Arriving home after the long walk, Shelly entered her house and set her bag on the table. The tiny dragon jumped from her shoulder and glided the few feet to the table.
He looked around. Everything looked so big. Even Shelly, who had been shorter than him, now looked large enough to strangle him with one hand. Then he realized that she could easily do just that.
"You look terrified!" Shelly said.
"I AM!" replied the diminutive dragon. "I'm small! So horribly small."
"Don't worry so much. What's the worst that could happen?"
"I'd rather not list the things I think could go wrong," the dragon said.
"Don't worry about it. I'll keep you safe. I've never lost a pet to neglect."
"What about that class hamster?" the dragon asked, not any less scared.
"Okay, almost never..." she said. "But I wouldn't do that to you."
"Fine. I'm hungry," he said. "And no, I don't want a mouse."
"Yes, you do. Besides, people food is for people only! That's what they told me after I killed that hamster," Shelly said. "You don't want to die, do you?"
"No, but -"
"Then eat what I tell you!" she said.
Shelly started setting up the cage for the mice on the table. The mice didn't look very happy to be in a cage so close to the dragon. But the dragon suspected they never looked very happy. He wasn't very happy to see them either.
"I'm not a simple pet!" the very small dragon said. "I'm still a person! Don't act like this. This is serious!"
"Oh, you worry too much," Shelly said. "Everything will be just fine."
The dragon gave up and decided to just play along. He was sure she'd snap out of it soon ... at least he hoped so. She was usually the smarter of the two, but she'd been acting dumb ever since he got changed.