“You don’t seem terribly surprised by any of this,” the dragon said dryly.
She and Rikard shared a comfortable laugh. “One of our daughters married a shifter,” Trudy explained. “Two of our grandsons turn into perfectly adorable bear cubs when they get cranky.”
Rikard added, “I also have a chunk of glass and metal in my pocket that can video conference to anywhere in the world and has access to a million pictures of cats and the contents of entire libraries.”
“When you get to be our age, in this world, not a lot of things can still surprise you,” Trudy finished.
“Though to be honest,” Rikard amended, “the dragon part was a bit of a shock at first.”
“Very impressive,” Trudy agreed.
Danyen looked from one of them to the other, clearly not sure what to do with their acceptance.
“Stay as long as you need,” Trudy said. “We have a guest room.”
“I’ll start dinner,” Rikard said, rising. “You don’t happen to eat cats, do you?” he said, sounding hopeful.
“Rikard!” Trudy scolded him.
“Can’t blame me for trying,” Rikard teased her, leaving a kiss on the top of her head.
Mystified, Danyen said mildly, “In my natural state, I eat irregularly. However, I have become accustomed to eating human meals as a social nicety. Anything you make will be more than sufficient and gratefully accepted.” To Trudy, he added, “I promise your feline companion is safe from my appetites.”
Danyen tried to help with dinner, but Rikard insisted on doing everything himself. “Kitchen’s too small for more than one of us,” the man said cheerfully.
Trudy was setting the table, and allowed him to help her put out silverware. “Make sure the knife blade points in,” she showed him. “It drives Rikard crazy if they point out.”
“I can’t hear you!” Rikard lied loudly from the kitchen.
“You have children?” Danyen said, remembering that this was a common conversation topic for families.
“Three daughters,” Trudy told him cheerfully. “Jessica, Julia, and Jordan. Jessica teaches middle school, Julia does social work management, and Jordan is in the pipefitters union. Jordan has a daughter, Jessica has two boys.”
She sounded understandably proud; it was certainly an impressive brood to Danyen. His race was often childless.
Rikard served them a remarkable meal; sauteed chicken with garlic and barely-crisp vegetables over fluffy white rice flecked with herbs.
The meal was leisurely, and casual, and… it took Danyen a long while to identify that it was kind.
It was clearly important to Rikard that his food found favor, and Trudy was enthusiastic with her praise. When Danyen followed suit, Rikard was delighted, and his face grew fascinatingly animated when he explained his techniques. “You can’t add the garlic too soon,” he cautioned. “Lots of people think you have to fry it first, but that doesn’t release the flavor properly.”
When they teased each other, it was gently, with none of the sharp barbs so prevalent on Earth television, and they talked about things of interest to each other. Trudy and Rikard took special care to include Danyen and pursue topics they thought he might be invested in. He caught himself being unprofessionally passionate about a recent movie that featured dragons, and had to laugh. “It is absurd, of course,” he chuckled. “I cannot blame them for creative interpretations.”
That led to talk about the history of dragons in mythology, a topic that Rikard knew more about than Danyen had expected.
“I’ll make us some tea,” Trudy said, gathering their plates.
“I insist on helping to clean up,” Danyen said, standing.
Trudy brushed him off with a laugh, and Danyen sank gratefully back down; his energy levels were already ebbing.
If anyone had told Rikard a week ago that he would be serving food to a dragon lord in his new house, he would have laughed on several levels.
But dragon or not – and lord was just a guess on his part – Danyen had proved a polite and fascinating guest. He was well-spoken and gracious, and wore his effortless beauty without haughtiness.
They were talking about the Loch Ness monster and its timing with certain early expeditions from Danyen’s world when there was a sudden crash from the kitchen and Trudy gave a cry of pain and shock.
World narrowing to concern for her safety, Rikard leapt from the table and charged into the kitchen to find the kettle on the floor, steaming water everywhere. Trudy was already putting her arm under a stream of cold water in the sink.