Faithful Pebble

Part One Hundred and Two

"Its teeth were bared and its eyes glittered. They glowed eerily in the light of the diamonds, the jewels that had originally turned it. I could smell its smoke. Its fire seeped from its belly and licked its lips through its teeth. They were easily the size of my arm and as sharp as any arrow. I didn't need to test them to know this. I didn't want to test them and so I moved away. Very slowly, I ebbed away and it followed me. But then I noticed it. His eyes, they weren't really watching me, per say. It was staring at the jewel in my hand.

"Curiously, cautiously, I dropped it, the diamond. It glittered as it rolled back to the pool from whence it came. And behind it, the dragon followed. Turning away from me, it curled cautiously back into the pool of treasure and from its perch, it stayed. It simply watched me. And I? I just gathered myself and left, not turning my back, just in case it followed, which it didn't. It just stayed there." Pebble sighed, "Well… sort of. For a little while, anyway."

"What do you mean?" the wanderer asked.

Pebble tilted her head. "I left it alone, obviously. I marked the paths where his layer was so that I wouldn't unknowingly enter into his part of the mines. As I said before, the tunnels are vast. I concluded if I left it alone, it would return the favor, but unfortunately, it'd – He," she emphasized quite strongly, "had other plans.

"One day, I started to find dead animals lying at my feet after I'd wake from sleeping. They would mysteriously appear warm and fresh with deep gashes in their flesh. It didn't take much to figure out from whom they came." Pebble smiled beneath her hood. It was wistful. It spread simply from her lips into her eyes. "After sometime, I wanted to thank it and returned the favor. I did so, sharing my own kills with it. Unofficially, it became a kind of routine. After 10 sleeps, I would visit his den and give it food while in return, he fed me almost every day." She laughed, Pebble. She lifted her eyes and then paused.

The wanderer wasn't laughing. There was no humor in his gaze. "You fed it?" he asked. His voice was steady and calm, and yet tense, and yet tight, and yet…

Pebble's heart sped. Uncertain, she confirmed his question. "Why?" she asked. Would he rather she offended it by not accepting its gifts? She would have complained, but then the wanderer interrupted her.

"Did it follow you?" he asked. His voice was even—no, still… silent in its alarm.

Pebble frowned. She didn't like how the conversation had turned, how quickly it changed. It felt more like a scolding, like the questioning before a parent's lecture. She crossed her arms, clenched the dragon's pendent with her fist. "No," she said. "Not really—"

"Do not lie to me," the man stated. His voice dropped. Its tenor deepened.

Pebble shrugged. "There was a time when I forgot to feed it and it came and found me," she admitted. "I was digging out those steps we climbed yesterday. You know, the stone boulders? And I was distracted. It came and found me. And then," she once more emphasized, quite stubbornly, quite pointedly. She said, "He saw what I was doing and then helped me. That dragon dug out all of those steps in one day! It's not evil!" she exclaimed. "I don't understand why you're so—"

"I didn't say it was," the wanderer interrupted. He stepped back. He stood up grimacing as his knees cracked and as his back ached. "Please," he said. "I'm sorry." He turned quickly grabbing the oil lamp he'd retrieved from his sac earlier that afternoon. He lit it from a stick he obtained from the hearth, then set it on the side table near the armchair Pebble had yet to vacate. "Tell me," he said—

"I am not a child." Pebble growled.

The wanderer sighed. He watched her a second, a minute, a moment. This infuriated Pebble. She stormed to her feet. "I don't need you," she spat. "I lived fine on my own before you came into existence. I lived fine!"

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