Hubby chose this picture from my Pinterest board this time. I was the only writer who got to it during quarantine, but I had fun. Enjoy the read!
(I couldn't find the artist unfortunately - the closest I got was a story on Wattpad included this graphic. If you can find the artist, let me know so I can give them credit!)
Wifey's Small Story:
It was night. I don't know how long I'd been flying, looking for my nightly morsel, but since the deer had moved north, I'd been taking longer and longer flights just to get some dinner. Often I'd had to make due with cows, but I hate eating cattle. They aren't to my taste, and the repercussions annoy me. No one likes being chased by angry villagers with pitchforks for a lousy meal of fatty meat. I hate using my fire to scare them off, and then they just hold grudges, nasty things.
So I'd passed up the farms and villages as I made my way north, looking for straggling deer or even large rodents. I'd been out of luck for quite some time when I noticed a band of light traveling through the woods. Intrigued, I flew lower, knowing it wasn't deer, but curious nonetheless.
What met my eyes brought me up short. A whole troupe of humans marched in a long line, their torches flickering through the trees, the light bouncing off the metal that covered their small human heads. These humans were covered in metal, in fact, and most of them carried their pointy sticks that so annoy me when we get in a tussle. Wondering where they were going during their normal sleep time, I dove slightly lower through the cloud cover and noticed something odd.
Humans' ways are strange to me always: I never can figure them out. But this was stranger than ever. In all that sea of metal, there was a lone human who carried nothing and wore nothing but that thin flimsy stuff that non-fighting humans cover themselves with - I've never figured out why they do it. This human was the female kind, and as I narrowed my eyes and looked closer, I could see that she was bound somehow with a rope and more metal that connected her to one of the metal-covered humans. He was pulling her along roughly, sometimes jerking her so she stumbled, but the way that she stumbled was also odd to me. Humans move very similarly to one another, just as other species do, but this one was strangely graceful. Whenever she almost fell, somehow she'd be up on her feet again, moving quickly and fluidly to keep up. I followed them for quite some time, forgetting my hunger in my curiosity over this graceful human.
After awhile, they stopped to eat, and just when I was wavering over whether to continue on or not, my decision was made for me.
The woman held out her hand in a supplicating manner to one of the humans who had food. He used his pointy stick to hit her hand away and spat on her. When I smelled her blood and heard her involuntary cry, I couldn't help myself.
I dove faster than a hawk, crushing the human instantly in my claws. I turned to the woman, expecting her to scream, and met her eyes. They were like nothing I'd ever seen. It was as if the fire inside me rose up with a strength I'd never known before, and I felt much more powerful than my normal self. She smiled slowly, and I spread my wings and puffed my chest. In that moment, the other humans came running with their sticks, shouting threateningly, but for some reason, I had no regret about my interference. I blew a thin stream of fire through her bonds, and the ropes shriveled. As they crumbled into ash, I saw a green light escape through them into the air. The woman raised her chin, sighing with immense relief. She seemed to be concentrating, her eyes burning fiercely, and just as the first human reached her, the metal shackles around her neck and hands burst apart, hitting them with shards of metal.
These circumstances kept getting stranger and stranger! With more humans running at me, I had no time to ponder it, however. I flung two humans against trees and burnt into ash several more that rushed at me. By the time I could look back at my odd partner, she had her hands raised - and most of the humans facing her were in the air, gasping, with their hands at their throats. The others were shouting at her and moving as if they were stuck in water. When the ones in the air lost consciousness, she released them, and they fell heavily. The others collapsed into sleep at the same time.
Disliking the thought of staying here any longer, I willed her to look at me. I didn't know how to communicate to her, but when she met my gaze, she saw the invitation in my eyes and leapt onto my scaly back in a single, graceful bound.
With several more humans running at us from the other side, I pushed off the singed ground with a mighty heave and soared into the air, far above the range of their sticks.
I'd probably have to go without dinner tonight, I reflected as I pumped my wings, but feeling her small weight on my back, I felt only a sense of adventure and excitement for whatever was to come.
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