"I was referring to the - um, the change in plans for me more than anything else. I'm glad I'm not fundamentally incomprehensible to you, that sounds like it'd make things super complicated?"

"Just a little, yeah."

"Also that it's sort of - it seems like you haven't had a person just be sympathetic before? So there's not an obvious thing to do with me like with your previous maidens."

"...yes...?"

"... And that might be confusing for you?"

"Not really, no."

"Oh. Well. All right then. ... Can I have a way to contact my parents to try and explain the situation, they're going to be extremely worried about the whole kidnapped by a dragon thing."

"...I don't object to you contacting your parents but I don't actually have a good way to get in touch with them. I suppose I could at least build you some stairs but that only gets you as far as the bottom of the mountain, and not very conveniently at that."

"Um. No. And I'm not sure I could get a message to them from the bottom of the mountain with anything resembling speed. Is it too much to ask to be put back and then picked up again later after I've explained myself?"

"...I try not to go out too much, or to the same place too many times too fast, or linger anywhere if I can help it. People panic."

"... Yeah, fair enough. Hm. I suppose it's tricky to be stealthy when you're a dragon, but maybe we can pull it off if we're clever? I can think of a few places to land that would help disguise you."

"Hard to avoid being seen in the air."

"It - seems like it'd be possible to fly high enough to look like a big bird? But I suppose they'd be on the lookout for dragons after their princess got kidnapped, wouldn't they..."

She frowns and looks vaguely fretful.

"Yeah. Sorry."

"I - drop me off somewhere closer to home than the base of your mountain, from where I send a letter? I would like to not freak the populace of my country out but I really think things will be handled better if my parents know I'm okay. I don't think they could go, 'Hey guys, the princess is handling the dragon problem, chill,' but. You won't get a bunch of hopeful dragonslayers out to save or avenge me on your doorstep in a month."

"...starting riots is still not my favourite pastime even when nobody comes to bother me about it afterward, but..."

"I think a riot could be avoided if you land, I walk imperiously up to someone who knows and therefore recognizes me, hand them a letter, and say I am handling the dragon problem? And then we immediately fly off. But you do admittedly know more about how quickly you incite riots than I do."

"Yeah, and it's not just where I land, it's where I fly over. People don't panic every time they see me making two flights in the same day, but it happens. Near the mountain especially."

"Do they really freak out that easily?" she wonders, a little miserably. "But most of the populace isn't even your targeted kidnapping demographic."

"There's not actually anything stopping me from flying to the nearest city and burning it to the ground. Most dragons, you can safely assume they won't lay waste to the countryside on a whim because somebody would kill them for it. I am famously immune to that solution. So anytime I look like I might be doing something new, well, maybe it's harmless or maybe I'm about to destroy everything, no way to know except to wait and see."

She winces. "Right. Okay."

"Sorry."

"Mm."

"S-so the stairs, then? And I try to send a letter as quickly as possible?"