Fangorn was shaken out of his stupor when there was a crash in front of the street. A young bronze dragoness had landed right in the middle of the street as the various humans gave her a wide berth. She strutted forward as if she owned the place, head held high and then strutted toward her.
To be fair, arrogance was not exactly an uncommon trait amongst dragonkind, especially amongst the proud bronze dragons, but there was something about her that immediately irritated Fangorn.
"State your business here, fledgling," he growled. He hoped that using his strong, military voice would get the dragoness to show respect, as was expected from a member of her race, but instead, she grew more defiant.
"I wish to gain entry into the temple, and become a Holy Knight of Draconia!" the dragoness proudly and arrogantly declared at Fangorn.
Fangorn thought about laughing out loud. This dragoness thought she could simply walk up to the gate and ask the nearest guard to join up? Fangorn had spent his entire life, more than three quarters of a century, working to become a Knight; he had endured long hours of discipline, academics and training to attain this position. Surely, someone with even the most basic education realized that one could not simply walk up to become a knight.
"Is that so?" said Fangorn incredulously, "And what makes you think I have the qualities to become a Knight!?"
"I am a strong fighter, I train myself to get better every single day, and I take every opportunity to test out my skills!!" said the dragoness. While on the surface, it seemed a shallow answer, had Fangorn at that point in time not lacked the knowledgeable, maturity or the ability to comprehend others, he would have noticed that despite her lack of education or her rough manners he would have noticed her conviction and clarity of purpose.
Alas, he did not, which unbeknownst to him at the time, was the reason why he was still guarding gates, and thus rudely responded, "What against humans or elves?" he chortled.
The dragoness' gaze furrowed, deeply offended at his casual disregard for her conviction.
"How dare you! I'll show you how strong I am!!" she bellowed, her eyes furrowing.
Fangorn suddenly grinned nastily as the female bent into a fighting stance. Finally! A chance to show off his skills rather than just stand there all day!
With a sharp, practiced technique, Fangorn surged forward and struck the arrogant dragoness in the stomach before she knew what hit her, and he quickly turned her over and pinned her to the ground.
"Your skill is lacking," growled Fangorn. He then let her up, but she continued to glare at him with hate.
"Go home! Get out of here!! Before I decide to charge you for starting a public disturbance!!" he grunted.
The dragoness glared back at her with shock and hatred; those eyes burned into his soul. and somewhere deep within, Fangorn knew that during that last exchange, he had got it wrong at some point, though.
"I'll be back! Next time I meet I'll beat you!" she hissed. Keeping her head held high, she spun about and stomped away. Fangorn looked passively ahead, but deep in his gut, he felt that something had gone wrong. He was too proud and stubborn to admit it, or even conduct a self-examination. For the rest of that day however, none of the humanoids ever waved or said hello as they passed by. They were whispering bad things about Fangorn, things about how badly he had treated that young dragoness and other rather dishonorable things.
Let the humans talk - they just rabbled amongst themselves anyhow. However, deep in his heart, a tiny voice inside him was doubting. It gnawed at his honor, it told him that he was an embarrassment of his proud lineage. It told him that the incident with the dragoness encapsulated why a dragon with as much pedigree and qualifications such as Fangorn, was still stuck guarding gates.
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