It was fairly dark and very small, but it was private.
“Is that what I think it is?”he asked as he closed the door behind himself, uncomfortably close to the woman and her basket.
“Excuse me, sir,” she hissed, looking up at him with anger in her dark brown eyes.“Let me out of here.”
“Do you have a baby dragon?”he whispered, glancing down at the basket, where the chirping and squeaking had only grown louder.
“Whether I do or not is none of your concern,” she said.“You had no right to poke your head into my basket, and you have no right to drag me into this closet.This is quite improper, and I shall have a word with the shopkeeper.”
“No, wait,” he said.“Please.I just want to know if that is indeed a dragon.”
She looked down at the basket, her words frosty as she said, “And if it is?”
“I’m sorry,” he said quietly, the words almost pleading.“I just didn’t know dragons were real.I always thought the things my uncles showed me were imaginary.”
She frowned suspiciously.“What sort of things do your uncles show you?”
The closet door opened, and Uncle Bram stuck his head in.“Darian, my boy,” he said evenly, “why are you in the closet with a customer?”
Darian looked down at her, and she shook her head imperceptibly.“She asked if I could help her find a broom,” he said, reaching out for the broom on the wall and snagging it.
“We can’t sell her our broom,” his uncle said.“We have new brooms on the other wall, and you know where they are.”
“Oh, I know,” Darian said.“We just had to sweep up a mess.”
His uncle narrowed his eyes at him but took a step back to allow Darian and the woman to leave the closet.As they stepped away from each other, he could almost feel the loss of her next to him.
That was odd.
But even more odd was the fact that she had a dragon.
Dragons couldn’t be real.Surely this was some sort of reptile he’d never seen before…not an actual dragon with wings and scales and a cute little squishy-looking round body.
It was definitely one of the fattest dragons he had ever seen.Not that he’d seen any in person before, but in all the drawings they had skinnier bodies.
And if dragons were real…were the stories his uncles had told him real too?His mind whirled with possibility.He took the broom and led the woman around the corner, away from his uncle.He began sweeping the broom along the floor for his uncle’s benefit as he whispered to the woman, “I can’t believe they’re real.”
She shushed him.“I need to get the rest of my supplies and be on my way,” she said.“I have mouths to feed.”
“Are there more?”he asked, his heart rate growing faster.
There were more dragons.
Of course there were more dragons.Why would there only be one?If there was one, there had to be more.But where were they—and could he see them?
The urge to reach into the basket, pull the dragon out, and hold it close to his chest was starting to overwhelm him.He gripped the broomstick tighter to keep himself from doing just that.
“Let me help you get the rest of your supplies,” he said.“What else do you need?”
“I can get it,” she said shortly.
“I would like to help,” Darian said, his long legs nearly taking one stride for every two that she took as she made her way through the store.“At least let me hold your sack for you.”
After staring at him for a moment, she willingly transferred the knapsack to him, and he followed her around, holding it open as she put more and more things into it, until it grew so heavy he could barely hold on to it.When at last it was full, she led him toward the counter, and he set it down next to his uncles, who were looking at him in amusement.
He found himself growing red under their scrutiny.It was perfectly normal of him to want to help her, he told himself.It was not his fault if they were amused by it.
“Hello, Miss Celia,” Uncle Amos said.“How are you today?”
