A Dragon’s Guide to the Many Uses of Ovens Olivia Elle

OLIVIA ELLE MAGICAL REALISM

A DRAGON’S GUIDE TO THE MANY USES OF OVENS

Olivia Elle is a WLP senior who’s dream job is to one day have her own book or tv series. She self-published her book Tales of a Navy Brat: An Anthology, and also previously published her short story “Obsidian” with Generic. You can usually find her on her laptop, reading fanfiction or watching anime.

Istumbled into the road, fangs aching from how tight I clenched my jaw. The exhaustion of the day’s journey had, it seemed, caught up to me at last. Heat flared across my back and wings as my Illusion Charm began to burn away and fall, like ashes, to the ground. Between one moment and the next, my Magick disappeared. I was completely visible.

Turning my head side to side revealed a copse of trees on the far side of the road. I could hide there till my Magick returned, though I wouldn’t make it ho—

An animal screamed on my right, but when I twisted to see what had happened, lights filled my vision. Behind them, I could just make out the dark shadow of a four-wheeled metallic beast at least a dozen times my size, barreling down on me while a human gaped at me from inside. I realized there was no escape. Then it met me head on.

If I had the soft skin of a typical animal, I would be dead. Instead, my scales saved me. The beast—a human mount—scraped along them with a screech even while some of my ribs caved inward, cracking and painful, and I skidded along the ground on my side for several feet, wings flared and out of harm’s way. Someone cried out from inside the beast, and the next thing I knew, a human

A Dragon’s Guide to the Many Uses of Ovens 25 cradled my head in its lap.

There was an overwhelming mix of scents coming off of it, sticking in my nose, masking everything else, and burning me with their stench, to the point that I couldn’t even hope to identify the human’s feelings through them. It rambled, though, in some human language I couldn’t understand, and one hand tugged continuously on a strand of hair while the other patted nervously at my head.

It was likely trying to soothe me, I decided, but I couldn’t let my guard down. I had broken the number one Dragon Law by letting myself be seen. I couldn’t continue to break the Law by remaining there—and I definitely couldn’t let the human continue to coddle me.

Shaking away the hand and struggling to my feet, I braced my body against the mount and stared at the forest. Apparently, I was old enough to venture out on my own, but my Magick wasn’t powerful enough for a daylong journey yet.

Traveling now would be difficult with both broken ribs and no Magick, which was… more than unfortunate. My mother had let me out of the nest on the condition I returned within forty-eight hours. If I didn’t, I didn’t want to think what she would do to the poor human who had injured me.

I took a deep breath, fought back the pain in my ribs, and put all my weight on my feet. But after only a few steps, something clicked behind me, and the human made another noise.

Twisting my neck around, I stared at it.

The human crouched next to the open door of the mount, stance open and fingers coaxing. Was it… trying to communicate? Even though humans hadn’t evolved enough to speak Dragon yet?

It repeated the noise.

Aiken? Was it trying to say my name? What was that “geh” sound?

It paused to make clucking noises with its tongue, continued making more useless noises, and then shook its head several times, which seemed counterproductive to anything it could possibly be attempting.

Though, admittedly, it was probably more helpful than the way it reached back up to tug harshly on its hair and drag its hand down its own face. But then it shook its head again, harder this time, and looked me straight in the eyes as it gestured towards the door and made more noises.

And at the end, there it was again. More like “Gaiken” than

26 Olivia Elle “Aiken.” I didn’t know how it learned my name, and if I went with it and we got caught, my mother would mistake it for a dragonnapper and burn it for sure. But my side ached, and the cover of the mount was much closer than the cover of the trees. As much as I hated the idea of needing a mere human’s help…

Tossing my horns and letting out a warning growl, I stepped towards the human.

The human parked its mount next to a weird cave made up of right angles and wood. Stepping inside, I sniffed around, my nostrils wide to breathe in all of the scents. I had smelled them before, though not from up close, and not from a position in which I could see and investigate them. The Dragon Laws kept everyone safe, just not always satisfied. Especially so for a curious youth like myself. But this—this had the potential to be satisfying indeed, so long as everything turned out alright and no one died.

For now, if I wasn’t mistaken, I smelled something that might just give my Magick a push toward regaining power. I rushed through the thick, rich smell of mud and sweat in the cave’s first room, ignoring the human’s desperate yelp and the ache of my broken ribs, and headed for a more distant room. The square tiles cracked under my claws and the smell of food tickled my nostrils, but I focused instead on an even smaller cave. Shaped like a box, it squatted amongst a mix of different other boxes. Its sides had a number of nobs sticking out, all in a neat little row, and I could smell the four different places where flames had burst out sometime recently from on top. What I was interested in, however, was the interior of the cave itself, which had the sweet scent of burnt food and home wafting from it.

There was a small door with a glass screen embedded. I could see my own reflection in it and, unused to seeing myself except in calm rivers, came to an abrupt halt because of it: I was about the size of a sixteen week old wolf pup, my curved horns adding another good two talons to my height and the spikes running along my back and tail beginning to narrow into sharp points. Still, my spikes hadn’t reached the danger levels of an adult dragon, and I was nowhere near the size of a human’s mount like my mother. I had the distinct look of a lost, vulnerable dragon youth. Shivering at the thought, I eyed the most familiar place in this entire strange land.

A Dragon’s Guide to the Many Uses of Ovens 27 It was a simple matter to hook my horns under the handle attached and pull. The door fell open with a clang, and I stuck my nose inside.

The human made more noises behind me, high-pitched and frantic, and a hand landed on my shoulder and tried to pull me back before a quick warning snap of my fangs caused it to retreat. Honestly, didn’t humans have manners?

For the moment, I would settle for allowing the human to keep all its limbs. This smaller cave within the cave called out to me of all the satisfaction to be found within. Unlike the human, it was impossible to ignore.

I checked the chamber to ensure no other dragon youth sheltered by this human had claimed it as their own and, once assured it was empty, clambered in without a second thought, circled once to confirm the strange metal grate would hold, and lay down with a sigh to soak in the heating power. It wasn’t much—perhaps it had been a while since a fire burned—but for now it was enough to help me regain my Magick. If all went well, I should be able to make it home in time to reassure my mother of my excellent health. Minus the broken ribs, anyway.

Before I went to sleep, I made the mistake of looking out at the human. It stared back at me, eyebrows drawn together and eyes squinty. There were no wings or tail to help me judge its feelings, but if I had to guess… confused? That or mad. Its nostrils weren’t flared, so I would go with confused.

I curled my lip and let out a soft chitter to reassure it, then closed my eyes. My last thought before slipping into sleep was to wonder why the human was confused in the first place. After all, why build a perfect dragon bed if you weren’t going to offer it to a dragon?

Iwoke up to a noise I knew well: howling. Fantastic. The human had a dog.

My Clan knew the animal from the human hunters they dragged along, seeking the cold-blooded scent of one hundred dragons. Of course, the humans couldn’t smell us, and thanks to the Wards and Charms of the elders, neither the dogs nor the humans could see us, but they remained a nuisance all the same when they tore across our hunting grounds, scaring away prey and frightening the youngest dragons. And right now, there was no Illusion to hide me.

I did the only thing I could imagine in these circumstances and

28 Olivia Elle banged open the door to my bed—when had it closed?—and tackled the beast head on. It yelped under my feet as I snapped my jaws close to its skull, and I barely had time to note that it was a scrawny little thing before something collided with my side.

Torn away from the fight, I scrabbled my claws against the floor. It didn’t stop me from colliding with the wall of the cave and sending splinters of pain through my insides, but it did mean it didn’t take me so long to get back to my feet. Hissing smoke, I hunkered back on my haunches and stared up at the human.

It had taken up a defensive position in front of the dog, some weird contraption of yellow, strange-smelling twigs attached to one end of the stick in its hands. That was what hit me? And the human had the strength to push me off? Me?

The human snapped out more noises, pointed at the dog, then at me, and back at the dog. I just stared. Did it want something? The human rolled its eyes and moved to the side, leaning on part of the cave wall that stuck out weirdly, but still hanging on to the pushing device. I kept staring. It was trusting the dog? With me? It actually trusted the dog to go against its natural instincts and not attack a dragon?

Granted, the dog was even smaller than me, so maybe it was younger than me too?

I did not like all of this questioning; I was used to facts. Then something yipped in my face, and I startled out of my thoughts to realize that in my moment of weakness, the dog had pranced right up to me. It stood there now, tail wagging and muzzle drooling while it stared up at me.

Its coat was red like my own, I realized. Not as bright, of course— nothing could beat a dragon’s scales when it came to brightness— but there were red undertones in that fur. I leaned forward to sniff at it, my tail swinging around to compare the colors.

The dog barked again, but this time I was somewhat prepared and stood my ground. I breathed a ring of smoke out and watched it encircle us.

The rough, steady rhythm of something being beaten drew my attention, and I looked up to see the human beaming at us as it pounded its two forelegs together.

I snorted and turned back to my… could I call it a new friend? It wasn’t attacking me, so it must be. In any case, paying attention to the dog was better than paying attention to the human embarrassing itself in the corner.

A Dragon’s Guide to the Many Uses of Ovens 29

I pointedly ignored my bed calling to me just a few feet away. Dragons did not retreat. I could regain more Magick later, after I had finished investigating this curiosity of a dog.

After a while of getting to know the dog, the human distracted me once again when it opened my bed, put meat inside, and closed it again. I rushed over to look at it, and the human laughed and flipped something on the cave wall. Light flared inside my bed to reveal the food sitting there.

I snarled at the outrage—whether or not I was more mad at the human for laughing at me or for invading my space, even with food, I wasn’t sure—and tried to open the door. The human yelped and slammed it closed before it could get too far. I just stared. I had felt heat? Coming from my bed? I had sensed the presence of it earlier, yes, and known that it would hold my own heat well. But it hadn’t been this intense. By the Dragon Laws, it made me want to crawl back inside and bask in the heat, even more than I had when I first arrived at the cave.

Something wet nudged my flank, and I turned my head to snort at the dog. It licked my nose. The human giggled, and I whirled on it, head down in an optimal charging position and snarling. It raised its arms and murmured something, tone frantic but low. I couldn’t understand it, but I knew the faint scent of fear permeating the air enough to raise my head and back off. As long as it knew I was superior when it came to Hunter versus Hunted, we would have no more problems.

Besides, a fight would take up energy that could be better spent turning into Magick.

And ok, maybe I felt a little guilty about possibly sentencing the human to death.

After that, I returned to the other side of the cave. The dog stuck around the human, who pet it a bit even as it moved around, gathering other food supplies. Dinner, I assumed, though why that had required commandeering my bed for the meat, I had no idea. But in the grand scheme of returning home, my bed only mattered insofar that I could use it to regain my Magick. And so the human

30 Olivia Elle talked and talked, while I ignored it in favor of inspecting the cave.

It was rather small, probably not even big enough to fit two fullsized dragons—but then, as far as I could tell, it was just the one human and its dog living there. The only other humans I could see were all frozen flat in wooden frames. They were all set up high, around a human’s eye height, but I could make out the human in a weird gown and hat in one frame, arms around yet more humans in more weird gowns and hats. Another frame showed the human and the dog, and then another showed it—I squinted. Why was the human clinging to a cliff? Didn’t it know it could fall? Shaking my head, I padded back towards the human and, laying down on the floor in a good position to watch it, considered my options.

Obviously, I would dine with the human and dog and would sleep in my bed. My main concern was after I had my Magick back. If it had just been the low-level human watching me, escaping wouldn’t have been a problem. As it was, there was the dog to consider. I couldn’t just take it with me—despite considering us friends, now, the Dragon Laws forbade it. But that meant the dog would be watching me, and with its nose to track me even after a new Illusion Charm was in place… well. I had appeared out of thin air, and the human had taken it relatively well, minus the whole hitting me with its mount. I could only assume that, despite its lack of intelligence, it would identify me to be invisible with the dog all over me.

I huffed, but the smell of meat drew my attention away from my thoughts. Perking up, I watched the human extract the meat from my bed. Using some kind of weird cloth protection, of all things! I had known humans were fragile but that—

I stiffened and made my way forward, nudging the curious dog out of the way to sniff the food. My bed had cooked the meat, just like my mother used her full-grown flame to cook mine. Except my bed wasn’t a dragon’s mouth, it was a bed, and I would like to think I would have noticed otherwise. Still, I trusted my nose, and my nose said that the meat had been raw when it went into my bed and was now cooked coming out.

A hand entered my field of vision, and I stared at the piece of meat hanging from it. What was—?

The human squatted down and smiled at me, still holding out the food.

I leaned forward, sniffing, and leveled a glare at the human to

A Dragon’s Guide to the Many Uses of Ovens 31 test it for any ill intentions. It just kept smiling. One hand was even on the dog’s collar, keeping it well away from the meat.

The food was mine, there was no doubt about it. I just had to take it.

Steeling myself, I pulled back my lips, parted my jaw just a bit, and snagged the cutlet between my teeth. And then, before the human had a chance to react, I opened my bed and darted inside to curl around my meal.

Even as I tore into the meat, my body relaxed into the hot metal below me and the ache in my side faded. It was inevitable; though nothing was cooking in here anymore and, presumably, the human had turned off the heating mechanism, enough heat remained to envelop me and remind me of when I was a mere babe, tucked into my mother’s side and forbidden to leave the nest. I should keep my guard up, make sure the human didn’t do anything idiotic while I slept, like get killed by my mother or try to harm me, but it was nearly impossible. And the human could only enter from one side…

Peering out of my bed revealed the human laying a bowl of some kind of pebbles down for the dog and then, perhaps sensing my gaze, turning back to me. It smiled at me, and I blew a ring of smoke at it in response. The human blew it back.

I stared at it, a bit startled. It… why had the human done that? Was it playing? Did humans even know the concept? I supposed they must.

My eyes snapped to follow the human’s hand when it reached towards me. Smiling, though less than before, and holding a hand up. Was that supposed to be in peace? Anger? By the Dragon Laws, I wished humans had tails and wings. But I figured it must have been in peace, because the human simply pushed the door to my bed closed with a click, trapping all of the heat in with me. And I knew I could still escape, because I had earlier.

I rubbed my cheek against the door to my bed, rumbling loud enough I hoped the human could hear it. It was all the thanks it would get, after all. I would be gone by the time morning came.

Ihated doors. Not the one on my bed; that one was fine. No—I hated doors like the one barring me from the outside, with its twisty knob so far out of my reach that, after leaping for it, I had crashed back down into the cloth hanging over it and taken out

32 Olivia Elle that, the organized stacks of bound dead trees next to it, and myself all at once. In the time it took me to extract myself from the mess, both the human and the dog had arrived.

The former just stared at me, thankfully, but it did kneel down and clutch its arms around itself as it released a scent of sadness more potent than any fear it had shown around me. Surely it hadn’t expected me to stay? Even if there wasn’t the risk of my mother burning it alive, there were the Dragon Laws to consider. I had broken them long enough by relying on the human for one night.

The dog licked my chin and pranced around me, and I huffed smoke at it. The beast barked and licked me again, before running to the human when it made its way to the door.

The human smiled down at me while it opened the entrance, and I darted forward, my Illusion Charm falling into place as easy as breathing with my Magick restored. The dog yipped behind me, and the human breathed in sharply, but other than that there was no response.

I paused on the grass and looked back anyway, just for a moment, before I started running home. As much as I hated to admit it, the human had been helpful. Maybe one day, we would run into each other again, and I could return the favor.

Though I mustn’t forget it was the human who ran me over in the first place.