Chapter 8 #2
I could see how we could both get into a delightful amount of trouble with some wagers. “The one who collects the most sparklies rules the roost for a week. The one who finds the largest sparkly picks what we have for dinner tonight.”
“You’re on, and I’m going to enjoy ruling your roost and picking dinner tonight.”
I laughed. “Keep dreaming, Erik. You’re going down.”
“We’ll see about that, Future Mrs. Millson.”
“Your delusions will win you nothing, Future Mr. Ramons.”
Erik frowned, and after a moment, he sulked. “Mr. Ramons sounds so much more fierce than Mr. Millson.”
“I guess you’re just going to have to let me win everything and welcome yourself to the Ramons fold. Then you, too, can reign with great pride and a certain amount of terror. Because let’s face it, the only Millson anyone is afraid of is your mother.”
“You’re right. How do you feel about me becoming a Ramons dragon?”
“I would welcome you to my fold, and I might even wear leather when I do so.”
“Pretty please?”
“Pen us in for some shopping next week when we aren’t taking the babies out hunting for gems. Clearly, I’m going to need more than one outfit to properly work with my new Ramons hatchling.”
“It’s good to be me,” Erik declared before putting the SUV into gear and taking us in search of gemstones and adventure.
* * *
Thursday, May 21, 2167
Casper Mountain
Casper, Wyoming
The employee from the rock shop, after transferring a ridiculous amount of money from our wallets to his coffers, gave us directions to the best places to hunt for beryls on Casper Mountain.
With the mix of raw and cut stones we’d acquired for our carbunclo, the furry tyrants didn’t need any more stones, but we went anyway.
For them, the joy was in the journey.
Upon setting the beasts and bird free from the SUV, the trio flitted around, with the carbunclo taking their wisp form while my familiar chased after them, clicking up a storm.
It took twenty minutes to pack our new bags and distribute the weight so we could make it the mile and a half to the hunting spot and back without perishing along the way.
I already regretted everything, including my inability to take on my dragon form without the assistance of my parents.
My parents refused to assist, as they felt I needed to be able to shift at my whim rather than at theirs. Erik’s parents followed the same methodology, which meant we were both stuck until we figured it out on our own.
To be fair to us, we hadn’t really tried since the fateful day the mercury dragons had swiped me off the street and dumped me into a living hell.
“At least there’s a marked trail. We aren’t going to be wandering aimlessly through the rocky woods. We had to buy new shoes, Erik. At a rock store.” I displayed my new hiking boots, which might get us to the hunting spot intact. “I spent three hundred dollars on a pair of shoes.”
“As did I, since I got the same pair you did, except mine are manlier and larger. I’m grateful I didn’t have to pay extra because of my size. I usually do.”
“That is because we massively overpaid for these things.”
“While I’m not arguing with you, had we planned better, we could have gotten cheaper shoes elsewhere.”
I nodded. “The water bottles he tossed in are nice, though.” Mine was purple while Erik’s was yellow. “I didn’t know that new hatchlings got bonuses from stores.”
“Some do. Rock stores like doing it because hatchlings need to start their hoards. The carbunclo got the hatchling discount because they’re that cute.”
I laughed. “They really are, but that bill hurt even with the ten percent off. Garnet saw the garnets and lost her mind.”
“I’m grateful that citrines tend to be cheaper than garnets right now, I’m not going to lie. Citrine’s collection was a fraction of Garnet’s. Peridot’s presents didn’t hurt our account much, either.”
My parents might forgive us for spoiling their baby carbunclo; I hoped that with sufficient bribes and love from us, Peridot would be willing to go on adventures with us without my father present.
With our luck, we’d end up with their kitten every twenty years while Garnet and Citrine competed for the highest reproduction rate among carbunclo queens, costing us our sanity and every penny in our hoards keeping them and their kittens happy.
If I had anything to say about it, their kittens would never struggle with fear of abandonment.
“Are these beryls going to appease anyone in our household?” I muttered.
“If we find any worthwhile, they might. If we’re lucky, we’ll get some good yellow ones.
It won’t be quartz, but I don’t think Citrine is going to be picky if we add some stones that are the right color for her.
We might even find some green beryls. We’ll be hiking to a secluded section of the Catherine Mine property that recently uncovered new samples.
I bought us all passes to go in, and since we signed the waivers, we won’t get anyone in trouble if we get hurt during our hunt.
The pass also gives us rights to take out anything we find on mine land.
The BLM lands surrounding the mine are also free access.
” Erik patted his pocket, which held the confirmation slips with our signatures and the waiver identification numbers.
“All I ask is that you try to avoid locating any more bodies or spirits. We are at our quota of bodies and spirits for a while, and that includes the alcoholic kind. My father will insert his foot in my ass should I indulge to that degree anytime soon.”
I snickered; not only had I been the first detoxed, Erik had taken the full blame for our behavior.
The purple dragons, upon learning I had the sight and had been dealing with the mercury dragon case, had informed Erik’s father it was enough to drive any purple to drink and that I deserved a full pardon for my actions.
Erik had no such excuse, although he’d gotten off with a scolding because hatchlings opting to get drunk in a safe environment deserved more praise than anything else.
Most hatchlings lacked such sense.
“It’s true,” my newly minted husband complained.
“You? You just tried to love everyone while so drunk you didn’t know your own name.
Once they figured out we’d turned their brawl into a drinking game and came to check in on us, you went on a hug spree.
You owned the entirety of my family. You cried because my father even thought about getting upset over how drunk you were.
You clung to his leg and cried because you were sorry. ”
As there was video evidence of the incident, I shrugged.
“And your family is also trying to figure out how I inherited none of my family’s tendencies.
My father would have joined the brawl. My mother would have been trying to lure my father away, then she would have joined the brawl all pissed because he was too interested in wrestling with someone other than her.
While I was recovering from my poor decisions, your mother showed me videos of an outing they had in Atlantic City proving that was the case.
I don’t even know when that could have possibly happened! ”
“We made the mistake of working overtime during March Madness; while we were engaged in fiscally responsible acts, our parents got together and went partying without us. It’s our fault. We left them unsupervised.”
I sighed. “My parents are going to find out from your parents that we’re refusing to reproduce until this case is fully closed, and they’re going to tear Dragon Heights apart looking for answers.
They’re going to give your father shit for not having secured our ability to reproduce as of last week.
Oh, well. Let’s go find some rocks before they realize we’re gone and try to figure out where we’re at so they can rain on our parade. ”
Snickering, Erik locked my SUV and herded me away from the vehicle.
“Three hours ago, them raining on my parade was a serious concern. Now? As long as they don’t dig into our stuff and find our marriage documents, it’s fine.
Well, as fine as we’re going to be until they find out we eloped without them.
After that, we won’t have to worry about reproduction; they’ll kill us for robbing them of our wedding. ”
“Except we’re still having the ceremony,” I muttered.
“You know that, I know that, our kittens know that, and your bird knows that, but our families are utterly ridiculous. For today, we worry about having a good time. Tomorrow, we go back to work and find out the full truth of what Madam Merorie did, if we can.”
I appreciated his acknowledgment that we might not be able to uncover the full truth.
“If I find one of those infused stones that guy was talking about in the shop, you have to take me junkyard surfing until I find an old car to fix up, and you have to help bully a dragon into carting it home so we can restore it together. We have a lot of space in our garage. But only after we finish evicting the gremlins from the Bentley.”
“You don’t have to find an infused stone for that. That just sounds like fun, and we can work on it whenever we are too tired to go on a trip. Think of something else as your reward. I know what I’m going to demand if I find an infused stone.”
I could make a few guesses. “Me naked in our bed?”
“That’s definitely on my list, but I’m going to demand a two week cruise where I can get you naked as often as I want while we’re forced to do nothing but relax and have a good time.”
Well, I could see that as an excellent way to move forward with any potential reproduction plans. “When we’re ready to have a kid or, should the stars align in your favor, a clutch, we can discuss that, and you don’t even need to find an infused stone for that. Pick another prize.”
He snickered. “Okay, ten thousand dollars to spend at a casino in Vegas, because if either one of us gets that lucky, we’re going to Vegas the first time we have more than two days off in a row.”