Questions better left alone

I slashed at the dragon in front of me, and sure enough, it disintegrated into smoke. I grimaced as some of it washed over me — it tasted like the ash of decomposed skin, or what I imagined it’d taste like — and it hit me. I turned to Alexi with a frown. 

“What’s wrong?” he asked, sheathing his own sword. Now that I really looked at him, I could see how…flat his eyes were. His entire face, really. I reached out to touch his cheek, and I yelped. It was flat…but my hand shifted to curve around his face, as if it weren’t flat.

I gulped. “Why do we do any of this?” I asked, and I grimaced again as my stomach turned itself over.

“What do you mean?”

I gestured at where the dragon had been. “All we do is slay dragons. Have they ever even caused harm to our village?”

“All of the stories say —“

“But have they ever killed any of our people?” I repeated, shaking my head. The world continued to grow more and more peculiar. I could hear a kind of…music floating in the air, and shivers spread down my spine. There was a buzzing, too, a kind of snapping…

“Not since we were kids, obviously, but —“

“No, there hasn’t been a single attack — not since our grandfather’s grandfather!” I ran a now shaking hand through my hair. “Don’t you think that’s weird?”

Alexi’s face started to go into and out of focus, and the music around me became more disjointed. “No, I don’t.” He peered closer at me. “Do you?”

I took in a long breath. “No, I suppose I don’t.” I forced a laugh out. “Sorry, I guess I’m just going a little crazy today; I didn’t sleep well last night.”

The music returned to normal, and Alexi’s face stopped vibrating. “That wouldn’t be an issue if you just let yourself get a little drunk every once in a while!”

I shook my head. “Nice try,” I retorted, but my voice didn’t have the bite it usually did.