Friday, September 2, 2005

   Chapter 3: The Dragon (part 2)
Pen slowed down, convinced that he wasn’t being followed. “How did you get stuck in there?” he asked the smart little creature.
“I was going to the castle,” she explained. “I had volunteered to be a king’s dragon, so they put me in that box to ship me down from Sersaalla to here, but along the way, my box got mistaken for a book box.”
“You came from Sersaalla?” Pen was impressed. The capital of the dragons was almost as far north as University was far south. It was a long trip. It also meant that he had a pretty valuable dragon on his back. “How long have you been in that box?”
“Actually, about three weeks.” She yawned. “I slept most of the time, though.”
“What do you want me to do?” Pen questioned. All thoughts about going home had left him.
“Bring me to the castle.”
“What?!” After splitting a box and running through half of the alleys of Quont-Ein, Pen had thought that there was nothing worse still left for him to do for the creature. Yet, as he thought about it, it was the only thing he could do. She was very important to the king. “Okay, fine!” he grumbled. “But I’d better be getting something out of this!” He turned back to the golden walls.
“What’s your name, anyway?” the dragon asked him. Pen could see her brown beady eyes watching him from the corner of his eyes. He could also feel the eyes of many angels and elves as he passed them. It was definitely something you didn’t see everyday: a black-haired, black-eyed, nine-year-old elf with two swords and a pseudodragon on his shoulder. Well, there’s a first for everything, he thought carelessly.
“It’s common courtesy to state your own name first,” he retorted. He was starting to loose his patience with this little critter.
“My name is Sasheeta,” she said.
“I’m Pen.”
“Just Pen?”
“Just Pen.”
“You’re lying. I can tell.”
“My name is Penumbra!” he hissed, flinching as he said it. He didn’t know why, but he hated saying his full name, as if it told him about something about himself or his past that he didn’t want to recall.
The dragon said nothing for a long time.
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