“What. Is. That?” She was used to his pranks, but this was a new level. The little imp shifted from foot to foot, mumbling out incoherent words. Enough stuck out to tell the librarian they were in hot water.
“Found it. Shiny. Good gift. Dragon. Free.” The librarian stared at the huge egg on her desk. A dragon egg. If her truly limited knowledge of dragons was correct, this was a winter wyrm. Nine feet long, they were not monstrous, and covered in soft white fur they could even be said to be cute. They breathed icy winds rather than fire, were relatively easy to tame, and came with a several thousand dollar fine if caught with it.
She was debating what to do when a faint line appeared across the length of the egg and the little imp hopped on the desk in excitement. As the egg shattered under pressure, iridescent wings came forth. It was free in moments, staggering around as if in a daze.
Pure white with shimmering fur, deep blue eyes and a small set of spikes along its spine combined into a very cute and confused beast. It swiveled its head to settle its sight on the Librarian.
“No.” The wyrm took as much notice of her commands as the imp usually did. It slunk nervously towards her, the air around her growing colder the closer it got. She nearly recoiled when it rubbed its head on her leg. Then she made the mistake of looking down into its eyes. The poor thing was scared.
One day it would get big and freeze things but right now it was the size of a dog and clinging to her for security. The librarian picked up the shuddering beast, freezing as it settled itself across her chest. She sighed and with the imp skipping after her she headed to the never used wing for Arcane Relics. Maybe if she made it a bed in the back no one would notice.
“We found them in the chicken coop!” THe kids were smiling, as though this was a good thing. Liam tugged on his beard, staring at the largest eggs he had ever seen.
“Can we keep it?” The hopeful faces would have melted most men. But Liam was not most men. Liam was a parent.
“No.”
“But Dad…”
“We don’t even know what they are. I’m sorry but I’ll need to hand these in, well, somewhere.” Ignoring the laments, Liam went to look for a box to put the eggs into. The trio had settled somewhat by the time he returned. He began lining the box when a faint crack was heard.
Liam’s head snapped around in time to see a shard of an egg go flying. All three kids jumped back as the largest egg split to reveal the strangest looking lizard Liam had seen. As the other two eggs began to crack, the larger one stretched up and out of the towel nest the kids had made. It was as long as his shin from nose to tail tip, covered in dark green skin. The lizard rubbed its head on the carpet, trying to shed the last of the egg sack.
Frozen in place, Liam was at a loss for words. Lizards don’t have wings. The thing gave a cough and a tiny flame was spat out. Lizards don’t spit fire either. He stopped the small flame out and looked to see all three kids slowly shuffling towards it.
“CAN WE KEEP IT?!” THe kids descended on the pseudo-lizard. Liam lunged to stop them from touching it, but the thing rolled over and leaned into the pats. The other two pseudo-lizards came down to join in, one navy and one red.
“No. Just, no.” Liam reached for his phone, at least he knew who to call now.
“Dad, wait!”
“Why not?”
“My dagon.”
“It is NOT a dragon! I’m calling animal management. Guys, we don’t know what they are. The fire spit thing is not ok. You can play with them until they get picked up.” They couldn’t be dragons. They had all but gone extinct after the government began destroying egg nests.
Dragons had been a fashionable pet once upon a time. As the practical implications of having a pet that will outlive you became apparent the government had taken steps to prevent their breeding for sale. Private ownership was no longer an option. Feral dragons released into the wild after their owner died were a real problem and anyone caught harbouring eggs was given severe penalties. These were not dragons.
“My dagon.” The little one cuddled the blue lizard tightly, which just seemed to make it happier. The other two were silently stroking one each. The ringing led to an automated message, which Liam missed entirely.
A short growl was followed by the lunge of their dog, who rushed the lizards. Liam caught him before he could get too close. The lizards however, had scattered, the kids running after them.
The blue one was trying its best to fly. Its wings were not up to the task and the poor thing nearly landed in the fish tank. The green one was sitting on top of the red behind the sofa. It growled when the kids tried to coax it out. Liam pulled the kids away and sent the elder one to take the dog back outside.
“My dagon.” The little girl had the blue one in her arms again. Liam redialled animal control and blessedly, a real person answered.
“Hi, yes, look I’ve had a few of what appear to be a type of dragon like lizard hatch, the kids found the eggs in the chicken coop and they hatched just now.”
“No worries Sir, we get many reports of nests in strange places around this time of year. The feral ones tend to come into town more and more these days. It’s the…” Great, Liam though, a talker. By the time she had finished the mandatory policy warnings and given him a full weather report the kids had assembled in front of him.
“Please Dad, what about just this one?” The blue one had not left the girl’s arms once. They levelled him with their best expressions of hope again.
“Pease, Dagon?”
“Ok Sir, how many eggs were there in total?”
“Three.” The navy lizard, despite being the same size as his daughter, managed to make itself look small in her arms. He really couldn’t tell which one was clinging harder.
“Oh good, a small nest. And how many survived the hatching?”
“Three.”
“Did any make an attempt to fly?”
“Ah yes, one.”
“Noted. Occasionally the dragons are kept as guardians for various facilities but flying is a trait we don’t want. Please make sure you let us know which one as it’ll be put down on site. Did any escape?”
Liam paused for a moment. He wanted them gone, he didn’t really want them dead. The navy dragon had started snoring.
“Pease Daddy.”
“Yes one escaped, the other two are balled up behind my lounge.” He waved at the kids and tried to shush them. The force of holding in the excitement went to their legs and they bounced around him.
“Ok Sir, we’ll send someone out to collect them within the hour.” Liam hung up the phone, wondering how the hell they were going to hide a dragon in the middle of the suburbs.
Liam turned to the kids, still bouncing.
“We need to hide it. Look we’ll keep it but you need to follow the rules I set out. And I guess it needs a name.”
Garble stumbled into the next room, leaving his brothers in the cold box. He had never taken a liking to human food, but Mangle loved the sweet breads so much he would eat till he couldn’t move. He sighed at the thought of having to carry Mangle’s share.
Not that the load was very big mind you. This human must be what Hack called a minimalist. While Garble had to admit they were getting better hauls since Hack started labeling the humans, these “minimalists” were not worth the effort. Very few shines, never any pets and almost nothing to hide behind if the human wakes up.
He was putting the coasters in his bag (probably fake metal, but one never knows) when Garble’s eyes spotted the smooth black square on the coffee table. He had never seen a coffee, but Hack assured him that’s what the table was for. Excited that he would be the first to try it, he took a bite.
The square coffee wouldn’t break apart and tasted like metal. Garble shook his head at the thought that humans made whole tables for this.
“Me too!” Mangle had appeared over his shoulder. He tried to grab it out of Garbles hand.
“I want the lounge food!”
“That’s not food.” stated Hack as he joined them. Finishing off the contents of a jar of tomato paste – his favorite – he took the thing from Garble.
“How do you know?” Garble was a little put out it wasn’t coffee.
“It’s metal. Humans don’t eat metal.” Hack turned it over and back.
“Give it back! I found it first” Garble growled.
“You don’t even know what it is.”
“YOU don’t even know what it is!” Garble tried to grab it. The two gremlins scuffled a moment, pulling and pushing until the thing suddenly lit up.
The pair dropped the metal not coffee and all three gremlins stared at it. Just when they were getting brave enough to approach, the light went out.
“Now you’ve broken it! And I didn’t even get a taste!” Mangle began to cry.
“Stop it. Let me work out what it is and then you may lick it!” Hack picked the shiny thing up and began touching every inch of the surface. He had seen humans do this with what they called “mobiles”. He assumed if it felt comfortable enough, it would light up again. He stroked it from end to end.
Garble had seen enough. Mangle was wailing, he himself was hungry and the only interesting thing was now Hack’s new pet.
“I’m leaving.” Garble said, or rather started to say. Hack had managed to make it light up again. THey took a better look at it. There was a series of numbers on it. Hack ran his finger down the middle of the numbers, making them disappear.
“How did you do that?” he asked.
“Many humans use that as their password.” Garble tried very hard to look like he knew what a password was.
There were lots of little squares on it now. Garble smirked. Squares within squares, humans were weird. Mangle, running out of patience, tried to grab it. In his haste he pressed on one of the boxes.
Suddenly he was in the square. He yelped and began frantically slapping it.
“Stop! You’ll break it!” shouted Hack
“I’m trapped inside! Let me out!
“No you’re not, you’re right here.” to prove it, Garble slapped Mangle. As the two started bickering, Hack took the thing in hand.
“I’m in it too.” he announced. The others peered over to find they were both in there too. Hack tried a wave, and they saw the second Hack raise the opposite hand.
“He’s not me! He’s trying to copy me!”
“Who is he, and why do they look like us?” Mangle asked, more than a little fearful.
“None who will get away with it!” said Garble sternly.
Hack put the metal down on the table and the three of them hovered over it. The imposters looked as confused as they were.
“Ok. Tell us who you are and why you’ve stolen our appearance.” Hack spoke very calmly, hoping to seem friendly. The Hack in the metal not only refused to answer, but copied what he said.
“Do you think they can hear us?” asked Garble. The gremlins asked many questions but got nothing other than silent mimicry in exchange.
Garble had had enough. He picked up a large black sphere from the bookshelf and hovered over the metal again. The fake Garble had one too.
“If you don’t start talking, I’m going to hit you.” He said it in as menacing a voice as he could muster. The fake Garble stared straight into him. His patience ran out.
Before Hack could stop him, he slammed the sphere down on the gremlins in the metal. The thing broke into pieces, the light was gone and the fakes were nowhere to be seen. The three real gremlins stared at the pieces a moment.
Heavy thuds were heard from upstairs. The humans were waking up. Garble, Mangle and Hack grabbed what they could, slung their bags over their shoulders and dove for cover. The human entered the room, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He winced as he stepped on a piece of glass.
“My tablet!” The human forgot all about his foot and picked up the broken thing as though it was something precious.
“Come, before he fixes the gremlin catcher!” said Hack. The three gremlins fled, vowing never to return to the home of the wizard with the gremlin trapping tablet.
She resisted the urge to smack the silly thing. This was made difficult by the rueful grin, the little imp gabe and explanation for the rain cascading down inside the library. Not one surface was dry, not one patron remained and not one book in this part of the library was salvageable. She was grateful the weather spell seemed to have a small range.
She picked up the book the imp had been reading from. Agricultural Arcana, Beginners Level 1. Not the oddest title in the library, the chapter on weather thankfully had an answer sheet.
“If the rain doesn’t land in the desired location, simply sing the reversal spell listed here.” The spell itself was in a language she didn’t recognise. She pointed at the spell for the imp, who began jumping on the spot. It grabbed the book and took off across the room to the stage set out for story time.
Realizing her mistake, she dove for her desk. She rummaged through the clutter as the imp settled himself before the microphone. She was barely able to ram the ear plugs in before the imp unloaded his voice on the room.
The rain stopped. She surveyed the sodden room, silently cursing the little imp as it fled the mess. Of course it did. Grabbing the mop, she set to work wondering if this job was worth it.
Cyndi tried not to let out a scream as she stubbed her toe, again. Any stray sound would unravel the whole plan. Get in, get out, take as much as you can carry…quietly.
Cara was struggling with that last part. Every rock, every brush of slime on the walls sent her muttering under her breath. So far the pixies still seemed oblivious to their trespassing.
The cave wound downwards in a gentle slope, which Cyndi’s knees were grateful for. The darkness was absolute, but both women had trained themselves to operate without vision. Or mostly.
A tiny cough made Cyndi spin on her heel. Cara had tried her best to muffle it, but it still echoed in the vast tunnel.
“It’s the damp.” was all Cara could manage before releasing a cough that managed to reverberate off all walls. Both women froze, holding their breath and waiting for the sound of hundreds of wings beating.
Cara dropped her bag and began searching through it as quietly as she could. Cyndi kept her eye on the darkness above them, as though that would help her to hear.
“I can feel the cough coming back. There are lozenges here. I’m gonna risk a light for a sec.”
Before Cyndi could reach out and smack her friend, Cara had her torch lit, its beam radiating throughout the tunnel. They froze as the sight of hundreds of pixies, no taller than a hand came into view. Iridescent wings reflected the light on the huddled mass. Each slept upside down and intertwined with the roots that hung from above. They were like adorable dolls, just with fangs and a taste for adrenaline.
Adrenaline like what was coursing through Cyndi. She swatted at Cara, who turned off the torch. Both began to shuffle, though in opposite directions. They had come too far, or so Cara though. Cyndi was thinking of her Aunt, who had opened a nest of pixies and could no longer see the color purple. They were capable of much worse. Cyndie didn’t think the treasure horde was worth the risk. Cara had gone on ahead.
Cyndi sighed, then stubbed her toe. Hard. She tried to bite off the growl with no success. She saw the outline of Cara frantically waving at her as the glowing eyes of the pixies opened one by one. The cavern was illuminated and the women could see just how huge this colony was. Then the light descended.
The swarm encircled them, biting and spitting as they darted out of reach. Cara pulled a can from her bag and began to spray a putrid cloud around them, which set them shrieking and made them recede a short distance.
“That’s disgusting. Get the bats.”
They each held a wand with a splayed end, the gemstone center pulsed as they brought it down on the pixies. The swarm returned as they swatted. Each one they hit was rendered unconscious, but still their numbers refused to thin.
The cavern turned warm as a sudden wind came up from below. The shrieking increased and the pixies flew so fast they almost carried Cyndi away with them. Hundreds of wings clicked and the glowing eyes disappeared up the tunnel, leaving the women in the darkness again. Darkness that was getting warmer.
“Cara, I”m leaving. As should you. Now.” Cyndi turned and strode off after the pixies. Cara protested but the bobbing torchlight caught up eventually. Which was good, as Cyndi had no idea how she would have told Cara’s husband she’d been eaten by a dragon.
C.M. Wellsmore 