The Ether-Knight's Lessons

5

.^^ Taiga and Green ^^

— Idun—

The first sign, for me, that I'd found a real version of 'where the wild things are', was when I pet an extremely large Rainbow Boa, and the snake flicked a wing at me in irritation.

"An Amphiptere, you have very good luck, to have caught him sunning." Syral appeared silently, and the snake with wings hissed softly, flying off to find a better, quieter spot.

"Amphiptere? Really? I thought they'd be bigger!" I grinned, and stepped around an anaconda with fur down its spine, likely a Wyrm.

Syral hummed softly, then muttered something I didn't hear well. "More than Luck... an Amphiptere and a Wyrm in the same place? What's going on here that I don't know about?"

"Hmm?" I asked.

"Oh, it's not important. You should come back with me, child, you shouldn't be in here. Only third years are supposed to be given access to the Ancient Places. How did you get in here in the first place?" Syral asked, looking around warily, Eyes dilating into a cat's.

"I walked in. And it's fine, snakes love me. My family were apparently renowned for hunting dragons, but we were actually breeders for the more endangered reptilian species', in Paris, I remember that much." I chuckled, and gently pet a Paradise Flying Snake, which lazily opened golden eyes, to my surprise.

"On what premise does this human touch me?" He hissed curiously.

"I believe it to be some savage human symbol of awe and affection, lover." Another, smaller snake wound itself around him slowly, and then relaxed.

The bigger snake perked up swiftly, and then stretched out, revealing the beautiful yellow scales on his belly. "Oh? Then stroke away, human, my scales are here to peruse and to teach you what true beauty is!"

I chuckled and gently pet his scales, then stepped back. "Goodbye, little ones! You're very beautiful!"

"The human spoke! It speaks!! Human, come back here, we must have your attention!!!" The larger snake gathered his coils, and then simply leapt after me, landing on my shoulders, then wrapping around them loosely, like a shawl.

"Well, hello, I was leaving you to your sunbathing!" I smiled, petting their heads and necks carefully.

"Very considerate of you, you adorable savage, much obliged, yes, but I must have answers! When did you learn the act of speech? Have the dragons finally managed to tame your peoples and teach them common decency? Your skin is covered in metal now, I see, so I should hope you have some sort of defenses?" He rapidly fired questions at me, and I blinked slowly, thinking hard before answering.

"I believe speech was learned some 25,000 years ago, at the very least, and no, dragons have not tamed us, they are actually no longer the dominant species on this earth. As for defenses, yes, we have crafted our own armor, not unlike scales."

He laid his head down, thinking deeply, and nodded. "Then it would seem time has indeed passed... I am known as Taiga. My mate is Green." He gently scented my throat in a greeting.

I nodded. "Hello. I am Idun. And may I ask why you wouldn't have known time had passed?"

"Time passes... differently for us of the Zed. We travel forward and backward through time quite often, though never to a time where our people didn't exist yet, or had died out. I was unsure if your kind, the hairless monkeys known by dragons as 'Homo Sapiens', or 'Human', were yet to create any sort of civilization that I would like to see." He extended his neck for me to smell, and I politely sniffed, finding his scent very memorable, surprisingly.