Chapter Thirty-Six – The Dragon’s Favorite Strays
Chapter Thirty-Six
DAKOTA
It’s strange, but with Murr on the roof, watching over us, I feel safe. Protected. It’s like I can relax, knowing that we truly aren’t in danger in the slightest. It’s a rare feeling in this day and age, and a dangerous one. I can’t allow myself to get used to it. I can’t imagine that Murr wants to hang out with us forever. He’s going to go find other dragons or leave or we’ll move on. Safety is a day to day sort of thing.
I need to appreciate it and also recognize that it’s fleeting. Moving to the fire pit, I scoop out the ashes into an old plastic bucket so there’s room for fresh wood. Already the friendly cats are coming to greet us, probably wanting a meal. I absently scratch a small tabby head as its own rubs against my legs. Did Murr bring them a deer already? Or was he waiting? Should I get some of the scraps from last night that I smoked into dry strips?
Rabbit scoops up a kitten and hands it to Dottie. “Hold him still while I put medicine on his eyes?”
“I can do that.” Dottie strokes the small cat and cradles it gently. “Are you guys medicating all of them?”
“Just the worst ones for now. We cleaned some of them up and their eyes were better. Some need more.” Rabbit dabs the ointment on the tip of her finger and gently smooths it over a squirming kitten’s eye. “Tell us about your dog. What kind is she? How’d you get her?”
Smart, clever Rabbit. It won’t feel like an interrogation if it feels like a natural part of the conversation. I’m not sure if that was her intent, but either way, it works. I’m filled with a rush of pride for my daughter. She really is the best.
Aggie sniffles, wiping her nose on her sleeve. “Stella is the most beautiful beagle.”
“She’s not a beagle,” Dottie corrects.
“Doodle. Sorry. She’s a doodle.”
Dottie shoots a look over at Aggie. “She’s not a doodle, either. What is going on in your brain, woman? She’s a greyhound. Did you see those long legs of hers?”
“It doesn’t really matter what kind of dog she is,” I chime in before they break into a full-blown argument. “How did you get her? Pet dogs are pretty rare in the After.”
I don’t like to think about why dogs are so much rarer than before. I like to think that it’s because people want to keep their food supplies for themselves and not for pets…not that they’ve been eaten by people or by dragons.
“The first year of the After, I was pretty depressed,” Aggie says. “The house I’d owned for forty years got destroyed. Lost contact with my children because they were living up in New England. My husband Harold and I had to move to a fort and it was just the tiniest, ugliest apartment. I didn’t want to get out of bed most days. Harold had a pawn shop before things got bad, and he had some solar powered battery packs and a few old laptops he’d brought with us for bargaining. One day I woke up, and there was this cute little puppy licking my face. He’d traded all our gear away for baby Stella, just because he knew I was sad and it would cheer me up.” Her face wreaths in a smile at the memory.
“That’s so sweet of him,” Rabbit says, wiping off her fingers and then taking the kitten from Dottie. She sets it on the ground and then hunts down another, checking its face.
Aggie nods. “He was a good man. Died not long after that, too. Couldn’t get any more of his heart meds, you know. Stella helped me get through it.”
“And me,” Dottie retorts.
“And Dottie was helpful too,” Aggie adds, reaching over and touching her friend’s arm.
Dottie looks mollified. She takes the next kitten from Rabbit and glances over at me. “When things got lean at the fort, no one liked that Aggie and I shared our food with Stella. I guess she looked like a big rump roast to them. That’s when we decided to leave. We bribed Curtis to take us south. Heard Fort Dallas was decent. Curtis was nice enough, too. Said he’d been there plenty of times and knew the way like the back of his hand. He’d charge us by the week for his guidance.”
Aggie snorts. “Fucking prick.”
“I should have known better when he said by the week,” Dottie agrees solemnly.
