Book 1: Dragon Claw-Chapter 9 (first draft)

Book 1: Dragon Claw
Chapter 9

So after they awoke in the morning Kelly’s phone rang she picked it up and heard a man on the other side of the line. “Do you have the evidence with you?” he asked.

Kelly sat in bed for a moment, the dragon was still asleep she softly rubbed the back of her hand against the side of his face after which she kissed him on the cheek as she whispered in his tiny ear hole. “You need to wake up.”

“Hello?” the man on the other end of the line said.

“Yeah I’m sorry I won’t be fully awake until I’ve had a coffee.” She said. “What are you driving?” Kelly asked. As she stood up from bed and slowly put on her shirt. She was still not fully awake. And Anepanor only opened one of his eyes.

“Do you have the evidence?” he asked once more.

“Yes, now tell me what you are driving.” she said. she began to feel more awake and she went to the window to pull the curtain away. She looked around for the man who she suspected would be her ride back to FBI headquarters. Kelly felt a little bit anxious though, she wondered why the man was more interested in the evidence than the fact that she had survived two weeks in the middle of the woods. Oh well, maybe she was still just a little shaken up over all that happened to her over the past few days.

She exited the room and started down the hall, but she realized Anepanor wasn’t following her yet. she went back to the room and looked at the lazy dragon who had fallen back to sleep. It was still quite early for him. “Come on, you wanted to come with me.” Kelly said.

Anepanor sighed as a puff of smoke left his nostrils. He did not totally stand up he sort of slithered out of bed and followed her slowly. Normally his movements were more majestic and beautiful, but now he was walking like a common gecko. They went out of the room and down the hall. there was a morning breakfast set up. When Kelly went to the door, Anepanor went straight for the breakfast setup. He was very hungry right now and could eat almost anything. he perused the food that was laid out. There was a clear plastic container with boiled eggs, a loaf of bread set out with bagels and a toaster next it to make toast, then on the end of the table there was machine which resembled a fountain drink machine for soda, but it was actually a machine which put out batter to make waffles, there was a waffle iron standing by the machine.

Anepanor sniffed around, the bread did not interest him and there were not enough eggs in the container for him to eat. So he went for the batter dispensing machine. he sniffed at it trying to figure out what it was. He say some foam cups sitting by it and he grabbed one off the top, knocking the entire stack down with his big clumsy claws. Then he pushed it against the dispenser to obtain some batter. when the cup seemed sufficiently fully he lapped the batter up. It tasted pretty good so after he ate that he tried a second helping. this time  Kelly interrupted him. “What are you doing?” she asked as she put her hand on her paw and attempted to pull the cup away, but as she did Anepanor pushed her away. And lapped up the batter from the cup to fill it again.

“Anepanor you’re not supposed to drink that.” She said. Then she grabbed a cup off the stack which fell to the ground and she filled it with batter, Anepanor watch as he lapped up his third cup of raw waffle batter. and when he was filling another cup Kelly opened the waffle iron to reveal a fluffy cooked waffle. she pulled a plate off a stack and pulled the waffle out of the iron with a knife she set the waffle on the plate and poured syrup on it. “This is how you are supposed to eat it.

Anepanor looked down at his raw batter and licked his lips. then he looked at the bottle of maple syrup. he poured a little syrup into the cup of raw batter and then lapped it up. Kelly watched as the dragon’s eyes opened wide. he looked at the syrup again then at the cup. he dropped the cup and grabbed the bottle of syrup then he tipped it upside down in his mouth drinking the syrup.

“Anepanor are supposed to have that much sugar?” Kelly asked in shock as she sat peacefully with her waffle. Anepanor looked at her with one of his eyes, but didn’t stop suckign the syrup out of the bottle until it was gone. He had not had anything with sugar on it since he left his homeworld. So it had been a few thousand years since he had tasted sugar, he had forgotten how great it tastes. Most carnivores cannot taste sugar, but dragons are not entirely carnivore. Their diet is predominantly meat, but they can survive on a diet of plant matter. physically they are actually omnivores, they just prefer meat to plant matter because of taste.

After they spent a few minutes in there they heard the door open and a man entered the room. “I thought you said...” he began as he entered then he saw the huge lizard and stopped. “What the hell is that thing!” He yelled as reached for the gun in his holster.

“I found him in the woods, or rather he found me in the woods. he saved my life from the gunmen who killed my partner and hasn’t stopped following me since.” Kelly said. “Don’t worry he’s friendly, he helped me survive in the woods and he even shared his food with me. I don’t know why he is so friendly, he just is.”

“Ok, so we’re leaving now.” the man said.

“Yes, that is why I asked what you were driving because I wanted to know if you had a big enough vehicle for all three of us.” Kelly asked.

“I’m not letting that thing in my truck.” The man said.

“He won’t hurt anybody.” Kelly said.

“Regardless, he’s a wild animal and we really shouldn’t be taking him out of the environment, I don’t even know how they let you bring him in the hotel. But, I’m not taking him.” The man said.

“Ok. then he won’t ride with us.” Kelly said then she turned around. “Hey Anepanor we he doesn’t want you to ride, so you should just follow us by air.”

The man stood by and watched Kelly talk to the dragon as if he actually understood her. The dragon acted like he understood her too and the man had nothing more to say after that, he could not stop the dragon from flying along with them.

So later on they got in the vehicle and headed out. They drove on for a long while Kelly assumed that Anepanor wouldn’t be able to keep up, but as it turned out he was quite fast on his wings. he could keep up with them on the highway. She looked at the mirror on her side of the car to watch the speck in the air which was Anepanor following them closely. They continued on the road for about twenty miles until Kelly noticed they were not on coarse.

“Um, maybe I’m wrong, but the FBI agency is East of here and you’re headed west.” Kelly said.

“Oh, well this road turns eventually.” the man replied.

Kelly watched out the window and waited a long while now Anepanor was out of sight she felt the car slowing down and coming to a stop. They were in the middle of a desert now and the man got out of the car.

“Wait what’s going on?” Kelly asked.

“We’re having engine troubles.” The man said as he popped the hood of the truck and walked to the front of the car.

Kelly stared at the metal plate which made up the hood of the car. she looked around the edge watched the outline of it, then she saw something peculiar under the hood, it looked like the barrel of a gun. It was! Kelly ducked in her seat as two bullet winged past her above her head. Kelly heard footsteps as the man walked to her side of the truck, she locked the door. But the lock was stuck. She felt the door open and swift breeze of air flowed over her. He aimed the gun at her and she had nowhere to go.

But before the man could pull the trigger Kelly saw a flash of light and she heard the rushing of a great wind. there was the roar of a mighty beast in the air and she saw the streets light on fire. She felt a heat so great it burn the small hairs on her arm off and she smelled the smell of sulfur and gunpowder. A loud shot rang out. after that all she saw were small fires burning the ground and Anepanor standing over the man as a great beast stands over it’s prey. Kelly had never seen the dragon hunting before, she had never seen him kill before. this was a side of him that she would have rather lived her whole life without seeing. To her he was just a cute giant gecko who tries caring for her, he wasn’t this ravenous beast she saw before her now. Then something on Anepanor’s shoulder caught her attention. he was bleeding, the man must have shot him when he came in to rescue her.

“Anepanor your bleeding!” Kelly yells in horror.

Anepanor switched his gaze from the dead body of the man he had just burned to death to Kelly. The look in his eye was not that of a beast prepared to kill, it was the look of incredible sorrow of remorse. He looked at his shoulder where the bullet had planted itself. it did not go deep due to his incredibly strong scales. It merely wedged itself in his scales, and broke the skin. His wound wasn’t anymore dangerous to him than a paper cut would be to a human.  

“Let me look at the wound.” Kelly said as she got out of the truck and ran to his side. there was a lot of blood, but the wound wasn’t severe. She sighed in relief. Then she looked at him and fell against his face hugging his head. “Thank you.” She whispered to him.

After a moment of hugging she pulled away. “I need to call the FBI to see what happened here. SHe took her phone and saw that there was no signal in that area. “Perfect, Well boy it looks like we’ll have to take the truck back to the agency.” So they found a body bag in the back of the truck to put the man in, how convenient, but also scary to think the body bag was meant for her. To have the dragon fit in the truck they had to remove all of the back seats and a walls. Anepanor tore the steel wall out of the truck with ease then he crawled into the back of the truck through the trunk as Kelly closed the trunk behind him. Then they drove off headed for the agency.