Rainbow Dragon

Things that go bump in the night don’t exist. At least that’s what Rainbow told herself as she pulled on a jacket for her nightly walk. It was raining and the wind was howling but what did that have to do with whether or not she was going to give in to her inner urge to be a couch potato? A bet was a bet. No way was Margo Henry going to win their bet. Just because she hadn’t thought quickly enough to insert a stipulation about bad weather—well, too bad. Fifty bucks was fifty bucks. She was so gonna dance in the parking lot when Margo paid up.

Her pedometer was firmly clipped to her granny ass jeans with the comfortable elastic waistband. She checked her pockets, making sure that she had her keys and her wimpy little cell phone in her right hand pocket. In her left was her flattened roll of duct tape and her Swiss Army Handyman knife with fifteen tools. Oh, Margo made fun of her, calling her McGyverette, but she never went out without her trusty duct tape and Swiss Army knife. Who knew when she would have an emergency and need them? At the last minute she grabbed a tissue packet and stuffed it in the pocket with the phone and keys. She hated it when her nose started to run while she was walking.

All right. Rubber garden clogs? Check. Rain slicker complete with hood? Check. Umbrella? Rainbow looked at the empty hook where the umbrella was supposed to be hanging. Oh, yeah. It was drying in the bathroom. She plodded into the bathroom, closed the still damp umbrella and plodded back out to the front door. Umbrella…check. One of these days—when Margo paid up on the fifty bucks—she was gonna get herself one of those teeny little gizmos that played music. Until then, she’d just have to hum to herself while she walked.

She locked the door, closed it with a slam and hobbled down the stairs. Okay, so she wasn’t in such good shape and Margo had shamed her into this stupid walk everyday. So what? She was walking!

When she opened the lobby door to the full fury of the storm, she quailed for a moment, just a moment and considered going back upstairs. But fifty bucks was fifty bucks and she needed fifty bucks so she opened the umbrella with a snap and sailed out into the pounding rain.

Six laps around the parking lot should do it. According to her pedometer that was exactly one mile. In the rain, one mile was her limit. Geez, why did it feel so spooky? Then she noticed that half of the parking lot lights were burned out. Swell. Just swell. No wonder it was so gloomy.
Tramping along the edge of the parked cars, splashing through the puddles on her fifth circuit, she didn’t pay any attention when the another of the lights died a slow death, but when the light she was walking past went out with a pop, she tilted the umbrella back and took another look around the lot.

Only one light was still shining.

Okay. That was just not right. Enough walking already. Margo never specified how long she had to walk. Tonight five laps were going to be more than enough. As she approached the sidewalk leading to her door, the last light went out with a ping. She stumbled to a stop in the sudden darkness. There was something out there in the storm. Something…that didn’t belong there.

Rainbow stood shivering in the blowing rain. The umbrella really did very little to keep the mist away so she decided that it would be far more useful as a weapon. With a snap, she collapsed the umbrella and clutched the wet folds in her hand. As much as she wanted to run for the door, she had a very strong notion that she needed to stay away from the parked cars. Slowly, step by step, she backed up moving back out into the open lot.

Abruptly, the rain fell harder, drumming on the cars, drowning out all the other night sounds. She pushed her hood away from her face, listening intently to catch the smallest out-of-place sound. When it came, it was too late for her to wield her umbrella. The huge dark form whooshed out from between two vans, landing on her shoulder like a chunk of concrete.

She fell to the ground flailing and beating at the thing with her umbrella. It growled and hissed striking terror in her heart. She tried to scream but her throat closed up in fright. Suddenly she realized that something was squeezing her throat. Her frantic struggles grew more frenzied when hot searing pain ripped her throat.

A red tide glazed her vision. In one tiny corner of her mind a little voice noted, That was what it meant to see red. Funny, she had never realized that a person could really see red. And then with a terrible roar, she rose to her feet flinging her attacker to the wet black top.

Puffs of smoke curled in the rain. Arms akimbo, she stared down at the limp black heap on the ground and opened her mouth. With one mighty huff, a stream of flame flew from her mouth to the pitiful thing at her feet. In a flash, it burned to ash.

The street lights all around the parking lot blinked back on. Rainbow bent to pick up her broken umbrella and that’s when she saw the enormous scaly feet with her red rubber garden clogs perched rakishly on the biggest toes.

She shook her head irritably. The yellow slicker hood slid down over one eye. It was pulling on her ear, so she shoved it back up out of the way with one curved claw and then bent her head to contemplate the puzzle of red garden clogs on those huge toes. It occurred to her, just in passing that they might be her toes, but her mind slid right past that and settled on the next thing that caught her attention.

The remnants of her granny jeans were wrapped around a pair of scaly ankles. In the odd light from the street lamps those ankles looked purple. Or maybe maroon. Strange.

From the corner of her eye, she noticed something that kind of resembled a tail and it seemed to be swishing to and fro like an agitated cat’s tail. There was something very strange going on. She just couldn’t quite put her finger on what the problem was.

Then the tiger and the alien showed up.

Anny

Drop by Amarinda's Place to check out what's going on in her world at http://www.amarindajones.blogspot.com/ and then pop over to Kelly's Blog at http://www.kkirch.blogspot.com/ to find out if she's all cleaned and packed. Blessings on your day!