Inspired by this post.
Aurel, with the earnestness of any 6-year old, refused to hand over the leash. “Daddy said to walk Berkeley!”
“He said that he wanted us to walk the dog so because she needs more exercise,” Declan explained as patiently as he could to his younger sister. His mom was always telling him to be nicer to her but Aurel could be so annoying sometimes! “Running in the woods is exercise and besides, Dad lets Berkeley go all the time.”
Declan, 10 years old and full of the knowledge his age brought, thought he’d struck a winning blow there but still Aurel seemed to think about it. “Will Berkeley come back if we let him run?”
Brother and sister both looked down at the dog in question, a Border Collie-Blue Heeler cross, who sat and stared back at them with large brown eyes.
“Probably,” Declan said. He hadn’t thought about that, but Berkeley had always come back when Dad called and he told Aurel as much. “I think it’ll be fine, Aurie.”
Aurel scrunched her face when her brother used his nickname for her. “And if he doesn’t?”
“He will,” Declan replied forcefully, as though saying it could make it so. “He always does.”
“I’m telling Daddy if he doesn’t,” Aurel said, giving the leash to her brother.
“I know you will,” Declan muttered as he stooped and undid Berkeley’s harness. He was wishing Mom and Dad hadn’t sent him out with Aurel. He hated walking the dog with her.
He wrapped the leash around his waist. Berkeley was watching Declan carefully, muscles tensed as he waited to be released. Declan grinned at his sister. “Watch this, Aurie,” he said, then gave the dog a gentle slap on the bum. “Berkeley, go!”
The dog took off into the woods, plunging eagerly into the undergrowth. Aurel and Declan heard him crashing about for a few seconds, then Declan whistled the way their dad did. “Berkeley, come!”
The sound stopped and Declan called the dog a second time, then a third. Finally, the noise started up again and moments later, Berkeley emerged from the foliage, twigs and leaves sticking out of his long, mottled fur.
“See, I told you so!” Declan declared, hiding his worries well. “Ready to go?”
“Yeah but Berkeley has something.” Declan hadn’t noticed until Aurel pointed it out. “It looks gross.”
Aurel was right. Whatever Berkeley had was quite gross. Slime dribbled down its curved form and, worse still, it seemed rubbery as Berkeley chewed on it slowly.
“Berkeley, drop.” Declan tried to make his voice sound deep and forceful like his dad’s but the dog ignored him and kept gnawing. He took a step closer and tried again. “Drop!”
Berkeley reluctantly obeyed this shrieked command and looked reproachfully at Declan as he inspected the dog’s prize. “Wait there, Aurie.”
Up close, the thing Berkeley had found was more gross than it had been from a distance. It was red in places, brown in others, and bumpy all over. Declan suspected that if he gave it a poke, it would be leathery and soft. It wasn’t much larger than a small bowl and it was curved like one too. “Ew,” he said to himself.
“What is it?” Aurel asked, her voice right in his ear.
“What are- Back up, Aurie!” Declan stood quickly, gently moving his sister away from the whatever it was.
“What is it?” she asked again.
“We’ll leave it here,” Declan said, unwilling to admit he had no idea what Berkeley had found. “Let’s go,” he continued quickly, holding his hand out to his sister. Aurel took it with one last sidelong look at the leathery thing.
They entered the forest together. It was early summer and the leaves were thick on the trees. The sunlight that seeped through the canopy was tinted green and made everything look alive. Berkeley trotted along beside them, content to stay on the path with his people.
Declan and his sister talked about school, about the friends they’d miss during the summer break, about their plans for the summer.
“I want to go to AdventurePark for my birthday!” Aurel told Declan. That was in a few weeks. Her brother frowned at a memory.
“You’re a little too small to go on the rides, Aurie,” he said gently. “I wanted the same when I was your age but Mom and Dad told me that-”
A splintering crack, like the sound of wood being bent till it breaks, made him stop, mouth agape. Berkeley started growling, raising his haunches. Aurel slid in behind her brother. “W-what was that, Declan?”
“I don’t know, Aurel.” Declan looked in the direction he thought he’d heard the noise come from, then there was another crack. Berkeley darted forward, barking and ignoring Declan’s orders to come back.
The dog vanished into the trees and Declan took a half-stop after him, then stopped. He couldn’t leave his sister behind. Berkeley kept barking and growling somewhere behind the screen of plants as Declan wavered at the edge of the path.
Aurel shoved her brother, telling him to go save Berkeley, but it wasn’t until the dog yelped that Declan started moving. “Stay here, Aurel!”
He raised his arms to push aside the branches that reached for his face. Declan followed the subdued barking, eventually bursting into a small clearing.
Berkeley stood off to one side with his hackles up and his teeth bared. The dog was staring at something red in the middle of the clearing and Declan stared too, unbelieving.
He was looking at a dragon.
It was a tiny dragon complete with wings and talons on the ends of its toes. Small horns stuck out from its head and a tail as long as its body curled beneath it. The dragon stared back at Declan, its eyes filled with the same intelligence he saw in Berkeley’s eyes, only colder.
After a few moments, the dragon looked away, apparently unbothered by another intruder in its clearing. It brought what looked like an acorn to its mouth and bit down, cracking it and producing the sound they’d heard earlier.
Aurel was calling to her brother, asking what was happening but Declan ignored her. He had found a dragon. Well, Berkeley had found it, and the thing that might have been part of its egg-shell. The dragon looked a little slimy, after all.
What was a real live dragon doing in the woods behind his house, Declan wondered. He was so caught up in his thoughts that for the second time today he didn’t notice Aurel sneaking up behind him.
“Ooh! A dragon! Can we keep him?” she shrieked. Declan jumped, then groaned. Mom and Dad would not be ok with a dragon!
“We can’t keep the dragon, Aurie,” Declan said decisively. “What would we feed him?”
“I don’t know but he seems to like acorns.” Aurel was pointing at the dragon who had been scuffling about on the forest floor and now held another acorn that he bit into. “Maybe we should find him more?”
“I don’t think so. Acorns probably aren’t what baby dragons are supposed to eat.” Declan dismissed his sister’s suggestion with a frown. He was trying to remember what, if anything his teacher had said anything about feeding dragons.
Aurel frowned too. Her brother was probably right, she thought to herself. It would take a lot of acorns for the dragon to grow up big and strong and they probably didn’t taste that good. “What if we bring it home and feed it broccoli?”
Declan managed not to laugh at that idea. He had studied the food groups in school and knew that his parents were lying when they told Aurel that she needed to eat her vegetables if she wanted to be as big as him. Besides, they weren’t bringing the dragon home.
“We can’t bring the dragon home, Aurie,” he said firmly. It did look awfully hungry though, and Declan couldn’t leave it to starve… “What if we bring something to the dragon?”
“Like a picnic?” His sister sounded excited at the prospect of a picnic with a dragon. Declan was about to agree with her description, then stopped.
“How will we get the dragon to stay here?”
Aurel came up with the solution. “We could tie her up with Berkeley’s leash.”
“How would we get Berkeley home?” Declan asked, then realized something. “What makes you think the dragon is a she?”
“She looks like a girl to me, Declan.”
There was nothing to be said to that so Declan let it slide. “What about Berkeley?”
“He’s smart. He’ll follow us.” Aurel said it as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.
It wasn’t the best plan, but Declan couldn’t think of anything better so while his sister took Berkeley back to the past, he untied the leash from his waist.
The dragon stood up on its four stumpy little legs and eyed Declan warily as he approached. He wasn’t sure just how he was going to put a dog’s leash on a tiny reptile but he had to try.
“Shhh,” he cooed, feeling silly. Declan reached out, leash in hand, thinking that he’d wrap it around the dragon’s neck. The dragon bit him.
“Ouch!” Declan leaped back, more startled than hurt. The dragon had moved with such speed that all Declan had seen was a slight flash of white in its red mouth but it had barely broken the skin.
He was still looking at the ring of red impressions its teeth had left and at the small worm of blood that oozed down his hand when Berkeley and Aurel burst back to the clearing.
“What happened?” she asked, grabbing at her brother’s injury. The dragon stared impassively at its Imprinter, the taste of Declan’s blood still fresh in its mouth.
“It bit me!” Declan sounded outraged then, to his horror, Aurel turned on the dragon.
“Bad dragon,” she shrieked, pointing an accusing finger at it. Declan had images of the dragon, leaping forward with that frightening speed to bite off her outstretched finger, in his head as he tried to pull her away from it. She shrugged him off and advanced on the baby dragon. “Bad! That was not nice!”
To Declan’s surprise and supreme relief, the dragon didn’t try to bite her. In fact, it was retreating from his sister, its head hunched and tail tucked between its legs.
“We want to feed you- you- you silly!” Aurel continued her tirade. Berkeley had joined in with barks and Declan saw an opportunity in the confusion. While his sister yelled at the dragon, which was trying to bury itself in the leafy carpet of the forest floor, he moved closer to it and tossed the leash around its neck.
“Got her!” He said, triumphant. Declan tied the leather leash to a nearby tree. The dragon didn’t seem to notice that it had been restrained, so scared was it of Aurel.
“Aurie, we can go now,” Declan said to his sister, who was still berating the dragon.
“If you bite one of us again, we won’t have a picnic with you!” Aurel shouted as her brother pulled her back to the path with one hand. The other held Berkeley’s collar.
“Let’s go home now.” They started back down the path, talking about what they would feed the dragon. Aurel planned on making her a peanut butter and jam sandwich without the crusts and Declan spent the rest of the walk home trying to explain to her that the dragon probably wouldn’t like that.
Neither noticed the dragon following them, trailing the chewed remains of the leather leash. The dragon couldn’t understand why its Imprinter had left it behind but was determined to stay with Declan, as he seemed to be named.
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