Professor Hapburn leaned over the moat and gave a shrill whistle. Ignoring Mikhail’s wince, he kept his eyes on the water for several minutes.
“What are we waiting for?” Mikhail finally asked. He shuffled his worn sneakers in the grass. “Maybe they aren’t interested.”
The magical zoology professor snorted. “As if we’d go the effort of refilling the moat and put in some careless critters to watch over it. They’re merely observing before coming in.”
“Observing what?” Professor Hapburn wasn’t necessarily the most coherent of his instructors. Sometimes he left information out, vital information that would help, say, avoid being set on fire by a suncat in heat, or stabbed by an angry unicorn that didn’t appreciate her football time being interrupted.
Mikhail tried to think of those incidents as learning experiences rather than life-threatening.
“You, of course. He knows me already.”
“Wait, why—”
“There,” said Hapburn, pointing. “You see those ripples?”
The ripples were increasing in height and speed, racing toward the pair. A blue-green scaled monstrosity with tentacles coming out of its face splashed stagnant water everywhere, soaking both of them.
Mikhail gagged, backing away from the moat creature’s seeking muzzle. He tripped and sprawled backward onto the grass.
Coughing, Professor Hapburn wheezed. “Well, now you know why dragons haven’t become more popular as pets, eh, boy? Stagnant swamp water.”
Dragon? Mikhail raised his head and met faceted eyes of deep sapphire, then realized what he’d thought were tentacles were rubbery whiskers. “You’re a real dragon?”
“Of course,” answered the gleaming creature in a Cornish accent. “I’m Kerensa. I’ve been watching you.”
“Er…hi.” He swallowed several times rapidly, wondering whether he’d passed muster — and why Professor Hapburn hadn’t mentioned the dragon could talk. “Water dragon, of course. I hope you find the moat pleasing after having moved in?”
***
This week, a snippet excised from something I’m working on, inspired by AC Young. My prompt went to Leigh Kimmel. It was dragon-themed over at MOTE – a free dragon scale to the first ten people who go check out the fun!*
*Delivery delayed until I find and befriend a dragon well enough to ask for ten of its scales without being eaten. Delivery will not occur if the author is gnawed upon, incinerated, or otherwise incapacitated during all reasonable dragon befriendment and scale-gathering attempts.
