This is my first attempt responding to a writing advice post from Sparkler Magazine’s tumblr about “un-packing”. It was a thought-provoking exercise. Though I do try to be more descriptive in my writing, I did hit a few bumps in writing this simple piece.
Lunch Date
“I’m giving him 5 more minutes, then we’re out of here,” Kira said as she looked down at her watch, the metallic blue of its face matching the stormy blue her eyes grew with every tick of the second-hand. Her dragonlet Emmi, a curled up ball of iridescent green lounging on the table, barely opened an eye. She looked out at the street across from the cafe table where she and Danel were supposed to meet, again.
Dragons different shades of blue trotted along the street, their long legs and broad, wingless shoulders making them best suited for ground transportation. A few of the smaller purple dragons weaved their way through the traffic, transporting individuals as personal transport and taxis through the city. She watched as one, then another, and then another passed by, none even slowly down.
Craning her head up, she looked high into the sky, shading her eyes from the sun. Metallics could sometimes be seen sparkling like stars in daylight. It was silly for her to look for him though. Metallics like his bronze Ally would never come down to street level. Besides being too big to fit, their appearance also caused chaos among both the smaller dragons and humans.
Kira looked down at her watch again. One more minute. She stood up, preparing to leave. As she stood up, a breeze started to blow. It quickly grew to nearly hurricane force. She held down her blue variegated-dyed skirt with one hand to keep it from blowing around, while her other held onto the floppy straw hat that covered shoulder length hair of about the same shade. Slowly descending above her was a bronze dragon! Shrieking in fear, Emmi took off and flew around Kira’s head.
“Kira!” Danel shouted, his voice barely audible over the sound of the giant dragon’s wings. “Bet you didn’t think I’d make it this time!”
Kira gaped up at the huge dragon above her, both joy and anger in her expression.
“Danel! Are you crazy?”
“Yes!” Both rider and Ally replied. Her eyes widened with surprise at the response from dragon.
“If you are going to join us Kira Hassen, then please do so quickly,” Jerrik, the great bronze dragon said. “I would prefer to keep our transgressions to a minimum.” Kira looked from the dragon to his Ally, who held out his hand, waving her to join him.
“This is insane,” she said more to herself as she grabbed her purse and ran over to the waiting bronze. Jerrik extended his front leg and she climbed up. She reached for the riding harness and was hit by a wake from the dragons’ flapping wings and lost her balance. Emmi shrieked again. Kira barely registered her falling when she felt a sudden jolt and stopped. Looking up she saw deep green eyes staring down at her as she dangled by her wrist in Danel’s hands.
“Don’t leave so soon,” he said. “I have a wonderful afternoon planned.” He pulled her up until she could get a hold of the riding gear herself and climb the rest of the way on her own. He settled her on the saddle in front of him, and put his arms around her tenderly. Kira leaned against Danel, her head resting against his shoulder.
“It had better be spectacular,” she said softly into his ear, her breath tickling and tone teasing.
“It’ll take your breath away,” he responded, his lips brushing against hers as he signaled Jerrik to take off.