Part 3 – Gerald’s new pet has caught the Colonel’s eye

There are some things in this world that are not explainable.

How certain members of society attend funerals for those they do not know. Why family matriarchs have such power over the young ladies in rich families, even though they live so far away, and often in a castle on their own. Or what is in the famous pie at The Bell in the town of Co’ombe. But people still come back for more without knowing.

There is, however, one set of events that will, most likely, happen if connected.

Step 1, find a creature that you call your pet, which has some abilities including, but not limited to, fire breathing. An aptitude to fly. To climb tall towers with an unsatiable hunger. Maybe even a killer instinct as a common skill.

Step 2, put said creature in an army or general military office.

Step 3 will likely appear to you. You will quickly find a person in the army who doesn’t see a cute, quirky pet in an office space far away from the centre of the complex, where discussions and planning for war, safety, security or the latest advancements in swords. Sharper and strong nearly every time just to give a spoiler, sometimes lighter.

No.

They will see the future of warfare. A way to make all their enemies run away in an exercise of futility as this new method, which can fly and can breach the walls of the castle. Then get to the local lord for terms of surrender before they can say ‘man the walls’. Or other such terms depending on who is being attacked.

Who needs a catapult now? Or even an army at that.

Gerald could see the plans forming from the moment step 3 started. The colonel stood at his door most morning. Asking questions.

No one asked him questions about his day. Or about him in general he found. His lunch was not a topic and certainly how often he went out walking when he went home. He had built a career out of being in the background enough to not be in the front line, but not so far back that he would be accidentally attached to the vanguard and likely meet his end with an angry dwarf arguing about mining rights for what he feels in essentially his childhood home. But the colonel wanted to know about his new pet, not him.

What he ate.

How he ate it.

How often.

How much exercise it needed.

What the animal (specimen as it was referred to in the Colonel’s notes) could do.

How high or fast it could fly.

How much fire and how often. Especially these two points.

The list of topics grew as Gerald slowly kept notes. Some days the agenda was hidden. Some days less so.

The army, and the non-descript departments loosely connect to it especially, had various ways to get information out of those who hid it. There were those who have specific training about how to extract information from hard to reach places. In times of war, nails, teeth or even family members had been known to be pushed on to get what was sought after. But with the removal of certain, methods, kindness was brought into replace. Talking about how Gerald and his husband met, or what he did in his free time. Even asking about his house and the flowers he grew. Were attempted to get to know the man.

No one had asked before because Gerald was both private, but more importantly, not the most engaging for conversation. Which only added to the Colonel needing to bring out his softer side to attempt to deepen what had become a near daily chat. A side that had been near completely trained out of him through his military career. As highlighted by the awards he had been given, and the awards that could not be given for tasks he could never say he did.

But Gerald now had a wild dragon in his office. The first attempt to domesticate the future, although temporarily, change in warfare for the kingdom. Thankfully for other places in the world, this wonder asset also made them the wrong choice for human manipulation in the end.

Unlucky for him, the future was not known and the Colonel had a lot of people requesting updates to know what to do with the potential assets that were being transported back from the expedition that was sent out.

There was one thing Gerald knew about these dragons though that no one else did. Something he never knew how to tell people, or wanted to tell people for a man in his position had to keep air of mystery about himself.

Dragons love their tummy’s being rubbed. Especially when they are out in the sun. No matter how big they got, or mean they  were, or in the middle of sheer wanton violence. A tummy rub in any form, was a favourite.

This always brought not just his new pet happiness, but a smile to him too.

– Click here to go to part 4 –