I shook my head

I shook my head.

“They never come. They never ever come.”

I know I should wait, but I’m done waiting – I was running out of wall space to count the days as it was.

And when there’s a gigantic dragon eyeballing you through your tower window, waiting is the last thing you’ll want to do.

Without turning my head, I glanced around the tower, trying to find something that might be of aid in slaying the dragon.

Sitting in the far corner, by the fireplace, was a long poker.

I backed up slowly, never turning around and keeping my eye fixed on the green one staring back at me.

“Good dragon,” I murmured, my hands feeling behind my back.

I didn’t have a plan, and my mind raced as I took a few steps forward, hands still behind my back.

The dragon gazed at me carefully, never batting an eyelid. If dragons can blink, that is. What chance did I, a mere female, have against a dragon triple my size?

I sighed. There was no point waiting any longer.

“No-one’s coming,” I whispered to myself, the anger flaring up inside.

I assessed my options.

Option one:

The dragon raised its eyebrows at me.

“Oh come on! I’m not the one supposed to be killing you! I don’t spend all day trying to figure out the best way to slay a dragon, I sit and think of what colour my wedding gown is going to be!”

I looked at the poker in my hand. Glancing up, I realised what the best thing to do was.

“Showtime,” I said.

I walked to another window as fast as I could, swinging myself onto the ledge.

The dragon’s body was here, near enough to the wall so that I could jump from where I stood onto its scaly red back.

Poker in hand, I gathered up my skirts and leaped as high as I could, landing with a wobbly thud on the dragon.

His head bolted up, a growl escaping as he felt the new weight on his back.

I walked along his scaly back, arms out to sustain my balance.

Suddenly there was a louder growl that escaped the dragon’s mouth, and I found myself off balance, clutching to a mammoth scale as he pushed off.

Great big giant wings whooshed in my ear, a noise so loud I had to cover them.

I shook my head, regaining my senses.

“PUT…ME…DOWN…YOU BIG UGLY BRUTE!”

Apparently ‘brute’ was not the right word to use. A flame of fire shot out from the dragon’s mouth as he circled the top of the tower.

I managed to crawl up the dragon’s scaly back, now standing – no, balancing – on the ridge between its head and its body.

Suddenly the dragon took a dip to the left, throwing my off balance. I fell off, grabbing the dragon’s neck as I started to fall.

Too late, however, and my fingers began to slip, one by one.