Ashton didn't know what Barclay might mean by getting something comforting, and he was resistant to the idea, but, as with most times when he was with the witch, he went along with it and relied on his greater worldly knowledge. What he really felt like doing was taking wing and flying to his lair to brood moodily until almost sunrise when he had to return to the school and to his human form.
"What happened," the dragon snorted at Barclay's question, kicking at a flier that was crumbled and blowing down the sidewalk. He glanced at Barclay and then straight ahead, shivering in the wind, but not from the cold. "My parents were great dragons who were smart enough to avoid humans. They made their lair in a volcano in Iceland, hiding all their gold there, and laid their eggs inside, in the lava. My brother and I. But humans moved in closer and closer and when spotted, they sent for a Slayer who came to destroy them. I don't--" he shook his head, "I don't know how they let him kill them, but he slayed them both and then he waited, living in the village and raising his children there to become what he was, a Dragonslayer, for the day when the eggs hatched and we would come out of the mountain to once again threaten the village."
Ashton stopped walking and tipped his head to look up at the sky, "Do you know how far human greed extends, Barclay?"