Chapter 4
Chapter Four
My human startled as a man spoke to her.
She fell on her bottom, and her cheeks turned red.
Why the appearance of this male embarrassed her and not her ridiculous singing I didn’t understand.
While I’d not understood all the words, I’d gotten the gist. As if I’d evacuate my bowels in front of an audience.
A dragon rarely defecated in its growing phase, as pretty much everything it imbibed got processed for use by the rapidly growing body.
We only ejected useless nutrients once they’d accumulated.
The man held out his hand and hauled the woman to her feet.
I’d yet to decide if I would keep her or not.
As a servant, she’d been mediocre thus far.
While she’d been feeding me, the quantity, not to mention the lack of meat protein, left much to be desired.
The whole placing me in a glass box, as well as daring to leash me? Completely and utterly unacceptable.
So why did I tolerate it? Because, for the moment, I had little choice.
Hard to strike fear and inspire respect when you could be carted around with one human hand.
At least the female appeared to want to protect me.
One point in her favor. And while she might not realize it, she’d been teaching me about this world.
From the television we’d watched—which turned out to not be a scrying box but a way of disseminating visual entertainment—I’d absorbed much vocabulary, but I had a ways to go yet before I could properly speak and grasp nuances.
The drama depicted by the actors had been entertaining.
Then again, humans always were emotional creatures prone to strong emotion.
Before the male rudely interrupted, my servant had been showing me her hand-held device, which created instant portraits without the use of paint.
She’d taken several images of the bowl made of the remnants of my shell.
I’d have to destroy it later in case any magic wielders thought they could use it to control me.
During her explanation of her camera, I’d learned her name, Iolana, and she appeared to have given me one as well.
Tigger. I wondered what it meant. Probably something grand and majestic.
Iolana plucked me from the grass and placed me on her shoulder, which I didn’t mind. The height and position of prominence were agreeable to me.
She led the man inside and pointed to some furniture. The male seemed most interested in the one with the slick black surface and appeared to admire my servant’s work.
The old fellow, whom I would likely eat once I’d grown some more, lumbered over and gestured loudly. My servant rolled her eyes and left the man she called Tutu, some kind of familial relation I surmised, given they shared some similar features.
To my annoyance, the female chose to return to the shack and tucked me into the glass box. I immediately plastered myself against a wall. “Let me out of here at once!”
Alas, she did not understand the ancient tongue. She cocked her head and pursed her lips. “I know you don’t want to be in there. Would you like it if I left the television on? You seemed to enjoy that last night.”
I grasped most of what she said and nodded my head.
That would be acceptable, as it would increase my education.
The screen illuminated, and as I sat down to absorb, she left the room, only to return with some food items. More fruit, which she seemed obsessed with, some rice with bits of seafood, and from a bag, she dumped orange, puffy things into my prison then left.
I might have been angrier, if not for the delicious snack.
I spent the waning hours of that afternoon learning.
My grasp of the English language expanded, as did my understanding of the world I’d hatched into.
A time with much technology. Things called machines that could do all kinds of magical things.
Vehicles that could propel without the use of oxen or horses.
Items called cellphones allowed people to communicate over great distances and take images.
Computers were devices that could think.
More disturbing, the examples of humanity’s weaponry.
Guns that could fire projectiles that shredded flesh.
Aerial crafts were capable of hunting the skies.
I’d hatched into a dangerous time, but I didn’t let that daunt me. I’d yet to see any sign of other dragons. Could it be I was the only one? That would make my conquest of the world easier.
Also of concern? I lacked even the beginnings of a hoard.
Judging by Iolana’s living situation, she lacked wealth to donate.
Why couldn’t I have hatched in the possession of a business tycoon?
According to what I’d learned, those people were wealthy and wielded power.
One of those as a servant would have given me a jumpstart on my plans for planetary domination.
I had to wonder if the male I’d encountered earlier fit that description. He’d arrived wearing a suit just like those on the television. Perhaps the next time we met, I’d grant him the honor of being my servant.
Speaking of which, Iolana had returned. I could hear her talking to the old man as she opened and shut cupboards, and a pot clanged. Making my dinner. About time. I was about to expire of starvation.
When she finally chose to check on me, she smiled.
“Hey, Tigger. How was your afternoon?”
Did she really think she could speak to me as if we were equals? I didn’t deign to reply, not just because of her temerity. I didn’t want to sound uneducated, given I still lacked a full grasp of the English language.
“You want to eat?”
That had me bobbing my head, which led to her plucking me from the glass box, minus that humiliating harness. She carried into the kitchen.
The old man scowled upon seeing me. “You can’t seriously expect me to eat with vermin.”
Vermin? Oh, his death would be slow and painful.
“Get used to Tigger. He’s part of our family now.”
“Why can’t you have a baby like a normal woman?”
“Why can’t you not complain for five minutes?” was her retort.
I had to say, the exchange was almost as enjoyable as the shows on the television.
“Disrespected in my home by my own flesh and blood,” grumbled the old man.
“Want me to move out? I hear Lottie’s renting out the converted apartment over her garage.”
“I swear you do things on purpose to vex me,” huffed the old man.
“Love you too,” Iolana chirped as she placed a plate in front of her grandfather. Another went in front of a tan empty chair, and a third, piled just as high, was set on the table for me.
Yummy. I sat and began digging in, shoveling the doughy bits covered in sauce into my mouth. Cheesy, creamy, a hint of garlic, salt, and were those pink hunks meat? Indeed, they were.
“Looks like it’s enjoying your creamy pancetta casserole,” the old man stated.
“No kidding. I swear Tigger’s got a bottomless pit of a stomach.” She held a fork to her lips.
A fork for eating daintily. It led to me glancing at my paws smeared in sauce. My hunger shouldn’t be an excuse for eating like a savage. How could I gain their respect if I lacked simple manners?
A tray on the table held a variety of utensils. Forks taller than me. Blunt knives. Big spoons, but also small ones.
“What’s it doing?” asked grandfather.
“Um, I think it’s grabbing itself a spoon.”
“What the hell for?”
As if it weren’t obvious. I returned to my plate with the slightly heavier than expected instrument.
While the shortest of the utensils, it still proved challenging to use.
I had to use two paws to fill it and then couldn’t quite get it to my mouth with my short arms. It led to me grunting in frustration.
“Let me help.” Iolana grasped the spoon, filled it, and held it in line with my mouth.
At least she’d begun to grasp her servant status. I ate, spoon-fed like the king that I was.
Once Iolana had scraped my plate clean, she continued to feed me from hers.
Grandfather grunted. “You’re going to make it explode.”
“I’m not so sure of that. Remember how much it ate last night? There’d been enough stew left for four people, and it ate it all plus the bread.”
“What kind of lizard is it?”
Lizard? “I am a dragon,” I declared, however, given it emerged in the ancient tongue, they both eyed me cluelessly. I’d really need to discover the proper term in their language and make them grasp the severity of their insult.
“I don’t know what type it is. I did a quick Google search, but nothing I pulled up seems right. I don’t think it’s native to Hawaii, though. Maybe it escaped from someone who smuggled it in?”
“Meaning it might be rare?” The old man’s expression brightened.
“Don’t you even think of trying to sell Tigger,” Iolana snapped.
“Tigger. What kind of dumb name is that?”
“A cute one.”
“Given how it eats, Garfield might have been more appropriate.”
Iolana’s lips curved. “Fair point, but too late now.”
“Just don’t let it be messing up the house or shop.” The man huffed as he heaved himself from the chair.
“Can’t be any worse than you,” she sang as she cleared the table.
I lowered myself to helping by licking the plates clean before she dumped them into sudsy water.
When she’d finished stowing the dishes, she carried me into a new chamber with a tub, a sink, and a strange contraption that appeared to be a chair of some kind but with a hole in the seat full of water.
She turned a dial and filled the small basin with warm water and set me beside it. “Just in case you want to splash around while I shower.”
Water that appeared from a spout? How innovative.
A glance at the tub showed more of it raining from a spigot close to the ceiling.
Iolana undressed, not that I cared about human nudity.
I dipped my paw in the basin. A bath might be nice, as my skin had begun to itch.
A sign my first molt was almost upon me.
A stink, though, distracted. Iolana sat upon the chair with the hole and defecated!
Upon standing, she tugged a lever and the water, with its waste, disappeared.
How fascinating, especially since I finally had to evacuate my bowels, my body wanting to rid itself of useless nutrients.
While she showered under the spray, having pulled across a crinkly fabric curtain, I availed myself of the waste remover, dropping the hardened pebbles.
However, I couldn’t reach the lever to remove them.
I left it for my servant and returned to the sink for my own bath.
When Iolana emerged from the tub area, she wrapped herself in a towel before exclaiming, “Did you poo in the toilet? What a good Tigger. I didn’t know lizards could be potty trained.”
Lizards couldn’t. Dragons, however, did maintain a certain level of hygiene.
She pulled the lever and made it go away before scooping me from the sink and wrapping me in a much smaller towel.
She carried me into her chamber, but didn’t put me in the tank, rather, she placed me on her bed.
It smelled of her, but I didn’t mind. The cushion at the head provided even more softness for my body. I curled into it and went to sleep.