Of Dogs and Dragons

The breeze swept by quite briskly outside Cavalier Cottage in the quaint town of Newberry. Emilia Reynolds stood with her faithful yellow dog by her side, rubbing her shoulders, as she realized that it was getting quite cold out at night recently. It was mid-autumn, and winter was creeping up just around the corner. Newberry did not get tons of snow, but the winters were often cold. Emilia did not typically enjoy those days where she had to help treat shivering dogs, displaced in the cold, and cats cold and starved. The winter was always rough on the animals.

Emilia briefly touched her hand to the door of 102, and she made three quick knocks before resting her arms on her shoulders once more. As Emilia knocked, Taffy stood next to her, resting in a sitting position while her tail swayed back and forth under the night sky.

Charlie quickly opened the door, smiling as he saw Emilia and questionably confused as he stared down upon Taffy. Emilia immediately set to explaining. "I haven't been paying much attention to her lately," she began. "I hope you don't mind if I bring her over here. She needs more attention."

"Oh, that's fine," Charlie answered, opening the door wider as to let them in. As soon as Emilia and Taffy walked inside, he closed the door.

Emilia walked further into the room, taking a seat at the kitchen table, while Taffy wandered around, running and taking in the smells of the place. "I only have her for three more months," Emilia said numbly, suddenly saddened by the thought of having to give Taffy up.

"Guide dog school?" Charlie asked as he took a seat next to Emilia.

Hermione did not budge from her position on the bed, her papers and books spread out everywhere.

"Yeah," Emilia answered. "It never gets easier to give them up. And Taffy's special, you know."

"I've heard that she's a special one." Charlie smiled and stared at the dog, who eventually settled to lie down at her raiser's feet. Charlie bent down and gave her a pat on the head, causing Taffy to wag her tail with excitement.

"You don't really like dogs, though, do you?" Emilia asked, knowing that this was the best opportunity to talk to him about his feelings of her favourite furry critter.

Charlie shrugged, pulling his hand away from Taffy as he spoke. "I may be starting to warm up to them."

Emilia smiled. "I think I could eventually warm up to that dragon. She just has to stop eating the poor dogs."

Charlie frowned at the mention of the word 'dragon.' He wasn't too thrilled with how his work was going.

"What's wrong?" Emilia eagerly asked, realizing that she was becoming more and more at ease in Charlie's presence. She was starting to be able to talk to him like he was one of her friends or maybe even something more.

"You know that letter I got?" Charlie asked, his eyes focused away from Emilia. "The one that the owl sent to your work?"

"Yeah," Emilia said, briefly laughing as she remembered the incident.

"It was from my boss. I was arranging to have the dragon sent back to our reserve in Romania instead of going back to the bank. The Minister gave me permission to send her back as long as my boss approved it. Well, I just found out he didn't approve it."

"Why not?" Emilia asked, upset that Charlie was having problems.

"I don't bloody know why not," Charlie answered, and they both heard a heavy sigh from Hermione's direction. The pair turned at the same time to focus on her, but they turned back as soon as they realized that she was just frustrated by whatever book she was reading.

"What are you going to do?"

As Emilia asked that question, she noticed how stressed out Charlie looked. He must have been worrying about it since he got the letter, and she'd come here with her silly little worries about Taffy. How ridiculous was that?

"Wait, what's Hermione doing?" Emilia realized that Hermione was hard at work doing something that probably involved the dragon.

"She's trying to find a place we can take Linnie."

"The dragon?" Emilia asked.

"Yes, my boss happened to mention that she has a name," Charlie said in a sigh.

Emilia put her thoughts together, realizing what Charlie was plotting. "Wait, are you going to steal her?"

"Yeah," Charlie whispered. "That's the only thing I can thing of. I'm not taking her back to that awful bank."

"That's so awesome," Emilia found herself saying. She covered her mouth, as soon as the words slipped out, and she wanted to cover her face up in embarrassment.

Charlie laughed. "You like breaking rules?"

"I... well, I've never done it before, err... except for that one time, but if there was something wrong with a creature, then I would do it. I know how much the dragons mean to you."

"Hold on." A wide grin appeared on Charlie's face. "What about that one time?"

"Oh, well that was nothing," Emilia mused. "They were going to let her go anyways."

"Tell me." Charlie persisted. Rule-breaking seemed completely out of Emilia's character.

"Well, in vet school there was this cat we were working with. We were practicing stitches on her, and I soon grew attached. She was the sweetest thing. She purred whenever I touched the top of her head, and her eyes gave off this look of compassion that made me feel terrible every time I put a suture on, even if she could not feel it.

"My teacher told us that we were going to practice minor surgery. The vibe was that we were going to be doing it with the same cats that we practiced suturing with. I knew it wouldn't end well with surgery practice, and I couldn't do that to sweet Cali. So one night I broke into the teaching lab. I took her to my truck, and I ran off with her. I drove a couple miles away from campus, and I let her go. I couldn't keep her because I thought they would find her with me.

"Later, I found out that we weren't using live cats for the demonstration. Cali would have been spared anyways. Oh, and pretty much everyone knew that it was me that let Cali go. Luckily, they couldn't find any evidence, but I still wonder what happened to her. I wish I could have kept her."

Charlie laughed. "That really happened? Emilia Reynolds stole a cat?"

"Yeah," Emilia answered, seriously.

"Any tips for stealing an animal then?"

"Make sure your plan is fully developed before you start, I guess, and be prepared to change it along the way." Emilia didn't have any real sound advice because Charlie's situation was a lot different.

"Okay," Charlie answered, amused, as he turned away from Emilia. "How's it going, Hermione?" he asked.

"We're going to need a lot of people." Hermione turned her head towards Charlie and Emilia, putting down one of her books on the desk.

"I know that," Charlie answered. "I've moved a dragon before, and I know what it takes. I think my family can manage it."

Charlie had already decided that he needed to get his family involved. They were the only ones he could trust. Even though he felt awful asking them to put their lives at risk, he had to save the dragon. He needed their help to do it.

"Well, I think I've found a path we can take," Hermione started to explain. "There's a place in the north that looks good. It's kind of secluded, but there are lots of different farms nearby where she and her baby can find food. It's mostly wizarding, too, so if she attacks, they'll know how to defend themselves."

"No, that's not good," Charlie automatically answered. "If it's wizards, than they'll know she's there, and they'll know to report her to the Ministry. We need to take her away from wizards."

Hermione was concerned. "But she could harm people." She didn't want Linnie to attack defenseless Muggles if she ever went out of control.

"I'm going to be there," Charlie muttered. "I'm going to take care of her, make sure she has enough to eat and make sure she doesn't attack them."

"You're going to stay there forever?" Hermione asked.

"For as long as it takes," Charlie answered. "This is my fault, and I'm going to fix it."

"How is it your fault?" Hermione asked.

"Well..," Charlie started. "I..."

"If it's anyone's fault, it's mine," Hermione declared. "I was the one that broke the dragon out."

"And, for that, I'm grateful," Charlie said. "You allowed her to have her baby. You gave her a life, and now they want to take it away from her. I will make sure that doesn't happen."

---

It was getting quite chilly in the Newberry forest. The great winged creature huddled on top of her cement-coloured egg, keeping her body in a tight clump so she and her egg could stay warm. Her baby was the only thing she was worried about. Her wings ached with pain. Her back was growing quite frail, but she ignored her illness. None of that mattered to her.

Keeping focused on her task kept her sane, but it was difficult to keep herself focused for very long. To help with her task, she recalled memories... memories of happiness. None of her recent memories were particularly happy. She had to think to way back to before she was locked up in that darkened cage. To when she was free in the Romanian Reserve.

Dragon memories were not exactly like human memories. She thought in glimpses of time rather than specific moments. She thought of days flying through the Romanian Reserve with her freedom by her side. She thought of green patches of grass and sunny skies at times and of cold temperatures at other times. She thought of the caves she'd hid in when she just wanted to be alone. She remembered moments where she'd looked down upon other females of her kind who were hoping to find Tezcacoatl as a mate.

But then her thoughts turned dark. There was a time in her life when everything was happy and wonderful for, but that wasn't a very long time. She no longer could think of happy memories without thinking of dark times. She had more specific memories than most dragons. She could remember one day in a cave before Tezcacoatl, a time where she was just spending a happy and carefree day.

A thick-headed man entered the cave. He seemed amused when he saw her at first, but she knew he was not exactly thrilled to be there - even a dragon could sense that human emotion. She didn't know how much he would regret doing what he did for years to come.

She did not attack him at first. He was causing no harm, and she knew to leave humans alone if they weren't causing trouble. She could smell his fear, but she couldn't sense the danger to herself at first. If she had, she probably would have left right away.

She flew around the cave, showing off her quickness to the man. She enjoyed threatening him, flying directly at him and backing away at the last minute. She knew she relied on the malicious man, but she still took pleasure in teasing him. His body shook with fear each time she approached, and she smiled at her accomplishment. Her life was good.

Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain hit across her abdomen. Several more pains followed, and as she tried to figure out what had happened she felt drowsy. She eventually drifted off to sleep.

Her thoughts were vague after that. She remembered passages of time where she was resting somewhere with many men gazing upon her. She tried to stir, to cause trouble, but she was too weak. The passages ended up just being flashes of time, like normal dragon memories. By the time she was fully functional again, she could not even determine if they were real or not.

She'd awakened about two weeks later in the same cave. She hadn't been sure what had happened, but she felt odd when she woke up. There were not any obvious differences other than (she noticed whenever she was harmed) a green liquid that seemed to have infiltrated her blood. She was annoyed with what had happened, but she did not pursue it any further. She'd lost two weeks of her life, but she was okay.

She did not make the connection several months later when realized that her flame suddenly dispersed fire at a much greater distance. She'd gained the attention of all of the males, including her Tezcacoatl. She'd became a very powerful dragon.

As Linnie continued to fantasize about her past times, she felt a quick rattle of the egg she had been protecting. She smiled, as only a dragon could smile, when she realized that her baby would be joining her soon.