Chapter Text
A heavy scent in the air caught Xie Lian off guard, his nose twitching as it registered the smell in the cool air. Not unpleasant, but quite dizzying. Undeniably another male dragon.
This was a bit of a tough spot to be in for Xie Lian. Stumbling into another unknown dragon’s territory was no small issue if they didn't take kindly to it, and these kinds of silly mistakes got many dragons into fatal conflicts if they weren’t quick to scram. It was practically declaring a war if you were dealing with a more territorial individual. Dragons were very often solitary creatures who didn’t like to share with strangers, and Xie Lian knew he should have taken better care when choosing where to roam.
Initially, he had just been wandering the woods to hunt for food, but he hadn’t noticed the tell-tale signs of a change of territory as he pursued his food. His sense of smell was relatively dulled out due to having gotten sick recently by catching what would have been a deadly illness to anybody else, so he wasn’t vigilant enough. It was a nice enough area, and it didn’t throw up any red flags to him initially.
The scent was enough to send Xie lian on his way, however, scurrying right back out to the neutral area of the woods. Luckily, he hadn’t encountered whoever was the sovereign dragon of that area, but he didn’t want to stick around to find out, even if the red maple trees were very pretty and there looked to be food for grabs.
Xie Lian counted himself as ever so lucky for not being swept up in anything with whoever that dragon was. If his scent was anything to go off, he wasn’t one to trifle with. He’d probably been resting at the time.
He himself lived a humble life as a dragon, not seeking dominion or trying to intimidate others. He would have been seen as a bit pathetic, but he didn’t mind it anymore. Most of the dragons in surrounding domains seemed to care for his royal blood, and most just scoffed or turned a blind eye to him when they could. However, he hadn’t run into this one before. It was best not to upset anybody.
Xie Lian managed to gather up some meagre things to eat, and eventually he retreated to his own domain, making a meal out of what he had managed to pick up from hunting. It wasn’t much, but his standards were already practically non-existent. No matter how well he could hunt, his cooking and food preparation skills would render anything he made to be practically poisonous, so he didn’t waste too much energy on it.
Lucky for him, he had at least gotten a tolerance for his own poisonous cooking, and his taste buds had probably been singed off by the sheer unacceptableness of the taste of his past meals. He could eat just about anything.
So he ate contentedly by the little fire and then curled up in his nest of shabby blankets and fabric, ignoring the draft coming through as much as possible as he tucked his limbs closer to himself.
His dreams were a little strange. Fragmented images. Black and red, an intense eye.. Comfortable. He couldn’t quite make sense of it when he woke up, and it quite quickly slipped his mind. He slept quite well and ended up being in a better mood after that much needed rest.
He may have been a bit sniffly from his sickness, but he couldn’t help but notice that his nest harboured a slightly different scent than before. Smelled smokier, and a little something else. He had cooked earlier, however. It wasn’t something he dwelled on.
Winter was coming around, and Xie Lian was spending more time in his den, avoiding the chill. It gave him less chance to get food, but it was something he’d grown quite accustomed to in his lifetime. He would only really take whatever food he could gather in the immediate vicinity of his den, before going back inside and huddling by his little fire.
One of these days, though, he decided to venture out when he had utterly ran out of things to eat. Most animals were savvy enough to avoid lingering near to the entrance of his den if they knew what was good for them, so they stayed further away. The plants were also not particularly good at this time of year, so it left Xie Lian little choice.
A thick blanket of snow made the outside world quite indistinguishable in the dark early hours of the morning, but he just followed wherever he saw fresh animal footprints and hoped to catch at least something. He walked for so long, but the snow was really making this inconvenient. Not to mention, it was bitterly cold.
His fingers and feet had both gone numb, and the air was almost painful to breathe with how cold it was, but he kept moving through the darkness. A dragon needed to eat, even if this dragon was Xie Lian.
After searching for hours, he’d only just got enough food to make for a snack, and he was feeling a little listless. He would take a break, sitting under a tree without too much snow under it and lighting a small fire.
It was hard to tell exactly where he was in the darkness anyway, with the snow sealing away any scents and sense of direction. It was best to stay put for the time being and eat some of the things he had picked up.
He was there for quite a while, just watching his fire as it dimmed down slowly into mere orange embers, nodding off where he was along with the flames.
During winters, Xie Lian was naturally much more tired. There wasn’t much for a dragon like him to be doing at this time of the year, since he thrived in warmer weather and had nothing to do when the climate took a plummet. Some dragons were better suited to the cold, but that certainly wasn’t him. He looked forward to the signs of spring.
When he blearily opened his eyes again, he was surprised to see that the campfire he had set up was burning high once more, despite him having watched it dim down earlier. It was growing lighter now, and he could see that he was definitely not in a place where he usually hunted.
The snow had melted down a bit and it was clear to see a hint of red maple leaves on the trees - though most of them had fallen for winter. Red maples weren’t native to where Xie Lian resided, so he knew he was a little far off from home.
He furrowed his brows when he saw that there was a piece of fabric beside him, which was tied around something. Warily, he picked it up and sniffed it. Once again there was that smoky smell, but it was overshadowed by the undeniable smell of fresh food which was still warm to the touch.
His concerns melted away as he unwrapped it, finding that it was containing a bowl of food. Who had been walking around - before dawn had even risen over the horizon - beside himself? It was quite strange. Luckily, even if this was an attempted poisoning, they would have picked the wrong person to try that with.
He picked away at some of the food, finding that it was of a much higher calibre than the usual things he ate and warmed him through a little bit. Perhaps a village local had taken pity on him or offered it as a way to earn goodwill. Still, he couldn’t understand why this person wouldn’t show themselves if that was the case. Not to mention, most humans weren’t particularly very sneaky, and he’d smell them quite easily as they approached if it wasn’t their clunky footsteps.
No matter, he thought to himself. He would save the rest of the food for when he got really desperate. Now that it was the morning, it was a little bit warmer and the rising sun cast a warm glow over the unfamiliar area of the woods. He picked himself up carrying the food bowl with him, taking a little look around at where he was to get his bearings.
Truly, he did not have an inkling of where this was, but there was a faint hint of that scent that had been haunting him in recent weeks. He figured he may have been trespassing in that unknown dragon’s territory again, and didn’t stick around. Hopefully he wouldn’t be too angry that someone had lit a campfire in his area and slept there if it really was.
It was a long walk back, trying to track his own den’s scent when the snow disrupted his sense of smell, but he did get back to familiar surroundings after a very long while. Not to mention, that smoky smell seemed to cling to him and disrupt him further. That was when he looked down and figured out the cause of that.
Red outer robe. His normal white robes poked out underneath. He really hadn’t given much thought about it when he was sleepy, but he certainly hadn’t left his den dressed with this. Someone had pulled this around him while he was napping!
Xie Lian didn’t know whether to be insanely creeped out, or insanely heart warmed by the kindness of this individual. What was their motivation? Did they really just have robes to spare in the depths of winter? And how had they not woken him with such a movement? All he had was questions, and no answers.
He hurried his pace, feeling a little antsy until he reached his den again and put his things down. There, he took off the red outer robe and inspected it. High quality fabric, embroidered with butterflies and maple leaves - it was incredibly beautiful. Not something a human villager would own. The key thing that set off his heart however, was the slit in the back of the robe just below where the belt would be. This wasn’t made for a human to wear.. It was made to accommodate a dragon’s tail.
That made things quite complicated. So another dragon had found Xie Lian napping, and instead of waking him up and demanding him to leave or trying to demonstrate his strength, the dragon had just.. Given him food and made sure he was warm for the night.
Smelling the robes properly, it was undoubtedly the one dragon he didn’t know anything about! The one he had rudely trespassed in the territory of twice now, the one who he had no intention of messing with.
He would have to ask around. His closest neighbouring dragons were Mu Qing and Feng Xin, and they just about wouldn’t put his head on a spike if he entered their territory, so he decided that he would pay them a visit to ask about this stranger.
Later that day, he stood at the entrance of a den much bigger than his own.
He sheepishly called out the names of its residents, feeling quite small before the looming cave. “Feng Xin! Mu Qing..! Is anybody available to speak to about something?”
He got no reply, as typical with these two. So he dared to step inside, padding deeper into the den. These two had a strange arrangement, where they shared a cave but claimed to hate each other. Sharing it until one of them managed to win the territory in battle, they said.
The cave split into two tunnels. The left led to Mu Qing’s area of the cave, and the right led to Feng Xin’s. He opted to check out Mu Qing’s den first, hoping to find him even if he was the grumpier of the two. However, this nest was empty.
So Xie Lian turned on his heel and made his way toward Feng Xin’s half of the cave. He could hear rustling and slight thumping noises, so he gathered that Feng Xin was home.
He paused when he heard a strange sound. It didn’t sound like something good was happening in there, so after his initial pause he hurried up to check up on Feng Xin. What he came across was something nothing could have prepared him for.
He could see Feng Xin.. very passionately fighting with Mu Qing in his nest. And not in the usual sense. Bedroom fighting was a better way to put it. Xie Lian stood frozen in his mortification.
They were in a messy tangle, both looking equally fierce as they fought to press each other down into the nest and do whatever it was they were trying to achieve. Not to mention, they were kissing. Somehow they managed to do that aggressively as well, it really did look like they were still fighting, rather than exchanging a gentle romantic moment together.
The two dragons were so engrossed, that they didn’t spot the intruding Xie Lian stood at the entrance with a rapidly reddening face. He quickly hurried away from there, but he could hear them doing their ungodly deeds very clearly now that he knew what was going on.
He was full of regrets in making this trip. Of course Xie Lian was unlucky enough to find his childhood friends doing each other. It reminded him of a time he had paid Pei Ming a visit, and heard just the same sounds coming from his den. However, this was so much worse! He wasn’t supposed to know this information, and they’d probably smell that he’d been there when they got out of their haze.
Too embarrassing. Xie Lian settled for leaving a note asking for any information on the dragon resident of the red maple area, and went on his way.
All he had come away with today was that his two friends were just as fierce in bedding each other as they were in battle, but that wasn’t very useful to Xie Lian’s conquest for information.
Hopefully he hadn’t burned his bridges with his neighbours..