teemit Challenge s28wk1 : Zany and the tiny colored dragon

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Hello steemians,

They moved together into the evening, light trailing behind them. The rain had faded to mist; puddles turned the street into blurred mirrors. People walked with their feelings beside them. A fox of pride, a gray bird of worry, a dark vulture of despair. Zany kept her hood low.

On her shoulder, the tiny dragon shifted, scales rippling from blue to violet to nervous pink.

“You’re one of them too, right?” she whispered. “Just… mine.”

The dragon tilted its head. Warmth pulsed from its chest and brushed her cheek.

You, a voice said inside her ribs. Mostly you. A little more.

Zany froze. A cyclist swerved around her, his orange squirrel of annoyance chittering on his backpack.

“You can talk?” she breathed.

Trying, the dragon answered. Hearts are noisy.

“Mine’s a demolition site,” Zany muttered. “You picked the wrong place to live.”

They turned toward her block. In her mind she saw the apartment: mother staring past the TV, father scrolling at the table, the word divorce hanging between them. Her steps slowed.

The dragon’s colors dulled toward gray. It pressed closer to her neck.

Don’t run yet, it murmured. Sit first.

They cut through the small park behind her building. The swing chains were wet and cold. Zany dropped onto one anyway. The dragon hopped onto the metal in front of her, nose almost touching hers.

“Okay, tiny therapist,” she said. “Now what?”

Its scales flashed red, then settled into orange.

I don’t fix, it said. I show.

“Show what?”

That you are bigger than what hurts you.

Zany let out a laugh that cracked.

“You haven’t heard my parents. They’re earthquakes with Wi-Fi. I just hold on and hope the roof stays up.”

I’ve heard them, the dragon replied. They echo inside you. Loud. But you are not only their noise.

Zany twisted the chain until it bit her palms.

“I’m scared,” she whispered. “What if I go back and nothing changes? What if they split and call it ‘for the best’ and I’m the only one who hates it? What if they stay and pretend I can’t hear them?”

The dragon’s colors deepened to a steady blue.

Then you hurt, it said. You cry. You scream into your pillow. You draw ugly dragons in your notebooks. And then you wake up again. With or without me. Still you.

Its tiny forehead bumped hers, warm and solid.

I’m not here to stop the pain, it added. I’m here so you don’t carry it alone.

Zany stared at the ground until it blurred. The pressure in her chest finally cracked. Tears rose fast, hotter than the rain, and she didn’t swallow them back.

“I’m so tired,” she choked. “Of pretending I’m okay so they don’t feel worse. Of being quiet so they don’t fight more. Of feeling like… luggage they’re arguing over.”

The dragon crawled into her cupped hands. Its light softened to gold.

You are not luggage, it told her. You are the traveler.

She sobbed ugly, noisy, real. Somewhere a tram bell clanged. Someone laughed in a nearby building. The world kept going; she was still in it.

Slowly, the shaking eased. A breath finally reached the bottom of her lungs.

“Will you stay?” she asked, voice rough but steadier.

As long as you keep feeling, the dragon answered. One day you won’t need to see me. I’ll just be the courage in your steps instead of light in your hands.

“That sounds like disappearing.”

That sounds like growing, it replied.

The word scared her more than divorce.

“Growing into what?” she asked.

Into you, the dragon said. Not their fights. Not their decisions. Just you.

The apartment would still smell of unsaid things. Her parents would still be themselves. But something in her had changed: a tiny space where she wasn’t just the child in the middle, but a person who could feel and still move.

Zany stood. Her legs were shaky, but they held.

“Okay,” she whispered. “Let’s go home. I can’t fix them. But I can be there… as me.”

The tiny dragon slid back to her shoulder and curled against her neck.

On the way to her building, the street was still gray and wet, crowded with creatures at people’s sides. Zany’s light was small beside all that darkness, but it moved with her, step after step.

“Hey,” she said softly. “If one day I can’t see you anymore… will I still feel you?”

The dragon nuzzled her jaw.

If you keep walking, it answered, you’ll realize it was you all along.

Zany reached for the door. The weight in her chest wasn’t gone, but something else lived there too, small and stubborn and bright.

Hope, she thought. Tiny, colored, and finally hers.

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Thank you very much for reading, it's time to invite my friends @sualeha, @drhira, @shiftitamanna to participate in this contest.

Best Regards,
@kouba01