Young Writers Society

He wasn't sure why Alex was suddenly asking about dragons instead of gods, but he felt a wave of relief wash over him when he realized that he could truthfully answer that question. He had talked to a dragon! Finix had let him meet the main enderdragon. There were others in the End, too, but they were all her children. He had even seen the eggs that she was taking care of. She had been so kind and friendly - after he finished his travels, he would have to visit her again.

"I have," he said, without a moment of hesitation. It was only afterwards that he faltered; he doubted most people interacted with her in the same way he had.

Alex did a double take, eyes wide. He stuttered something incomprehensible and pulled away for a second before drawing close again.

"Hey, uh," he said, his voice getting lower. "You wanna take this conversation outside? Maybe we should talk about this outside. This seems like something we don't need to be talking about in the middle of a lobby, yeah?"

Hero glanced around the lobby before giving a hesitant nod. He had known that not many people went to the End, but he hadn't realized just how rare it was to meet a dragon until now.

...He should have said that he hadn't met one.

"I think going outside is a good idea," he quietly agreed, gaze dropping down and away from Alex in his embarrassment.

Alex nodded in earnest agreement and held the boy's arm as he led him outside. His eyes were still wide with shock as he tried to comprehend the boy's casual statement.

Surely the boy was joking or delusioned.

He pulled the boy back into the alley beside the inn, where there were no crowds passing and it was more private.

"Which dragon did you talk to?" he asked, turning to Sky. "What did they tell you?"

Hero faltered.

"I talked to the main one?" he hesitantly said, not quite sure how he was supposed to handle this conversation. Most people didn't interact with her, so how was he supposed to describe her while sounding relatively normal?

He started fidgeting with his ponytail, undoing it and redoing it as he spoke.

"She didn't really tell me anything," Hero admitted. "It was just a casual conversation-"

He was cut off by the sound of his sunglasses hitting the ground, and by how bright the alley suddenly got when he was no longer wearing them. His white glowing eyes widened in horror when he realized how careless he had been - he had knocked them off when readjusting his ponytail.

He hurried to pick them up.

But he knew the damage had been done already.

"Please don't scream," he whispered, though he doubted his plea was going to help.

It never did.