The dragon lowered a rainbow-hued head to sniff the small, furry morsel. To her surprise, it hissed and puffed up, and swiped at her with surprising aggression.
Perhaps it was more dangerous than it looked. She withdrew, curling her tail around her pile of gold.
The small creature stared at her, yellow eyes wide and suspicious.
Later, she found it batting at a stray piece of gold. She tried to take it back, and was again met with a hiss and a swipe.
In the night, she woke to something rumbling on her back. The creature again, now asleep and curled up in complete, purring contentment.
She didn’t want to risk its wrath by disturbing it, and went back to sleep.
And so it continued. The creature grew less aggressive over time, but was no less fascinating to watch. It pounced and pranced and played and groomed. It yowled strangely in the middle of the night.
She was glad that her hoard was doubly well guarded.
—
In exciting news, this microfiction was illustrated as part of Inktober by the extremely talented Rowan! Honestly, the expressions and details are so perfect that I feel it completely does away with the need for the actual microfiction. This is the first time anything I’ve written has ever been illustrated or recieved fanart and I couldn’t stop looking at it.
If you want to see the art, follow this link: https://mastodon.art/@raktajino/103001881247223911
And the featured image on this post is by Oberholster Venita from Pixabay.