A Dragon and his Booty...

“One…two…three, six…seven…eight, twelve…twenty-four…”  I paced across the dusty cave floor, comforted by the rhythmic sound of her fellow dragons counting their loot.  There were very few rules when it came to dragons, but, the “A” number one was never come between Dragon and his treasure.

Limbs and lives were lost when a dragons treasure was threatened.

Even now Holt sat counting the treasure that matched his scaly hide — cold hard cash, glittering emeralds, and green M&M’s of every variety. 

“Hey, Holty…how about a sweet for the lovely lady dragon?” Yes, I do call them like I see them, I am damn lovely, but as I expected my request was answered with a puff of nostril smoke and a really hairy eyeball. The look was impressive, but the smoke coming out of that handsome human face was scary as hell.

“Here, Flame…” I reached out and grabbed the hundred he’d peeled off the towering mass of bills. “Go away and leave me alone.”  

I know I should be surprised, a dragon giving away riches rather than a silly piece, or two, of candy, but I was starting to wonder if the candy was being hoarded for someone special.  Ever since arriving in this town, littered with shapeshifters and rumored to have a link to underwater worlds, the males in my group have gotten weirder.  They’d become more introspective and the treasure hording had increased tenfold. 

One would think they smelled their mates on the horizon, or in the deep blue.

Another example of oddness is Ice.  A gorgeous and I do mean drop dead, legs in the air gorgeous, blue dragon on the other side of the cave.  He stood knee deep in precious metals.  Gold, silver, and a wide assortment of other shiny cold bits of wealth surrounded him, but it was the crystal containers and the mixture of baubles that he counted higher and higher.  

“Icicles…I lifted—” Note that I say lifted, see dragons don’t buy anything, we take it because really, whose gonna stop us? “—this awesome smelling perfume yesterday.  It’s ala naturally ingredients and made specifically not to bother asthmatics, so do you have a bottle I can put it into?  A really nice one, hopefully, with a little ball thingy to make it squirt?”

“Back away from the bottles…NOW.” There was death in the eyes that lifted to mine, my death, and all over a silly crystal perfume bottle.  Yet even as I moved away he threw me a bar of silver, which I of course took.  Treasure is treasure and a good dragon never ignores a new piece…no matter how it is obtained.

Besides, I would need all the riches I could get my hands on to win, and keep, the object of my affection.  I turned to the final male of our group, a short, dull brown, and spectacle wearing dragon named Percy. 

Percy was what the human world coined a nerd, but I called him perfect.  He was smart—so smart, sweet, understanding, and tender.  He was also incredibly clueless.

“Hey there, Percy,” I purred in my dragon way, low and grumbly, sex infusing every word. “What’cha doing?”

“Thirty-six, forty-eight…” Like I couldn’t tell as he continued to count his hordes.  More like crap if you asked me, but I tried to not let it faze me.  This would be my mate someday so it would be best for me to get used to seeing comic books, text books and—oh volcanic fires—matchbooks.  What kind of dragon stockpiles matches?  He could breathe fire from his nostrils and he hordes matches.    

I had to also wonder, if the rumors were true and there were more of our kind living beneath the blue, how would Percy manage his treasure?  Books would not survive the sea just as matches could not light under water.  His treasure would forever remain topside, as would her sweet Percy.

This town of Talbot’s Peak, with its shifters, humans and word has it gods, would become her home—unless she could convince her sweetie to change his obsession.

“Percy, my love, how do you feel about diamonds?”

“Sixty, seventy-two, eighty-four…”

***

Friday, January 27^th Headline news on the Guts & Butt’s online edition…

Spontaneous combustion, glowing embers or something else starts forest fire on mountain face.  The town would like to thank the Phant family—Ella and her boy’s— for being quick to the site with water.  Few trees were lost, but odd rumblings emanated from a cave close by.  Use caution for daily runs.

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 Thanks to my fellow blog mates for suggesting dragon week!  I always have so much fun playing with my fire-breathing friends!  Have a great weekend!

Serena