Sorry this story was in my head and I really needed to write it. The Charlie thing was partly inspired by cheapxperfume's wonderful story. :)
Whenever I told people that I was going to be working with dragons, I always seemed to elicit the same response: Why?
Well, let me tell you why. I've crafted a nice list of my top reasons for working with those "fire breathing monsters" that my mother so affectionately named. (I sort of have a penchant for list making. You know, pro and con lists, top reasons lists, hit lists, erm, grocery lists…but let's get on to this one.)
1. We go way back.
"Once upon a time, there was a princess locked away in the tallest of towers. She was told to await for the day when a dashing prince would slay the dragon that guarded the castle and save her from her misery. Her-"
"Mom?" I asked.
"Yes dear?" she said, looking up from the page.
"This is a stupid story," I declared.
"Don't say 'stupid'. And this was one of your sister's favorite stories when she was younger!" she protested, looking at me oddly.
"Well I don't like it at all," I argued.
"Well, what's wrong with it?" she asked.
"Why are girls always waiting for boys to save them?" I questioned with a frown.
"Well-"
"And why would someone lock her up there in the first place?" I interrupted.
"It's just-"
"And how did she survive? Did someone bring her food? Or did she have some sort of a garden?" I cut in again.
"I doubt it-"
"That's not even the worst part, though!" I added.
My mother sighed in impatience, taking a deep breath before looking at me.
"So what is the worst part?" she asked tiredly.
"Why did they have to kill the dragon?"
Seriously, either I was a delusional child or it was clearly love at first read. I could never quite put my finger on which choice though.
2. The only class I could stay awake for, and mean it.
I was a good student in school, sure. Part of that was my immense ability to fake everybody out that I was actually listening to something. You can only hear about goblin wars and the proper way to flick your wand for so long without wanting to rip your ears off.
And then came Magical Creatures class.
Dragons have M.O.M classification XXXXX, according to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
My mother always said most girls would be frightened by that, but five X's? Who the hell doesn't think that's cool?
And then there was this first line: Probably the most famous of all magical beasts, dragons are among the most difficult to hide.
That always puts a picture in my head of a dragon trying to hide behind a tree or something. Seriously, you're about to introduce a huge fire breather and you're talking about hiding them. I think it's amazing.
3. They saved me from Sherri.
I liked my distance from people I didn't like. I was always nice, and I had a close group of friends, but there were those people I'd rather not deal with. Namely, this one group of gaggling girls who talked nonstop about other people and/or their boyfriends and/or their newest victims.
Well, I made the mistake of becoming their friends in my first year of school. And Sherri Donahue doesn't really accept that someone would ever want to leave her circle.
So, I didn't stop talking about Romanian Longhorns for a straight week. Dark green scales, golden horns. Their numbers have grown so low that they've become part of a breeding program to keep them from going extinct.
I talked and talked and talked. She complained. I talked more, using every bit of knowledge I had to completely make her completely annoyed and distance herself from me. And then I was free. Free as a freaking bird.
Another interesting fact? The Romanian Longhorn always gores it's prey before roasting it. Kind of similar to Sherri Donahue.
4. They led me to Ditto and James.
Our school had this Muggle equivalent of a career day once. (My mom is a muggle, so I tend to make references that most of my friends don't understand) So, they brought in a bunch of things, from healers to professors, and one of them happened to be a man who worked with dragons.
Naturally, I wanted a closer look. So, naturally, I broke the rules.
I crept behind the bushes that lined the Quidditch pitch, where they were keeping the dragon. We were far in upstate New York, so nobody was really around to see, but they wanted extra security past the enchantments that guarded the area. I took special care to step lightly and stay low, keeping my eyes forward and focused.
My jacket wasn't really doing a well enough job in keeping me warm, but I tried to keep my teeth to a low chatter as I moved closer to the huge fenced area.
The dragon was a Swedish Short-Snout. I could see silver-blue of it's scales creeping out from behind the tent that lie before it. I knew that they probably took this dragon in particular because they tended not to attack humans. As much as other dragons, at least.
I smiled at the mere sight of it. If you were ever to find a dragon beautiful, it would be this one- the moon shining gave it a glow that made it seem to tower even more. I knew that it would be amazing to see the blue flames it breathed, but at the same time, I didn't want it to get angry enough to actually breath fire at me.
I took a few more tentative steps forward, but froze immediately as I started to hear low voices.
"Will you shut up for once in your life?" a male voice echoed.
"Will you stop arguing with me for once in your life?" I heard a frustrated girl question.
"Only if you get the stick out of your butt."
"Oh shove it, I'm risking suspension because you want to see a freaking dragon!" she said harshly.
"Well we wouldn't have to worry about being suspended if you kept your voice down!"
I furrowed my brow and tried to figure out where the voices were coming from. They sounded like students, but no one that I'd ever met before…
"Sh, did you hear that?"
"Well, now you just sound paranoid Ditto."
Ditto? Who the hell was that? I took a step backward, and toward the voices, and made a huge crunching sound as I accidentally stepped right into a branch. I froze again, and looked up to suddenly see two figures looming above me.
"Who are you?" the boy asked roughly, looking down at me with fierce eyes.
I must have looked odd, because the girl, Ditto as I presumed, hit the boy in the shoulder.
"Don't scare her, idiot," she scolded, then turned back to me. "I'm Ruby, he calls me Ditto, though. And his name is James," she introduced, outstretching a hand.
"Bailey," I said, shaking her hand.
"So what are you doing here?" James asked, nicer this time as he softened his tone.
"Trying to sneak a peak at the dragons?"
"Oh god," Ruby said with a eye roll.
I was about to question her before James smiled widely and began talking animatedly about all the uses he hoped to find for the horns on a Welsh Green, almost too fast to comprehend. As soon as he took a breath, I found out that he and Ditto were a year younger than I was, and had been best friends for five years.
And since that day, the pair became a trio.
5. Ridiculously Cool Sounding.
Now, I'm not one to care about labels, but when someone asks you what you do and you say you work with dragons, you either immediately sound tough, cool, or crazy. The last one probably isn't a compliment, but I've been called it so many times before that it's sort of become a twisted one, in my mind at least.
6. I love it.
I can be immature sometimes, or you know, most of the time. But I'm mature enough to notice that I want to do something I love for the rest of my life. I don't care if it's ridiculously dangerous or may not exactly be practical to most people.
The feeling you get just from standing in front of such a powerful creature, knowing that it barely knows the damage it can do to you, is exhilarating. Knowing that your job is to stay alert and focused, keep your attention and actually work with what most people think is untamed, is a new thrill everyday.
There aren't many places to hide a dragon, it really is true. So when I got a job in Romania, I knew I had to take it. It was the opportunity I had been waiting for. It was the life I had been anticipating, and it was finally about to start.
So, thirteen years after a memorable bed time story, I stood on the station platform with two bags in my hands and a wildly beating heart. Two more minutes in the city that I had grown up in, made friends in, lived in for my whole life. And as soon as I climbed that first step, it would all be changing.