Chapter 4
Emmeline spent all of Sunday recovering from Ginny’s party.
She was meant to be doing things like laundry and meal prep and a seven-step skincare routine—which she absolutely did do—but she was a multitasker at heart, so she was also mulling over ideas for the Tales each roast took about twenty minutes, before being cooled, then they were packaged and sent out for deliveries.
Going down the steps, Emmeline went to check on the dragons, though she was stopped along the way by an employee.
“Can you sign off on this delivery slip?” A clipboard was presented to her, and Emmeline quickly dashed along her signature.
She made it a few steps before she was stopped by another employee. “Is the Starshine Valley Diner the franchise, or is that the Starshine Diner?”
“The Starshine Diner is the franchise,” Emmeline replied. “The Starshine Valley Diner is singular.” While she supplied coffee to cafes, she also supplied to diners and a variety of restaurants and bistros. She was slowly but surely trying to take over the coffee supply of the entire valley.
Emmeline finally made it down to the roasting floor, where her dragon, Torch immediately perked up at the sight of her. Torch walked over—the building was far too small to fly in for a full-sized dragon—and nuzzled against Emmeline’s side.
“Hiya, girl,” Emmeline cooed, patting Torch’s cheek.
Together, they walked back to the main area, where the other two dragons were. Each were basalta dragons; the breed was the largest and as such had the strongest fire.
Emmeline had started the business straight out of university when she was twenty-two, and in the beginning years, she used to borrow her father’s dragon because Torch was still a baby. At the time, one dragon was enough, but as the business grew, so did her needs.
“Hi, Midnight,” Emmeline said, leaving Torch’s side to go to her eldest dragon, Midnight, who used to belong to Emmeline’s grandmother. When she passed away, Emmeline took Midnight in, since the dragon was only in her sixties, with some good years left before retirement.
Dragons lived for about a hundred years and were very active in their first quarter-century, when they were classified as “young.” Young dragons actually grew depressed if their riders neglected them.
Then in middle age, from around age twenty-five to seventy-five, they became less needy, and in elder age, they grew tired of domestication entirely.
That was when dragons took their last flight and lived up high in the mountains for the last quarter of their life. Elder dragons who lost their riders usually retired early, which is what Midnight could have done, if Emmeline hadn’t had use for her.
“How are you doing, old girl?” Emmeline asked Midnight, stroking her black-scaled neck. Midnight leaned into Emmeline’s touch. After a few moments, Emmeline went to her third dragon, Char, who was her father’s dragon and middle-aged.
Char blew a ring of smoke her way, and she wrinkled her nose as it passed over her. “Hey, old boy,” she said, going over to pet the dragon, who nudged his nose against her chest.
“Whose turn is it?” Emmeline asked, looking at the three of her dragons. The floor manager, Kareem, was in charge of the roasting schedule, and came forward then.
“It’s Midnight’s turn,” Kareem replied. He was from a Drakkon family and could handle dragons well; he brought Midnight to the next batch of coffee beans that needed roasting. As Kareem tended to Midnight, Torch and Char butted heads, fooling around on the side.
“Hey,” Emmeline said, voice stern. “Behave.”
They liked playing together, especially when Kareem’s attention was on Midnight’s roasting. Torch and Char bowed their heads, acquiescing, but once Emmeline shifted her focus to Midnight, she heard them wrestling with one another. They knew better than to wreak havoc, so she let them be.
As Midnight worked on the next batch, Emmeline washed her hands and went to check on the batches from earlier today, which had already cooled down. They were in steel drums, and she peered into the drum at the end.
The green beans were now a deep brown, so dark they were almost black, and had two cracks. The first crack appeared when the bean was beginning to develop during the roast, while the second appeared a few minutes later.
Emmeline always checked the batches of beans to ensure the quality was up to her standard.
After inspecting the color and cracks, she closed her eyes and inhaled the smell—the roast had a very particular smell: charred and strong, with a hint of dragon smoke.
She was well-practiced now and could immediately tell if a batch had been under- or over-roasted.
Once it had passed the smell-test, she touched her hand to the beans; they were meant to be slightly oily, which this batch was. Emmeline knew exactly how the coffee beans should look, smell, and feel.
While she was a coffee fanatic, and always had been, she didn’t taste each batch—she had enough caffeine daily as it was, but she knew how the coffee would taste once brewed: sweet and rich, full of body and texture.
By the time Emmeline was done checking the cooled-down batches, Midnight was done with the next batch, and Kareem moved the drum to the side to cool down, after which it would be packaged and ready for delivery.
Emmeline returned to her office to check over invoices, return missed phone calls and oversee all the other aspects of the business. Very soon, it was time to break for lunch. After drinking some soup to stave off the winter cold, Emmeline went down to check on the dragons again.
While Kareem could manage the roasting schedule, the dragons were still Emmeline’s; she needed to be there to ensure things were running smoothly.
And she was responsible for taking them out for rides. She saddled Midnight up, then pressed the button for the roof to open. The panels slid aside, letting in frigid midday air. Inhaling a deep breath, Emmeline mounted Midnight.
“Come on, old girl,” Emmeline said, holding on. With a happy sound, Midnight kicked off.
They flew out of the building, soaring into the sky. Exhilaration bounded through her as they sailed through the clear sky. Their elevation increased quickly, and soon, a snow-covered Starshine Valley came into view.
It was freezing out, but the dragon was like a furnace beneath her. Emmeline loved winter as well as the contrast of the cold wind whipping against her face with the warm animal beneath her.
After a refreshing ride, Emmeline made her way back to the roasting plant, where Torch was flying above the building, stretching her wings. Upon seeing Emmeline and Midnight, Torch flew inside with them, where Char was resting on the floor.
Emmeline settled the dragons, closing the retractable roof, then went to check on the coffee bean supply. Harvesting took place from March to September, so it was the off-season now, but she had enough stored to fulfill the orders until March. Her supplier, Liam, would have his hands full then.
After a long day of work, Emmeline sent Char and Midnight home to her family’s estate, where the dragon caretakers would look after them.
Then, she went over to Tales there wasn’t exactly parking for dragons in their small town, and the dragons preferred to fly above. If Emmeline called or whistled, Torch would return; dragons had keen hearing and could hear their rider’s call from miles away.
The sun set early these days, and while the sky was dark, the town was well-lit with lights and festive decor for the winter.
The storefronts were adorned with wreaths and thick red ribbons in bows.
Snowflake lights twinkled over the lane, while small fir trees stood by every door, strung up with golden fairy lights and dusted over with snow.
Luckily, the street and sidewalk had been cleaned of the snow, but there was still six inches of snow on either side as Emmeline trudged up the slope; the Tales and a one-year-old red-scaled garneta, bouncing after its owners, a young couple with a toddler who was smaller than the baby dragon.
The bookshop spanned three stories, and she saw a steady stream of people going up and down the stairs.
The event space was on the top floor, and a sign by the stairs told her there was a meeting of the Baby Dragon Book Club currently taking place.
She quickly snapped a photograph and sent it to Ginny and Haris for them to attend with Fang and Motu.
Smiling to herself, Emmeline inhaled the clean scent of ink and paper, watching as a bookseller recommended something to an old lady, who peered at the back copy from atop massive reading glasses, looking intrigued. Emmeline’s heart warmed.
She had missed this place. Too busy with work, she hadn’t been here in a while.
A sudden wave of nostalgia hit her—while at university, she used to come here often to get new books for class (she had been an English major along with Business).
Being a student felt like it was forever ago, but at the same time also like it was just yesterday.
Her gaze went to the front counter, where the store manager checked out customers. Beside her was a familiar old man sitting on a chair reading a book. Emmeline went over to say hello, and when she did, Minh Trang looked up from his book, pleasantly surprised.
“Ah, Emmeline Sterling! My sister told me you might be popping by,” Minh said, his wrinkled face turning into a smile. His hair was a soft tuft of gray-white, parted to one side. He set his book down and rose to his feet to give her a hug.
“I’m so happy to see you,” Emmeline said. “Though I am cross you didn’t come to Ginny’s party!”
“Ah, the site of all Anh’s scheming,” Minh teased.
She laughed. “Well, if we don’t scheme, who will?”
Chuckling, he waved a finger at her, sitting back down in his chair.
It was effectively his throne, from which he looked out at his kingdom.
“Do what you must,” he said, picking up his book again.
“And you can ask Ola here if you need anything.” He gestured to the store manager, and Emmeline shook her hand, introducing herself.
“I’ll leave you to your reading,” she told Minh.
With that, she left him and went to scope out the bookshop, though she knew it well. A contented feeling spread through her as she ambled towards the shelves. She was glad for Anh’s competition if it meant she would be spending more time here.
That is, until she saw Luke inside.