My Journey with a Twelve Pound Dragon

Prompt: A story about a journey

February 18, 2018

No journey is easy when you have something sitting on your shoulder.  It’s even harder when the thing sitting on your shoulder is a 12 pound dragon, whose breath reeks like raw meat and burns your skin.
Of course, I wouldn’t be going on this journey were it not for the obnoxious 12 pound dragon sitting on my shoulder.  He was separated from his flock in the great tornado we had a few months back.  He promises that he knows exactly where they will be, but his wing is injured and he can’t fly.
Azruel...my nuisance.
I like to hum when I go for walks, and think nothing of it as we walk down the path.
“Why are you humming?” the dragon asks me.
I sigh.  “Because I like humming.”
“Well stop it, it’s annoying, and I’m trying to sleep.”
“The sun is up!” I protest.
“So what?  I am tired.  I need my sleep.”
“So can I just lay down and go to sleep?”
“No!  You are being ridiculous, we have to keep going.” Azruel screeches in my ear.
I’m sure this is what I get to put up with for the rest of the trip.
Our journey is long, but not too dangerous. However, on the way, we encounter terrible trolls.  They are big and hairy, with long, rotten, pointy teeth.  The biggest of them all has the squeakiest voice, and demands I hand over my chicken.
“My chicken?” I ask.
“Yes!  Give us your chicken, so we can have dinner!”
“We aren’t above eating human….” one of the others growls, examining his sharp claws.
“N-no, you don’t need to eat me!” I’m embarrassed at my stutter.  It only comes out when I’m nervous.  “I just don’t have a chicken!”
“What’s that on your shoulder then?” the first troll squeaks at me.
I turn my head to see the dragon sleeping soundly.  Not a shock.  He’s always either sleeping or running his mouth.
“This, is a dragon.”
The trolls laugh as if that is the funniest thing they’ve ever heard before in their lives.
“That ain’t a dragon,” says the second troll.  “Dragons are big and scary.  Dragons eat trolls.  You have chicken.”
I sigh.  My sigh is so loud that it wakes up the ‘chicken’.
“What’s all the racket?” grumbles Azruel.
“These trolls want to eat my chicken.”  I grin at him.  “If my chicken keeps being so obnoxious, I might let them.”
Azruel blinks sleepily and looks around.  “Chicken?”
“Yeah.  A blue, scaly chicken, with hot stinky breath.”
Azruel continues to look around.  “Chicken?”  He looks up at me quizzically.  “What chicken?”
The trolls’ eyes have grown large.
“Your chicken talks!”  The first troll pokes Azruel with a finger.
Startled by being poked, Azruel jumps and begins to fall.  Naturally he digs into my shoulder with his claws to keep from falling.  And naturally, I cry out and grab at him.  I have been told multiple times that I must not touch or grab at Azruel without his permission.  By Azruel of course.
He lets out a screech of anger and nips at me.
“Azruel!”  There is a blossom of blood on my finger where he nipped me.  And he is sitting on my shoulder, once more, glaring haughtily at the trolls.
“I am not a chicken.”
The third troll finally finds the courage to sniff at Azreul.  “No...isn’t chicken.”
“I told you!”  Azruel glowers so fiercely that the streams of smoke that almost always come from his nostrils double in size.
“Can we still eat it?” asked the first troll.
“No, you most certainly may not eat me!  Good riddance, you vile creatures.  Begone!”  He lets out a small flame, and the trolls back away, confused.
“Please, just leave.  I’ll find you each a chicken sometime...just go for now,” I plead.  And honestly?  I plan to find them chickens.  Trolls are easier to deal with than this stupid dragon.
After much persuading, they finally leave.
“Now we can continue in peace,” Azruel grumbles.
“Well, you can,” I mutter.
The next few miles aren’t too horrible.  At least until Azruel gets hungry.  Then he becomes a whining little baby.
“Are we going to stop and eat soon?”
“No, Azruel, we need to keep going.”
“But I’m hungry!” he whined.
“So am I, but I also want to get you home.”  I mostly wanted to get him somewhere so he could bother people other than me.
“If we don’t stop to eat, I will die, and then it won’t matter if you get me home or not.  Is that really what you want for me?”
I closed my eyes to keep them from rolling.  “Fine, we’ll stop to eat, but you can’t sit on my shoulder while you eat.”
“You expect me to sit on the ground?  The hard, dusty ground?”
“It’s either sit on the ground or don’t stop to eat.”
He pouts, but climbs down from my shoulder.  “Well, give me some food!”
I sigh and reach into my pack to get him some dried beef.  He grumbles that it isn’t raw, but gobbles it down.
“Are you ready to go now?” I ask.
He nods, and climbs back onto my shoulder.  Within seconds he is fast asleep.  I don’t mind.  It keeps him quiet.
When the sun starts going down, I start thinking about stopping for the night.  I’ve been doing all the walking.  Azruel said that if we followed this path we would find his flock soon, but I’ve yet to see any other dragons like him.  I did see a flock of giant dragons fly overhead a few hours ago.  The sky went dark, and I found myself gasping at the majestic view.
I’m so wrapped up in my own thoughts that I don’t notice Azruel has woke up.  Then, I feel hot liquid falling down the back of my shirt.  I let out a cry, and whip my head around, prepared to give Azruel a stern talking to.
But the expression on his face startles me.  His proud, snobbish expression is gone.  His horns are drooping, and his eyes are downcast.  Even the corners of his mouth are turned down.
“Azruel?”
He looks up and I see glistening jewels of tears sparkling in his eyes.
“Why are you crying?”  I had intended to be harsh with the dragon I assumed was drooling on me in his sleep...but now I just couldn’t bring myself to be cruel with the crying creature.
He looks down again, but does not answer.
“Azruel?” I made my voice as soft as I could.
He buries his face in the back of my neck, and I feel more of his burning tears run down the back of my shirt.
“No, stop, that hurts!”
He lifts his head, then jumps onto the ground and walks alongside me in silence.  Both of his wings droop.
I sit down in the middle of the road.  Confused, he stops and looks back at me.  “I’m not moving until you tell me what’s wrong.”
He comes back and climbs into my lap, curling into a ball and looking up mournfully.  “I miss my flock.”
My shoulders slump.  “I’m sure you do.  That’s why I’m taking you to them.”
He nods.  “I want to be with them now.  I feel lost and grumpy without them.”
I nod in understanding.  “Should we rest for now, so we have strength to finish our journey tomorrow?”
He nods.  “There used to be an inn up ahead...maybe it’s still there?”
I gather the dragon up in my arms, and we continue down the road.  Sure enough, there’s an inn.
“So we stay there for the night?” I ask.
He nods.
I pay for our room, and while I’m not sure about Azruel, as soon as my head hits the pillow, I fall asleep.
I am woken by loud screeching and sit straight up.  Azruel is clawing and scratching at someone’s face.  They’re screaming bloody murder, and I can’t say that I blame them, I would be too.
“Azruel!”
He turns to me, and that’s all it takes for the man to swipe him to the floor.  And that’s when I realize that there is a man in our room.
He picks something up from the ground—an axe.
“I want your money, and I want it now,” he growls.
“B-but I don’t have any m-money!” I hold up my empty hands.
“You sure about that?  They don’t let people stay here if they have no money.”  He comes closer to me, and I fear what he will do to me if I don’t give him what little money I have.
“W-wait, just l-let me get my b-bag!”  I glance wide-eyed at Azruel, who looks more furious than frightened.
The man laughs and steps back as I stumble trying to get to my bag.  I’m too small to fight back, and too scared to do anything but shake.  As I grab my bag, I turn to Azruel.
He’s smiling!  That ridiculous dragon is smiling!  He launches himself from the floor and leaps onto the man’s back, growling and hissing.  I watch, amazed, as the tiny dragon claws and bites a man who is over ten times his size.  This time, I don’t shout.
I clench my fist, and throw a punch, then jump back, afraid he’ll turn around and hit me back.  But no, he is too distracted by the tiny blue dragon chewing on his face.  So I grab his axe.
Now what do I do?!  I stare at the axe I hold.  These things are usually used for cutting wood.  Would they cut through human flesh just as well?  While I ponder what to do with the axe, the door is flung open.
It seems like everything and everyone freezes.
“What is going on in here?!”  It is the innkeeper.  “Cut the racket or I’ll cut you from my inn!”
“Sir,”—I stand straighter, and bow my head respectfully—“this man has barged into our room, threatening us with this axe.  Azruel is defending us and our meager possessions.  If you would simply remove this man from our room we will go back to sleeping like before.  I am so sorry for the disturbance.”
The innkeeper raises an eyebrow, then glowers at the man.  “Come on, out of here.  I’ll be sending you to the jail….”
Azruel jumped from the man’s back and blew a tiny blast of fire at him as he went.  The intruder left willingly.  Apparently being bitten and scratched by a cat sized dragon isn’t enjoyable….
I lay back down on the bed, but it’s hard to sleep now.  My eyes are closed when I feel a weight on the bed.
“No!” I scream, before looking down to see Azruel, his eyes wide.
“Can I sleep here with you?”
Exhausted, I nod.  He crawls close to me, nestling against my chest.  I find that I don’t mind his hot stinky breath on my neck, and soon, we are fast asleep.
The morning comes quietly, and we nearly miss the breakfast that the innkeeper’s wife serves us.  It’s delicious!  Almost more than I can eat!  Bacon, eggs, gravy, biscuits, she even made toast.  My mouth will water forever when I think of this meal.
After breakfast, we leave on our journey once more.  Azruel doesn’t seem quite so grouchy as he did yesterday...he almost seems pleasant.  Of course, he still doesn’t want to walk, but today I find myself not minding.
It doesn’t take long before Azruel starts screeching in my ear.  “It’s home, it’s home!”
I follow his gaze and see a large, red rock formation.  There are no dragons, big or little, but if he says it’s his home, it must be his home.
“Just keep walking, human….  It’s home!”
So, I just keep walking.  The closer I get, the more I realize exactly how large and how far away these rocks are.  Then, I realize that there are, in fact, several dragons playing on the rocks.
Most of them are about Azruel’s size.  They are blue, green, brown, even one that glitters like gold.  Some are smaller than him, and I assume they must be babies.  When I ask, he says yes, and tells me that baby dragons are called hatchlings.
I set him down, and he is surrounded by his brethren.  They nuzzle each other and coo softly.  A few dragons whimper when they see his injured wing.  He smiles widely, nosing a few of the dragons over and over.  I wonder if there’s something special about those dragons.
My journey is complete, my errand is over.  I turn to go.
“Wait, before you go I wanted to give you something!” Azruel stops me.
So I wait.  As I wait, the dragons crowd around me, cooing about ‘the human.’  Hatchlings scale me the way a kitten would, then perch on my shoulders or crawl up to my head, giggling like little children.  They are so adorable and funny that I find myself laughing as I stroke their scaly heads.
One hatchling is still learning how to control his fire.  I learn this because he sneezes, and for a second, my clothes are on fire.  However, the fire was put out just as quickly because it’s smothered by all the dragons clamoring around me.
Then Azruel is back, dragging a heavy bag behind him.  Well, it’s heavy to him.  To me it’s just a bursting money purse.  He drags it to me, then looks up, his eyes shining.  I never dreamed I’d see that cranky dragon smiling so happily.
“For my friend.”  He noses the bag to me.  “My friend who brought me home.”
I’m not crying.  I don’t cry.  Why would I be crying?  So ridiculous to think that I would tear up at this.  I reach down, but I don’t grab the money bag.  Instead I hug that little dragon tight.
He squeaks.
“Oh, I’m sorry!”  I release him, and he scrambles away, but not very far before looking back up at me with a giant smile.
“Thank you for bringing me home.”  And then he’s gone, lost in the throng of dragons.
Taking his gift with me, I turn and leave.  Maybe I’ll come back and visit him someday.  Azruel...my friend.
©2018 Katie Holm