Dragon Exiles: Part Five

Written by: Caesara

Shawnie rubbed his head where the acorn had hit, feeling a small indent from where the sharp edge had made contact with the skin. The scowl on his face darkened as he glared at the girl, obviously struggling to come up with a satisfying retort.

"I do get it! I was being sarcastic! You are the one who can't tell when someone's joking!" he accused, pointing a finger on the hand not busy holding his forehead where the nut had hit him.

Karla raised an eyebrow. "Oh? If it was so sarcastic, why aren't I offended? I was laughing, not crying, you know." She smirked, and realized that most of her headache was gone. Oh, the joys of arguing.

Puzzling over that for a bit, the lad finally came to an answer. Triumphant, he held up the finger he had just pointed. "Because you wouldn't know sarcasm if it hid you on the head like a certain tree branch I could mention!" he snorted, finally able to laugh himself.

Karla rolled her eyes. "First of all, I had no sense to begin with, so getting hit on the head with a tree branch does absolutely nothing to my lack of brains. Second of all, it took you five minutes to come up with the lamest insult I've heard in all of my fourteen years. Third of all, I'm bored, so if you'll excuse me, I must be on my way." Karla, snickering, grabbed her bag and began to stand up.

"You're excused," he muttered under his breath, still angry that the girl had so quickly found the answers that he had been struggling for. "After all, I never said you had sense, merely that sarcasm could beat you about quite like that tree branch did and you wouldn't know the difference until it fell down and hit you. But please, do leave, I'm not about to argue in your favor."

"You really have led a sheltered life, haven't you? A dragon could come up ready to eat you and you'd ask what its name was as your head was being bitten off." Slinging her pack over her shoulder, Karla stretched, getting ready to start walking again.

"A dragon wouldn't eat me and I would ask its name of it. Perhaps it would consider its appetite if it knew the prey was sentient, but what would you know of dragons?" he asked, partly of himself and partly of the girl.

"Yes, for your information, a dragon would eat an idiot such as yourself. What would I know of dragons?" Karla made a pashing sound. "Dragons are the only things that are halfway interesting to me other than gryphons. They were the only things I ever read about up until the books were banned."

Shawnie's eyebrows rose up into his hairline in incredulity. This girl, the very girl before him, knew of dragons? "You read, then? About all sorts of things, I imagine?" the illiterate asked, his eyes alight with wonder. His mother had only just been beginning to teach him to read (slightly belatedly) when the books were banned, so he'd had to suffice with hearing the tales and lore that were passed about in the town.

Karla rolled her eyes again. "Of course I read about dragons. What do you think I did, my chores?" She scoffed slightly, remembering. "And yes, I did read. They taught us things that were useful to the profession we were to go into. I was supposed to be an inspector, at least I was until I was exiled." Karla quickly shut her mouth, realizing that she had told him more than she had wanted to.

"So, what then? You were exiled? I was ... well, not really exiled - asked to leave is a better term - as well. What have you done to merit it?" he asked, his inquisitive nature slipping past his guard again.

Karla rolled her eyes. "Being exiled is being exiled, no matter how you word it. What did I do? Nothing! Zip, zilch, nada." She snickered, meaning that to be literal.

"Nothing, then? Well, why would - ah. What were you supposed to be doing, then?" he asked, actually grasping the concept for possibly the first time since their meeting.

"Depends. Do you mean today, yesterday, the day before that or further back?" Karla gave him an innocent look.

Slightly dumbfolded, the boy sought an answer. "Well ... when you were exiled, what did they say was the problem?"

"Me doing nothing." Karla held back a snicker, finding it amusing that she could fool him easily.

The boy's gaze was level as he peered back at Karla. "You know what I mean, girl. What did they think you were supposed to be doing when you did nothing?"

"Oh, I do, eh? Didn't realize you were a mind reader. I believe I was supposed to be cleaning out the stables."

"And they exiled you for not mucking up? For some reason, I'm thinking there's a bit more to it than that..."

Karla just shrugged, not willing to tell him the story of her life.

"Right. Well, back to the dragons, as it seems the only thing we can both talk about freely. What's your interst in them?"

"Everything about them intersts me, from how long they are to what they eat for breakfast."

"Have you ever ... have you ever seen a dragon?" he asked, his eyes alight with inquiry.

Karla shook her head. "I'm searching for one at the moment."

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