Chapter Text
In the following weeks, as their march changed from the hillside of Etruria to the wide plains of Sacae, Roy pretended everything was fine.
And sure, it was. Bartre retained no memory of the event, Noah glanced away politely when questioned, and Fir refused to speak on anything from that evening whatsoever.
Roy simply questioned whether it was ethical to interrogate an ill man, even if said ill man was his own father, and Roy had many questions to warrant it. In the end, his conscience won out, as it always did. Roy vowed to simply ask his father about the egg thing.
He reached into his sleeve to scratch at his forearm, only to discover with horror that he was shedding scales from stress. Horrible. Lilina's words flashed through his mind, and he thought to all the bare-armed fellows in the army. None of them had scales.
When the Etrurian army next set up camp, Roy did not sulk, because he was mature. Instead, he pulled out one of his favorite history books, shut himself inside his tent, and read until dinner. It was a detailed history of the Scouring. Well, as detailed as could be. Many of the details were lost, after all.
Some point after he resorted to lying down on the floor, somebody opened his tent flap. "Royyyy!" cried Fae, the actual real-life dragon he's found himself friends with. "You gotta eat! Eat!"
He closed his book with a sigh. Then, he dusted himself off, and let himself be dragged to the open kitchen. Fae dug into her stew with gusto. Roy kept a hankerchief at the ready, which Igrene gave him an approving look for. When Fae finished, his own bowl was still half full.
It had gone cold. Ah, cruel fates. Not that he minded spending time with Fae. Speaking of, "Fae, tuck your tail in. It's impolite. You'll hit somebody with it."
Somebody being Roy himself, as Fae smacked her feathered apendage against his backside. Then she huffed, and it disappeared into her dragonstone. She stood up from their shared log. Waddling over to Sophia was not as intimidating as Fae hoped, however.
All it did was make Sophia come over. "Sophia? Is something the matter?" To be honest, Sophia was a kind girl. Something about her just gave Roy a feeling between the heeby-jeebies and heartburn. The only comparable feelings were the jitteryness around Fae, or the soul-crushing abyss of Bern's dark priestess.
The heeby-jeebies were no fault of Sophia's, though. Just Roy being odd.
"Fae says... you scolded her. Why?"
Fae had sequestered herself under Sophia's robe. How cute. "I told her to tuck her tail in at dinner. It's just manners."
She stared into his soul. For the first time, Roy noticed that her pupils were ever so slightly eliptical. Then, she nodded. "You'll knock... food down with your tail. No tails... at dinner."
Fae gasped, scandalized at the two teaming up on her. "No fair! Fae's gonna go play. WITH her tail!" She wriggled away from Sophia and scampered off.
With the two alone, a thought ran through Roy's mind. "May I ask you an asinine question?"
"Sure..."
"Did you hatch from an egg?"
"Yes," she said, and Roy internally celebrated. "My mother... was a dragon. She laid an egg."
There you had it, Lilina! Other people were born from eggs, too. It wasn't odd at all. Rather, it was entirely normal!
"It is... expected.. that you were, too. I sensed it.. when we first met."
Okay, he hadn't told her that one, but Sophia was a seer. Seers knew things sometimes. His mother had a sixth sense for when he didn't brush his teeth.
"Thank you, Sophia. That was informative."
"You are welcome."
Reassured in his normalcy, Roy went about the rest of the day with a spring in his step.