Page 51 of The Orc Warrioress and the Elf Lord

“No,” she said. “No, dragons are fearsome things that you don’t tell children about, especially not as a bedtime story!”

He nodded slowly. “Right. Well, in the stories I heard, some elven princess would be captured by a dragon, and then the elven prince would go and do battle with the dragon to get her back.”

“Do battle?” She was entirely surprised. “How does one battle a dragon?”

“Right,” he said, nodding. “The stories tended to be unrealistic. The dragons in question would usually make the prince answer riddles, do strange tasks like gather water, that sort of thing.”

She blinked.

He shrugged. “Well, the dragon would be trying to trick the prince, but he would turn out to be smarter than the dragon, and would trick him right back, and then win back the princess, and usually stab the dragon to death, and that would be that.”

“That is the sort of story they told you as a child?”

“Yes?” He shrugged. “What were your stories about? Rainbows and winged white horses?”

She laughed, shaking her head. “Sometimes, I suppose.” She looked off into the distance. “More often than not, I suppose they would be about girls who were married off to awful men, but then the men would be changeable if she was sweet enough.”

“Awful men?”

“They’d be snake men or bear men or very monstrous in some other way?”

“Right,” he said. “Children’s stories are perhaps disturbing.”

She laughed softly.

“Anyway, the stories notwithstanding, it’s true that dragons take live captives. They’re not supposed to, not anymore, because it’s against the treaties, but maybe the dragon saw that the orcs are invading the Silvarenna and thought that—since the treaties are with the elves—none of that mattered anymore? Maybe he figured that since your mother was an orc, he could just take her away?”

“I am going after the dragon, of course,” she said. “I wasn’t going to tell you that.” She sighed. “I honestly had not figured out what I was going to do about you.”

“Well, going after the dragon on your own?” he said. “How are you going to find it? A bright blue dragon sounds very distinctive, but the odds of finding the dragon again just on the description of its color—”

“I’ve seen that dragon before,” she said. “When I was a girl, it would sometimes be spotted out flying above the mountain range to the northeast. I have heard rumors of where its lair is, in fact. I think I can find it.”

“Well, this bodes well.” He was quite excited, and he grinned at her. “But you must let me come along.”

“No,” she said. “You were supposed to have left me already. You and I have parted ways. You are not supposed to be here. And I am not going to allow you to sleep in this barn, so you have to go find somewhere else to sleep.”

“After you let me put my horse into a stall and take off its saddle and bridle and everything? You’re making me leave?”

She threw up her hands. “Fine. You can stay. But mark my words, my lord, you are never getting between these thighs of mine, do you understand?”

He scratched the side of his neck. “All right, if you want the truth, I don’t want to go home.”

She furrowed her brow.

“Don’t ask why I don’t want to go home, if you please? I know it’s right on the tip of your tongue, but I don’t wish to speak of that, and I shan’t speak of that, and just understand that I would much rather be here with you, and also I know ever so much about dragons, and I would be an asset, and you need my money, and let me help you rescue your mother from the dragon, please?”

She huffed.

“All I’ve dreamed of, since I was a boy, was rescuing a fair maiden from a dragon, really. It’s… you cannot deny me this.”

“My mother is hardly a fair maiden.”

He smiled at her. “Well, she captured the eye of the High Chieftain, did she not? She must have been at one point. And look at you. I imagine you look at least something like your mother.”

She scoffed. “Stop that.”

He lifted both of his hands, a hands-off gesture. “All right. I shall cease to reference the fact that I find you attractive.”