Chapter Six – The Dragon’s Favorite Strays
DAKOTA
I just had a conversation with a dragon.
I think.
Kind of. More like he just repeated me a lot, but he petted the kitten, looked at me with interest instead of anger, and then just…left. I lower my crossbow and stare after him, but he doesn’t come back.
I lean against the door, breathing hard and not entirely sure what to make of it all. I didn’t know they could turn human in the first place. This one did, and he has a name. Muhr.
He also had a really big dick, but I’m trying to be an adult about the situation and pretend I didn’t see it. That should be the last thing I’m thinking of at the moment, but it just reminds me how alien the enemy is. He stood in front of me, bare ass naked and covered in golden, scaled skin and clutched a kitten. Nothing about that is normal.
I…don’t know what to do now.
Instinct from the last several years of hell kicks in. No. I know what to do now. I need to take my daughter and get the fuck out of here. Find someplace else that’s safe. There will be other bookstores. There will be other places to hide. This one’s no good for us because it already has a big, draconic occupant close by.
I compose myself and walk calmly to the back room, where Rabbit has sequestered herself. I open the door and she watches me, eyes wide and her favorite knife in her hand. No dramatics from my girl – she’s a child of the After and so she knows the crying can come later.
“I’m okay,” I tell her. “Everything’s fine, but we need to leave.”
“What happened?”
“The dragon is a man,” I say. “Or rather, he transformed into a man. He was mad that we took his cat and came to take it back.”
Her eyes go even wider. “So they do turn into men?”
“Apparently.”
“What did he look like?”
He had an enormous dong and gave me indignant looks while his weener flapped in the breeze. “He looked like a dragon that turned into a man. Let’s just go, all right?” I gesture for her to follow me out.
“Was he friendly?” She wants to know as we hurry back through the store. “Maybe he wants to be friends?”
“That wasn’t the impression I got. This is his territory and he didn’t like us touching his cats. It’s safest if we just get out of here. He’s not human even if he shows up in a human body, Rabbit.”
Rabbit nods and a grim expression crosses her face. I know what she’s thinking now. Not even human men are safe, really. No one’s safe to be around. We can only trust each other. I know she’s thinking it, because I’m thinking the same thing. “I’ll get my pack.”
I nod, and before she can pull away entirely, I tug her in for a hug. She stiffens briefly and then collapses against me, her arms wrapping tight around me. I can feel her trembling and for a moment I hate that dragon for chasing us away from what could have been an awesome home. “I’m so sorry, Rab. The next place will be better.”
“Probably not, but it is what it is,” she says, then squeezes me tighter again. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”
Me, too. I’m going to be seeing dragons in my nightmares.
Shoving things into my pack, I gather as much as I can comfortably carry and move quickly. It’ll mean ditching some of the unwieldier things I’ve picked up over the last few days – some plastic flower pots in the hopes of growing seeds, a few books, and a big fluffy down pillow that doesn’t smell like mildew – because we’re going to need to move fast, and moving fast means I’m going to carry Rabbit’s extra gear so she doesn’t have to sacrifice her precious things.
We meet up and I take her second pack from her, then I help her belt her heavy hiking backpack squarely on her body. “Got your weapon?”
She nods and pats her belt, where the knife is sheathed but not latched.
I smooth a lock of hair back from her worried face, wishing that I could give her a better life than this. “When we get outside, follow close to the wall of the building and go around the back. If you see a cat, don’t stop. If you see the dragon, don’t stop. No matter what. If we get separated, where do we meet up?”
“The nearest golden arches,” she says, nodding. There’s no disagreement, no protests. We’re battle-hardened at this point.
I kiss her forehead and nod. “I’ll go out first. When I signal for you, follow me out. If I don’t signal for you, stay inside until you see him fly off again, understand?”
“Love you, Mom,” she says in a trembling voice.
“I love you too, baby.” I slide a bolt into my crossbow and pull back the hammer, cocking it. Then, I push the door open and step outside.
I rush forward a few steps, my back to the wall of the building, and point my weapon, looking for dragons – human form or otherwise. The sky is clear and I see no big golden bodies lurking behind the abandoned cars scattered through the parking lot. After a moment’s hesitation, I wave for Rabbit to follow me. She emerges and catches up to me, and then we keep moving. I point at the abandoned highway overpass a few blocks away. We’ll head in that direction.
The moment we’re out from under the cover of the building’s overhang, my anxiety rises. I bite the inside of my cheek and hurry toward the next bit of shelter, a broken strip mall sign. Then, it’s a sprint to a large pear tree against the curb. So far, so good. Rabbit is two steps behind me.
We emerge from the shelter of the tree and sprint across the next parking lot. Before we can even make it halfway, a large shadow flies overhead, blotting out the sun. My stomach drops – the dragon’s back. “Run, Rabbit,” I tell my daughter, waving her back toward the tree. “Separate! I’ll distract him! I’ll–”
A dead cow drops a few feet away from me with a sickening, wet thud.
I scream, dropping my weapon like an absolute idiot. The crossbow fires, the bolt skidding on the road and then smacking into the side of the dead cow’s neck. Overhead, the dragon bugles like something out of Jurassic Park. My heart pounding in terror, I scramble to pick up my weapon again.
As I do, I hear the cries of dozens of cats. They meow in a chorus, loud and strident, and emerge from all over the place, converging on us and circling with excitement. A moment later, the dragon lands and changes to human form, and the cats follow at his feet, mewing wildly with excitement as he jogs over to the freshly-dead cow.
He kneels next to the dead cow and uses his claws to pull a haunch off of it, gently removing excited kittens that start climbing all over the animal. He shreds the leg, laying it open, and then sets it down for the cats to feast on. They pile onto it with excitement, a writhing pile of calicos and tabby cats.
“Jesus Christ.” I scramble to load my crossbow again as his gaze turns to me. His hands are covered in blood and I can’t stop staring at them, or the dagger-like claws that tip each finger. Even his hands are twice the size of a human one. “Stay back, Rabbit,” I call to my daughter. “Don’t let him see you!”
The dragon-man moves to the cow and rips the other leg off, slitting open the hide with his claws and peeling it back. He shreds the meat a bit like he did for the cats, and this time he doesn’t set it down for them. He holds it out to me instead.
“Owmigod,” he says, and nudges it toward me.
I stare.
“I think he’s trying to feed us, Mom,” Rabbit calls out, relief in her voice. “Like he’s feeding the kittens! He’s friendly!”
A friendly dragon.
Fuck me. What am I supposed to do with that?
