'Hi Pepper!' chirped Rake happily as he bounded into the kitchens like a small puppy, 'I bought you some lilies from the garden, to cheer up your kitchen.'

'Oh Rake! They are lovely!' said Pepper.

'Not as lovely as you, Pepper,' gushed Rake, suddenly becoming incredibly interested in his shoes as his face turned a shade of red to rival his roses.

'Uhm… Pepper?' mumbled Rake.

'Sorry Rake, I can't hear you,' sang Pepper as she danced about the kitchen, doing her daily chores. As she flounced past him, he took her hand. She stopped, her eyes confused as he looked into them.

'Pepper, I… I need to… tell you… ask you something,' Rake spluttered nervously.

Realisation hit Pepper. This was it, he was finally going to ask her. Excited, she said,

'You can tell me anything, Rake.'

'Pepper, will you…'

THUD! Something very large and very heavy had crashed into the vegetable garden outside. Pepper and Rake both looked out the window. As usual, the commotion was caused by Dragon. Upset by a sudden case of itchy scales, he had crash landed in the garden and was now rubbing himself up against the stone wall. His body swayed, sending his great scaled tail curving across the garden, sweeping dangerously close to,

'My tomatoes!' cried Rake, the clickety-clack of his wooden sandals already echoing off the kitchen cobblestones as he ran outside. Pepper watched, her hands on her hips as Rake waved his arms at Dragon, yelling. Dragon, oblivious as always, head turned to look at the little gardener, his rear end crashing through countless tomato plants as he did so. Pepper sat suddenly in an indignant heap. After a few seconds she sighed. That Dragon! She could not stay mad at the big lump, and she giggled as she began to see the funny side.

'Dragon!' shouted Jane angrily as she stomped into the vegetable garden to find her best friend towering over the virtually sobbing gardener looking very confused and agitated.

'Look at what you have done to Rake's tomatoes!'

Dragon arched his neck and looked behind him, seeing for the first time what was making Rake so upset. A guilty look stole across his scaly features.

'Sorry short-life,' he murmured, gathering the tomato plants in his talons and trying to stand them back up again to no avail. Rake removed his face from his hands, took one look at dragon comically trying to fix the plants and began to giggle.

'It's ok, Dragon, I will fix it.'

And with that Rake walked by Dragon and picked up the gardening tools that rested against the wall, completely forgetting his earlier discussion with Pepper.