Chapter 2

Steve reenters his home and as he pushes the door in again it falls off the hinges. Susan growls something to Galatem before he leaves and she moves to the door and they both look at it. “ I am sorry about the door. I had the General Marshal send some dwarfs over. They are to look over the foundation of your home and remake it in another location. The materials will be sturdier and it will be more defensive based. Your windows will be smaller but there is nothing you would want to see being inside where I have in mind. As well as I will be able to live there as well in later years.” 

Steve looks at the door another second before going to his recliner and sitting. Susan decided to lay down on the couch. “ Susan what is going on?” 

Susan shifts herself to let her tail hang over the side. “ In truth I'm not sure. I am very surprised I went unpunished.” 

Steve looked at Susan and sighed. “ Not what I meant, entirely. I meant the story why you wanted humans here.” 

Susan lowered her head on her claws a moment before raising up again. “ I suppose I have asked more of you than I thought I did originally. The entire story I do not know. I doubt any does. What I do know. Where to start?” 

Susan said that discouraged and laid her head back down again. “ The beginning is usually a good place. What started the conflict that ultimately brought me here.” 

Susan thought on that a minute before raising up again.

“ What started it I do not know. I know only my part to play. Or should play. I'm going to grow into a queen. Which means I am to eventually to spawn a collective of my own. Over my lifetime I think I should have over a hundred children. That is what I have been raised for at least. But I love my home and want to do more. I thought perhaps if I brought back a human I would have more options with my life.”

Steve leaned back in his chair and thought on that a minute. “ Why did you not tell me this earlier?” 

Susan laid her head down once again and looked away slightly. “ We just met and are still meeting I suppose. You said you trusted me and I reason I should return it to you as well.” 

Steve just looked at Susan and thought about his situation a minute. As he did his stomach grumbled. Susan heard it as well and raised her head. “ I'm hungry too. Do you have any more of that food?” 

Steve opened his mouth to say no but stopped before saying something else. “ I can not cook anything now. My stove is electric and I fixed most I had for you earlier.” 

Susan lowered her head disappointed but soon arose from the couch. “ Well I can have something brung here. What would you like?”

Steve thought it over a moment and decided he was better off getting use to the local cuisine. “ Something cooked would be fine.” 

Steve has an extra thought. “ About the amount that would fit on a plate you ate from earlier.”

Susan went to the open doorway and growled out of it and Steve heard wings flapping outside before Susan returned to the couch. “ We have some time before she returns. Tell me of this electricity.”

Steve hesitated a moment before standing from his chair. He went over to one of the book shelves and picked out a book. '1001 Things to know about being an electrician. For Dummies!' He then puts it on the table. “ If you can learn my language in talking you should have no difficulty learning the written. I'll help you if you like but this book is all you should need to know about it.” 

Susan reaches for the book then places it on the arm of the couch before opening it. “ I learned that too. I am sorry for taking you from everything you knew. At least I can make it comfortable for you. Give you the creature comforts you are use to.” 

Susan then starts looking at the book and carefully changes a page after reading what she could. Steve sighed again and leaned back and watched Susan read. She was very strange he decided. Not how he pictured a dragon to be. Her bodily form was their. Wings, claws, four legs that she prefers to stand on than two even thou by her form she could if desired. She had a pair of horns starting to grow that seemed to appear they will follow the shape of her head. As he saw the high queen have.

She was a healthy weight even if she seemed to lack some muscles to fat. Her hide was thick and leathery. Despite that it heals fast. He recalls cleaning the bullet holes earlier and remembered that they would have taken a week on many other things to heal that rate. It was her personality, her attitude toward many things that seemed off. It seemed to him that the other two dragons, the red one and the high queen, knew exactly what role in the world they wished to have and are playing them. As they were the roles expected of them. Susan knew the roles expected of her but she did not know if she desired that or something else. Steve's concentration was broke when he heard a knocking and saw a little man thing with a tray in front of him. Susan raised from her book and growled something.

Susan knew it was not 'expected' of her to say such a thing out loud in annoyance but she was really interested in the book. The dwarf seemed amused more than insulted of the language before grabbing his bag of tools with his free hand. “ Where does the human want this?” 

Susan looked in the kitchen and that is the direction the dwarf went. Steve soon came in and got some silverware and a cup of milk from his fridge before sitting. “ So this is a human. Looks like one of my people but less hairy and taller. This one is not a builder. I can tell. This place is older than him. Not a bad place for peace time but that is not what we are in. Yes, I can save the inside for his decorating and even implement some of these structure designs. The outside will have to be stone. That is the only thing that is available and plentiful. Some of these already here can be used. Perfectly shaped. Ingenious designs. For peace time but will be more effective than some of our own. Yes, I have learned a lot so far already.”

Steve listened to the two talk while he ate. He did not understand a word said but he listened. After he was done eating the unique meal he went back into the chair and listened till the talking was done and Susan rejoined the couch and book. After a moment to refind her place she looked at Steve looking annoyed. “ He is only here to look. Maybe inspect some thing closely. He will do nothing till he is told he can.”

Steve relaxed a little but still remained a bit tense. “ Can you show me this place you have in mind?” 

She looks at the book and turns it over before raising up again. “ I think the measure of distance is near nine miles of travel on foot. I could not magik us up their and I am too tired to even fly if I wished. Plus my side.” 

Steve opened his mouth and slightly smiled before standing. “ I'm starting to like you Susan. You speak your mind and are honest. Truthful is another story but honest.” 

Susan looked back at the book. “ I'm not sure about you yet. I know you are special. I feel so much stronger around you than before. Before meeting you I would have never dared stood my ground in any way to my queen. I feel confident in myself now. I feel alive and stronger than ever.”

Steve smiled at her and lost it thinking of what he will do next. Without realizing it till then he had nothing to do. No programs to write. No games he could play on his computer. No guild raids or invasions to stop. All he had to do was talk to this dragon and he has nothing to say. He tried to think of the infinite number of questions he had before but his mind was a complete blank. He checked the time and several hours had passed sense the two of them first came there. It took a bit for him to actually come up with a question. “ Susan where are you going to stay tonight?”

Susan lifted her nose from the book and looked upstairs. “ That bed of yours was nice. I would like there but I can stay here for the night if you do not wish to share.” 

Steve scratches his head a moment in thought before coming up with something. “ Well there are two more bed rooms. You can pick one of them to sleep in.” Susan nodded and turned the page over. “ I'll do that then. Perhaps after you can check this bandage again.”

Steve moved to her side. With only peeling the bandages back he could tell she was healing fine. Afterwords he led her upstairs. The one that was his room she knew and another seemed like a ritual chamber of some kind. It had strange signs on it and words like keep out and danger. She decided to warn the dwarf of the room. The other two rooms neighbored each other on the other side of the house. She decided when it was rebuilt that this would become her living space by combining them. For now she picked the one that was a bit more bare than the other. “ I'll stay in here.”

Steve just smiled at her. “ Whichever you chose. Do you want to lay down now or do you want to see more of my home?”

She thought about it and decided to lay down.

Steve let her be and for the first time he had a moment to think. Some things of him that seemed important before were no longer and others that seemed trivial were not. He grabbed a note pad out and looked threw his room and wrote some things down. Things he would like to keep and things that were not really important. Things like clothing were either or or to keep or not. Many of his electronics he decided to put into storage. His solar array on top of his house could provide limited power but there was no real use for it now. Maybe for the lighting or other things but he figured those things were no longer going to be important to worry about now. His furnishings, he assumed would just be moved. 

Then there was his magazines. Most of them would be considered irrelevant now but a part of him wanted to keep them. As for his other magazines it would be hard to picture them not understanding wanting to see other pictures of other humans. Even if they are naked or not. He then picked up a picture of his dad in his veterinary coat and him helping him nurse a goat. He sat on the bed and noticed he was a bit tired. He figured a little sleep would not hurt.