Dragon Bite

Lauren quickly unfastened the lock on the large metal gate when she heard Kara calling from the other side.

Kara's hair was askew, her clothes were ripped,  blood was running down her cheek and she cradled her right arm against her chest.

"Well," Lauren asked as she closed gate and checked the locks, "did it bite you?"

Kara shook her head, tears streaming down her cheek. "No, he scratched and pushed and slashed me with his tail, but he still won't bite me."

Lauren put her arms around Kara's shoulder. "It's ok. It took Mondo months to bite me. You just have to be patient."

"What if he never bites me?  What if I never become a dragon pledge?  I don't want to spend the rest of my life just cleaning up dragon dung while the rest of you do the fun stuff."

Lauren turned to look Kara in the eye. "It's not about doing the fun stuff. Working with dragons is hard work, much harder than just cleaning up after them.  This isn't just an initiation, Kara. This is about your ability to create a bond with your dragon."

"What if it is just the wrong dragon?" Kara asked.

"It's not. The primaries have done this for a long time; they are practiced at matching interns with dragons. I have seen them try a second match few times, but if they fail the first, they inevitably fail the second. You have to want to bond with the dragon for the sake of the bond, not because you don't want to work."

Kara looked back at the gate, listening to the growls on the other side and felt a pang of regret for having distressed her dragon. Lauren was right; she had been going about this all wrong.