Come morning, the first rays of the new day began to slowly filter in through the bedroom window on the upper floor, casting a warm, orange light over the bedroom interior. Lyra was still awake, having only gotten a few hours of sleep somewhere around midnight. The cause for her sleepless night was the redhaired woman who still clinging to her under the blankets, snoozing loudly without a care in the world. Having to share a bed with someone else was still very new to Lyra, and Reina was rather distracting, to the point Lyra had never properly managed to settle down. But she'd probably get used to it, to Reina, in the future. Assuming they'd continue to share a bed that is, but seeing how clingy and physical this dragon was, Lyra figured that would be the case.
That said, just because she got less sleep, didn't mean she didn't get any rest at all. It hadn't been all that bad either, just laying in the silence, feeling Reina's warmth, listening to her breathing, hearing her steady heartbeat. She had been spent the night letting her mind wander, thinking about what to do next, and so forth. What she had come to realize, was that she wanted adventure. How sad is it that she was transmigrated to a new world, full of magic and elves and dwarves and everything in between, and it took her 10 years to meet and converse with someone who wasn't human?
She wanted to explore, meet other races, see the world. It was time to travel further than the human kingdoms, go on adventures, and truth be told, she didn't want to do it alone, so Reina having appeared in her life was blessing, or so Lyra thought at least. Thus, she tugged at the blanket, pulling it down, eventually revealing Reina's head which was currently resting against Lyra's stomach. The red dragon moved around a lot in her sleep, yet still always managed to be on top of Lyra in some way or form, which was impressive. Then Lyra raised her arm, and ran her fingers through Reina's hair, trying to wake her up gently.
-"Reina... Reina, wake up..." she said, gently combing her fingers through the red hair.
"Uuuuhhhhh....." was all that came out of Reina's mouth as she barely stirred, so Lyra considered her a lost cause, and sneakily slid out from underneath the woman, slipping out of bed. Reina could keep sleeping, while Lyra figured out what to have for breakfast.
Silently, the High Elf padded over towards the window, and looked out over the meadow. Off in the distance, through some sparsely forested grassland, she could even see the lake shimmering in the morning light. Normally, she'd just have some fruits for breakfast, but her new companion probably did not eat much fruit either. Sure, Lyra had a lot of food in her inventory, especially dragon meat, seeing she had about 12 dragon corpses in there, but she was pretty sure she should not offer dragon meat to Reina, or eat it in front of her, because that would be cannibalism.
Oh well, she'd figure something out, Lyra mused as she stretched in front of the window. Then she headed over towards the dresser and got dressed. Shorts and a crop-top, all she needed. Now that she was not in the human capital, she'd take this chance to wear less restrictive clothing. Nothing wrong with the dresses and such, they were very pretty on her, but she liked just wearing... less. This was a change from her past self, which she had actually thought about before. Even though she was still Lyra, still herself, she also wasn't the same person she had been back on Earth. The old Lyra wore hoodies and sweatpants so large she could have drowned in them, and she had preferred that.
But ever since coming here, some of her preferences had changed. Could be from just growing up and experiencing new things, but could also be due to the fact she wasn't actually human anymore. Being a High Elf, she felt more connected to nature, and had this urge to be, well, closer to it, which is why she did not really like wearing shoes anymore, and why she wanted less clothes on. It had nothing to do with wanting to show off her body or skin, though she was certainly fond of her current beauty, but it was more about being closer to nature, feeling the grass and wind and rain against her skin. Besides, she wasn't actually human anymore, so she had to try and do away with the human thinking and human mindset.
Anyways, once dressed, she returned to the bed, ruffled Reina's hair, and told her she'd be downstairs preparing breakfast. The only response she got was "Five more minutes..." and lots of tired grumbling. It seems the rumors of dragons being very heavy sleepers was true, at least in the case of Reina. However, 20 minutes later, while Lyra was almost finished with breakfast, Reina did come trodding down the stairs, wearing the same large shirt from yesterday. Lyra figured she'd have to use some creation magic to make some proper clothes for Reina today, but first she wanted her preferences. Or, perhaps, since she had to go to the Capital City anyways, they could go shopping together! She had never really done a girl's shopping trip before, oh and, she could bring Sofie too!
"Morning Master~" Reina said as she came down the stairs, stilling looking very sleepy, her red hair a mess, but still happy and bright, like a small sun.
-"Morning Reina. Did you sleep well?" Lyra said as Reina waddled over and gave her a hug.
"Yeah, the best sleep! You are so comfortable master. How did you get so soft?" Reina said in response, hugging Lyra tightly, her eyes still heavy with sleep. Lyra just patted the woman atop her head, as she tried to get back to cooking on the stove.
-"I don't know Reina. Anyways, I've cooked some steaks for you. Or would you like some fruit instead?" Lyra answered as Reina eventually untangled herself from the elf. She then reached over and swiped a piece of steak directly out of the frying pan using only her naked hand, but seems she was unaffected by heat and fire, thankfully.
-"Reina, it's not even finis-" Lyra started, but it was too late as Reina had already bit a large chunk out of the steak, happily chewing.
"No, this is great! I like them very juicy! Slightly charred and fried outside, but juicy and bloody on the inside!" Reina answered as she headed over towards the table, just holding the steak in her hand directly. Lyra just snickered and shook her head, but still relented. She carried the pan over to the table, and sat it down on a smooth stone she had found out near the lake, which now served to protect her wooden table from hot pots and pans.
The pair of them then sat down, Reina eagerly gulping down the steaks, eating with her hands, having zero table manners what so ever, while Lyra ate some fruits, eagerly just watching Reina eat as a source of pure entertainment. She had not known Reina for very long at all, but felt like the woman was such a breath of fresh air. Reina was just so pure, and untainted by human norms and society. With Reina by her side, Lyra felt less like the weird one, which was a welcomed change. However, once breakfast was finished, and Reina had finished licking her fingers "Clean", she suddenly got serious.
"Master, I'll be taking my leave now then, for a while. I should be back tomorrow, at the latest, if that is alright with you?" she said, looking at Lyra.
-"Where will you be going?" Lyra asked in return. She wasn't particularly worried, Reina was a dragon after all, but still, she wanted to know.
"Back to the Caldera, master. The summer solstice festival only lasts for 2 weeks, which is the only time when the Red Dragon Clan gathers all its members. After that, we disperse back to our own territories. There is something I must do, before it is over." Reina answered, looking very serious still.
-"I understand. Well, I have opted to trust you, Reina. Do you need anything before you go?" Lyra responded, smiling gently at her new companion. But Reina shook her head and stood up, walking over around the table to where Lyra was sat. Then, she knelt down before Lyra, resting her forehead against Lyra's thigh, as she said:
"All I need is your blessing and approval, Master. And your promise that you won't leave without me..."
Lyra smiled, and ran her fingers through Reina's hair a few times. She really was like a big puppy. A fire-breathing dragon puppy... but a puppy all the same, or so Lyra thought. Eventually, she responded:
-"You have my word, and blessing. Just do not do anything that would be dangerous, alright?"
"It shouldn't be all that dangerous, Master." Reina said, confident, before she looked up, and rose to stand. She offered a final smile, before she bowed and took her leave. Once she was outside the house, Lyra caught the flash of magic and then the sound of wings, as Reina undid the polymorph spell and returned to her true form, before flying off northbound. Lyra watched through the kitchen window as Reina flew off, getting smaller and smaller, before she eventually vanished from Lyra's sight entirely.
Lyra would use this opportunity to get some work done herself. Work she was not really comfortable doing with Reina around, which was to dismantle and harvest the red dragon corpses in her inventory. She left the house and traveled across the meadow, some 200 meters away from the house. Then, she pulled out all the dragon corpses from the inventory, dropping them in a massive pile on the ground which easily dwarfed her entire house and then some. Each dragon was approximately 8 meters tall, 15 meters long, and weighed a bit over 10 metric tons, so this was quite the pile to say the least.
When she had killed and dismantled her first dragon, a few days prior, she had struggled quite a lot in the process and it had taken her almost all day. But she was stronger now, and had the Dragonfang Dagger which was capable of penetrating even dragonscales, so working was far easier and faster now. She also got better at the actual dismantling process, finding better and more optimal ways to work. Still, she spend nearly all day working on the dragon corpses, ripping the scales off, gathering the meat, collecting the fangs and bones, and then dumping and burying all the intestines and organs she had no use for. She did gather the dragon hearts however, figuring they were a muscle after all and should therefore be edible.
When the sun began to set, she washed herself in the river, and went over her inventory. She now had about 50 tons of Red Dragon Meat, 35 tons of Dragon Bones, 8 tons of Dragon Fangs and Dragon Claws, and finally 230,000 thousand Red Dragon Scales. This was an insane amount, of everything. Especially the Red Dragon Scales, she thought she could make into a profit. Dragon scales were incredibly useful for armor crafting for adventurers, because they were extremely hard and durable, offered elemental protection based on color, but were still very light. Red Dragon Scalemail Armor was extremely expensive Lyra knew, and so she could probably sale a Dragonscale for about 1 gold a piece. Maybe between 50 silver to 1 gold, depending in the market and location. The Fangs and Claws would even go for more, and even the dragon bones could be used and sold.
However, she had to be mindful. If she were to sell too much, it would crash the market and make the value go down. Not to mention, very few places could handle buying that much at once. She also had to consider that some coins might go out of fashion over time, which would not be an issue if she lived 100 years or so, but she was an elf. She also knew humans had their coin system, but she could not be sure the other cultures around the world used the same system. Lyra would live for ten thousand years or more, so it would be unwise of her to convert all of these dragon materials into gold coins right away. Dragon Scales and the other materials would always be valuable though, probably across all cultures, so in the end, it was better for Lyra to keep the dragon materials as they were, and sell some off whenever she needed money.
She got out of the waters and dried herself on a towel, while considering expanding her inventory further. It was almost maxed out now thanks to all of these dragon materials, so she only had a few more tons to spare, which simply wasn't enough. Though, many bones and fangs and such she could probably store elsewhere, but the meat had to be in her inventory to not spoil sadly. While getting dressed, her mind wandered to Reina. Night was falling, and she had said she'd be back around now, or tomorrow morning at the latest. As Lyra headed to bed, she found it to feel strangely empty, even though she and Reina had only shared it once. In the end, she could not help but feel worried, wondering what Reina had gotten herself into...