A Dragon at the Cafe

Venturing into the human world tests Vincent’s nerve…

For Vincent, being among humans proves awkward at best, dangerous at worst. Other dragon shifters manage to navigate human spaces. But Vincent pretending to be anything but a dragon scares people more than reassures them. Mostly, he keeps to himself in his hoard, venturing out rarely. And only when absolutely necessary.

When his favorite niece has trouble and asks for help, a journey out among humans becomes absolutely necessary.

Vincent will turn the world upside down to ensure her safety and happiness. Even walk voluntarily into a human café. With a strange clientele. Where he feels more comfortable than most other human spaces. Fortunately.

Because when a dragon walks into a café, disaster follows.

A DRAGON AT THE CAFE is available to read for free until the 1st of October, when another story will be posted. For readers who would prefer to read on a device of preference, or who would like their own personal eBook of this story, you can find it here.

***

A Dragon at the Café

A Café Story

Dragon walks into a café. Vincent shook his head. Sounded like the start to a dumb joke. “Dragon walks into a café, says to the barista, give me something with some heat.” Or something. He wasn’t a comedian. He’d even been accused of having a weird sense of humor, so what did he know about jokes.

What he did know was that he felt awkward and obvious walking into this café, even if he was in his human form and could therefore, supposedly, blend in with the other humans. It had been a long time since he’d come out into the human world and interacted with ordinary humans. He mostly kept himself to himself or, if he had to deal with other people, delt with only his kind. When he was among other dragon shifters, he didn’t have to worry about his mannerisms or giving himself away by being…strange.

He wasn’t entirely sure how to tell if he was acting strange. That was the problem. He’d think he was acting “human” but then he’d start getting all these weird looks from people. And that would make things worse. He’d start laughing too loud, or inappropriately, or worse scowling because he was confused. Both expressions elicited strong reactions from humans and resulted in them hurrying away from him.

Honestly, he never meant to scare people. Didn’t want to scare anyone. Just wanted to be left alone with his hoard and his books and his puzzles. Life was much much easier when everyone just left him alone.

There were only a handful of things that could bring him out of his home and his delightful alone time.

Freda was one of them.

He stood in the doorway of the café for long enough to make sure he hadn’t scared anyone just walking in. The place itself was open and cozy, lots of tables and couches and comfortable wood. If it weren’t for all the people everywhere, he might have even enjoyed the place. It smelled nice with the rich roast of coffee beans, and someone’s Earl Gray tea, lots of rich buttery pastry smells, chocolate, and some hints of cinnamon. There was a bookstore attached, which also smelled nicely of paper and ink and binding glue. The temperature inside was a bit warm for him. He preferred cooler temperatures. But it wasn’t uncomfortable. Not like some of the human spaces that were so overheated it reminded him of his sire’s cave. Those weren’t pleasant memories. Which made being in those human spaces a study in misery.

The café wasn’t a misery to stand in, though. Freda had chosen well. The only thing that would have made it better was if there hadn’t been any people around.

He scanned the seating area, looking for Freda, but didn’t see her. That meant he’d have to do what a human would do while he waited. What would a human do? He glanced at the counter where a lovely looking human was currently chatting quietly with a giant, pale gray Maine Coon cat sprawled across a stool next to the register. The stool was too small for the cat, but he curled up comfortably on it.

The presence of a cat made Vincent a little nervous. They usually smelled that he wasn’t human and reacted. Sometimes not bad, just looking for scratches. Sometimes very bad, because cats and dragons were not always allies.

Still, if he didn’t want to draw attention to himself—which he was afraid he already was because he hadn’t moved away from the doorway yet—he had to do what a human would do. Go up to the counter and order…something. Coffee? The tea smelled good, though, so maybe an Earl Gray. And a pastry? Sure. He could eat.

He approached the counter—and the cat—cautiously. The cat gave him a steady look but didn’t otherwise react. Just stared at him unblinkingly with his light blue eyes. So long as the cat didn’t hiss and run away, though, Vincent figured he was okay.

He tried to smile at the woman behind the counter. She didn’t wince or run away, but she did raise her brows before smiling back at him.

“What can I get for you?” she asked. She had a pleasant voice and didn’t appear scared of him. That was good.

“Earl Gray and a croissant,” he ordered. Then remembered what Freda had taught him about human manners. “Please.”

The woman’s smile softened. “For here or to go?”

Oh, he’d forgotten that was an option. “For here.”

She took his money, then said, “Find a seat. I’ll bring your order to you.”

He started to turn away, remembered again, turned back and said, “Thank you.”

Her answering grin was friendly, showing no signs of confusion or fear or worry. Vincent let out a long breath. Good. He’d done it. He’d successfully navigated his first human interaction in months—years?—without sending the human screaming. And the cat hadn’t hissed at him. So far so good.

Finding a seat was easier than placing his order. There were several collections of cushioned chairs and a couch near the back of the room where no one was currently sitting. A man furiously typing away on a laptop sat to one side of the couch, at a table with a wooden chair. And the woman drinking the Earl Gray and reading was at a table in the center of the seating area, but still far enough away from the cushioned chairs for Vincent to feel like he had space.

He picked the corner chairs, farthest away from anyone else, but where he still had a good view of the front door and the opening that led into the bookstore. From here, he’d see Freda the minute she walked in, no matter which direction she came from. He didn’t want to risk missing her.

When she’d called him for help, asked him to meet her here, he hadn’t been able to refuse. He could never really refuse Freda anything. Which she knew. She also knew how uncomfortable he was among humans, so he hoped she wouldn’t make him wait too long.

They’d known each other since she was a baby, and she called him Uncle Vincent. He was, technically, her uncle, too. But because things got complicated with dragon shifter and human children, especially when the children were human—as most female children were—things were a little more complicated than her just being his niece. Freda was his brother’s, dragon son’s, human daughter’s, dragon son’s daughter with a human woman.

Complicated.

So she was more like his great great great niece. And he was her great great great uncle. But all the short-lived humans in there amongst the long lived dragons, sometimes made counting the generations weird—his brother was also still alive so her great great great grandfather was around where her grandmother had passed—at an advanced human age—well before she was born.

So the dragons tended to drop all the “great”s and just went with the basic relationship. Vincent was Freda’s uncle.

And honestly, she was his favorite niece. It made him sad that she’d only live a human’s lifespan. Too short for such a bundle of energy and enthusiasm.

She was one of the few people in his life, ever, to just accept him for his anti-social self. She sent him books, or trinkets as presents to add to his hoard. She used modern technology to text him or video chat with him so he could remain social without having to be around people. She made an effort to be friends with him when a lot of his kind had drifted away. And she was so smart. He never got bored talking with her. The child was a genius. He hoped her own human mother and shifter father realized and appreciated that brain. He got the impression from her that they didn’t. That few people did. Which was why she came to him to talk about her favorite subjects.

And she listened when he talked about his! Probably the only person in his life, outside his own human mother who’d passed away a very very long time ago, who actually listened to him when he rambled on about a favorite topic.

The nice woman who’d taken his order brought his tea and croissant and then left with a polite smile, never once requiring him to say anything. And she didn’t seem to notice that he’d forgotten to say thank you this time. He let out a sigh of relief.

Outside of being his favorite niece, Freda was one of the only people he could be around without feeling awkward. Their…energy, he supposed was the word. Their energy resonated in a similar way that meant she didn’t have a draining impact on him. Most others, even dragons, he could only tolerate for so long. Then he needed a break. He never seemed to need a break from Freda.

He twirled his mug, glanced down at the tea, and realized he should probably drink some. He was thirsty, now he thought of it. And hungry. And the croissant smelled good. He ate, and drank, and watched the front door, and tried not to think about the fact that his favorite relative wouldn’t live very long because she was human.

Humans were so damned fragile.

But maybe she’d have children one day, and those children would be like her. Smart and easy to be around. A dragon uncle could hope.

The bell over the front door rang and he looked up to see Freda striding into the café. He smiled, releasing a relieved breath. She wasn’t a shy woman who made herself small in this world and he loved that about her. Made him proud to watch her owning the space she took up. That was his niece. And she was fierce.

She spotted him instantly, without having to look around the café, and made a beeline for him. “Sorry I’m late. Mom called and I couldn’t get her off the phone. You weren’t waiting too long, were you?” She glanced around, concern creasing her brow.

“I’m fine,” he said. “You should get a coffee or tea. The Earl Gray is very nice.”

Her mouth twitched up into a crooked grin. “Any trouble ordering?” she asked.

He shook his head.

A wider grin. “I’ll be right back. There’s a cookie up there calling my name.”

He chuckled as she walked away. Reassured now that she was here. When she’d called, she’d sounded… He wasn’t sure. Scared maybe? Definitely upset and worried. He’d been anxious about her health and wellbeing since the call, worried she was about to tell him she had cancer or something. And maybe that was still the conversation he was in for. But she seemed relatively relaxed now, so his anxiety eased. Whatever the problem was, it couldn’t be that bad if she was eager to get a cookie. Right?

He studied her as she chatted with the barista, much easier than he’d been able to. She was dressed for the weather, in jeans and hiking boots and a long black wool coat. He’d forgotten to wear a coat. He should have done that. But he didn’t find it cold outside so he’d forgotten a human might notice he was missing a coat and think that weird. She had her long brown hair pulled up into a messy bun, and had decorated the bun with things that sparkled. Which made his dragon heart smile.

Even from across the café, he picked up the blended scent of her. Human family (which was hard to describe in human words) and honeydew. And her mother (not family because she wasn’t a blood relative) and citrus.

Freda was still living at home with her mother, Gina, as she saved money to go to college. Her father—and Vincent for that matter—would have paid her way without question, but Freda was also very stubborn and insisted she’d pay on her own. Vincent had been secretly sending her mother a little money every month to pass on to Freda when Gina thought her daughter would accept it. But it wasn’t enough to pay for a full four year college of Freda’s choice.

One of the things about his niece that he both admired and found frustrating was her insistence on doing things herself instead of asking for help. Her family—including her dragon family—were here to help her. That was the point of family.

But at least, though she wouldn’t take his money for college, at least she’d come to him when she did need help. He was grateful for that.

The cat on the barstool studied Freda as she placed her order, and the fur along his spine rippled. Rising almost like the cat was about to hiss. Which made Vincent frown. But then the cat closed his eyes and went back to sleep, so whatever his reaction to Freda, the cat had decided not to hiss or attack. Vincent couldn’t imagine what sort of issue the cat could have with Freda, though. She was a perfectly ordinary human woman. Despite her dragon shifter ancestry.

The fact that she’d been born a female pretty much guaranteed that she was human. Female dragon shifters were exceptionally rare. Fortunately. There were currently twelve in the world, and it was a good millennia when none of them made an appearance. Vincent had met one of them. Once. In his youth. And that was more than enough for him.

Freda strolled back to their table after placing her order, hands empty. The woman drinking Earl Gray and reading looked up as Freda passed, a frown turning down her mouth. The expression drew Vincent’s full attention. There was nothing about Freda that he could see that should draw ire or displeasure from another human. He took a deep breath and narrowed his eyes. Something about the woman’s scent… It was perfectly ordinary for a human. But also a little too ordinary.

Though he rarely looked through anything but visible light when he was with humans—there was really no need most of the time—he narrowed his gaze and took in the wider range of light he could access from infrared, through ultraviolet, taking in the shorter and longer wavelengths to better see the woman.

Oh. That was unusual. She appeared the same. No matter which wavelength he looked at her through. No one else appeared the same in the room when he switched views. They glowed in various heat colors in the infrared, ultraviolet turned much of the room dark with a few spots of glowing white. But the woman with the Earl Gray was…the same. The same as if he were looking at her in visible light. And also…different. There was an aura around her, a glow that seemed to be absorbing all the light.

How strange. He’d never encountered anyone like that before. He blinked back his translucent inner lids and refocused on visible light. She’d glanced away from Freda and looked at him now. She gave him a small head dip, as if acknowledging he’d noticed her difference. Then turned back to her book. Showing no concern at all for being discovered.

What was she?

His curiosity almost got the better of him. He had his hands on the table to stand and go speak with her, when he realized he couldn’t do that because Freda had a problem and that was why he was here. The woman had frowned at Freda, but then turned back to her book without commenting, so whatever had bothered her about his niece hadn’t been something to start trouble over. It was a bit like the reaction the cat had had. A moment of upset that was soothed over in the next instant.

He was frowning deeply when Freda sat across from him. She tapped his fisted hand gently with her fingertip and said, “You okay? You look upset? Is it being inside a human place?” This last she said so quietly, only he would be able to hear.

But because he was watching, he saw the woman with the Earl Gray’s slight smile before it dropped away.

She’d heard that? Or she was smiling at something in her book?

Giving his head a shake, he forced his attention back to his niece. “I’m fine. The coffee shop is fine. There’s room.” He glanced at the empty table. “Did you not get a cookie in the end?”

“Nina’s heating it up for me. The woman who owns this place.” She nodded back toward the counter. “Nice woman. I think she’s a witch and her cat is her familiar, but I’m not positive. Can you tell?”

That Freda would even suspect something like that about another human surprised him, but since half her family were dragon shifters, maybe she was just more open to other supernatural and preternatural beings than the average human.

“I might if I took the time to study their scents,” he said. “Magic has a smell to it.” He hadn’t bothered to check something like that when he’d walked up to the counter because he’d been too worried about how he was acting and the attention he might draw.

“My dad said. Like electricity, right? Or burnt ozone or something.”

“Depends on the magic. I’ve met some witches that just smell strongly of pine and grass.” He shrugged. Magic wasn’t one of his current topics of interest, though it had been at one point, so he wasn’t unfamiliar with the various shades and flavors. But it had been a while—he couldn’t remember how long—since he’d studied the subject. “We’re here about you, though, not the possible witch behind the counter. You have a problem?”

Her mouth flattened and she ducked her chin, picking at a spot on the wooden table between them. “Might. Probably do. I think. I’m not…sure.” She shrugged, still not meeting his gaze. “I think I might not be able to go to college. Not a human one.”

“Why? Is it the money? You know I’ll pay for your education. You’ve got too clever a brain. It needs training.”

She snort-laughed. “I love the way you describe things. My brain needs to be trained.”

“Freda…”

There was warning in his tone but also concern.

“It’s not the money,” she said, still not looking up. “I’ve earned enough that between that and some low interest student loans and a decent scholarship or grant, I could do Oxford. The problem isn’t…that.”

They both fell silent as Nina brought over a small plate-sized chocolate chip cookie with the chips slightly melted. She set the plate in front of Freda along with a large mug topped by foam—Vincent assumed it was a cappuccino from the smell. Then she smiled and asked, “Can I get either of you anything else?”

“We’re fine. Thank you very much.” Vincent tried a smile, because it was polite. But he was worried and thought the smile might be even worse than the one he’d tried earlier. From Freda’s slight wince, and the way Nina’s smile froze before softening again, he figured he’d failed at smiling a second time. Ah well.

He did take a deep breath before the barista walked away, dragging in her scent and running it through the analyzer of his brain. “You were right,” he said when he and Freda were alone. “She is a witch.”

Interesting café. A witch and her familiar owned it. A mysterious woman with a light aura that shouldn’t be possible sat casually sipping Earl Gray. And a dragon shifter. All in the same place. Made him curious if there were others from the otherworldly community here. He’d thought he was walking into a human place. But maybe it wasn’t entirely human after all.

For some reason, that helped him relax. Even if he didn’t know what the others were, necessarily, if they weren’t ordinary humans, they were less likely to be bothered by him not being human.

“I knew it,” Freda said with a grin, tearing into her cookie. “Which makes this a better place for you, doesn’t it?”

“It does help a little, yes,” he admitted. Leave it to Freda to have figured that out before he did. “Your brain really is sharp and intelligent. I’d hate to see you ignore all that potential.”

She rolled her eyes. “I have been hearing about my potential my entire life. That’s gonna send me right into burnout, you know.”

“It will?” That hadn’t occurred to him. One of the things he hoarded—which was a little different to other dragons but not entirely unique—was knowledge. He learned deeply anything that interested him. It hadn’t occurred to him that that sort of focus on knowledge hoarding and learning might burn out a human’s capacity for curiosity. Or was it just the pressure of “potential” that bothered Freda.

He was about to ask for clarification when she raised a hand. “I’ll explain that part some other time, if you don’t mind. I’m not here to talk about that.”

“Okay. You said you can’t go to college. But it’s not the money. Is your mother sick?”

Freda’s father, Vincent’s dragon shifter nephew, hadn’t mentioned anything about Freda’s mother being sick, but they didn’t speak as often as he spoke with Freda. Thadeus found Vincent a little…uncomfortable to be around. Vincent accepted that. It happened. Even among the dragons. It was a little surprising how well Vincent got along with Freda, actually, given her father’s opinions.

“Mom’s fine. She’s worried about me, too, though, so this conversation was as much her idea as mine.”

“Is it something your father knows?”

“No,” she said quickly. Then shoved more cookie into her mouth, making it impossible for her to speak for a moment. She blinked hard and said, “I’d prefer if you didn’t discuss any of this with him, or any of the others, until after I’ve…figured it out myself. Please.”

He couldn’t refuse her anything. So he nodded. He would keep her trust. But his anxiety was back now, higher even than before. “Please tell me the problem, Freda. And I’ll make sure it’s fixed.”

She smiled faintly, her gaze dropping to the half-eaten cookie. “Not sure this is fixable, Uncle Vincent.”

“Explain. Please.”

“You’ve remembered to say please a lot. I guess I should stop stalling. The problem is…I’m not sure. And I’m afraid I’m being ridiculous. Or that something else is wrong. Or that…” She swallowed visible. “Or that you’ll hate me.”

“Never.” He sat back in his seat, surprised by that. “I could never. You know that.”

“Hold that thought.” She made a face, brushed cookie crumbs off her hands and straightened her shoulders so she could meet his gaze. “I have been having…visions I guess you’d call them. Maybe dreams. But they happen at all different times, not just when I’m asleep. And they’re very immersive and real. So far, they haven’t happened while I was driving, but one hit me just after I parked the other day, and that scared the crap out of me. If I’d been driving, I would have crashed.”

“Visions of what?” His heart hammered at the thought of his delicate human niece in a car accident. But he shoved that reaction down. She didn’t need his panic now.

“Fire,” she said. “Lots of fire. I’m surrounded by it. But…it’s not burning me. I feel it in my stomach, my throat. And it…” She let out a breath. “It tastes good.”

“You can taste the fire in these visions?” Something stirred in his memory. A thought he didn’t immediately latch onto. A worry he ignored until he had more information.

“I can. It’s a hard-to-explain flavor. Like roasted rocks. Almost lava, but it doesn’t burn. Not like human spices and chilis, though. Not like…not like a burning around my tongue and mouth. Not a flavor like that.” She huffed and shook her head. “It’s so hard to explain. I couldn’t to Mom either.”

“Your mother knows about the visions.”

“I had one in front of her, and was too shaken after to make up a story that wouldn’t worry her more.”

“Your father hasn’t witnessed these episodes, though.”

“No. He’s been traveling a lot. I haven’t seen him much in the last few months, since this started.”

Freda’s mother and father weren’t in a romantic relationship anymore. Some human and dragon shifter relationships lasted. Some did not. But once there were children involved, the dragon and human remained linked. Even if their offspring were human, dragons tended toward…protectiveness. More so if the offspring was a dragon, because that dragon would enter their world eventually. But Thadeus loved his daughter so had remained in her life.

As far as Vincent knew, Thadeus and Gina still got along well enough for ex-lovers. But he wasn’t privy to those kinds of details about their private life. For all he knew, they could hate each other and they’d hidden that hate from their daughter. If they had, they’d done a good job. Better than Vincent thought he might have been able to.

“Why don’t you want to tell him there’s a problem?” Vincent asked.

She sighed. “I just…don’t want him jumping to conclusions.”

“What conclusions?” He had some of his own, but not enough information still, so he wasn’t going to make those leaps yet.

“That I’m crazy,” she said with a huff. “That my brain has broken or something.”

“Is that what you’re worried about?”

“Sometimes,” she admitted. “I feel…out of control sometimes. Not like myself.”

“How?”

“Angry,” she said. “I’m not an angry person, but there’s this rage that wells up sometimes. Makes me want to scream. And other urges that aren’t…normal. For me. Like I want to jump off buildings. That’s scary as fuck, Uncle Vincent. And then there’s the fire. That fire tastes sooo good. Who likes the taste of fire?”

“I do,” he said offhandedly. Then froze when Freda froze. Realizing she’d already made the logic leaps he was trying not to. “What are you really afraid of, Freda? You can tell me.”

She blinked hard a few times, sucked in a breath so deeply it narrowed her nostrils, then nodded and said, fast and quietly so only he could hear. “I’m afraid I’m actually not human. I’m afraid I’m a dragon shifter.”

***

The sounds in the café didn’t change. Not even a little. No momentary silence. No thunder striking the ground outside suddenly leaving everything still and quiet in its wake. The surrounding human—and not entirely human—people in the café continued going about their business, drinking their coffees and teas and eating their cookies and reading their books. They hadn’t noticed the world had just stopped spinning on its axis. They didn’t even acknowledge that time had stopped.

Vincent stared at his niece in that ordinary noise, in that very human establishment, surrounded by humans who might notice he was not a normal one of them at any minute. His brain was working so fast, he could barely follow the thoughts. But the rest of him was so still, he was certain he was giving himself away. He couldn’t help that, though. He felt almost like he’d dropped into a defensive hibernation. His body so still, it blended in with the room around him.

When real dragons went to sleep, especially the old ones, and slept for a long time, they blended into their environment as a camouflage that kept them safe during their slumber. Dragon shifters did something similar if they wanted to sleep for any length of time. But the males didn’t normally go into deep millennia-long sleeps. They didn’t live long enough for that kind of hibernation. They still took very long naps, sometimes, though. Naps that could last a decade or more. And those naps brought on the kind of stillness Vincent felt in his body just then.

Except this wasn’t a stillness of sleep. This was a stillness of shock.

He didn’t know how to respond to Freda’s revelation. To her worry and the panic coming over her expression as she watched him. He wanted to reassure her that she was fine, and he was fine, and everything was okay, and probably she wasn’t a dragon shifter because she was female and that would be impossibly rare.

But it wasn’t impossible. Just improbable.

They both knew the difference in those two things.

“It could still be something else,” he said quietly.

“Uncle Vincent, you need to blink or something. People are going to notice you soon.”

He flicked a glance to the woman drinking Earl Gray. She was watching him. Very carefully. No expression of fear on her face. Just a very careful consideration. The cat by the register was also watching him closely now, too. It was sitting up on the stool, licking a paw, but its gaze was on Vincent.

“I’m fine,” Vincent said, but his voice sounded a little too deep and gravely. The sound of his voice when he was preparing to shift into his dragon form. So. He wasn’t fine. But he needed to be for Freda.

He focused on deep breathing and stared at a whorl in the wood on the table in front of him, studied the curves and swirls and the very intricate details of the texture. Filled his brain with that mundane curiosity, the deep study of something both complex and harmless. Until the patterns finally settled his mind and allowed him control of his emotions again.

When he looked up at Freda, she was studying him through narrowed eyes but she didn’t look scared anymore.

“Better now?” she said.

“Better. Thank you for your patience.”

“Look at you remembering all the please and thank yous today.”

He gave her a sardonic look and that broke some of the anxiety tightening the skin around her eyes because she smiled.

“I’m being ridiculous, aren’t I?” she asked. “A female dragon shifter… There are what? Ten, twelve of them? What would be the odds, right? It has to be something else. That’s why Mom wanted me to talk to you. She figured you’d have a reasonable explanation and talk me out of this silliness.”

Freda’s look of hope that he would do just that left him on the edge of shutting down again. He forced the impulse away. His niece needed him. Even if he couldn’t offer comforting platitudes.

“What else makes you think you’re a shifter?” he asked quietly.

“Well, I haven’t shifted, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“No. You wouldn’t have yet.” Female dragon shifters lived significantly longer than the males, and so their development ran a different timeline. Born into a human form, they didn’t make their first shift until they were at least thirty human years. Often older.

If they were very lucky, they had another ten, maybe even fifteen years before they had to worry about Freda shifting.

“I’ve…pictured it, though,” she said, less defensively this time. “Well, more like the visions. When the fire consumes me, I…change.”

“Does it pain you, this change?” The first few shifts could be awkward and scary when so much time was spent in one form. They didn’t hurt, for the males, and happened when males were younger. But the lore said a female dragon’s very first shift could be more difficult.

“Not in the visions,” she said. “It feels…powerful.”

“And right.”

She sighed. “And right.”

“Do you see the dragon from outside, or do you look out through dragon eyes?” A fair distinction between a vision of her future self and a dream she might be having because she was associated with so many dragons. He knew it wasn’t the latter. It just wasn’t something that happened among the younglings who weren’t shifters, despite their association with dragons. But it was best to cover all bases.

“Inside,” she said, starting to sound resigned. “My vision is different then. I can see better. But also a little worse because things look strange.”

“You can probably see in different wavelengths as a dragon to what you’re used to as a human. Most dragons can.”

“Not all?”

“Depends on the dragon. Believe it or not, some have quite bad eyesight, just like humans.”

“I’ve never seen a dragon wearing glasses.” She chuckled at the image.

“Maybe a good field of study for some eager ophthalmologist.”

“You think there’d be a future in that sort of work?”

He shrugged. She was obviously trying to stall. That he was doing the same thing surprised him. But she did seem a touch less distressed now, so he pressed on. “Do you see heat patterns?”

“Mostly I see the fire.” She picked at a whorl on the table again. “Not all dragons have fire.”

“No. Some have mist. Some have cold flames—they’re rare.”

“So are female dragon shifters.”

“They are. But they exist.”

“I am one, aren’t I?”

She looked up from under her lashes at him and the expression broke his heart. There were unshed tears in her eyes, clinging to her lashes, which made him ache to take away the truth. He’d prefer to tell her a lie that would make her feel better. But lies had never come easily to him and she’d see through it anyway.

And there was no point in avoiding the truth. It would only come back on them if they tried.

He nodded, a faint gesture but it was enough.

She sniffed in a deep breath, one that wobbled.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured quietly, “that this is so distressing for you.”

“I’ve read the lore. You told me about the one time you met a female dragon.”

She’d coerced the story out of him when she was younger and eager to learn everything all at once. He’d been unable to deny her the knowledge because that was so important to him too.

“They’re terrifying and tend to be vicious and immoral.” She stated this as if it were the absolute truth. Which, it mostly was.

“Morals are…relative.”

She waved a vague hand at that. “Fine. We won’t worry about moral or immoral. We’ll just say they tend to kill a lot. How’s that? They slaughter at will with no one who can truly stop them.”

“A simplification but not entirely inaccurate.”

She snorted. “I don’t want to be that, Uncle Vincent. I don’t want to be a murder machine who terrifies everyone.”

“You don’t…have to be.” It seemed to be the nature of female dragon shifters, the few that were alive. But did it have to be? He tilted his head to consider that. “Perhaps they become vicious because they have to. Because there are so few of them. To defend themselves they’ve needed to be overpowering. There are significantly more males around.”

“The females are usually a lot bigger than you all, though, aren’t they?”

He nodded. “But ants can still bring down a buffalo.”

She shrugged. “I suppose.”

“And I imagine with their longer lives they’ve experienced more. Perhaps that just leaves them…grouchy?”

She laughed outright then. “You think they become killing machines because the world has gotten on their every last nerve and they have no more fucks to give?”

“It’s possible.”

“That is a motivation I could relate to.”

He smiled, but the lightness didn’t last. “I’m no expert, Freda. I can’t tell you what kind of dragon shifter you will be. But I can say, we all have a choice. You don’t have to be anything you don’t want to be.”

“Except for a dragon shifter. Which I don’t want to be.”

“The bodies and forms we’re given are hard to change, yes. Sometimes impossible. Sometimes there are solutions. Unfortunately, there’s no solution to this. It is what it is. You’ll need to learn to shift and handle that other form.”

“Couldn’t I just…not? Not shift, not go dragon. Kind of…ignore that part of my nature.”

“No. You can minimize how often you shift if you want, once you have control of the process. But resisting the first shifts… That causes a lot of unnecessary pain. And it would torment you and your brain until you gave in.”

Her shoulders dropped. “Was afraid of that. What I’m going through…it’ll get worse?”

He nodded. “Now that you’ve received the message of the visions, so to speak, that part should be easier. But I can work with you on spotting them when they are about to start so you can ensure you’re safe.”

“College is out of the question, though, isn’t it?”

“No. Of course not. You have years still before the first shift. A lot of time to learn your nature, and learn anything else you’d like to learn, too. In fact, this will probably be the best time for you to participate in human life because you are still—outside of some visions—essentially a human. After… Well, once you’ve got control of your nature and change only at will, you can live within human society just fine. If you choose to.”

“I would choose to,” she said emphatically. “I love you and I understand your need for privacy and I even like some of my own occasionally, but I also like my friends and family and living among others.”

“Of course. I’m…unique. Even for a dragon.”

“But in a good way,” she said, so seriously he smiled to show he understood her meaning. It was a natural smile so she didn’t wince.

“You will have options,” he said. “This doesn’t have to…ruin anything. It is just a new thing that you’ll have to learn how to incorporate and deal with.”

She nodded, falling silent for a long moment, before finally saying, “I don’t want you to start avoiding me. I don’t want you to be afraid of me.”

He blinked and leaned back from the table. “Why would you worry about me? This is your life.”

“Because you’re one of the few people in the world who really understands me, and it would break me to lose that. None of my other family gets me completely. You do. And if you started to fear me, I’m not sure I’d take that very well.”

“Then I won’t do it.” He shrugged. “I will avoid being afraid of you.”

“That’s not… That’s not how that tends to work.”

“It is with me.”

Freda stared at him for a long moment again, her mouth half open. During her silence it occurred to Vincent that he might have said something that bothered her. He went back over the conversation, trying to pinpoint what he’d said, but couldn’t figure it out.

Finally, he just had to ask, “Have I offended you?”

“No. No.” She chuckled. “I just… How can you not be afraid? How can you promise not to be when I’ve heard the story of your first meeting with a female dragon?”

“She wasn’t you. You’re my niece. She was a stranger and an angry, vindictive one at that.”

He probably shouldn’t have told Freda the story, but when he had, he’d intended it to be a cautionary tale so that she avoided accidentally getting mixed up in a female dragon’s schemes should one decide to try manipulating her. All of the human relatives of dragon shifters were potential targets of enemies if the region’s dragon king wasn’t powerful enough to fend off those kinds of games. Freda lived in the territory of a strong dragon king, which made things less worrisome for Vincent. He knew she was relatively safe here. But there were no absolutes in life. So he’d told her of that first meeting just to ensure she’d understand the danger of female dragons.

The dragon—one of the oldest, Ophelia—had risen from a sleep only a few months earlier. This was a long time ago, when he’d been still considered a youngling by his people even though he’d reached adulthood. Ophelia had deemed her territory insufficient and was pushing to expand her range for hunting. But what she’d decided to hunt were the humans who’d encroached into her territory while she’d been sleeping.

The dragon shifters weren’t “public” to humans yet, not like they were now. That wouldn’t happen for another two centuries. So all the humans saw was a dragon attacking human cities.

The local dragon king had pushed back, tried to negotiate. Ophelia’s recklessness endangered them all. Dragons were bigger and stronger and lived longer than humans. Definitely a force to be reckoned with in the wider world. But they were also fewer in numbers than humans. Drawing human wrath and ire had always resulted in too many deaths on both sides. Vincent’s first dragon king hadn’t wanted to go down that road again.

But Ophelia hadn’t wanted to negotiate. She’d wanted to kill and eat. She killed the king during one negotiation. And killed two of his sons when they tried to avenge their father. There was talk of just giving up their territory and moving. But that left three large human cities to Ophelia’s mercies. It also meant the rest of their cohort would need to scatter and try and find sanctuary with other kings. In the end, many of their cohort did just that—they had younglings to protect and Ophelia had threatened the children. A few dragons remained and stood their ground, though. Vincent and his brothers were some of those. As well as the dragon who would become their new king.

The fight had been bloody and hard and most of the dragons had been wounded, more of them killed. Vincent had nearly lost one of his brothers in those battles. He’d been wounded himself severely enough he couldn’t fly for a year. But eventually, they brought Ophelia to a place where they could negotiate a truce.

The new king took over their previous territory, and Ophelia’s range would extend right to that edge without overlap. She agreed to stop killing humans—at least in dragon form—and that was the last Vincent had heard of her. At least in person. There were rumors of her movements sometimes. She lived a life of luxury somewhere in southern Europe, maybe northern Africa. No one knew where she kept her hoards for certain. She’d been quiet since.

But she was still out there. And not sleeping.

Now that he knew—or suspected—what he did about his own niece, it was hard to imagine her being that kind of dragon. But he had no idea what kind of people the females had been before their first shift. Did that matter? Were the females made so angry after the shift, or was it part of their aging process? Or had they always been that way?

He realized, short of asking a female dragon—which would be a suicide mission—he couldn’t know. And that sparked his curiosity.

The need to research the situation nearly drove him from his seat without comment. Only Freda’s worried face kept him in place. Right. They needed to settle things first. Then research.

“I have a plan,” he said, “if you’re willing to try it.”

“Anything,” she said, shaking her head hard. “I don’t want to hurt my parents by accident. Or you. Or…anyone for that matter.”

“That’s a good start,” he said quietly. “You have many years before the first shift. Time for us to learn what this means and research the other females.” If there were records that went back to before their shifts. There might not be, given the age of some of them, but it was worth a try. “Time to discuss—”

“No!” Her outburst drew a look from the woman drinking Earl Gray and from the man who’d been typing furiously on a laptop. The man turned back to his laptop immediately. The Earl Gray woman slowly went back to her book when Freda whispered an apology to her. In a quieter tone, Freda said, “I don’t want the king or any of the others to know. They might…” She swallowed. “Well, I’m worried about their response.”

That was a fair enough worry. He hadn’t considered that. But she was right. The king and the others might try to avert the danger of a new female dragon by killing her before her first shift. That was something Vincent couldn’t allow.

“You’re right. We’ll keep our research secret. For the next month, I can teach you how to control the visions so you’re safe. After that, I will build a home beside mine for you. And I’ll study everything I can about female dragon shifters. When the time comes, you can come stay with me—so you won’t endanger anyone else—and we’ll work through your first few shifts safely away from others. I think, given the type of person you are, I think you could be a…” He wasn’t sure how to say this without it sounding offensive. So he defaulted to blunt and hoped Freda would understand. “I think you don’t have to be a raging, killing, death machine as a dragon.”

She winced and laughed at once. “Thanks?”

“I think it might be possible to keep who you are on the other side of your shift,” he said, trying again. “Who you are is intelligent and understanding and patient. You don’t have to be…like the others. If you don’t want to be.”

“I don’t want to terrify my family or kill anyone,” she said quietly. “I don’t want people to be afraid of me.”

“Then we’ll ensure you’re who you want to be on the other side of the shifts.”

“You make it sound so easy.” She sighed, didn’t look convinced.

“You have something the other females didn’t have,” he said.

“What?”

“Me. An uncle who will ensure you have all the knowledge you need so you can control the type of dragon you become. Then it will be your choice. Not out of your control.” And that was the important part for now, that she know she could have control over what happened to her in the future.

“You’ll build me a house next to yours?” she asked, her mouth ticking up.

“Someplace you can have privacy, but is close enough for us to work together and ensure you make the shifts safely.”

“You aren’t worried I’ll kill you?”

“No.”

“You mean that, don’t you?”

“Of course. You’re Freda.”

She huffed out a sound. He thought it was supposed to be a laugh but it was less believable than his forced laughter. “I don’t know what the future holds,” she said quietly. “But I knew I could come to you for help. Thank you.”

“You can always come to me,” he assured. “For me, family is important. And you’re my family.” He shrugged. “My favorite family actually.”

A real laugh this time. “Okay. Okay. We have time, right? Time to research. Time to figure it out.”

“More than enough when we put our considerable brains together.” He hadn’t always understood that phrase and found it weird. But in that moment, the figure of speech felt exactly right.

“Thank you,” she said again, quietly, and stretched her hand across the table, palm facing up.

He glanced at her small hand for a moment, then settled his much larger one around it, giving her a small squeeze before releasing her. “I promise to help you with all of this,” he said.

“And I promise not to kill you.”

The blunt statement startled a laugh from him. Not one of his forced ones, a genuine laugh, rusty as it was. Freda grinned.

“You’re going to be okay,” he promised again.

He meant every word. He’d do anything for Freda. Including defying the odds so she could be the type of dragon shifter she wanted to be.

And he officially had a brand new subject of interest to research.

That was going to be fun.

***

Thanks for reading A DRAGON AT THE CAFE. I hope you enjoyed it. If you’d like your own personal eBook copy of this story, you can find it for sale here. You can also peruse the previous Café stories that are individually available for sale here. 

While none of the characters in this story are actually in any of my other series, this story IS set in the Dragon Thief universe and there are easter eggs! If you haven't checked out the Dragon Thief series yet, and you liked this story, consider giving the series a try. Book 10, THE GOLDEN CHALICE JOB, is out on September 17th here at KatSimonsBooks!

You can read the books as standalones but there is a continuing through story and a developing romance between the main characters, Myra and Christopher, so I suggest you start with book one, DRAGON THIEF. Or get the entire first season (the first six stories), in a single volume, THE DRAGON THIEF SERIES, SEASON ONE.

 

Thanks again for visiting the cafe! I hope you enjoyed this story. Don’t forget to check back on October 1st for the next Free story from The Café!

A DRAGON AT THE CAFE Copyright © 2025 Kat Simons

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This story is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously, and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.