- 《楔子》 Prompt
Amadeus blinked. Then rubbed his eyes. Then blinked. The creature (well, Amadeus thought, I suppose it's a boy) blinked back, looking down from his position atop the table, sitting among cakes and tea and expensive chinaware (most of which was overturned at this point). It had reddish-pink hair and pale, grey irises. And horns. And a tail. With scales. But otherwise boy-looking. As if sensing Amadeus’s bewildered gaze the dragon child's tail flicked, knocking a dragon fruit off the table. Amadeus rubbed his eyes again.
Finding that the tiny person below him seemed incapable of anything other than eye-rubbing and blinking, the dragon child turned his attention to his surroundings. It was a large, cushy looking room--that biggest, tallest chair looked especially inviting. He propelled himself off the table intending to go try out his prospective throne, disrupting another plate of treats as he descended.
"W-wait! Where are you going?"
Feeling someone grab his wrist, the dragon turned back. Ah. That little person could do other things too. Though, now that they were on equal ground the kid didn't look that little anymore. Hm. He eyed the hand on his wrist, a slight feeling of irritation bubbling up. More than that however, was him becoming conscious of the fact of how very much... unclothed he was. This would not do. He shook off Amadeus' hand and went searching for something to 'wear' temporarily. One such as him needs to look presentable at all times.
"W-what-where are you going? You're not supposed to be here!” Amadeus’ voice trailed off, “I-I’m not supposed to be here..." Indeed, Amadeus wasn’t supposed to be in the room either. The impatient child had snuck in before tea time to admire the exotic fruits and sweets and gifts his father had brought back from his business trip. He had found the gifts satisfactory, the sweets strange, and the fruits... odd. But certainly exotic. The boy watched the creature run his hand along the upholstery and tug the curtains, scaled tail swishing like a curious cat.
Possibly a bit too exotic.
As Amadeus followed the dragon around the room, his numerous attempts at ordering the dragon to stop thwarted, the boy slowly but surely came to the conclusion that the invader was either deaf, mute, or didn't speak English. "Hey! What are you--" Amadeus ran up to the creature, attempting to wrestle away the beautifully woven silk the dragon was wrapping himself in, "Father got that from Loyang for Mother!"
洛陽。
Finally, the dragon looked Amadeus in the eye again. Everything else that came out of this small thing's mouth sounded strange and foreign. Everything except "洛陽。"
"Yes! Loyang! Now give. it--" Amadeus gave up, and made a mental note to eat more meat so as to grow up big and strong. Finding that he somehow had the creature’s full attention, Amadeus quickly started renewed attempts to communicate--this time with gestures.
It was a difficult and grueling process. At least for Amadeus. For all he knew the creature-boy-thing might be making things more difficult just to mess with him. Never, in Amadeus’ young life, has it been so terribly, unbelievably difficult to have someone understand him. He pointed to himself and repeated for the one hundredth time (actually just the tenth), this time without excessive words or frills, “Amadeus. Ah-mah-day-us”
In what Amadeus would eventually find to be a rare stroke of cooperation, the dragon child (having finished decking himself out in silks and thus had attention to spare) pointed at Amadeus repeating, “阿瑪得斯。”
Amadeus was visibly stoked, his eyes lit up and he could barely contain his grin. His pronunciation could use some work but finally, finally he got through to the exotic creature! He pointed at the boy eagerly like a child in a candy shop and asked, “You?” The dragon however, did not share Amadeus’ excitement. He furrowed his brows quizzically and mimicked Amadeus, pointing to his own now-covered chest and echoed, “魚?” Fish? This not-quite-so-little-thing thinks he’s a fish?
“No, no,” Amadeus shook his head, “Not ‘you.’ Well yes you, but not.. uh..” the boy looked around then pointed to the brightly scaled tail, the strange creature only tilted his head to one side with no sign of understanding. Not willing to lose the tiny progress he made, Amadeus pointed at himself again. “Amadeus. I’m human. No tail, see?” He gestured to his lack of a tail, “No horns either,” he pointed to his head, then seeing that he was only met with an eyebrow raise, he grabbed the creature's hands and placed them unceremoniously where his would have been, if he had horns. “See, no horns, human.” Amadeus pointed at the swishing scaled tail again, “So who and what are you?”
The creature blinked. Then looked at his own tail. Then at Amadeus’ horn-less head. Then blinked again. “龍。” He said simply, pointing to himself.
「龍。」
