Naan

Chapter 8: Dragon Trade

Things were going pretty well for Gregory and Rich. They weren’t quite sure what human goods the dragons would appreciate so Rich brought a variety for the first few months. Anything from furniture (though he had no idea what dragons would do with a human sized chair) to soap was brought in to display and sell samples. Anything that sold out, Rich brought in larger quantities. The dragons were positively amused by all the human wares but they went crazy over the food. So food became the major import and, of course, jewels were the major export for the dragons. They each had heaps of jewels and had no real need for them so they were easy enough to part with when properly motivated by the delicious scents and delectable treats that Rich provided.

After establishing a regular delivery schedule Rich and Gregory had minimal contact. This was fine, except Gregory would occasionally see Rich lingering with the delivered goods, even after he had received his payment. Gregory thought he was just trying to get a feel for what the dragons enjoyed most and therefore did nothing to discourage the behavior. Rich, however, was not so innocent in his intentions.

After about six months of trade, Rich told Gregory that the human market had been flooded with the dragon gems and now the value had decreased. This meant the dragons had to pay more jewels and gems for the same amount of food. Gregory was displeased by this progression but it was economically sound so he allowed the inflation.

Three months later, after an especially scarce delivery, Gregory again found Rich lingering amongst the goods. This time he did his best to appear intimidating and pantomimed Rich leaving the dragon cave immediately. Rich took the hint and scampered off but Gregory was becoming a little suspicious of his human partner. Gregory decided he would be present at all future deliveries and stay until Rich left. This seemed to solve the problem until a few months later.

Gregory had seen Rich leave and went to mingle amongst the dragons purchasing goods. Hours later, Gregory saw movement out of the corner of his eye, near the back of the main cave toward the tunnels that led to personal dragon caves (their rooms.) Gregory was alarmed but did not wish to raise the alarm of the other dragons so he quietly excused himself and followed Rich out of the cave. He confronted him in the forest with much huffing and puffing of smoke (Gregory thought he was pretty impressive with his intimidation tactics.) But Rich, who was born with too much confidence and not enough fear, just smiled and said he had gotten turned around and would be on his way.

Gregory was officially concerned. He determined to follow Rich, in human form, to the village to see what he was about. What Gregory discovered was very disturbing indeed. He saw that the market was not, in fact, flooded as Rich had claimed. Actually there were hardly any dragon goods to be found. He also saw that the humans rarely interacted with Rich and when they did, they called him “Dick.”

Confused and concerned, Gregory set himself up to observe Rich for an extended period of time. He found that humans called him “Dick” even to his face as some sort of alternative nickname that made no sense to Gregory. He also saw that instead of selling the dragons’ gems and jewels as per his contract, Rich was trading them directly for the food he was bringing to the dragons. This wouldn’t really be a problem but he was charging the humans a ridiculous amount of food and pocketing all the remaining jewels! He was playing both sides and lining his pockets aggressively in the meantime. Even worse, the few items he did see in the markets for sale, were golden trinkets that had not been included in the deliveries. Gregory was stealing from the dragons! “Well, I guess that’s how he got his human nickname,” Gregory thought.

What to do, what to do. Gregory was so ashamed he had vouched for this human and he was already breaking their contract after barely a year of trading. Something must be done to stop Dick, for that was what Gregory thought of him as now. But Gregory didn’t want to involve the dragon council for it would mean admitting that interacting with the humans was a bad idea and abandoning his experiment. He also couldn't let Dick continue as he was stealing from the dragons and cheating the humans!

Gregory decided to take a more hands on observation post. He would approach Dick in human form as a “friend of the dragons” and tell him the dragons had concerns and would like to be more involved in the human side of the business. He would put a stop to Dick’s shenanigans and keep the dragon council’s faith in his experiment all by himself. And he would eat some delicious naan while he was at it! The shop next to Dick’s home sold some amazing Indian food that almost made up for having to live amongst the humans. Gregory could not get enough of. This was the naan that they made.