When Dealing With Dragons Quotes

“Night has properly fallen and Feylings clinging to stalactites above us twinkle to life, brimming the cave the light bathes Nity and the eggs in a fluorescent glow. The gold scales glimmer even brighter.
Behind them, every inch of the ground lays gilded. Piles of golden scales sit in heaps big enough to swim in. I’ve seen pregnancy shedding before, stacks of silver professionals divide to ensure the hatchlings take too much because I’ve never seen metal of any class tumbling from the walls like this. It’s… I’ve entered a treasure trove the likes of which I’ve only read about in old stories.”
― Dana Swift, When Dealing With Dragons

“A future as bright as gold. Still I ground myself to the present, in this moment. For in this moment, I am fully myself with the people I love, all of us dealing with our dragons.”
― Dana Swift, When Dealing With Dragons

“I’m not some piece of metal,” I argue.
James grins at Cara as he wraps his arms around me from behind. “Of course, you’re much more precious.”
― Dana Swift, When Dealing With Dragons

“Humans or dragons? Which would dominate over the other? It’s an age-old question our forefathers debated and why crafting began. But it’s never been one or the other. We were meant to work together.
“No. No,” Dr. Burke cries, buckled to the ground where I don’t let up my crafting. I’m stronger than him. As long as I focus, I can keep him there forever.
As I walk up to him, sirens ring through the air.
“Thousands will die because of you. Thousands could have been saved.”
“Don’t worry, Mr. Burke, saving people and dragons is my specialty.”
― Dana Swift, When Dealing With Dragons

“You think she’s your friend? She doesn’t care whether you live or die.”
Suddenly, Nity jerks sideways, and it surprises him enough to roll off of me. I suck in my first full breath in minutes. She… listened to me. Saved me.
I climb clumsily to my knees, hand pressed to my knife wound gushing blood. I don't dare pull it out though. “You want gold so badly?” I craft gold off my forearm and throw the rich yellow metal at him. “Take it.”
The gold connects to the scaler’s chest. The blow doesn’t kill him, but the hit knocks him to Nity’s left side, teetering on the edge.
“No,” he shouts. Hands scramble to detach the golden mound of metal on his torso. He thinks I mean to craft against him, that I mean to stab him like he stabbed me.
“Nity will never be yours. How can she, when she listens to me?”
― Dana Swift, When Dealing With Dragons

“This is what humans were meant to do when we learned how to control a dragon’s metal. Not steal from dragons. Not kill dragons. We were supposed to be their partners, fight alongside them. This is why the bond was created.
Without my glasses my awareness for every metal and metal-coated dragon heightens, a sixth sense only amplified by my bond with Nity. Her power is unimaginable and I’m wielding it.”
― Dana Swift, When Dealing With Dragons

“The metal yields to my control easier than ever before, and I know it has to do with Nity, her trust. A true dragon bond sliding into place. She’s allowing me full access to her power. Gold wraps around my forearms and works its way upward into shiny sleeves and a shelled corset around my torso. I might be wearing the first golden armor in centuries, and it feels… right.”
― Dana Swift, When Dealing With Dragons

“Iron is wrapped around all four of their wrists, connecting them together, joining the couple. It’s tradition, the dragon metal crafted to wind around both their wrists and forearms so many times you can’t tell whose iron is whose. It’s how the phrase “metals shouldn’t mix” was popularized. Because if the metals were different then everyone could clearly see the individual’s metal separate from their partner. No unity. One would always be more powerful than the other, straining the relationship. Yet, I imagine gold and silver encasing Farren’s and my wrists one day.”
― Dana Swift, When Dealing With Dragons

“Rules are in place for the good of society,” I add, knowing in this moment we’ve won.
My father’s face goes red as he stares me down. “What have you done?”
Dr. Walsh steps forward again. “Nothing illegal, I assure you. You know as well as I that some children just outgrow their parents.”
― Dana Swift, When Dealing With Dragons

“I should know to keep the pretense up. We have to keep pretending.”
It’s in that moment I feel myself become unglued. All the hiding, the faking. For days upon days I’ve been smashing my feelings down in regard to James Murphy. Now they are bursting out of me, gnawing for attention.
“I’m tired of pretending,” I whisper.
I don't wait for him to respond. Instead I lean forward and kiss him. I’m doing as he suggested, reclaiming my first kiss as something I choose. I’m choosing him.”
― Dana Swift, When Dealing With Dragons

“Oria has only grown fonder of James, currently curled in his arms like a baby. Nity naps in the corner, tired from producing gold for her hatchlings. There are patches in her metal coat now, always shedding to keep an ample supply of gold. Hort pounces on puddles by the entrance of the cave with Zilar and Electrum in tow. We introduced him to the hatchlings to help with socialization and he quickly became big brother and bad influence. It's so adorably ridiculous, especially as Hort splashes Zilar in the face and the baby ruffles his blue scales in dismay.”
― Dana Swift, When Dealing With Dragons

“I wished for a girl and I wanted to name her Oria. But my parents were right. I should have waited.”
The little silver dragon has crawled back onto my chest. “I think it’s a good name.”
“Murphy, I’m not calling a silver-coated dragon a name meaning golden.”
Oria scales my shoulder. “She overcame her golden egg. It’s ironic.” I tilt and look upward at Oria, who is now trying to climb my head. “Oria, what do you think?”
She coos, using my ear as a step stool to conquer the hill that is my body.
“See?”
“And what do you suggest we name this one?” She cradles the golden boy. “Zilar?”
She’s picked one of the most overused boy names meaning silver. I still like it. “Sounds good to me.”
“Your kids one day are going to have the most unfortunate names, aren’t they?”
“Well, maybe my future wife will have compiled a longer list.”
She throws hay in my direction. It lands halfway, on the alloy baby, unbothered and chewing gold.
We look at one another at the same time. “Electrum,” we say simultaneously. Farren proceeds to topple over laughing. “Now, that’s bad.”
“It’s on the nose, but he is literally a silver-and-gold alloy,” I defend.”
― Dana Swift, When Dealing With Dragons

“No one can craft gold.”
Farren looks at me, really looks at me with a fierceness in her eyes I’ve never seen before. She refocuses on the egg. With the Feyling lights, a golden hue splashes against her face. Determination has set into each of her features.
The truth settles into place. Stopping Bex as if it were easy. Nity trusting me to access her nest only after Farren hugged me. It all points to one truth I had not yet considered but feels inevitable. “No one can craft gold. No one except you,” I whisper.
She jerks at the statement, a wash of surprise. As she pushes her glasses up her nose, she sighs. “Finally figured it out, did you?”
― Dana Swift, When Dealing With Dragons

“At the entrance of the cave, a flash of lightning illuminates the cascade of spiked plates arching along her back. She’s actually friendly, but all that joyful personality is contained in the body of a monster. Fangs peek over her jaws in a bad overbite. Natural black scales cover her, so big and so sharp I don’t know if she could be rideable even with a saddle. Right now, she’s doused in gold though, even more startling and wondrous.”
― Dana Swift, When Dealing With Dragons

“Over three weeks, I learn the basics of the sanctuary. Feeding times. Cleaning times. Exercising times. I at least see all fourteen dragons. Do everything but actually learn how to be a vet to these creatures. I don't know what I was expecting. There is no easy route when dealing with dragons. Even though I lived with these creatures my whole life, I didn't actually touch one until I was nine. There are precautions. Familiarity that leads to trust. That cultivated trust is how crafters bonded with dragons and developed crafting in the first place. It's also how one advances to be able to craft new types of metal.”
― Dana Swift, When Dealing With Dragons

“Do you know what dragon the metal came from?”
Dragon, no. Person, yes. Farren must have made me swallow silver after she pulled Hort and me from the water. It was odd how my arm felt better within days. But after what I just saw and Dr. Burke’s enthusiasm, I can further confirm Farren Walsh is the best silver-crafter I’ve ever met.
It’s my turn to lie though. “No idea,” I say, instead of announcing the truth I’ve felt since I was twelve years old. I got lucky enough to meet a girl named Farren Walsh. Two weeks ago, I got even luckier she decided to save my life.”
― Dana Swift, When Dealing With Dragons

“With your skill you could have any career. Revers Academy would accept you in a minute. Any future. Yours."
He's dreaming. I live in reality. A reality where protecting something matters more than my own ambitions. "Why do you care? Another silver family means competition."
"It means more than competition." There is something in his eyes when he stares at me. I'd expect confusion, but that's been replaced with determination and... longing? I don't know where that came from or how his hard features arranged in this new configuration. But for the first time I'm seeing James Murphy soften.”
― Dana Swift, When Dealing With Dragons

“I’d further explain we have fourteen rescued dragons in total. Those four Rhinoridges. An old mated pair of copper Sprinters, my parents’ first dragons and the catalyst for how they met. My girl Daphine, the only Ocean Swooper, a water dragon three times larger than your average Sprinter. Seven Skidders, who are wyverns, not dragons, but still tin plated. Thus, still in need of help when the whole group was found completely descaled and left for dead outside Hardsill, three hundred miles north of here.
And that’s the rescued dragons. We also have caves full of Feylings, bat-sized beauties who feast on bugs at night and dazzle the sky in twinkling light to attract said food source. We also have a school of wild Ocean Swoopers who Daphine sometimes swims with. And one grumpy enormous Tree Slinger, who hangs out in the woods farther inland and is smart enough to stay within the property.”
― Dana Swift, When Dealing With Dragons

“Mad you couldn't let me die when you had the chance, huh?"
Her eyebrows jump again before she reins herself in. She smooths down Hort's scales. "I was mainly saving Hort. You just got lucky." She turns to the barn and strides forward again, short blonde hair swishing over her shoulder. I can't help laughing at her lie because if there is one thing I know about Farren Walsh, she's caring— for dragons and people alike. Here, I'll be safer than I've ever been. My heart though? That's yet to be seen.”
― Dana Swift, When Dealing With Dragons