Warmth Without Fire

Argan the dragon was snoozing on his favourite cliff above the forest, where he sometimes caught the stray sheep which the fleshlings had grazing for a snack, one afternoon well into the summer. He loved this rock especially when it was summertime, as it was one of the few that caught the sun all the way through the sky rather than suffering from a late sunrise or an early sunset. Such were the woes of a lizard living in a valley. Why in the valley, I hear you asking? It's true that dragons are typically found inhabiting mountains, but I wonder if you knew that dragons are notoriously social creatures, and they make a great deal of their draconic abilities. A major feature of the dragon patriarchy is the ability to breathe fire, and Argan hadn't been able to do that for at least two summers.

The thing was, Argan was not a very happy dragon - some might even call him depressed, and so he didn't take very good care of himself. He spends most of his time eating and sleeping, barely flying or bathing at all. As a result his scales are a mess, and are constantly causing him itches that he can't scratch because they stand on end rather than flat against his body, something which frequent flying is required to maintain. The wind, you see, acts on a dragon's scales like a hairbrush acts on hair, and helps them to feel much more comfortable, without any knots or burs to cause distress. Of course, it's not his fault that he doesn't fly very often, it's just that he has nowhere to go and no-one to see, and he feels on the whole that he would be wasting valuable energy lifting his enormous girth off the ground when he has everything he needs right here in the valley: a steady supply of small animals, a nice stream, too small to swim in though, and a number of rocks to nap on. Really, he reasons, he is probably happier than all those other dragons putting in all that futile effort to stand out, when you can just be yourself, by yourself, and have a grand old time.

Those other dragons are really much too self-obsessed, thinks Argan sleepily as a little creature moves about at the edge of his visual field; they seem to think that their lives actually matter, as if they play some larger role in the universe than the rest of us, as if there is something more to them than eating, sleeping, pooping and sleeping again. Fire-breathing is the sort of thing only show-offs care about he thinks to himself reasonably; much better to save your energy for the tasks that matter, like catching whatever that little creature is that keeps ducking out of the forest to peer up at me. I bet he would make a yummy snack... but oh this spot is so nice and warm, I think I will wait for him to get a little closer before I try anything. This is one of the things I love about this cliff, all the little creatures come out to look at me and it's easy to snap them up before they've even noticed I've moved - if they are standing next to me that is. If only I could cook them before I reach them, then I wouldn't even have to try to catch them!

The creature darts out from the line of trees and starts trying to hide behind a rather small boulder, and finally the dragon's lazy eyes find its way to the source of the movement - it's a child! He is briefly struck by a feeling of surprise, but then disappointment and apathy takes its place. It is surely strange to find one of the fleshlings away from the watchful eye of their parents, but it means that he cannot expect a snack no matter how irritating it is - it's always more trouble than it's worth to eat a human; they come looking. Focusing for a moment, he studies the fleshling, taking in the scruffy appearance and dirty face - it looks to be no more than four summers old, and it has noticed he is looking at it. Hmph, thinks Argan, and closes his eyes again, determined to enjoy his afternoon nap.

He was just drifting off, having counted many moons worth of sheep in his determination to pay no mind to this peeping tom intruding on his private siesta, when he felt something brush against the side of his head. He opened his eye and suddenly jerked his head back because, standing unnaturally close to him was a small girl who was looking at him in wonderment. He growled at her, trying to give the impression that he was going to breathe fire, but she either didn't know dragons could do that, or knew that he couldn't. He grumpily hoped it wasn't the latter. He closed his eyes gain, electing to believe that if he ignored the girl she would simply go away, but he felt a pressure on the side of his neck a couple of moments later, as if the girl was trying to climb on top of him, he pulled away again, thinking to himself that that was quite enough of that. She gazed up at him adoringly, but he avoided her eye and, seeing that she was not likely to leave him be, he took off briefly and landed at the bottom of the cliff, curling up there instead. That way, even if the girl did end up coming down, it would take her quite a while since she was so small - how had she even got up there in the first place, he wondered, rolling his eyes.

Rather than picking her way back down the long way, she decides to try to climb down the face of the cliff, and moments later she is falling and suddenly a wing has extended and broken her fall. Just as soon as it appears it is withdrawn, but as the girl crawls over his tail and curls up against him, he doesn't move again. He grins to himself about the thought of what her family will think when they show up to find her sleeping against a dragon! He would be worried, but he knows he has a reputation for laziness; the fleshlings would probably just assume he had been asleep the whole time and he could pretend not to notice as they extricated her. Still, it was oddly nice to feel her weight against his tail - maybe she was helping him stay warm or something. Yes, that's what it was, he decided. He was still vaguely wondering what her name was when he drifted off to sleep again, this time with no need to count his customary sheep.

x

The next morning when he woke up again, he was surprised to find that she was still there, fast asleep in his tail. He waited until she woke up and went to play in the forest before he decided to find a new spot to lounge, begrudging deciding not to disturb her, but even at his other spots she somehow found her way to him when the sun was going down. Even when he flew away and tried to evade her, she sought him out like a moth is drawn to a flame, and let me tell you - it very much annoyed Argan. Of course, he could always have simply left the valley however he didn't want to leave his familiar haunt, and be exposed to the judgemental glares of the other dragons. There weren't many valleys quite like this one in the range, fully enclosed on all sides - not a particularly appealing place to the average dragon's eye.

Eventually, after several summers pass, she becomes large enough to fit in the hollow at the base of his neck and he allows her, begrudginly, to ride him occasionally. During this time, he tries repeatedly over many moons to abandon her somewhere safe but in the end always ends up coming back to check on her, and there she is, waiting for him, somehow having managed to locate sustenance - it always really annoyed him as there were no obvious signs that she could hunt or trap or anything of the sort, and yet it was as if nature itself were taking care of her. Between flying away in his attempts to abandon her and just making himself scarce during the day so that she can't bother him, he begins to fly a lot more and slowly decides that he likes the view up here a little better than down on his rock, even if it is quite the comfy lounging spot. Not to mention, his scales begin to smooth themselves out under the gentle touch of the wind, and this makes his naptimes much more comfortable than he could ever remember being.

x

One day when the girl is almost a grown woman, having spent many summers sleeping next to the dragon, he wakes up and she is gone, and she doesn't return that evening or the next, and although he misses her, he feels deep within his bones that she has moved on to something better, and he feels that, maybe some day soon, it will be time for him to do so as well. But until then, he lights himself a little fire and curls up under the cliff, with the heat of the fire to remind him of what it felt to have someone in his life.