Draq

Chapter Three

The sunlight dazzled his eyes, and he waited in the entrance several moments for them to adjust. It was in that time that he heard the pattering of feet on the stone floor behind him.

The girl brushed past his shoulder. “Did I do something wrong?” she asked, panting slightly. It was harder for her to keep up, because of her shorter legs. Her head barely came up to his back, after all. And that was when he was on all fours. “I didn’t mean to make you angry.”

Draq pointedly ignored her as he scanned the landscape. He still had no idea where he was. Which way was home?

“Where are you going now?” the girl persisted stubbornly.

Draq turned to glare at her with his left eye. She seemed to back off, but she didn’t leave. He grumbled deep in his throat, and hoping to satisfy her enough to keep her from further bothering him, said, “I am going home.”

The human was satisfied for only a moment. “Where is your home?” she asked softly.

Draq let out a huff. That’s exactly what I want to know, he thought. “From here?” he said. “I have not the slightest idea.”

The human took a moment to absorb this. “So, you’re lost?” she finally concluded.

He flicked his tail dismissively. “I was dropped here while I was unconscious. I suppose you could say I’m ‘lost’,” he allowed.

To his surprise, the human trotted up and patted him on the shoulder with the palm of her forepaw. He sensed it was a friendly gesture, but was not sure what it meant. After a moment the girl retreated. “If you want, you could come with me,” she offered. “Not all the way to my city, of course!” she added hastily. “But maybe if you stayed with me on my way back, you might start recognizing where you are.”

“I could cover much more ground in the air,” Draq declined lightly.

“But you’d be all alone,” the girl protested. “And you don’t know the area. You wouldn’t know where to find food, or shelter.” She was staring up at him sweetly. Intently.

“Why are you so determined to make me go with you?” Draq asked warily. His eyes shifted across her face, but he could pick up nothing other than a warm gentleness emanating from her.

The human female shifted her feet. After a brief hesitation, she replied, “I like you. I guess I want to be friends.”

Friends? Draq wondered, rolling the word over in his brain. He’d heard of ‘friends’ before, but it was not commonly used among dragons. “You want me to be your friend?” he clarified. The word tasted funny. “Why?”

She shrugged. “I like you. And I’ve never been friends with a dragon.”

Draq considered his situation. The girl had brought up some very interesting points, about food and shelter. And what if traveling with her did manage to get him home sooner? And, along the way, he wouldn’t be alone. I’d have a friend, he thought.

While he was mulling over the information, the girl shifted her feet impatiently. She kept glancing out at the distant end of the valley, stretching away from them into the twilight. It had become quite dark by now.

Draq finally decided to compromise. “I can stay with you for a little while,” he told her, “but then I’m going to go my own way.”

The girl bared her teeth, and it took Draq a moment to remember it was the human way of grinning. “My name is Arlena,” she said to him.

Draq grunted. “I’m called Draq.”

“Nice to meet you, Draq.”

He snorted.