"What?"
"Mate with me."
"..."
See, there were certain truths about the world—immutable, undeniable, and generally not open to debate.
Like how gravity exists.
How ants don't have lungs.
Or how all clownfish are born male.
And because they're facts, one would expect to hear them discussed in that plain, matter-of-fact tone people use when stating the obvious.
But who could have imagined the Dragon Lord Kael Dravaryn saying "Mate with me" with the same tone one might use for "I am a dragon."
It wasn't even dramatic.
It wasn't flirtatious.
It was simply factual.
And it was as if everything just stopped.
Somewhere in the distance, the clock ticked once. The stars outside the window twinkled innocently. A lone bird screeched far away, possibly dying in sympathy.
And in one corner of the world, one debatably human aide was severely malfunctioning.
Riley stared.
Then blinked.
Then continued staring because surely his brain was having a stroke.
