Friday Five – Dragon Slayer

It’s Friday, so it must be time for The Friday Five writing prompt! Five different words each week to get the creative juices flowing. To visit the other participants, click here.
This week’s words are: publish, loss, dragon, result, pest
Back to #SaveFred… Here is a link the last installment if you need it… Funny story, I started working on last week’s but simply ran out of time, so this week’s will have some of last week’s words included, lol…

Dragon Slayer

I grabbed some of the camping gear I had stowed in the back of the truck, and Joel and I sat on some blankets nearby. Yeah, the ground was firmer than my tush, but Joel didn’t seem to mind sitting on the hard dirt. Honestly, I’m not sure why he was sticking around to wait with me.
I tried to tamp down my fear for Fred. He was a rat, after all, and considered a pest by most people. I was terrified someone would kill him in one of the vast horrible ways pests are exterminated: snap traps, glue traps, anti-coagulant poison. I can’t begin to imagine how horrible those types of deaths would be for a creature used to nothing but love. A sense of loss grew inside as the minutes passed in silence.
“He’ll be fine.” Joel’s soft voice jolted me from my reverie. He slid his hand over mine, and they rested, clasped, on my thigh.
“Thank you.” The stress of the day finally took over and, as a result, tears welled in the corners of my eyes. I slapped at them with my free hand, annoyed. “I don’t know why you’re staying with me, but I appreciate it.”
He squeezed my hand. “Where else would I be but here, with this woman who is moving heaven and earth to save something she loves? Besides, I need to meet Fred. He sounds pretty amazing. Maybe I’ll include this story when I publish my next podcast.”
“What?” I sniffed and looked up at him. “Podcast?”
He grinned and my heart stuttered a bit. “George the Dragon Slayer at your service.”
Shock froze me in place. I wasn’t a big podcast follower, but even I’d heard of him. His podcast was enormously popular locally, and I admit I was a little star struck. “Wow. Fred would be famous.”
“We could change the lives of rats everywhere…we just need to find him.”