Tin's Questionnaire

Feldspar Colorado, if I wasn't hatched here I would stay anyway. Outside of the city we have a lake and mesa, I spend a lot of time at both. I have to avoid the tourists, they mostly go out there for fishing and skiing, but plenty show up for rock climbing and camping as well. A major hiking trail also skirts one edge of the city. I like to leave extra trinkets in the geocaches a lot of the hikers and campers search about for, I support the caches for multiple reasons I'm not going into right now.

Inside the city we have a college, my favorite antique store, multiple used bookstores, some 24 hour fast food, three movie theaters, and all the stuff most medium sized cities have.

We also have a homeless population, who I do what I can for. They've watched out for me for years, so I've watched out for them too, ever since I got big enough.

I try to make my own way, but it's tough to do from the shadows.

I manage some honor system drop spots, where I put in supplies and people who need them put in what they can. Food for homeless people, fishhooks and lures by the lake, extra climbing things by the mesa, that sort of thing.

I also make discarded junk into what I can, sometimes just art and jewelry, but I prefer to salvage tools and electrical stuff to either fix up or repurpose. Some of that is sold locally, most of it gets sold online. Yes, I have help with the sales side of it.

What makes up the rest? Dragon hoard. Not mine, and I do have to help him in exchange. It's not all gold like people think, plenty of it is old stuff that's worth a lot more now than it once was, and most of that is metal. My new friend has been hibernating most of the past century, give or take, so everything is antique now. He used to live in Europe and thought this would be a great place to take a really really long nap, but then humans moved in nearby.

Well, since I'm at least half dragon and I now know at least one full dragon is still around, I'd like to find more. On top of that though, I'm angry that the older stories about humans killing us are *true* and they nearly got all of us!

Not the Asian creatures that English speaking people call dragons, those are different and respected. I bet Europeans would have killed those too if they could have, it's not like they care about making distinctions. Sometimes they see a giant snake or scary turtle and call those dragons, and not everything with wings like ours is even sapient.

Sapient dragons though? We didn't deserve that! We deserve not just respect but more than that. Some of us want to be left alone, others want some kind of reparations, and a few of us want revenge. Well, that's what I'm told it was like a couple centuries ago, and it probably still is.

I don't want to die or kill for it, but if there wasn't another way to restore our reputation and a return to the glory we once had? Yeah, I'd risk death and kill if I had to.

I like most humans though, so please don't force things.

Honestly? I know it sounds silly to say it because I didn't know anything before that, but when I hatched. I age slow these days, and have for a while, so that's been a long time. I've been different, very different, all my life. It's been tough, I can't have a human life though. Plus I grew up without a home except for the city of Feldspar itself and the nature areas nearby.

The other homeless people didn't care though, plenty of them are different in lots of ways, but few as obvious as me. They're my family just as much as dragons are.

Since two of these may or may not count as 'in my life' I'm giving four.

First, Adrian Hartnell. He's the owner of the antique store I mentioned, and one of the few people outside the local homeless folks who knows what I look like. A lot of things would be more difficult without him, plus he lets me sleep in his building if I need to. Either attic or basement, my choice, as long as I don't swipe his stuff and only enter his personal rooms with permission. Must be nice owning the entire building. I know he's retired and has a degree, but he doesn't talk about his past much so I don't know how or where he got the money to set this place up. I don't think it was a loan, he doesn't take in much more than it takes to run the place and pay his other bills.

Second, my 'mom' Katherine. She's the one who found my egg, her intuition told her it was more than just a big shiny gray ball. She went by Katie to everyone but me, and insisted I call her mom, even though she was still just a teenager back then. I aged like a human at first, so I was mostly able to take care of myself by the time she was in her twenties. She'd be around 65 or 66 by now, if she'd lived. Life on the streets isn't easy for anyone, and I didn't yet have a way to make it easier for anyone in our extended family.

Third, Mr Whittaker. He owns the biggest used bookstore in the area. He has comic books stretching back decades and also likes to stock as much science fiction and fantasy as he can, but as little religious stuff as possible. He says that the religious bookstore handles that just fine, but I think he just doesn't want to get involved in faith. I don't blame him. Also he doesn't like to carry anything newer than around 2010, which would make it tough to get by without the tourists coming through all the time. I never really spoke with him directly, but we leave notes for each other by the mini library. It was my idea, started by filling a cardboard box with books tourists left behind at the lake and camping areas. I labelled it 'free books' and put it in front of his shop late one night. Anyhow, he adds stuff to it pretty often, especially stuff I can read to the street kids. I put stuff back when the kids don't insist we keep it, and add what I can find too.

Fourth, the dragon. Or his representative, or psychic projection, it doesn't really matter. He insists that the tiny dragon is a manifestation from his mind and that going out of his cave personally would damage the entrance and draw too much attention. I think he just shrank over a century of barely eating anything. His name is tough to pronounce and even tougher to say, so I call him Frank Bach. That comes from teasing him about how he talks, saying stuff like "can I be frank with you?" and "I'll be back." He's told me about this 'contract' thing, and says if someone comes to collect me for a mysterious mission that I should do it if I can. In exchange, he'll awaken more draconic potential in me. Apparently the people he's talking about give stuff to the humans who work for them, but I shouldn't accept that stuff myself.

I'd say I'm closest to Mr Hartnell, but I'm getting closer to Frank too.

Oh wow! I never thought about that before! I guess I have a lot of the same fears normal people have, and I'm not so scared now of being seen by people who don't know me. I guess I could try meeting Mr Whittaker when I get home, I hope he's as nice as he is in his notes.

So, worst fears? Something not the usual stuff? I mean, getting imprisoned is up there, especially if they torture me or do experiments on me.

Almost as scary is anyone finding 'mom' and I don't mean Katie. I'm just as scared of what she might do to them, but physical repercussions are nothing compared to what comes after. She'll have to leave. I don't know if she'll let me go with her. If Frank really talks to her, maybe she'll let me, but I don't want to have to go.

Maybe she'll go to Antarctica, and if I went too we'll both be surviving on penguins and fish. I guess food, water, cold, and shelter are manageable, but it's not like I'll have anyone to talk to but her, and no books or tv either.

It's not Antarctica that scares me, it's her dying. I don't think I could take it. I don't think Frank could either.

Until I got that gift from Frank, I would have said my broken eggshell. It's still important to me, and not just because I hatched from it. When I was little, Katie kept it safe and sound, but she never said why. Maybe she was afraid that if I left or died she couldn't believe I was ever real if she didn't have proof. These days Mr Hartnell keeps it safe. He thinks it's hilarious that he has it on display in a locked glass case in his store. It's even labeled as a dragon egg, with some trivia about dragons on a card in the case with it.

Now, it's my new swimsuit from Frank. It's not just nice and probably enchanted, but it's already useful just for being so easy to clean and not stinking or staining. I love it and I want to learn more about it, I just hope I don't have to track down faeries to find out. Even the ones that don't fly are usually invisible, and if they're not tiny how will I know they're not just an eccentric and pretty human?!