Casey's hair coiled in the damp air. Clouds hung low over the brick shops, bustling with patrons. Her territory. The merchants permitted her weirding shop, because she kept creatures like the winged serpent away. Yet, on this dull gray morning, he just happened to walk down her street, jade scales glistening in the dim light.

Patrons dove inside and shopkeepers barred their doors. Casey remained, glaring as the firedrake approached, forked tail swishing and knocking over carts. It stopped a mere three paces away, close enough for her to ensorcell it or it to incinerate her.

"Explain yourself," she demanded.

The drake's neck began to convulse as it opened a great maw and hacked up a slime covered ball of fur. Casey's grimalkin uncurled at her feet.

The drake smirked. "I rescued that from the bay where a fish monger tossed it after being robbed of several merlins."

Casey considered her feline familiar, scrubbing phlegm from its matted fur against the bricks.

"I assume you wish a boon for the service," she said. The drake's smile widened, exposing rows of jagged teeth. "Well, out with it. What do you wish?"

"I think, m'lady, I shall save the favor for a future day." It inclined its reptilian head to her, shot a gout of flame at a nearby shop, terrifying the patrons gathered at the window, then sauntered back down the street.

"This will not end well," Casey grumbled to her grimalkin, who promptly vomited fish bones onto her polished boots.

Photo by Vladislav Nahorny