Chronicles of Carnezia (Book 1): Dragons of Dracona

Chapter 9: Night Time Wanders

Chapter 9: Night Time Wanders

            On the way home, I decided to walk to take as long as I could and try to think of how to put all of this seemingly impossible stuff to tell to my mum. It was all so much that I knew she would never believe me but I had to tell her (Mrs. Harrison was right about that). Luckily it wasn’t raining as I took ten minutes to walk the five minute distance.

            I walked up to the front door and went inside trying to be as quiet as possible. However, mum had heard the door close and said that she was just getting some lunch and asked if I wanted some. Seeing that I was hungry, I said that I’d be down in a minute. In my room, I brushed my hair and took off my jacket and hung it on the hook on the back of my door. Then I headed back down to the kitchen.

            It was no doubt that she would bring up me sleeping over at the Harrison’s as she did but she definitely didn’t sound as angry or upset as I had expected her to sound. It was only when she asked what I had been up to that I knew I had to tell her now or I wouldn’t get a second chance. She listened to all I had to say and I even showed her some of my little notebook from up in my room. All the while she listened, I realised she didn’t show as much as the surprise that Mr. Harrison had when he saw me carrying the dragon in the horse blanket.

            She turned the sandwich that she was holding, round and round in her fingers and her head was bowed and seemed to be calculating something. Then she broke the awkward silence between us there in the kitchen. ‘I wondered how long it was until you found out. I was just starting to hope you never did.’ She paused there leaving me a little confused for a moment but she continued.

            I went to sleep in my own bed that night, although sleep is not what I did at all. I spent the whole night awake, lying on my front and adding more to my notebook. It was hard not to think over what my mum had told me but I didn’t let it go around and round my head and make me hasty and crazy. Instead I turned my thoughts back to the dragon; if it was true that I turned out to be its Tamer then I could name it though I guess that required knowing what gender it was. So I set about making two lists of imaginative names that seemed to fit but there were only two specific ones that I really had on my mind.

            Back at the shop, through the mirror, I had a bit of work to do. The little dragon hadn’t liked me not being there for so long and wouldn’t keep from searching round the shop and trying to go outside. As soon as I showed up, it settled down but growled at me angrily and I had to stare it down to stop it from trying to bite me.

            ‘Now are you finished?’ I asked it. ‘It wasn’t that long but what am I going to do?’ I asked myself as I knelt down and stroked its head. Obviously it wouldn’t be able to answer but I liked asking it things to help figure them out in my own head. As much as I wanted to take the little thing outside, I had to wait until night time and then sneakily take it around and show it the town; it turned out to be a curious little being, looking through windows and sniffing at different materials but I had to stop it from raiding the butcher’s stores again as we neared the shop.

            As we strolled down the street, I saw sparks flying out of Bert’s forgery down one of the side streets. I took a chance and turned down there with the dragon close at hand and bouncing with every other step to keep up. I peered round one of the beams that held the roof up that overhung part of the street. Bert was there hammering away at some bar of metal, flattening it and shaping it to how he wanted. Only then did I realise I should have been paying more attention to my new friend, he had sneaked past me and had hopped onto the stone forge where the fire was that Bert clearly used to heat up the pieces he was working on. Bert then started to turn around but I kind of jumped into the middle of his shop with a bit of a flushed look.