You’re halfway through steeping a calming tisane when your front door bursts open hard enough to rattle the herb jars. A flustered wizard stumbles in, robes askew, clutching a small bundle to his chest.
“Good Healer, it’s terrible!” he gasps, rushing straight to your counter. “She’s been lethargic for days — days — barely nibbling, barely chirping, barely anything. I fear a curse. Or a wasting. Or—”
You nod with practiced warmth, folding your hands atop the counter. “Start from the beginning,” you say, voice soft with practiced patience.
He does.
Oh, does he ever.
He launches into a sprawling, breathless saga of symptoms, timelines, dietary habits, moon phases, suspicious neighbors, and the possibility — remote but not impossible — that his familiar has been replaced by an identical but inferior doppelgänger. You listen with gentle attention, offering small murmurs of sympathy as he gestures wildly.
What he does not notice is that the bundle he carried in has wriggled free.
His familiar — a plump little tawny owl with a perpetually curious tilt to her head — has hopped down to the floor, blinked once, and immediately spotted your dragon.
The fire drake, who had been napping in a sunbeam, perks up at the sight of her. In a heartbeat, the two are off: scampering, fluttering, tumbling through the cottage in a flurry of soft feathers and tiny sparks. They weave between chair legs, bounce off cushions, and disappear behind the woodpile with delighted squeaks.
You keep your expression serene while the wizard continues his monologue about arcane nutritional deficiencies.
A sudden hoot‑chirp‑trill erupts behind him.
He freezes. Turns. Blinks.
There, in the middle of your rug, his owl and your dragon are rolling in a heap of pure, unfiltered joy.
He stares. You smile.
“I… she… she wasn’t sick?” he manages.
“No,” you say kindly. “She just needed a friend.”
The owl flutters onto your dragon’s back, triumphant. The wizard sighs, shoulders sagging with relief.
You pour him a cup of the calming tisane anyway. It seems like the right prescription.
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