The sun rested just past the center of the blue cloudless sky, its reflection swaying in the waters of Elt’s Gape. This little world was hidden away from the dragon that danced with the lightest breeze, her wings tilting and warmed by the touch of the sun. Graceful and free, her golden eyes peered down at the earth below her. Her legs were pulled against her slender body, her head tilted down for a better view. As she drew forward in the sky, the ledge that hung out over the pool became more apparent. The turquoise waters were silent as her shadow shifted over them.

Her wings stretched far to the left and right, and her copper arms leapt from her stomach as she prepared to land. She felt the air catch and tug at the web of her wing, slowing the creature until she was able to flap her wings and touch the earth lightly. Her back legs landed first, catching the rocky ledge before her forearms reached out, her fingers curving over the edge and completing the land. Her breathing was strong and slow as she evened it out, but it would rise to a quicker pace again after she shifts, just as a human’s.

Her body twisted and melted away into the slender, young form of a naked woman. On the ground beside her was a backpack that had been strapped to her arm as a dragon. Her soft hands flew towards the string, opening the bag, before pulling out a dress that she slipped over herself in a matter of seconds. It was simple and yellow, stopping just above her knees with thin straps that curved over her delicate shoulders.

The woman that adorned this dress had a strange air to her. Her skin was a soft brown color with a hint of red; she was able to hide all her scales in the shift save the few on her lower back, hidden by the dress, and the few along her ankles. She also had two long, thick scaly areas (perhaps the arm of her wings) along her shoulder blades that could be seen faintly because of the way the dress was made. Her dark hair fell to her shoulders in a thick, light wave that hid the several spikes that still protruded from the back of her skull. Her eyes were golden and far too dragon-like. She lacked the skills to hide away many of her dragon features. >[? She stepped lightly to a spot that didn’t hang over the pool, glancing down at the rocks that created a small, natural staircase. She slipped down to the waters edge, leaning forward slightly and spotting a blurry reflection of herself in the waters. A faint smile lifted to her lips.

Today there were no fanciful shades of blue and black paint decorating the man's face. His brown skin was was cleaned of the natural earthen dyes until he found time to collected the needed materials and mix up a new batch. The way Ceva saw it, there would be no space in the day to do such things with all the other agendas he needed to accomplish. For one, the slender-built man needed to clean his gear and gather enough of the mineral-laden water at Elt's Gape to bring back to his family at the beach, which was what brought him here in the first place.

Ceva walked along a worn foot path on his way to the crystal clear waters, knowing his way to the Gape by heart after spending almost his entire life in the area. He carried a simple pack on his back that matched the seal-skin leggings and jacket he was wearing, all of which had various patterns of blue painted into them that complimented the similarly colored beads adorning his dreadlocks. The man had arrived a few minutes too late to see the Red dragon sweeping down from the skies, and didn't immediately notice the transformed human stepping down the stones towards the water. He was busy sweeping one of his thick locks from his face and flicking the shoulder-length bunch of hair behind his back before setting his pack down to dig through the contents.

As he was bringing out a water pouch and setting out a few carving tools to clean, Ceva's dark brown eyes turned upwards out of habit to take account for the landscape around him. It was then that his gaze happened upon the other 'human', catching the yellow of her dress that stood out against the rest of the surroundings. The slender man was a bit too far away to properly see any great detail on her, but he did notice the way her eyes appeared... different? He squinted his own in an effort to better see across the distance, to no avail. He'd have to get closer if he wanted to clarify what struck him odd about it.

"It's a nice day to visit the Gape." Ceva spoke out in a slow, warm voice, backed by brief smile. His aim was two-fold - first to see if she even spoke the 'common' tongue, and secondly to present himself as a friendly, non-threatening figure, since it wasn't unusual for different cultures and individuals to clash. Little did he know that Rona had absolutely nothing to fear from him, and that he should be the one using caution.

Rona’s gentle hands lifted and pulled her hair over her left shoulder as she kneeled towards the water. She reached out and touched the clear pool with a single finger; its warmth calmed her. Being a Red dragon, she didn’t particularly like the water on her but she marveled at its calm, blue beauty nonetheless. And knowing that the water was not icy like she feared, Rona’s slight smiled showed a touch of bright, slightly red tinted teeth. But it slipped away as soon as it had arrived as her golden eyes fell upon the human nearing the pool.

She didn't rise nervously when she saw him, savoring the distance they had between one another for now, but merely watched with a curious gaze. He pulled items from his bag which reminded Rona that she had left hers up on the ledge. The backpack was too big and heavy for her to carry as a human, but she began to grow anxious over the fact that her minerals and crystals were hidden inside it. But she pushed aside the thought and carefully observed the man instead. His clothes were painted blue in various places which had caught Rona’s attention first, instinctively reminding her of the Blue Brood for a moment. His skin was a soft brown and his dark hair fell to his shoulders. The hair was bunched together, not flowing freely like Rona’s, and beads decorated its surface.

For a moment Rona believed he had already spotted her but was ignoring her, knowing she stood out with her dress dyed yellow. But when he looked up his gaze fell upon her in way that proposed he had not seen her until that very moment. She lifted from her kneeled down position and listened to the sound of his voice, putting together each distinct note that formed words of the 'common' language the humans spoke. She nodded faintly, replying to his smile with one of her own. "Very nice," she responded, her voice gentle and light though strangely foreign compared to Ceva's.

He didn't seem taken aback by her appearance, though she noted the large distance between them and perhaps he couldn’t see the fine details of her dragon form littered across her body. She took a few steps from the water, the rough pads of her feet keeping her from slipping on the smooth rocks, and advanced carefully towards the man. "I'm Rona," she said softly, accompanying the friendliness the man gave. She stopped a safe distance away, around ten arm lengths, her dragon eyes looking out towards the water instead of directly towards Ceva.

Ceva had to remind himself not to stare at the woman as he took in not only her looks in general, but the way her eyes had caught his attention. Were the a pale gray that was somehow being accented by her lively dress color? Or maybe a very pale brown, and his vision was just deceiving him? One thing was for sure, he'd never seen yellow eyes before, not on a human anyway. The man forced himself to look away to break a stare that might be perceived as rude. He found himself flicking another stray dreadlock away from his face, this one interweaved with the strands of white and silver hair that accented the otherwise brown locks. It was an odd quirk of genetics that had nothing to do with his age.

"Ah, Rona. You can call me Ceva." The man took this time to look up again, carrying on with his smile that radiated so brightly around his darker face. Seeing that she was now moving closer to him, he felt obliged to set aside the tools he was cleaning and stand up. His hands went down to brush some loose grit and dirt from his knees, and once that was done, his gaze sought out her face again. She was close enough now that he could see clearly that his eyes had not betrayed him; here were yellow, and not only that... they didn't look human, exactly. Before he realized it, Ceva's smile had departed and a look of complete surprise encompassed his expression...

"I.." It took only a second or two before he gathered himself together and offered an apology, forcing a new smile to appear to cover the awkward silence and the bit of rudeness he figured he'd just expressed, "..I'm sorry miss, I don't mean to stare. I've never seen eyes quite like yours before." He had yet to notice the way scales decorated her ankles. Ceva's was wheeling quickly, trying to place why those eyes of hers startled him so much. Not entirely in a bad way, yet... something about them, perhaps just the inhuman quality, made his heart thump a little quicker.

Her eyes moved away from the calm water, a stray cloud had floated across the blue sky reflected on its surface, and laid them gently on the man’s face as he rose from the bank. She nodded and smiled at his name, holding back the huge smile that wanted to overcome her lips at his radiant grin. "Have you lived here all your life, Ceva?" She asked, tilting her head ever so slightly—something that may seem a bit uncommon among the human species. Her strange eyes took in his standing form, tall and a wiry strong that was gentle on her eyes. She didn’t catch that he was looking at her again, staring, until she blinked, startled, and finally brought her gaze to meet his directly.

Surprise lit his eyes and Rona held his gaze until it softly formed into his friendly glow again. She glanced down at his tools, drawing her eyes across the unique bends and texture of them. "Mhm," she hummed at his comment on her eyes, hiding the anxious emotion that flickered in her thoughts at the fact that he had noticed the flaw to her shifting. She didn't look up from the tools just yet. "I’m... not from around here," she replied, trailing her eyes across the smooth, unique shapes of the rocks that scattered the distance between the two creatures until she was looking down at her toes. A tint of red hued the surface of her toenails.

Not wanting to leave Ceva with the discomfort of her quiet state, she brought her gaze back up to his face again and smiled soothingly. He would figure out what she was soon, she couldn't hide it like some of her other kind could so well. But she felt safe being a human with this human. He wasn’t terrified of her, he was friendly and curious. She liked that, it was comforting. But with each second that went by the red hint to her skin may be seen differently than just another skin tone of another race of human. The scales along her ankles wouldn’t look like simply dirt or perhaps even a birthmark any longer. He had already noticed that her eyes, golden with slight points on the top and base of the pupil, were not something he saw everyday. She was a dragon hidden in the body of a woman.

Strangeness of the eyes aside, Ceva found Rona to be quiet and comfortably confident, unafraid to approach a stranger. Sure, wariness was a good thing to have, but now and then it was refreshing to find a person he could openly engage conversation with, without having to gauge one another as potential threats first. "For as long as I can remember, I've called this place home." Ceva neatly skirted around the fact that he wasn't actually born on Eltica and let her assume what she would of his statement. And when she confirmed that she wasn't from the area, the man offered her some advice he thought she'd find helpful. "There's a settlement a few miles from here, on towards the beach. You can find a wealth of supplies there."

Ceva was making a point not to stare anymore, though he kept finding his gaze traveling towards her eyes. He needed a distraction, and so he looked downward at the waters, pretending to take interest in a school of minnows darting around the shore. It was inevitable that his gaze headed back to her, starting first at her feet... and not getting much further. Either this lady had a serious condition going on, or he was truly looking scales growing along her ankles. Ceva swallowed hard and felt his composure threaten to leave again. His smile turned a little papery despite his best efforts to convey the calm, amiable personality that he always did, "No..." The man's tones had dropped into even quieter notes, "...you aren't from around here." It wasn't exactly fear that took him, but caution and wariness of the unknown. He looked up to meet her eyes at the same time that she looked up, holding a questioning gaze. "Who are you?"

With a small nod Rona took in his simple answer, not pushing the question any further and relatively satisfied with his reply. He was maneuvering carefully and smoothly around the answer, just as she had when he had commented on her eyes. But it didn't matter that she had answered him then, he didn't seem content with her response. He was uneasy which only made Rona more uneasy, though she held her calm air as her smile lowered slightly to a simple, thoughtful line. "Oh really? I'll have to travel there sometime," she said at his guidance, her smile tilting upward at the corner of her mouth just faintly. She didn't want to lose it, her smile, it was the only thing keeping her from getting away from Ceva—and she didn't want that. She was too fascinated with being around a human, one as friendly as him.

She didn't catch that as she was looking down at her delicate feet, so was the man. When she looked back up at him, the friendly glow that had dominated him before now began to flicker away to wariness, and her heartbeat quickened its rhythmic pace. She listened to the quiet of his voice, the gentle caution that lay across each and every note, and the urge to break away from the human began to wrap its delicate fingers around her neck. "Rona," she gave her name again. "Rona Hamilton," she pressed hopefully, a slight hesitation hanging on the end of her made-up surname. She was trying to shift around the true meaning of his question.

A fire itched in her chest, crawling through her veins and tensing her light muscles. The dragon inside her wanted out, to escape the human or perhaps... dominate him. No... no she couldn't let it happen. Her fingers brushed her opposite forearm uneasily and her golden eyes left his sepia pair to look out across the Gape again. "Have you heard?" She attempted to casually change the subject while simply giving him a hint on what she was, if that’s where his thoughts were traveling. She didn't want to hide it if it was bothering him. "There are dragons on Eltica..." she breathed.

His eyes wanted to travel back down to her ankles, not believing what he'd seen, while mind wanted to write off those scales with some logical reasoning as to why they were there. Some sort of birth deformity, a seamless fitting anklet of some sort... but no, he knew what he saw and there was no easy answer for it. At least, not one that Ceva was sure he was ready to believe just yet. So it was her face that he now kept his focus on, striving to keep his cool as he'd always learned to do with strangers, even if she already caught the wariness his expression was betraying.

"Rona Hamilton." Ceva repeated the name to give him something to say, mostly. It wasn't exactly the response he was looking for from her, and the faint hesitation that clung to the end of her words suggested she knew it. The dark man didn't press any further with his inquiry however, having learned the delicate art of tactfulness in his many years interacting with strangers from every corner of the Islands. If an individual didn't want to speak about something, it was usually best to drop the subject, lest he risked making them uncomfortable - or angry.

Burning curiosity aside, Ceva tried his best to diffuse the minor bit of tension he'd stirred up with his question, and stooped down to begin filling one of the water pouches he'd brought with him. His attention was still fully on the dragon-in-disguise, with frequent glances up at her while he went about his idle task, "I've seen one already, far off in the horizon." Excitement filled his voice and brought a renewed vigor to his smile, and subconsciously, his quick mind brought him to looking at the scales adorning Rona's leg. He was a bright fellow, but a cautious one too. "I've heard they are capable of many things. Magic, fire-breathing..." Ceva trailed off with a low whistle.

She released a faint hush of air—she’d been holding her breath—as he said her name. It took this touch of weight off her shoulders, knowing that he accepted that that was the answer she had wanted to give and she didn’t want to go any further on the subject just yet. She gathered her slow, gentle breathing again and calmed the anxious butterflies that fluttered in her stomach. Her delicate hands brushed her dress, her own way of giving herself something to do as Ceva bent down by the water and filled his pouches.

She ran her golden eyes over the ripples of water created by him as they crawled over the clear waters. The reflection of the rocks and sky waved and bended against its new current and the school of fish dashed beautifully beneath. She didn’t meet Ceva's gaze when he repeatedly looked up from his work and kept an eye on her. But when he spoke, the once silenced woman brightened with curiosity and her glance danced to his face, soaking in the excitement that lit his words. She followed his gaze to her feet, the copper scales almost disappearing for a moment before reappearing as her attention focused on them, and she casually crossed her ankles for a moment. She took several steps closer to him afterwards, his interest in dragons beckoning her.

She gently sat beside the water's edge, her hands folded lightly in her lap as her legs folded politely beneath her yellow dress (hiding her ankles). "Really?" She replied with gentle curiosity before quieting as he continued on. Magic, fire-breathing... "Shapeshifting..." she finished casually as his low whistling filled the silence that came between them. Her eyes had fallen to her lap as her fingers twisted the hem of her dress faintly. She hummed softly as she drew her eyes towards the ledge of the rock that hovered over the water, watching as a stream fell from its edge and sprinkled into the pool.