Dragon's World

11.

A thought occurred to me as he was asking a few other questions. "If you're planning on your father dying so you can take over, how exactly will you know when you're not exactly around to keep track?" I eyeball him after we've both finished our dinner.

"See, dragons have a sort of telekinesis type of...understanding with one another. If one has been to the kingdom, it's a shared image with the rest of them," he takes my bowl and a bottle of water along with a piece of cloth.

"Mhmm, so they all talk to each other like that? That would explain how they would all hunt in hoards," I watch him start cleaning the bowls. I did pick up dish soap and new dishes, I guess he missed the dish soap part though.

"No, no. Dragons telekinesis with each other only goes as far as images, no dialogue unless they're near one another. I, though, as the Prince, can communicate through both image and dialogue, if I wanted. Same with the king and my siblings," he finishes rinsing his bowl and begins on mine.

"How many siblings do you have?" My curiosity gets the best of me as I start to put out the fire.

"Thirteen. All together, there are fourteen of us," he nonchalantly answers but I almost trip over my feet.

"Fourteen kids?! That's crazy! Your poor mother! The poor king! How does he manage all of you?" My eyebrows furrow as my jaw practically drops.

"Well, most of us are more connected with our mothers. Most of my siblings are only half brothers or sisters. I only have two siblings born to the same mother," he shrugs a little as I fan out the fire.

"Damn, fourteen is still a lot though. Are you the eldest?" I begin imagining fourteen small children running around. How tiresome.

"No, my sister, Kassenna is. Then, it's my brother Zulot. I'm the baby of my mothers born," a faint smile crosses his lips as he finishes with my bowl.

"Can you draw me out a family tree?" I pick up one of my arrows.

"Alright, but it'll have to be quick, the sun's going down and somebody's afraid of the dark," he takes it with a smirk as we both look up at the sky. I scrunch my nose at him.

He draws out a 'K' representing the King. Off that are six pods he explains to be either queens represented by 'Q' or concubines represented by 'C'. He explains how is mother was the first ever queen taken by his father and the first to ever bear children of his fathers. Therefore, he may not be the eldest but he is of the eldest.

Under his mother, he puts his sisters first initial, his brothers, and then his. Then, he continues onto the first concubine, she had only one female child. The next concubine has a male and a female. The third concubine only had a female. The fourth concubine only had a male. The fifth concubine had two females and a male. And the current queen had two males and one female. The female being only a few months old. Each of them are only a few months apart in age. His eldest sister is twenty-six dragon years in age. Rune himself is twenty-five, as is his older brother.

"Now, when you say 'dragon years,' what would that be in human years?" My curiosity proceeds me as we make our way back to the house now.

"Each dragon year is equivalent to two hundred human years," the dishes clatter in his hands a little as we walk.

I immediately halt and stay silent for a moment. He stops and turns to me, a sheepish grin on his face. "I'm speechless," I shake my head a little. "I'm hanging out with a dude who's like four thousand eighty years older than me," I blink slowly for a second before continuing to walk back to the house. "How have you lived so long? Like, why?" I immediately ask as we reach the door.