"Dad, my dragon is scared! Dad, come get me!"
Scott looked between the basement stairs and the hallway when he saw another shadow. This time, it covered the whole backyard and lingered. He felt goosebumps.
"Dad, come get me! I need to help my dragon!"
He floated outside and looked up. It was cloudy, there was a dark reddish-black patch of the clouds shaped like a bulbous airplane. No, not an airplane⦠something familiar.
"Dad! Dad! Dad, come get me!" Tober yelled.
"I'm checking to make sure the dragon is safe first!" Scott yelled back. He thought about the small dragon's flight the other night, its shape similar to the dark cloud patch over the yard.
Scott flew inside, shut the door and peeked out the window. It was a dragon, a very large dragon . He went to get Tober. As he passed the living room, he heard Tober yelling.
"Dad! Dad! Is my dragon okay? Come and get me! Dad! Dad! Dad!"
He unbuckled Tober and thought, *Where to go?* The car? That massive dragon was outside.
"Dad, Dad, where is my dragon?"
"He's hiding in the basement. He's just spooked." Scott glanced out the window.
"Can I go see him?"
Should they go see him? "Yeah, let's go to the basement where he's hiding. He'll be less scared if we're with him." Underground, away from windows, would be ideal.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
He wondered how long they'd have to stay in the basement as they reached the door. He spotted the German book. There might be something he could do.
Tober was halfway down the stairs, pulling on the reins and dragging Scott through the air as he opened the book. He had his phone for translation. After Tober found the dragon curled up behind the stairs, Scott tied the reins to a water pipe. He floated back up and wedged the door closed.
"Hey, hey, it's all right, don't be scared. I'm right here."
He floated over to the couch with the book as he heard Tober calming the dragon, using the same phrases Mel used. He heard Tober patting the dragon's back.
Scott flipped through the pages, wondering how long it would take to translate. Then he had an idea: there was a dragon-bait recipe on the flower-part package. The sellers knew about dragons. The book had to mention them. He took out his phone.
"Google, what's the German word for dragon?"
"The German word for dragon is Drache."
He saw "Drachenkoder" and "Lindwurm," too. He didn't need to translate every page; he could skim for those words.
"We're safe down here from that mean big dragon. Dad's gonna keep us safe," Tober said.
"Hey, Tober, why do you think it's a big dragon?"
"Don't know, feels like my dragon but meaner and bigger."
"Did you see it out the window?"
"No, just felt it, like before."
"Before? When?"
"When I knew to dig in the yard."
Scott flipped through the book, focusing on specific letters and words. He was concentrating so hard he didn't dwell on how Tober had "felt" what was buried.
There! He flipped back a page. "Drachenkoder." Google Translate: Dragon Bait.
He heard shuffling and Tober's footsteps.
"Hey, Dad, it's safe now. Can we go back upstairs?"
Tober and a calm Sepal looked up at him. Scott looked back at the book. He already had a dragon-bait recipe. If he wanted bait, he could just get it. But there was that parkâ¦
"Dad, can we go back to my room? It's safe now."
"I think we should wait to make sure it doesn't come back. But, I'll go look while you two stay down here."
He set the book on the couch, floated upstairs, unwedged the door, and got the dragon bait from the freezer. He was floating horizontally, his arm deep in the freezer, when the kitchen door swung open.
"Hey, boys, I'm home!"
Scott jerked back, the container in hand, and saw Mel staring at him floating in the kitchen.
"Hey, Mel."