SNORT by KAEERA RATED FRC

Little Scott wants his Christmas present. Jeff doesn't approve.

"I want that one."

"Are you sure?" Jeff Tracy asked and stared at the offending item.

"Yes." Scott, barely three years old, tugged on his hand with relentless insistence.

"Wouldn't you rather have the lion? Or the eagle?"

A firm headshake. "No."

"Or maybe a different colour?"

"No!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes!"

Jeff threw a long-suffering gaze towards his wife. "He insists on that...that monstrosity!" he exclaimed, feeling insulted in both his fatherly and manly pride.

Lucille ruffled a gentle hand through her son's dark hair and smiled. "But that's his wish, and we should accept it."

"But it's...it's purple!"

"Is there something wrong with that colour?" Lucille Tracy, who was wearing a purple blouse herself, raised an eyebrow.

Jeff's husbandly self-preservation instincts switched on just in time, and he back-pedalled hastily. "No, of course not, it looks wonderful on you, but well...it's not...not...not very typical of a boy, is it?"

"It's a cool colour!" Scott (who hadn't learned about manly pride yet) grinned.

"It's beautiful, my dear." Lucy replied, taking the item from the shelf. "Just buy it, Jeff; it's for him, after all, not for you."

Jeff took the thing down from the shelf with reluctance and frowned at it. "It has green dots!" he almost-whined (because Jeff Tracy didn't whine, no sir, he protested with all his manly pride).

"And so it has." Lucille was unperturbed.

Scott was happy. "Green dots!"

With a sigh, Jeff turned around. He wouldn't have gotten this far in life if he didn't know when it was time to make a tactical retreat. And so they went to the cashier of the toystore without a further complaint and he paid the (rather high) price for the purple-green monstrosity. Scott was in heaven; as soon they left the toy shop, he unwrapped the stuffed animal from its package and held it up in the air with a triumphant grin.

The toy dragon looked even uglier in daylight, Jeff mused, and glared at the glitter that was dusted over the pathetic looking wings. A stuffed purple dragon with green dots.

"I shall name him Snort," Scott informed him. "And one day, he will make me fly!"

This, Jeff mused, didn't sound too bad.

(But he still thought that red would have been a nicer colour)