Jessica Blue stretched as her beeping alarm annoyed her awake. 

"Five more minutes..." she growled as she hit the snooze button and covered her head with blankets. She had barely started to fall back to sleep when she heard a high pitched shriek and felt something with sharp claws pounce onto her chest. 

  "Gah! ALRIGHT! I’m up!" she did her best to look annoyed as she emerged from her blanket nest. It didn’t last long as she looked at the big green eyes of her eager pet, Taz, her scowl melted to smile.

   " Time for breakfast...Message heard loud and clear...and painfully." Jessie stumbled out of bed and ,yawning, headed to her kitchen, Taz’s claws clicking happily behind her.

" I suppose I should be grateful. If not for you I would be late for work WAY more often." Jessica sighed as she pulled open her cupboard, careful not to smack her arm on the opposing counter.

" So what will it be today, your impatientness?" Jessie flinched as Taz climbed up her leg and perched on her shoulder to look in the cupboard. 

"Ya know you really don’t have to climb up like that."  Taz ignored the statement as he tapped on a can of beef flavoured food. Jessie quickly fed Taz and went back to her room to get dressed for work.  A giggle bubbled up as she listened to the happy eating sounds while she pulled on semi clean jeans and a clean work shirt, " Honestly sweetie, for a little guy you eat like an elephant."  

Taz gave an indignant squawk and started his post breakfast grooming. Jessie quickly brushed her teeth and hair and made sure her messenger style bag had everything she needed for work, including a notebook, three pens and a pack of pencil crayons for field notes and sketches, before grabbing her keys and a breakfast bar.

" Are you staying home today or coming with me?" She asked to her still grooming pet.

Taz titled his head then took a running start before launching himself off the counter, using his small wings for lift, and landed on Jessie’s shoulders, claws digging in lightly as he steadied himself. 

"A simple yes would have been fine." Jessie laughed as she locked her apartment door behind them and stroked Taz’s long neck, " I swear all dragons are divas." 

Taz stopped grooming his blue-green gem like scales to chrip his reply.

   At a quick jog Jessie moved past people on her way to the subway, readying her transit pass. Despite her best efforts to ignore it Jessie caught a few looks of disgust directed at Taz,  like he was a cockroach or something. 

      ’Hard to believe two hundred years ago dragons were considered a miracle of science and a fancy pet.’ Jessie sighed and quickly boarded a subway car and found a seat so she could go over her notes for work. 

  Jessie’s offical job title was dragon removal technician, a fancy term for pest control. The other task that her and her fellow techs were charged with was to record any dragons that looked odd for their breed or like a completely new breed. It used to be once or twice a month Jessie would have a new or different dragon to report, but now it was two or more a day she was reporting. A few of her co-workers accused her of making stuff up since their reports had gone up but not by that much, but the clients and other techs that some times helped with a job had confirmed with the boss that Jessie was really finding this many new or changed breeds.

  ’ I guess the scientists made their little experiment to be adaptive.’ Jessie thought as she got up at her stop and began the brisk walk to work, whistling.  There were some parts of her job that sucked, applying first aid after every job, the fact it usually meant getting filthy, hot and sore in small tight spaces, but it was amazing to interact with the dragons, and her clients were  for the most part nice people. And since Gentle Dragons Control, or GDC, the company she worked for, specialized in dragon relocation rather than destruction, she got to see dragons off into a new home.

    As she approached the large Brownstone building that was the main HQ for GDC, Carter, a co-worker, practically leaped down the front porch’s steps and bounced down the walk away to meet Jessie.

  "Thank Christ you are here, Jess!" The lanky tech grabbed Jessie’s arm and practically pulled her up to the house.

"What’s a matter Carter? Did you piss off Mark again? Because I warned you last time that I wasn’t saving your ass again.."

" Fuck no that is the least of my problems. Some dipshit newbie brought a goddamn proto dragon into the building without having it properly contained."

   "Are you fucking kidding me? Where did he even find one of those?! What is his excuse other than having his head used as a drum set as a kid repeatedly."

"I believe it was ’it didn’t look dangerous’. Did I mention it is a goddamn Tank class?"

   Jessie swore a blue streak as she followed Carter, both at the newbie tech and at her reputation with being able to deal with difficult dragons. She didn’t even have to follow Carter once they were inside, just follow the shouts and roars.

   Turning the corner Jessie was greeted with the sight of her boss, Bill Crueger, a massive bear of a man chewing out a scruffy kid that looked like he should still be in school, probably wished he still was, as he cowered under Bill’s angry gaze and the angry looks of several techs, many who were pressed against the break room door, ready. There was pieces of broken snare sticks and at  least one torn up net on the floor.

  " How the flying fuck you passed the test I will never know you-Jessie! I have never been more happy to see you." The big man stepped aside to let the red head pass through.

"She’s your fuckin’ ’ Dragon Master’?! She weighs a hundred pounds soakin’ wet!" The newb barked, for some reason flexing his muscles. Jessie had seen better.

  "She’s a Dragon Whisperer. She uses her brains to deal with dragons, not that you would know how to use yer goddamn brains." Carter snapped at the newb, deflating him a little.

  Jessie felt the back of her neck heat up as she blushed, but said nothing. She wasn’t sure why the guys acted like she had some special powers with dragons. She just made sure to do her research and treat them, no matter the size, with respect like any other animal.Between that and her belief dragons just liked women more was why she was able to catch dragons more often with minimal property damage and little injury to herself. But her co-workers swore it was something about her specifically.

   Slowly Jessie made her way towards the door as the other techs moved out of her way.

"Boss make sure you have the cops on speed dial. And please say something nice at my funeral." That got a nervous laugh out of the techs and the boss took out his cell phone, ready to call for help if needed. Jessie carefully opened the door and closed it behind her and for a moment stared at the primeval looking dragon, taking in the large beast. Proto dragons were some of the first dragons ever seen by the public. They were used by the American military and now most were under lock and key, but there were rumors some had gotten out. Each class of dragon had been designed for a role in mind, the names taken from the different ’classes’ in MMOs. The tank was meant to take a crap ton of punishment and get the enemies’ attention. They had thick hides that tranquilizer darts and all but the strongest bullets and guns couldn’t penetrate. They were built like  alligators but with smaller snouts, a little higher off the ground and a wickedly spiked tail that ended with a big heavy club like bone tip. That tail was now swishing back in forth in front of Jessie as the big beast nosed around cupboards.

’At least I don’t have to worry about it flying." Jessie assured herself as she went over what she had read about Proto dragons. She moved closer carefully and tried to make herself look as non threatening as possible. 

"Hey there." Jessie said in a firm but non threatening voice. 

 The dragon swung towards her quickly despite its bulk, snout inches from her as it growled deeply at her, amber coloured eyes narrowed into slits.

"Easy there... I know you’ve had a bad day. All I wanna do is to take you home." using her best soothing tones, Jessie inched her way closer hoping she had remembered all the information on this dragon. The Tank continued to growl deeply, muscles tensing like it was getting ready to lunge at her, when Taz, who had been sitting quietly this entire on Jessie’s shoulder, squawked and jumped down onto the floor in front of the big dragon and chattered at it angrily, as the Tank looked down at Taz confused and Jessie swore a little amused. She would have laughed at the picture they made if she wasn’t focused on getting the Tank calm. She used Taz’s distraction to move closer to the Tank so she could stroke it gently between the shoulder blades. "Please oh please let this work." Jessie murmured.

 All tension left the Tank’s body and a deep rumbling purring like noise vibrated through Jessie’s arm and the floor.

  " That’s a good erm... Tank... Just relax, we don’t wanna hurt you just take you home. Promise..." Jessie assured. The dragon turned to her and Jessie thought she saw understanding in its intelligent amber eyes. Cautiously Carter crept into the room with a thick strong  lead rope. The Tank’s purring sound shifted to a soft growl when it spotted Carter, causing the other tech to freeze.

 " No need for that. He’s just here to help take you home. The rope is so you don’t get hurt...okay?" The Tank thrummed again letting Carter put the rope’s loop over it’s head and carefully around it’s neck. It pulled a bit, testing, but Carter stood firm.

"No funny business now, Carter is a nice guy and he’ll get you home safe." The Tank made a sound like a grumble and gave a good shake before being led out of building to a transport truck.  

  Jessie sat down on the floor with a sigh, shaking a little.

"And that is why we call you the Dragon Whisperer Jess." Bill stated coming into the room surveying the oddly minimal damage.

"Dragon Whisperer my ass Bill. If Taz  hadn’t distracted it you have to be cleaning pieces of me up off the floor with a shovel."

" What the.. The newbie disappeared!" Max, another tech exclaimed.

"Fuck ’im. It was his first day and his last day working with dragons. I am going to personally make sure he doesn’t get in spitting distance in a good wind near a dragon. We’re lucky nobody was seriously hurt. Now  those of you that have nothing to do, help clean up this damn mess. Jessie, Meg has a job for you." 

Jessie nodded, and left the room to find the bundle of energy that was the GDC receptionist, Megan Crueger.