"What would I do with an army if I had one?" wonders Mial.
"That is also a question I asked myself when I was seventeen," says Miles, "but it was of rather more practical relevance at the time."
"Anyway, none of you seems to be dragonish, so I don't think you'd understand the coughing-fit-inducing news if I told you. But I should probably catch you up before I go get Aurin... all right, I'll try for a short version," says Mial.
"I am a shren. Aurin is a dragon. Dragons and shrens have a lot of very similar properties, one of which is that we speak a magical language called Draconic. Draconic is very opinionated about shrens. According to Draconic, dragons are awesome and shrens are definitely not awesome. Draconic-speakers will go through the most amazing linguistic contortions to avoid putting dragons and shrens in a single category, and it feels totally natural to do that, I'm a Draconic-speaker too, I know. The actual practical difference between shrens and dragons is that shrens can't fly in our natural forms - what would be our dragon forms if we counted as dragons, which we emphatically don't. I'm not even sure I should still be saying 'we', it's been a couple of angles, I might actually be the last shren already - yeah, so, shrenhood is normally incurable, but some offworlders showed up with offworld magic and casually went around turning all the shrens into dragons over the course of a few days. But when the miracle-worker showed up at our door, I turned him down."
"Of course you did," says Miles, nodding along. "I would've done the same."
"Really? I mean - I know we're theorizing you're my alt here, but I can't help feeling like I maybe didn't explain the impact well enough."
"Gotta win with the hand you're dealt, right?" shrugs Miles. "I know the feeling."
"...yeah," says Mial. He smiles slightly. "Yeah. Wow, you are my alt."
no subject
"That is also a question I asked myself when I was seventeen," says Miles, "but it was of rather more practical relevance at the time."
"Anyway, none of you seems to be dragonish, so I don't think you'd understand the coughing-fit-inducing news if I told you. But I should probably catch you up before I go get Aurin... all right, I'll try for a short version," says Mial.
"I am a shren. Aurin is a dragon. Dragons and shrens have a lot of very similar properties, one of which is that we speak a magical language called Draconic. Draconic is very opinionated about shrens. According to Draconic, dragons are awesome and shrens are definitely not awesome. Draconic-speakers will go through the most amazing linguistic contortions to avoid putting dragons and shrens in a single category, and it feels totally natural to do that, I'm a Draconic-speaker too, I know. The actual practical difference between shrens and dragons is that shrens can't fly in our natural forms - what would be our dragon forms if we counted as dragons, which we emphatically don't. I'm not even sure I should still be saying 'we', it's been a couple of angles, I might actually be the last shren already - yeah, so, shrenhood is normally incurable, but some offworlders showed up with offworld magic and casually went around turning all the shrens into dragons over the course of a few days. But when the miracle-worker showed up at our door, I turned him down."
"Of course you did," says Miles, nodding along. "I would've done the same."
"Really? I mean - I know we're theorizing you're my alt here, but I can't help feeling like I maybe didn't explain the impact well enough."
"Gotta win with the hand you're dealt, right?" shrugs Miles. "I know the feeling."
"...yeah," says Mial. He smiles slightly. "Yeah. Wow, you are my alt."