Dragon Holiday 2017

[Nikolae]

Nikolae Dragomir sometimes forgot about holidays as his nights continued in the immortal life he had fallen into. Sometimes, nights just seemed to be a repeat of their nights before them and so it was easy to lose track of time. It wasn't as though he had a regular job - the work he did do was sketchy and under the proverbial radar and certainly was not what one would consider a nine to fiver. And so it came as no surprise when the holiday season seemed to sneak up on him. What would he gift his beloved first borne with this year? The year prior he had gifted some dragons an assortment of random items, but this year he hadn't thought very hard before the months had changed around him. And Enzo was still missing in action, which made celebrating a somewhat dour prospect at best. No one could party like his Enzo could party.

Nik had sketched out an idea on a piece of paper - the back of a flyer he had acquired from a mortal's pocket earlier in the evening. Why had he stolen it? It looked peculiar, and much like some animals pilfered shiny objects Nik also stole things that piqued his interest. A shot of brilliance had shot through him as he jotted down his ideas and he grinned; what better gift than the classics after all? And Raeth very much enjoyed classics.

The first day had been the easiest. Although he couldn't find a partridge and who really knew what a so-called pear tree was anyways, he had made do easily enough by having a pigeon on a cactus delivered to the second eldest Dragon. As the days wore on Nik had found alternately that he had to become more creative and that he also forgot what he was doing entirely.

Six days in. A wide variety of birds and plants had been delivered over the ensuing week. He had quickly run out of turtles for purchase in shops or found in sewers and today had instead had a cardboard cutout of a teenaged mutant ninja turtle delivered instead. Three French hens had at first been live chickens, then frozen chicken breast, and then in a stroke of pure genius were French horns, and today he forgot the common thread and simply sent three French men from the eastern side of Canada. Four calling birds called for more birds and he could no longer lure the pigeons near to himself so he had settled for nailing a toy phone and a pair of fake feather wings to the back of a stuffed animal. He had, yesterday, delivered five golden rings. Today he instead sent five gold colored hula hoops. He wasn't sure if the geese would lay but he was sure they were all shitting up a storm when he instructed the catcher to deliver them as well.

A weaker man might have admitted that he had perhaps gotten in over his head with this entire endeavor, but Nikolae was certain he had it all under control. He even had the next day's deliveries ready to go; some in boxes and others in cages, and others with standing orders from the various vendors and catchers.

There were no swans in town aside from the few at the zoo and after a quick attempt he had given up the hope of freeing them from their cage. Instead, there were seven goldfish swimming in a glass bowl. Six more geese, the huge Canadian variety, were to be rounded up. Although he had been warned the little jerks pecked and bit like crazy not to mention squawked loudly, he was certain Raeth would enjoy the gift. Five golden dusted donuts. Four robotic birds set to squawk and chatter at different times of the day and night. Three more Frenchmen, apparently the friends of the first three who had shown up at his door demanding to know what had become of their associates. Two rabbits - he reasoned a hare had beaten the tortoise at the race. And a plastic pink flamingo stuck in a bush.

Nik surveyed the chaos left in the wake of his present giving with pride. It was a very merry Dragon Christmas. So far.