Chapter Text
If someone had asked Ryan not even a year ago if he had thought he'd be a knight, working for a king, he would have thought that person insane. Dragons didn't work for kings, they at best avoided them or at worst fought them. And dragons certainly didn't become knights.
Yet there Ryan was, laying on the bed in his quarters within the castle staring up at the ceiling and counting the cracks in the stone. He was tired from moving Edgar from her hole, especially since she kept trying to escape back to the dirt house they used to inhabit, and now all he wanted to do was relax and think.
Part of it felt wrong. Part of him knew that Geoff would never have knighted him had he known the truth about Ryan. Had known what he really was. Dragons were monsters, not beings suited to defending the kingdom. The only reason Geoff trusted him was because Ryan was lying. The knowledge of that made Ryan uneasy, but so many good things had come with the lie that he had a hard time hating himself for it.
He never would have met any of them had he lied. He never would have met Jack and Geoff, or The Lads, or Lindsay, Matt, and Jeremy. Sure he was lying, but their friendships were real. He cared about everyone in the castle, enough to fight and die for them, so what if he wasn't being completely honest? It didn't matter that much in the end.
"Hey Ryan," Jack said, coming into the doorway and breaking Ryan from his thoughts. "How was the move?"
"Exhausting," Ryan said, rolling over and sitting up, his legs hanging off the side of his bed. "Edgar didn't want to come at all. I had to track her down about five times." Jack laughed, coming into the room as Ryan stood up.
"Too exhausted to come down to The Nether with us?" Jack asked. "We need more Soul Sand." Ryan paused for a moment, thinking it over before nodding.
"I think I could manage a trip to The Nether," Ryan said. "Just let me wash up first." Jack left and Ryan let out a small sigh, sitting back on the bed and taking a small moment to relax before getting ready to head down into The Nether with everyone else.