They reached the end of the tunnel, which looked to be another dead end like the one they passed through earlier. And just like before, the rock wall split down the middle and opened up for Jiva. Upon stepping through, the sight was truly unlike what you'd expect out of a cave, even compared to the personal bed chamber of a dragon back where the two of them came from.

It was an even larger open expanse that was bathed in light from glowing white crystal formations all around the ceiling and walls, giving it lighting that looked akin to a bright sunny day. On the floor of this cavernous chamber were multiple plots of dirt surrounded by rock fences, each one being a huge square of land that was nearly as large as Jiva's torso. They were all neatly arranged into a four-by-four grid with plenty of space between them that would allow the dragon to comfortably walk between each plot of land. A wide variety of vegetables and fruits could be seen from these garden plots that ranged between root vegetables like potatoes and carrots, leafy greens like cabbages and spinach, and even ground fruits like watermelons and blueberry bushes.

In addition to this bounty, there were multiple flowing fountains of water at the edges of the massive circular chamber that similarly looked to have sprung up from the very rock itself rather than being carefully constructed. The only human-built objects in sight were a small wooden shed next to one of the fountains, a large grain silo that flanked it, a few wooden picnic tables of late 20th century construction strewn around the rock walls, and some various gardening tools and implements littered about the area that looked to similarly be from the late 20th century. Overall, it was a veritable indoor greenhouse, a picturesque image of magically shaped rock formations alongside somewhat modern gardening supplements.

Lewis was left awestruck by this sight, while Jiva looked down at him with what could only be described as a bit of a smirk as she spoke a bit about what he was seeing.

"What do you think of my little garden?"

"It's amazing, but.... how?"

Jiva seemed a bit annoyed. "You're really doubting a dragon's magic now, after I've healed all your wounds and shown you the entirety of this system of caverns which has been shaped to my will?"

At this admittedly fair jab, Lewis was left promptly a bit silent in slight embarrassment. He then recollected himself and stepped further into the room, taking a closer look at all the garden plots. The smell of the whole area was quite aromatic, and Lewis couldn't help but bask in the light emanating from the crystals like a pleasant sunny day; the dragon followed suit behind him, stretching her wings out to enjoy the light herself.

"It's nice, isn't it? The crystals provide light akin to the sunlight outside of this mountain, providing bountiful energy to my crops and your own body, but without any of the deleterious effects that can cause cancers in humans. And the water fountains are fully clean and will not become polluted by impurities."

Lewis was suitably impressed. "That's incredible, especially since this is all inside of a mountain. Are we inside of the Naked Mountain I saw outside before that bear mauled me?" The casualness with which Lewis had brought up his harrowing near-death experience was a bit odd to him, but he brushed it off.

"Yes, I do believe so. The only bare mountain in the region without any trees lining it, correct?"

The artist nodded, "Yeah, that one. Hard to believe we're inside of it, though I suspected as much as we were walking through that tunnel, Jiva."

Jiva snorted a bit. "Alright, Lewis, come. I will now show you what you will be doing to make yourself useful to me after the investment I've made in ensuring your good health."

The dragon walked through the garden and came to the wooden shed near the opposite end. Once Lewis caught up, she laid down next to it and gestured with one of her forelimbs to the shed.

"You will be attending to my garden, harvesting the freshest crops, watering and washing them with the fountains, planting new plants to replace any ill-growing ones, and more. My garden's yield replenishes within days rather than the months your human farming methods would take, meaning it requires frequent maintenance."

"Okay, then. Sounds like hard work, but I'm not complaining. I've been looking to find something to do as of late, and I have the best company I could've ever asked for." Lewis couldn't help but grin a bit as he complimented Jiva; he really did mean it when he said she was the best company around.

At this little compliment, the dragon stared at Lewis for a bit. Her facial features were a little hard to discern, but her tail slapping the ground a bit seemed to be a dead giveaway for whatever she was feeling in the moment. Lewis couldn't help but smirk a little before going into the shed and getting himself ready for the task at hand. The artist came out of the shed wearing some boots, gloves, and a somewhat dirty checked button down shirt alongside equipment like a pail, rake, small shovels, and more.

He looked up at the dragon and struck a slight flexing pose, to which she could only roll her eyes as he chuckled to himself.

"Alright, ready to go! So.... what do I do first?"

"Start with the root vegetables for right now. I'll be monitoring your progress and advising you as you work."

The artist gave the dragon some finger guns. "You're the boss, Jiva."

Lewis started walking towards the potato plot with a determined march in order to look more stern and tough than he really was, but he promptly tripped on a rock and fell face first into the dirt of the cabbage plot. Jiva couldn't help but let out another hearty laughing roar at this bit of clumsiness.

Perhaps this little human would be more fun to keep around than she initially thought.

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Several hours of hard work tending to the garden passed by for Lewis, much of it filled with a decent amount of him needing to be corrected by Jiva on the proper techniques. Still, he started getting the hang of it with practice and had begun carrying off a decent amount of produce to the storage silo next to the dragon. She might not have had the intensive greed of some other dragons who had kept hoards of gold and valuables, giving rise to legends and depictions of this behaviour, but she still had a tendency to want to gather up a reserve of precious objects as most of her kind did; in this case, crops that grew faster and were more nutritious than anything humans could produce.

The work was tiring for the artist, but he was invigorated by the delicious fruits he had been allowed to partake in and small talk with Jiva.

Jiva.

She was certainly a welcome surprise, and one that Lewis had continued to bring up his appreciation for during their little intermittent conversations as he worked. The dragon seemed a bit apprehensive to accept these compliments, and the artist had wondered internally if perhaps giving out too many compliments was rude in dragon culture. Jiva seemed to be amicable and very much akin to a human in most regards given her sense of humour and how she carried herself as she spoke with Lewis, but sometimes there were moments where her body language spoke louder than words even if the artist couldn't always parse out what these displays meant.

Lewis didn't want to offend Jiva, but she never chastised him for anything beyond messing up something as he worked.

As the artist finished putting away a fresh load of potatoes, he started walking back to the garden plots. However, the dragon brought the tip of her tail down in front of him, stopping him in his tracks.

"That'll be enough for tonight, Lewis."

Lewis seemed concerned. "Are you sure? I could keep going--"

"Yes, I'm sure. I want you as a productive worker, not a machine that breaks. Come, you will prepare dinner for us before we get ready for sleep."

The artist started to ramble a bit. "Dinner for us? Like, me and you, Jiva? Will we even have enough for the two of us? I mean, I don't need to eat as much, so...."

Jiva narrowed her eyes. "Are you calling me fat?"

At this accusation and her glare, Lewis felt his blood ice over as sweat started to run down his head; it wasn't just from his work exertion earlier, either. When the dragon gave a bit of a guttural chuckle and stood up, the artist finally let out a breath and relaxed a bit; messing with him like this was a favourite form of amusement for her.

Jiva walked toward the eastern side of the chamber and laid down. She gestured her head towards a small unlit campfire with a pot, bowls, and utensils next to it, as well as a large basket with some vegetables in it and a smaller basket with some fruits. In addition to these baskets, there were a few bottles of salt, spices, and other additives for simple soups. However, the baskets and additives weren't brought here by Lewis as he had been working, so he was left puzzled as to how these had gotten here from the bed chamber; he could only chalk it up to dragon magic, like most things in this cave system.

"You want me to prepare dinner here, Jiva?"

Jiva nodded and spoke plainly. "Yes. You do not need to concern yourself with exact proportions for me. Simply make a few portions more than you yourself can eat in one sitting."

"Alright then. I'm not much of a cook, but I'll give it a try."

Lewis began putting water and the vegetables into the pot while Jiva blew a tiny little flame from her mouth into the wooden pile beneath it. As the water started to boil, the artist began to stir the vegetables together while putting in some of the additives. The dragon made sure to snort a bit whenever he got something wrong and corrected him afterwards. This prolonged the process a little, but it didn't take long for the soup to take on a highly aromatic scent that had left Lewis's mouth watering. He took the pot off of its rack and set it down on the picnic table that Jiva was lying down next to.

He poured some of the soup into a bowl and drank it straight up after blowing off some of the heat. The taste was exquisite, despite the simplicity of the ingredients and additives, and left Lewis feeling warm inside. The artist was quick to pour a few more bowls for himself and slurped them down hungrily, and he was soon full after just four bowls.

"Wow, that was delicious."

Jiva snorted in approval. "Of course it was, Lewis. My garden produces the finest crops, and the salt was drawn from deposits elsewhere in my lair. Not to mention that you had my direction to correct any of your mistakes in cooking."

"That I did. You really know your stuff."

Jiva spoke with a bit more humility. "I've had much time to practice and refine my craft. Though I must admit, I have made many mistakes in the past. For example, you've noticed my collection of items across the past millennium in my bed chamber, yes?"

Lewis nodded. "Yeah. What about them, Jiva?"

"Some of those items are actually older than I am. I am a bit over 400 years old, though I have collected items exceeding that. However, I didn't always have such a collection."

Jiva looked away from Lewis towards her garden, her ears drooping a little as she let out a bit of a sigh. Even the artist could tell that whatever was on her mind weighed heavy. The dragon turned her attention back to Lewis and continued on.

"When I first came to North America, it was to escape the Order Magia, a secretive human cabal that sought to eliminate threats to humanity. In the process, I lost my precious reverse-scale." Jiva seemed particularly saddened in her vocal tone as she said this, though Lewis tried to keep things on track with an inquisitive response.

Lewis scrunched his face a little as he thought over her comment. "Reverse-scale? I think I've heard about that. It's a special scale that faces towards your head instead of being positioned away from it and is extremely rare and valuable, right?"

"Yes, that is correct, Lewis. I flew to these shores, and had foolishly lost it while navigating these very mountains. My plate is likely still out there, never able to decay but likely swept away by the elements and forgotten to time. See for yourself."

Jiva moved her head and gestured to a spot on her left hind-leg's thigh, prompting Lewis to stand up and walk over to get a closer look. Sure enough, there was a small spot on her left thigh where no scale was present, unnoticeable from a distance but unmistakable nonetheless. As Lewis touched it, he looked up with sympathetic eyes at Jiva, who stared at him back; the two of them once again came to some unspoken understanding that both could feel but couldn't explain.

"You gathered up those objects in your bed chamber to try and fill that void left by your missing dragon plate, didn't you?" His realization was small, but Jiva picked up on what he was implying.

She looked at him with a bit of sadness, but pressed on with her story.

"Yes.... yes I did, Lewis. I flew back and forth between here and Europe, trying to collect rare and high quality objects. The Order Magia nearly caught me several times during these trips. However, none filled that void, and it took awhile before I settled on creating a garden through which I could busy myself with tending to it and building a reserve of the finest produce in the world."

There was a bit of conflict in Lewis's mind as he thought of his next response. "Why tell me this, Jiva?"

Jiva took in a breath before she spoke. "If you're going to be staying with me, I ought to be more forthcoming with some personal information myself. I suppose I now consider you part of my collection, and I try to take care of my belongings. I hope this label doesn't offend you." While she didn't mean any offence, it was clear that she wasn't exactly concerned with labelling him in and of itself so much as how doing so would affect his productivity.

Lewis was nonchalant in his response. "Nah, I'm not offended. In fact, I'm kinda into it. It's nice to do something productive for once compared to the rest of my life, even better that it's for an awesome magical dragon. And thank you, for trusting me with this personal info about yourself."

Jiva's lips seemed to curl into something of a smile. "You've been a pleasant surprise all-around. Alright, head back to the bed chamber. The walls will open for you. Go on, then. I will join you later."

"Okay, see ya there, Jiva."

Lewis started walking back in the direction of the bed chamber. Sure enough, just as Jiva said, the wall now opened up for him and let him through. As he stepped through and the wall started closing behind him, he glanced around behind him one last time at the dragon. She had gotten up from where she was lying down and faced the eastward wall. Just like the one closing behind him, the wall opened up for her, though Lewis's walls closed behind him before he could see more of where she was going.

The artist thought about going through again to see where she was going, but he ultimately decided that he would turn in for the day and not go against her request.

He walked down the tunnel to the bed chamber, his thoughts squarely on how Jiva had trusted him with this very personal and important information about her lost reverse-scale. Once he entered the cavern, he took off his gardening clothes and left his shirt and gloves on a coat hangar while his boots were left at its base, leaving him in only his jeans. The artist thought about taking those off too, but he decided to keep them on to preserve a modicum of modesty around his new friend.

Friend? Friend seemed a bit of a big leap given how she nominally claimed him as property, but then Jiva had been the most pleasant and interesting person he had ever talked to in his life. She never chastised him for anything except for explicit mistakes in the work he had done for her, and she was quite happy to engage in little banter and jokes with him.

As Lewis laid down in the frankly massive bed that could easily fit two people and then some, he smiled to himself at his current circumstances. He now had a stable job, good company, a place to stay, and abundant food. As sleep started to overtake him, he overheard the dragon lumbering into the room from the opposite wall. Without another word, she simply laid down in the centre of the chamber and curled up, tucking her head into her legs and wrapping her tail around herself.

Lewis turned over and stared at her for a few moments. In his mind, one thing became clear. He needed to do everything he could to make Jiva's life more enriching.