No matter how hard she tried, she never saw Bel actually eat. The bowls and plates always came back empty, but she never saw the dragon actually place the food into her mouth and consume it.
Even now, Bel was pushing the pieces of the stew around idly, her mind clearly elsewhere.
“How many of you are there?” The question burst out from Kitalia’s mouth before she had a chance to even consider if it was an appropriate question. It was very unlike her to lose control of her words, but the question was one that gnawed at her constantly, especially with her knowledge that dragons were a powerful force in this world.
“Oh,” Bel chirped in response. “I’m afraid there’s just the one of me.”
Kitalia closed her eyes and mentally counted to five in order to keep her biting response from erupting out as her question had.
“I meant,” she clarified, “how many dragons are there?”
Bel nodded, placing her now-empty bowl on the ground near the fire. ‘She must have finished it while my eyes were closed,’ Kitalia seethed. ‘Next time,’ she promised herself. Why she felt it important to catch Bel in the act of eating, she couldn’t’ explain, but it just seemed like she needed at least one victory against this incredibly frustrating woman, no matter how trivial or contrived.
“Ah,” Bel nodded. She shrugged and gave yet another maddening answer, “I’m afraid I’ve never counted. We do not have regular reunions.”
“Still, if you had to guess. Dozens? Hundreds? Thousands?”
“It would be easier to number the drops of rain that fall on the ground during a storm.” Kitalia opened her mouth to protest yet another non-response from the woman that claimed to be an open book, if ever asked, but Bel raised a hand to stall her.
“I know it’s not what you want to hear, but there is no rote answer to your question. My people can come and go from this world as easily as you can move in and out of a doorway. While I can sense when others of my kind are near, we rarely meet up for social events. In fact, the only place where I can say for certain that some dragons are ever consistently together is at the Citadel and even then, only at the behest of those to whom we are bonded.”
“Why did dragons bond with Tehynshins in the first place? Do you not know the kind of suffering they have laid upon my people since they first set foot on this land?”
Bel ran her fingers along the blades of grass at her side. “That is an incredibly complicated story,” she finally admitted. “One that I wish Kre were here to hear as it would save me significant time, but perhaps it is less frustrating for you if you hear it without his usual interruptions.”
Kitalia nodded. There wasn’t much point in arguing a statement that she agreed with, and she certainly didn’t want to give Bel any reason not to share the story.
“Bear with me,” Bel said softly. It was a statement that meant she was going to veer off topic for a bit but would bring it back around again. Such roundabout talks annoyed Kitalia if only because her father used to do that to her. “Your people, the Ylveryans,” Bel continued, “how would you describe your faith?”