Offering

Nightfalls over the town as the villagers gather. I fly over my territory scanning the ground to see what belongs to me. I wonder what the townsfolk will offer. I didn't think of anything in particular that I wanted but demanded it anyway. A good amount of the villagers gather in the middle of town. With the man who seems to be mayor in the middle. I'll discuss my ownership of the town with him another time. I need to make sure he understands.

Oh they are gathering stuff I wonder what I'm getting but I'm interrupted by images of my mother talking. "You must not peek at the presents this coming holiday" "why "because it is less meaningful to everyone, the giver and receiver." 

I suppose this is not a gift though I'm taking from them. Aw that doesn't matter, the important part is I'm getting stuff. 

I look down at the ground to see the humans talking to each other. What are they talking about? Can they see me? I'm too high and too dark to be seen by human eyes. Why are they talking to each other so much?

The group is crowded in front of a door and talking to a person inside the house looks like all of the others and doesn't seem to be important. The man in the house takes out some gold and gives it to the mayor 

Is that gold for me? Nice.

They travel to a larger, more secure building where after they enter they appear with a large number of gems.

Are those gems for me? Nice.

Next they travel into a farm and grab some livestock and put it in the cart with the rest of the items. The livestock are not cows but are cow-like, their horns curve earlier and instead of hoofs they have paws and they are fully furry from head to long tail. I'm reminded of a time when I watched a documentary on ants that take these weird tiny green bug things as livestock. That is what these humans are doing. Humans are like ants!

  I look to see the sun come up. I should go to bed, I think to myself. So I flap my wings and dart back to the castle. I decided to do something different this time; I wanna see if I can land without flapping my wings. So I soar down letting the winds slow me down for the landing. I succeed but landing is not fun and my feet hurt after the crash. 

I enter my castle and walk in slowly limping slightly from the landing pains. Circle around the middle of the carpet putting my head on my tail.

I release my mind, close my eyes and slowly fade to sleep. 

Luckily I am tired so sleeping will not be difficult.

So I begin to fade into that other world.

The world of sleep.

Good day. 

  -voice-

As the sun rises the villagers leave their safe village and travel to the lair of the beast 

They take the cart and travel upwards towards the castle before seeing the dragon and waking him up.

  -Spike-

"Sir dragon we have arrived." says a townsperson

the words slither from my mouth in a low growl. "What?" 

The towns person panics "is something wrong sir dragon?"

"It's the middle of the day." I say

"Umm is that a problem sir" 

"I'm trying to sleep!" 

"Sorry" 

"No, no, it's fine." I say "well what you've got."

The townsfolk basically got what I said but were thrown off kilter by the praising. 

"W-we have got many things, your greatness." he says "but first I should introduce myself I'm the mayor of the town of Halfsoil." 

Oh, so the town is called Halfsoil. Wait if he's the mayor who's the other guy. 

"Halfsoil is that town over there right?" I point at the town that I threatened 

"Yes" 

"I see" I say

The other guy, the silver haired man who is not the mayor, is not here wondering why the townsfolk seem to see him as a leader and he is brave; facing a dragon should be his thing.

"Show me what you've got." 

"Well first we have some razels for you to eat." he says before leading some of those strange cow like creatures to me. 

"For you to eat" he says "are you satisfied, your greatness?" 

I begin to salivate "I am so satisfied" I say "and also don't call me something so great as your greatness. Call me your greatness lord Spike the great dragon."

"Yes your greatness lord Spike the great dragon."

  He actually called me that 

"Next we have some gold coins and bars for your hoard your greatness lord Spike the great dragon."

"Yo nice." I say with a satisfied expression

He notices my satisfaction smiling "After that your greatness lord Spike the great dragon-"

"Stop there" I say "I was joking before just call me Spike."

He says "Yes Spike" after the fakest laugh I had ever heard in both my lives. 

"After that we have some gems also for your hoard." he says it more calmly even if the joke didn't exactly land it still made him calmer.

"We also have a human for you to eat."

"What!?"

He looked up in shock. "Is that not what you wanted?"

"Umm"

I look to the hull of offerings and notice a terrified woman tied and gagged in with the animals. 

I suppose it's not cannibalism since I'm a dragon and she looks tasty. Maybe eating human meat is something dragons do. 

"No, it's fine." I say

Is it fine? No it's not fine I used to be human and killing a sapient being is always wrong. Humans are off limits and I also used to be human so killing and eating other humans is wrong.

And is she crying? Oh god I feel bad now. If I was just a dragon I would be unable to read human emotion but I know what crying means. I think back. did I say I wanted a live human why did they assume that? 

Do I send her back? That might be a bad idea if the villagers readily feed her to a hungry dragon who knows what else they might do to her. I can't send her back. Can I keep her here? That's a possibility I can think about. Also what do I do with the livestock?

"Hmm"

"Are you not satisfied, Spike?" says the mayor

"Put the livestock in the dungeon, leave the girl here, then leave." I say

The villagers walk the girl to me; she tries to break free of them but they put her on her knees before me. While I wait for the villagers to leave I look at the girl.

The woman is young, seemingly the same age that I died. Around twenty-one she's pretty but I feel nothing about that. She has dark blue black hair and green eyes that would have once matched her ancient bow on the back of her hair.

She wears a fierce sharp expression along with her peasant rags. The clothing seems poor even for a feudal peasant. Her sharp eyes begin to glisten and leak tears but her expression remains fierce and pointed at me like she is ready to kill.

This brought back some happy memories of the time my family bought my childhood dog. His name was Rex and I remember how he howled when we took him from the shelter. His entire life was in that shelter but these strange people took him away and to a new place, a scary place, but a place he would be happier. 

I can keep this woman! As a pet. I look at her again and those rags are ripped exposing her body,  probably from a fight when she was taken from the village. She seems the type. She's still staring angrily and crying. 

I look around for something for her to wear. Oh yes in my hoard there is a nice frilly green dress to match her eyes. The bandits likely stole it and it looked new. And she is going to look adorable in it like a poodle. 

She has stopped crying as she is confused why I'm looking into the air. I have to name her since she is my dog.

The villagers leave and I come up with a name. 

"I'll name you Daisy." I say

With dried tears and ragged clothes her expression softens as she looks confused. And like she wants to say something.

"Oh yea I should."

I open my claws making a sharp slicing sound that reverberates into the air. She screams through her gag as I slice the ropes binding her. 

She stops screaming and looks confused again. She stares at me and slowly removes the gag in her mouth without taking her eyes off me.

"Isn't that better Daisy."

"What?" She looks at me confused. "My name is Etheda."

"Is it? Well now your name is Daisy."

Daisy keeps her confused expression.