I understand that I overslept. I open my eyes in horror: why no one has woken me up? I haven't milked our three goats Blackberry, Snowball, and Sharphorn! And hens, oh, Mokosh, Zabava is always forgetting to feed them in time, and I haven't finished knitting the socks for my brother, and a stupid shirt for Danko... Danko... wait a minute...

I see not my and Zabava's cozy room that is on the second floor that used to be a narrow attic, but a huge grey tail I'm hugging. My stomach growls mercilessly. I grab my tummy trying to hush the sound not to wake up the beast. I felt asleep short after she flew away to get us some food. My head just touched the softest material, the fluffiest pillow, and the most comfortable mattress (and no feathers sticking out of the pillow right into your unsuspecting cheek, no straws needling your buns once in a while).

"Is another dragon in my bed? I'm sure I went to bed with a beautiful white-haired damsel, but woke up to some hossstile growls." The beast is up, and now she is looking at me with her piercing large irises and a vertical pupils, like a cat.

"It's not like that!" I say in indignation, "and what do you mean by white hair?" I've always had that nice golden colour of my hair. My parents and older fellow villagers sometimes call me 'wheat ears', because I have long braids resembling ripe wheat.

The dragon makes out her eyes, rubbing her neck with her dragon finger crowned with a sharp claw, "Nothing... nothing. All good!"

There's something suspicious about her and the way she is trying not to look at me like a mischievous child.

I climb over her tail (she, on purpose, avoids transformation lulling on our huge bed) and stand in front of the mirror.

Oh no, oh no-no-no-nooo...

"What have you done to me?" I gasp in bewilderment. "My beautiful golden hair, oh my hair! Mama will kill me! If grandma knows, she'll curse me, and I'll never have a healthy child, and my husband will be taken to war with..."

Dragon's genuine laughter messes with my righteous tales of woe.

"Why are you laughing at me, you, vile lizard!" I start slapping her tail, but it makes her laugh even more. It's pointless, I'm just lifting her mood, while I'm already red in cheeks and exhausted. Plopping on her tail like a fat rich man, I silenced.

"What about fried chicken, cheese, and fruits? My peasant beast is angry when hungry."

"Look at me! I'm like an old woman with grey hair! I'm, I'm like a witch with loose hair and your see-through frock. Will you turn into a woman, for Mokosh sake!" I can't understand exactly what she is thinking about when she's in her dragon form.

"Don't you know about it?" the dragon says without a trace of irritation; she doesn't seem to be bothered by my behaviour. All my attempts to get on her nerves are in vain.

With all my modesty in manners, I sit on the bedsheets in the corner of the bed, a bit closer to the solid door, "Noo," I bleat, still not sure if she can eat me or not.

"You have very random information about dragons."

"Regal dragons, only rulers and witches can befriend, majestic creatures of blaze, breeze, and bewitching," I answer in a way the stories and legends are told by older people, "...they can kidnap and marry virgin damsels or young beautiful shepherds they happen to like and bring them to dragons' underworld kingdoms."

"What nonsense!" She emits fumes of warm steam from her nostrils. "We never leave in some dirty underground. Do I look like a bloody gnome or a stinky troll?" She thunders making me realize how scary she is, and what a miserable position do I actually have. If not me saving her life, she could just tear my limbs off or smash my head with her tail like an egg.

"But they say..." I lower my voice, "I'm saying what I know about dragons."