The First Dragon

Part Four

Anwar spent much of the next day in quiet contemplation.

Ena noted his silence, but said very little. She decided that whatever he was thinking about was none of her business, and that prying could be dangerous. Secretly, deep down, she hoped that he was considering letting her go. That maybe, just maybe, he was starting to reconsider things.

She wasn't completely wrong. But she wasn't completely right, either.

He was reconsidering things about Ena. But most of them were related to whether or not he could pursue a friendship with her.

It was, on the surface, preposterous. She was an employee if one was being generous, and a prisoner if one was being honest. It was not the best foundation for a relationship of any kind.

But she had been kind to him. Perhaps, maybe, he could learn to return that kindness in turn, maybe find ways to talk to her that were explicitly friendly...

Deep down, he knew it was ludicrous. But he wanted to believe that maybe, just maybe...

But no. He was being desperate. Desperate and ridiculous. He knew it. He shouldn't indulge in it. Why would she ever try to be friends with someone like him? After everything that had happened? Even her being friendly was likely only a survival mechanism, to avoid being...eaten.

"Ah, sorry, I just have a question about..."

"I wouldn't eat you," Anwar blurted, nearly dislodging a few treasure piles as he whipped his body around to face her. "I just want you to know that."

"...okay?" Ena's nose wrinkled. Anwar couldn't tell if it was from confusion or disgust. "I'll...try to remember that."

She returned to her work, confused, but....deep down, perhaps a bit hopeful. It seemed a genuine sentiment, and the kind of thing he'd only say if he meant it. If he had no plans of eating her, even when she was finished...maybe she could leave.

Maybe. Anwar's treasures were still vast, and for as much as she had done, she felt like she had made no progress. If he wanted to keep her here until the work was done...

Unknown to her, while the thought had crossed Anwar's mind that perhaps the relationship could be more cordial than merely that of master and servant, it had not occurred to him to let her go. Debts could exist between friends, as far as he knew—they could even exist between family members. Just because he was starting to consider her a friend didn't mean he had to let her go. He would be lying to himself if he said that part of him didn't realize that the logic was completely ridiculous.

But his mind had been twisting itself into knots to paint the situation in the best light for him since he was young. What was one more leap of logic?

Anwar grappled with that inner self-loathing—that fear that she would probably hate him if he tried to reach out—for a few more days. Eventually, his need for companionship overrode his fears. He tried to ask her about her family—to find out more about her sisters, about her deceased mother (though he did his best to be delicate when asking about her). Ena answered, though hesitantly, giving only enough information to answer his question without elaborating much further. This was partially due to her confusion as to his sudden desire to know more about her, and partially because she had been raised from a young age not to give too much information to the beings that lived in the wild. She may have known Anwar's story, but that didn't stop her from thinking that maybe he was some sort of fae.

Better safe than sorry, she thought, and continued her work.

Anwar did notice her laconic answers, but took them to have a different cause. As he paid more attention to Ena, he noticed the shift in her demeanor—the slow melancholy that seemed to overtake her the more time she spent in the caves. It was true that she remained polite, bordering on friendly, but in comparison to the quietly determined woman who had first walked into his cave...