Chapter 21 #2
“Of course. We’ve been together over a year and I’m still trying to teach him where the dirty clothes hamper is.
” Low chuckles and snickering filled the room.
“The dragon can remember every name of every mage and dragon in this castle, recall clan disputes from nearly a millennia ago with perfect clarity, but he can’t remember that dirty clothes go in the white basket in the bathroom.
At the end of the day, he just starts flinging off clothes, leaving a trail through the apartments like the underwear gnomes are going to follow behind him in the night and pick it all up. ”
Carla snorted. “Ah, please. Like you’re not happy to watch your studly dragon strip for you.”
Cameron rolled his eyes. “I did not say that. Alric can perform a striptease for me anytime he wants. My problem is stumbling through the bedroom in the dark and tripping over one of his Saville Row slacks on my way to the bathroom. Then I want to strangle him. With the slacks.”
“What are you having problems with, Nikki?” Cassie asked.
“You mean besides the basics of getting him to remember to eat on his own and that he needs to eat more than red meat at meals?” Nikki grumbled.
They glanced at the clock, and it was already two hours after they usually had lunch.
Ravi had been kind enough to bring up a light meal for all of the mages so they didn’t have to trek down to the dining hall.
Had Gunter remembered to stop his research long enough to eat?
North nodded sagely. “Yep, you’ve got your hands full with that one. Cassie, can you text Ravi—”
“On it!” she called out, her fingers flying on her phone. When she finished, she looked up at Nikki and smiled. “Ravi will go check on Gunter and pull him from the dungeon if he needs to.”
“Thanks,” they said with a sigh. If Gunter hadn’t eaten, then being tortured by Ravi was a very good punishment.
It was such an open atmosphere Nikki felt comfortable complaining. “I don’t actually want to eat lunch with him right now, anyway. He’s being overprotective. And I want to strangle him.”
“Oh yeah?” Cameron’s head canted a little. “About what? I mean, with dragons, it could be any number of things.”
“He doesn’t want me on the scouting missions anymore. Being that close to the Jaeggi unnerves him.”
“Ohhh yeah. That argument. Alric tried that with me.” Cameron shook his head, fond exasperation on his face.
“I get it, I do. They’ve waited hundreds of years for us and are facing an enemy that cost them basically everything.
Of course they’re afraid to lose us. What they don’t seem to get is we feel just as strongly about protecting them. ”
Nikki nodded firmly, happy Cameron got it. “Yes, exactly! If you ran into this problem with Alric, what did you do?”
“Showed up anyway. And didn’t take no for an answer. Remember, Nikki, getting forgiveness is easier than getting permission.”
Nikki thought about that. For a full two seconds. “So I should just show up in the morning and…go.”
“I would. Otherwise, Gunter will feel he’s right and you agree with him, and that’s a slippery slope you absolutely do not want to go down.”
Nikki felt that was a very good piece of advice and saw no reason not to take it. “You know what, I’m going to do exactly that.”
“You know…” Cassie slowly drawled. “We haven’t had a good mage rap session in ages. Lisette, how far along are we?”
The older woman smirked. “We’re three-quarters of the way done. Just need a few more amulets.”
Cassie squealed and started typing furiously on her phone. “I’m texting Sora to get his butt here with some wine and some sake.”
“I’ll tell Tori to quit playing in the dirt in the greenhouse,” Cameron replied while he typed on his phone.
“And snacks! Tell them all to bring snacks!” North shouted.
“Amulets first, snacks seconds,” Lisette instructed sternly above the growing excited chatter.
Nikki leaned toward North. “Rap session?”
“Yep, it’s a lot of fun. We drink and snack and dish on the dragons. Lisette even participates if we can get enough glasses of wine in her.”
The conversation died down a little as they all hurried to finish their work.
It was nice to know Nikki wasn’t the only one having some trouble with their dragon.
Not that Nikki could really complain about Gunter.
Okay, they could, because Gunter did have his frustrating moments, like the overprotectiveness of last night.
But Nikki’s dragon was sweet, caring, and protective, even if he was incapable of making a damn move.
Lisette had just finished showing them how to make the amulet they could give to Gunter when the door opened. Sora shuffled through, arms heavily laden with offerings.
“I’ve got sake, humus, olives, dates, and pita chips. What’s going on?” he asked.
“Dish session,” Carla called out.
“What?”
“Just bring me the sake, and we’ll explain.”
Nikki turned their attention back to Lisette, not even trying to hide their worry. “Are you completely positive I did this right? Are you sure it wouldn’t be better if you made Gunter’s?”
Lisette gave them a bright smile. “It’s perfect. It will do its job and keep Gunter safe.”
“Thank you.” Nikki sighed with relief.
The door opened again, and Tori burst through with his arms full.
He slammed it shut again and placed his back to it.
“I’ve got four bottles of wine, pretzels, cookies, and possibly the last bag of potato chips in the entire castle.
” The mage sounded out of breath, as if he’d run straight from the kitchens.
“Oooo! Gimme! Gimme!” Cassie shouted, stretching out her hands and flexing her fingers at him.
“Not a chance, witch! I had to dodge four dragons for these chips. I almost dropped one of the bottles.” Tori looked over at them and smiled. “Hey Nikki, can you lock the door behind me?”
Nikki blinked in surprise at the request but hopped up to lock the door as Tori straightened.
With the door locked, Nikki hurried to help North clean up all the supplies and equipment that had been dragged out for their work, while the others poured the wine, opened the snacks, and gathered around the various chairs and cushions so that they were seated in a loose circle.
“We haven’t had one of these dish sessions in so long,” Tori murmured as he lounged in a large purple beanbag chair. “Sora hasn’t even been here for one yet. What started it?”
“Nikki mentioned how hard it was to train their dragon,” Cassie mentioned.
“Though, in Tori’s case, it’s more like his dragon training him,” North teased.
Tori pulled the chip he’d been about to put in his mouth away from his lips. “Hey! I don’t need training.”
“Really? How many pairs of gloves do you own now?” Cameron asked with a laugh.
Tori groaned.
“Or pairs of socks?” Cassie added.
Tori groaned louder. “Everywhere. They are everywhere.” He lifted his head from where he’d dropped it back on the chair and looked at Nikki.
“Baldewin is worried I might one day feel a tiny bit cold. It’s like he can’t fathom I’m Finnish and don’t feel cold like Cameron or Cassie.
He is constantly giving me socks or gloves. ”
“Particularly since you can’t remember to ever grab your gloves,” Lisette murmured.
Tori threw the older mage a look and smirked. “At least they’re cute socks and gloves. He’s got good taste.”
“What about you, Sora? Have you managed to wrangle Ravi at all or is he still the same walking chaos?” Cassie teased.
Sora seemed to think about it as he swirled a chip through the bowl of hummus. “Slow progress is being made. He’s starting to run some of his more…enthusiastic ideas past me rather than just doing them.”
Cameron cackled. “Sora’s the reason Ravi’s brand of chaos has been toned down from an eleven to just a nine most days.”
The healer mage smirked. “Yes, instead of chaos and explosions, now it’s mostly just chaos.” He paused, looking thoughtful before he gazed at Nikki. “Though, there has been one small drawback to Nikki taking Gunter in hand.”
“What?” Nikki asked, wincing when the word came out a little sharply.
“With you getting Gunter out of the dungeon and taking care of himself, Ravi doesn’t have a favorite target for his mischief anymore.”
Cameron snorted. “Tell him to focus on the ice dragons. I think they can handle him.”
“Lovely, our Consort is trying to start a new clan war,” Carla said with a groan.
“I think I’ll keep Ravi occupied just fine,” Sora reassured them to catcalls and whistles.
“But Nikki has worked wonders with Gunter. I’ve seen more of him in the past few weeks than I did the entire first six months of living in the castle,” Cassie said. She pushed out of her chair and snagged the bag of chips from Tori while giving him the bag of frosted animal crackers.
“Yes, well, he eats when I remind him to eat, but I’m not sure he’s going to remember when I’m not around.”
North nudged them with his elbow and grinned. “I guess that just means you’ll have to stick close to your dragon.”
Nikki returned the smile. It would be nice if Gunter could remember to feed himself and take breaks, but it was also very nice to be needed.