Every day of that week, the boy journeyed to the tower. The first few times, he felt a little lost, that the feeling in his belly was leading him astray. But he always ended up at the tower, smiling up at the girl. And, as the days passed, he found he could find the tower with his eyes closed.
The girl waited every morning at her window, searching the trees for movement. When a flock of birds took flight, she knew the boy would be emerging soon after. She never wished for anything more to fill her room. Only that the boy would always return.
She wanted to invite him up to her room, and show him all the things she had wished for through the years, and all the skills she had mastered. Perhaps he would most enjoy her cream cheese cookies, or to listen to a melody she’d been perfecting. But it was never to be known, for there was no door, and he was locked out.
The boy was never quite successful at throwing food up to her, so they worked around it. He would spread a blanket in front of the dragon, with a prepared picnic, while the girl would set her plates on the windowsill, and they’d pretend to be sharing their breakfast. All the while, they’d chat – about anything and everything.
He would ask about the ways she spent her days, and she would ask about life in the village, with other people, and places to visit. Each of them was enamoured with the other, and the stories they told, but neither could see how the other felt the way they did.
One day, the boy said, “I cannot understand why you enjoy hearing my stories. They’re nothing but droll.”
“Droll, says you. To me, they are tales of a life I can never live.”
“You really wish for a life out there?” he asked, throwing a piece of bread to the dragon. The dragon sniffed, pointing his snout at a blueberry pancake.
“More than anything,” she sighed.
The boy threw the pancake in the air, but a wind swept it far from the dragon’s mouth. Before the pancake could disappear into the trees, the dragon’s tail shot out, and curled around it. The girl and boy watched as it threw the snack toward its mouth, and gobbled it whole.
“Perhaps there is a way,” the boy said, eyeing the satisfied dragon.
TO BE CONTINUED
fabwrites 