Current Track: Blabb
KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

Okay here is the pdf 





As I swept the empty gas station, the humming of the soda machines was my only company, as the speakers had been broken for three weeks. My useless boss was too cheap to replace them. Day shift, as usual, left a huge mess for me because 'why should he clean?' As I kept mumbling about the same old same old, I heard the gas station's chimes go off, alerting me to a new customer. As I turned to greet them, before me stood a dragon.


The dragon easily stood a foot taller. His dark blue scales complemented his orange eyes. His wings were wrapped around his neck as if they were a cape. The horns on his face lined up neatly along his jaw, and he had a fighter's physique. As he entered, he gave me a curt bow with a cheeky smile before he made his way down the aisles. It's never a good sign when a dragon shows up. I decided sweeping wasn't important anymore and went behind the counter to monitor.


I don't know how long it has been since he first came into the station, but for some reason, he has yet to buy anything. Instead, he kept walking up and down the aisles. Every so often, he glanced my way. I tried not to let my annoyance show, but he would smile every time we made eye contact. I would struggle to smile right back, causing him to howl with laughter before flashing me with another toothy smile. I wanted to say something all those times but didn't want to risk angering him. After all, I know what a dragon is capable of.


It was now four in the morning. Others had come and gone, but he still remained, taunting me with his presence. When he finally decided to walk up to the counter, he came empty-handed. He stood before me tall and proud as he fixed himself up. He placed his right arm on the counter and leaned in close, grinning like a fool. I just took a step back in case he tried anything funny.


“How can I help you, sir?" I cheerfully asked, keeping a good distance between us.


“Oh no, you can't help me, my good fox, for you SEE! I am here to bring excitement into your life!" his response sent shivers down my spine.


I looked around to see if anyone else was there but to no avail. I was alone with the man. As I looked at the dragon, I held my right arm close. When he saw this, he let out an ear-peacering laughter. Not letting my guard down, I grabbed a nearby spray bottle.


“Don't worry! Um… Jackal! I'm not here to hurt you or anything of the short. NO! I, The Great Orvom, am here to bring excitement into your life." He made a grand gesture with his hands and expanded his wings so much that they crashed into the shelves behind him, knocking and destroying everything in their way. 


I flared up at the colossal mess this clutz just made, and now I have to fill out an incident report on why we are missing half our shelves and products. Completely ignoring what he had just done, Orvom amped up his antics by snapping his claws and causing a tiny spark of explosion, triggering the fire alarm and forcing the sprinklers to go off and drenching me. At the same time, he had erected a barrier to keep himself dry. All he could do was sheepishly smile as the sprinklers came to an end.


“Great, just great," I said, shaking off the water. The smell of wet fur filled the gas station. He tried to say something, but I just held a paw up. “Now, if you could kindly leave. I'm not interested in what you're selling."


I pointed towards the exit, much to his dismay.


“Hey, look, Jackal! I am not some common street urchin. I'm an all-powerful drag-" I had sprayed him mid-sentence with the bottle.


“Yes, a powerful dragon, and by the looks of it," I gestured behind him, “a messy one. Now, if you could, please leave. I have a huge mess to clean."


Orvom snorted smoke in my face before he snatched the spray bottle from my paws with little ease and, by proxy, pulled me over the counter. But instead of crashing into him, I floated midair, only being held by his firm grip on my right arm, causing me to wince in pain.


As he let me go, I tried to grab hold of him with my left paw, but he just stepped back. Soon, I found myself on the ceiling, and as I looked around in shock, I saw everything in the gas station was floating.


Orvom was lying on his back as he drifted around the gas station without a care in the world, blowing smoke like a chiming wherever he went. His cheeky grin just made me see red. I struggled to put one foot in front of the other as I tried to walk along the ceiling. It didn't help that my tail was having a hard time assisting me in keeping my balance. Orvom chuckled upon seeing me struggle and decided to swim his way over.


“Hey, now you will never get the hang of this if you keep this up, Jackal." Orvom held me firm in his arms. I wanted to push him away, but I thought better of it.


“First, THIS isn't funny! And second, put the gas station back to how it was. I don't care for your reason for being here. But right now, I want you gone," I snarled at him, much to his annoyance.


In one swift motion, he had tossed me from the ceiling and into a pile of chips, barely missing the shelf they had come from. His laughter filled the gas station. 


“Look, Jackal, I just want you to have a little bit of fun with you! Live a little, man!" with a snap of his claws, everything slowly descended.


I had found myself lying on top of an assortment of junk food. Orvom tried to help me, but I pushed his arm aside as I got up and ignored whatever he was trying to say. As I looked around at the mess he had caused, I prayed for this night to be over.


“Look," I cut Orvom off mid-ramble, “I would really like it if you just left. You don't have any real business here, and I don't need your help. I'm fine."


My right arm had been twitching from all the excitement, and I tried to steady my nerves as I walked past Orvom to get the broom and clean up this mess. I didn't make it far when I heard the oh-so-familiar snap. No longer beneath me were the familiar off-stain white tiles, but in their place was a pitch-black void only to be followed up with stars and plants. I looked around and saw everything was, once again, floating. I tried my best not to panic as I tried to make heads or tails of what I was seeing. Orvom, on the other hand, had a cocky smile plastered on his face. While looking around, I noticed that everything looked the same outside the gas station, so I slowly made my way towards the door. Orvom followed while talking white nose.


“Come on now, Jackal. There's no need to be scared. I promise you no harm will come to you! Just trust me and have a little fun!" Orvom shouted in my ear as he swam circles around me.


I ignored the arrogant dragon and focused on the exit. Once I had reached the doors, I just pushed them open and collapsed. Suddenly, I felt something pull me toward the sky. I wasn't quick enough to grab the door handles as my body floated toward space. In a panic, I began screaming as everything started to get smaller and smaller. 


Tears streamed down my face as I franticly tried to swim down but to no avail. The raging wind blew me from side to side as I went higher and higher, and everything kept getting smaller. At this point, the gas station was nothing but the size of a coin. The mountain cliff we were on that overlooked the ocean started to shrink. I tightly closed my eyes, hoping this was nothing more than a bad dream.


“Why are you panicking? You're supposed to be having fun."


Snapping my eyes open, before me was Orvom, his wings flapping in the air. In a panic, I grabbed hold of him, startling the dragon. Quivering in his embrace, the dragon just patted my back.


“I want to go back. Please. Take me back," I cried into his shoulders as he held me tightly and let out a heavy sigh.


“Sorry," he said as he flew us back down. 


A sudden wave of magic washed over me the further we decided. The once-cold night sky soon felt as warm as a fireplace. And though it put me at ease, I still refused to let go of my tight grip on the dragon. He pulled me closer and whispered something, but I was too afraid to catch his words.


Orvom finally landed with a loud thud as if to notify me we had landed. I slowly put one foot on the ground before easing up on my grip. Once I felt comfortable enough, I slowly made my way back to the gas station, putting one foot in front of the other, making a relatively normal walk feel like shacks were weighing me down.


“Hey, now, wasn't that fun!?" Orvom said with nervous laughter, but I paid him no mind. No sooner had I felt his claws on my shoulder than I noticed he was right behind me. “Hey, Jackal, you alright?"


I snapped at the dragon, “Alright? ALRIGHT, I ALMOST DIED! NO, I'M NOT ALRIGHT!" 


That had taken him back by surprise. He looked aghast that I had the nerve to raise my voice at him. He opened his maw to say something, but I immediately cut him off before he could even get a word out.


“Do you know how scared I was this whole time? I told you to stop, but you refused to. I told you to leave, and instead of doing that, you decided to cast your spells, causing me to drift into space! I thought I was going to die!" At this point, I was full-on balling my eyes out.


Orvom just rubbed his neck as he looked at me.


“Hey, Jackal, look, I'm sorry. I just wanted to brighten up your life, and that thing about sending you into space was an accident, I swear." He moved closer to me, but I just stepped back.


“An accident, I could have died. Was that how you planned to brighten up my life? Who the hell are you to determine if I need excitement in my life? Sure, it sucks," I grabbed hold of my right arm, “but it's my life. I've learned to deal with it."


I glared him down as he refused to look at me. Orvom started to swing his tail back and forth as he walked in place. He would look my way every now and then but didn't say anything. He'd scratch his head occasionally as he pondered what to say next.


“Look, Jackal, I'm sorry, I… I just thought that you could use some cheering up." With a snap of his claws, he created a bench right in front of the gas station and took a seat. He motioned for me to sit beside him, but I kept my distance.


“Jackal, I've seen you occasionally, and you always looked missable, so I figured you could use some cheering up." With a flicker of his hand, confetti erupted, littering the ground. “ And I just thought today would be a great day."


“Yeah, what a day. Did you think I was having fun? I've been on edge, thanks to you. Half the things you did was nothing short of scary. All I wanted was to do my job." I looked towards the cliffside as the sun began to slowly rise. “Happiness isn't something I'm looking for. I gave up on that long ago."


I grabbed my right arm only to feel a twinge of pain in my paw. “Life has not been kind to me, but I don't need the help of a dragon." They've done nothing but cause me trouble.


“Jackal, I know you think I'm nothing but trouble, but don't worry! I can change your mind. After all, there is nothing I can't do!" Orvom shot off his bench, causing it to disappear as he walked toward me. He grabbed my right arm and gingerly caressed it. “If you want, I can fix it for you. Don't you want things to return to how they were before your accident?"


He's right. It would be great to have my arm healed. The doctors said nothing short of a miracle could fix it. The idea of my arm being healed was something I had wanted long ago, but not anymore. He's a dragon, and I already made that mistake once. I pulled my arm away, and he relinquished it.


“Look, Orvom, I don't need your help. I just want you gone. Even if my life sucks, even if I have to deal with this," I tried to flex my arm to the best of its ability. “No amount of magic is going to change the past. So just leave me the hell alone."


I was in no mood to argue further, so I walked past him. As I made my way to the gas station, Orvom grabbed my shoulders and sank his claws into them. In one swift motion, he turned me around to face him. He looked as if he was ready to smite me. Smoke was slowly escaping his nostrils and in the tiny gaps between his sharp teeth. When he opened his maw to speak, it was a few inches from my face.  


“Look here, Jackal. As I was saying, I just wanted to make you happy. You look absolutely missable. So why shouldn't I try to brighten up your pathetic life? I have met plenty of people who would have loved to have a dragon's blessing, and yet here you are acting as if you are better than them—better than me."


At this point, he was breathing heavily, and bits of ember escaped and singed me. His grip only grew tighter to the point I was sure he was going to pop me like a zit. My heart kept beating as if it was trying to run a marathon. I tried to squirm my way out of his grip, but he only held on tighter.


“I just want to be left alone! I NEVER asked for your help! You did all this for yourself, not for me. I didn't ask for you to set off the sprinkles or make a mess in the gas station. I didn't want to see the stars in space or want to visit them in person! You did that all on your own without even asking me what I want!"


Orvom just blew smoke from his nostrils before shoving me to the ground. I never noticed how imposing he was until he just loomed over me. With his wings spread out, they eclipsed the morning sun. All I could see of him was his orange eyes. He stretched out his left claw, where tiny sparks began to swirl. The pupal in his eyes was getting smaller by the second. I crawled back till I hit the gas station walls before I closed my eyes and readied myself for what was next. As I waited, seconds turned to minutes, but nothing happened.


I slowly opened them, only to see Orvom flying away. I let out all the air as I tried to still my beating heart. I let out a small chuckle as I collapsed on the cold, concrete ground. Gods, I just wanted to have a peaceful life, not deal with others' delusions. As I returned inside, I took a final look behind me, only to see that he was long gone.


I expected the gas station to be a mess, but instead, everything was back to normal. In fact, it is even better than when I first started working here. Looking around the gas station, I was hard-pressed to find anything out of order. It wasn't until I made it to the till that I saw a note from Orvom saying sorry. I crumbled and tossed it into the trash, grabbed the broom nearby, and swept the gas station.