Our New Pet

Our New Pet first appeared on Trev's Telautograph on February 22 2011

I was out walking this morning, I was walking in an area of woodland that I have never walked through before, it is not far from the river bank that I usually walk along. This time of year the trees are starting to bud and early spring windflowers are breaking through the once frost covered ground. All in all a good time of year to be out there in warm clothing to see how nature has faired over our harsher than usual winter. As you would expect she has faired rather well and everything seems to be coming long in a nice orderly fashion.

Anyway, I’m walking, enjoying the pre-spring morning crispness in the air when I see an odd looking rock near my foot. I gently nudge it, after all it might not be a rock and I don’t want not-rock splattered over my walking boots. Yeah, the rock moves and I’m satisfied that if I want to kick this rock then nothing is going to splatter my boot. Instead of kicking it though I give the rock a closer look. There is something about this rock that makes me decide to definitely not kick it.

More about me and rocks: I collect small coin sized rocks, they have to be flatish,

sort of roundish and no thicker than a coin because I make then into casting runes. I have a big jar full of this type and size of rock plus of course my regular 24 Futhark runes (I know there are 25 runes but I don’t count the blank one although I do have a blank one in my set of home made runes) that I sometimes read. I try to collect my rocks from areas that I think are pretty much undisturbed by man so a lot of my rocks come from the Welsh Mountains, higher stretches of the Peak District and the Lake District and a few, not many at all really, come from the wilder areas we have here in Norfolk.

The rock I discover in the local woodland fits none of my regular rock collecting criteria. To start with it is roundish, about the size of a tennis ball and I discover on picking it up that it is not half as heavy as it should be! It is also a green sort of colour (not moss or any other growth), not your usual colour for rocks so thinking no more about it other than”What a cute little rock, maybe I can find a home for this on my bookshelf”, I put the rock in my coat pocket and carry on with my walk through the woods.

Once home, I do the usual by putting the kettle on, make a pot of tea and relax on the sofa enjoying the feel of my body after a good long walk. After about twenty minutes I think of the rock in my coat pocket, my coat now resting over the back of the chair I slung it over when I came in (I’m a man remember). I then look at my bookcase and there, right on the top shelf I see the perfect place to sit my new found rock. I get up and fish about in my coat pockets eventually finding the new rock.

It feels even odder now, not that it doesn’t look odd enough already, the rock seems to have changed colour and is now a reddish brown colour (this is going to look great on the shelf when the sunlight catches it just right). The rock is also much warmer than I remember and I am also pretty sure that it has got slightly larger. I handle it some more, swapping it from hand to hand, the blooming rock is getting hot now and I’m swapping hands even faster, like you would if you had a really hot potato in your hand!

Then this rock just splits open!

To my amazement a tiny baby dragon crawls onto my hand!

Seems I now have a new pet so I’m in need of some help, does anyone know what dragons eat? Do baby dragons drink milk or is there some fire breathing liquid they need?

©Trevor Litchfield