The immediate response to the yellow dragon was a natural terror – the terror any prey animal felt when an unseen predator swooped toward it, blocking out the sun.

Hallvar's heart pounded hard in the kjerrborn's chest, even as they stood their ground against the approaching dragon.

The beast instincts here were very strong, pushing and pressing their way out of the hero's hindbrain to demand adherence – to fight now or run now or do anything except stand passively and watch.

Ilyna.

The name scrawled itself in Hallvar's memory, the name written in ink across paper in the letter to Stella, the name spoken in Rodu's voice as he made introductions.

She was not a feral dragon, though Hallvar did not know her well enough to classify her as a friend. She was… an acquaintance made through Rodu.

The beastmaster lowered themselves to all fours, grunting and huffing away the adrenaline surge so they could behave logically and set a good precedence for the children.

Kamin had all of his hackles raised, a good hundred feet away, a black spot hunkered down in a snowdrift.

Pipkin was perched on Queenie's head, and both seemed to be in a state of confusion. Why was the beastmaster turning their back to the dragon? Why was kjerrborn dad not facing this threat?

In a lumbering, forced leisure, Hallvar approached Queenie and sniffed her face. They sniffed the akergryph in succession as Pipkin hopped over onto their tusks to perch despite the cold.

It wasn't necessary for Hallvar's understanding of the situation, but they knew instinctively that checking in on the beasts, especially the young one, instilled a sense of calm in them.

From smell, the kjerrborn knew neither Queenie nor Pipkin were injured, that they were as healthy as they were five minutes prior.

Hallvar pawed at the back of Q's neck, pushing her down until she laid still in the snow. She would be quiet and polite in front of the dragon, despite her grumbles.

After a comforting bit of grooming for Queenie, the beastmaster addressed the, uh, dragon in the room. Mountain.

Thankfully, Ilyna seemed to be cut from the same cloth as the old librarian. She chose patience and observation instead of rushing the hero, curious that the human that could take on beast form was also a beastmaster.

"Rodu's grandchild."

Hallvar plopped down onto their haunches, sitting in the snow in front of the dragon so they could observe.

Ilyna's features were blurry, yellow and dragon-shaped, but not clear. Mhm, not ideal.

They could become a qitta, that would solve the issue.

Or… just go back to human. Right. That was the best option.

With a huff, Hallvar shivered back into human form, fur receding in clumps and bones compressing into tiny slivers. They stood slowly as the brief ache faded, more wary now that the dragon was much larger in comparison.

"You surprised me, dragon Ilyna," Hallvar said with caution.

Were there proper honorifics for dragons? Was she considered a lady, or were dragons beyond titles?

The dragon's face was quite close now. In their previous interaction, Hallvar did remember she spoke at eye level, leaning her long neck down to address the hero in human form, but the fear-response had been so strong in those moments that it was hard to pin down details.

Her build was a typical dragon for fairy tales – slender, four-legged, two winged, a long neck, with horns on her head and spines down her back – but each scale had a crystalline coating, almost as if a layer of iridescent glass had been fused over top of it.

"You will go to the temple. I have a quest for you."

Ah, she wasn't interested in a prolonged conversation.

She didn't wait for an answer, taking flight and subsequently spooking the beasts with the snow flurries caused by her wings.

Hallvar sighed. They hadn't chosen to have dealings with dragons… it just happened.

Friendly with a stranger one day, being sent on quests by the dragon's dragon-friends another.

It took hours to make it down to the temple, which was half embedded into the mountainside. The elevation became very difficult terrain at times, and while the qitta could traverse 75-to-80-degree angles of incline, Queenie could not.

By the time Hallvar arrived at the massive stone pillars of the temple, they were irritable and hungry.

Besides, Aestrux didn't have religion, so why was there a temple? Was it a ruin? Some ancient seat of a kingdom that the dragon was now occupying?

Grumpy and a little curious, Hallvar ushered the beast companions through the columns, each the width of a redwood tree.

Kamin was the only one who couldn't be readily swayed by the beastmaster's soft tones. He was not yet tamed and not interested in it, following the herd out of curiosity and determination.

He sulked in the distance, keeping his singular eye on the other beasts but not willingly following.

The large pillars made way for smaller ones that notched in the gaps of the sightlines, ensuring that anyone looking in would only see rows of neatly ordered pillars.

Where was Ilyna? Why wasn't she meeting the hero here, like she asked?

In their irritation, Hallvar forgot to use all their senses. Sight, sound, smell could only do so much when the signs were written in invisible magic.

They passed through the barrier before they knew what happened, slapped in the face by a wave of warm, humid air. Immediately the hero was sweltering under their winter clothes, thoroughly resistant to cold, but not to heat.

Queenie grumbled in surprise, equally thrown off in her winter coat as the pillars opened to a sunny room lined with plants, a magical greenhouse tucked into the side of the Staargraven.

"What the fuck," Hallvar said without a second thought.

While the hero was not an expert in Aestrux plant life, they could tell by the types of leaves and trunks that a lot of these actual trees and other greenery were tropical, intended to survive on whatever passed as Aestrux equatorial climates.

While Hallvar wandered and stared upward at the vines, trying to find a path without getting in the weeds of curiosity, Queenie located running water that led to a pond, where she promptly flopped under a tiny waterfall to cool off.

Great. They were now stuck here until Hallvar convinced a 1500-pound teenager to get out of the pool.

"Dragon Ilyna?" They called out, reassuring the ever-nervous Pipkin on their shoulder that everything was okay… even when a dragon was playing hide-and-seek in a random indoors jungle.

"Over here," a woman's voice sounded from across the greenhouse.

It was a voice, not an internal communication. An actual voice box made those words.

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Furrowing their brow made their missing eye randomly burn, phantom pain from a nonexistent muscle. Hallvar was left sweating profusely and rubbing the eye indentation as they pushed through overgrowth and ducked under low hanging branches.

They stopped cold as they spotted a… an outdoor-but-indoor house structure. A living room without walls, a bed just beyond with flowing curtains. Open concept had nothing on this.

Their thumb was still pressed into their eye, massaging either the trapped or missing tear duct that burned.

And then they made eye contact with Ilyna.

Subsequently, they made eye-to-tit contact with Ilyna's chest… and the rest of her naked, lounging form.

The first thoughts were as expected. Great boobs. Round. Plump, even.

The next thought was surprising, even to Hallvar.

Leon was going to be so mad that he didn't find this harem anime situation first. He had such a clear fetish for elves that it was hard to imagine him without a thing for hot dragon ladies too.

Just like before, Ilyna watched as the hero absorbed and processed all this new information. Most people acted exactly as the hero did, although the locals had begun a ritual process of wearing veils before consulting with the dragon for herbalist advice and physician aid.

"I have several questions," Hallvar began slowly, though they did continue to approach the living room dais, so they didn't have to shout.

Why are you naked? was not one of the questions. It was a near-tropical greenhouse and she was a dragon, not a human. Who knew how clothing worked with dragon shapeshifting or dragonshaping or whatever it was called here?

Well, it was probably similar to beastshaping, if Hallvar had to guess, but the point still stood.

Right, questions that were not nudity related.

Ilyna was lounging, sprawling over one of those laying couches for ladies who fainted frequently. Her hips seemed to be wiggling a little, which was discomforting until Hallvar caught sight of a tail swaying behind the couch legs.

Ah, not erotic, just the dragon equivalent of a cat preparing to pounce, if Ilyna's smug expression was anything to go by.

"Do you have any food or drink?"

That was the first question, as Hallvar needed more to eat in order to behave like a rational individual. Queenie would probably be fine for another day, if necessary, but since Hallvar was out of their kjerrborn form, burning their winter fat reserves wasn't an option.

Plus, both Pipkin and Kamin were overdue for a meal.

"Is that your request?" the Dragon Ilyna asked with amusement, her voice loud and confident but not harsh. Clear, calm, in control – all things a dragon would feel in their lair.

"Have you walked a quarter of the Staargraven lately?"

Hallvar sounded more flustered than irritated, which was because it was hard to keep their gaze from wandering to more lustful places than the dragon's human face.

"Is that your request?" she repeated.

Their old world had rules about fairies and mythological creatures that suddenly snapped back into Hallvar's mind.

"No," they added rapidly, in case the request itself was an agreement to something. "That is not a response to your quest. It is a request for hospitality, as is expected when one travels miles to see you."

Ilyna stood and approached. Damn, she was tall. Blonde, which made Hallvar question if the dragon color dictated the hair color of their human form. Rodu had a skull, and he was mostly bald. It tracked.

The scales that patterned her skin were hard to see until she grew closer, as they looked more like that iridescent glass with a slight yellow undertone.

Her scales patterned her body, spreading like thin armor across weak points. From spine along her sides, back of arms and hands, along the portions of her thighs that had massive veins to protect, the back of her neck, the sides of her face.

Although Hallvar had not seen Rodu in the human nude, they suspected that Ilyna had more scales than the old dragon in this form. Maybe it was to do with age. Or perhaps she was simply more scaled.

"Do you enjoy looking at me?" the dragon purred.

Pipkin, in response to the massive predator reeking threat, peeked out from behind the beastmaster's shoulder and quaa'd her alert dutifully. Late and shivering but doing her job.

Ah, she had a temple in Staareaux because she was that kind of dragon. Not to say that sexual favors in exchange for help were bad, but it wasn't the standard agreement one thought of when referring to dragon.

Her hand reached to touch Hallvar's face before they could respond, but it wasn't a caress or attempt to pull the hero closer. No, Ilyna was… examining the scar and their missing eye.

The akergryph fled into the rest of the greenhouse. Cowardly wasn't really a thing for beasts, but it was smart of her to keep away from the human-shaped predator when she was absolutely miniscule in comparison.

Ilyna's touch was clinical, despite being naked and way too close for comfort. Huh.

"I- I want to know about the quest, what it entails, what I would agree to. I want to feed my companions and myself, as we still have a long way to travel to reach the Amnasín capital. And –"

The dragon interrupted, pressing hard with her thumb on Hallvar's eye to find the edges of the socket and check for damage. The hero winced.

"And you will let me treat you, as payment."

Hallvar's heart dropped. Other things perked up, but the heart dropping was the primary motivator here. "Treat?"

"Rodu has told you nothing yet claims you as a grandchild, how typical of the great beast." The words left Ilyna's mouth like a complaint, petty and built up over years of tolerance.

"Playing his games and setting out puzzles to solve before we win the pertinent information. He is no better than Fayth, simply less prone to devouring those who answer wrong."

The assessment of Rodu seemed unfair to Hallvar, but given that Ilyna knew the dragon for far, far longer than the hero… it was probably correct. Rubert acted like a professor who wanted you to learn on your own through observation, failing to remember that Hallvar was a bit stupid.

She gestured toward the low table in her living area. "You will eat here. There is a clearly marked edible garden in the northeast corner. Take what you need."

Ilyna squared her stance, arms crossed and hip cocked as she maintained her irritated condescension of Rodu's tactics. "I will treat you because I am a physician and an herbalist."

Oh, so not a sex worker. Cool, because Hallvar had struggled to think of how payment plans worked for big miracles if sex was the only currency.

Not that it mattered. It just seemed like a flawed financial trade.

"Human physicians are not as talented as I. You have an optical nerve that has frayed after it was severed. Whoever healed you could not re-teach the nerve, and it maintained heightened sensitivity."

That checked out for what Hallvar understood of human anatomy. They took the class because it was available and useful, but they were an ecologist, not a medical doctor.

"It was–" Hallvar stopped mid statement, realizing the insanity of the words they were about to speak.

"Who healed you?" The dragon shifted her hand so that she was grasping Hallvar's jaw in a definitely not sexy way. More demanding than anything. Okay, no, that could be sexy too.

"A healing potion could not remove the damaged tissue, nor seam the eyelid in a way that removed eyelashes and irrelevant pores. They were talented and precise but lacked mastery."

"They were… deer?" The admission slipped out of Hallvar and it was enough to cause Ilyna to let the poor hero go.

It was a fever dream of envisioning deer healing them, but somehow it was the only knowledge they possessed. Surely, it was someone who had maybe a deer aesthetic on their headpiece or something like that and the sickness merely warped them into deer.

Ilyna said nothing, but her tail lashed furiously.

Without warning, she grabbed the hero by their arm – the arm that corresponded with Hallvar's blind spot – and dragged them through the greenhouse.

Despite their protests, the dragon did not slow down, though she avoided walking Hallvar directly into obstacles. Low hanging leaves and fronds were not avoided, however.

Hallvar was spluttering by the time they reached whatever destination, having been thwapped with a frond and then immediately walked into a spiderweb.

"What are you–"

Ilyna grabbed the hero's jaw once more, turning their head harshly so that their good eye aligned with where she was pointing.

"Tell me the name of that beast."

Hallvar shoved the dragon's arm away, freeing their face so that they could peer through some glossy foliage, only to spot–

"A fawn?"

It was deer-adjacent in the same way that all Aestrux creatures were adjacent to Hallvar's knowledge of animals. The fawn was more grey than brown, still spotted and speckled to hide among rocks and terrain.

A little larger than expected of a fawn this young, but Hallvar knew that these Aestrux ruminants were fairly large to accommodate the presence of such a wide variety of beasts and humans alike.

"Do you not see a foal?"

With a befuddled look, Hallvar turned to face Ilyna; the dragon had her eyes narrowed in judgement.

"Is this a semantics question? I see a baby deer. I would call that a fawn. A foal would be a young horse."

Ilyna merely turned on her heel, stomping away and muttering about low attributes and magical dragons.

"Feed yourself!" She shouted over her shoulder.

Okay, so clearly there'd been some breach of protocol and propriety that pissed the dragon off, but Hallvar genuinely had no clue what happened.

Between the beastmaster knowledge and the threat sense, Hallvar did know that this fawn-foal was not here willingly.

There were no beasts in this greenhouse aside from insects and very small reptiles. Nothing with enough sensory organs and brain cells to understand the concept of a dragon dared to stay inside of the temple greenhouse.

Hallvar had very low threat as a beastmaster, so they crouched next to the fawn and pet its neck gently.

"Hey, buddy," the hero said to the trembling thing. "Your mom isn't here, is she?"

The fawn had a nasty scar down its leg. The coloration suggested that it was healed, probably thanks to Ilyna, but Hallvar doubted that the fawn would survive well in the wild.

It would be rude to tame a beast that belonged to the dragon, so Hallvar didn't make any attempt. But Ilyna didn't exactly seem like a mothering type. When was the last time this beast ate?

Hallvar carefully convinced the fawn to stand, noting that it could put pressure on the injured leg but favored it immensely.

With a huff, they watched as their stamina and magic were chopped in half as they took on the kjerrborn form.

The fawn did startle, but it couldn't go far.

Hallvar ambled up to it, hoping that the kjerrborn's reputation for being generally passive unless provoked was known to all beasts.

It took a few tries for Hallvar to tuck their massive, human-torso sized head underneath the beast, gently letting the broad shoulders of the kjerrborn form support the weight of the beast.

It was like those farmers who put baby goats into slings to transport them, except this was with a very large beast and an unnerved fawn.

Ah, well. It was time for dinner anyways, and the kjerrborn nose was lighting up with the scent of root vegetables.

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