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               She could smell him. Despite the dance floor packed with sweaty college age patrons and the multiple alcohol stains across the floors, his stench found its way into her nostrils.

                Narrowly avoiding the grinding figures, she made her way to the bar area, where at least she could sit and not draw too much attention, though she could feel the eyes of many men watching her as she trod past. She could see herself through their eyes: a tall curvy blonde with legs that seemed to go on forever.

She smiled to herself, and felt their admiration growing as she let her hips sway to the music. They didn’t see her well concealed eye teeth.

 She could smell the bastard, now she just had to wait and see where he was. And she had plenty of time to wait. When you live forever, all you have is time.

                She had followed him across state borders, just ahead of the cops. She could stand to wait a few more hours. His MO was always the same. He would go to a packed college bar, find the girl who was hiding in the corner and flatter and flirt his way into her heart. The unsuspecting female, who usually had had one too many, would follow him out like a little lamb to the slaughter.

                A gentle cough interrupted her inner monologue. Looking to her right she noticed the interrupters were a group of college age boys. All clapping the smallest on the shoulder as he looked sheepishly up at her.  Despite the strobing lights, her eyes managed to register that he had innocent blue eyes and sandy brown hair.

                The bigger boys jostled him back and forth and then pushed him back towards her. “C-can I buy you a drink?” he managed to stammer out before he turned too shy.

                She couldn’t help but smile, he was so young, and had no idea that he was just going to be a pawn for the others for the rest of the night. She looked over at the others. Every single one of them; apes, she thought bitterly.

                “Of course you can, anything you’ll drink is fine with me.” Her voice was melodious and he seemed entrapped in it for a brief second before turning to the bartender. Shutting her ears to what he was ordering for them, she scanned the crowd, trying to catch sight of what she had smelled so prominently upon entering the building.  She felt the young boy turn back to her, one drink offered out to her. She had to be careful with him; she could easily mask his mind without meaning to.

                “H-here you go.” He raised his glass as he handed her hers.

                “Sláinte.” She raised her glass in response and watched his eyes open wide at her accent while speaking. The drink tasted like muddy water to her non human taste buds, but she managed to get most of it down in one gulp. She supposed it was something fruity because there was a strawberry on the rim of her martini glass.

                She looked at him candidly, “So did you complete the dare they set you on?” and gestured casually with her head towards the group.

                “Well, I suppose so…” he trailed off looking suspiciously back at them. She placed a hand lightly on his arm. She could psychically convince him to leave without touching him, but masking a humans mind worked better and had less of a chance that she would overwhelm his feeble human mind if she was in physical contact with him.

                “You have had your fun for the night.” She watched as his eyes went wide, and then seemed to stare at nothing in particular.

                “You are going to go back to your house, dorm or apartment and forget about tonight.” She glanced back at the crowd of boys who were turning their attention to the many girls dancing around suggestively. “And you are not going to go along with these boys again.”

                He nodded weakly and headed for the door. She watched as one of the others saw him leave and tried to go after him. But the crowd of people pushed him back, protecting the smaller boy as he left. She smiled to herself; at least she could protect him from tonight. Her mask wouldn’t last as long as she wished, but that was the mortal way. They had to learn the hard way, especially the men.

The Naming

The dragon was growing quickly and Riona was becoming worried that her mother might start noticing the larger and larger amounts of food going missing.  So she had to smuggle the dragon outside during her chores to give him more of an opportunity to hunt. He started in the barn. Riona had never thought that they had a mouse problem until the first day when he had caught five of them before she was done feeding the animals. He was smug for the next several hours until he realized there were no more in the barn and that they had all run away into the fields.

                The horses and chickens were afraid of him at first, but once they got used to him being there, they didn’t make as much noise. Riona was glad, because she wasn’t sure how she would have explained to her mother why the animals were constantly upset.

                After one long day, when they were both safely tucked up in her room for the night, it hit her that she still hadn’t named him. It wasn’t that hard to not use a name, after all, he could sense her thoughts and vice versa, there hadn’t been a time she had needed to use a name.

                He was sitting on the end of her bed, looking very much like an overgrown housecat. When he was stretched out from nose to tail tip he was now longer than her bed. But there he was, curled up by her feet, his body moving gently in time with his breathing, every now and then his tail would twitch.

                She tried to recall the stories of the Ryders that her mother had told her as a child, but none of the names really seemed to fit. There were Eos and Eris, the twin dragons. Then there came Matius, Letimer, Etretia, Lucia and she kept running down the list, but not one of them made any sense with the sleeping lump at her feet.

                Crossing her arms and furrowing her brow she just sat and watched him sleeping.

                Steam emitted from his nostrils with every breath and his scales shone a deep red in the little light that came in through her window. He twitched in his sleep and half rolled onto his back exposing his golden underside. All of his colors were of jewel tones, or precious metals that she had seen coming from mountains.

                “Hah!” The dragon woke with a start, his eyes wide looking around them.

                ‘Is something wrong?’ His mind voice sounded sleepy, but she noticed that his claws were held at the ready, his brown and gold flecked eyes rolled to rest on her. ‘Did you have the nightmare again?’ She noted that his tone took on a certain depth when he hit the word nightmare, and she smiled at his protectiveness.

                ‘No, nothing is wrong.’ His whole body relaxed again as his eyes stayed fixed on her. ‘I think I have a name for you.’ His mouth yawed open in the gesture she had come to recognize as his smile.

                ‘Well? Is it a good one?’ he asked impatiently.

                ‘I think it is.’ She waited a minute, wanting him to be surprised. She had learned quickly how to shield a few of her thoughts from him from time to time.

                ‘Tell me!’

                ‘I am going to call you, Feoras.’ She could mentally feel him rolling the word around in his mind and his feelings toward it.

                Suddenly he perked up, ‘I like it better than the other names you were running though. Feoras.’ He looked up at her with a quizzical expression, ‘Does it mean anything?’

                ‘Of course it does.’ He looked up at her expectantly. ‘I was sitting here thinking that all of the colors of your scales are like the gems that come out of the mountains, and Feoras means ‘of the mountain’ so I thought that it would fit you.’ His eyes lit up at the explanation.

                ‘You mean I’m going to be compared to the mountains all my life?’ His tone didn’t sound upset, but rather awed. She shrugged.

                ‘Well, I guess, if you put it that way.’ She could still faintly hear his mind mulling over and repeating the name again and again.

                ‘Well, I like it.’ He did his dragon smile again and re-curled himself at her feet as she laid down to sleep herself.

Freelance Work

     Those people close to me already know, but I have been hired as a Freelance writer for an acquaintance who works for a real estate company on the side. I have been hired on to write up the house descriptions. My sample piece is as follows.
     What I was given:

     Remarks: Well maintained NO FEE condo. Side-by-side home built in 2006, this condo features an open concept living area flowing into the dinette and kitchen. Vaulted ceiling opens up to 2nd floor loft. Master suite on main level. Two bedrooms and full bath on upper. Spacious kitchen with snack bar. First floor laundry off garage. Full basement roughed for a bath, features nearly 8' high ceilings ready for finishing. Convenient location. No condo association.



     

     My version: 

     

This well maintained side by side condo built in 2006 features an open concept floor plan. The living area flows through the dinette into the open kitchen and snack bar. The vaulted ceilings keep the open concept all the way to the 2^nd floor loft. The master suite sits on the main level as well as a half bath, while two bedrooms and a full bathroom occupy the upper floor. The laundry is located directly off of the attached garage and the full basement with 8’ ceilings is ready to be finished and have a third bathroom put in. Conveniently located five minutes from Pike Lake State Park, and there are no condo association fees.