Many species learn to live in urban environments.
Everybodyâs seen the videos of the Deer in Japan, bowing, and using the shade of trees. They even use the crosswalks â same as geese, foxes, and coyotes.
Well, around here the pigeons are very large, a lot smarter, scaly and usually donât breathe fire unless you really wind them up.
I checked another few cars. I donât even know why I bother â this surveillance system, and the image recognition system handles most things⌠I think Iâm just here because people appreciate having an actual human being to make sure that nobody is messing with their nice cars. Or nasty banged up cars.
Iâm not judging: they pay me not to.
I came back and had another look at the Dragon. She was sleek and well fed (according to the app I pulled up, sheâs too large to be a juvenile, but with horns that short probably not male).
I was checking her ears for tags to see if sheâd come from one of the Dragon sanctuary parks, when a big Brown I opened and stared at me.
âEasy now,â I said trying to sound calm, âjust looking for tags.â I said to the giant flying carnivore.
She rolled a bit and on the other ear I could see the little plastic chip: AE172293F
Huh, that was a lot easier than I assumed. She went back to sleep and I ate lunch.
She came back the next day: I could hear the low rumble of snores. It was raining, and I checked on her when I did my rounds. This time the tag was easy to read.
I put it into the system: Double Wide C-15. Registration AE172293F, model âDragonâ, colour âredâ.
The next time she showed I filled up a plastic tub of water and used the dolly to park it next to her.
I got a call from my boss. âIs this a joke?â They asked.
I sent them a video of bay 15, level C, with a dragon perfectly parked.
âNo, I donât mess around on the job,â I said, not adding âthat you know aboutâ, âShe keeps coming back. I think sheâs hiding from the rain.â
The next day there were two more, folded up inside the lines, next to a Roadstream camper.
âDonât mess with them,â said my boss, âTheyâre protected.â
I habitually donât mess with anything that can eat me. I put their ear tags into the system. When I finished my rounds, they were gone but there was a small gold nugget.
Two days later they were back, and there were five small dragons, sitting exactly in the middle of the smaller parking spots. I looked at the rain, filled the water tub up and checked on the other cars. Then I called dragon control:
âHi, this is uh, Pallidas parking? Weâve got some of your dragons? I think? Two donât have ear tags. Yeah, hang onâŚâ
I read them the ear tags, colours and for good measure their favourite parking spots.
âYeah⌠they have their favourite spots.â The woman on the phone said. âThe juveniles are probably following the adults. Probably just trying to get out of the rain.â
There was another gold nugget. I put them in the lost and found.
The night shift left me a note asking about the debris on C-15 - I went to look. Moss, rocks, cardboard boxes, all tucked inside the lines.
I called my boss, they called the Dragon people, and they showed up to eyeball Big Red, who eyeballed back.
âAh hmm. So⌠thatâs nest building behaviour.â They said, and I called my boss, who called them, and Big Red made snarfly noises, so we went and hid in the break room about it.
My boss showed up and came and stared at Big Red themself.
âWe canât disturb them.â They said, gritting their teeth and looking like they kinda wanted to. âTheyâre⌠protected.â
there were four more adults, and seven more juveniles, all parked neatly.
I showed my boss the lost and found box with the gold in.
âWe shouldnât disturb them!â they said, âTheyâre protected!â
We put cones across the ramp to level C. I got another tub for water.
Did you know dragons have favourite people, like crows do?
The Dragon people tagged the juveniles, and brought in some more nesting material. They said that the same thing that people like in a car park, dragons like in a den.
I said âHuh.â And they said âYeah.â And I called my boss and asked him how we log eggs, and he said âlong term parking, for all I care, as long as they keep paying the parking fee.â
The Dragon people thought that was funny, and I think Big Red did too.
It makes doing the rounds much more interesting!
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