Dragon Cast

"There weren't always dragons in the valley..." Baashur Dreadnaught read the teleprompter and stopped immediately. Just hearing himself read that out loud made him stop to think about the other dragons he left in the valley when he took this job 8 years ago.

It's not like he had a lot of options. When they opened the World Forge in the valley, dragons everywhere lined up at union offices to get in. It was underground work, where anything you found that wasn't needed in the making of weaponry, you could keep. Dragons had been so excited about the prospect of earning an honest wage and building a treasure to horde, (no matter how small), that they flooded into the valley for work.

Since the bill had been passed to give dragons "equal rights", finding any job was nearly impossible but opening the massive valley up to underground forges brought dragons to the valley in droves. Baashur had been one of those who lost his post to someone younger, faster and hotter in the forge. His wife left him before their pod had even hatched and jobs were so scarce at the time, he didn't know what to do but one thing was clear, he couldn't stay in the Underground Forge Dens anymore. Only company dragons could live there. When he left the valley for city life all those years ago, he never thought he'd be anchoring the news at 9.

"Baashur." the cameraman whisper-yelled at him. "Just read the prompter buddy."

Snapping out of it for the moment, He stammered into his monologue.

"New labor sanctions have established an upswing in dragon-made products. Forecasters are predicting a prosperous spring in a few months when the thaw arrives, and the finance-scape couldn't have asked for more."

As he droned on and on about the financial advantages of dragon labor, the misfortune of dragon-strike in a local store and a locally orchestrated effort to improve living conditions for the underground dragon workers, Baashur found himself nearly wild with anger.

The sound of his own voice offended him as he read the words on the tele-prompter, and he decided to do something about it. He had been willing to work in concert with humans so that they could coexist when the laws were passed and he truly loved the fact that, thanks to people farming sheep, bovine and pork to meet the needs of dragons who could now pay for their pre-packaged foods, he embraced the less vigorous life provided by humans so that he wouldn't feel the need to hunt. All of that seemed, at the time, like a good thing. But taming the dragons to be slaves to men was just wrong.

Dragons only earned half the wages that men did and without dragon fire, most of those men working forges wouldn't even have jobs. They had agreed not to burn cities, villages and towns in exchange for equal treatment, but no one was really getting it.

"That's it!" Baashur shouted in mid-sentence, making everyone in the newsroom jump. "I've had it! I have quit better jobs than this!" He snatched off his headset, tossing the anchor desk over and heading toward the back of the station.

"Hey, Basher!" The weatherman peaked around the corner of the dragon hall to see Baashur walking away. "Where are you going?"

"To see Rob. I'm done with this nonsense!"

Basshur had to duck to get down the hall because humans built it for dragons, grossly underestimating their height. As he passed the break room, someone called to him.

"Singe any nose-hairs today, Basher?"

"Bite me, Polluck." Baashur answered.

As he reached the station manager's office, Baashur stopped at the closed door and decided how best to approach this. Should he knock? Should he walk right in? Should he set the door on fire, kick it in and go in there, nostrils blazing? He thought about the company Christmas party when Rob's wife and little girl were there and decided it best to knock.

Receiving a polite, "Come in Basher", from the other side, he opened the door. Baashur was the only dragon employed there. Rob always knew it was him, because the only one coming to his office by way of the dragon hall would be him. The others would use the door on the "human" side of things.

As Baashur ducked into the office, Rob got up from his desk and came around the other side to address Baashur a little closer up.

"How are you doing today, Basher?"

"I'm... not well." He replied.

"What's the matter?" Rob asked, going back to sit behind his desk.

Baashur sat down on the floor, tucking his wings in, and rested his arms on his knees. Taking a deep sigh, he dove right in.

"Well, for starters, my name is "Baashur", not "Basher" It's 'baaa' like the sheep, and 'sure' like 'positive'. Baa-Sure. You humans give us these strange names that even you can't pronounce and expect us just to take it when you make up something that's easier for you to pronounce. We don't even get to pick our own names. You guys can't even call our pods by their right names. Ducks lay eggs, Dragons cultivate pods."

"I'm sorry Bash... 'Mr. Dreadnaught'." Rob corrected himself. "What name did you prefer?"

Baashur hadn't given that much thought. He wasn't crazy about his name but had come to know it and wasn't sure how to answer at first, but then cleared his head.

"That's not the point I'm making here." He said, then thinking about it in that moment he added... "Wait. I always thought something like 'Eric' might be nice."

His boss shrugged.

"Ok. Eric. What seems to be the trouble?"

" I'm tired of just reading dragon stories. I put myself through journalism school. I have scraped, begged and borrowed to get ahead until I could get a good job in the media and rise above the dragon stereotypes, and here I am, basically reading dragon stories on the air. Heck even Carl the weather guy makes more than I do."

"So, this is about your salary." Rob put in, thinking he finally understood the direction this was taking.

"No, it's about equality in the workplace. It's not about money at all."

"You know, Bash... Eric. I'm sure you would have no trouble going back to a top-flight career at the forges. A big guy like you could make a real difference. No one is trying to keep you here."

"Then why did you hire me?" Baashur secretly wanted to believe he had been hired because of his own merits, but had the sudden, sinking feeling that he hadn't.

"Hell, the day you applied here I had just gotten off the phone with my boss at the network. They were breathing down my neck to add a dragon presence here to show the world and the social media that we were pro-integration. Right place, right time." he finished.

"Oh." the dragon replied. They both sat in silence for a moment. Then Baashur spoke up. "Well for my part, I can see you haven't achieved the goal of appearing all that 'Dragon Friendly'. I am literally just reading a teleprompter. No one will even read my own story submissions. And forget about office equality! Polluck runs me down every chance he gets and many of the others make fun of me. Not to mention, I was outside the breakroom yesterday and heard everyone saying how much you hated dragons and didn't know why you kept me on. I didn't want to believe that."

"Well, you best be believing it. I'm no fan of dragons. I see them just about the same way I see dogs or cats. Having said that, I don't feel that way about you. If you need a raise, you only have to ask. If you would like a coffee pot or vending machine in your hall to keep from putting up with stupid coworkers, say the word... but don't come in here blaming me or the network for everything that's wrong in the world."

"Does your dog get a fire going for you when it's cold out?" Baashur asked.

"What?" Rob's eyes shot up at Baashur.

"You heard me." Baashur answered. "Don't put me in the same bucket as your pets Robert Jiles."

"That's not what I meant, Bash...Eric, whatever." Lifting his coffee cup, he went to take a sip and spit it back out. "Damn cold coffee."

Baashur got up and made for the door. He'd seen all he needed to.

"What will you do?" Rob asked.

Baashur turned to face him before he answered.

"I may start a podcast and spread the word it's time to revisit these so-called laws of yours. Maybe I'll start acting like an actual dragon. I AM a fire drake after all." Eyeballing the coffee cup on the desk, he grinned.

Pinching one nostril closed, he shot a small fireball from his nose to heat the coffee, well, what part of it didn't fly out of the cup.

"And don't you forget it."

With a wink, he was out the door. Polluck was bent with his ear to the other side of the door as Baashur stepped out into the hall. Gazing angrily down at this little jerk, he waited for the typical verbal abuse.

"What's a matter 'baaa- sure'?" he bleated to poke fun in a sheep's voice. "Daddy send you home with no allowance?"

Rolling his eyes, Baashur lifted his leg and farted as he walked out. Polluck fainted.

Later...

"Hi! This is Eric Dreadnaught and welcome to my podcast, Dragon Fire at 9. "

Pouring himself a steaming cup of coffee, Eric fluffed some papers and looked right into the camera. "For anyone watching who isn't a dragon, know this: We are still dragons," (slamming his fist on the desk) "And we're not going to take it anymore!"