"So…" Mikhail said, after a long period of awkward silence between the two.
"Is there any reason you didn't go get food as well?"
The taciturn woman nodded. And for a moment, Mikhail could almost swear he saw a sparkle in her eye.
"I couldn't help but notice the book you were carrying… It's one of my favorites," she said, her stone cold expression cracking to reveal the faintest upward curve at the sides of her lips.
"Ah, how neat. How come, though?"
"Well…" the woman looked to the side for a moment before looking back at Mikhail. "I want to tame one, one day."
Mikhail raised an eyebrow… "You want to subdue a dragon?"
The woman shook her head. "No…"
"Groom a dragon?"
She shook her head again.
"I take it, that you just got that book?" Azalea asked.
Mikhail nodded, using his thumb and forefinger to grab the book off his lap. "I just got it from Grand Elder Maya. She just taught me about the whole Beast Taming thing."
"Oh, really?"
She leaned forward a little. "What's your favorite type of taming?"
Mikhail didn't even have to think on the question
"Obliging. I don't really like the dynamic those other two taming styles set up. It's better to have a trustworthy companion than a slave or a mindless mut."
Azalea nodded, saying, "I couldn't agree more, but I'm an even bigger fan of the unofficial method. Because those other methods are too crude. Anyway… It's impossible to groom a dragon. And I'll show you why"
She got up and walked over, taking the stool next to him. She held her hand out, and Mikhail gently placed the thick tome in her hands. With practiced ease, Azalea flipped through the book until she was a sliver of the way through, opening the book up to page one hundred twelve.
[Section IV: The Curious Case of Dragon Taming]
"You can see here in the second paragraph, it says why grooming a dragon isn't possible." Azalea's finger traced the page before landing on the third paragraph, drawing Mikhail's eye to it.
[Dragon's are the best built creatures around, born with all of their centers of power fully formed. Their Cerebral Core isn't even dormant, either. They are fully fledged beings before they even hatch from their egg. And that is why grooming one is tantamount to trying to pull yourself by your bootstraps over a fence.]
Mikhail hummed to himself after reading that paragraph.
"...So, what? The dragon is already an individual straight out of the egg?"
To his surprise, Azalea nodded.
"Yes… Dragons are born as fully fledged beings, with their own goals and ambitions. And on top of that, their superior instincts means that they don't really have a clueless newborn stage."
"Hm, seems a little unbalanced if you asked me… So, what about Obliging, then? What does the book say on that matter?"
Azalea's finger quickly traced over to the next page, highlighting the eleventh paragraph.
[Obliging is possible in theory, but the problem lies in the dragons' innate pride as the apex predators of the world. You can warm up to them as much as you like, but unless you're on equal standing with the dragon, it will not care. Hence, I propose a fourth branch of taming: Respecting.]
[Respecting is a combination of Subduing and Obliging, wherein the individual must battle the dragon, and defeat them in order to earn their respect. At that point, the submission part of respecting ends, and the obliging part of respecting begins.]
"What a hot-blooded method… I like it." Mikhail said once he was done reading.
"Right?" Azalea said, some excitement seeping into her neutral tone.
Mikhail turned to face her and discovered that she had been looking at him for some time already.
"Yeah… Were you looking at me this entire time to see my reaction?"
The very faint smile on her face receded as her eyes darted to the side for a second.
"..Yes."
Mikhail cracked a smirk.
"It's fine… I used to do the same thing when I showed my old friends the music I liked."
Azalea did a doubletake and narrowed her eyes slightly.
"You're a musician?"
Now, it was Mikhail's turn to do a double-take.
"Ah- No… I'm not sure how to explain it. I… uh… I showed my friends performances that I had seen before, and I'd watch their reactions as the music played."
He saw how the gears in her head briefly turned, before she seemed to understand what he meant. "That sounds interesting… Say, would you like to see the dragon I want to tame?"
Mikhail nodded, and Azalea turned her attention back to the tome. She flipped through several pages until she reached three quarters of the way through its length, turning to the first page of section thirty.
[Section XXX: The Gallery]
[The Espigagante]
[The apex of the apex. Extremely prideful and powerful beings. Like all dragons, they are covered in scales, which can be any color depending on the beast's preferred elements.]
Under that dragon's race and description was a depiction… And it was a far more detailed depiction than the Espigagante on the cover.
Its body was covered in black scales, but multicolored cracks ran through its entire body.
It stood on four muscly legs with sharp golden claws on each of its feet, and it had spikes protruding from its entire body from place to place. Some straight outwards, some at an angle, and all of them at least a few centimeters long.
It had two sets of leathery wings, with each of their joints accompanied by especially daunting golden spikes. And its tail was the same, ending in what looked to be a sort of golden spear.
And then, its draconic maw was surrounded by the most prominent spikes. Seven of them to be precise, with a single mono-color crack going through each of them. There seemed to be one per element, including the unofficial Spirit Element.
And all the while, the dragon had struck a prestigious pose, puffing out its chest and holding its head up high.
Underneath the depicted dragon was some information about the painting.
[Ralas the Regal, circa 5,300. A great benefactor for Pneumakind before his mysterious disappearance around two thousand years ago. Original painting done by Manakel the Maverick.]