Page 18 of Serving my Dragon
“As if they have a choice in the matter,” Pollita scoffed.
For a tiny critter, she had the balls of a bull. “You should be careful,” I warned. “If you are noticed by the wrong sorts, you could find yourself in a zoo or a lab.”
“A zoo?” Pollita screeched. “I am not some freak to be stared at.”
“No, but you are rare. And rare things tend to be secured in places meant to keep them safe.”
“I will choose my own safe spot, and my protectors shall defend me.” An imperious claim not worth arguing over.
“So how long before you’re too big for my house?”
“That depends on my growth spurts and food intake. We most likely have a full revolution of the planet around the sun, maybe two, before it becomes entirely unsuitable.”
A year or two at most then. “I’ll miss you when you leave.”
“Why would you miss me? You’ll be accompanying me as part of my retinue.”
Yeah, I couldn’t stop the laughter this time. “Oh, Polly.” The shortened name slipped out. “I can’t move away. For one, my dental practice is here, and for another, Mama would never allow it.”
“Then we will bring her too. She can be my second cook.”
I allowed Polly her delusion because honestly, I didn’t see how any of it would work out. If she spoke truly, and was actually a dragon, how long before she got removed from my care? A creature so rare as to be thought legend would be contained in a secured environment. Studied. Questioned. A terrible life, really, and I didn’t have the heart to detail what her future held. Let her enjoy the time she had now before her reality changed.
“You say you were hatched in the volcano. How long was your egg there?”
Ever see a lizard shrug? Odd to say the least.
“I don’t know, but given what I’ve seen and experienced thus far, all of it new and unknown, it would seem much time passed as my memories have nothing of cars or televisions or this strange thing you call electricity that runs everything.”
“Are there other eggs waiting to hatch in Misti?”
“Doubtful. A progenitor will scatter its progeny like seeds to ensure viability.”
“Meaning there could be others elsewhere.”
“Most likely. Clutch sizes do range but it would be unusual for one with less than a pair of eggs. Now, if you’re done with the questions, I need a snack.”
Chapter Six
I fed Polly, and my mind whirred. I should have been focused on catching up on correspondence that arrived while I was on vacation, but instead of going through my many voicemails, invoices, and other administrative tasks, I found myself on the internet seeking answers by using a variety of search terms.
What lizards can talk? Because I struggled with the whole dragon bit. Perhaps a parrot-like reptile existed that I didn’t know about.
How are dragons born?
Can dragons speak?
Do volcano lizards exist?
I entered all kinds of combinations of words and phrases. Turned out, any use of the word dragon got me everything from Game of Thrones to a wiki of every fictional dragon in existence. None of it came even close to what Pollita had described. Just like no images—lizard or otherwise—resembled her. As for the first search, could lizards talk? The answer “yes” was with the caveat they did so with body language and mannerisms.
My research left me just as confused as before I began and at a loss for what to do. I knew a creature so rare should be reported, but I balked, knowing that not only would they imprison Pollita, but that I’d lose her. I’d become oddly attached in the short time since we’d met. Still, I couldn’t exactly keep a dragon secret.
With more questions than answers, I ditched the whole dragon dilemma and instead tackled my emails, most of them junk. A new reply from Sally had me pursing my lips and debating showing Kayleigh.
Listen, you fuckwad, I know you’re not Kayleigh because she’s travelling with me. So find another person to scam.
Wait. Sally was with Kayleigh? It had me wondering, could it be the woman living with me was lying about her identity? After all, I only had her word that anything she’d told me was the truth. It did seem odd no one had reported her missing. Even if she was travelling alone, a hotel should have noticed when a guest didn’t return from an excursion.
