Daydream (ONC 2024)

Chapter 6: Who's a Good Boy?

Steam puffed against my face, and I woke staring down the edge of a forest ravine with my arms half spilled over the edge. A pool of liquid sloshed below between teeth as big as traffic cones and a tongue the size of a person wiggled back and forth like a fishing lure. Draw some eyes on it, give it a wig, and I'd totally fall for the hot springs ruse. Rows of sharp teeth? Those are just saliva lagoon aesthetic. Nothing to see here. Climb on up past the white-scaled pavilion and dive in!

Consciousness slapped me upside the head, and the reality that I was staring off a cliff into open jaws waiting oh so patiently for me to fall settled in.

Remnants of the last spa visitor lingered between rows of razor teeth, and globs of drool dripped down dark lips onto a sheen of pearl scales. They covered the lizard in an overlapping mesh from snout to tail, and a puff of smoke escaped its jaws as it growled and dug its claws into the ground in impatience. I wasn't falling fast enough from the vending machine, and it was only a matter of time before it smacked it to dislodge the snack.

I tried to back out of my imminent demise without drawing the thing's attention, but my hand slipped on the dew-laden grass and the dirt gave. I scrambled to avoid my end, but gravity won out and my pitiful life flashed before my eyes until someone grabbed my upper arm. With a stiff yank, I was standing on steady ground, but I wasn't safe as the oversized lizard saw its prey slipping away. It snapped its jaws shut and rose with a growl that rained drool down on me.

Golden eyes set back into silver scales narrowed, and a pair of enormous wings spread so fast that I was unprepared for the gust that tore me off my feet. Hands grabbed mine to keep me from flying off to Oz with Toto, and I clung to the body next to mine as the dragon cleared trees with a swipe of its tail. Wood snapped and crashed, and I didn't wait for permission to leave the dinner party early.

I took off up a slope that led to my sleeping area under the overhang, and I picked up my crowbar in a panic devoid of rational thought. What was I going to do with it? A crowbar wasn't enough to best a dragon bigger than a school bus, and I was unsure of another means to pacify it. Did it like mangoes? Should I have brought some mangoes?

Footstomps shook the ground as it chased after me, and I turned just in time to jump back as teeth snapped in my face. I skittered away, crowbar in hand, to face my foe, and its gold eyes focused on the wave of the weapon in my hand. At first, I thought it meant to disarm me, but the longer my hand swayed with the heavy breaths shaking my body, the lower its head sank. Its tail thumped and swished as a little rumble came out of its mouth, and the tremors in my body lessened with a sigh of incredulity. I'd seen that posture in too many cats and dogs to be frightened of it.

"You want the crowbar?" I cooed in my best pet parent voice, and the dragon's tail swiping increased until a cyclone of grass and dust formed behind it. "Who's a good dragon?" A hysterical chuckle clipped my question as it rumbled in answer. "All right, well go... get it." I tossed the crowbar off into the woods, and the dragon bounded after, grabbing it in its jaws and rolling down into the ravine.

As the dragon gnawed on its new stick, I found Faella seated on her side of the camp under a tree drinking tea with Lexington. A spread of breakfast foods covered a picnic blanket and tempted my stomach, but the quivering ground from the threshing dragon gave me pause. How could they just sit there with tea when I was fighting for my life?

"Sven!" a stern voice called from the woods just before a huge guy cleared the tree line and. With a quick twist of his head, he identified the dragon in the ravine, sighed, and then rubbed his face as he jogged up to where I stood. "Sorry about Sven. Sometimes when he's half asleep, he wanders around with snack cravings. Once he's up though, he can tell people from deer."