One Weekend at a Time

Patrick is the only person alive who has a dragon for a pet. There are many surprises for him to discover.

One Weekend at a Time

That week was nice, pretty simple; just six days waiting for Sunday to come, so I could be able to go to my father's lands. The only times I wasn't thinking about Furia, were those when I was talking with my friends, and still I got distracted from the conversations many times. And speaking about many times, I had to tell the "acid accident" story like a thousand times. I was asked about my right sports glove everywhere, not only my friends and knowns; even people I have ever seen asked me about it. Luckily the story was simple and easy to tell. There was one of my friends that asked me for a lot of details. Where is this guy trying to get?

When finally Sunday arrived, I couldn't hold my joy. First hour in the morning I was like taking the truck and going solo to visit Furia. Still, I had to get a hold of myself, dad wanted to go. Elvis wouldn't see Furia for a long time, for he had traveled outer state for an internship. I felt every second of the trip, every meter we passed was like a small victory that brought us closer to our destiny.

Once arrived, we met Mr. Flynn at the house. We greeted each other, then I asked about Furia.

-She's been just hanging 'round, flying and hunting at night, resting under the trees at day. And I gotta tell you, that animal's growing rate is amazing! You'll barely recognize her now.

Suddenly I felt joyful, way more than how I actually was. This is Furia's mind… I got to see her!

I asked Mr. Flynn if he saw Furia this morning. He didn't, but he told me where she usually rests; I bid farewell and trotted that way; leaving dad and Mr. Flynn to talk about business.

Suddenly Furia and I met midway. It's like she knew I was in the lands. But, what had drawn my attention the most was her size. When I left her here, her shoulders were almost as high as my waist; now, they were almost as high as my chest. I had to look up to see her face when she had her neck arched up.

I hugged Furia without hesitation and heard a soft, grave humming; it couldn't mean anything else. I'm so glad to see you too… And we walked, played. At a moment she just laid down. Right, you fly and hunt at night… I laid against her and rested. As Furia didn't fell asleep, I talked to her from a moment to another, like sharing a thought or reflection, caring not if that made some sort of effect, just for the mere pleasure of sharing.

A pair of hours went by and we had to go home again. Dad had sent me a text message saying he wanted to see Furia; he wanted me to bring her to the porch. So I did. Once Furia and I got to the porch, dad was jaw dropped like he couldn't believe his own eyes.

-Now whose jaw dropped?

Joked Mr. Flynn. We then had a light farewell conversation until the inevitable happened… dad and I got to the truck and left.

The next week passed like a snail race. Nothing much to tell about it; just that I kept my resolution of doing always my best impeccable. I sure cost dad a few animals, but he was happy of providing me with such support. I never had to see "the look" again. My life was finally getting somewhere. Before I found Furia's egg, I felt, somehow… glad mom died after my birth; that saved her the pain of seeing who and what I was. For once, I felt sad she died; now she would miss who and what I became.

That weekend, on the road to dad's lands, I reflected something. Furia felt happy when I arrived last week, and she was too far away, maybe she's got really keen vision after all, but that doesn't include x-ray vision to see through the environment's elements, such as trees and hills… do dragons have x-ray vision?... Forget about that; I'll try something else, a little bit easier.

The moment I arrived, I made my mind clear, that way I would be able to feel any stimulus. I greeted Mr. Flynn, bid him and dad farewell, then continued my experiment. I walked slowly not towards where I met Furia before, if I was able to feel her with my mind, or even contact her, I had to find out. After a few minutes of nothing, I felt something. It felt weird, but it happened at a moment I made a turn. I think I triggered something. I walked the other way and the sensation went weaker. I got it! Then I turned to that direction again and it got stronger. Suddenly I was running towards that direction.

Then I found Furia, sleeping under a tree. I approached slowly and called her very softly. Furia raised her head and looked at me. There was sudden joy in the air, she got up and dashed to me. Once right in front of me, I hugged her and she kind of hugged me with her neck; she made that grave humming again. Then I took measure of her new size… her shoulders were now slightly above my own shoulders, her head way bigger than my whole torso, her neck one to two meters long, her wings were just immense. I'm just a snack to you!

We both went back to under the tree Furia was sleeping; she curled up and I laid against her. Meanwhile, I told Furia about college, it was so relieving to release that pressure; even though she didn't understand a single word, I felt like she did. Also other stuff went through my mind. Man, you are too big to play with; you could easily kill me by mistake. What am I supposed to do now? I didn't give that a lot of thought. We just passed the time laying there until I had to go. I surely need to spend a night here, when you are active.

The last 2 meetings of January, I spend them not only talking to Furia, but exercising our mental bond as well. I ran to a random direction, doing twists and turns erratically to then blindfold myself and get back with only my mind. I learned how to feel her at longer distances eventually.

February started, yet it would not be very different than January. A set of four visits to Furia, separated by a set of four long weeks. Still, I had my hopes for this month to be different. I am the only person in this world with a dragon for a pet, there are surely more details to discover. And I did, on my first visit of the month. I was lying against Furia, just resting, looking at the pieces of sky the tree we were under didn't block. The only sounds that could be heard were some sudden birds, soft breeze shaking the leaves of the trees, Furia's breathing at my back… and my name was suddenly called.

The voice was unknown; I thought Furia was seen by someone out of the selected group of people that knew her. I pushed myself forward and took a sitting position; examined my surroundings. There was no one around.

Patrick… I heard the voice again, louder and clearer this time. I stood to my feet and looked around frantically.

-Who's there?

Me.

My eyes got fixed on Furia. Please tell me that was you. A long silence followed. Maybe it was just a moment, or it truly was that long… I'll never know. Why would I? It was a kind, young female voice, though it gave me goose bumps. I remembered of long ago, when the idea of Furia understanding words jumped in my mind for the first and only time.

Can you understand what I think? I asked her.

Yes.

I chuckled, feeling an amazing relaxation as I sat on the ground, facing Furia. I was so blanked because of the weird situation I was now dealing with: I had a gigantic urge to start a conversation with her, but, how would I do it? I mean, I already knew her, and everything about her. By the looks of it, I was like her best friend and managed to be it without a single conversation, like with a dog. That was exactly my dilemma. Usually, when you first meet someone, you present yourself, share some stories, details of yourself and expect the other person to do the same on the way. Everything goes by sharing opinions about a selected topic. But, everything starts with a trigger, that be a situation in which you are forced to collaborate with this person unknown or… an intentional "icebreaker".

Furia raised her head a little and looked at me when I said…

-So, you like it around here?

Why don't you use your mind?

Well, I'm not used to… I said/thought smiling.

I like it here, lot of space, fresh air, and good quality game to hunt… It's all the contrary of where you spend the week; the city doesn't seem very pleasuring for what you have told me.

Yeah, it's a total pain in the a*s… why didn't you talk before?

I just managed to get the basics of your language; I might sound a little rusty sometimes, until I master it.

Oh well, I bet talking a lot will help.

It sure will.

I started with the first thing that came to my mind; I told her about my week.

I bet there's something else, other than studying for those "test" things… and what purpose does that college serve? You make it sound very important.

Not only me; humans, in general, need to have experience on something so they can perform a job and earn a living.

Why not just self-sustaining, just like I do? I hunt my food, exercise and rest. I need nothing else than that, and your visits of course.

I wish it was that easy for us, humans; there is much stuff involved, though. Even if I tried to become self-sustained, I wouldn't last very long, every human is born to be trapped on society's net. We want it or not.

It truly is a shame to be human, I have nothing to envy from you.

Yeah, thanks for cheering me up... Luckily I have you to remind me there's actually more.

Suddenly my phone rang and I answered.

-Dad?... already!?... Well, ok; meet ya there.

I have to go. But I don't want to.

I said as I stood to my feet and stretched.

You better do, not to anger your father. Also make sure, for your next visit, to bring something else to talk about. You tell me about college like I was some kind of therapist!

As Furia said that, she made a weird coughing-like sound. It took me a moment to realize she was laughing. Due to her lack of vocal chords, her laughing was a little different than human's. That made me smile, not exactly remembering everything I told her about college before, but the fact that now I could express myself with her, now I could share my ideas, my interests, what I like… now that she knows what I don't like.

During next week I barely kept myself together… I'll be damned… now I am more anxious for the weekend to arrive than ever! Still, I comforted myself with the idea of the efforts to be worth something. Everything I could think of was Furia. Each week turned to just a blank interval of time between weekends, nothing happened during them. Even when I was studying or doing an assignment, I counted the seconds left for each day to finish and bring me closer to the day I would visit Furia. In smaller terms… I lived one weekend at a time.