Flash Fiction Friday – Guests

I felt like dragons today.

The dragon yawned and stretched in the noontime sun, the golden scales glittering and sending flashes of light in dancing around the opening to the cave. The stone was nice and toasty by now, so much so it made her sleepy. She considered, in passing, spending the whole day there at the mouth of her cave, napping in the warmth. It would be such a good way to spend a day… She laid her chin on the ground, draping one paw across her eyes to shield them from the bright light. Slowly, she begun to drift off. Just as she was about to lose herself to sleep entirely, she shook herself awake, scales humming with the movement as she shook all over. No time for sleep now, the hoard needed watching.

She stood on sluggish limbs and stretched, swaying her head from side to side. To wake herself up, she jogged a little in place and, feeling refreshed, padded back into the cave. She did her usual round of the place, checking that everything was where it should. There was the collection of golden goblets, there the pile of gems. The stacks of coins had been upset again, two of them collapsed and spilled over the floor. She sniffed around the tumbled coins. Rats… it was always rats. She rebuilt the stacks in a few moments, counting as she went. Not a coin was missing. Rats didn’t care for gold, luckily.

Satisfied with her round, she returned to the sunny spot at the mouth of the cave. There she dozed for long hours, deep in sleep when the sun beat down on her body and then gradually in a more fitful state of rest as the shadows grew longer and the sun traversed the sky until it no longer caressed her sleeping form, but shaded her in shadow instead. Half asleep, yet half alert, she laid there until a sound reached her ears. Yellow eyes opened then, and she perked up all in all. Boots were crunching across the forest floor, inching closer and closer. She could hear the sound of chainmail, of still-sheathed swords. Slowly, a thin trail of smoke begun to rise from her nostrils.
“Guests…”