“I take it you have a name for your dragon?” Udo asked.

Harmoni had almost forgotten she’d left him and Aqua hanging. Luckily, they didn’t seem to mind. Udo had gotten a bucket of water that Aqua was now drinking from, and he was watching her. When he picked a branch out of her scales, Harmoni figured out what he was doing, giving Aqua some nice treatment after she got them here.

It probably hadn’t even been that long. Communicating through thoughts, and information they automatically got from each other, had to be faster than talking.

Anyway, Udo’s question.

“Er, yes. This is Fleck.” She gestured to Fleck, while Fleck made his own introduction to Aqua.

“Pleasure to meet you Fleck,” Udo said.

Aqua, meanwhile, made a low rumbling noise. She bumped her nose against Fleck’s.

Aqua swung her neck back to Udo. “We should get going.”

Harmoni tried not to jump at suddenly understanding Aqua, and having her be so normal. So that was how it worked.

Given Fleck could communicate with his rider without speaking, had Aqua spoken out loud for his sake?

Udo nodded. “Let’s get back to shop.”

Right. It was late morning. Udo’s shop should be open by now, right? Harmoni didn’t know what time it was right now, or normal spa hours.

Neither did Fleck.

~~~

“Now, I’ve got a few calls to make. Aqua can show you what to do, can’t you?”

Aqua nodded.

They’d made it back to the shop. Udo headed for his office, while Aqua flipped the sign around to open with her tail as they filed in.

Another flick of her tail was a gesture for them to follow. The two headed to another door, Fleck in the lead, as Aqua opened the closet.

Fleck backed up a step or two. The smell of the cleaning supplies were strong, and sometimes contradictory.

Harmoni’s nose was definitely not that strong. Aside from cleaning liquids, she could see buckets, mops, sponges, and large brushes on broom handles.

Yes, aside from the cleaning closet, Fleck was much better and smelling the main area as well. While Harmoni was just getting floral smells, Fleck could tell you the specific smell. He also picked up some other scents, like sand, cave, or lava rocks.

Harmoni didn't think that was the typical smells of soaps.

They were scents dragons might like.

But now he had to focus.

Aqua rumbled some instructions to Fleck. Unlike most rider languages, dragons didn’t just communicate in the spoke word. Body language, especially the wings or tails, was useful. They could also use smells, or even use smoke or water to communicate. But Aqua was mostly audibly speaking, and flicking her tail for this.

She wanted them to start cleaning the two small pools. She would work on the larger pools, but if any customers came in, Aqua would deal with that.

Harmoni grabbed a bucket, and put a small amount of bleach in it. Aqua then sprayed water in, from her mouth. It was the way most dragons looked when they breathed fire, but a different substance.

When the bucket was full, Aqua went off to one of the larger pools.

Harmoni and Fleck looked at each other, and dropped into the closest pool. Harmoni took one of the brushes with a broom handle, and used it to start cleaning the walls. Fleck just held a brush between his teeth and started that way. Harmoni tried not to stare when he put the brush in the water, getting bleach on his teeth and open mouth in the process. She knew he’d be fine.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

Hopefully they could finish before more sand blew into the pool. There were covers, but they couldn’t keep that over the pool while cleaning it.

Together they worked in silence. Harmoni didn’t mind. This was a simple task, with obvious results. When she wiped a part particularly well, she could see her reflection in it. After all the worrying, this was nice to work on. But even the smallest pool here was pretty big, and they were alone, so this was a good chance to talk.

‘Hey Fleck?’ Harmoni thought. ‘Do you know why dragons always seem so . . . angry to see me?’

Fleck slowed. ‘It’s because you smell.’

Wait. No. He’d explained that badly.

He had, but it made Harmoni laugh. She quickly covered her mouth to muffle the sound.

‘It’s because you smell like foul magic.’

Well, that was the best word he could think to use for it anyway. She stank because she had some sort of magic, in a negative way.

Fleck had never smelled foul magic before her, so he didn’t realize. The dragon he’d talked to on the way out had told him.

He did know a little about what that meant though. Dragons were a bit different than the rider species when it came to magic. While most species felt magic, it was more appropriate to say dragons smelled magic. So it was a different experience, and there weren't always nice parallels. He supposed if another species felt this, they would be feeling dark magic. That was when you did bad things, and it made your magic stronger. But doing bad things didn’t always make your magic stronger, that would be crazy, so there was something else involved. But he didn't know what. He barely knew about about foul magic much less dark magic.

Harmoni wasn’t laughing now. Her brush clattered to the ground. She could tell from their connection, that bad things weren’t mild. It wasn’t like shoplifting some gum. It was more like killing, or torturing.

“But-but I haven’t done anything!” Harmoni shrieked, out loud. She pressed her palms to her chest, but then dug her fingers in, like she was trying to grip her own heart.

Fleck flinched at the high pitched noise.

Harmoni pressed on, too distressed to care. “I couldn’t have-I don’t want to do anything wrong!”

“I know!” Fleck jumped, claws hitting the tiles. He growled a little for emphasis, stomping his front feet like a particularly angry skunk. “Let me finish! I said it was the closest parallel! I didn't say it was the same thing! Magic smelling bad is like bread smelling bad. It could be evil, but there's other reasons bread might smell bad. You could have a foul magic smell for like, being sick or something.” Or, more liked cursed.

"That's not helping," Harmoni told him, voice going high.

'Pull yourself together,' Fleck thought, remembering they didn't need to speak out loud, and that maybe he shouldn't belt these things out loud for everyone in the large room to hear. 'I can smell you too, and I chose to bond with you. You think I'd do that with someone evil?'

Admittedly, no. Fleck was feisty, a little firecracker, but he was very confident in his own goodness, and Harmoni agreed.

He was very confident in her goodness too. He wasn’t just . . . tolerating her, or something. He liked her. He’d permanently fused his soul with her. He didn’t think she had any dark deeds to worry about.

Before Harmoni could question that logic, she heard the front door open and shut, and heard the sound of very quiet footsteps on the floor. She tensed. Had a customer come in? But, the customers were dragons, and those footsteps were clearly too light.

Harmoni moved to the edge of the pool, and carefully peered just over the top.

Staying out of sight was a wasted effort. The person there was already looking down on her and Fleck, nose wrinkled, brow furrowed just a little.

Said person was an elf. She had light skin, brown eyes, and black hair. Unlike many of the people Harmoni had seen in the city, she hadn’t done anything with her hair. It just dropped down to the middle of her back, a strand or two lying limply over her face.

“So, you’re Udo’s new help,” she said.

Harmoni heard the skeptical intonation on the word “help,” and the way her eyes briefly darted towards Harmoni’s ears. She thought her own long hair was a good way of hiding those, but maybe she could find a more consistent way to cover them.

But Harmoni nodded, confirming the statement.

The elf sighed. “Very well. I am Ferren, Udo’s work partner. I don’t have a dragon, but I’d say I do good work.”

Ferren dropped down into the pool beside them, bringing another bucket along. “Now, let’s get back to work. We need to get this done, preferably before someone needs it. Be efficient.”

Her voice wasn't sharp or harsh per say, but she was very confident and to-the-point about ordering Harmoni around.

Harmoni didn’t think elves usually rushed that much. Why worry about getting things done when you lived forever? But she certainly wasn’t going to argue, especially not on her first day.

“Yes ma’am.”

“Well, at least you have some manners.”

They went back to working in silence. If Ferren had something more to say, she could speak. Harmoni didn’t.

A customer came in while they worked. Aqua brought the dragon to a different pool, leaving the trio to themselves.

Then, “So where are you from, little half of?”

Harmoni gripped her brush a little hard, causing it to slip against the tiles. They were basically done, but she stayed in the pool and kept her voice low, like Ferren had done, giving themselves a little privacy.

“I don’t remember?”

Ferren’s vaguely guarded expression dropped for the first time. “What?”

“I . . . don’t remember. I have amnesia,” Harmoni tried explain. She suddenly felt like she’d done something wrong. She had kept this a secret before now after all. But between Udo's kindness bringing her guard down, and her mind distracted by several other things, it had just sort of slipped out. “I remember my name.”

That probably hadn’t helped. Then Ferren schooled her expression back to something Harmoni couldn’t read.

“I see. Well, we’ve got another pool to clean. Let’s go.”

Ferren put her bucket back outside and practically jumped out of the pool.

Well, Harmoni didn’t have that much grace, but she had better follow. She had to make a good impression on her first day.