A Princess's Guide to Dragon Domestication

(9) The Midget He Isn't And The Pigeon I Am

“I’m sure he loves you.”

“Of course he loves me. Everyone loves me.”

Zane chuckled. “I can’t deny that.”

My working day went by quite smoothly. We cleaned some more sections of the books and to be honest, I was actually proud of myself. But I didn’t tell Zane that. He’d probably double our work load if he found out.

We were about to leave when I suddenly remembered something, “Damn!” I said to myself before turning to Zane, “I need to head somewhere, I’ll see you later.”

“Do you want me to come with you?” He asked.

“No, it’s ok.” I said while shaking my head, “I’ll just see you later.”

I left him there and began to walk towards my mother’s friend’s house. She had been quite ill and she lived alone. I promised my mother that I would check up on her to see if she was alright.

Which she was. I found that out as soon as I got to her place and found her scrubbing the carpet with a brush.

“Shouldn’t you be resting or something?” I asked her.

“Oh no, dear. I’m perfectly fine now. But the house is a mess!” She said while frowning at the brush.

“Ok, then.” I said slightly awkwardly, “Do you want me to, I don’t know, help or something?”

She shook her head, “I’m alright and you should get home before it gets dark. It’s not safe for a young girl like you wondering around at night.”

“Of course.” I left not long after that. And by the time I got home, I felt really tired. Even though it was only 6 pm.

So tired, that I fell asleep with my boots still on.

 And then I woke up in the middle of the night. I gave up on trying to fall asleep again as soon as I started. I felt too energetic. I paced around the house for no reason, but I was too restless to just sit down.

As soon as it was 4 am, I decided to go for a run. I wasn’t the kind of girl who’d go on a run at 4 am in the morning, or at any other time of the day, but I was bored. And maybe a bit of exercise would get me tired enough to fall asleep?

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

I put on my trainers, grabbed a bottle of water before running out of my house. And then came to a complete stop right outside the gate.

Which direction to go?

I opted to head for the park. It seemed like where a normal morning-runner would jog off too.

It was still dark and there seemed to be no one around. And that’s probably the only reason I noticed the man who was jogging right behind me for a while now.

I increased my speed, but he did too. And before I knew it, there was a hand over my mouth and I was being dragged to an ally. The horror of what was happening stunned me for a moment, but even when I started to panic and tried to break free, it was no use. The guy was strong.

“What do you want?” I screamed at him as soon as he let go off my mouth to pin me to the wall.

“You know exactly what I want.” He grinned. His stinky breath confirmed two things. One, that he was drunk and two, that I was doomed.

“Let me go.” I shoved him but he didn’t budge. I started screaming but I knew there was a slim chance that anyone would hear me. We weren’t in a residential area and unless anyone decided to show up to work 4 hours early, I wasn’t going to be heard.