‘It’s just a pigeon,’ said the girl. ‘Let it die.’
The boy lifted it with gentle hands. It was too weak to struggle. He could feel its heartbeat against his fingertips. ‘It just needs help, that’s all.’
He nursed it day and night. Warmed it by a lamp, cleaned its wounds. Fed it from his hand. Every day it grew stronger. And larger.
After a week, it was the size of a cat. A month, a dog. It gazed at him with adoring eyes. And one day, it would carry him into the sky.
@vicorva aw gosh that reminds me of this dragon story I have on a rip of a CD reproduction of an LP of a woman reading two short stories about dragons... the dragon in it was tiny at night and then grew big in the day, and there was a princess and a man who rescued her by capturing the dragon. wonder if I can find it.
@vicorva found the library entry, and the cover https://www.worldcat.org/title/book-of-dragons/oclc/2828672
Wow, just thinking about it I can hear Judith Anderson's deep, resonant voice reading. It's making me cry a little remembering listening to it with my dad's mum who died when I was 12.
@s0 that's a really striking cover. 💙
@vicorva if you (or anyone) would care to listen to them, they can be downloaded from me here: http://gofile.me/4xL3J/16tpQfpdZ
@s0 that sounds really cute!