This is from 2 stories written with 2 different people as the main character but taking place at the same time. I was just starting the second story when this challenge was announced. It took me a while to get the scene rewritten and then combined. I hope it's not too confusing.

A note to explain something that was introduced earlier in the story, the woman in scene suffered a prolonged traumatic event as a child and she developed something like a split personality. One personality is called Ann the other is Drepal. It isn't necessarily like what we think of split personalities because she is half dragon and they are drastically different than us. Both Ann and Drepal are capable of being aware at the same time and communicate with each other.

Ann transformed to a dragon and entered the room.

Wyrm didn’t know what surprised him more, the newcomer’s tiny size, she was probably half his size, or her color. He was supposed to be the only white dragon. He let out a growl.

“You growl at your own kind but protect one who would exterminate us?” She challenged.

“Exterminate?” He asked. She spoke Menthan rather than Ertonian, like he was used to but he had been taught Menthan too.

“Kill us all? He led the attack that massacred hundreds of our people in the homeland. He tortured your own father.”

“My father doesn't want me.” Wyrm snarled. He didn’t care about the man who’d abandoned him and his mother.

“Your father doesn't know about you. Cramda kept you from him.” She could tell by Cramda's expression she that was right.

“If he hadn't abandoned my mother, he would've known.”

“He didn't abandon her. He didn't know her. Cramda forced them to mate in order to hurt your father. He then took the woman away so your father never knew about you.

“Your father is my grandfather. I know him and he would never abandon a child. Family is the most important thing to him.” Again, she could tell by Cramda’s face, she was right. Mishtali was this dragon’s father.

Wyrm saw her looking to the man who’d raised him for confirmation. She was guessing. Cramda stayed silent. Could what she was saying be true? Did Cramda take him from his parents?

“My father is your grandfather?” Wyrm frowned. They were family?

Ann nodded. “We're family.”

“You and I are family?”

To Ann, Wyrm seemed to have difficulty processing this.

Wyrm wasn’t as fluent in Menthan as he would have liked. He wanted to make sure he understood.

“We are. I'm Annlonna. What’s your name?”

“Name?” He hesitated.

“What are you called?”

“Wyrm.” He admitted. He’d always secretly hoped it was a real name somewhere.

“That's not a name. That's just means dragon.”

“Dragon? What's that?” He’d never heard the term before.

Ann wondered if he was really that ignorant.

“That's what we are. We're dragons, powerful, winged lizards that breathe fire.”

_Dragon. _He realized it was the Menthan word for what he was. She seemed to think he was slow. He decided to play along. She might underestimate him.

“Breathe fire?” He asked.

Ann was sure he was faking this. Breathing fire was second nature to dragons. But Menthan was his second language. Maybe he was confused.

“You don't know how to do that?”

He shook his head.

“You do know how to fly don't you?”

“We can fly too?” He knew he should be able to fly but he’d never had the chance to learn.

“Why do you think we have wings?”

And we’re telepaths too. She sent as softly as she could. Though, where you and I are only half dragon it's a bit painful.

He heard her voice but her mouth stayed closed. Telepathic. He reasoned it out. It was something else he hadn’t been able to try. He was glad. It hurt worse than most beatings.

“I had no idea.” Wyrm said.

“He kept all this from you?” Drepal doubted it but Ann wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt or at least appear to. She still needed him on her side. She couldn't beat him and Cramda.

“He's not a dragon. How would he know?”

“He once had a son that was half dragon. He knows what we can do.”

She reverted to human form.

“How did you do that?” He realized he probably pushed the ignorance act too far. He’d already said his mother was human. A human woman couldn’t give birth to someone shaped like a dragon, could she?

“Of course he kept that from you too. You need a diamond vial to change shape. He couldn't bother giving you a name why would he give you a vial?” Ann reasoned.

His mother was human. Drepal reminded her. He was born in human form.

_Hush. I know. But there’s more to this than him trying to fool me.

He smells of fear. He’s afraid to take human form._

Cramda had led him to think the vials were very rare, maybe only a handful in existence. She seemed to indicate otherwise. How much had Cramda lied to him? Wyrm growled again, only this time it was a Cramda.

“Don't you growl at me. I raised you.” Cramda cried.

“Poorly,” Ann said.

“He wants to rule in Ertonia. That's where we’re from.” Wyrm told her.

“What kind of ruler would he be? He couldn't even raise you. I was raised by humans and I know how to be a dragon.”

“Why were you raised by humans?” Cramda had told him humans killed half-breeds. It’s why he’d had to stay hidden, why he couldn’t fly or use telepathy.

“My father was sick and Cramda killed my mother, trying to kill me.” Though based on Cramda’s expression, she wasn’t sure that was true.

“Why did he want to kill you?”

“He thinks I'm an abomination and should never have been born.” Ann guessed.

“You are an abomination.” Cramda cried.

“Why? Because of my heritage?” Ann asked.

“There should never be mixed blood. Ertonian blood should be pure.” Cramda insisted.

“What about Wyrm here?” She gestured to the other dragon.

Wyrm was getting more upset. “Yeah, what about me? Am I an abomination too?” He’d been called a freak before but never an abomination. The man was suspiciously silent. “Did you force my parents to have me? Does my father even know about me? How much have you told me has been lies?” He had a feeling it was quite a bit.

“Wyrm, calm down.” Ann encouraged, fearing she’d pushed him too far.

“He ruined my life.” He countered.

“Only some of it. We can make the rest better.”

“Rest? What rest? I won’t live much longer.” He had less than three years.

He saw true concern in her eyes. It surprised him.

“Are you sick? My father is a healer and I know others. They can help you.”

“I'm not sick. I'm too old.”

That surprised Ann. He didn’t look much older than her friend Dae did. “How old are you?”

“I'm 17.”

“17? That's not old.”

“He said I wouldn’t live past 20. Maybe he could extend it a little longer.”

“What? I’m 26. Dragons live thousands of years.” Ann understood. Wyrm was too dangerous to keep around long.

She was 26? She’d lived 6 years longer than what he was supposed to.

“But I'm only half dragon.” He countered.

“And you’re part Ertonian. They live even longer. Cramda's got to be over five or six thousand years.”

“I have a friend whose sister was half dragon and half human and she lived 1100 years. She didn’t die from old age. She got sick. Wyrm, you aren't old.”

Wyrm’s mind raced. There were 4 ways to die, old age, illness, accident or murder. Cramda couldn’t predict an accident. He wasn’t sick and if what this woman said was true, he wasn’t old. “If I'm not old and I'm not sick, then you were going to kill me.” He turned on Cramda so fast, the man had no chance.

---

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