Red, Bread, Incineration

“I swear by all the gods, if you little buggers don’t clear out of my stores…” a deeply flustered Rej Prim bellowed at the handful of wyvern who were scuttling about his flour bins. The tiny red dragons hissed in Rej’s general direction and continued to scratch and bite the corner of the storage vessel containing an especially fine grade of rye-amaranth bread flour.

“Alright you lil monsters,, you leave me no choice” Rej declared, reaching for an empty flour sack. Winding the burlap into a rudimentary rope, Rej brought it back and snapped it at the wyvern closest to him. He managed to catch the two legged beastie between the wings, which it did not like at all.

The wyvern gave an affronted squeak and scuttled into the shadows, followed by a couple of its fellows. “Good!” Rej sighed, temporarily relieved to have scored a victory or a sort.

This relief was short lived as soon all three miniscule dragons came flapping from the dark corner and circled the miller threateningly, that’s when the first jet of flame was ignited.

It should be stressed that wyvern didn’t offer much of a threat to humans generally; their flames were too paltry to effect much damage and their teeth, while a holy terror to beetles and other insects couldn’t do much to human skin but Rej knew the lesson his father had taught him on day three of his official apprenticeship about stray flames and collections of grain.

His father had not told him about the intense flammability of burlap however and it was this that took the brunt of the jets from all three wyvern. Rej looked down at the burning sack, made a sound that was close to “meep!” and dashed from his storehouse to stamp the flame out.

As so it was that Alvera found her village miller stamping on burning sackcloth near the edge of his millpond. “Trouble Rej?” she called out as she neared the clearly flustered grain processing professional.

“Oh, no Alvera, I’m just practising for the next fire festival, it's a dance piece called, I hates bloody wyverns….”

Alvera chuckled, “I’ll see what I can do, or I’ll see what Kewpie can do, she reached up to her shoulder where her cat was perched and turned to talk to her “Isn’t that right Kewpie? Do you want to go wyvern hunting?”

Kewpie, slinked down from the haxan’s shoulder and padded over to the smouldering remains of the flour bag and gave it a sniff. She looked up, then towards the store house then responded with a definitive “mewnooow” before padding back in the direction of Alvera’s cottage.

Despite this setback Alvera was not dismayed especially as she could see a certain drake was trotting over the little bridge that crossed the creek just as Kewpie reached it. “Ok, plan B then, here girl” she called the firedrake over, “this way little girl!”

Alvera was mildly surprised at how quickly the drake had taken to her, she assumed the jerky had played a significant part in this but it doesn’t do to look a gift dragon in the mouth and so she waited until the drake had joined her and Rej by the pond. The drake slapped her head firmly against Alvera’s hip and then looked at her with expectant eyes.

“I’m out of jerky little girl” Alvera apologised “but I might have something you’ll like even more, “ah I see you’ve already found the scent”

It was true, the drake was sniffing the air and then her tongue flickered out, drawing air into her mouth so that she could identify where the wyvern scent was coming from. Presently she wandered towards the store house, the two humans in tow.

When they reached the store house door Alvera petted the little drake's head, again eliciting the happy burbling noise and addressed her new scaly friend. “Now, no flames, understand Little Girl?”. The drake rubbed her head against Alvera’s leg in a way Alvera hoped was a yes.

“Ok” Alvera, opened the door “in you go!”

The drake slinked inside the storehouse. For a moment there was an expectant silence. This was followed by the hisses of the combined wyvern and then panicked scuttling sounds before a tiny wave or little red forms came dashing through the open doorway. “There you go Rej, problem solved!”

“Well yes but now there’s the problem of my stores having a resident Firedrake!” Rej replied, his anxiety palpable.

“Oh, no, give her a moment, I think Little Girl’s almost done”

And, sure enough, as the flood of wyvern slowed to a trickle, the last few found their escape terminated by a deftly employed firedrake claw before being directed to the prey roasting breath of the larger dragon.

“See?” Alvera smiled as she watched the drake polish off the wyvern revenant.

Rej rested against the outer wall of the storehouse, pulling a kerchief out of his smock pocket he dabbed at his temples and forehead “thanks Alvera, I like your new pet better that your old one”

“Awww, Kewpie just didn’t want her fur singed, that’s all” the haxan objected “I don’t blame her. How long have you had a wyvern problem Rej?”

“Don’t fully know, but not before this morning or late last night, dunno where the lil buggers came from truth be told”

“Same with Little Girl here” Alvera replied, lost a little in thought, “that’s a lot of dragons for a short amount of time, something’s changing for so many to be showing up all of a sudden. Think I might have a word with Elanil; they might have some thoughts or observations”

“Right you are, I’ll have Lokio drop a few bags of my best baking mixes round to your place later, as a thank you”

“I’m good right now” Alvera thought for a moment “But you know Saxa Ferring just had those triplets, I dare say she could use that flour better than I could right now and, if I know Lokio, he'll enjoy the walk…”

“Say no more your haxanery”

Alvera patted the miller on the shoulder “you’re a good man Rej Prim, give my regards to that husband of yours, blessings to both you and Lokio” before she and Little Girl began strolling towards the village square, where they would visit the house of Elanil.