Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

Chapter 10: Dragon Regret 

Immediate betrayal. Jezebel ran home to Dick and told him everything she had learned. By the time Gregory came to the shop a few hours later, they had concocted a devious plan to hold this dangerous secret against him. You may be thinking, what’s the big deal with this secret? Well, there are two conclusions that humans would eventually reach if this knowledge was known. One, dragons are a much bigger threat than they previously assumed and should therefore be hunted down. This would cause accidental human deaths when mobs chased after innocents they thought were dragons. It would also cause a major hunting of dragons which would be inconvenient at the least and a hit to the dragons’ already low population at the most. Either outcome is less than desirable. 

The second conclusion that humans would eventually reach is that dragons are most vulnerable in their human form and therefore would be easier to hunt down and kill. They would probably go to all sorts of wild extremes trying to capture dragons and force them into their human form (which is impossible.) This would probably lead to war, which the dragons really try to avoid due to the unnecessary deaths that accompany war. 

Moral of the story, this is a big secret, Gregory messed up. He knew as soon as Dick laid out their blackmail terms that he needed help. He had to go to the council and admit his project had failed and the human he loved above all else had betrayed him. Immediately. Did she ever love him? He had to know. He marched back to Dick’s store and demanded an audience with the devious Jezebel. 

“Did you ever love me?” Gregory was not in a good place and this question came out much whinier than he intended. 

“No, Dick asked me to come here and seduce you to get you out of the way. You were much too observant for his liking.” Jezebel’s voice was cold and emotionless, as if everything she had described was nothing more than a business transaction. 

“And my secrets? Was that part of your goals as well?” Gregory’s voice wavered. He could hardly believe what was happening to him. 

“They were a happy accident. I never thought you would fall so hard, so fast. It’s almost touching, how much you wanted to share your life with me. Almost. But mostly just pathetic.” Jezebel decided she was done divulging her own secrets and walked away without a second glance. 

“Don’t try to sugarcoat it for me or anything.” Gregory mumbled to himself as he slid against the wall to the floor. He felt as though she had stabbed him through the heart with her callous disregard for his love and life. He couldn’t stall any longer, he slowly straightened, dragged himself off the floor and sludged to the door. It was time to tell the council how much he had failed. It was time to fix this mess. But first he needed some fortification in the form of food, or else he was likely to start crying in front of the council and he would never live that down. Crying over a human? No. Food first. Something delicious and chocolatey but not too heavy or overly sweet…. Chocolate zucchini bread. That’s the ticket. Here’s what he ate.