Across continents and worlds, all people knew the might and power of Dragons. They were powerful and usually hulking beasts of magical and physical might that could tear the landscape asunder with their fury. Myths and legends considered these being deities that graced the land, while other stories considered them demons that were full of greed. Dragons themselves in actuality had nothing to do with gods or demons and instead found themselves endlessly amused by the strange mixture of hate and adoration they inspired. It was at times a game to see what sort of things they could encourage lesser species to make up about them, but for the most part, they simply preferred to hoard. Maybe some folk were right in assuming that dragons were greedy, but to the dragons, it was simply part of their nature to collect objects that held interest for them. Hoards could be anything from precious jewels to smooth stones found at the bottom of a river. There were dragons who collected vast amounts of knowledge and sequestered themselves in libraries, dragons that made music and gathered their own scores never to let another soul hear it unless they were lucky enough to be nearby, and dragons that even collected souls. Of course, dragons had to make a decision on what they desired to hoard, and not every decision came easy.

A small creek led into a cave where crystals grew along and around the mouth. The crystal growth continued inside of the cave and even peppered the running water like ice. Small shards floated in the air, sparkling with a gentle blue light that reflected off of the walls and ceiling of the crystalline cavern. It was here in this crystalline cave where a knight followed the light of the shards. They held a sword with both hands and wore heavy plate decorated with glowing runes that occasionally sparked with the magic held within enchanting the armor. A dragon laid deep within the cave and the knight had come here with the express intent to slay it, not for revenge or gold, but for a fool’s glory.

Deep down into the crystalline cavern, the creek fell and created a waterfall that filled a small underground lake within a chamber. The chamber was made of crystals jutting from the walls and the floor looked to be smooth stone as if someone had been diligently working on making it hospitable. Strangely, at the center of the chamber was a collection of odds and ends of various kinds. There were instruments, gems, stones, flowers and more gathered in rows and piles. Looming and pacing over the collection of items was a small dragon with bright azure scales and soft amethyst eyes. Her tail flicked back and forth as she tilted her head in the same manner toward the items that she had collected.

Kera had collected each and every single one of these things, and not one was to her interest. It seemed strange for a dragon to do, but she had not yet decided what attracted her eye and passion. Most dragon’s her age were wondering the same thing so it wasn’t too much of a problem, and yet, there were often hobbies and interests that helped spur along the decision and Kera had not even decided that! No one would care that she did not have an interest, that is, no one but herself. Dragons were more concerned about themselves and didn’t care to pressure and tease one another about frivolous things, but a dragon without an interest was a frustrated dragon and Kera most certainly was frustrated. She had nothing to pour her energy into, nothing to really get behind and do her best to keep and maintain, and it frustrated her dearly.

Eventually, her pacing ceased and the dragon flopped onto the ground. She laid there with her forelimbs crossed and her eyes shut as she thought and thought and thought some more, but nothing came of it. Maybe she could distract herself if she had something to do, but yet again, nothing had ever caught her interest. Speaking with another dragon was not an option as most were busy and their advice was as good as, ‘You’ll figure it out eventually. Just keep thinking.’

“Bah!” She huffed as she got up with her tail lashing the ground, “Bah and blast it all. I’ll never actually catch a break like this! Not even cutting this hole in the ground and making it suitable for my existence has caught my interest. I need, something, a sign from some sort of power above or below even! Humans and other lesser species believe in those things and certainly at least one of those must be true.” She then muttered to herself, “Then again...Most lesser species also believe us to be divine or  devilish.”

With a sigh, she took in a deep breath as she realized she was ranting and raving to no one but herself. It wasn’t healthy to do that. It was good to talk to others and actually socialize rather than staying all day in her own thoughts, then again, most dragons were stuck in their own thoughts and neglected socialization. If only she actually knew someone who would listen to her problems rather than give her useless advice, if only there was some sort of sign as to what she should take in for herself as a dragon! Just as she felt another episode of ranting about to begin, she heard something falling, like a bunch of rusted scrap falling off of a pedestal.

Kera looked toward the waterfall where the sound had come from and saw there was what looked like a knight standing there in runic armor with a massive sword. She quirked a brow and tilted her head as she approached with some amount of curiosity and paused as the knight brandished their sword and called aloud, “Halt there dragon! I have come here to deliver on to you this mighty sword!”

The dragon heard the statement loud and clear and stood up tall before stepping toward the knight. When she was just a few steps away from the knight she leaned down toward the sword and tilted her head, one forepaw coming up to pinch the blade in between two claws, “No...I can’t say that I’m interested in this but thank you for trying. You came at a rather opportune time, I have to say.”

When Kera let go of the sword, the knight froze in place and looked at the ground before looking up at the dragon, “What? N-no. I’m not here to deliver a sword to you, but deliver this sword on to you as in a euphemism for uh, for bringing you down.”

Kera considered this for a moment before she shook her head, “Sorry, can’t say that I’m into romantic pursuits right now either.”

The knight squeaked past their helmet and stabbed the sword into the ground, “I meant kill you! I’m here to kill you.”

“That sounds violent. Not fun at all. Not really relevant to what I’m interested in or might be interested in.” The dragon droned on before sighing, “Maybe I’m thinking about this all the wrong way. Tell me, why are you here to fight me? What catches your interest in that?”

The knight blinked. This was going in ways they had not expected. The dragon did not look as imposing as she thought the dragon might look, and more than that the dragon seemed like she had her head in the clouds. The knight had assumed that the dragon was going to be a devilish beast that would cherish the opportunity for single combat with a human snack, but instead, the dragon had asked a question that the knight hadn’t quite been prepared to answer.

Slowly, the knight began, “Well...I suppose that I’m here for honor and glory. To become a hero by gaining renown for slaying a dragon. At the same time, I’ve never had any real bravery like most heroes have, so I’ve usually just run away from actual threats. If it weren’t for this armor, you’d see the fact that I’m shaking and about to cry.”

Kera frowned, “Don’t cry. I’m not going to hurt you and it doesn’t sound like you want to fight anyway. Why would you do something that you don’t want to do?”

The knight sighed and stuck her sword in the ground, “I’m not going to cry. It was more of a figure of speech, but...I guess I want to do it because I’m expected to? Weirdly enough, I come from a family of great adventurers and heroes.”

“Hm, you were inspired by them then?”

The knight scoffed, “Heavens no! They all usually die very early in their lives. My parents survived by the skin of their teeth, but the sword was put in my hands and I was taught to spar and fight, but I was never very good at it. The only thing that ever impressed my family was the fact that I could smith and enchant. This armor? This sword? Both made by me and enchanted by me.”

Kera heard the pride in that last portion and decided it was right to say, “And what fine craftsmanship it is! I’m not interested in being a smith myself, but you seem very good at it! Not so good at the hero thing I think. Attacking innocent creatures in their homes seems villainous to me, but then again, heroes just go around killing things right?”

The knight thought about that for a solid few seconds before nodding, “Not wrong. Family was very violent. Hungry for it even. If a problem could be solved, it could be solved with violence. They have a habit of demonizing anything non-human too which is extremely uncomfortable.”

Kera snorted, “Sounds like you’re better off trying not to be what they were.”

“But then what would I be?” Asked the knight in earnest.

“Whoever you are.” Kera said, but she soon realized how unhelpful that was and she frowned, “I’m sorry. That doesn’t really help. I mean, I still don’t know who I really am and what I want to do. As you can see, I don’t even have a hoard. Nothing to collect, no interest to pursue, my mind is just blank, so I really shouldn’t be prescribing the advice just be who you really are.”

The knight raised a gauntlet-clad hand, “Think nothing of it. We’re both a bit lost it seems and um if you could clarify something for me, oh, but before that let me just.” Carefully, the knight removed the helmet from their head revealing a full head of deep brown hair, almond freckled cheeks, and emerald eyes. She then huffed, “Right, much better talking like this, and what I wanted to ask was, don’t dragons just hoard gold and gems to eat?”

Kera raised a brow, “To eat? Hmmm, I haven’t really ever known a dragon to eat jewels or metal of any kind, but I do know some that pride themselves as collectors of precious gems and different coins. Not all of us do that though, I guess, it is just easiest to focus on those with objects that can be stolen that might have some sort of value.”

The knight cleared her throat, “Right...My bad, I uh, I also have to ask. Why are you so small? I thought dragons were, well, massive! The size of this chamber even.”

That caught a small smile out of the dragon, “Again, not all dragons were built the same. There are some as small as drakes and some as large as mountains and me? I’m a bit bigger than a drake but still pretty tiny. Mostly because I’m more magic than anything else. I don’t really need size and bluster when I can melt something to slag with a thought.”

A gulp came from the knight and she nodded, “Right...Glad I didn’t fight you then.” There was then a stark moment of silence between them as Kera allowed the image of what would have happened if they would have fought to sink in, and for the most part, it put a bit of green around her own scales since the senseless destruction of life wasn’t really what she was into either. After what felt like a good moment, the knight spoke up with a quip, “My name is Estrana by the way. Hope there aren’t any hard feelings between us.”

Kera raised a brow and shrugged, “I am Kera, and there are no hard feelings between us at all, in fact, I should be thanking you for this. This has been an entertaining distraction from thinking about what it is that I want to do and it is nice to see other creatures with a similar problem I suppose.”

Estrana tilted her head, “Never woulda thought a dragon of all things would be having a life crisis. I mean, even when being spoon fed false stories of the terrors of dragons most of them also came with this sort of veneration of the might of dragons, how steadfast and brilliant they were. Only thing I can say that was true is that you look beautiful and well, the magic thing was scary.”

The dragon grumbled, “Although, I am grateful for the compliments, me being steadfast and brilliant are most certainly not true. At the moment, I can’t even begin to wonder what I like to do, let alone what I want to do, collect or otherwise.”

The human hummed, “Well, what are you good at? I know that once I get out of here I’ll try my hand at starting a smithing business and well, maybe actually try to rope my family into helping me. I don’t know if it is what I want, but I’m good at smithing so maybe I could give it a try, right?”

Kera nodded, “Sensible enough, but what I’m good at is magic and I don’t see what I could possibly collect from that.”

Both remained silent with their eyes staring at the ground before Estrana beamed, “How many spells do you know?”

Kera blinked and thought about it for a moment and as she thought she mumbled, “Well, a lot. I mean, there are your general use spells like the ones I used to carve the stone here and spells that I like that one I threatened you with, but also my own personal ones that I think up on my own because of my talent with magic.”

Estrana nodded, “Yes! And do you know how amazing that is?”

Kera frowned, “...No? It is just something that I do.”

“Exactly! Magic comes naturally for you.” The knight then added, “Do other dragons craft and weave spells as you do?”

Kera blinked and said while the thought was dawning on her, “No...No they don’t. In fact, crafting spells, thinking about magic and the sort are the only times when my mind feels clear.”

Estrana nodded, “See! That’s a start! And it doesn’t have to be what you want to do forever. Just like I might not necessarily want to be a blacksmith.”

Kera’s mind was flooding with different things she could do to build herself an archive to keep her knowledge of magic in and she wondered as well if she should collect the magic itself along with her studies and spells. Excitement booming through her voice she looked down at Estrana and said, “I owe you quite the boon! You came here to kill me but you’ve given me a bit of clarity! And I have to say, your line about not needing to do it forever is very soothing.” Before the human could say anything, Kera moved toward the center of the room and reached up to snag a chunk off of the tip of the crystal spire. When she came back she set it down and exclaimed, “Here! A present. Your glory hungry family should take this as a token of honor. You might not have been able to slay a dragon, but you managed to take something from it.”

Estrana blinked and stared at the chunk of crystal, “Wow, I mean, it is beautiful and I’d be glad to take it, but I think I’d rather tell my parents the truth of dragons and try to step away from their form of living. I suppose it might lighten the burden of trying to convince them.”

The dragon nodded, “Well, if you ever need anything else, then feel free to come back here. I’ll be molding this cavern into a home of magical study and knowledge. If I should change my mind then at the very least I will have tried something.”

Estrana smiled, "Maybe I will come back someday. Getting to talk to someone other than my crazed family has been not only nice but has let me think without a sword in my hands."

And so, the dragon and the knight parted ways, each with a goal set in mind. Perhaps they wouldn’t make that goal and perhaps that goal wasn’t exactly what they wanted, but it was something to work toward, something that would keep them busy and at the very least happier than what they were at the current juncture in time. Perhaps they would reunite one day to check in on the progress of one another, and perhaps not. Either way, the impact of a simple conversation would be felt by both for all of their lives.