Enter the Dragon – Part 4

And, touching base a little bit, I’m continuing with my light story – ‘Enter the Dragon’ which is just a piece of fluffy fiction of what i’d do if I find a Dragon in my room. It was inspired by a friend of mine, Marsha. You’ll find the story on the first part. 😉

You can find the previous parts here: 1, 2, 3.

Enter the Dragon – Part 4

They were still looking at the dragon, still trying to come to grips with what was now sharing a room with them. The demon and the author shifted uncomfortably as they looked at the reptile laying on Alyssa’s bed then looked at each other. Minias, the demon babysitter from Kim Harrison’s Hollows books, gave Alyss a sideways glance and pushed his smoked glasses back up his nose.

“So,” he said carefully. “You don’t want me to get rid of it?”

Alyssa turned a blank expression on him and shook her head. “You said he’s here because he feels safe Minias,” she said tiredly and pulled her chair closer. “If I kick him out then I have to kick you out too.”

Minias blinked surprised and gave her a not too pleased look. “I was here first,” he pointed out to which Alyssa laughed and shook her head.

“That’s got nothing to do with it demon boy,” she said. “The fact is that I let you stay, because I knew you needed a place to hide. I set a president and now, with another mythological creature knocking on my door, how can I turn that down? I like to stick to my own principles.”

The demon sighed and crossed his arms to glare at the dragon. It appeared to be sleeping, but he didn’t seem to trust it. “I did tell you how big it’s going to get?” he queried.

Again, Alyssa nodded. “Yes,” she said. “As big as my room but luckily, you didn’t give me a time frame and frankly I don’t want to know. I’ll find out soon enough.” She could see his eyes go as wide as he turned to her sharply.

“Alyssa, you can’t keep it,” he said. “You just… Can’t.”

The red head smiled lazily and shrugged. “I’m the only one who knows what I can and cannot do,” she pointed out. “And I can do anything. It… Shouldn’t be that hard. I mean, what will it need? Will it go out and hunt on its own? What do dragons eat?”

Minias looked over his glasses at her, his goat like eyes narrowed to tiny slits. “Do you really want to find out?”

Hmm.

Alyssa shrugged, though she felt a little bit worried. “If it wanted to eat me, it wouldn’t have been savaging the pillows,” she pointed out. “Then you’d have had tiny bits of Alyssa lying around, looking all pathetic.” She looked at the dragon. “No, it must eat something else. I’m guessing… Poultry? I can get it poultry.”

Minias remained quiet, though he was watching the dragon closely. At some point he wrinkled his nose and glanced at his roommate. “And, I’m guessing you’ve gotten used to the smell but – have you seen what it did in the corner of your room?”

Alyssa blinked. “Ah…” She moved so that she could look in a corner that was always pretty chaotic. What she saw, didn’t impress her as she closed her eyes and turned away. “Eeuw.”

Minias nodded wisely. “And it will get bigger.”

Alyssa sniffed, wondering how she had gotten used to that smell. “If I can teach a bunny to be house trained, I can teach a dragon,” she said confidently. “It can’t be that hard. I’ll teach it to go outside.”

Minias gave her a look that said that he didn’t seem very impressed with her reasoning. “And how will you do that?” he queried.

Alyssa grinned and shrugged as if it was the easiest thing in the world. “Why,” she said lightly. “Get it outside.”

To Be Continued…

 

Life Happens.

When you are making plans and setting yourself deadlines and goals.

In an attempt to get my writing back to up scratch, I’ve set myself a couple of goals this week to adhere to. Things went well the first two days but then, as these things happen, I soon became swamped with work and life matters. I spend three gruelling days on the road, driving to chicken farms, preparing a lecture that I had to give at a farm day and trying to squeeze in some sleep in between. My writing stagnated and my goals for the week seemed to shatter.

My first instinct was to give up and deem myself a failure. These writing goals were mine, so surely I can just give them up if I want to?

Right?

Wrong.

What would be the point in setting goals and then not adhering to them? Yes, I make my own rules, but what kind of a person would I be if I break them?

And honestly – am I a quitter?

No.

So, I need to sit down and re-evaluate my action plan and take things one step at a time.

You see, in a way everything in life works that way. It’s impossible to be ahead all of the time. Inevitably, at some point or another, you’ll find yourself with more things in front of you than you are capable of doing. When that happens, there are a few things that you need to do.
1) Don’t panic – Panicking makes you less productive.
2) Don’t try to do everything at once – Not all of us are super human. If you try to do everything at once, you’ll fail with most of the stuff and that will make you disappointed in yourself.
3) Priorities – I can’t put enough stress on this one. Decide what needs to be done first. Eg – a blog post, telling people what you are up to. 😉
4) Make a list, and start with the thing on the top of the list – When you’re done, cross it off. It is very very satisfying to see the amount of stuff that you need to do slowly decrease. I discovered this while I was still on campus, trying to juggle about 30% more subjects than the other students of my group. It’s a simple method but it works.
5) Remember to have fun – All work and no play, makes writers uncreative.

This is my method of operation for the rest of the day. J If it works out, 😉 you’ll hear from me again.