“I have no family,” he said without inflection.
That sounded terribly lonely, even to Rui.
She didn’t understand “family” in human terms. A treasure dragon was created by magic, not born. At most, she would have hatched from an egg.
But the egg would not have been laid by a mother dragon. Her Kind didn’t procreate in that way. The first person she recalled upon coming into this world was Master, with the same white hair, white beard, the unlined, ageless face, and eyes full of wisdom.
Even so, she had a “Master.” She had thexian nuof the Celestial Palace who played and laughed with her as a dragonling. She had her brothers and sisters, the other dragons of earth, sky, sea, and Heavens. She liked to be alone, but she never had to be.
She was never lonely.
“What about your mother and father?” she ventured.
“I never knew my father. My mother is dead.”
“Oh.”
She felt sorry for asking. She should have stopped several questions back.
“It is not uncommon in these lands,” he said slowly, after a brief pause. “This is the consequence of war and chaos.”
It sounded almost like he was trying to make her feel better.
“There is no one at all?”
He paused.
“No one I would claim, or who would claim me.”
What a strange way to put it.
“How long have you been on your own?”
“I don’t recall the exact year, but I would have been close to thirteen summers.”
Rui couldn’t even imagine.
As a dragon, she’d lived for millennia. For all the Master’s quirks, he was a very protective and instructive teacher. Dragonlings weren’t released into the wild until they were fully grown. And that sometimes tookhundredsof years, depending on the dragon.
“Still a baby,” she murmured, a strange pang searing through her chest.
He huffed a breath behind her.
“Not quite a babe,” he said with amusement in his voice.
“I’d killed my first man years before.”
How savage!
The Master trained Rui in martial arts to defend herself and others, not to kill.
But perhaps Wolfe was defending someone too. Ere was right (for once). The man had a protective streak a mile wide. He wasn’t like Rui’s attacker from the night before.
“Is that how you got the scars on your face?”
Too late, after the words were already out of her mouth, did she realize it might have been yet another personal question she should avoid asking.
Thankfully, he didn’t seem to mind.