The Encounter Part 2
The Encounter Part 2
I woke up way too early. However, knowing I wasn't going to get any more sleep, I opened my eyes. I shouldn't have.
Right in front of my face were menacing jaws lined with dagger-like and obviously very sharp teeth. I immediately threw myself off of my bed. OF COURSE I had a bedside table and OF COURSE I hit my head on it as I threw myself away from the creature that I was absolutely sure would try to eat me. I staggered to my feet, clutching my aching head. As the throb in my head subsided to a manageable level, and my vision started to clear, I saw the same creature sleeping soundly on my bed. I quietly chuckled at my own stupid reaction, which only made my head hurt more.
Now I had hit my head pretty hard on that damn table, so I decided to go to the doctor if it didn't start hurting less soon. "Definitely a coffee morning" I murmured to myself. I almost never drink coffee, but sometimes I just need it. Like terrible mornings such as this one. I quietly exited my room and made some coffee. I set the cup on a small coffee table in the living room and went to the bathroom to get ready for the day. 'If I am going to go to the hospital, I should at least smell good,' I thought, then laughed at how ridiculous that sounded.
Meanwhile...
The dragoness woke up, noting that the human was gone. She wondered where he could be, and decided to go look. She really liked sleeping in the bed. It was much softer than the ground, and it smelled interesting. Speaking of interesting smells, there was one filling the house right now. It didn't smell like the human, but curiosity got the better of her and she walked silently out of the bedroom. The curious smell got stronger and stronger, heightening the dragon's need to know the source. She walked into the living room, which was right by the kitchen, and spotted a small table with an oddly shaped object on it. It seemed to be the source of the smell so she got closer...
...CRASH!!! I jumped as I reached for the door handle. I rushed toward the noise in my house, and once I got there, I stood shocked at the scene before me. The small coffee table was broken into pieces, with a brown and green dragon curled up in front of a large pool of spilled coffee. The poor dragon had what could only be described as a scared or guilty look on her face. It was actually kinda cute.
I was just about to scold her when she snaked her tongue out and licked the spilled coffee. I couldn't do it. I couldn't yell at her. In fact, she was kind of growing on me. I almost wanted to keep her around. It was lonely in this big house anyway, and I could use a pet, or maybe a friend. I really didn't know what kind of intelligence this creature had in the first place. I smiled and went to grab a towel from the kitchen. My head was feeling a little better anyway, so I doubted I would need the coffee or a doctor visit. I came back with a towel and cleaned up what the dragon hadn't cleaned up already.
I threw the towel in the laundry basket to clean later and went back into the living room. I sat next to the dragon and scratched behind her horn. She seemed to like that so I continued. "I guess you need a name..." The dragon looked at me for a moment, before lying back down and enjoying the scratching. I chuckled to myself at such an absurd moment actually happening. "What do you think about Sophie?" She looked at me, and licked my hand. She probably just wanted me to keep petting her, but I took it as a yes anyway. I sat there, petting my dragon and admiring her beauty before I realized that I really should get some writing done. The mini-series I run in a few local newspapers was due in two days after all. I sat down and started writing...
...It didn't take as long as I thought it would to finish the story, and I actually got that week's story done in a reasonable amount of time. "Maybe actually encountering and seeing a dragon up close made it easier to write," I said to myself. "It is a dragon story after all." I got up and stretched my aching muscles. You know that feeling that you get when you have been sitting down for too long? That was what I was feeling, tight and eager to get moving again. I stepped out of my office and walked through a short hallway and into the living room. Sophie was not in there so I walked over to my bedroom. There she was, the unmistakable mass of green scales, lying unmoving on my bed. I figured it would be a bad idea to wake a sleeping dragon. 'They say let a sleeping dog lie, so why could that not apply to a dragon?' I thought. 'I could end up missing a limb or worse...who knows.' I soon found myself doubting that notion though. Sophie seemed quite calm, and even smart. She couldn't speak that I knew of, but I could tell that she seemed to understand when I talked to her. It amazed me to no end.
One of my file cabinets on the other side of the room was open. I didn't remember ever opening it but I forget such trivial things quite easily. Instead of trying to remember, I just walked over and closed it. I turned back around to discover that Sophie was not asleep, but staring intently at several sheets of printer paper. There was a small purple folder beside those pages, which contained even more papers, and was rather stuffed. 'Damn I probably killed an entire forest with that,' I thought as I saw the mass of paper shoved in the obviously, well used binder. I climbed up next to the dragon, curious at what she was looking at. Once I saw the first page, I immediately recognized it as an old project of mine. I had finished the basic plot line but hadn't written in all the details or other items that needed attending to. I read over the first paragraph, noting how terrible the wording sounded to me now.
I looked up at the green and brown dragoness beside me. I chuckled at her expression of utter concentration. The project was an old dragon story, of a knight who was sent to slay a dragon, but after watching the creature for a while, realized how un-chivalrous it would have been to kill it. He continued to study the creature before eventually befriending the "foul beast" and having to fight off the rest of the knights who he couldn't explain the predicament to. It was quite an interesting story, and I wondered if Sophie could actually read. It occurred to me that she could have easily watched people to learn the language, so if she were to steal or find a newspaper or magazine...it would also do to say that she might be able to read. I wondered if it could be true, and my question was answered when she moved one page off to the side and put the next in front of her.
"Like the story?" I asked softly, not wanting to startle her.
She looked over and tilted her head as if she didn't hear what I said. I pointed to the papers and asked the question again. She gave a low purr and put the paper down. She moved over to the binder and opened to the back. There, she found some drawings. I happened to have a friend who drew comics, and he had accepted the challenge of drawing a comic based on the story. Many of the scenes were quite brutal and involved more than a few dragons being slaughtered by knights. She looked at me questioningly. I felt a bit guilty. I knew she understood those pictures for sure, and I didn't want her to get the wrong idea. I quickly turned to the page where the one knight had brought the dragon a plump boar to eat, and tried to explain that not all humans were like that, me being one of them. It was quit hard to explain, but by the end of it, I was reading the story to a very cozy dragon, curled up on the soft blankets. 'What am I getting myself into?' I thought as I read the tale out loud to the utterly captivated dragon. Each part of the story seemed to spike different emotions in the scaly creature before me. 'It is just an old rejected idea,' I mused. 'But she likes it, so I am happy.' I read to her until we both grew tired of that and my stomach growled its protest. I chuckled as hers repeated its own discontent.
I walked into the kitchen, clanking at the still broken table that was still lying there in the adjacent living room. "Tomorrow..." I said. I cooked up some bacon and eggs to eat. Breakfast is great at any time of the day. It was sort of past lunch time but not quite dinner time. However, I hadn't eaten anything all day. I hadn't even had my coffee. Needless to say, I was hungry and so was Sophie. I could see her nose, actively taking in the scent of cooking bacon. Once it was done. I grabbed some of the food and put it on my plate. The rest, and a much larger portion, went in a large bowl. I gave that to the dragon, who eagerly gulped it down. It was kind of interesting to watch her eat, so interesting that I almost didn't notice her trying to steal one of my pieces of bacon. I put my hand in front of her and grabbed the bacon, eating it quickly. "Mine" I said, but smiled to let her know I wasn't mad. She grinned and had a guilty, yet cute facial expression, like that of a child that just got caught doing something he shouldn't, but not bad enough for any real punishment. 'I am going to like having her around,' I thought to myself as I finished my meal.