A Brotherly Bond

Prologue

It was a May day. The animal for Liam would soon arrive. The child was slightly anxious: although he knew that because he is a quiet child, they would give him a quiet animal, he still had a certain agitation inside him.
"Would we get along?" he asked his mom.
"Of course, honey," replied the mother with a reassuring tone "people get along better with beings similar to them".
By hearing those answers, Liam had almost convinced himself that it would be so, even if a part of himself was not so sure.
He would have found out that day.
Around three in the afternoon, someone knocked on the door. Liam went to open and found a moving package.
It must have been his animal in there.
The boy gently took the package and brought it inside the house.
"Mom! Dad! It’s here!" exclaimed the boy.
The parents went to meet Liam.
The father took the package and laid it on the kitchen table. Just as he was about to take the box cutter and open the package, the animal, with its strength, broke the container, making it into a thousand pieces.
Liam was terrified. He was not a puppy or a kitten. He was a baby dragon with fiery red scales and amber eyes. He was small, only 56 cm, but he was still a dragon.
"What’s a dragon doing here?!" asked the stunned mother, "Our son is not like the son of the Sharp. He’s not a wild boy! He certainly doesn’t deserve such an animal".
The baby dragon started flying around the room while his father said: "Don’t worry, Sophia, we’ll fix this".
"Better, Elijah!" That said, the mother locked herself in the bedroom.
As his father called the Animal Sorting Office, Liam watched as the dragon fluttered through the kitchen and crashed into the furniture, creating confusion.
Liam looked closely at him. Seeing him like this, the dragon didn’t really look scary. He looked like a puppy like the others. He then approached him.
The dragon, as soon as he saw it, stopped in the air and looked closely at it.
Liam and the dragon made eye contact for a minute.
"You look cute," exclaimed the little boy, "or pretty. Are you a boy or a girl?".
The dragon made a guttural noise.
"If you’re a boy, take two turns around the room," Liam said.
The dragon didn’t move, so it meant it was a girl.
"I want to call you Olivia," exclaims the boy "do you like it?".
The dragon makes another guttural sound.
Liam took that as a yes.
"Come, I’ll take you to the park," Liam said.
Liam went to the door and the dragon followed him.
The father, busy fighting by phone with the ASO, had not even noticed that the son and the dragon had left.
Once got to the main park in the neighborhood, Liam looked around. Everyone looked at him in a strange way. He, Liam Pitts, the most docile boy in the neighborhood, certainly more docile than Billy Sharp, received a dragon as an animal.
A scandal. That’s why Liam hated living in a small town. Unlike big cities, everyone knows everyone and therefore they are the first to judge you if you behave slightly differently than usual. Liam hated being judged. That’s why once he’s out of high school, he’s gonna walk out of that shitty town. He doesn’t want to be labeled anymore. He wants to be free.
The boy took a twig and threw it.
"Go get it!" Liam exclaimed to the dragon.
The dragon initially did not move, then lifted up, took flight and slowly went to the twig and brought it to him.
Liam smiled at her and stroked her square head.
The dragon made another guttural sound and Liam laughed.
Several hours went by. Liam and Olivia spent the whole afternoon at the park playing.
When they returned, they found Liam’s parents in the living room. As soon as they saw the child with the animal, they went to meet him and asked him where he had gone all that time.
"I was at the park with Olivia" proudly said Liam "you know, she is very tame, despite being a dragon".
Having said that, Liam and Olivia went to the boy’s room.
This was just the beginning of a wonderful friendship