A chuckle left Jayben’s lungs as he looked to his innocent looking dragon pup. Slayer was far from being a beast. He was the size of a tiny dog and as such looked quite harmless; but scare people he did. Like the time this summer, when Slayer had somehow managed to get out of his cage and sought refuge in the comfort of Jayben’s dirty laundry basket. There in the hidden darkness of his new lair he made a nest of Jayben’s clothes and went fast to sleep. As luck would have it, an unfortunate Mrs. C went to unload the contents of the basket in the laundry room that morning. She no sooner dumped the basket on its side when a very confused Slayer rolled out of a towel onto the cold marble floor. He was so startled by the abrupt manner that his lair had been ransacked that he did what all baby dragons do to defend themselves; he blew a large orange flame toward Mrs. C, which nearly singed all the small hairs from her thick arms. As one can imagine, she was so surprised by his sudden appearance that she fell backwards in terror. Fortunately she plopped into a convenient large chair or she would have most certainly broken a hip. From that point on, Jayben was put under strict orders; Slayer was to remain under lock and key in his cage; only allowed out to crawl about the backyard and only under the watchful eye of Jayben and an adult, who as it happens, was most often Mrs. C.

“Are ya listening to me Jayben?” Mrs. C said.

As though awaking from this pleasant summer memory, Jayben turned back to the maid with a smile.

“Yes Ma’am I know, Slayer’s coming with me to school.”

Mrs. C winked her appreciation of that agree-ment and nodded.