Wardrobe

Villager: Kierra

You weren't quite sure what you expected to find, walking the beach at night, but a dragon painting by moonlight sure wasn't one of them. As you watch, the black dragon leans back and stretches, revealing wings speckled with color like stars in the night. That's when she catches sight of you.

"Oh, hello. I didn't expect to see anyone up at this hour. What's your name?"

"That's a pretty name. I'm Kierra; nice to meet you."

"How- oh don't worry, I can see. Perfect night vision, you see."

The dragon taps one of the scales at the corner of her eye, before a look of surprise crosses her face and she laughs.

"Or, maybe not! I'm sorry, that kind of came out funny. I'm painting the stars and moon above the sea, and its always best to have your reference or subject right before you when you work."

"Yeah, I love painting. Drawing, painting, sculpting, anything to do with art really. I like working with oil paints the best, even if they're a bit tricky."

"Do I have a career? Yes, actually. I'm one of the explorers on the island, which works out perfectly, since as a happy bonus of poking around, I can find vistas and the like to draw as I go. Places I'll fly back to later. Underwater painting is rather difficult, as I'm sure you understand, but doable. Honestly, I usually just take Juniper down there and have him take a photo for me to use as reference later."

Kierra laughs sheepishly, shaking her head.

"It works out well for the both of us, though. What I capture in paint, Juniper loves to capture on film. Or, well, whatever the electronic camera version of film is anyway, I don't claim to be a photographer. I'll borrow his pictures to paint sometimes as well; it depends on what strikes my fancy, you know?"

"I also run a little stall during holiday events. I started it during the 2022 harvest carnival, and honestly just fell in love with doing it! I hand-painted that magic box and those prize containers myself, you know? They were quite a lot of fun to design, that's for sure."

"Huh? Has Belphegor ever asked me to paint him?"

Kierra snorts with laughter.

"Only several times, of course! He's actually surprisingly patient when it comes to modeling; then again, he's done this many, many times before, to hear him say it. I think I actually heard him mumbling something about firing his artist after the second painting. High compliments indeed, coming from him."

The black dragon giggles.

"Not that I was supposed to hear that, haha. But I have good ears."

"Yeah, exploring can get pretty dangerous at times. We've all gotten into tight spots, but if you want horror stories you should ask Aisling about it. She got into a really bad situation once, one that put her out of commission for a while. But it let her discover her dream job, so I guess it all worked out for the best."

"Don't worry though, I can defend myself."

Kierra grins, white teeth flashing in the moonlight, standing out starkly against the blackness of her scales and the night.

"I can defend myself very well.."

"Where am I from? Dragon's Maw Manor, actually. I was born pretty out there, in the rural areas in the cursed forests. Pretty dangerous, but also a pretty nice place to live. Honestly, its weird having the various flora and fauna not trying to kill you haha."

"Why'd I move here? Well...that's a rather long story. Just...short version is, my hometown no longer exists on the map, the maniac responsible no longer walks the earth, and I wanted to settle somewhere further away. Expand my horizons, you know? And, well, after a while, I ended up visiting Ouroboros, and just fell in love with the place. I mean, can you blame me?"

Kierra gestures around at your surroundings with a smile.

"Great people, a beautiful place to live...what more could I ask for?"

"Do I have any other hobbies? Well, I like cloud-watching. Kaju and I will often go to a hill and just lie back in the grass, enjoying the sun and sky."

Kierra gives you a considering look, glancing between her painting and you.

"You know...if you don't mind, I think you'd make a perfect model for this piece. Go and stand on the shore for me, will you? Like, ankle-deep in the water. That is, if you're willing, of course. You can keep the painting when I'm done, since it is of you after all."

Curious, you examine the painting Kierra has done so far, at least as best you can. Who knows, it might be fun to be painted. Granted, the modeling part would be pretty boring, but the end result would be nice. The question was, did you want to spend a large portion of your night standing still in the rather cold ocean for a painting, or continue on with what you were doing?

Decisions, decisions.