The two returned home unscathed and disturbed. Will remained stubbornly silent on the topic.

He opened the door and stepped aside to let Urial in. Only to see Aimuzjon on the floor covered in coal dust and groaning.

“Aimuzjon! Are you okey! Did you eat- All the coal!” Will yelled a second after realizing what she had done.

“No one loves me. I’m fat. I will die alone” She cried. No tears being a dragon and all, but the emotion was clear. Crumbs of coal sprinkled from the corner of her mouth onto her destended belly.

Will spread his hands, extended the palms upwards and turned to Urial, “What do I do!”

Urial strode forward, “ohh honey, come on, it’s okey!” she reached out towards the dragon, “Hey! Get me some rags. We gotta clean her up.”

After retrieving rags and clean water. Uriral gently wiped the melancholic dragons face. The dragon turned avoiding Urial’s kind eyes. Before the sad little dragon slid into the firebox to sulk.

“Poor girl. I’ll try talking to her tomorrow” Urial instructed, “Don’t ignore her? But don’t like try to talk about it, don’t push her!”

“Well that’s all I’ve been doing.” William sighed, “I’ll talk to her tomorrow.”

“Its just so sad that with all the firebox skinks in the city, and all of them are pigs.”

Will hadn’t heard that name for Aimuzojon’s species before, “well ya she wants to date a fellow skink.”

“no I don’t” Will turned and looked at the reverberating metal, “I wouldn’t mind dating any dragon my size.”

A smile split on Will’s face, “well there you go, we can try again. I’ve been looking only for skinks.” he grimaced slightly, it had been a lot of work.

Urial laughed, “Well you can try next door. Sapo!” she paused, “ah Sapo’s a bit of a grump but that’s his problem.”

“Wait you have a dragon?” Will asked.

“You saw him earlier! Little white guy?” Sapo held up her hands, about as wide as her slender shoulders.

“Oh I thought he was a statue!”

She rolled her eyes, “Ya he does that. Stairs at the swirling water for hours. Wierdo.”

A tiny dragon nose popped out. A small tongue tasted the air. “Why can’t I smell him?”

“I’m a laundress. All you can smell is soap.”

The hatch banged open, and Aimu strode and looked at Urial, “next door? Hmm” she sounded thoughtful as she slithered out of the furnace, “William I need to be clean.”

It took a bit longer to clean the black dust off the dragon. She had to fluff her scales several times to dislodge the dirt, coal and flour. She ran her claws along her back and belly removing scales that weren’t good. William could not tell the difference, but according to her if a scale could be pulled out it was ‘bad’. Will collected them. He had no plan but he added them to the box.

“William I need to borrow your whetstone?”

William handed her the misshapen broken whetstone. She ran it over her claws smoothing and dulling them. They were still razor sharp. She even smoothed her teeth on it.

“How do I look” the dragon curled her tail over her back, displaying her scales in a way William never seen before.

Sapo elbowed William, though the warning was unnecessary, “You look fabulous.” he declared.

She waddled out. Her belly dragging a bit on the ground from all the coal.

“Hey be nice! Sapo’s my friend!” Urial called, as the two stood together, awkwardly in the empty bakery. “They’ll probably get along. Sapo loves to clean stuff. Wierdo.” Urial turned to look at the awkward Will.

“What to do. What to do?” William asked. As if answering Urial’s stomach growled, “Oh lets get some food.”

“I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“I am almost out of money… I kinda…” She blushed again avoiding his eyes.

Will put two and two together, “Oh you need my money, to buy food. Do you just want me to pay you in bread?”

“Yes!” her stomach growled again and she sat down, visibly weak.

William got to work, he started by punching the top of Gyst. Before retrieving a small portion from the living yeast starter. He returned some fresh flour to the jar.

Moving to a countertop, he used his hands to feel out the quantity of flour. Simultaneously mixing the starter into a bowl of water. He floured all surfaces and tipped the bowl onto a mound of flour in the center. He slowly worked the slurry into the flour folding it into a larger and larger bolus of dough.

“What?” William asked. Responding to the intense stare from the woman.

“I have never seen someone make bread.”

“It’s not going to be very good.” William sprinkled some flour on the base of the oven and pushed charcoal in. “Also this is on the house...” He would normally use coal when he was in a hurry, but he was fresh out. “We need to wait a bit.”

“Better check on Sapo. Worried Aimuzjon might eat him, he can be a bit of a jerk at first.” Urial pondered.

“Yaa the last suitor she didn’t like got knocked out.” Will added remembering the first suitor.

The two walked out of the bakery. William locked his door, and the two entered a suspiciously dragon-less shop.

“Hello? Sapo are you here?” Urial asked, “Shit did she eat him?”

“Aimu! Where are you!”