The Dragon Under my Bed

The wait begins...

~~Hiding in that tunnel was probably the longest few days in my entire life, I remember many years back when I was younger and we had to go into lockdown because of a virus, At least then I had my books and Nintendo Switch. The only thing we could do in the tunnel was sit and stare or sleep. At least I had somebody to keep my company, somebody who had a lot of stories up their sleeve...~~

"How long have we been here, Zagem?" I asked, staring into the darkness.

"Just a day," Zagem said, peeking through the cracks in the rocks. "Looks like the sun's coming out."

"When do you think the dragon hunter will arrive?" I asked.

"Hard to say. Could be a few weeks, possibly a month." Zagem said, nosing through our pile of supplies and pulling out a bag of beef jerky.

"By then, you'll eat all the food," I said.

Zagem laughed. "That's why we're rationalizing. This is my food for the day."

"You're not going to survive on a bag of jerky a day." I pointed out.

"Well, who knows? We might be out of here sooner than we thought."

I got up and began looking for something to eat. " Well, what if we run out of food?"

Zagem snorted. "We'll get more. I saw some rabbits as we were walking."

"Zagem, are you worried?" I said, sitting down.

"Yes Garret, I am. This human killed my parents, I've seen what he could do." Zagem sighed. "The best we can hope for is we can survive long enough for him to die naturally or for us to kill him ourselves."

"You're gonna be the one to kill him, ill just watch," I said jokingly.

"What about you?" Zagem said, looking at me.

I sighed. "This is a terrifying situation we've gotten ourselves in."

"indeed."

"What if he does find us? He'll kill us both."

"Hey, there's a good chance that brute won't find us. Plus, I can fight!" Zagem crouched low, puffing out his chest and bearing his teeth, facing imaginary opponents.

I sighed again. "he killed your parents, didn't you? You said he killed off entire dragon clutches. If he can kill fully-grown dragons, You'll be short work for him."

Zagem got up from his defensive pose. "Yeah, You're right. I'm getting ahead of myself. I've never fought a human, let alone a human who has fought back and has years of experience. I doubt if land a single claw on him." He looked down sadly. "But we have to have hope. We just got to."

"I know we can do this," I said, patting Zagem on the back. "For all we know, he might not even find us!"

I decided not to bring up the fact that if he didn't find us, we would have to stay in the tunnel for longer until we knew he was dead.

"We have to kill him," Zagem said. "He won't rest until I'm dead."

"Look, We'll figure something out Zagem. But right now, we have to focus on other things. Like what the heck are we going to do if we run out of food and water."

Zagem smiled weakly. "You're right, lets think about something else. But we can't be unprepared when he does come..."

"Day 1: The first day in the tunnel has been horrible, supplies have been okay, but some of the lights inside have died, leaving us with less light. And Zagem must have consumed something poisonous because now he's dead. I'm going to try to revive him, I doubt mouth-to-mouth will work on a drago-"

"Okay, What are you doing Garret?" Zagem said, cutting me off.

"I'm narrating our life in the tunnel, So we can recap on everything that has happened so far! also, you haven't moved for like three hours, but your eyes were still open. Probably the freakiest thing I've seen you do."

"I was sleeping with my eyes open, Garret," Zagem got up and stretched. "Most of us can sleep without eyes open as a defensive maneuver to avoid assassinations."

"Huh, I never knew that," I said. "What other things can dragons do?" I asked, now curious.

"Um, Oh. We can do this!" Zagem opened his mouth, showing his sharp white teeth. He lowered to the ground and began gently hitting a tooth with his claw, until it came clean off, blood oozing out of the spot the tooth was.

"Why would you do that?! That looked like it hurt!"

Zagem shook his head. "Wait until the bleeding stops."

Shortly afterward, the bleeding stopped, leaving just a gap where his tooth used to be. "Now put your finger on that spot."

I shrugged and put my finger on the spot. I could feel something sharp poking my finger, I removed my finger to see a tiny tooth beginning to form.

"Wow, It's already growing back!" I said, impressed.

"Indeed," Zagem said. "Our teeth grow back fast, the longest time about 2 days. Our blood also clots quicker than any other species."

"Wow, You dragons truly are the superior race, Aren't you?"

Zagem nodded.

"You see, with all of your amazing dragon features, you can defeat the dragon hunter!" I said.

Zagem snorted. "With my fast-growing teeth?"

"No, silly. Just... Remember what you told me the other day? That although things may seem scary right now, I have to remember that I'm a dragon? That's what I mean. And now I'm passing this advice on to you. You are not a human, but a dragon. Practically the coolest race out there. And what would a dragon do in this situation?"

"I'd rip this human's heart out!" Zagem said determinedly.

"YEAH! Or... probably not yet, but you got the right idea. We're going to do this even if it kills us!"

"Your right," Zagem said. "But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Let's relax a little bit, but not let our guard down."

"Do you think you can teach me how to sleep with my eyes open?" I asked.

Zagem chuckled. "Sure, Garret. I'll teach you."