Snippet #2183889

The fury bubbled deep in Nyxmel's chest as he stared at the pitiful being. When he roared, the human rolled to all fours, but the awkwardness of the position meant that they were obviously bipedal. The creature's brown eyes widened in fear, well as they should. Pride began to push out the fury, but he was determined to deal with this murderer. Even if humans were the bane of the dragons' existance, mass homicide was never an option. His mother had taught him to respect all life, and only to take it when necessary.

The thing put up a "hand" then. Instinctively, Nyxmel tensed to take a step backwards. What was it doing? Was it going to use magic? Shoot out hidden blades? Instead, it spoke in a soft voice laden with fear, "S...suh...suh...steady... Steady there. Look...uh..look. I'm... I'm not even... even from the village," said the pale creature as it slowly began to back away from him. The anger drained from his chest as he stared at the fragile-looking thing moving away. He could understand it! Nyxmel had always figured that the centuries old texts from back home would never have held up the language, but he had learned it anyway, seeing as how the history of the Life War was so intriguing. It was... scared. But why did she reiterate what he already knew? Obviously she wasn't from the village, or she wouldn't have reason to burn it down.

"I... I don't know what they did to make... you know... make you angry. But, look. I'm not one of them and I'm sure whatever they did... you know... you... you were justified in being angry."

He understood then. His tail drooped and his mouth hung slightly agape. All anger left him. How could this one human have burned down an entire village without a band? Didn't they travel in clans, or packs, or flocks or something? Guilt gnawed at his heart for leaping to a conclusion too quickly. It thought that he was the one who had done this. Nyxmel cast a glance about at the heaps of smoldering rubble. His mind fought back to his lessons, the awkward tongue rolls and nasal usage. Human speech was cool to learn, but Draconic was much easier. "Y... You think I did this?" The words came in a baritone with a thick accent, something of a mixture between Russian and British. Every k had an h at the end, and the vowels were very odd, along with other differences from regular speech. "Why would I do this? I came here to look for something of my mother's, not to kill... I thought..." he paused as he hid his eyes under the ivory faceplate's shadows, "I thought it had been you..."

He looked back up at her and approached slowly. "I mean you no harm." Slowly, he reached onto his back, snagged the leather bag rolled over his shoulders, and dropped it to the ground.