'What?'
'Jeffrey'
'Jeffrey?'
'Yeah that big fellow straddling the water with that inimitable combination of grace and power.'
'You mean the monster?'
'Monster? Now, that's a strange name for a Jeffrey. Can't say I've heard of that name. Jeff perhaps. I've heard Jay before but it seems overly familiar, like the manner in which a...'
'What are you on about?
'I'm simply stating that in order for you to comfortably refer to Jeffrey as Jay, you would first need to get to know him a bit better. Then he'll be more open towards accepting such an informal uh... sobriquet, if you will.'
'Does it really matter what its name is if it's dead?'
'It? Now that's certainly indecorous. The name is of utmost importance, especially in the wake of, what you propose to be a most untimely and, I dare say, undignified demise.'
'Why undignified?'
'How were you intending to write the final chapter in the life of this majestic creature?'
'You see this axe? I'm gonna bring it down hard on the monster's neck. Gravity would do most of the work.'
'I find your glib response and general levity in the prologue of this heinous act most unsettling. What is the motivation behind your need to murder my dear friend in cold blood?'
'It's what I do. It's what I've always done. I'm a sort of uh... cleanser. I restore the peace by ridding the world of these vile beasts.'
'Ignoring your impertinence for a moment, how many of Jeffrey's kind have you killed?'
'Oh, dozens! See these etchings on the heft of my axe?'
The defender of the peace presented his weapon with unambiguous pride.
'Where is Jeffrey's axe?'
'What?'
'His axe. The weapon with which he devastated your kind with such abandon that he deserves to be hacked down so mercilessly by your own.'
'Ha! They don't use axes or swords or spears! These brutes rend the flesh with those razor-sharp teeth! They'll devour a man in two snaps of the jaw!'
'Really?! I've never seen such savagery! Especially not from old Jeffrey!'
The dragon, who had moved closer to the shore throughout, as if intrigued by the discussion, was now within a few feet of the slayer, seemingly deep in dragon dreamland.
'Yes indeed! Once they awaken, their fury and blood-thirst knows no bounds!'
'Truly?!'
Jeffrey's defence attorney pointed towards the nearby mountain with a sharp finger. 'Is that one awake?!'
The slayer whipped his golden-maned head around, ready to level the monstrosity. 'Where?!'
Still pointing, the dragon's dear friend turned his gaze back to Jeff saying under his breath, 'There you go, Jeff.'
The dragon opened and closed his mighty jaws with such fierce force and precision that the fearless warrior disappeared in one violent spray of warm pink mist.
As the bloody remains dissipated, the wordy confidence man glanced down and saw fine red droplets forming an abstract on the canvas of his usually resplendent white satin shirt.
Scowling at one of the beast's moon-grey eyes, he said, 'You're disgusting. You know that, right?'
Jeffrey's scales worked together to form an uncannily human expression, that undoubtedly yearned to be interpreted as smugness, as he used the silver axe as a toothpick, flicking sinew from between those razor-sharp pearly lances.
