From The Dragon Shop by Laura Knight ©2001
The Dragon Shop, won an Honorable Mention in the
Writer's Digest Annual Short Fiction Competition in 2001.
He decided to inspect the dragon, to see if she had any wounds on her. He hoped not. It was one thing to pick up teeth that had fallen out and scales that were shed, but quite another to inflict harm on another creature. Again as he entered, Madam lay asleep but opened one eye as he approached her.
"Easy, Madam, I'm not here to harm you. I'd just like to see if you have any wounds that need tending," he said as he approached her head. Her one eye followed him until it could no longer see him, then the other eye opened. She didn't move as Nio walked around her. As far as he could tell she didn't have any wounds. As he was about to leave, Nio was thrown to the floor by some unseen force. His head ached horribly and a bright light blinded him. He felt paralyzed. Slowly the pain and the light began to fade and an image appeared in the young mage's mind. He saw his father pulling a loose claw from Madam's rear foot and blood spilling to the ground, which his father scooped into a jar. Madam tried to snap at Sarras, but was too slow under the binding spell. Sarras left the room. Nio then saw himself freeing Madam. Then blackness engulfed him. As Nio waited for his head to stop spinning and his sight to return, he considered his situation. His father had never told him that Madam was psychic. Did he lie all those years because the shop was doing so well, or had Sarras been too closed-minded to receive Madam's thoughts? Whatever the answer, things were different now. He couldn't keep an intelligent being locked up as his prisoner. As soon as he was able, he left the cave, not even glancing back at the dragon.