Track for this chapter:

Treasure falls, by David Nevue, from the album Overcome

Every morning now, the little red dragon with the black scale on his forehead met Kenta's eyes when he woke up, hissed at him, and scampered out the window. Often he found shed scales littered across the bedspread and carpet, and got rid of them before Madoka found them. One time he'd missed one and it'd gotten caught in the vacuum.

Kyouya spent two hours trying to get it out. When he finally loosed it, it was unbroken. He shook his head.

"Kenta, you have got to stop eating fish in your room. The scales are not good for the carpet."

Kenta left him to his bizarre assumptions and didn't say anything else.

Sometimes he would see two dragons if he woke up earlier in the mornings; one the red one that was always there, and the other a pearly white creature with gold scales scattered through its colouring. It was this one, he was sure, that had left him the rat that one morning.

One day he woke up to find the red one sitting on top of him with the burnt fusion wheel in its teeth, tugging and trying to take it. Kenta yelled and swatted it away. He did not see the dragon again after that.

He first caught a real glimpse of the white dragon one morning when he woke with the sunrise, peeking through the bush outside. He stood and pattered to the window, and the dragon stuck its head out through the leaves.

It trilled softly, flicking its tail out at Kenta. Then it dropped a marble onto the windowsill - the marble that Kenta had found in the radio. He'd lost it some days ago, but this dragon had returned it.

He was certain it was a female, for it seemed gentler and smaller than the other one. He dubbed her Pearl, and soon she was coming to his window every day.

She often sat at the windowsill and listened to him talk, cocking her head and trilling as if she were trying to copy his sounds. She did not seem as bright as the boy dragon, for she never answered his questions and seemed not to understand what he was saying, but she brought him things. Little beads and scraps of paper that she found around the town, and marbles and sticks and all manner of little things. Kenta kept them in a drawer in his desk.

He showed them to her once, and she seemed to forget that she'd given them to him, taking away one of the red marbles for herself. He let her have it.

But one day, Pearl decided to spend the day with him. She pattered around his ankles and showed no intention of leaving as he walked down the stairs.

He tried to shush her and send her back through the window, but she hissed at him and tried to nip him on the hand. So he sneaked her downstairs wrapped in a jacket.

Outside, Les was sitting at the corner as usual with Tekashi beside him. Kenta hurried up to him, clutching the squirming jacket in his arms.

"Whatcha got in yer jacket, son?" chuckled Les, glancing up at him.

"This dragon won't stop following me around", hissed Kenta urgently.

"Oh 'e won't, eh? Whaddya intend ta do wit' im?"

"I don't know. If somebody sees her, I'm going to be in big trouble. Plus they'll know that dragons are real."

Tekashi hopped down from the stool he was sitting on. "Oh, there you go, off about dragons again, Kenta. You need to get in the real world, okay? It was understandable before because we know you're sad, but this isn't going anywhere but downhill."

"Tekashi - "

"See you later, Kenta." Tekashi waved a hand briefly at Kenta before hopping off down the sidewalk.

Pearl screeched and clawed at the jacket. "We better git her inside before somebody sees 'er", said Les.

So they walked around behind the shops to an alleyway, and Kenta unwrapped Pearl. She'd shredded part of the outer layer of his jacket with her claws, but now she walked in a circle and stood on her hind legs, sniffing at Les's knee inquisitively.

"Hey thar, lil' girl. She seems sweet, don'tcha think, Kenta?"

"Yeah. She started visiting my window a couple of weeks ago and bringing me little twigs and marbles and stuff. But she doesn't seem to understand what I'm saying."

"Didja give 'er a nickname?"

"I call her Pearl."

"Pearl. Good name fer this'un. But we cain't have 'er followin you 'round here er there's a-gonna be a whole lotta trouble. The land harem might feed us to the mountain harem er somethin'. 'S happened before."

"I know, but she won't stop following me!"

"Well, ah guess you'll ether hafta keep 'er locked up 's well's ya can in yer bedroom till she gits bored, or lay low till she quits a-followin' ya. Ah don't see how you kin scare 'er off, cos' if she smelt me wi'out gittin' scared, she's a tough one. Ah been a-burnt bah so many dragons that ah scares most of tha land harem away."

"Huh. I guess I'll just have to sneak her with me until she goes away."

"Ah reckon so. Whoops, nevermind! Thar she goes!" Pearl skittered up the wall of a building in pursuit of a pigeon and was gone. Kenta and Les walked back to the corner, and it was then that Kenta remembered how Tekashi had left that morning at the mention of dragons. He hoped he didn't end up friendless.

Pearl reappeared that night, curling up around his feet as he lay in bed. She seemed to like him very much, and her scales were not at all rough against his bare toes. From then on she spent every night with him, but never followed after him in the daylight again. Perhaps she had understood wheat he was saying that one time.