Winterbound, Part 3 - Dispute

"Absolutely not," Anaya told Tiu as they sat eating breakfast.

"Why not?" she asked, lifting a bit of mango into her mouth.

"Because we talked to him for two minutes, and he already annoyed me. And because he's wrong."

"How do you know he's wrong?" Tiu asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Because he's what, ten?"

"So all ten year olds are automatically wrong? He said he has a cousin who's told him all about ice dragons."

Anaya rolled her eyes at Tiu.

"And when I was ten, my cousin told me plona berries were the best thing he'd ever eaten, and I should try some. You know what happened? They weren't good, and I couldn't keep anything down for a week."

"Just because your cousin is mean, doesn't mean everyone's is," Tiu countered. "Also, I feel like if you haven't learned not to eat plona berries by the time you're ten, that's really your own fault."

They glared at each other.

"Okay. Fine," Anaya huffed. "But I need you to put enough of your optimism and excitement aside to be able to think about this with any rationality for a moment. Which of these sounds more likely? And listen carefilly. One," she lifted a finger, "a ten year old is a genius and knows everything when it comes to a magical creature that this whole town thought was a myth when they woke up this morning. And that said magical creature showed up here, looking for something, and wants something from us."

She paused and thought for a few heartbeats.

"You know what, now that I say it out loud it sounds even more like something you would believe simply because you think it's the most exciting option. But ignore that urge for now, and listen to the rest." She lifted a second finger. "Two, the kid's cousin played a joke on him. Maybe just to see how much of it he'll believe. Or three," a third finger rose, "the kid himself is playing a joke on us, to see how much we'll believe. More likely he's playing a joke on us. When would someone his age have ever been somewhere far enough to visit a cousin in a place that gets snow? The cousin is probably made up!"

"It's the first one," Tiu said, confident.

Anaya put her hand down, sighed deeply, and took a sip of her drink.

"Why don't you want to believe?" Tiu asked and took another bite of mango.

"Because it's the least likely of the explanations. And also nonsense."

"You don't know that. Why would the dragon not eat us, if it doesn't want anything from us?"

"We don't even know if dragons eat people," Anaya sid, pointing at Tiu with her spoon.

"Kimo said he's never seen an ice dragon leave people uneaten if they're chased."

"Yeah, well, I've never seen a dragon eat people."

"You've never seen a dragon."

"We don't know he has either!" Anaya heard her voice rising. Unnecessarily. She took a breath, and continued quieter. "He said he's never seen a ice dragon not eat a person. That doesn't mean he's ever seen an ice dragon at all."

"Now you think he's smart enough to use phrases that are only technically true?" Tiu joked.

"No. Of course not. I think he's just plain lying," Anaya said, taking a bite of her cassava cake. "Or that he's been lied to, and now he thinks he knows everything."

"You aren't curious about the dragon?"

Anaya scoffed.

"You know me better than that," she said, giving Tiu a pointed look. "Of course I'm curious."

"So what's the problem?"

"The problem is I don't believe a random kid when he says this dragon has chosen us for some mysterious purpose it has, and for some reason you do."

"You're no fun. So you don't want to find out what the dragon wants from us?"

"I don't think there's anything to find out, because I don't think it wants anything. I would say a much more interesting question is why it's here. That's a question that is bugging me. There's no reason why it would be anywhere close to here. I'm pretty sure they're supposed to live half-way across the world."

Tiu raised an eyebrow.

"Yesterday you were pretty sure they didn't exist."

Anaya paused for another moment.

"True," she admitted. "But can we agree that we're pretty sure ice dragons live in places with ice? That would be half-way across the world."

They fell silent, focusing on their breakfast.

"Or," Tiu said, looking up at Anaya, her eyes twinkling, "up in the mountains."

They stared at each other for a long moment. Tiu kept grinning.

"You want us to go to the mountains?" Anaya finally asked.

"Yes! I want to know if that's where the dragon came from."

Another silent staredown. Then Anaya grinned too.

"Yeah, okay. I want to know where the dragon came, too."

"Yes!" Tiu basically jumped off her seat on the floor, shaking the table so hard their dishes almost fell over.

"But the kid is not coming with us."

Tiu rolled her eyes.

"Fine. When do we leave?"

________________________

So whatever happened here was an accident. They came up with the trip to the mountains all on their own. I don't know how that's where I ended up.

 The topic for tomorrow is Company. 

~matleena