North Be Dragons

“Hey! Jamie!” The shout comes from a stranger. He’s waving in my direction. I check behind me, but no one is paying him any attention. Already, he’s running up to me.

“Excuse me, I don’t–” He interrupts me, slapping me on the back with a good-natured grin.

“Can’t believe I ran into you like this. I mean, I remembered that you lived here, but hey, big city and all.”

I don’t know this man, do I? I’m not the best with faces, especially when seeing them in unexpected settings. My confusion must be obvious, for his smile falls.

“Come on, don’t tell me you don’t remember me. Alex? From vacation three months ago?” I did meet several people while checking out the different bars surrounding the hotel, but I don’t remember this guy. He pulls out his phone.

“See, here. We took a drunk selfie together.” He shoves the picture into my face. I’m not one to take selfies, but I did drink my fair share during some of the evenings, and I’m undoubtedly in that picture.

“Sorry. I’m really bad with faces.” I play it off with a laugh, and his grin returns.

“Look at this city,” he smoothly changes the subject, maybe to avoid any more awkwardness. “Couldn’t be any uglier. And it gets worse the further north you go.” Alex shakes his head, surveying the mismatched buildings around us, all in some shade of dirt or gray, and all in whatever architectural styles happened to be fashionable at the time they were built. Mostly something awful, yet practical, from the fifties and sixties.

“We do have trees and stuff if you just walk a few minutes.” I slip into conversation naturally. Maybe it’s because part of me remembers our night together fondly.

“I don’t know, Jamie. This entire region just isn’t it. What do we have up North? Harton? Goodsgrove? Can’t believe I’m moving here.”

“Goodsgrove is to the south. And actually, there is quite the beautiful spa town to the north.”

Alex frowns at that. “No, no. Goodsgrove is up north.”

He’s wrong.

“And who’s the local between the two of us? Believe me, it’s to the south. I’ve been there.” I resist the urge to pull out my phone to prove him false. His frown melts into a mischievous smile.

“I swear it’s to the north. I read about it in the newspaper today. Huge dragon sighting. But they say it’ll be fine because it’s unlikely to cross the hills in search of food down here.”

“Excuse me?” I laugh. What type of person did I drunkenly befriend? He must be joking. “Is this town so horrible you had to turn to drugs for solace?” Let’s hope I didn’t befriend an addict.

Alex snorts, rolling his eyes.

“Come on, you think your little…paradise ’round here would never get a visit from one of the big boys?”

I have to give it to him, he’s a good actor, sounding genuinely offended. He stresses the word ‘paradise’ in disgust, as if our city’s depressing architecture is more offensive to him than the dragon he made up.

“No.” I stretch the word as if that can make him drop the act and see reason. “I’m saying dragons aren’t real.”

“Well, I guess that’s one way of dealing with it,” Alex chuckles smugly. “You want to grab coffee to catch up?” He adds, as if he didn’t just tell me that a literal dragon was raiding a city that supposedly shifted to the north.

I shrug. Coffee is coffee, but another half an hour with Alex and his intelligence-insulting “jokes” and “everything’s better down south” attitude may drive me insane.

“My treat?” He adds. “In exchange for some juicy gossip on this place?”

“Can’t say no to free coffee,” I sigh. He smiles at my answer and turns to head off.

“Closest coffee shop is down that way,” I try to stop him. He turns, raising his eyebrows and pointing his thumb over his shoulder. Indeed, there is a large sign promising freshly ground and house-roasted coffee not two-hundred feet behind him. He’s grinning again.

I blink. Where did that come from?

“Guess I don’t get out as much as I’d like to think. Never knew that was there.”

How did I not notice this before? It’s like Alex conjured it out of thin air. He just got here, and he’s already showing me all the hot new places.

Maybe he’s not so bad. A new friend, perhaps.

“Still questioning your geography skills?” Alex nudges me with his elbow, so I start moving with a shake of my head. “Or are you coming up with contingency plans for the dragon?”

I playfully punch his arm. “Oh, stop with the dragon already.”

“Fine, fine.” He relents, opening the door to the coffee shop with a too-wide grin and a flourish, beckoning me inside. I respond with a mocking curtsy, stepping past him. It’s one of those modern places with mismatched furniture squeezed into a tiny space. I settle in one of the couches by a window, sinking into the depths of decades-old fabric.

Alex flags down a server. He orders something disgusting-sounding with far too much sugar. I get black filter coffee. Better to stick with the basics.

Alex leans over to the neighboring table to snatch someone’s abandoned newspaper with a triumphant hum. His grin widens.

“Here we go,” he gloats, suddenly watching me like a hawk. He smacks the newspaper onto the table, turning it around for me to see the front page headline.

“Dragon in the North,” and below it, in a smaller font: “Goodsgrove troubled by first-ever attack”.

“A Dragon, all the way up here,” the waiter says, putting down our drinks. “Weird day, huh?”

A dragon. Out of thin air.

Alex’ smirk is no longer comforting, and a shiver runs down my spine.