Not long ago, in a big city somewhere on the coast of a large country, there lived a man named Jeremiah A. Dooley. Most people who knew him just called him 'Jeremy' though, or 'Mr. Dooley' if they wanted to be more polite about it. He was a tall fellow, towering quite a bit over most people, and very thin and lanky, almost skeletal in appearance. The man was clean shaven, with very sharp, angular features and a somewhat haggard, tired appearance. His hair was somewhat long and messy, and stuck out in multiple directions. It had once been very yellow when he was young, but now that he was older it had faded quite a bit and was streaked with gray strands. Above all, his most distinctive features were his green eyes and the constant, blank expression he wore all day, every day, no matter where he was or what he was doing, which made him seem pretty strange to the people around him.

Jeremy, who had just turned 45 at the time this story takes place, worked at an accounting firm in a huge skyscraper building on a busy street. He was a hard worker and very good with math and numbers and such, which meant he was quite good at his job, which was to help people with things called 'taxes' and 'accounts' and such. His boss was especially proud of him, for he worked harder on his job than any other worker in the company. Unfortunately, this caused his coworkers to resent him a bit. Not because he was good at what he did or that the boss favored him, but because he seemed so incredibly cold to the people around him.

You see, Jeremy had been working at the firm for nearly ten years, and not once in those ten years had his boss or coworkers ever seen him smile. He also never spoke to anyone unless they spoke to him first, and when he did it was always in a rather unemotional, dry tone. He avoided any kind of casual conversation and made sure to always keep a safe distance from anyone who looked like they were going to talk to him about non-work related things. If you tried to sit at the same table as him in say, the building's cafeteria, he would get up and move without even looking at you. If you happened to see him in the hallway and tried to ask him about the weather, he would mutter something about being 'busy' and walk past you at a very quick pace. And if you tried to get him angry or riled up about any topical subject, he'd either ignore you or stare blankly with his sunken, green eyes, and sigh in disappointment. Naturally, this meant the majority of Jeremy's coworkers ignored him for the most part, and I can safely say he preferred it that way.

His apathetic manner didn't just stop at his job though. At home, in his little apartment in a little building just down the road from his workplace, Jeremy was just as boring and quiet there as he was everywhere else, which was quite an achievement since he lived alone. Every morning he would get out of bed and go to work, and every evening he would go home, do the odd chore or two, maybe read one of his long, dull books with lots of big words in them, and go to sleep. He spent his weekends doing more chores, cleaning and laundry and the like, but other than those things, for the most part, he did absolutely nothing. He never went out except to get groceries, and never talked to friends or went anywhere unessential. Jeremy was, for all intents and purposes, an incredibly boring and anti-social human being.

There was however, one thing, one hobby, that the man seemed to enjoy. Every morning and evening, before and after work, he would go up on the roof of the apartment complex and tend to his little patch of raised garden, which the residents were allowed to have. The little garden stood in a raised bed of soil about three feet long by three feet wide, and in this garden Jeremy grew a mixed bunch of pretty flowers and herbs that he was very fond of. He tended it carefully and sometimes smiled a little at the sight of a new bud opening or a new herb sprouting, so you could say it was one of the few things that brought him genuine joy. There were other small gardens on the roof too, which belonged to other residents, and some of these were quite beautiful. Jeremy was particularly envious of one garden patch which belonged to the leader of the gardening club itself, for it always seemed greener and bigger than any other, even in the cold months. He often wondered how she did it, but of course, never asked her about it, even though he saw her nearly every day, since she was usually out at the same time he was.

It was on one particularly hot Sunday, in the middle of July, when he was out watering his flowers, that Jeremy first discovered the dragon.

He had just lifted up the leaf on one of his basil plants to moisten the soil at the base of the main stem, when he caught a glimpse of something blue and shiny glistening right in the area he had intended to water. He leaned forward, and upon closer inspection, discovered that someone had seemingly left a little plastic figure of a sleeping dragon slightly buried in the soil.

"One of the neighbor's kids must've left it," he thought to himself, and smirked a little.

He reached under the basil to touch it, only to suddenly jerk back in surprise when he felt something sharp clamp onto his index finger. He drew the finger closer to eye level, and to his shock, he saw tiny drops of blood in the pattern of teeth marks on the tip!

He immediately peered under the basil again, and saw that the dragon 'figure' seemed to be awake. It had lifted its head up and was now staring at him intently with tiny, but beautiful blue eyes that glittered like sapphires. The dragon sat still for a few moments, seemingly analyzing the giant human that stared at it in wonder, before letting out a little hiss of air and dropping its head back down onto the dirt.

Jeremy felt stunned and more than a little confused. Unless he was losing his mind, that weird creature lying under his basil plants looked quite a bit like a dragon, except much, much smaller. What was it doing in the garden? How did it get there? Was it real, or was his mind finally going after so many years of isolation? He backed away from the garden, put his injured finger in his mouth and began to ponder these questions, but was suddenly interrupted when the dragon-creature stepped out from under the plants, fluttered its translucent, insect like wings, and coughed in a tiny, hissy sounding voice.

Jeremy stared at it with widened eyes, and before he could do anything, the creature jumped into the air, fluttered its wings again, but failed to fly, and belly-flopped smack onto the hot pavement at his feet. It let out a little squeak of pain, and Jeremy, seemingly out of paternal instinct, reached down and very, very, gently and carefully, scooped the little dragon into the palm of his hand.

This time, the dragon didn't try to bite him, but instead laid in his hand pathetically and whimpered. Now that it was out in the sunlight, Jeremy could clearly see the cause of the creature's distress. One of its wings was nearly torn in two, and the poor thing seemed very worn out and tired from trying to use it, especially on such a hot day.

Jeremy immediately made up his mind to just play along with his imagination for the time being and help the creature, real or not. He slowly turned around, walked over to the rooftop door, opened it with one hand and cradling the dragon in the other, closed the door behind him. He descended the stairs and walked as quickly as he could without jostling the dragon too much, eventually reaching his apartment. Once inside, he wet a washcloth with cool water from the kitchen sink and placed it on the dining room table, laying the dragon on top of it. After that, he went into the bathroom and began scouring the medicine cabinet for medical adhesive. The whole time he was doing this, the dragon did not move from the cloth.

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A few minutes later, Jeremy returned and saw that the little dragon, feeling much cooler now that it was no longer in the sun, was now sitting up on its haunches and watching him from its spot on the wet cloth. It seemed much more alert now, so Jeremy walked over to the table, sat down in a chair, and examined it closely.

It was, as I said earlier, a very tiny dragon, only about four inches tall at the most, with glittering, dark blue scales, a golden belly and horns, and even darker blue eyes. It had a slender, graceful, prehensile tail, and its back was covered in golden spines the same color as its belly and horns. Its wings were transparent and delicate, like the wings of a fly or other insect. Its entire body glistened like a glass statue in the light, and Jeremy found himself quite in awe of its beauty.

Suddenly, the dragon began to cough violently, and puffs of smoke poofed out of its nostrils. Then, to Jeremy's absolute astonishment, it spoke.

"Do you... Do you have any water?" It squeaked in a tiny voice.

Jeremy's eyes widened.

"Water? Oh...oh...sure. Let me get you some..."

"Oh! You can talk! That's great!" cried the dragon, suddenly becoming much more alert than it had been earlier. "You didn't say anything earlier when you saw me, I thought that was kind of funny, since humans usually like to talk a lot. Come to think of it, I didn't really say anything either..."

It began to cough again, and Jeremy suddenly remembered the water. He had been so shocked by the talking dragon that he'd completely forgotten about it. So he went over to the sink, filled a cup with water and pulled a spoon out of a drawer. After that, he went back over to the table, dipped the spoon in the water, and offered it to the tiny dragon to sip.

"No thanks," it said. "I'd rather use the drinking thingy."

It immediately hopped up onto the edge of the cup, lowered its head, and gulped down nearly half the water in a minute. After which, it hopped back down onto the table and let out a tiny burp.

"That's better," it announced proudly, "I'm so, so happy you can see me, and hear me too! Oh, I've been looking so long for a human who can see dragons! I've always wanted to meet one, ever since I was a little hatchling! I used to watch them all the time, you know, when they walked past our kingdom. I even hopped onto their shoulders and blew smoke in their ears sometimes, but of course none of them noticed. Mother never approved of course, but now that I've met you, I know she will! Not to mention-"

"Can I ask you something?" said Jeremy, who had been just staring at the little dragon in a stupefied manner for a while.

"Oh, yes!"

"You're a boy dragon, aren't you?"

The tiny dragon furrowed its brow and scoffed in annoyance, its excitement interrupted by human stupidity.

"Of course not, I'm a female dragon. Can't you tell?"

"Not really... I'm sorry, I just haven't really seen a dragon before..." Jeremy stammered.

"You haven't?"

The little dragon scratched her head with her forepaw in a thoughtful manner, but after a few moments she began to smile again and said,

"Anyway, I'm Sini! And you are?"

"Jeremy," replied Jeremy. "Or Jerimiah A. Dooley, if you want the long version."

"That's quite a long name," said Sini. "I didn't realize human names were that long. Do you know why they're that long? I guess you must be a pretty important human to have such a long name. Does it have a meaning? Where does it come from? I think I like Jeremy better. Oh, I'm just bursting with questions!"

"Um, if you don't mind," said Jeremy. "I'd like to ask you a few questions first, if that's okay. You see... well... a human talking to a dragon is... kind of a big deal. I thought dragons were extinct, or never existed in the first place."

"Oh, I know what you mean!" replied Sini. "You see, according to ancient dragon lore, dragons used to be really, really big, but apparently they were so big that humans were scared of them! So the humans started hunting them down and killing them, so the dragons eventually became so small and tiny and invisible that the humans didn't bother them anymore. We like to live in gardens and places where there are lots of plants and bugs and places to hide, so we really don't have anything to worry about anymore, at least not from humans."

She suddenly became very solemn, and shivered slightly.

"Except," she whispered, "From birds, and cats."

"Did a bird or cat hurt your wing?" asked Jeremy.

The little dragon hung her head in a sort of shameful manner.

"A bird did. You see, I was sitting on top of the fence that surrounds our kingdom, when all of a sudden this big crow swooped down and tried to snatch me! I flew off and tried to get away from it, but it caught me by the wing! I managed to get away, but I fell into a garden and must have knocked myself out or something, because the next thing I remember was feeling something poking me. I thought it might be the crow again, so I bit it."

"I see," said Jeremy, looking down at his injured finger, which he'd bandaged while looking through the medicine cabinet.

"Sorry about that," said Sini.

"No, no, it's all right," replied Toby, shaking his head a bit. "I'm sorry for poking you. I don't blame you, after what happened with the crow."

"Oh, it's nice of you to say that," Sini said cheerfully. "I knew you were a good human! Oh, I could keep talking and asking questions for hours, but mother and the others will be worried about me, so I should be going-"

She hopped up into the air and fluttered her wings again, but seemed to have forgotten one of them was torn, so she fell back down again. Luckily, Jeremy managed to catch her before she hit the table this time.

"Oh, right," the little dragon said with a sad tone. "I forgot the wing..."

"Don't worry," said Jeremy, placing Sini back down on the tabletop. "I should be able to fix it... probably."

"Oh, thank you so much!" said Sini, grinning and showing off her pointy dragon teeth.

"Right," Jeremy said, picking up the adhesive and unscrewing the cap. "Hold still for just a moment... If you could just flatten your wings a little..."

Sini spread out and flattened her shimmering wings, and Jeremy immediately set to work, carefully examining the tear and then very, very gently, spreading a thin layer of adhesive over the edge of one side. He then pressed the other edge of the tear against the side with the glue, and held it steady for a few moments, waiting for the wing to dry. After a while, he finally let go of the wing, and this time, it stayed together.

"How does it feel?" he asked Sini.

The little dragon flapped the wing a few times to test it, and when she felt satisfied, she gave a little hop, and fluttered into the air. This time, however, she did not fall, but instead hovered about the table, about a foot in front of Jeremy's face. To her delight, she saw the man's eyes light up, and for the first time, he gave her a genuine smile.

"Oh, thank you, thank you!" she squealed happily as she flipped and looped through the air with ease. "Can I come back tomorrow? There's a lot I'd love to learn, and you're such a wise human, you probably can teach me everything!"

"You can come back," said Jeremy. "But I'm not really that wise, honestly. You might be a bit disa-"

"See you tomorrow then!" cried Sini, too excited to tell her fellow dragons about the man to wait any longer.

She flew a few laps around the ceiling before suddenly realizing...

"Um, how do I get out?"

Jeremy got up and went over to a nearby window that looked out over the busy street below. He unlatched the frame and lifted it up, allowing a warm breeze to blow into the room. In a flash, the little blue dragon flew outside, and zoomed off into the distance, calling "Bye! And thanks again!" as she became smaller and smaller, until she was nothing more than a tiny black dot against the sea blue sky.

Jeremy closed the window and sighed heavily, returning to his old, somber self. He wasn't really sure if what had just happened was real, and honestly, he didn't really care either. Maybe someone was playing a prank on him, maybe he was seeing things. Who knows? It didn't really matter, nothing really mattered actually...

He left his apartment, went up to the roof, and continued to water his basil as if nothing had happened. That's just how it was...