text: (WP) Dragon Sitting “You know, when I agreed to this, I was expecting a dog, cat, or even a guinea pig!” I said to my best friend, Tanner, phone cradled between my ear and shoulder. “I don’t know if I can do this, T.” “You’re worrying way too much. It’s not like he’s a baby; he’s more like a teenager.” “You also neglected to tell me that this animal had scales and could breathe fire!” I shot back. I had no clue how she could be so calm about this. I mean, I knew how to handle quite a few animals, but nothing quite so fantastical. “Oh, come on, Penny!” Tanner said, pleading with me for the first time. “Aren’t you bored with your regular petsitting job? Just think about it! You get to play with a real, live dragon!” Easy for her to say; she and her parents were going to the Bahamas for a whole week and a half. She’d invited me to come too, but I had obligations that kept me at home. When she’d asked me to watch over one of her pets for her, I figured, why not? But that was before I’d realized that said pet was a fire-breathing winged lizard. Hopefully I could prevent it from burning the house down. But I’d made a promise to my friend, and it was too late to back out now. Tanner and her parents would be leaving in the early hours of the morning. \*\* I slept over at Tanner’s house, and I waved as they pulled out of the driveway. My charge wasn’t yet awake, which was just fine by me. Tanner had labeled the dragon’s food in the fridge, something red and dripping that I didn’t want to look at it too closely. I fixed myself a quick breakfast and ate, then got to work. I should’ve left my headphones off, but I was so used to it I didn’t even stop to consider how it might affect Tanner’s baby. Which is exactly how I ended up with a long, scaly thing with sharp teeth sitting on my head, attacking my headphones. I screamed, but before I could actually do anything, the little monster munched through them, screeching. “Are you hungry?” I asked, and at that word, the dragon flapped up above me, flying in a circle. I walked to the fridge and grabbed the bag of food, dumping a small portion into a bowl. Setting it on the floor, I let it eat. *It’s not an it, Penny. He’s a male dragon named Sobek.* Tanner’s voice admonished me, and I blushed. Even though the dragon couldn’t understand my words, I still felt bad about calling him an it. It wasn’t Sobek’s fault that Tanner hadn’t told me everything. And watching him eat, he was kind of cute. I’d never been much of a reptile person, but here we were. My headphones weren’t the only thing that suffered a causality as a result of Sobek’s curiosity. He may have been half-grown, but it was like trying to contain a puppy that could freaking fly and had claws as long as my pinky fingers.