A Trollhunter and His Dragon

There Once Were Dragons

"Mom, read this one to me, please?"

Jim watched as his mother cracked a smile when she saw what book he was holding, that large leather book with strange writing scribbled on the front, an old language he wasn't sure even existed. He followed his mother to the couch and tossed the book onto it before clambering on himself and snuggled next to his mother as he waited for her to start reading.

"There once were dragons when I was a boy, great beasts big enough to move mountains and break islands to smaller ones big enough to fit in the palm of your hand." Barbara read as she took his hand to trace the drawings of the strange creatures on the pages, a big smile on his face. "There was a time when we were at war with these great beasts, but I never knew the reason how it began, but I know how it ended. And this all started when I-"

"Befriended the most dangerous of dragons!" Jim shouted excitedly, earning a chuckle from his mother.

"Do you want me to finish the story or not?"

"Please do!"

Jim listened as his mother read on the old story, one of a young boy who was an outcast to his people and befriended a rare and dangerous dragon, thus ending the long war their species had been at for hundreds of years.

"Mom, why did the dragons have to go in the story?" Jim asked as his mother carefully closed the book and placed it on the coffee table. "They moved to a new island to keep all the dragons safe, his friend didn't have to leave him."

"Well...it was to keep the dragons safe Jim, because he didn't think dragons and humans were ready to live together forever." Barbara explained as she glanced at her watch. "That's why they went to live in that underground sanctuary under the sea. Now, time for bed."

As Jim was trying to go to sleep that night, he just couldn't. He slipped out of his bed and tiptoes to his bookshelf, feeling for the familiar leather cover until he felt it and pulled it right out of the shelf. Taking his flashlight from his desk, she slipped back into his bed and pulled the covers over him before switching on the light to open to the middle of the book. His fingers grazed over the drawing of the black dragon on the pages in front of him, imagining what his scales would have felt like if he were real.

"Night Fury...the offspring of lightning and death itself." He whispered to himself. It would have been nice to have a friend like him, and like the boy in the story he wouldn't have been so alone. The dragon could walk or fly him and Toby to school, he would have defended them both from school bullies, and they would have gone on great adventures together if dragons really existed. If only...

🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹

"Hey look what I found when cleaning the basement!" Barbara called as she dropped a box of old books on the coffee table next to Jim. "Remember these? You used to always grab a book and beg me to read it to you on nights I didn't have to work a night shift."

"Oh...oh these I haven't seen in ages." Jim laughed as he picked up one of the books and dusted off the cover. "Frog and Toad, I loved these. Jigsaw Jones, man I loved those kid detective books. What do we do with these?"

"Well I was planning on taking them to the thrift store, but maybe you wanna keep some of these for old times sake."

As his mother walked back towards the kitchen, Jim began to dig around the old box. He found various other kid detective books he always brought home from the library when they were having a discarding sale, along with some more thicker ones like Charlotte's Web, some books from an old book series of kids trying to prove every weird and new adult they encountered was some weird monster or something along those lines. And then he found what he had been looking for, that old leather covered book his mom gave him for his sixth birthday. As much as he hated celebrating his birthday after what happened on his fifth one, this was the only gift his mother insisted he'd open to at least see what it was.

Taking care not to crack the cover, Jim carefully opened the book to find the faded drawings he so loved to look at every time he read the book on his own or gave to his mom to read, old drawings of dragons of every shape and size, faded drawings of a boy his age befriending that black dragon he would fall asleep dreaming about, becoming heroes before they had to go separate ways. He always seemed to hate that ending, never quite understanding why the two friends couldn't stay together like they should have.

"I'll probably never understand." He said to himself with a soft chuckle. "But even now that I know trolls exist, does this mean dragons do as well?"