George and the Dragon

Once there was a lad by name of George who was eternally curious, and who had never figured out what fear was. One day, as he was climbing around in the mountains behind his house, he discovered a huge nest. It was large enough that his entire house could have fit inside with plenty of room around it, and littered with shell fragments, light green with darker speckles. In the center of the nest, George saw a large intact egg with the same coloration. He put one ear against the side and heard the faintest of movements. Then, as he watched in amazement, a long crack split the side of the egg. Before long, the shell was in pieces, and a strange creature was sitting in the middle. It was roughly the size of a large cat, but instead of fur, it was covered with dark green scales. It had two wings tightly furled against its sides, which it soon spread and flapped experimentally. It looked around and quickly spotted George. It shuffled towards him, mewling piteously. George cautiously extended a hand and stroked its head, which it seemed to like.

“Where’s your mother?” he asked softly.

Gone. The answer came swiftly, and seemed to be spoken directly into the boy’s mind. He jerked his hand back as if burned.

“Did you just…talk?” he asked, but this time the hatchling did not respond. George resumed scratching it behind the ears and asked, “Is she coming back?”

No.

“Why not?”

Don’t know.

George thought about that for a moment.

Go with you, the baby said, interrupting George’s thoughts.

“What?”

I go with you, it repeated.

“I don’t know… my mom might not like it…”

Yes go. Bonded now.

“What?”

The hatchling seemed to laugh a little. You not know?

“Know what?”

You, me, bonded. Forever.

“How did that happen?”

I hatch. You first I see. Bond.

“Oh.” George was silent for a moment, and then asked, “Is that why I can hear you talk? Because we’re… bonded?”

Yup.

“So what happens now?”

I go with you.

“Fine. Well, I have to have a fencing lesson.”

I come.

“As long as you stay out of the way.”

Okay.

So George and the hatchling went down the side of the mountain, the latter with a combination of sliding, hopping, and, at least a little, flying. For the most part, though, it slid. “So, do you have a name?” George asked as the hatchling crashed into him for the fifth or sixth time.

Not yet. You find?

“Maybe.”

George arrived back at the bottom of the mountain just in time for his fencing lesson. The hatchling trailed behind him, having finally found its wings.

“Well, what have we here?” his instructor asked grumpily. “George, why have you brought a dragon to class?”

“He followed me.”

George’s instructor sighed. “George, where did you even find a dragon?”

“In the mountains.”

“You do realize, don’t you, that the mother dragon will be looking for her baby?”

George shook his head. “No, she won’t. He said she wasn’t coming back.”

“Who said? The dragonet? Impossible. Dragons don’t talk.”

“Well, this one does. I can hear him clearly.”

Just then the hatchling crash-landed onto George.

Hungry.

George looked up at his instructor. “Do you know what dragon babies eat?”

“No, and I never hope to find out.”

Hungry.

“Well, I don’t know what dragons eat. Go find yourself something, okay? But stay away from my mom’s chickens.”

Okay. The dragon flew off.

“Can we have our lesson now?” George’s instructor asked. George nodded and got his sword. The fencing lesson began. While they were in the middle of practicing a difficult maneuver, however, the dragon returned and dive-bombed the instructor, driving him away from George and knocking him onto his back.

“Stop!” George cried, rushing forward. He pulled the dragon off of his instructor. “What did you do that for?”

He attack. You in trouble. I rescue. The little dragon sounded quite pleased with himself.

“He did not attack me.”

Yes attack. I see.

George shook his head firmly. “No. He’s training me, so that if someone does attack, I can defend myself. Leave him be, got it?”

Yes, the dragon said, but he sounded quite unhappy.

“No attacking him again, understand?”

Yes. No attack.

George helped his instructor to his feet. “I’m sorry,” he said. “He won’t do it again.”

“Why’d he do it in the first place?”

“He thought you were attacking me.”

“And why,” asked the instructor, brushing himself off, “would a dragon defend a human?” George shrugged, not really wanting to mention the ‘bond’ the hatchling had spoken of. “Well,” the instructor said curtly, “I suppose that this lesson has been long enough. I’m going home.” He turned and stalked off.

“See you tomorrow?” George called after him, but received no answer. So, having the rest of the day off, George set out to find someone who knew about dragons. The dragon, of course, followed him.

George decided to ask his younger sister, Melanie, who seemed to know just about everything. George hoped that she knew about dragons as well, and he was not disappointed.

“Well,” she said, “dragons are very rare around here. We have too many knights killing them in an attempt to look impressive. However, they are very loyal creatures. I’ve read that when a dragon first hatches, the first living thing it sees, it bonds to. Kinda like how the first thing a bird sees upon hatching it thinks is its mother.”

“Just how strong is this bond?” George asked. “What does it do?”

“Getting there. According to the legends, the dragon’s loyalty goes completely to whatever it bonded to. Usually, that would be the dragon’s mother, but I have heard of rare cases where the hatchling bonded to some other creature, the mother having been absent for some reason or another. There are even a few recorded bondings with a human.”

“How did those turn out?”

“Well, the dragon was able to communicate with the human telepathically, and-”

“Wait,” George interrupted. “Stop using words I don’t know. What does telepathically mean?”

“Mind to mind. Why are you so interested in dragons all of the sudden?”

“Because I happened to stumble across a dragon’s nest earlier, and there was an egg, which hatched, and now, well, I’ve got a little green tagalong.”

Melanie blinked in surprise. “A dragon bonded to you?”

“Actually, yes. So tell me what happened with the other humans bonded to dragons.”

She ignored that and asked, “Can the two of you communicate telepathically?”

“Yes, but he doesn’t use full sentences yet.” George frowned. “Do you think that will come with time, or will he always speak like that?”

Melanie shrugged. “The book I got this from was very scanty on details. I honestly don’t know. You’ll just have to find out.”

George nodded. “Right. Now, tell me what happened with those other human-dragon bonds.”

“One turned evil. I guess the power went to his head. After the bonding, some got slightly cockier, but others grew more cautious. For the most part, though, I think they led happy lives.”

“How many were there?”

“There have been five recorded incidents in the past millennium.”

“Millennium… That’s, what, a million years?”

Melanie shook her head. “Just a thousand.”

“Oh. Well, that’s still a long time. Only five?”

“There probably have been some that weren’t recorded,” Melanie
said reassuringly. “Can I see the dragon?”

“He’s around here somewhere,” George said, looking around for the little green creature. Suddenly, the dragon was next to him.

Hello, he said, rubbing up against George. He peered at Melanie curiously. Who girl human?

“My sister, Melanie.”

“What?”

“Oh, nothing. He was just asking who you were.”

Sister? The dragon seemed confused. What mean sister?

“We have the same mother and father.”

Oh. Have much to learn.

“Yes. We both do.” George sighed. “Mel, how does one raise a dragon?”

Melanie shrugged. “I’ll have to do some more research.”

***

When their parents came home, George and Melanie explained about the baby dragon, and Melanie told them that it couldn’t survive without its bond, who happened to be George. “So,” asked George breathlessly, “can I keep him?”

“I don’t know…” said George’s mom.

George’s dad knelt and scratched the dragonet under the chin. “Cute little bugger, ain’t he?” he said. He looked up at his wife. “Can we keep him?” he asked.

George’s mom looked at the four hopeful faces looking in her direction. “Oh, all right,” she said, relenting. “You can keep him.”