"My father?" Poppy asked with the tilt of her head.
"Blood-related father of course..." Luna responded quickly, raising an eyebrow at Poppy knowing full well who Poppy's true father was.
Chase cursed internally, sending several violent pleads towards Luna's mind in hopes of her finding a way out of this conversation.
'I know what I'm doing...' Luna responded in an instant, sounding quite harsh in her mental tone.
Chase sighed and returned his slowly wavering concentration onto the sphere of smoke in his hands.
"Yes... Biological father... A bastard like you should have figured it out by now..." The old man said, which immediately made Poppy flare up in anger.
"How dare you!?" She yelled, clenching her fists and causing Chase quite the panic attack as he mentally screamed.
'HEY! I'M STILL HOLDING SOMETHING THAT COULD EXPLODE AT ANY MOMENT!'
'Try eating it?" Equan suggested, pointing at Chase.
"EXCUSE ME!?" Poppy screamed again, and Chase had to actually use all of his physical energy to resist laughing at the misunderstanding.
"No numbskull, the smoke..." Equan said with a dead empty expression on his face, as if he had somehow found no humor in what had just happened.
Poppy winced and glared between everyone and the ball of smoke.
"Couldn't it kill me?" She frowned even deeper.
"No foolish girl, you are half dragon! It would be preposterous to assume otherwise!" The old man laughed.
"Are you saying that you simply assumed I am half dragon?" Poppy scowled at the man for a moment before returning her gaze towards Chase and slowly taking a couple of short steps towards him.
"How did Onyx do it?" She asked Chase, calling to the fact that Onyx had also been half dragon.
"He just inhaled it... I don't know, are you saying you actually believe this guy?" Chase was taken aback, but made no attempt at stopping her as he knew full well just how deep her roots with dragon ran, much to Poppy's unknowing.
She pulled her free hair back behind her head and looked utterly embarrassed as her face with hued with crimson, that surprisingly looked quite good alongside her crimson eyes.
Chase shook his head, somehow getting lost in thought at a moment like this.
"Uhhh... Don't explode, I guess?" Chase asked, slowly outstretching his hand in front of Poppy, which made her roll her eyes in disbelief.
"I swear to the gods... If this kills me..." She muttered, her voice growing quieter and quieter and she took more and more deep breaths.
Then... As the sphere slowly hovered in front of her, she exhaled completely while sucking in her stomach... And then she inhaled powerfully through her nose, pulling the energy from Chase's control, as if lifting a weight off of his shoulders.
Poppy; however, now had just inhaled an ungodly amount of smoke without even knowing for certain that everything would be fine afterwards...
Her face was a deep red, and her nose was leaking several strands of smoke that slowly arose towards the rafters.
Then... Her skin began to... Glow?
Crimson sigils gently faded to life along her arms... Serpentine and scaled as if it had just proven her lineage as obvious...
Then they slowly vanished as if never existing, and Poppy nearly fell over, but Chase and Luna had both reached out and caught her in each arm.
"You good?" Chase asked, looking down at her hung head with a very large amount of concern.
Equan; however, was standing straight up with his jaw practically on the floor.
"She's a dragon!" He yelled, as if they were about to crucify a witch.
"We don't know that..." Chase shook his head.
"Yes we do..." The old man chuckled, before turning around and walking towards the back of the shop.
Poppy was clearly very out of it, as she was slowly leaning from left to right in-between Chase and Luna.
Then she slowly lifted her swaying head... And was... Giggling?
Chase almost threw up.
The always angry Poppy was laughing like a child...
'In what world?!' He thought, glancing at Luna who simply shook her head and shrugged.
"Is this what a cigarette feels like?" Poppy asked, looking up at Chase with curiosity practically written in her eyes.
"How the hell should I know? Ask that guy?" Chase nodded towards Equan who had finally remembered that he was nothing but a class clown back at Phoenix Academy.
He was stifling his laughter beneath his palm, and very clearly engraving the image of Poppy like this in his mind for the rest of time.
"Do something Chase!" She made a pouty face, which made Chase of course feel inclined to yell at Equan, but he himself was not completely bound by such seriousness at this moment in time.
"Are you drunk?" Luna asked blatantly, while poking Poppy in the back of the head several times.
"Drunk? I would never drink!" Poppy pouted in response, and let her head hang again, leaning even further into Chase's side.
"I think its a good idea to just bring her home..." Chase said, taking a deep breath and sighing outwards.