Harper

  I watched as Lou pced the piece of jewelry in his jewelry box. He ran his fingers over every chain, every brooch, and smiled. The jewelry glittered softly under his timid touch.

  We dragons loved everything that glittered.

  But for me, nothing glittered as wonderfully as Lou's light brown eyes. Two beautiful, unequal eyes. Light brown, one almost golden. Beautiful.

  I'd heard Sally say that Lou looked like a girl. She was not the first. I was of a completely different opinion. Lou didn't look like a girl. He looked... It was hard to describe him. His features were unusually gentle for a boy. His body may be a little too soft and delicate. In addition, he was so thin. His legs were long and slender, his nose sweet and small. His eyes resembled those of a deer. Big, round, careful, and innocent. The tiny freckles reminded me of small, twinkling stars. His shoulders were narrow, his butt small and round... Delicate feet that I often wondered how they could carry him. But his skin had been disfigured by small scars. A reminder of why he was never allowed to go back to the people.

  And yet. He didn't look like a girl. When I compared him to Louise or Nina, they were much curvier and softer. Their lips were full, their hips wide, as was normal for human girls.

  Very different from Lou.

  So why should he look like a girl? Silly!

  Lou was not a dragon. Sometimes I wondered why he was so attractive to me. I should fall in love with a dragon at some point and not with a human. In the end, humans were fodder. But when I saw Lou, I never thought about eating him. My parents said I was much too 'mature' for my age. They said I shouldn't really be interested in love matters yet. They believed that it could have disadvantages for me if I gave away my heart so quickly. I was not yet 100 years old. And Lou was a human being. He wouldn't live to be very old.

  Well, while it was true that many white dragons took a few hundred years to find other dragons attractive, there have always been exceptions. So why should I be too young? I did not understand their concern.

  Couldn't they see how wonderful my Vivi was?

  I looked at my sister, who often tried to spoil Vivi. She pyed with his hair and tried to braid it. Vivi dodged each time, shook his head, and protested with the usual "Hm!" My sister often sulked and was teased by Ross about it.

  In the meantime, Sally also nded in the cave and hurried to Lou and Connie. "Oh! Sparkly things!" she shouted contentedly and looked over Lou's shoulder.

  I watched as Lou took a gold chain from the casket and looked at it thoughtfully. As usual, he held it close to his good eye so that he could look at the finely crafted golden chain.

  "Would you like to wear the neckce?" asked Connie.

  Lou shook his head.

  "No? Why not? It would look good on you." Connie stood next to him and looked at the contents of the box as well. She took out a pearl neckce. "This one is also very pretty!"

  "Hm." Lou nodded.

  "Do you want to wear this?"

  Lou shook his head again. He had told me that the weight of jewelry, the feeling on his skin, made him remember bad things. What exactly, he hadn't said. But I knew that iron chains had been put on him when people imprisoned him.

  "Or that?" Now Sally held a lush neckce in her hands.

  Lou frowned, then shook his head. He hadn't even looked in the direction of the piece of jewelry.

  "What do you think of earrings? They swing so merrily on human ears", Sally asked further. Unlike Connie, she was more interested in the jewelry and not in decorating Lou with it.

  Lou shook his head all the more energetically. "No. Not... That hurts."

  "Ah." Connie nodded. "These! You can just hang them on your ear... Without having to make a hole in it..." She took a pair out of the box.

  "Beautiful!" Sally nodded eagerly. In the meantime, she rummaged through Lou's treasures in a most impudent manner. He let her, but avoided her, as she had leaned over him.

  Connie held the earrings in front of Lou's nose. "What do you think?"

  But Lou shook his head again. No matter what she suggested, he always reacted the same. I decided to save him, even though the sight of my hard-fighting sister was very funny. She refused to give up.

  "Connie? Let him", I said, wrapping my arms around Lou.

  "But... Jewelry would look so pretty on him! I thought humans like jewelry. I often see them wearing some", my older sister protested. "And not just women!"

  I grabbed one of the many chains, ignored Sally's protest, and put it around my neck. "And me? Am I pretty?"

  "Not as pretty as our sweet Lou!" grumbled Connie. But Lou turned to look at me. He chewed his lower lip thoughtfully. Finally, he reached for the next chain, Sally protested again, and he began to decorate me as Nour had done with him.

  After a few minutes, he nodded. "Harper is a princess now!"

  Connie grinned. "You'd still be prettier!"

  "No. I'm not pretty", Lou murmured. "Jewelry is for beautiful people."

  "I'M beautiful", Sally murmured. We paid no attention to her.

  Connie blinked. "But Lou. You are beautiful!"

  "No. I can't wear jewelry. I can only look at it." He obviously ignored the fact that he was wearing jewelry. Two neckces and a red ribbon in his hair.

  "Of course, you can wear jewelry." Connie snorted and put one of the many chains around his neck. Lou grimaced but kept still. Connie adorned him to her heart's content. In the end, not much more than Remy's neckce remained in the box. (Which Sally regretted very much.) Meanwhile, Lou's cheeks slowly turned pink. "Now we have two princesses here!" Connie finally announced. Lou snuggled up to me and shook his head.

  "What?" I raised my eyebrows. "If I'm a princess, then so are you!"

  "Heavy...", my Vivi murmured, however. “Too heavy."

  "What's too heavy?" Connie wanted to know. He meant all the jewelry, but Connie didn't understand. "Have I put too many neckces and bracelets and stuff on you?"

  Lou shook his head again. "It's just too heavy. And I'm not beautiful. That's not for me." He trembled a little in my arms.

  "Of course you're beautiful!" I mumbled and kissed his forehead. "And the jewelry looks very pretty on you. But, if it's too heavy for you, then... Do you want to take it off?"

  Lou nodded.

  "Can I wear the jewelry then?" asked Sally, without noticing the depressed mood.

  sasi