Chronicles of Carnezia (Book 1): Dragons of Dracona

Chapter 8: Forever Friends

Chapter 8: Forever Friends

            It was only inside that I discovered more about the baby dragon I now cradled so close to my chest. It seemed content just to stay wrapped up in the warm blanket and had drifted off to sleep whilst I had walked round to go back into the shop. However, it was not empty as I had been hoping.

            ‘What happened to you? I thought something terrible had hap...’ began Mr. Harrison but he stumbled to a halt in his worries when he saw what I was carrying. He leant closer to have a better look. ‘This is not possible. Well, well, who would have thought? He is pretty isn’t he?’ he asked.

            ‘How do you know he is a male?’ I asked back.

            He looked over the head of the dragon, seemingly taking in a few details but then he answered my question with what I didn’t want to hear. ‘You can never tell until they are a bit bigger and older but he or she is better than it in the meantime, hmm?’ I nodded. ‘How on earth did you find him?’ he questioned, using the masculine description of a living creature.

            So I told Mr. Harrison everything from what I had heard in and around the crowd and how, while brushing down Aspen, that I heard the dragon trying to get outside from having hidden in the stable. I considered it a coincidence but Mr. Harrison didn’t think so. ‘I got it to come to me by offering it food and shelter. I guess it will get a bit angry if I don’t go through with that but what am I going to do with it? I can’t keep it... him, and even if I wanted to, where would I hide him?’

            ‘Hide him? Why would you need to hide him?’

            Although his questions seemed odd, I answered with the obvious anyway. ‘Because won’t everyone panic and freak out if they find out it’s a dragon that’s been causing the problems with the butcher’s? I can’t let anything happen to him, not after finding him.’

            ‘Hmm, I see your point. You can always leave him here.’ My eyes widened with the possibility of looking after the creature for the time being. ‘We have a spare room that you can use for him and I suppose you should sleep the night too. I will get your grandma to phone you’re mother and say that you are safe.’ I was just about to drop the dragon and panic and run into the back room; it hadn’t occurred to me that I was not only late for dinner but also extremely late for even getting home. Mr. Harrison continued. ‘I don’t think it’s a good idea if we let the little thing out in the day and whether we should have too many people around him for him to get used to. Even with the Tamer’s dragons, they are still wild, noble creatures that deserve a wide birth and a lot of respect, even one this small.’

            That night I spent sleeping in the spare room upstairs in the shop in Baedon with a dragon slumbering near the fireplace. It took awhile for me to get to sleep with all the excitement but I did eventually drift off and my dreams were the most bizarre they had been for years.

*****

            The next morning, I woke up before the sun had even risen onto the town. I slipped off the bed and rubbed my eyes; I didn’t have any pyjamas so I had slept in the clothes I was borrowing off Mrs. Harrison although she had said that I could keep them. Looking over at the fireplace, I spotted the dragon still slumbering only no longer curled up on its front; in the night it must have rolled over and was now happily lain on its back with its tail flipping from side to side as it dreamt. Knowing it must be hungry, as I felt my own stomach rumble; I slipped out of the room and went to the little kitchen (by this time I knew the shop and its residential apartment upstairs rather well).