Let the auction begin.
"The Rush, a descendant of an extinct dragon family, lays an egg only once in its lifetime. But if you're lucky enough to get a golden egg the size of one of the people standing here..." I wasn't paying as much attention to his words as to seeing these people approaching, searching for it. I looked around, but I couldn't see it. I looked up, hoping it might have climbed the creature's neck, but all I found was this terrifying face and sharp teeth inside a mouth big enough for two people. And its stony skin—I don't know if weapons could penetrate it. His black eye had a red line in the middle, which I mistook for blood. It moved, and I realized it was the pupil of his eye. I think it saw me. Then it made a sound that startled everyone in front of it. The girl fell from the center of his feathers. Everyone looked at her. The presenter quickly said, "And now we know he can give birth to humans!" The audience laughed. They saw us. They rushed up the stairs to reach us. We moved away towards the back stairs. I think they stopped after this thing looked at them, causing one of them to stop and order them to retreat. I lived through those moments, and they felt more real than some realities. So I tried to call her by the name I heard. It was Caroline. I shouted her name, but it was no use. She continued walking away, and I followed her. We kept walking until sunset, through the market, until she stopped in front of one of the merchants near the harbor. I had given up on hearing her. Then someone passed by, holding food. "I think you dropped this," he said. She looked up; it was him again, the man with the scarf. But this time, she didn't flinch. She took the food from him. "Thank you," she said, taking a bite. Silence fell, broken only by the sounds of seagulls circling close to the shore.
You know I'm not the Caroline you're looking for.
He looked at her silently. "Let's pretend you're her for a moment." She paused, then replied, "Will we pretend you're just another commoner too?" She said this while glancing at a precious ring he was wearing. He took it off and hid it. "Just for today. Let's pretend we're two different people, just for today." They stayed like that until she finished eating. Then they sat by the water in the harbor. "The day is almost over," he said, looking at the stars in the sky. She slowly moved away from him, leaving a note that read "Thank you." He didn't notice until they were a little way off. I watched him from a distance as he stood up, searching for her. He found the note, read it, and looked around.
We continued walking along the edge of the harbor on the wooden plank, which was beginning to get wet with raindrops, until she bumped into someone. She looked up at him—it was one of the people she had been running from that morning. He looked behind him but saw no one. She had jumped into the water to catch her breath. He looked around as she moved under the planks, and it seemed her hand had hit something, causing it to bleed. As his feet carried him away until he reached the shore, she emerged from the water to find him standing before her. He had known from the beginning that she was hiding underwater. The clock struck twelve, and they heard a crash of thunder, like someone's voice. He looked up at her as he approached, and lightning struck close by, knocking him to the ground. But the lightning didn't miss its mark; it struck me. She looked at me as if she had seen me, and I saw the flash of lightning that brought me back into the pool. The clock struck twelve again, and I felt my body floating on the edge of the pool, shivering at what I had seen.
Minutes later, I caught my breath and saw him sitting by the pool, drinking a cup of hot tea. "Did she see you?" he asked. I moved away from him to the other side. "What just happened?" I asked. "Was that real?" he replied, taking a sip. "I hope it was real enough to change her mind."