Kristin - Chapter 4 - Dragon

“WHAT?” was all she could manage. Dragon-keeper??  Dragons aren’t real!

“Yes, dragon-keeper.” Cook droned in a rather bored voice. “Your duties will include feeding, grooming, and humoring Her Majesty Kimbers dragon. Every day at this time you will take a cow, pig, sheep, or chicken, depending on Her Majesty’s wishes, down to his room...”

“His?” Kristin squeaked.

“Well what did you expect? Its?” Cook continued. “You will take it down to his room and present it to him. When he has finished eating, you will groom him par his direction…”

Again, Kristin interrupted. “His direction? It can TALK?”

“HE can talk. You had better learn some respect girlie, or you might end up like the last dragon-keeper. Now…”

Kristin’s face had turned a pale and sickly shade of white. “Wha-what happened to the last dragon keeper?”

Cook ignored her question. “…after you have groomed him, if he has taken a liking to you, there is a chance he will tell you to stay and converse with him. I suggest you comply with everything he says.”

“What if he doesn’t take a liking to me?”

“Then I suggest you get yourself out of there before he decides that he’s still hungry. Now, follow me.”

Cook led her around to an iron door on the side of the castle. Taking a ring of keys out of her pocket, Cook unlocked the door and led Kristin down into a wide passageway, sufficient for the cow, and maybe a few cows, to pass through. Kristin was still leading the docile animal along by her rope.

After about five minutes they came to another iron door. Cook unlocked this one and they stepped through it. Kristin gasped.

It was the hallway of iron doors! She almost screamed, but then caught herself. This was not her dream. There was not going to be a flood of red or a man with an eye-patch. Or the scream of a small helpless girl. Just a hall lined with iron doors.

And a dragon behind one of them.

She silently debated which was worse, dream or reality.  Neither, it seemed.

After about ten minutes, they reached the end of the hall. Before them stood the last and largest iron door. It was big enough to allow a 100-foot giant to pass comfortably through. Kristin quaked at the thought of the monster that lay behind it.

“Well, here’s where I leave you.” Cook said brusquely.

“You…Your LEAVING?” Kristin’s panic level shot up.

“Yes. This isn’t my job. The door should open in a few minutes. If you want to open it from the inside just say, ‘I serve an almighty sorceress.’ ” She quickly turned on her heel and left, leaving Kristin alone with the cow.

She stood there uncertainly. The door remained solidly shut. Just as she was beginning to think that it was all some sort of sick joke, and she could go back up to the kitchens, the door flew open, inwards. It led into a tunnel so big that, even with the torches lining the walls, she couldn’t see the roof. She, slowly and fearfully, led the cow down the tunnel. It seemed to stretch on and on. Any second, she expected to see a dragon come roaring out of the shadows, fire blazing, teeth and claws bared.

Nothing happened. She continued to plod down the foreboding tunnel, the only sound the echo of her and the cow’s footsteps ricocheting around the cavern. Up ahead was a sharp bend. Gathering her courage, Kristin turned the corner and found herself standing on the edge of an enormous cave, staring into the glowing golden eyes of the most magnificent and terrifying animal she had ever seen or heard of.

The dragon’s black, scaly hide shone with a subtle inner light. Every one of his razor- sharp, serrated claws was nearly twice long as she was. He towered above her, nostrils glowing ember-red, leathery wings folded at his sides, snake-like tail thrashing about the floor in front of her, then beside her, then behind and in front of her again, and then she was being lifted off the floor and held in front of his face. With fright, she stared into his eyes. They were each bigger than her head, golden with flecks of green. Ebony horns, six feet long and wickedly sharp, framed his intimidating face.

“Welcome, little human.” His voice was whisper-quiet, and soothing. It calmed her, and for some unfathomable reason she felt like falling asleep in the coils of the great beasts tail.

Then he gently set her down next to him and looked to the cow, which, unexplainably, had not bolted but was standing in front of the dragon as docile as ever. He leaned down, whispered a few words in its ear, and watched as it trotted off down the tunnel, as if on some urgent mission.

As soon as his tail had lost contact with her, Kristin’s calm had evaporated and she was again paralyzed with a cold, dreading fear of this animal (or could you call it an animal?) that was crouching before her. He turned to her and, again in a calming, whispering voice, asked, “What is your name, little one?”

“Kristin.” Her name came out as a squeak.

“I am Alejandro Rodríguez Quintana the Sixth.”

 “Oh.”

Then she nervously asked, “Wer-weren’t you going to eat the cow?”

The dragon’s laugh was more of a rumble, like rocks falling down a mountainside, but far away.  “I do not need to eat meat like many other creatures. The fact that the foolish conjurer who lives here thinks that I need meat to live reveals her ignorance of my kind.”

“Then what did you do with it? Th-the cow?”

“I told it how to leave the palace undetected and where to find others of its kind.”

“Leave the palace undetected?” Kristin grew exited. “Could I do that?”

Alejandro’s eyes dimmed, though only for a second. “It is an easier thing for a cow to leave this place than a human girl. Besides, out in the world it is very dangerous for humans. You are safer here at the house of Kimber, on the very doorstep of the devil, than anywhere else you could possibly be.”

Kristin silently doubted this, but it does not bode well to argue with a dragon, even one who doesn’t seem interested in eating you. “If you don’t eat cows, what do you live off of?”

Again the dragon laughed. “You have many questions for such a little human. I will tell you, and then you will answer a few of my questions. I live off of the undercurrent of energy that radiates from the earth. It is called Domhan-Saol, and comes from the rivers of magma that flow near the earth’s core. Dragons absorb it naturally, and it gives us not only the ability to live almost forever, but our magical talents and fire-breath as well.”

“Really?” Kristin had never heard anything so interesting in her life. Her head was filled with questions. “Why…”

Alejandro interrupted her, this time in a voice slightly louder and more firm. “No more. I have a few questions for you. What is your surname?”

“Basolc.”

“WHAT?” He roared, his voice piercing every fiber of her being, overpowering her until she crumpled to the ground and knew nothing but fear at the rage of a dragon.