Chapter 10 #2
“I’ll text them once we get home,” I promised. “And I’ll make sure they know our kittens will be sad if they aren’t given some mashed potatoes, gravy, and hot sauce for their enjoyment.”
* * *
Saturday, May 23, 2167
The Tower Ward
Dragon Heights, Wyoming
Informing my parents I wished to be wined and dined promptly summoned them with little fuss, and after showering our carbunclo and my hummingbird with praise and promises of fun things to come, we sent them off for an evening of fun, games, and visiting with my father’s Peridot.
I hadn’t wanted to leave Tourmaline, but my father had talked me into it, promising he’d call me if my bird needed attention from me.
Fortunately for our sanity, the carbunclo wouldn’t engage in wining and dining for at least a few years.
If our luck held, it would be at least a decade before we had to cope with kittens taking over our lives.
By then, I hoped we’d bag enough bounty money working together to afford keeping an entire litter of the spoiled beasts happy.
I foresaw difficulties in finding suitable households for our kittens, as I refused to allow what had happened to Garnet to happen to any kittens I held responsibility for.
Should a dragon at all abuse one of my carbunclo, I would peel their scales off, rip out their talons, and make them suffer before handing them over to the purples.
Then I’d sell their scales and use the funds to spoil the carbunclo.
I waited for my parents to depart in a new SUV rather like mine to heave a sigh. “They bought an SUV just to cart our kittens and my bird around, Erik.”
“They’re definitely excessive. Now, how would my lovely wife like to be wined and dined this evening? It seems we can stay out as late as we would like without any worry about our furred and feathered chaperones.”
I worried our furred and feathered chaperones would be heavily spoiled before my parents returned them after work tomorrow. “Do you think they’ll be even more spoiled by the time we get them back?”
“I would count on it. At least they’re behaved even when horrifically spoiled. And make no mistake, Kinsley, our kittens will be the most spoiled of carbunclo kittens. Peridot will come in a distant third compared to Citrine and Garnet.”
“Garnet will be the most spoiled,” I informed him, narrowing my eyes. “Citrine will be a close second.”
“You want to make a wager on that?” Then, to make it clear he was a dragon hatchling and meant business, he growled at me.
I growled back. “What are the rules of the wager?”
“Our families will be the judges, and they will not know they are judging our spoiling efforts. The first kitten to be accused of being spoiled rotten is the victor. The owner of the kitten will be required to wine and dine the losing owner and make demonstrations on excellent spoiling techniques.”
One day, I might understand what went on in Erik’s head.
“Honestly, you better hope you win, because my version of spoiling involves fast food, potatoes, and digging in the dirt for pretty rocks.” To make it clear I’d taken my digging seriously, I dipped my hand in my pocket and retrieved my pink beryl.
“Garnet has her quartz from the black dragon shrine, I have this rock. And so help me, if anyone tries to steal my rock, I will end them.”
Erik laughed, leaned over, and gave me a kiss. “Your rock is safe from me, but we should go back to that mine in Casper. Everybody had a good time, even Tourmaline. I doubt we’ll find another pink beauty like yours, but I’d really like to find an infused stone.”
“How do we know that none of the stones we found aren’t infused?” I grinned at my husband. “For all we know, they could all be infused. But yes, now that I know a little about infused stones, I would like one.”
“That’s the problem. There’s no consistent way to tell if a stone is infused unless it starts doing things. Some chime or sing when picked up, but we didn’t find any of those.” Erik shrugged. “Fast food, fancy, extra fancy, or diner?”
I considered our options. In Erik’s world, extra fancy meant I would have to wear a dress and heels to enter the establishment, and we’d end up spending hundreds upon hundreds of dollars before escaping. Fancy could go either way.
Going to the diner meant we’d have to hike across the city as diners were a dying breed of restaurant.
I missed diners; Florida had a few, and we’d been willing to drive an hour to get to the one we liked best.
“Assuming we can get to it without passing through the Emerald Ward, let’s hit up a diner. It’s been a while, and I think we could both use a walk down memory lane after working on this case.”
“There’s a nice diner in the Pearl Ward, and we don’t need reservations. If we have to wait, they have an arcade, mini golf, and some other things I think you’ll like. They’re even open late, as they’ve figured out dragons lack sense and will come out in the wee hours of the morning to play.”
I snickered. Dragon Heights tended to shut down after nine unless it was a grocery store, bar, brothel, or fast food joint. “Nice. Let’s take my SUV. I’ll even let you drive it. The last thing I need is a rowdy dragon damaging my princess.”
“How did my Bentley become your princess?” Erik complained while we went through the motions of checking over the house before heading for the garage.
“Wife rights.” I snickered. “I’ll even let you pretend you own her part of the time. Perhaps a quarter of the time.”
“As I quite enjoy having a wife, I shall allow this. I will accept a quarter of the ownership of my Bentley in exchange for a hundred percent ownership over my wife in our bed tonight.”
Some bargains were easier than others, and if Erik wanted a good time after dinner, I would not protest. “I suppose, but only for tonight. We’ll discuss future ownership in the bedroom tomorrow.”
“Deal. I’ll even be generous and carry you to work tomorrow should I sufficiently wear you out.”
“Keep dreaming, Erik. Knowing you, I’m going to be the one carrying you to work.”
“Do you think the captain will kill us if we fail to make it to work due to general exhaustion?”
I laughed at the thought of the yellow dragon eliminating us for being dragon hatchlings left unsupervised. “We’ll be scolded fiercely. Let’s avoid that fate. You will just have to rein in your prowess at midnight so we can go to work with a skip in our step and decently rested.”
“While that makes me a little sad, you are right. Unless we’re out late at the diner, in which case, we’ll improvise.”
I laughed at the thought of Erik sulking because we wouldn’t be staying up too late keeping each other company in bed. “Good. Now that we have a plan, let’s go implement it. I’m hungry.”
* * *
Saturday, May 23, 2167
The Pearl Ward
Dragon Heights, Wyoming
After arriving at the diner, I headed to the bathroom to wash my hands and escape from the crowd of people playing in the arcade.
Fortunately for us, there had been a table for two available without a wait.
In bad news, it had been located rather close to the gaming area, which bustled with adults and children alike.
Upon leaving my stall, I clued in something had changed. Rather than a gathering of chatting women freshening up their makeup and otherwise preparing to rejoin the crowd, I encountered eerie silence. When I stopped to listen, I could make out faint whispers.
While I hadn’t yet had a chance to attend any lessons with a chrome dragon, I had been given an overview of things to look out for when skipping time, and the first step seemed to be a moment where everything became still and quiet, often a split-second ahead or behind the rest of the world.
Something still and quiet within me indicated that I stepped just beyond the when everyone else existed within, and that would change soon enough. I might snap back to the appropriate time. I might not.
I regretted not having had the time to talk to the chrome dragons, especially the ones who had done more than just skip through a split second of time to avoid detection.
Uncertain of what I would find outside, I washed my hands, dried them on my jeans, and left the bathroom.
* * *
Tuesday, January 14, 2076
The Pearl Ward
Dragon Heights, Wyoming
Time distorted and changed, and with sickening certainty, I recognized I’d done more than just skip a moment or two through time.
I’d rewound the clock over ninety years, long before I’d been born.
Had my parents even decided to wed by then?
I would need to ask them sometime, assuming I made it back to when I belonged.
Rather than a bustling diner, I stepped out of the bathroom into a warehouse. Blurred shapes surrounded me and sound blasted my poor eardrums. Heavy machinery rumbled, which I identified as several cranes working at moving crates onto metal racks nearby.
Madam Merorie oversaw the operations, her form hazy and prone to wavering, as though I viewed her through a glitching television rather than through my own eyes.
With each passing moment, her expression hardened.
I wondered what stirred her ire. To test my limitations, I waved my hand in front of her face.
She ignored me.
I could only assume I had skipped time to a mere moment before or after, able to witness the echoes of the past without influencing them.
I approved of that, as I had no way of knowing if meddling with the past might irrevocably alter the future.
I could understand a million and one ways changing anything could cause a problem, including lead to my birth never happening.
No, it was better I only witnessed.
I backed away for a better vantage, observing the people, mercury dragons as far as I could tell, hard at work putting everything into its proper place while the clan’s twisted leader directed everyone.
Some of the crates drew her rage more than others, and I examined those closer, wondering how they differed from the others.