Page 5 of The Baby Dragon Cafe
Instead, he was in town, chasing after a baby dragon, which had been hatched only six months ago by his parents in an attempt to force Aiden into making a decision regarding the dragon egg. He was to either give the dragon to his family or take care of it himself.
Because the egg was the last thing Danny had left him, Aiden refused to give the dragon up—which was why he was now running down Main Street.
The streets were empty at this time of night; all the shops were closed. However, the little monster Aiden was in charge of loved the fountain in town, and Aiden had brought him here in hopes that it would get the baby dragon to behave.
Sparky had been a nightmare all day, and Aiden’s patience had run dry eighteen hours ago. First, Sparky kept Aiden up all night with his wailing because the dragon’s teeth were emerging. Then, this morning, he had chewed through half of Aiden’s flowers, all but ruining his garden.
The baby dragon next proceeded to create a massive messin Aiden’s peaceful home, attacking Aiden whenever he tried to intervene. Now, after a visit to the fountain, Sparky was in better spirits, but that only meant he kept running off, forcing Aiden to chase after him.
It was maddening.
Aiden looked up at the night sky, scowling at the twinkling stars. Wherever Danny was, Aiden was sure he was getting a good laugh in. For the tenth time that day, Aiden considered selling Sparky off. And for the tenth time, his conscience forbade him.
Sparky was all Danny had left him. It might have been as a joke, since Danny knew Aiden was never interested in dragons, but nonetheless, Aiden would not abandon his brother’s parting gift.
No matter how much of a nuisance it was.
There the little monster went now, leaping from Aiden’s arms and firing flames into the sky.
“Sparky, no!” Aiden called. Heat flared against his face, and he closed his eyes against the fire. Baby dragons couldn’t cause too much damage—mature dragons could properly melt a human’s face clean off—but that didn’t mean baby dragons couldn’t cause any damage at all.
Aiden looked around to ensure there hadn’t been a disaster; luckily, there hadn’t. A ding sounded in the air as a door opened. He turned to see they were standing in front of an establishment called the Baby Dragon Cafe.
“Is everything okay?” a voice called, stepping out.
His gaze fell on what must have been the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, and suddenly, Aiden felt hot for altogether different reasons.
She was a head shorter than him, wearing an oversized cardigan and a dress with what looked to be singe marks on the hem. Her skin was a warm brown. She had a gold nose piercing and dark hair pulled up into a loose twist. When she looked at him with arresting brown eyes, he was all but pinned to the spot.
He vaguely knew of her and the cafe. Starshine Valley was small; everyone knew everyone, to a certain extent. Even if Aiden hardly ever left home, he heard enough from his massive family. His cousin, Emmeline, sourced the coffee for the cafe, and just because Aiden wasn’t talkative didn’t mean he was a terrible listener, too.
The woman was a Margala … What was her name? He was suddenly desperate to know, and irritated that he didn’t know it already. From what he recalled, she was a few years younger than him and not from one of the Drakkon families, so they hadn’t crossed paths before (to be fair, Aiden crossed paths with very few people).
“Y-Yes, sorry,” Aiden stammered, running after Sparky, who was making a beeline for the open door, practically skipping with glee. The beautiful Margala woman yelped as Sparky scurried past her feet and entered the cafe.
“Sparky!” Aiden cried, and was promptly ignored. “I’m so sorry,” Aiden said to her, worried that she’d be angry, that he’d already ruined things before they had even properly met, that he didn’t even know her name.
But she surprised him by laughing, holding the door open to let Aiden rush in behind his baby dragon. Gold bangles jingled on her arm. As he walked past her, he caught a whiff of her perfume: roses. He momentarily forgot about his demonic pet and inhaled the sweet scent.
“Who is this little angel?” she asked, adopting a baby-voice as she regarded Sparky. Aiden always considered people talking to baby dragons as deranged—and in baby-voice, even more so—but the act was quite endearing from her.
Sparky, it seemed, agreed; he lit up.
“Are you hungry?” she asked, squatting. Sparky cooed, a sound Aiden had literally never heard from the dragon. “Is this cute little draggo hungry?”
She went to scoop Sparky in her arms then, and alarm flooded through Aiden.
“No, I wouldn’t do that!” he cried, but it seemed his concern was for nothing. Where Aiden would have received a growl and a bite, the woman received a compliant little dragon. Sparky went into her arms willingly and happily (Aiden couldn’t blame the baby dragon, really).
She scratched under Sparky’s chin, and the dragon closed his eyes, smiling.Huh.Aiden had never seen the animal so well-behaved.
“Youarehungry! Do you want a little treat?” she asked, still speaking in that baby-voice. She carried Sparky behind the counter and pulled out a massive glass jar of black chips, pulling a few out. They looked and smelled like pieces of burned naan.
The woman popped one into her mouth (which he found insane), then fed one to Sparky, who went crazy with glee, nuzzling his head against the thick fabric of her sweater. She gazed at the little devil with affection, and the little devil gazed back with equal adoration.
How did shedothat? She had gotten farther with the baby dragon in six minutes than Aiden had in six months. He’d gotten more scratches and bites and burns than he could count!
“You said his—her?—name was Sparky?” she said, turning to Aiden now. Being on the receiving end of those magnificent dark eyes, Aiden jolted.
