One day, one dragon

I woke up bleary-eyed and wooshy-tailed as usual for a Wednesday morning, to the tune of my alarm clock beeping away like a jack hammer through my head. With a low growl I punched the top to shut the thing up, and heard the crack of breaking plastic.  "Damn it, third time this week." I muttered to myself as I rolled out of bed, landing on all fours on the carpet. Great start to the day, eye's barely open and I was already causing wanton destruction.

So whats the first thing a dragon does when he wakes up? Why take a dragon sized stretch of course! I ebtn my rear legs in to stretch out my forelegs, followed by a slow rearing of my neck to get the cracks out of my spine (crack, crack, crack), before one quick flick of my tail and a wide yawn- which was a bit naughty since my yawns are loud and wake up the neighbours. Living in an apartment is better than a cave in some ways, but it does mean I got to behave – otherwise it's back to the moldy cave on the beach for me.

I walked out of my room into the kitchen after my stretch, eagerly licking my chops, ready to prepare some breakfast. Nothing special, just bacon as always, convenient thing though was that I didn't need a frying pan. Making sure the smoke alarm was turned off (there's 3 in each room, with a fire extinguisher, for when I do this kind of dumb stuff), I threw a rasher of bacon in the air, took aim and with a small click of my tonsils I breathed a small ball of flame towards it, cooking it as it sailed back down into my waiting mouth, where I chomped it and swallowed in one gulp. Tasty, char frazzled bacon, nothing beats it.

I did this for about half of the packet, and already had a seventh in the air ready to toast when my doorbell rang. I gasped in surprise as the bacon landed across my muzzle with a wet slop. Who could that be? No one came to this apartment anymore, not even Sandra, and it had been ages since I had had visitors. I gulped as I approached the door, tentatively lifting up a forepaw to open it. What if it was the landlord, finally ready to kick me out? But to my relief, I found that it was only my friend Jase, one of the few humans here in Cairns that I talked to, and also my next door neighbour "G'Day mate! ...what's with the bacon?"

I smiled as I flicked my head and propelled the bacon to the wall, where it stuck fast next to my couch with a SPLAT.  "Just having me brekkie. What's up, dude?"

"Mate, I'm having some friends over my place tonight for the footy match. Did ya wanna come over? Have a stubbie with the fellas and root for the magpies?"

There were three main problems with this. One was that I didn't know who these guys were, and what they would do if a 20ft winged reptile arrived to watch football. My other problem was that I didn't know what footy was, I knew there was a big deal around it around this time of year, and that it involved some sort of cup (had no idea what the magpies were for), but other than that I was clueless. As my third problem... well it take more than a few stubbies to get me drunk, but bad things happen alcohol is involved (waking up in someone's backyard snuggling up to a xmas tree being one of them- complete with the kids wondering who chewed on their presents) So with these in mind, I politely declined "Sorry mate, no can do. Have a good night though."

"We'll keep the volume down for ya, mate." Jase cheered. "Drop by if you change ya mind."

So Jase left, walking back to his apartment whistling some tune (think it was Rocky fanfare), and I went back to my room to get ready for my morning flight.



I was grinning from ear to ear as I soared over Trinity Beach, enjoying the gentle wind and the sunlight of a new day. Everyone speculates that I get tired out because of this flight, it's the other way round, actually charges me up. The exhilaration, the pure joy of being in the air, a great sunny day to warm up the blood, nothing compares to it… even when I get interrupted.

I heard it low at first, a quiet drone disturbing my thoughts, before it turned into a loud thundering roar as a Boeing 747 zoomed right over my head, leaving me spinning in its wake. I flailed around as I lost altitude, wings sticking out in all directions and my tail whipping around in a frenzy. For a few moments I had no idea which way was up, let alone how far I was falling down. Finally I managed to get my bearings straight and flapped hard to stop my fall, cursing. It was my fault, I had gotten too wrapped in the morning up to realise I was in the airport flight path!

So, my morning was off to a great start, and it left me in a wondrous mood by the time I turned up at Sandra's front door. Even after a few dunks in the ocean to wash it off, I still smelt of airplane fuel.  I growled as I rapped on the door, knowing she was going to have a go at me for the smell, probably something about putting off the customers.

The door swung open and Sandra stepped out, sunglasses on. She must have been at the pub again last night, which meant she was probably going to have a hangover all morning "Eurgh! Geez Skyder, you look how I feel!" she exclaimed.

"Aww, but it takes a long time in the morning to look this good." I quipped, grinning.

She took a sniff and reeled back "Whoa there, you hit the booze last night too?"

"Nah, just got downwind of a Qantas jet." I ruffled my wings and lowered my haunches to sit down on her doorstep, my tail slapping against her garden hedge "So what are we doing today?"

"Nuttin'"

I raised an eyeridge in confusion "Nothing?"

"No-one needs help today, silver-butt." She explained. "You know what that means."

"Aww... you're not telling me we got to..." I looked over to the shed across the garden, where the bane of my existence: that annoying frilly saddle, lay in wait.

"Yep, we're peddling scenic flights today." She pulled out her riding goggles.

"Sandra, can't we talk about this? I don't wanna do horse rides, pleeeeease? Can't we do some computer repairs or help out at the arcade?"

"Weeell... let's be fair then." She dug her wallet out of her jeans and pulled out a dollar coin "Call it in the air- heads or tails?" she said, tossing the coin in the air.

"Tails!" I cried out, eyes wide open as I watched the coin land on the tiles, hoping like mad that I was gonna be right and today wouldn't involve a sore back aaaaand......


...it was Heads.

"Come on, keep moving!" Sandra ordered, yanking on the bridle again.

"Alright-alright," I muttered as I picked up the pace. As if this wasn't embarrassing enough, walking down Grafton street with Sandra on my back, I even had to wear the billboard that proudly proclaimed in huge red letters "DRAGON SCENIC RIDES $50"

Cairns as a city wasn't particularly big, the town centre that I was currently walking down only had 5 or 6 blocks. But where it got the most of its income was from its very vibrant tourist industry. Tourists from all over the world come here to enjoy the pristine beaches, the lush green rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef. So what Sandra and I did for cash, when the handyman jobs (or handy dragon, since I usually did all the work) were running dry, was give scenic flights over Cairns and the Reef. Sandra didn't mind, she got to rehearse her all-time favourite tour guide banter. But it was a pain in the neck for me, literally.

We were just passing Gilligan's night club on our way to Lake Street, when two American tourists, a man and a woman, jumped out in front of me. The man was waving his Queensland map in front of my eyes like a red towel "Hay, hay lady! Could ah get a rahde far me ahnd mah wahfe?"

I heard Sandra say "Sure, climb aboard" and I squatted down onto the cement to let them on. I felt two light footsteps and a small weight as the lady got onto the saddle, followed by two bricks and a bag of concrete as her husband sat behind her. Sandra sidled up my back and pushed her legs out onto either side of my neck "Ok then, you ready to go?"

I wiggled my haunches as I stood back up, trying to accommodate for the added weight of my passengers, to discover that my back hips were straining from the effort "Could you get whoever is near my tail to move up, he weighs a ton."

"Hang on a sec, did thah big guy just talk?" he exclaimed "Well Ahull be!"

"Don't mind him, Skyder here's not rude usually." She bent down and yanked on my ear "Is he?"

"Ow! No!" I yelped.

I heard laughter from my back and sighed as she let go and tugged at the bridle. She always knew how to get me to be compliant, even when I wasn't misbehaving. When the couple were better seated, and Sandra had made sure they were properly secured to the saddle (I haven't dropped anyone yet, but we need to be on the safe side) I was ready to take off. Making sure no one was walking behind me, I leaned back and bent my back legs.

"So are we gonna go now, or-"was all the wife managed to get out before I took a huge leap and spread my wings out to soar over the street. There were cheers of laughter, as well as screams of terror (from the wife and the husband respectively, go figure), as I lifted us all high into the air, until all the buildings were below us and the nearby mountains could be seen.

As I glided gently towards the mountains, Sandra went into her tour guide routine, telling the couple about the geography of Cairns. It used to all be mangrove swampland until it was built over, so the interesting thing is that the whole city is technically below sea level. She went on as we got to the green mountainside; Sandra tugged to give the cue to lower down to just above the canopy.

"And here in the rainforest, we get all kinds of interesting plant life and wildlife, everything from snakes and spiders, to the cute bilbies and even wallabies!" She said, just before we got to the clearing. Sandra likes to use this clearing because as I go over, my shadow startles all the wallabies that graze nearby, and they all rush out, hopping away right beneath the passengers. I've been tempted to try and grab one of them before, just so they could see one up close, (not to eat, honest!) but no, they're protected by wildlife protection law. So I settled for a few flaps to get them running and a glide while the couple took pictures.

When we were done, I pitched to the right and sped out over the open water of the Marlin Coast. Underneath the outcrops of coral reef were showing through the sparkling waters. I lowered down again so that they could see the fish that swam in and around the coral, being followed by turtles and the sharks. I heard loads and LOADs of pictures snapping away when a nurse shark bolted out of the reef. Man, if they had wanted to take pictures of fish, they should have gone on a cruise!

10 more minutes over the reef, and finally it was time to head back. I had to strain to keep airborne as we approached the coastline, flapping harder than normal, because the thermals over the water were higher than I was. Eventually we got back to Cairns, and I gradually descended to come to a slow steady landing, in the Esplanade Park right next to the beach.

Sandra helped the pair off my back; I think I felt my lungs cheer for joy as the husband got his huge bulk off. They waved as Sandra got back on, and I waved back before resuming my walk.

"You know, you make a decent tour guide." I commented as we went down to the corner.

"Thanks, you make a decent source of income" she jeered back.

"Yeah, what would you do without me, huh? Camel rides along the beach."

"Nah.. I'd sucker some other dragon instead."

"Heh... other dragon." I responded, my wings drooping low. The fact was I had never seen another dragon around these parts or anywhere else for that matter.

"Oh come on." She said, feeling no pity as she yanked on the bridle again, pointing out the old lady and her teenage son approaching, money in hand. "Look, there's another customer."

"Well you know what they say," I replied, "'One born every minute...' "



I'd done 4 laps of the same long flight by the time Sandra decided it was time for lunch. We sat down on the grassy parkland of the esplanade, to watch the boats pull into the pier as we ate. Sandra thoughtfully chewed on her burger while I had my muzzle dug into a bucket of fried chicken.

"Skyder… what's it like?" she suddenly asked.

"Ish a bit greashy, but chickensh chicken." I replied, pulling my head out to spit away some bones that got caught in my teeth.

"No you drongo, that aint what I was talkin' about." She sighed, and turned to me, "What's it like to be a dragon?"

"Uh..." i thought for a minute,  then ducked into my bucket and with drew a chicken wing, passing it over to her. "Stick that on your head, and leave it there. Don't do anything to it, just leave it. Then watch how everyone looks at you, how they see that before they see you. "

"So what, that's what it's like, you look idiotic." She groaned.

"Well no, you're just different. It'll be everyone else who thinks you're an idiot." I gave a sly grin "Guess I'd get a few laughs out of that."

She gave me a whack across the foreleg as I ducked back into my chicken bucket "Smart ass."

But as it turns out, the esplanade isn't the best place to eat if you want to be left alone. Just as I was about to eat my last piece of chicken, someone's hand smacked the back of my head, sending chicken hurtling out of my mouth over the side of the pier.
"Well if it isnt the overgrown iguana himself!" I heard a familiar voice jeer behind me. I turned to see Gregg, Sandra's college mate "Sandy why does this thing keep following you?"

"Because it makes moneeeey." She whinged, getting up to give Gregg a hug while I mourned my lost chicken piece (Noes, thems was my fooood), "How's it going?"

"Doing alright, I'm just here on business." He replied, patting my back again "Some of Tommo's boys  over in the cane paddy's past Gordonvale need a hand with the cane burning. It's paying well, what do you reckon?"

"Reckon that's the perfect job for us!" she cheered "Thank you so much."

"Yeah, thanks" I mumbled, growling. Last time I'd helped out in a cane fire, I came back jet black and getting soot everywhere.

Sandra gave Gregg a quick kiss and jumped on my back with the speed of a gymnast and landing like a sack of potatoes. She didn't even bother to do up her restraint, she just tugged on the bridle and yelled "South Skyder, south!"

I rolled my eyes and pushed the bucket aside, no chance to even put it in the trash. Although that cheered me up as I took off, leaving Gregg standing there next to my scatterings of chicken bones all around the grass- he was going to have to clean up!


I landed next to Tommo's farmhouse after our flight over Gordonvale, being careful to be gentle so that Sandra didn't get thrown off. If she noticed the tact I had used, she didn't say anything about it, she just climbed off and walked over to the house to knock on the door.

Tommo was one of those farmers who could probably pass for an orc. His teeth were all yellow and crooked, he had scratch marks all along his face from the cane and this weird dent in the side of his forehead. More to the point, he usually smells worse than the farm does, a mixture of fertiliser and booze .He stepped out after he opened the door, only to stagger back in when he saw me "Wagh! What's 'ee doin' 'ere?"

"Gregg sent us, said you needed a hand with the cane burning." Sandra explained.

He rubbed his eyes and looked around in the vivid after noon sunlight, to the cane, to Sandra, then to me, then to the cane, then to Sandra, then to me, then he realised "Ah yea' thatsh righ' – Gregg saysh 'ee can git this paddy don by his-self." He waved over the side, to the huge field of sugar cane nearby.

"Yep, he can do it." Sandra replied, stroking the back of my head like a cat. "Skyder here knows how to burn stuff, don't you, big guy?"
This isn't actually as bad as it looks. Sandra and I realised that although a dragon can make people apprehensive, it's a talking one that can really scare them. What Sandra was doing was making me look tame, and in turn less dangerous. So I had to do what we rehearsed for these kind of situations- lick Sandra on the face and look happy. (Do not recommend doing that, by the way, human does not taste good.)

"Strewth." Tommo, scratched the back of his head  and belched, before he waved us over to the paddock. "Alrigh' just thish paddock, nun o' the o'er cane, thash ready ter harves'."

"I'll keep him on this one. Don't worry." Sandra said as we walked over. When we got to the paddock, Tommo waved again and set off back to his farmhouse, either to check up on the cane train on it's way to the mill or to get ready to watch the cane burn, or maybe even both.

Cane burning is something they do this time of year pretty often. I'm oblivious as to why they do it, something about making the cane easier to harvest. But the same time every year, for a few weeks, at least one cane paddock was on fire. But this cane fire was gonna be different: it was going to be dragon powered!

We stood there looking at the cane we were about to burn, wondering where best to start. A ute pulled up on the edge of the paddock with the water, ready to stop the fire spreading if it got out of hand. Another Ute was making firebreaks along the dirt track around it, small spot fires to burn up the loose grass on the track, so it didn't jump across to the other paddock. When they were both finished, the guy driving the ute gave a wave in our direction, and we were ready to go.

"So you got a match handy... or a lighter or.." I joked.

"Skyder, just light 'er up."

"Ok, dragon fire it is."  I turned to Sandra. "You riding on top for this one?"

She looked at the paddock, then up to the sky where we were going to be "Uhh... no I'm gonna sit this one out."

"Funny." I chuckled as I got ready to take off "i thought I ate all the chicken back in town."

She glared at me as I took off over the paddock, veering into a sharp turn and inhaling. As I turned back towards the paddock, I opened my mouth and let loose with a flurry of clicks- but no sparks. Frowning, and ignoring the jeers from the ute, I pulled up and got ready to turn around again, to take another attempt. My guess was my tonsils had been wet when I tried, this time though...

I dived in like a hawk, the air whooshing past my muzzle, going up my nostrils, deep into my lungs. When I reached the fastest I was going to go, I opened my mouth again, clicked my tonsils once more and exhaled.

WOOOOOOOOMPH!

I unleashed a huge line of flame, so hot even I felt it as it descended, resulting in a 20 foot wide strip of the paddock roaring into a blaze, right down the middle. Coming back around to survey, I found that I had been accurate enough: only the target paddock had been hit.  I grinned as I adjusted my flight path to take care of the two other strips left to do,  as acrid black smoke began to fill the air.

I was finished with the flaming of the paddock within the hour, but me and Sandra stuck around to help out on fire control. Sandra was able to take care of any spot fires that did show up, but anything that meant going into the actual paddock itself was left for me. Problem was that I had to be careful not to stick around for too long- I might be fireproof, but I'm not heat-proof!

Another problem that was reserved for me was snakes. Anyone who went near the paddock on foot was likely to get attacked by the taipans that nest in the cane and were scared off by the fire. I did actually run into one of them as I went through, and I stood back and let it slither across the dirt track to the other paddock. We were 10 minutes away from any hospital, a taipan's bite can kill you in 3.

Finally we were done. The fire had subsided from its inferno to a steady 200 yard-wide campfire, just as the sun began to set. It was a weird scene, the fire gave off an orange glow that resembled the sun's approaching dusk. Stars shone in the sky, wavering and flickering from the heat of the fire.The smoke, it was everywhere, stinging my eyes and coating my scales (should have gotten goggles like Sandra did).  Tommo came out of his house, taking off his hat as he watched the job we had done.

"Amazin'" was all he was able to blurt out "Tha' thing di' a good job!"

"Thanks." Sandra answered. "I think me and Sky are done here, if we could just collect our cash and we'll leave you it."

Tommo nodded dumbly as he handed Sandra a handful of yellow $50 notes, still looking at the fire.

"Come on, Skyder, time to go." Sandra said, steadily climbing onto my back and patting my neck just above the saddle. I responded with a steady flap of my wings, a low "OK"  and a quick take off, getting back in the air to head on home.



I landed outside Sandra's front garden and followed her to the front door, she peeled off her goggles and leaned against the door frame, coughing little clouds of soot. "Whoa, thats was one hell of a day."

"No kidding." I said as I sat on the cornet pathway. "My necks all stiff."

"You know, you complain a lot, but I bet there's loads of people who would want to be you." She said.

"Ostracized, scary, and having to give out rides for a job?" I replied, raising an eyebrow.

"Skyder, you get to fly whenever you want, you never get into trouble you can't deal with and you're a huge powerful animal, who wouldn't want that?"

"Anyone who wanted a friend." I mumbled. It was true, being a dragon was fun, but it was also sad as well. When the other dragons are nowhere to be found, and the humans go out of their way to make you feel different, alien, who else was there to be with? That was the answer to Sandra's question, that's what it was like to be a dragon, it was lonely.

"Skyder... I'm your friend, remember?" She told me. "I know I'm tough on you, but I don't mean to treat you that badly."

I waved a paw to put it aside. "It's alright, I know." There was no need to hamper Sandra with my worries, so I put on a smile instead "So how did we do for today?"

She looked down, then handed over the envelope. "Here's your half of the money, think we did alright for a Wednesday, should pay the rent and then some. See you same time tomorrow, Skyder?"

"Well this overgrown iguana does need to make moneeeys."  I quipped, imitating her comment to Gregg earlier.

She laughed "Time to hit the sack, see ya later." The door swung shut.

My eyes went wide as I realised she'd forgotten something. Frantically I banged on the door "Sandra wait, you forgot to take off the saddle!"

It took a good twenty minutes to paw off the buckle that secured the saddle on. It took a good tugging, but eventually the straps were loose enough for me to slip it off. As I did, a photo fell down from the saddle. Curious, I picked it up.

"oh..." I realised that it was a snapshot taken from, the date on the corner said it was taken over a year or so ago. It was the picture we had taken when we visited Green Island. I remember Sandra laughing because we didn't need to pay for the cruise ship to get there. In the pic was me sitting with a baby crocodile on my shoulder, and Sandra on the other side hugging my neck.

That had been a good day, I never thought she had kept that picture. Perhaps... well maybe I wasn't as alone as I thought. Even if there were no dragons around, maybe people like Sandra were friends.

I looked out to the north, where my apartment was, and got ready to take off into the night sky. But I wasn't going to go to my apartment, I was going to go to Jase's house next door, go and enjoy this 'footy match' with him. Even if it was boring, even if the other guys didn't like me, even if I drank too many stubbies and passed out on his balcony, I was going to go to enjoy not being lonely.


...and who knows, maybe I'll find out what the deal is with the cup!