#93: Dragon on Patrol

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Slightly off shore of Flint Island
Coincidently near a hiking trail

This was kinda fun.

Kamiko was dragon flying. She was comfortably seated in the cop-shop, keeping one ear on the phones so to speak, the other ear on the surveillance dragon flies while at the same time she was tele-operating a dragon-drone miles away. Kamiko was good at multi-tasking. The Drone was about the size of a large Canadian goose. It’s wings were longer than that of a goose and it had a long tail. It faintly resembled a cat. It was as maneuverable as a humming bird yet as fast as a falcon. She was patrolling the park area along the shore. She heard a little girl.

“Oh look Daddy! Look! A Dragon!” The little girl squealed and pointed.

“Darling...there’s no such thing as dragons.” her father told her patiently but thought...maybe there are. He’d been in the restroom at the town meeting when Kamiko and the Maggi had mentioned the tele-operated dragon drones. There weren’t a lot of them in general use yet. Very few of the residents of Flint Island knew about them. Surely not his daughter.

“There is TOO!” the little girl told him, maybe she did.

“I saw the dragon movie with you! There’s Toothless. See him?“ she jumped up and down while she pointed at the dragon-drone. In truth the drone didn’t resemble toothless at all.

The father wondered if it had been such a good idea to take his daughter to see that movie. She had been captivated by the idea of dragons ever since. She had all the dragon-merch. She had “Toothless” pillows, “Toothless” nightgowns, it seemed like everything she owned or wore was “toothless” related. She had a ton of stuff.

“Who bought all of that for her?” he asked himself.

“Guilty as charged.” he answered his own question. “It’s my own damn fault.”

He knelt down beside his daughter without looking toward where she was pointing.

“Daddy!” She stamped her feet. “Here it comes! Oh goodie!”

She jumped for glee as she happily watched the dragon rushing toward her at full speed. It’s wings were spread, it’s taloned feet were extended, it’s fang-filled jaws were open and it was hissing like a steam whistle.

It was diving on them.

Her father heard the shrieking dragon scream. It was coming from over his left shoulder. When he turned his head too see the dragon swooping down upon them he heard an ominous sound that was much, much closer and raised the hair on the back of his neck. He was originally from the desert south west. He knew a rattle snake rattle when he heard it. He snapped his head around and saw the snake.

The big old fat rattlesnake had been sleeping under the bush beside the trail. It wasn’t too happy about being disturbed. It was molting and couldn’t see too well because of the film over it’s eyes. The serpent was grumpy and looking for a fight. It rattled briefly. Very soon , if that little girl jumping up and down beside the bush didn’t stop or move on, it was going to strike. Interfere with his nap would she?

“Dragons on the left. Snakes on the right.” the father thought. “What am I too do?”

Of course that was a rhetorical question. Doing anything is better than doing nothing in some situations. This was one of those situations. The father ignored the dragon, grabbed his daughter and rolled. His body was interposed between her and all harm. He was wide open to either snake bite or dragon claw. That was part of being a father. It went with the job. They had to come through him first to get to his daughter.

The snake struck. At the very last instant before it’s fangs pierced the man, jaws clamped around the reptile’s neck behind its head. The Dragon-drone flew away...with the big old fat serpent dangling from it’s jaws. The damn thing was bigger than it was, it seemed. It should have been impossible for that little dragon to carry that big snake.

The Father had no idea what had happened. he’d only seen the dragon for an instant. he’d damn sure seen the snake. He held his daughter close and wept. The daughter looked over his shoulder and waved at the departing dragon.

Kamiko waved back. She veered out into some ‘wild woods” across the river and dropped the snake. Perhaps it would survive.

Back to patrolling..

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The Next Episode will be
#94: Existential Moment…
The Previous Episode was
#92: Motorcycle Crash…
the First episode was
#1 : Prologue

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@everittdmickey
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