NB: the chapter features mature themed conversations!

She doesn't answer looking sad.

I sit next to her and take her hand.

"It was long ago," she finally answers. "I was a young fool. I thought love is just a thing for weak human females who want something special in their useless, uneventful lives. You'll understand when you are older that passion and desire are all well, but true love comes when you feel secure, confident, and happy with your partner. I had some time in a cave with kikimoras to think about life and relationship. I should apologize for some of actions that might have confused or frightened you."

"I'm not that young, I'm eighteen summers old," I say realising how I resemble my younger sister now when she wants to go to the forest with her friends alone or when she wants to ride a horse to head to the nearest fair where she and the girls could munch alorian apples watching little shows by travelling magicians.

Dragon sees me only as a child. I will always be a child for her. She looks my age, maybe a bit older. I have to prove that I'm not that silly or naive.

"I have a friend," I say, clearing my throat. "Her name is Mila. She was the first to get married among my friends. Everyone was so happy about her! She was twelve. Yes-yes, twelve summers. Now she has three healthy kids: very lovely and obedient. All boys: what a help for their family. Every time my grandmother visited us, she would convince my parents to arrange my wedding too: "Yara is old enough to get married and have kids. Her husband's family and your family need more helping hands. Besides, you don't have to worry about your elder daughter when she goes to her man's family." Then my friend got married, he was thirteen..."

"Holy Hell..." she gasps. "Is your lifespan only twenty years to be forced into a marriage when you're only twelve something? Villagers are the most horrible humans. Poor girl, I'm so sorry."

"I said about it to tell you that I'm not that young! Not because I'm poor!" I'm genuinely taken aback. "Mila is happily married with children. Her moon days started when she was ten like most of the girls..." I don't understand dragon's unrest.

The dragon is pinching the bridge of her nose in irritation, "I was sure that humans stopped marriages of convenience, all these arranged crap centuries ago. I didn't follow your traditions for a while deep inside hoping that something has changed. Alas and ah... Humans were, are, and will always be savages. You used to live in caves; you have started building houses and creating some, so-called, traditions recently, but your brain remains in those caves and darkness."

"We are not barbarians! Most of Hunters and Warriors live in deserts and steps. Our kingdom has nothing to do with them and their traditions. We don't wear leather pants and ugly hides."

"Oh yeah, you don't, but they don't force their children to marry when they play dolls and hide-and-seek! Their people are strong, but they give their offsprings time to play and be irresponsible fools. Only when they pass the Ritual Road, they could chose their weapon and a future partner. They are becoming real women and men not because they are both fertile; they have to prove their maturity and power."

"Mila and Rad love each other! They are sweethearts! They are the same age! They don't have to pass any Roads or Rituals!"

"But they are children. Silly children who haven't decided yet what they want to do when they grow up."

"Am I a child to you too? I'm eighteen."

She is confused.

"That's the point! You are not even a human. You are not a man. You are a dragon, you lived long before this kingdom was formed, and you'll die when the stars stop shining, you'll die when my bones will turn into ashes. Maybe I'll die when I'm only twenty five because of winter colds or red fever. It could easily happen: my nephew was only fifteen when he died because of bad cold. It was winter and the healer couldn't get in time because of the blizzard and bad roads! We are humans, our life is short, our bodies are weak. We want to have at least something pleasant right here and right now!" My cheeks are blushing, and I feel as if I'm out of breath, "No one forced Mila and Radmir to get married. Mila had her moon days, that means she's old enough to have kids. Their parents are nice and friendly people. People of my village are peaceful and peace loving kins!"

"You are romanticising a real crime, Yara. Their love story is just a single example of a happy ending. Are you sure you know all the  underwater rocks of their union? Maybe she was knocked up by her sweetheart Radmir or someone else, thus they had to quickly cover her shame. Had you welcomed any traveling jesters or actors in your village before her marriage who could disgraced her? Uh? Do any of Radmir's relatives live in the capital or work in the castle? It could be useful for Mila's family and their wellbeing. The list could be endless! The fact is: she was a child, she was deprived from her careless childhood."

"It's not true!..." I say in a loud voice, but bite my tongue immediately. About ten years ago Radmir's uncle bought a big bakery in the capital. I know that some boyarins and boyarinyas love his famous sweet "snails" with cinnamon and dry fruits, and his apple pies are heavenly delicious. He is old, he has no children... Radmir and his parents are his only close relatives. Radmir had become his apprentice three months before the marriage. And Mila. Mila is very pretty, almost doll pretty: big blue eyes, long wavy chestnut hair (she's always decorating it with blue ribbons and cornflowers), plump cheeks, plump lips, plump and sweet everything about her. Men love her, and she has always loved men's attention even when a little child: during festive bonfires or during forest gatherings when we go together in small groups to collect edible mushrooms, berries or get some wild honey from pine bees, but above all, she has always adored handsome travelling actors... Maybe the dragon is right, maybe everything and everyone is just a big fat fake, and I'm too silly to understand the truth.

"You might be right," I continue reluctantly. I should have said 'you are right', but I'm too proud to do so. "But what can we do!? I'm just a village girl with responsibilities. I can't just take a sack and my dad's traveling shoes and go wherever I want. Danko was a good parents' choice, and I agreed. I didn't want to, but I had to. Mama and papa are not getting younger. Volk is too young to help them. I'm the only one who could change something: if I had married Danko, his family would have given me, my future babies all necessary things to live the life of wealthy people. Zabava needs new winter coat, hers is like a herring's skin. Mama has a bad knee, she needs more herbs from capital healers, our old cow died last winter, she helped us a lot through bad times... We hoped to buy a new one, but we couldn't afford even a goat."

"You are with me now. Your family is my family now. All my riches are yours too."

"I said it not because I want your riches! All I wanted to say is that humans' life is short here in villages, in small settlements, we grow fast, take responsibilities faster, we can't do what we want to do. I'm a grown woman who can work hard, take care of family, and give birth to children. You are a free spirited dragon whose life is beyond understanding."