After the defeat of the arcane monstrosity, and as the lizard-tailed girl arrived and delivered her monologue, Morgan checked over his remaining supply of ammunition. Noting the massive amount he had burned to half-blind the monster, he sighed and jumped off the rooftop, catching himself on the lower floor, then dropping to the ground.

"Of course the freakin magician found a way to escape..."

Huh? Oh yeah, Chen wasn't in the cells earlier...

Thinking back on the breakout and following events, Morgan wound up staring at the ground, his hand against his forehead.

How the heck did I forget about him in the first place, that suit of his stands out literally everywhere! And he still has to show me one of his card tricks.

Brushing the current events aside, he made his way back towards the makeshift armory. Everyone else could deal in conversation, there was plenty of spare materials and guns lying around for him to scavenge.

"And finally this shyt is over..." Egwene cursed, sheathing her sword. That regeneration is annoying, took me more than the amount of cuts I thought...

Her fingers felt sore from the constant swinging of her blade, just when she saw someone who clearly isn't someone from Arcadia sitting on a high perch. Her hand tightened around the sword hilt, ready to draw at any time.

"So, that's a Banshee, I didn't want to be here, I was taking a nap--- I mean scouting in the woods when some stupid people dragged me here, without even a damned fight, how dishonourable..."

Egwene relaxed her tensed grasp as she hears the explanation made by the winged girl who calls herself Diana. She had her eye towards Diana, still being untrusting towards the winged girl. She wasn't letting her guard down, not especially after she got 'escorted' to the ruins earlier that morning. I'm going to have trust issues after this...

"I'm Egwene of the Empire, anything else?" Egwene frowned, getting annoyed at this bad day she's having.

"No no no, you guys got it all wrong," Diana said, shaking her head. "That thing's called a Dissonance. A Banshee, or Banshee's Scream —if you wanna be technical— is that horrible howling noise Dissonances make when they are summoned into this world, or when they are destroyed. Do you not learn this anymore? I mean, the evil deeds of the Goddess of Strife and the bravery of the Song Knights who opposed her at the while paying the ultimate price?" Diana's grin faded into an awkward smile as she noticed that it was possible that neither of the Cadets knew exactly what she was talking about.

"Well, but you can fight a Dissonance and wield these powers, you must have the potential somewhere within you. I mean, aren't you training to become Song Knights?"

"What you speak of are but legends. Stories of a time long since past that no one knows the truth of," Ires interrupted Diana. "Yet, the fact that this beast feels so ominous and matches the old legends, is intriguing. Just like Gradon said, such a powerful monster is the reason we came here. Our mission was to eliminate the reason why the wildlife near Orello was misbehaving so much. We certainly aren't the knights you mention," the Princess added.

"Wait, did you say strong? Those guys are cannon fodder, you can't be serious about..." Diana's voice trailed off as she considered what both Gradon and Ires said. The girl's face got tinged in a vivid red as she scratched the back of her nape awkwardly. "Oh! So... that's what you are talking about, huh? Well, I guess that we can talk more when we are at my place. There's —a lot— of things to explain. I mean, you guys also need to see your friend, huh? It's not that far from here," Diana pointed at the abandoned temple that laid at the end of the valley.

"Can we go now?" She said while waving her tail, apparently in a nervous way.
Some time later...

"Well, here we are," Diana said as they reached a room close to the temple's back which was used in times long past as the clergy lodgings. Just as she said, a boy laid in one of the straw-covered, stone beds, seemingly in good conditions. Likely because of whatever treatment Diana gave him. A jug of cold mountain water and a mirror laid over a drawer not far from his bed as well. "Hey, you're awake already? I've brought food and found some friends of yours. Don't you wanna say hi to them?" she added after setting a basket with some roasted mushrooms and fish as well as some honeycombs and fruits —mostly wild berries— besides Chen's bed.

"Where should I begin?" Diana said pensively before picking one of the honeycombs and taking a bite. "Mhmm~ This thing is good... Do any of you wanna some?" she pointed to the pile of honey oozing treats. From the looks of it, Diana must have raided a whole hive or two, to collect that much. "Either way, I guess I need to begin by the most important part, right?" she said after eating more of her golden treat. "That Dissonance isn't the thing that drove the animals away from here. It was kinda... me, I guess? B—but wait a bit, it was unintentional, an accident! I mean, how could I know that they would run away if I took a nap on my true form?"

"True form? What do you mean by that?" Ires asked, confusedly.

"Oh yeah, you guys don't seem like you can get that, do you? The truth is that... I'm a dragon... Funny, ehehehe?"

"What? You can't be serious, Dragons are nothing but legends. I thank you for taking care of one of our allies but, did you bring us all the way here just to make fun of our face?" Ires said in a skeptical voice before turning to the other Cadets, as if asking for their opinion.

Chen was indeed awake, sitting up in his "bed" with a bouquet of flowers in hand. "Hey, you're awake already? I've brought food and found some friends of yours. Don't you wanna say hi to them?" A smile was on his face, cheery as ever, as he hopped out of bed to greet Diana. "Why would I greet them when I don't even know the name of the lovely hero who saved me?" He slid up to Diana and bowed deeply, pressing the flowers into her hands with a wink. His hat slid off his head as he bowed, but he caught it smoothly, all a part of the show. "But where are my manners, I haven't even introduced myself. I am Chen Chideta, I owe you a great debt of gratitude for saving my life. I would perform a magic show for you, but all my best equipment is back home unfortunately." Confetti erupted out of the top of his hat with a small pop as he said his name, none of which landed on anyone surprisingly enough. He was basically ignoring everyone in favor of this beautiful dragoness.

"Where should I begin? Mhmm~ This thing is good... Do any of you wanna some? Either way, I guess I need to begin by the most important part, right? That Dissonance isn't the thing that drove the animals away from here. It was kinda... me, I guess? B—but wait a bit, it was unintentional, an accident! I mean, how could I know that they would run away if I took a nap on my true form?" The entire time she was speaking Chen was fawning over her the whole time, spewing his usual romantic spiel like he did every time he met a beautiful lady. Anyone who had been around him for any period of time would be used to this behaviour, though it was a bit overbearing the first time around.

"True form? What do you mean by that?"

"Oh yeah, you guys don't seem like you can get that, do you? The truth is that... I'm a dragon... Funny, ehehehe?" Chen's grin grew even wider somehow, a sparkle in his eyes as he dropped to one knee in front of her, arms outstretched as he looked up at her with adoration. "How lovely! Not only was I saved by a beautiful hero, but a Dragon as well! Truly the fates smile upon me, I could not be any luckier on this beautiful day."

---

Reluctantly following Diana to his squadmate, Zarin knew immediately what was about to happen when they entered to see Chen holding a bouquet of flowers. “Oh for the love of…” Zarin muttered rolling his eyes while Chen put on his ‘charming’ display. “Don’t be too flattered.” He said as the confetti settled to the ground, “He does this with every dame we run into.”

With the end of that spectacle, Diana offered the party some snacks while she explained why the wildlife had been acting up. Normally Zarin would have declined, but seeing as he had to escape a prison and fight a giant monster all without breakfast, he was happy to have anything that even resembled food. Walking over he grabbed one of the roasted fish from the basket and took a large bite right off the top. Before he could take a second one, however, Diana said something that made him drop the fish and forget about his hunger altogether. Something he had waited nearly his whole life to hear.

”The truth is that... I'm a dragon... Funny, ehehehe?"

"What? You can't be serious, Dragons are nothing but legends."

“Hold on there, princess.” Zarin butted in with a new found interest on the subject at hand. “It may sound crazy to you, but there are some people who like to believe in such legends.” He stated holding up his arm so his dragon tattoo was clearly visible. “But as for her being one, there’s only one way to prove it.” He said turning to Diana, as well as grabbing Chen’s head to push him over while he was still on one knee. “Show us. Change into your true form.”

Song Knights? Is that what those people call us?

Egwene was puzzled over Diana's words. The terms Diana used sounded familiar, but Egwene found it hard to remember the last time she had heard something like the Goddess of Strife.

Cannon fodder? Sure, that Dissonance thing isn't a fight difficult enough to cause casualities, but to call something like that a fodder would show that she is on another level. And she clearly isn't bragging...

She followed them, knowing that it wouldn't be wise to go on Diana's bad side, however their strengths & numbers.

Dragon, that makes sense. That was beyond any of the possible scenarios Egwene had thought of, and this sounded like the wildest, and the worst.

Those stuffs of Legends, she heard tales of dragons turning thick elven forests into deserts in a single night. Dragonfire hot enough to shake the earths and render everything into ashes. She is certain that Diana is telling the truth, from the manner she says it. But, she wasn't sure on how much of those fables were just childrens' stories.

"Surely you didn't breathe out any fire while asleep, didn't you?"

Egwene asked half-sarcastically. Looking around to see if there're any trees nearby, and if there are, it would be wise to stay clear off them. Because in front of a dragon, anything that can burn, will burn...

As the beast dissolved into a pool of bloody darkness, Clean doubted his pinning of the foot had any significant effect on this outcome, but was pleased nonetheless. Seeing the glimmering silver of his parrying dagger stabbed into the ground, Clean leaned down to pick it up as the eldritch sheet music played the last of its notes and burned into nothingness. Looking to his abandoned jacket Clean ignored the alert nature of everyone else as he picked up the tatters he once called clothes. Gagging at the thought of putting the thing back on, Clean simply tore of a clean-ish patch of fabric and tossed the rest to the wayside. Dismissing his vessel, Clean tied the red tie around his neck while looking up at the girl who introduced herself as Diana and called the beast just defeated a banshee.

A fitting name. It's shrieks had a piercing note to them. As the leaders of the group discussed with the new arrival, Clean wiped his parrying dagger with a razor focus and the clean fabric scrap he salvaged, swearing her could see, smell and even hear the oozing darkness of the vanquished beast staining it. Absentmindedly following the group as he worked, the change of scenery to what looked like were once clergy quarters had his eyes brighten and look for silver polish or something the holy people would have used to clean their artifacts. Nothing catching his eye, Clean considered asking their new host if she had anything like that he heard Diana claim to be a dragon and Ires' subsequent skepticism.

"Dragons are creatures of legend and to be frank I feel Lady Diana acts rather human when compared to the legends. Lady Diana lacks the arrogance stereotypical of dragons, acting rather... human for lack of a better term. She also lacks a commanding presence, as I understand it a dragon would not be easily mistaken for something else. If this is a lair it lacks traditional valuables, although by the same token I suppose a dragon wouldn't lead a troupe of mere humans to its treasure trove. Still, if Lady Diana were truly a dragon would she have allowed anyone to disturb her place of rest? I know I merely speak of legends, but certain things pass into legend for a reason. So, Lady Diana, please forgive that I share the Princess' skepticism."

Through excessive use of explosive and violence the cadets had proven themselves the capable soldiers of the Imperium Leblanc knew them to be and slayed the monster with nary a wound to show for it. There was no grace to their actions but their was none to be found in their adversary.

However, that they came out unscathed did not leave her any less furious with the actions of the erstwhile cadet whose barrage of explosives could have easily harmed the melee combatants. She found it something of a miracle her own gambit didn't leave her pockmarked with shrapnel, but the battle was behind them and the rush of adrenaline was quickly fading. Leblanc exhaled the tension from her body as she alighted upon the ground and made to approach Regina with a calmness belying the dire need to bury her talon somewhere in the cadet's rib cage, only for her efforts to be curtailed with a new arrival.

It took only a moment to discern this Diana woman wasn't intending to be a threat, and after enhancing her olfactory sense of smell Regina could tell she was as pervaded by the scents of this land to be considered a local as opposed to a mercenary from the south like the ones butchered around them. Setting aside discipline, the group opted to follow this woman and came to take shelter in the sturdy construction of an old temple, worn beyond recognition as far as what little interest Leblanc would afford it could tell.

In short, timid order, Diana endeavored to enlighten them as to her perspective on events, and in kind the Cadets replied with various murmurs of disbelief or agreement. Ires was skeptical, no doubt her more developed education playing a role in preconceived knowledge of what is and isn't possible.

"This Diana woman, regardless of whether or not her vernacular is accurate, is at least informed about the local goings on in the region. If she isn't speaking from ignorance, then she is either doing so for her own personal satisfaction, or it is the truth. None of this changes that we were sent on a mission for a reason Diana claims to be the cause of." Leblanc intoned in a dull fashion, counter to the enthusiasm or bravado of some of the more peculiar Cadets they'd re-united with. "It looks to me this is now a simple matter of diplomacy or violence. It doesn't matter if Diana transforms, only that she ceases 'napping' if it disturbs our borders."

---

---

"Woah there! Are you guys sure that you want to see that?" Diana replied quite nonchalantly to the heated advances of the Cadets, especially Chen's. "I mean, a girl is supposed to like being flattered. I don't see why that's so bad. Actually, I think that he... looks kinda like a puppy. Yeah, a wide-eyed cute puppy," she replied to Zarin, when he warned her about his womanizer peer while petting Chen's head with her tail.

Either way, the Cadets seemed eager to see her words validated, which only left an option for Diana.

"I suppose that you won't buy it if I do just an arm, right?" She said, letting out a chuckle before continuing, "In that case, we will have to get to the entrance. I kinda can't do it in such a cramped space."

A few moments later, back at the temple's entrance, Diana looked at the Cadets with a vivid blush lighting her face. Something was troubling her. The reason of such distress became apparent when she began to remove her armor, followed by a motion to take out her dress. "I know that you guys wanna see if I'm not tricking you or not. But... could at least not stare too much now?" she asked. Even though a pair of translucent draconian wings safeguarded her modesty as well as they could, Diana's bare form looked even smaller than before. She wasn't displaying any exaggerated bashfulness, yet wasn't that comfortable with being looked at, at least not like this.

"Ok, here we go. Try not to get too awed, right?" Diana said as her body became enveloped in a warm radiance, not unlike that of the sun itself as it changed to a more draconian shape and grew larger and larger. The whole transformation didn't take more than a few seconds; once it was done, a massive —almost one hundred meters long— golden dragon was staring right at them, though eyes that looked like orbs of liquid radiance.

"So, what do you say... really amazing, huh? I mean, it's not everyday that you get to see something like this, right?" Diana's voice asked, coming right from the humongous monster's maw.

---

With their group moving further into Diana’s home, more and more pieces of the puzzle were being put together. What Gradon was expecting for an answer was not the case because Diana had dropped some pretty important news. The boy had to blink and think for a second. It had been this girl that had been the disturbance in the forest? Not the Banshee? But how?

Well apparently, Diana was a dragon and that wasn’t just bluff. He didn’t outright claim this as false like Ires had nor was he as eager to see the transformation as some of his peers. As always, Leblanc seemed to be the only one with common sense on the mind, making Gradon frown. Dragon or not, Diana was claiming to be the cause for their mission. They would need to negotiate avoiding more problems in the future.

Before any of this could be validated, Diana was already leading them back outside. It seemed she had some dragon arrogance if she really felt the need to prove herself. Still, it was a sight to behold and Gradon watched with equal amazement from his comrades as Diana stripped and turned into a golden lizard with wings. A dragon, real and breathing right before them; so she was the cause for their mission.

“Miss Diana? With all due respect, there’s still the matter of what to do about this. We were sent to destroy the creature disturbing the wildlife here and, well, you seem nice enough where we can just discuss something,” Gradon said, hoping his voice could reach the dragon’s ears. “Would you mind changing back so we can do just that?”

"Oh. Dragon."

Morgan muttered to himself as he stared up at Diana's massive shimmering form, a half-filled cartridge in his hands. While everyone else was chatting in the temple, he had taken the time to check up on his guns, and fill a few more cartridges.

This is... unusual.

Glancing over at the others, he paused for a moment, wondering what sort of conversation led to this.

I guess I'll ask someone about it later.

When Zarin tried to grab Chen, he would find himself immediately recoiling due to the sheer cold that emanated from his skin. The metaphorical hearts in his eyes only grew bigger as Diana patted his head with her tail, pleased by the fact that his flattery actually resulted in good things for once. "But of course, it's only natural to sing praise of such a mighty warrior!"

"I suppose that you won't buy it if I do just an arm, right? In that case, we will have to get to the entrance. I kinda can't do it in such a cramped space." Chen got to his feet quickly, following Diana closely while still fawning over her every feature. He also very subtly made sure all of his stuff was still with him, checking his hidden pockets for his cutting cards and his sleeves for his tied together handkerchiefs. Just because she was beautiful and had rescued him doesn't mean he was a complete idiot, this could be a trap to gather everyone to one spot to kill them all. He hoped that wasn't the case, but as a magician he knew that misdirection meant everything.

They made it outside quickly, Diana removing her armor and clothing to transform. "I know that you guys wanna see if I'm not tricking you or not. But... could at least not stare too much now?" Chen blushed, covering his eyes as Diana changed. "Not a problem, it would be rude to stare at a lady while she changed, no matter how beautiful she may be." Chen was once again lying, leaving a small opening between his fingers to make sure she wasn't pulling any funny business. It didn't appear as if she was trying to trick them, so Chen let down his guard a little and looked away for real this time. "Ok, here we go. Try not to get too awed, right?"

Easier said than done. She morphed before their very eyes, a golden glow enveloping her as she became more and more dragon like. She grew larger and larger, eventually becoming a full dragon at a size of more than 300 feet. "So, what do you say... really amazing, huh? I mean, it's not everyday that you get to see something like this, right?" Chen stood in amazement, observing her from multiple angles to try and take in everything about her. She had a regal air about her, a wisdom beyond her years shined behind her brilliant eyes. "So, what do you say... really amazing, huh? I mean, it's not everyday that you get to see something like this, right?" Chen whispered something under his breath that nobody could hear as he grew closer to her, hesitating to touch her.

---

Esther listened attentively as the girl explained further about the monster. Apparently, she had gotten it wrong. The monster itself was called a Dissonance, while the horrible scream it let out from before was the Banshee, or the Banshee's Scream to be exact. And then, she talked further about some Goddess and Song Knights. Hmm, Song Knights? That sounded familiar... Have she heard about them before? And she called that Dissonance "cannon fodder"? She couldn't believe that! That was the hardest fight they had so far!

Ires interrupted her explanation however, telling how they were just myths.

In the end, the group followed the odd girl to an abandoned temple. Just like she had promised, there were other cadets there. It seemed she indeed had treated them.

And then, she declared that she was a dragon.

"Eeeeh?" Esther reacted with surprise. A-a dragon? A-aren't dragons supposed to be this big and scary lizards that breathe fire?

Before she could respond to Ires' justifiable skepticism to her declaration, one of the cadets the girl had saved interrupted their conversation as he thanked his savior. His name was Chen, and he seemed to be quite the polite person, thanking the dragon girl by giving her a bouquet of flowers. He also was quite the magician as well, doing his tricks smoothly like a professional. Esther wondered if he used his vessel's power to do it.

Zarin then chimed in, saying to Diana to transform if she wanted to prove her words to them all. Esther could certainly see the logic, but it would be really scary to see a dragon up close. She would make sure she gave some distance away from her she was going to do that.

Crispin then spoke of his own skepticism, saying how Diana didn't act like how a dragon would. "Yes, yes, I agree!" Esther chimed in once Crispin finished his words. "You're not scary enough to be a dragon!" she said to Diana.

After Leblanc spoke her mind, Diana finally calmed the group down and said that she would do it. She would transform into a dragon. But not here, since the space inside the temple wasn't big enough. Just how big is she?

Once outside, to Esther's shame and surprise, Diana began undressing herself. "W-wait, what are you doing?" she said to her while blushing. Then Esther realized she would tear through her clothes if she were to transform with them on. That would be bad as she would be forced to stay naked when she transformed back.

When Diana finished transforming, Esther looked at her new form with both terror and awe. She watched the massive golden dragon with her legs shaking.

"S-so big!" Esther said. "T-this is the first time I've ever seen a dragon!"

Esther both felt like she wanted to stay and look at the majestic sight in front of her and ran away as far as she could from the dragon. Even though it was clearly still Diana, judging by its voice, it was still a dragon, and it felt like it could just leap towards her and ate her whole.

Egwene looked at Diana's bare form, observing the girl who claimed to be a dragon. She kept an steady eye towards the Dragon. As a prideful warrior of the Empire, she will not let her guard down, not even when somebody went taking off her armour and clothing in front of her. She showed an indifferent expression, That's too small for a dragon...? Until the transformation happened.

"Holy shit..." Egwene gasped upon seeing a being from the Age of Legends appearing right in front of her. It was way bigger than what she had envisioned in her mind. She began wondering how did Diana even manage to transform to something as small as a human being. As if the enormous size and the dragonfires aren't bad enough, dragons have good enough intelligence to speak. Its no wonder that Dissonance escaped at the sight of her. Egwene stopped her sightseeing only when Gladon, the only cadet who still remembers their mission, mentioned something about wildlife.

"I'll scout out a bit, I'll see if there's anything amiss, I won't fall asleep this time~"

Egwene said as if she was in an everyday mission. She was sure that nothing would surprise her by now, be it Dissonance or Dragons. She walked out further into the woods, ready to draw her sword at any moment. She checked for anything weird within the ruins, other than dragon of course.

Words went unbidden- or more aptly, were drowned before the exuberance of such characters like Chen- and they followed as though ducklings before Diana as she led them outside and began to strip herself.

Propriety be damned, Leblanc wasn't going to miss an inch of Diana if she was as she said she was. And indeed her eyes did corroborate such claims, the wings being something of a giveaway long before Diana went through with the full transition.

"Well, these are going to be some one sided negotiations." Leblanc rasped with awe as she craned her neck back to try and get a sense for the scale of the creature before them. Such as it was Diana's words carried upon a gale of their own, buffeting them with the force of her speech, and her golden scales were a touch hard to look at when the sun refracted off their pristine surfaces to detriment of her eyes. Rocs are one thing, but we are fucked if we have to force an issue. She thought belatedly.

She held no illusion anything they could do to her would do more then scratch the enamel from a few scales before Diana could swat them into the earth at terminal velocity. "Maybe we should give her the puppy and point her towards nesting towards our neighbors borders. "

---

Though most were quick to dismiss the idea that Diana was in fact a dragon, the cadets did seem to believe her claims of being the one to cause the wildlife to act up. It felt a bit backwards to Zarin for them to not want to verify such a claim, but his judgement may have been skewed by personal reasons. True his main goal of getting Diana to transform was indeed to verify her story and fully prove she was disturbance, but he had also always dreamed of seeing a dragon. Truth be told, he held them in such regard, he was one of the people who believed the original three Vessel bearers were dragons.

Luckily, it didn’t take much convincing and before they knew it, the cadets were outside ready to watch Diana turn into a creature of legends. As she began to undress, she asked if they would look away. A question Chen of course had to answer with flattery. “Oh good Goddess can you dial it back for one second?” Zarin asked as he sort of complied, putting his hand up to obscure his vision enough that it protected her modesty, but didn’t blind him entirely.

And then, his dream came true. Standing before him was the magnificent and towering figure of a golden dragon. Despite her earlier warnings, Zarin found himself unable to be anything but completely awe struck. Wide eyed and jaw open he was nearly frozen in place by sheer amazement. The most he could manage was a weak arm flop and a soft “don’t” in an attempt to grab Egwene and stop her from wandering off, all the while keeping his gaze fixed upon Diana.

---

"Ah, right. It must be hard to talk like this," Diana replied to Gradon's request that she changed back to her human form. She hesitated for a moment before complying. However before she changed back, she used her wing to drag Egwene back to the group, putting her within Zarin's reach. "Hey, I have something to tell you all, don't go scuttling away now. I am not gonna eat you," Diana said to the Cadets —after noticing that Esther was just as shaky— while flashing teeth bigger than the cavalry lance favored by Ires.

"If you like what you're seeing that much, I can take the time to show it in more detail later," Diana said to Chen and Zarin as they gasped in awe. "But I guess that we need to talk about things now, right?" she added after dropping her clothes behind a rocky wall. Another sun-like glow from her massive body later and she was back to human form, walking from behind the wall while fixing her glasses.

"Well, I guess that I should tell you what I'm doing here. Let's say that I'm waiting for a certain someone to come pick me up. It's not my fault that the animals from around here ran away when I was napping over there," Diana pointed to a rocky cliff not very far from the temple before, "relaxing in the morning sun. I mean, who'd think that even rocs would be such chickens, right?" she laughed out loud while explaining her story in a natural way.

"Either way, I shan't trouble you guys for long. That guy said he would be coming soon, after taking care of some personal business in the North. Men can be so problematic sometimes, ain't that right?" Diana shook her head and sighed, turning to the other girls within the group. "Now, let me ask something. Since it's your mission to end this problem and all that, does that mean that you'll be staying around? I certainly could use some company. It's really boring to do nothing other than eat and sleep the whole day."

"Of course, I can make it worthy of your time," Diana made a dramatic pause to evaluate the Cadet's reply before continuing, "What do you say of getting some special training? I can show you how to access the hidden potential that... some of you have. With my wisdom, I can even say that you all can become legitimate Song Knights, with a Spirit of your own, instead of the incomplete powers that you have now."

"Ain't I amazing or not? Ehehehe."

"EH! LET GO OF---" Egwene felt a thug from behind before she could draw her sword out. "Oh, okay," Reluctantly, she calmed down after being face-to-face with this dragon again, her fingers twitching around the sword scabbard.

And the dragon transformed back into her human form almost the same way as her dragon transformation. She noticed an arm outstretched towards her, and turned to face that person. Touching his hand gently, calluses & blisters of her palms could be felt as she looked at Zarin, her showing a gentle but a clearly mischievous smile. "What the hell are you thinking of doing to a young and innocent lady!?" Egwene sweeped Zarin down the ground with her firm grasp on his arm. Dusting her hands in a satisfied manner, it seems that she had gotten the wrong idea somewhere. Going back to her good old days as a village bully has helped to relieve the tension of meeting a dragon, as much as she tried to hide it.

"Training?" Egwene stopped the crackling of her knuckles. Trained by a dragon? She wasn't sure what to respond with this favour. "Sure," She agreed just like that, something like that wasn't in any fairy tales. Those legends are very unreliable... But why not? She is eager to learn how to spew dragonfire like a real dragon.

Apparently, she is already missing the point of that training before it even started...

Chen shook his head as he gathered himself, there were matters to be settled regarding Diana and their mission after all. He was content to play the lovestruck fool right now but the others were right in that she was causing disturbances. He would let them be the bad cops while he played dumb cop, she was already more likely to consider his words due to his facade of lovestruck idiocy. She changed back to her human form, fully dressed and ready to explain herself. "I'm sure you have a good reason for being here, a lovely lady like yourself could only have good intentions in mind!"

"Well, I guess that I should tell you what I'm doing here. Let's say that I'm waiting for a certain someone to come pick me up. It's not my fault that the animals from around here ran away when I was napping over there, relaxing in the morning sun. I mean, who'd think that even rocs would be such chickens, right?" Chen suppressed the urge to shudder, she scared off rocs just by existing. He likely would have reacted exactly the same if he had run into her while in dragon form. Twas a blessing she didn't decide to just eat him when she found him. "Either way, I shan't trouble you guys for long. That guy said he would be coming soon, after taking care of some personal business in the North. Men can be so problematic sometimes, ain't that right?" Chen's brow furrowed slightly, kinda rude but whatever. "Now, let me ask something. Since it's your mission to end this problem and all that, does that mean that you'll be staying around? I certainly could use some company. It's really boring to do nothing other than eat and sleep the whole day."

Chen quickly perked up at that, this was a good turn of events. "I would love to keep you company Ms. Diana, it would be intolerable to leave a lady alone and bored!" He also needed an excuse to keep an eye on her. While at this point he was very convinced she was completely safe, leaving her alone to do whatever is out of the question. Especially after hearing about this mystery man, there was a greater mystery behind this that needed to be uncovered. The mission won't be complete until all questions have been answered.

"Of course, I can make it worthy of your time," Chen's smile was unchanged, but his eyes widened slightly in surprise. What did she have in mind as payment? "What do you say of getting some special training? I can show you how to access the hidden potential that... some of you have. With my wisdom, I can even say that you all can become legitimate Song Knights, with a Spirit of your own, instead of the incomplete powers that you have now." The game has changed once again. Training from such an ancient creature would bolster his experience by quite a bit, possibly pushing him to the top of the class with any advice she would have to offer. Something like this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. "Ain't I amazing or not? Ehehehe."

"Indeed, you're amazing in all ways one could think of." Chen bowed deeply before Diana, smiling as he thought of how great this day had turned out. "I would be honored if you could train us for even a little bit."

Imagine, for a second, that your name is Tzi Ti'amtum. Imagine, for a second, that you are a reasonably well-dispositioned, rarely flappable young man who usually takes most situations in stride. Imagine, for a second, that on what had first appeared to be a rather routine (had it not been for the presence of royalty) mission, things escalated to the point where you had come face to face with a dragon.

Now imagine what you, as the known foodie Tzi Ti'amtum, would do upon seeing such a vast and awe-inspiring creature.

A casual joke about eating it, right?

Unfortunately, you're off the mark there.

Completely and utterly off the mark.

Tzi Ti'amtum's face was blank, mouth agape at the sudden revelation of the girl's status as a great dragon. No life seemed to emanate from his large form. He stood ramrod still, like a boulder that had stayed in position and done nothing for over a millennia. His visible eye was focused entirely upon the dragon. He didn't say a single word. He only stared. Frozen by the rather awe-inspiring sight.

Even when Diana returned to her human form, he still stood there, frozen.

A two metre statue of flesh rather than a human.

Not every day a fisher boy saw a dragon, after all.

It looked like somebody needed to give him a poke.