Finding One's Way

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Sylvia nodded, "Thank you. I'll be looking forward to it." She smiled and lowered her head respectfully as he left. She then finished her meal, chomping down the fish and meat. She wasn't expecting to have quite a meal like this, so it was a welcome change.

Licking her chops once she was done, the dragon turned her attention towards the book. Picking it up, she made sure she was at the right page before continuing to flip through it, amazed at what she learned about griffon culture within the pages.

[Ambrosios]

Ambrosios was making his way down the corridor, a stool tucked under his right arm and a cape draped over where his left should have been. "A dragon," he thought to himself, eyes on the door he was approaching. "We have a dragon now..." It was one of the most unexpected things he'd ever been told. He knew the triad was a lot more organized than he could have ever thought but... a dragon? Here?

He didn't even know what to think, how to react. He just found himself re-iterating the idea over and over in his head until he was staring down the door to its room. The griffon set down his stool, then took a deep breath before giving the door two short knocks. He waited another second before opening the door wide enough to see inside.

Well, this was the right room. Dragon, plate of meat, books, dragon. Did dragons read? Apparently so. "I'm... Ambrosios. Here to keep you company?" The one-armed griffon kicked the door open a bit wider, grabbing his stool and stepping inside before the door closed behind him. He set it down opposite his new acquaintance. Away from the door. At what he felt was an appropriate distance.

Ambrosios spent a good several seconds examining the red-scaled creature after sitting down, trying to take in the details. He had never been this close to a dragon before, nor had he ever expected to. It was... surreal perhaps? Finally he let out a cough, clearing the silence he had left in the room. "Is it alright if I ask your name? That's a good place to start, isn't it?"

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Sylvia waited for the griffon to come inside, watching him carefully as she gently set down the book. She was calm as he set the stool down and took a seat, a decent distance away. She didn't mind. As he spoke up, she nodded, "My name's Sylvia. I believe you're Ambrosios?" She asked.

Immediately she noticed his missing arm. She lifted a brow, "May I ask...how did you lose your arm?"

[Ambrosios]

"Gangrene," Ambrosios answered bluntly. "Amputated a while back. So, Sylvia," the griffon continued, hoping to redirect the conversation, "Tell me about yourself. Where you're from, what brought you here; surely there's an interesting story behind it all. Griffons don't just stumble upon dragons."

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Sylvia noted his quick change of subject and she respectfully let it drop. Her curiosity sometimes got the best of her, "Well, I'm a few days flight from the bay. I was resting there after leaving my father's cave, and, well, I had an interesting conversation with some kelpies before I was interrupted by your fellow griffons." She chuckled, "I was interested in learning more about your kind and next thing I knew, I was being led here!"

She motioned to the room and gazed around it, "There's no windows...which is a little sad, but I'm assuming that's because they don't really trust me yet. I understand, my father told me about the Dragon Wars, he doesn't really trust any creature, and tried teaching me to learn the same way...but I'm interested in learning about others instead of looking down on them. I guess it's just my endless curiosity."

[Ambrosios]

"The lack of windows probably has more to do with how they built the place," Ambrosios spoke, glancing over at one of the walls.

"So you're out on your own then?" he said, turning back. "Probably a good thing we ran into you before the Navy did. I don't think they'd take too well to a dragon flying over Royal Rocks. Or even The Hollow for that matter."

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"Royal Rocks? The Hollow?" Another thing Sylvia was unfamiliar with was land boundaries. Dragons didn't quite own any land, it was more like they settled in wherever and left it at that...She was hoping she was okay landing anywhere, but it certainly didn't seem the case.

"I see, well, where is this place...if it's okay for me to know. I really don't know geography very well, but by my er...warm welcome, I'm assuming I'm in the griffon lands." She stated, her tail flicking gently side by side like that of a large cat's. She kept her book down, instead intent on hearing words from the griffons themselves.

[Ambrosios]

"I don't think my superiors would appreciate me saying," the griffon answered cautiously. It was now clear they had taken her in blindfolded, probably by airship. And if they had blindfolded her, than there was on doubt they didn't fully trust her. "Someone might want to make your introduction more formal, once everything's in order."

"Royal Rocks is a city," Ambrosios continued, going back to her curious repetition of the places he had mentioned. "The capital actually. Surprised you didn't know that. The Hollows is in the desert. Not much to say about it."

"What about dragons? Do they have cities? Some sort of place a large number of them live together?"

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Sylvia listened intently, curious about these places he spoke of. She frowned as he asked her about cities and she shook her head, "No...we usually keep to ourselves. It's kind of hard meeting others that way." She frowned, wondering if she was saying too much. He seemed to be dodging many of her questions, so instead, she decided to go a new route with the conversation.

"So, may I ask, what do you do? Are you a scholar? Or a Warrior? Maybe a doctor?" She wondered, pondering all the possibilities if he didn't respond.

[Ambrosios]

"A soldier. Field operative more specifically," Ambrosios spoke, shifting the stump hiding underneath the cape he was wearing. "In the middle of training."

"From what I heard you're rather new here. I don't suppose you've been given an idea yet of what you'll be doing," he asked, trying to gauge how much Sylvia had been told. "In fact, I don't even know how you ended up joining us, or why. You said something about leaving your father's cave before arriving at the bay. Was there a particular reason you left?"

[Deleted]

She listened, intrigued, and frowned as he asked why she left. "Well, my father and I didn't really see eye to eye. He grew angry at me when I argued with him about me wishing to learn about other creatures. He told me that we have no business caring about the other races and he...wanted me out. So I left." She murmured, her mouth lowering in a frown. She sighed, "But it doesn't matter. Now I can learn all I want and not worry about fighting with him anymore."

She glanced around, "As for joining you, I was just hoping to learn more about your culture and your kind. I didn't want them to think I was just some trespasser, so I went along with them. I have no idea what's in store for me here." She said, a bit of nervousness, and yet, a bit of excitement as well showing in her voice.

[Ambrosios]

Ambrosios nodded. "I'm sure you'll learn a lot about the world while you're here. More than you would in a cave anyway. No offense."

"The work you'll be doing will be meaningful. And as long as you help us we'll help you learn." The griffon tapped a talon against his leg, trying to think of a way to get more of the dragon's trust. "I'm not an expert in world history, but you can ask me something now if you'd like."

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"None taken. I'm sure I will." Sylvia pondered the last statement for a while and tapped her scaly chin in thought. She wondered what she could ask. There were so many things, but she couldn't think of what, "Um, what's the biggest news in the world?" She asked, "I'm afraid we don't really know a whole lot about current events...since, like you said, living in a cave certainly doesn't help much."

[Ambrosios]

"Wind festival was a few weeks back. Games, festivities, that sort of thing." That had to be anything but the biggest news in the world. But it was still news... sort of. Telling any real big news to a dragon, as friendly as she seemed, wasn't something he was going to do. At the very least, it wasn't his place to reveal something like that.

"The Wind Festival might actually be a good place to start if you wanted to learn more about the Griffon Kingdom. It's very important to our history and culture. Might even be in one of those books you were reading," he said, motioning towards the pile of books.

"So, speaking of news, do you mind if I ask what's been going on among dragons as of late? Griffon-Dragon interaction is next to non-existent, and getting the chance to hear what's been going on among your people is quite the opportunity." Ambrosios paused for a moment, trying to read Sylvia's reaction. "Like you said, dragons usually keep to themselves."

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Sylvia noticed he seemed to not want to give her as much information as she would wish. At his question, she nodded, playing it cool, "Yeah, we keep to ourselves. My father and I just lived in our mountain, minding our own business. Occasionally he'd come back with treasure for his horde. I was always jealous. He found this beautiful necklace one time, inlaid with beautiful sapphires and rubies. It sparkled like the sun on morning dew." She sighed, her mind wandering for the moment to remember.

"As for other dragons, I'm not sure what they're up to. They don't come around very often."