Pink's Arc

Chapter 1 of 2

Pink wanted to tame a beast of Juniper Forest, and she had picked the worst possible night to try. She came straight off the trapeze stage, still buzzing, still loud. The pink lights behind her flashed. She wanted to be the first person ever to win one of the forest's legendary creatures. She wanted to bring that story home to her seven-year-old, who waited at the kitchen table every time she left. But the forest smelled the tour on her. A rabbit bolted. A fox flattened its ears and slipped into the ferns. She talked at them fast, too fast, the way she talked in every fight before she knew a fight had started. "Come on, come on, I'm nice, I swear." Her voice cracked high. Every creature ran. Then a black shape dropped from the trees. It landed hard and folded its wings. Green eyes. Small teeth. A Night Fury, the last one alive as far as it knew. This was Toothless, a dragon most people met with a raised weapon, not a hand. He did not run. He stared. "Finally," Pink said, and lunged. Toothless growled. Blue fire glowed in his throat. Pink froze, palms up. "You're too loud," Toothless said. "Everything hears you coming." "I'm always loud. That's the whole—" "Stop." He said it flat. "You snap before you think. I know that. I've been hunted by it." The words landed harder than she wanted. She thought of her daughter flinching once when Pink slammed a cabinet, home an hour, still wired. She shut her mouth. It was harder than any note she had ever held. She sat down in the dirt. She stopped talking. She counted her own breath, slow, until the tour drained out of her hands. Minutes passed. The fire faded from his throat. Toothless took one step closer. Then another. He did not close the last of the distance. But he did not leave. "You can be quiet," he said. "You just don't like to." "No," Pink said, soft now. "I don't." "Then that's the work." He settled onto the ground, wings tucked, watching her. "Not the beast. You." Pink laughed, quiet and shaky. She had wanted to grab a creature and win. Instead a dragon had told her the truth her daughter never said out loud. The wild things didn't need taming. Her mouth did. Toothless rose and turned toward the trees. "Come back tomorrow. Quiet. I'll know if you lie." He was gone before she answered. Pink stayed in the dirt a long time. She had come to conquer the forest. She was leaving with homework, and a debt she hadn't planned to pay: learn to stay calm, or lose the one beast willing to look at her twice. Tomorrow she would try again. This time she would keep her mouth shut.