#49: I want a Dragon

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She interrupted his memory. He was back in reality. Elvira was saying. “I cross checked some of the archives on the SoulStone. I’ve barely scratched the surface but...I can do some interesting things....hold out your hand.”

“Huh?” Shelby was puzzled but he did that.

“Now open it. Palm up” Elvira told him.

Shelby did that too. He noticed a haze form in the palm of his hand. The haze formed a cloud. The cloud got denser ....denser. A parakeet materialized in his hand.

The parakeet looked up at Shelby and said “How bout that?”

“Well I’ll be damned.”Shelby said.

The parakeet asked him. “You can talk to a parakeet and no one will care. You’ve noticed they look at you odd when you talk out loud and no one is there? If they think that you’re speaking to voices in your head that could be bad. How do you like it?”

“Oh I definitely like it. I do I really do. But not a parakeet.” Shelby said. “I don’t have any newspapers.”

“WHAT?” the parakeet said “What’s a newspaper got to do with anything? Are you crazy?”

“I dunno.” Shelby said “Am I?”

“Well yeah. Maybe a little” the parakeet replied. “but you’re getting better. I’m working on fixing that. OH! I get it! The old joke. You don’t have a bird so why buy a newspaper? That’s pretty funny! A derisive commentary on what newspapers are good for.”

“That’s right “ Shelby said “Did I do good?”

“You did VERY good” the parakeet said “but if you don’t want voices in your head or a bird...what do you want?”

“A dragon” Shelby replied “I’ve always liked dragons. Ever since I was a little boy I was interested in dinosaurs and dragons. I like dragons better than dinosaurs. Can you be a Dragon?”

“Well HELL YEAH!” the parakeet said. “ That’s easy. I just happen to have a bunch of templates for dragons. What color?”

“Black” Shelby replied. “Aren’t all Dragons black?”

“Nope.” the parakeet turned into a small pink dragon.

“BLACK!” Shelby said rather loudly. “I’m not into the pink.”

“Ok Ok” the dragon said “Don’t get huffy about it.”

Elvira spat a fireball.

“Oops....sorry about that” She sheepishly replied. “I need some practice.”

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It rained, It rained and it rained. It precipitated. The weather stayed wet with constant haze and fog. It misted, it sprinkled, it drizzled, it showered...and it rained.

“Maybe I should be a duck?” Elvira said one day.

“You want I should call you Howard?” Shelby said.

“I’ll stay a dragon.” Elvira grumbled.

“Ok.” Shelby replied.

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The Next Episode is
#50: Another Day at the Salt Mine.
The Previous Episode was
#48: Name that Gal
the First episode was
#1 : Prologue

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I'm

@everittdmickey
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I write
SPECULATIVE FICTION
I have books on Amazon too.
Sometimes I also comment on the news

Sometimes it's hard to tell fiction from the news.