I went down into the basement and collapsed on my bed, my head spinning with the events that had transpired. A dragon. A real dragon. And he didn't eat me! Well, not literally anyways. I prodded at a root as I thought about Duke. Now that he was gone it was hard to believe that it ever happened. I would have continued to think about him had I not remembered that I had work to do. I put on my jacket and scrambled out of my tree to the direction of the village.
The place was already loud and rowdy by the time I got there, I could hear lyres and drums pounding as I entered through the backdoor of the brothel. There I spent the next few hours doing dishes, taking out the garbage to throw into the dumping area, and other odd jobs for the chef. He tossed me a few coins for my troubles and I went deeper into the brothel to find other work to do.
"Lianne." I heard my name and looked into one of the rooms. It was Donya, one of the brothel prostitutes and also the closest person that I could call a friend in this village. "Hello Donya." I said as I watched her put a robe on, covering her large breasts and voluptuous body. I tried not to be too jealous of her beautiful light brown skin and overall gorgeous body, but sometimes it was hard.
"Laundry pile is over there." She said, and I hurried over to pick up the sack of clothes. The laundry was done every few days here, but there were some of the nicer items the women liked to have cleaned more carefully. All I had to do was pay a coin and then I was welcome to use the laundry room whenever I wanted. Some of the women argued about the cost but when I stood my ground they usually backed off. They had better things to do than argue over a few coppers anyways. "Thanks, Lianne." Donya said, placing a few coppers into my hand. Donya never stiffed me on the cost. "You look different." She commented as she sat down in her makeup chair, eyeing me as she brushed her long, dark brown hair. "What have you been up to? Have you caught the attention of some young man?"
Maybe it was because I feeling particularly envious today as I watched her, but it made me want to show off a bit. I paused for a second, deciding whether or not to tell her. "What do you know about dragons?"
Donya thought for a moment, eyebrow arched, considering the questions. "Just stories told around a fire to young ones, there was once a legend about a stone dragon-"
"I met one." I blurted out suddenly, full of jitters and eager to share my discovery.
"I'm sorry?" She stopped brushing her hair and stared at me. "Have you been up in the sun too long my dear?" She offered me the jug of ale she kept on the table but I waved it away impatiently.
"He saved me from a group of bandits."
Donya looked at me calmly, a little too patiently I thought suspiciously, and so I told her everything, from the way he snatched me up to take me to his lair, and how I used my smarts to lure him into cumming and falling asleep. Donya still looked skeptical but at least she was the decent kind of woman that didn't just laugh in your face if she didn't believe you.
"So this dragon...did he have a name?"
"Yes, his name is Duke."
"Duke..." She considered it, and finally nodded. "And you said that you would see him in three days?"
"Yep, that's the plan." I said, a little tired of all the skepticism, even in the nice way that Donya did it.
"May I come too?"
Oh, I guess I should have expected that. "So you do believe me."
"You seem pretty adamant that you are telling the truth."
"Well I am!"
"So I would like to see for myself."
"Well I dunno..." I had wanted to keep Duke and my meeting just between the two of us.
She nodded and took silver out of her purse and put it on the table. My eyes widen at seeing the coin. A silver was more than my pay for a day's work.
"That's not fair." I mutter, pocketing the coin quickly.
Donya shrugged with a good-natured smile. "I think it's more than fair, if you ask me."
I chuckled. "Fine, you can come too."
****
The days leading up to the meeting with Duke were long and hard, often I would walk home and collapse onto my bed without changing or taking a bath. I marked the days on a piece of bark I had cut from a tree. And then the day came. I hurried to the meeting spot that I had arranged with Duke, and Donya was already there, dressed in a tan tunic, leggings and dark leather boots. I had never seen her outside of the brothel, so the modest garb was a little surprising.
"Hello Lianne." She said with a smile, and I ran over to her.
"He should be showing up any second now." I stated, as we watched the clearing. The wind blows a nice breeze through the forest, and we watch the leaves flicker to and fro. Donya and I started talking about how nice the clearing was, with the blooming wildflowers and deep green leaves on the tree, until soon we heard a flapping sound. It was the beating of wings.
