Apollo sat on a delicately ornate throne made of blue marble streaked with white. In the inlayed relief carved birds drifted through the rock as if they were alive spiraling across the surface. At her feet the seat rested on a bed of live stark white grass with the texture of silk. Her childish feet waved cheerfully above the tips of these strands, brushing them only slightly. She glowed with a radiant light. In her left hand she held a tea cup in which she had pure and simple water.

“I’m bored.”

As Apollo took a sip of her drink a voice from her left mumbled with dissatisfaction. Achlys, with her head resting in her hand, stared emptily at the misty image before them. Achlys wasn’t a stranger to empty stares though, as most of her expressions fell into this realm. Unlike Apollo’s chosen child like form she had opted for a different approach. Sitting atop a throne of deep green stone, with waves of black wafting up within the surface as if a fire was lit below, sat an otherwise dignified older lady. Her long dark hair, broken by silver tendrils, well down to the shoulders of a reasonable figure. She wore a dress who’s beauty had faded long ago and she covered it with an apron. If she wasn’t so deeply against what she was seeing, this scene of her next to Apollo could be mistaken for a mother and a child if only by visible age. She looked as if she were someone’s mother, at least, if not for her eyes. The deep green eyes of the woman were cold in their softness, as she was when she felt like it. Otherwise Achlys was just cold. 

“What? Why?” From the other side of Apollo another voice spoke up. Hypnos sat there. His form was that of an average, if not above average if only in fitness, younger man. His hair was brown and short cut, his nose was a little on the bigger side, his eyes held deep bags under them, and his mouth was a soft smile. The clothes he wore were those of a nobleman, but not for a noble man going out anywhere. His choice in garb for this get together was a usual set of pajamas. These were a deep red with thin gold stripes running down the seams. On his chest the letter “H” was embroidered with the same golden thread. His throne took the form of a simple recliner. 

“I’m enjoying this actually. It’s good to sleep to.” Hypnos yawned, causing Apollo and then Achlys to yawn with him. 

“You think everything is good to sleep to.” Retorted the little girl.

Upon taking her hand away from her mouth, Achlys frowned. 

“I need to take matters into my own hands with this.” The one who looked like an older woman got up and patted down her dress. The other two curiously watched her but did nothing to stop her. Apollo continued to sway her feet. The small girl frowned as she watched Achlys walk out into the white fog surrounding them. She hadn't thought this was uninteresting. She'd like the way this was progressing.

I don't mind that much; Apollo thought, whatever it is Achlys is planning won't be too bad. Probably.  

The woman sat in the semi-darkness, crouched over a dark wooden desk. The light in the room was a haze flicking through an ever present fog for green mist. She dipped a feathered quill in an ink well with her left hand. The tip shone with mystical golden shine as she removed it. 

Help the girl already! Be a hero! Do your damn job! -A

With flowing handwriting the woman wrote this message down on a small slip of white paper. She placed the feather quill back on the desk, the remaining ink disappearing from the tip. 

Achlys picked up the paper and waved it in the air three district times. A shape swooped in out of the unseen distance. A hawk took the note in his claws and just as quickly as he appeared he disappeared once more. Achlys smiled, but only slightly. 

A note appeared before my eyes, fluttering down out of thin air to my feet. I watched it fall and then glanced back up to the dragon to see if she'd seen what happened. I'm not sure if M.S.F. should have seen that or not but she didn't so I didn't need to worry about that for now. I bent over to pick it up. I frowned. What sort of back seat main-character-ing is this? I have the right to make my own choices, don't I? Maybe I don't, seeing as that A-Goddess just blatantly told me what to do. Still, that's not fair. 

Help the girl already! Be a hero! Do your damn job! -A

"Do my damn job!" Is it? I have half a mind to ignore this because I saw it. I'd probably get smitten by lightning if I did something like that. No, I'm not actually that foolhardy anyway. I'll try, though I'm not sure how effective I'll be. 

Cautiously, I walked over to M.S.F.. I put my hand on her flank but she didn’t seem to react to my touch. That’s either her ignoring me or it’s a side effect of her scales, either way it’s not really that important. I’m not surprised. I have no idea what hero-like thing I should say to this girl, though. I’ve read and watched plenty of scenes like this but it’s putting me on the spot here trying to act them out. What would a hero say, anyway? Is that really anything heroic to begin with? Why in the world did I have to be chosen for something like this? Neverminded that, that’s not the point. 

    I struggled to go over what the dragon had just said, but I could only remember the very last part. Something about her not having a name is really all I could recall. Well, that along with the part about me not having any reason to care about her. The name thing is a trope so at the very least I can work off of that. If I give M.S.F. a proper name maybe I can endear myself to her. Hell, maybe naming the dragon will make her my pet, or something like that. Maybe follower is a better word for that. To me her name is still Master of the Silent Forest but that was the other dragon she just ran away from. I could give her a name based on that. What name relates to a silent forest? 

    As I was thinking she turned her neck to face me. Her big lizard eye stared at me as I did my best to do what I thought was the heroic thing. It only took a few seconds but it felt like an eternity. Maybe this route is too trivial but this is all I can think of.

    “It is sweet of you to try to comfort me but your silence while touching my side is discontenting.” 

    Ah, sorry. I moved my hand immediately. Wait, that’s it! 

    “Melody.” I turned to the dragon with a single word escaping my mouth. Melody, a name based on silence. Based on the opposite of silence, really, but it’s all I could think of. There really aren’t any girl names based on the lack of noise so I had to go to the presence of noise instead. My second choice is Echo from Greek mythology but Melody is better. The name, at least in this case, comes from a certain time and space traveling TV show. I found the dragon at the end of a river, after all. I would have gone with Song instead but that’s not a first name that sounds all that real. I ended up worrying about the “realistic” nature of a dragon’s name somehow. Melody sounds better anyway.

    In a great puff of smoke the dragon disappeared, it’s figure replaced by that of a young woman. 

    “What?” M.S.F. looked at me quizzically. On her human face she held this contoured pained expression that was probably there to begin with. That came out of nowhere to her, she would obviously have no clue what I was on about.

    “A name for you, huh. How about Melody?” Surprisingly her fists clenched as I said this, that dragon-like left hand of hers making a dangerous grinding sound. I stepped backwards. She pointed at me aggressively. 

    “What do you think gives you the right-!” She stopped halfway through that sentence, almost biting her tongue. The words in her throat seemed to be held back by the words in her mind. She turned away from me instead. 

    I swallowed awkwardly, looking over to the ground on my right and crossing my arms. That didn’t work, what do I do now? If this was a Gal Game I would have just lost affection points, probably. Maybe that would have worked if I was attractive at all. Unfortunately, I can’t go with maybe. I felt the paper crunch in my fist. Okay, time to try a second approach.

“You shouldn’t be so hard on yourself, I’ll be here to help you anyway I can.” Stiffly, an awkward line leaked out of my mouth. I did my best not to stutter the attempt but it came out as stilted and inhuman. It was a bit empty as well, even if I feel bad for her at this moment. I probably got that from somewhere and now I was just spitting it out in another form.

    She turned back around and looked at me blankly. I probably wasn’t sincere nor convincing enough. 

    “I don’t understand you at all, Arthur Callon.”

    With these words M.S.F. turned back into a dragon with an eruption of smoke. From the billowing cloud a black figure emerged and stretched out her wings. She bent down with her back to me.

    “You shall help me then. Climb on, mage.”

    With slight hesitation and an uncomfortable focus on the pain I was about to endure I awkwardly climbed back onto the dragon. With a mighty flap of her wings she lifted off from a stationary position. The wind pushed me down onto the scaly surface with an insane force that was ever worse than the first time. Did that work? I actually managed to make this girl happy with something stupid and cliché like that? I was pressed flat onto her body with this thought in mind.

    “I like the name, Melody, it has an honest sound to it.” With a somehow softer version of her booming dragon voice M.S.F. mumbled this as she flew back to the cave.