Track for this chapter:
First Run, by Jon Schmidt of The Piano Guys, from the album Winter Serenade
Kenta woke each morning to find Pearl by his feet, her tongue flickering in and out like a candle flame as she slept. She'd wake as soon as he did and scurry out the window, and then he'd run down to the corner.
Pearl loved to chase things, and often she'd show up in the backyard waiting with a little stick in her mouth to play a dragon's version of fetch. Kenta would take the stick and throw it as far as he could, and she'd leap after it, the tiny wings at her back fluttering uselessly. Les said they were there for pure decoration, and that the land harem never had big enough wings to lift themselves up in the air with.
One day, though, the strangest thing happened.
Pearl came skittering across the garden with the stick in her mouth and Kenta could make out a faint purple trail behind her. As she came close, he realised they were snapdragons. Just like the first day last spring in the garden with Gingka, when the snapdragons had choked out every available space in the garden, so they trailed behind Pearl now, one flower in each of her footsteps for a few yards behind her. The furthest behind her heels disappeared as she moved further.
For the rest of the hour, as Pearl played and jumped in the garden, the snapdragons followed her. She seemed confused by their presence at first, but soon her small mind forgot all but the stick hurtling through the air.
When she got tired out and left, Kenta took the sidewalk in double steps to the corner where Les was and asked him about the strange happening with the flowers earlier today.
"Heh. Ah reck'n she's reachin' maturity, son. Gainin' more power'n dragon magic. An' Kenta", he warned, "Don' count on havin' er around fer much long'r. When female dragons gits stocked up on pow'r like that they tend ta stick ta the harem an' become healers or caretakers of the hatchlings until they finds a mate."
And one day Pearl arrived with rain at her tail.
Les stood up, shocked, from the corner where he and Kenta had been playing guitar. Pearl had come suddenly hurtling up to them, scared out of her wits, with storm clouds tailing her a few yards behind. Miniature storm clouds.
They roared above her even as she took a running leap into Kenta's arms, hiding her head in the crook of his elbow. But it seemed that the more riled up Pearl got, the greater the clouds grew, until they consumed the entire street and Les was lost to Kenta in the cloudy grey fog.
Then the lightning began, splitting the clouds in places until they seamed back together, and Les howled over the wind of the miniature storm:
"YA GOTTA CALM 'ER DOWN, SON, OR THE STORM AIN'T NEVER GONNA STOP!"
Kenta stroked the little dragon's spine frantically, and she squawked at him. Rather than calm down, she ran away, the storm on her heels.
Les stood breathless beside Kenta and said, "Dragons got ta power 'o water. 'Member that time ta dragons came in ta shop but they wasn't thar, and the rains came wit' em? T'at was their own pow'r causin' it. Pearl's jus' gettin' hers an she don't know how ta control it yet."
Eventually the far-off rumbling ceased, and Kenta sighed with relief to know that the little dragon had not gotten hurt.
And then he just shook his head, unable to understand how she had come to be here.
The real phenomenon came when Pearl lost a tooth.
She was chasing after a ball one day when suddenly she squawked and a white pearl came flying from her mouth.
Kenta picked it up and looked at it; it was a little pointed fang. As he examined it, Pearl sat on her hind legs and pressed a paw to her sore mouth.
Then, suddenly, she leapt up, taking the tooth from him. She scrabbled in the dirt and lay it down, kicking soil over it. Kenta chuckled, guessing she was playing a game, and allowed her to leave the tooth in its resting place.
But only a moment later, he heard a rumbling noise. Seconds afterwards, the earth split open beneath him and he was sliding down a slippery slope. He cried out and scrabbled at the sliding earth. Pearl squealed in alarm high above him;
And all of a sudden, only a few feet away, a great tree rose out of the earth.
It towered through the clouds, lopping the roof completely off of Madoka's shop. A second later she came running out. But Kenta was thinking of none of this.
The tree's great roots were whipping out towards him, threatening to gather him in. Pearl deserted him in his moment of distress and he screamed with fear; the largest root of all was coming towards him and Madoka was screaming: "WHAT'S GOING ON OUT HERE!?"
As the root came up close, he could see jewels lining its underside like sparkling tentacles, making a line all the way up to the trunk where they burst into not leaves, but feathers of all colours.
And just as he thought it would be the last sight he ever saw, a great paw lifted him suddenly out of the earth and he was heaving breath on sturdy ground.
A huge dragon towered over him, one of the sky harem, he was suddenly sure; it snorted at him, as if to say, 'you're a very lucky boy.'
And then it put a paw over him, engulfing him completely, and the darkness took over.