Disclaimer: This story is completely original. All characters, settings, and events are spawned from my own mixed up little mind and may not be used, copied, or adapted without my express written permission. Do not steal my story!!!

7.

Toby woke up to a screech that made her jump and tumble out of her bed in shock. She yanked the blankets off of her head, looking for the source of the ear-splitting noise, which paused for all of two seconds before continuing again.

The dragon was awake.

In fact, he was so awake that he was standing in the middle of her bedroom, staring at his hands and letting out that inhuman screech. Toby blushed; he was still quite naked. She couldn't decide whether to clamp her hands over her ears or her eyes, but finally she clamped them over her ears, squeezed her eyes shut and yelled, as loudly as she could, "VERUM!"

There as a sound much like the amplified pop of a bubble and Verum's voice calmly said a word in that strange almost-familiar language. The screeching stopped and Verum opened her eyes. The dragon was still screeching, but now it made no noise. That seemed to jolt him out of his screeching-fit, and his eyes – brilliantly, inhumanly blue and pulsing softly with light – fixated on Verum. He yelled something, realized it made no noise, then opened his mouth again.

There was a neon orange glow at the back of his throat and Verum suddenly darted forward, clamping her hand over his mouth and pointing her wand at him like a stern finger.

"No no! No breathing fire!"

"He can still breathe fire?!" It was Toby's turn to screech, getting to her feet and kicking her blankets to the side. Both Verum and the naked dragon-boy looked over at her, blinking slowly.

"Well of course he can, poppet. And likely fly, I'd imagine. After all, he is a dragon…"

"What was the point of you turning him human, then?!"

Verum stared. She looked back at the dragon, hand still over his mouth, then shrugged, beaming at Toby. "Your mother won't know he's a dragon?"

Toby flopped onto her bed, burying her face in her hands and groaned. She glanced at the clock; nearly midnight. She was shocked her mother wasn't home yet. She and Edna were probably out making s'mores or telling ghost stories out in the forest or something similarly weird like that.

"You," Toby said, pointing at the dragon. "No more screeching." The dragon folded his arms over his chest, glowering. The action made Toby blush again and cover her eyes. "And put some clothes on!"

The dragon looked down at himself, then looked up at Verum and shrugged. The fairy godmother-in-training beamed and then twitched her wand at the dragon. Bands of light erupted and wrapped in layers around the dragon. They tightened, then burst out, leaving him in jeans and a white shirt. Nondescript clothes, to be sure, but at least Verum seemed to know what would draw unnecessary attention.

"Thank you," Toby said, finally lowering her hand. "Now. If Verum lets you talk again, will you promise not to yell or breathe fire?"

The dragon glowered. Toby remembered that look from his other form. Finally he nodded, looking unhappy about it. Verum leveled the wand at him and said a single word. The dragon inhaled.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?!"

"I said no yelling!" Toby clamped her hands over her ears. "Besides, I didn't do it! Verum did!"

The dragon rounded on Verum, who blinked her big, long-lashed amethyst eyes at him innocently. "Well, poppet, you were trying to use my Princess as bait for your Knight. Who, I'm sure, is probably on the other side of the world jousting windmills or something like that."

"Your Knight is Don Quixote?"

"Who?" Verum and the dragon asked simultaneously. Toby sighed. "Nevermind…"

"Anyway, I saw her first! Couldn't you at least let us have one good battle? It's been so long…"

"And it's been just as long for the rest of us. Now hush. No complaining. Besides, you know how much trouble you'd get in if they found out you were here…" Her voice took a sudden, serious look and the dragon's eyes darkened. After a moment he looked away from that direct gaze. Toby looked between the two of them.

"You're not going to turn him back to a dragon?" she asked Verum. The silver-haired woman flushed.

"I… well, that is… If I…. I mean, I…. Well…. I don't know…. How to."

"You… don't know how to?"

"What kind of a pathetic Fairy Godmother are you?" the dragon exclaimed, outraged. Then he suddenly pulled back, his eyes widening. "Oh no… you aren't…. You aren't Verily Vapid Verum, are you?!"

Verum flushed even deeper, the red going all the way up to the roots of her silver hair. "Don't call me that!"

The dragon's eyes lit up with mirth, snorting as he pointed at her. "You are, you are! Verily verily!"

"Do you want to be a toad?! I'll turn you into a toad!" Verum stomped her foot, her face turning a rather impressive shade of violet. Toby didn't know whether to laugh at the situation or cry that her fairy godmother (in-training) had such an … apt nickname.

The dragon was laughing and Verum was yelling threats at him, waving her wand in the air, when Toby caught the sound of a car pulling into the driveway. She dove forward, slapping her hands over both of their mouths, listening with a baited breath. She could hear the downstairs door open, then close. It seemed like forever until she finally heard her mother come up the stairs and walk into her bedroom, the soft click of her door shut making Toby sigh and drop her hands.

"Listen," she said, seriously. "I don't intend to be a princess. I'm not a princess to begin with. So tomorrow morning, first things first, we're going to go find Julie and get her to … renounce the coronation or something like that."

"You can't—"

"But you—"

Toby slashed the air with her hand, cutting their protests off mid-air. She was mildly shocked that they'd actually listened to her, but brushed it aside. "That's final! Now, dragon, go—"

"I have a name, you know," the dragon said, dryly. Toby stared at him. "A name," he repeated. "I have one. And it's not 'dragon.'"

"… what is it?" Toby asked, wondering what type of a name one would give a dragon. Probably something over the top, like Brimstone or Dreadmaw the Destroyer or Gilgahalakharanos.

The dragon preened. "Theodore. But you can call me Theo, Princess."