A Dragon's Breath
竜の吐息
Each time I exhale, a blessing escapes.
... Literally.
The next day.
"Morning..."
Nina rubbed the sleepiness from her eyes as she spoke, her mouth wide open due to yawning.
"Good morning."
Still trying not to look at her butt-naked body to my utmost, I greeted her back.
"Still tired... you were so noisy last night..."
"Sorry."
Complaining, she held out her hands and the trees shook as they inclined their leaves toward her, having the dew on them drip into her palms. Once Nina was done washing her face, wind blew away the remaining water on her face. Next, the silk she'd tossed over on the tree branch floated over to Nina, wrapped around her body, and turned into clothing.
As ever, magic is a magnificent thing.
I decided to call her race elves for convenience's sake. It's just for convenience because, be it their abilities, lifestyle, or physical characteristics, they differed heavily from the design laid out by the great 20th century novelist named Tolkien—they even differed from the variety of elves that existed within Norse mythology, the álfr.
I guess it might have been more accurate to call them dryads or nymphs, but there's no reason I have to match it with Earth's mythology either way. She lives in this world and is an existence of this world, after all.
"So what was that think you were on about? An academy?"
"Yeah. I'd like you to help me build one, Nina."
Typing up her golden hair with blades of grass, she asked me about what I brought up last night.
I nodded—her cooperation was imperative for the academy I pictured.
"I don't really mind."
Elves seemed to live very monotonous lives.
That's also the reason she was even associating with a strange dragon like me. I also think that it's because it meant that she'd be able to live without having to work, though.
"What is that academy thing, anyway?"
"An academy is a place you live at for a long time, somewhere to teach youths about the world. Your parents taught you about the world, right?"
"Well... yeah."
Tilting her head to the side as she recalled her past, she nodded.
"Humans are a race much younger than yours. When it comes to what they need to survive, they know next to nothing. I will build a magic academy and teach them magic."
"... Magic?"
Magic was another word that didn't exist in Elvish. Nina repeated the word I'd spoken in Japanese back to me.
"Nina, you know how you manipulate trees? That's magic."
"Eh—"
Her eyes opened wide in surprise.
"Teach, you say... how?"
She looked as though she had no idea how that could be done.
"Nina, how do you do it?"
