(Blog 31) A Bright Morning at the Studio
…Wing Tails Sticker Studio is inching toward opening, but Spyder, Calisto, and Lima are stuck in a delay for Opening Day and have decided to host a community meet-and-greet instead. They’ve got a space and enough sample stickers to wallpaper half of Scalesville, but they don’t have an official Opening Day because they’re still waiting on a permit. Spyder proposes contacting the Websters, a local group of dragons who post community announcements. The only caveat is he has a history with them that is a bit of a secret to Calisto and Lima. In not so much that his secret is a bad one to hide, it just means that getting the Webster’s support could mean having to face his past. Spyder reluctantly visits the Scalesville Community Council and comes face-to-face with Hecubum, an old acquaintance who remembers Spyder from when he and Pip were briefly celebrated for a heroic but tragic rescue.
Hecubum agrees to help, waiving the event fee and dropping a subtle jab at the power tripping, Perrie Hauteur, the dragon who stalled their permit in the first place. The encounter gives Spyder the boost he didn’t know he needed. After taking flight for the first time in a very long time, he unintentionally glides over the cave sight where it all took place. Nostalgia forces him to land with feet facing the cave where, as teenage dragons, the boys found Baby Belle, an event that changed their friendship and lives. The flood of emotion that followed overwhelmed him. Spyder realized just how much he’d buried over the years, but in that raw and broken moment, he begins to see that maybe all of it is pointing him towards more purpose and vision for the business…
(Continued from posts 10-13)
Early the next morning after his conversation with Lena from the night before and getting some time to make sense of his thoughts, Spyder was up with a skip in his step. He stopped by the bagel cafe’ on his way into Wing Tails to pick up breakfast for himself and the girls. He set everything up in the Talon’s Lounge with the lights still off, letting the smell of toasted bagels, fresh coffee, and ink from the print room soak in while he imagined the space alive with busy reptiles and, of course, chatty dragons.
Calisto and Lima walked in at the same time. Both girls saw Spyder at the same time and their faces reflected confusion and curiosity at whatever it was he was about to tell them.
Calisto chose to speak in a light hearted tone. “Spyder? You’ve done something different. Did you get a new monical and a bagel addictions? That’s an uncomfortable amount of carbs for one guy.”
Spyder could hardly contain his excitement, “Have a seat. I brought us all bagels and picked up your favorite coffees. I want us to have a chat.”
Lima, burst into tears, “You’re leaving the factory, aren’t you? Spyder we can’t do this without you and this place is the first place I’ve ever….”
Quickly interrupting her, “Wait, what? No, Lima. No. I talked to your mom last night and I told her I wasn’t leaving. Didn’t she tell you?”
Sniffling and feeling a little dramatic as she wiped her snout with the back of her hand, Lima says, “I didn’t get a chance to talk to her. I was already asleep by the time she got home from her date with Danz.”
“Oh yeah, Danz”. The recollection that Lena had mentioned Danz last night put a bad taste in his mouth. “Anyway, no I wanted to talk you both of you about my vision for this place, starting with the Talon’s Lounge. I want to change the name to Belle’s Nook..”
Lima tilted her head. “After Baby Belle?”
Spyder took a hard pause, “You know about her?”
“Yeah, the little baby dragon that you found in highschool when mom was a senior. She told me.” Lima responded sympathetically.
Still a little shocked, “She told you about that? Your mom talks about me?”
“Of course she does. She told me about how heroic you were and how you handled it after Belle died. She’s always said it must have been so hard. That’s why she checks in on you. Mom loves you, Spyder. You’ve looked out for us practically my whole life. You’re the closest thing I have to a dad.”
“Your mom loves me?” He repeated as he felt he might lose his composure.
“Obviously.” Lima said as she rolled her eyes, “You’re like one of her best friends.”
With the conversation veering way off track and Calisto uncharacteristically being the quiet one, she pipes in, “Can someone tell me what is happening. I’m so lost. A baby died, you found her, what? This all sounds like a soap opera.”
Spyder realigned the conversation and proceeded to tell Calisto and Lima the whole story about Belle, Pip, Hecubum, and his experience over the last few days from the Websters to landing back at the cave sight leading to his new found purpose for Wing Tails Sticker Studio.
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To be continued… New posts each Friday. Subscribe below to follow the dragons. Read the beginning of it all at Blog 1: New Adventure Awaits.
