( he has to wonder if the answer is wise or merely… uncommitted. not that getian is one to judge such a thing; he had lived apart from the rest of the world for centuries, fully aware of the floods, famines, fires, wars, and storms that plagued humanity (as he could either see them for himself from his vantage point or he listened to the prayers of those who occasionally came to his mountain in pilgrimage). even as his people had slowly begun to depart, one by one, to curse themselves to mortal lives all just so they could help the lives of humans that they’d never met, he remained. he sang. he watched. he slept. many could call his decision to remain in seclusion a selfish one, and he would have no rejoinder or argument for it.

if this dragon had acted to come to him, however, he doubts he was so passive. he is making this decision of his own complicated accord, then—something he only reinforces as he continues. safety? getian has not felt particularly unsafe. alarmed, disoriented, discombobulated, and out-of-sorts, to be sure, but if there are dire consequences for refusing the demands of this place and its staff, he has not yet seen them.

(of course, many of those “consequences” were from within rather than without, but, as a fresh-faced wildcard, he wouldn’t know anything about that.)

just as dan heng is made self-aware and inwardly searching by getian’s questions, so too is the miemeng bird by the dragon’s own words. “i tend to worry more for the safety of others than that of myself.” his heart constricts as he thinks of the words. he thinks of what is lost to him—items so precious that they were worth more to him than his own life. his bone wand, gone; one carved from the wing bone of the last of his people to go on before him. a jade pendant, mended by his own efforts, which had represented his resolution to try to understand humans in the way he’d avoided for so long. is he choosing to remain? to continue to avert his gaze, deflect, and avoid? he thought he’d been trying to take a different path. he, too, was trying to change his nature, even if it was so stubbornly written into his bones.

his lazy orbits around dan heng’s head come to a halt as he hovers a short distance away from him again. ) No. ( perhaps a surprising response, given the stance he has taken thus far? but, ) Before I was brought to this place, I decided I would stop being one to flee and look away. …I see now, I have returned to old habits.

( a little more hesitantly: ) But, still…

( okay. now he might be blushing a little bit?? )

…From what I heard those humans say, I believe they expect too much from an old bird such as me…