I like your rants, they are entertaining. Is this a sort of persona or are you truly deranged, Doctor Jekyll? To me, you are the mad one. But there’s one that can heal you, yes, she can heal you! come to the Lady and ask for her mercy, conspirator. Maybe that way, you will realize you were Mister Hyde all of this time.

I need to check the baths, take a long one to remove the bear smell from me. Why do I smell like bear, to start with? Has Carmela developed wireless scent transferring powers? Wasn’t everything wireless before the invention of wire?

Whatever, I need to check the baths. Gadorprims may be there, and I will use the occasion to apologize for what I did to his puppies, yes.

The water was cold, but I refrained to draw a sigil of heating out of respect for Gadorpims, that was enjoying the bath at its current temperature, paying no attention to the fish. He turned and looked at me with suspicious eyes as soon as I walked into the room.

“You could leave that weapon elsewhere, couldn’t you?”

I shook my head despondently, “No, Jilly likes me a tad too much.”

“Jilly this, Jilly that, Jilly says,” he mocked, going back to his business. “Jillsenbane, that is the name of your sword. Don’t disrespect that sword: that would be disrespecting dragons, and I don’t like it when someone disrespects dragons.” I then heard his knuckles crack. I came up to him, avoided his tail, patted him on the back twice and sat by his side, introducing only the feet on the cool waters.

He glanced at me with airs of superiority, and then snorted.

“You will not pollute the water with your lowliness, will you?”

“Sir, I understand that you hate me for what I did to the puppies you and the lady own together, and you are in your right to. But, please, let us stike a pact of gentlemen to preserve our manners when dealing with each other.”

He gave me a long look, from head to toe, and then blinked, one eye at a time.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“Puppies?”

“Truck-sized Labradors, sir, as big as a truck-sized Golden Retriever or a truck sized Australian Cattle Dog.”

“Interesting. Pray fill me in on the following: What’s a truck? What does Australian means? And what is a Labrador?”

“Things from a land far away. From where I come from. Most of them dogs, except trucks. Trucks are big metal things with wheels and glass cabins and people inside them and, sometimes, thousands of gallons or liters of poison inside.”

“And what’s their point? Why would you need those artifacts for?” he asked, raising a scaly eye-non-brow.

“Sometimes we use them to transport heavy things, like poison, or cows, or pigs, or excrements. Other times we pit them against each other, those we call monster trucks, that are not an equivalent to monster girls and however—”

“Winds spare me, stop, stop now. I don’t want to know. Australian, what does ‘Australian’ mean? Tell me.”

“Things that hail from a country shaped like a steak and full of kangaroos.”

“What is a congarú?” he asked, not without a bit of desperation in his tone.

“A rat-horse with a bag they use for babies, sir. For kangaroo babies. Rice grain sized babies, sir. Not sold by the kilo, though.”

“Fantastical beasts, such things cannot possibly exist.”

“They exist; they move everywhere by jumping. Once and again. Jump, jump, jump.” I began imitating a kangaroo to illustrate my point, hands curled against body and all. Water splashed on my old pants, but I didn’t mind, they were wet anyway.

“You are not helping your case, servant, are you aware of that?”

“No sir, I am not.” I lowered my face into the cold water and rinsed it, scrubbing hard with my hands. I had failed the kangaroos.

“I am going to refrain from asking what are Golden Retrievers. Francisco, that was your name, am I correct?”

“indeed, sir, indeed.”

Gadorprims stretched and let out a small puff of smoke out of his mouth. I refrained myself from chastising him and lecturing dear Lord about lung cancer.

“Well, Francisco, let me tell you a few things about Jillsenbane. Did anybody ever tell you why Jillsen, the dragon god, shattered?” he inquired, inspecting me with his fiery amber eyes.

“Fell to the floor from a high place and broke, sir? Like a ceramic plate?” I ventured.

Gadorprims remained silent, opened his mouth, showing me all of his teeth. That was slightly jarring, like something very low pitched inside me screamed to run and don’t look back.

“You have a cavity, sir,” I astutely observed.

He closed his mouth, I turned to look at The Fish, that were descending upon us. Shoo! Go back to dwelling on your pine rafters and beams! Shoo!

“I am amazed at the work of Lady Scarlet sometimes. No matter, bring your diary, I am going to give you a masterclass on the shattering of Jillsen, and I want you to take notes.”

I promptly obeyed and rushed here to draft this fast. I feel unease taking the diary so close to the water, but I cannot let Gadorprims down.