Selena

One of the two dragons, the blue one, pissed on me. Had I known he’d decided to urinate on my car, I wouldn’t have opened my roof and stuck my hand out to wave. However, I had opened my roof and waved, only to have urine pour all over me. Though I wanted to stay inside my car, I couldn’t, because I needed the dragon male to receive me, and as he wouldn’t receive a cyborg, I needed to show him some skin. As for the urine inside the car, eventually the vehicle would activate the self-cleaning sequence, so it would be fine. Me, on the other hand? Not so much. I needed a warm shower.

The watch in the car read nine at night. I left the car and sat on the iceberg. Brrrr. Despite my thermal jacket, sitting on the iceberg made the freezing cold seep into my bones. Instantly, my ass got numb, and I pulled up my knees to my chest and rocked. The temperature dropped a few more degrees, and my teeth began chattering, my fingers cramping, and I could barely feel my toes. I’d freeze out here, but I didn’t care. I couldn’t go back now; I was almost at the castle, maybe half a mile to go. I would have used the car to close the distance, but I feared the dragons would attack. Pissing on the car meant they didn’t want me here.

Well, too bad for them.

So now I sat here alone on an iceberg in the middle of the water, a mile away from the coast, freezing my ass off—literally—and with piss in my hair. The urine didn’t smell awful, but still, it was awful. My life couldn’t get any worse. At that thought, I remembered that, yes, it could get worse. If I went back, I’d marry the man who had almost raped me. I imagined Diego wouldn’t make a great husband, and it would only be a matter of time until I jumped from a high-rise just like my mom.

Next to me, Nano robot stirred and beeped, probably scanning the area or maybe the car to assess the damage. I didn’t know for sure. The robot did its own work. Most times, it knew what to do without anyone having to command it.

The water rippled.

A pair of blue eyes with narrow black pupils framed in yellow on a head the size of a megatron advertisement screen emerged from under the water. Silent and deadly, the dragon glided toward me. A horn stuck out of its head, and a pair of…of frilled ears framed his face. His long, sharp teeth showed even when his mouth was closed. And thank God for the closed mouth, because if I saw all his teeth, I’d pee myself.

When the long muzzle inched toward me, I scooted back and put my hands up. “Please, don’t hurt me.”

He didn’t reply.

Instead, he inched closer and sniffed my leg.

I whimpered, my heart beating a mile a minute. If my teeth didn’t chatter from the cold, they chattered from fear. God, I came up with the dumbest shit. The bakery shop first. I couldn’t bake. The jewelry shop next. That caught fire. This was the worst idea ever. E.V.E.R. Even marrying Diego sounded better than becoming a meal.

The dragon moved his giant head, flapping the frilled skin on his ears as he sniffed around my car. Nano beeped.

The skin around the dragon’s ears flared, and he peeled back his upper lip.

Warmth tickled down my thighs.

I closed my eyes, mortified on all counts. I had peed myself. I couldn’t contain my fear. Never had I seen anything more frightening in my life than an angry dragon with flaring, scaly blue skin framing his face and teeth the size of my forearm.

“Okay, creature,” I said through my teeth. I was trying to talk, but, boy, I barely sounded like me. “A bad idea coming here.”

“Two hours to dinnertime!” someone shouted.

I snapped my eyes open to see a woman with a lantern standing at the entrance of the castle. She held it up. “My lord, what is that out there?”

The dragon slid back into the water and blinked, his eyelids closing and opening sideways. He grunted and put his muzzle on the iceberg. The iceberg tilted, moving me toward him, while I fought to stay away. I gripped the edge, climbed, and sat there. An inch more and I’d slide into the water, freeze, and sink to the bottom. Crazy dragon eyes on me, he nudged my thigh with his wet nose.

He probably wanted me to leave. Likely he didn’t want to eat me, or he would’ve already. Unless it was like a domestic cat that played with a mouse before eating it… I didn’t have any experience with domestic animals. This one couldn’t possibly be domestic, and it clearly wanted me to leave. “I can’t move right now,” I told him. “I’m sorry to have come, but I can’t move from this iceberg. My legs are cramped. I’m cold. So very cold.”

His eyes did a…roll. Had he just rolled his crazy eyes at me as if I didn’t make any sense?

I clamped my mouth shut and ground my chattering teeth lest I say something I’d regret. The dragon nudged my leg again, and I slid an inch, half my bottom on the iceberg, half not. Okay, if he nudged me once more, I’d fall in. I forced my hands to move and put them on the ice so I could crawl to my car.

The dragon butted my side. Stuck in this awkward position on all fours, I didn’t move. “Well, fuck, what do you want?”

He huffed out a breath and—I believe—tried to nudge his snout under my belly.

“Child, you’ll freeze out there,” the woman from the castle shouted.

“Oh, thank you,” I whispered, as if I didn’t get that part on my own.

“Climb on,” she added.

“Huh?”

The dragon huffed.

I took it as a confirmation. I crawled over his nose, onto the muzzle, between the eyes, and perched on his forehead, leaning my back onto his big horn. Oh my God. This thing is warm. I patted his horn. “Good boy.”

The dragon glided through the water, and because it was so huge, I didn’t even feel it moving. Sort of like a giant, living boat.

I liked it.

Him. I liked him. He would save my life.