Chapter 9
“Can I help you?” I politely asked, wondering why these officers would be outside my door. While I might be a tattooed girl with a filthy mouth and indigenous heritage, I obeyed most laws. I didn’t murder or steal, but I did like to speed. However, I doubted that brought them knocking.
“Hello, ma’am. Pardon our calling so early. We’re here to advise you that there is a health department order decreeing that any debris spewed by the volcano found on your premises needs to be handed over immediately.”
I blinked. “Er, what? Why the fuck would the health department give a damn about rocks?” My mouth spoke before I could stop it.
“There is concern about possible toxicity in the stones recently emitted by the volcano. As such, the health department created a task force whose job is to collect all samples and remove them for your safety.”
I glanced beyond the chunky officer’s shoulder and noticed people in hazmat suits in my yard, poking around. Two of them were bent over the fire pit.
My stomach tightened as I immediately wondered if they were looking for Abaddon’s egg. Wouldn’t matter if they were, since his emergence had shattered his shell into tiny little chunks.
“Wow. I never knew lava rocks could be dangerous.” I clutched my hands to my chest and opened my eyes wide.
“This is just a precautionary measure, ma’am. Do you have any of the debris inside your home?”
“Goodness no. My place is too tiny for me to be storing rocks,” I scoffed. Then, because they were already poking, I admitted, “I did find a few and threw them into my firepit which I’ve been burning. Will the smoke I inhaled harm me?”
“Most likely not, but you might want to schedule a physical with your family physician just to be sure.”
“Oh, I will.” Not actually, but I pretended to play along.
“While we’re here, have you seen any strange animals lurking around?” the officer asked.
“I see all kinds of creatures seeing as how I live in the boonies,” I admitted with a laugh.
“This wouldn’t be your usual run-of-the-mill wildlife. It may have looked like a lizard. A local man had one escape from a tank and is eager for its return.”
My blood ran cold because he obviously lied.
The RCMP wouldn’t be going door to door looking for a regular pet reptile.
They sought Abaddon because he was special, but no way would I hand him over.
I’d seen enough movies to know what awaited Abaddon if the government managed to capture him.
“You’re looking for a lizard? I haven’t seen one. Is it dangerous?”
“We would recommend caution. If you do see it, you can call this number.” He handed over a white card with a number embossed on it and nothing else. Stranger and stranger. Shouldn’t it have a name and the logo of the agency on it?
“What’s this lizard look like?”
“Four legs. Tail. Scales.”
“That’s a pretty generic description.” Once more my tongue ran away before I could stop it.
The officer shrugged. “The owner didn’t have a picture but figured we’d ask since we’re already doing the rounds.”
“I will keep an eye out,” I promised, keeping my hands clasped to ensure he didn’t see them shaking.
“If you could stay inside while we look around and gather any stray chunks. It shouldn’t take too long.”
Not long being an hour of them hunting.
I watched them through the curtain with my coffee cup in hand.
The RCMP officers stood smoking by their truck while the hazmat suit wearers literally performed a perimeter sweep, walking in a line, their heads swiveling to and fro.
The pair from the firepit lugged off two sealed cases, taking everything in the pit, including the ash.
When they left, the tension in my body only barely eased. I called out to Abaddon. “It’s safe to come out now.”
“Humans are strange. Collecting lava rocks,” Abaddon huffed as he waddled into view.
“It’s more than strange because I’ve never heard of such a thing happening.” I’d done my research on volcanoes since the eruption. While some of the emitted gases could be poisonous, the rocks were benign.
I know what my granny would have said. They were looking for the dragon egg. I tended to agree.
“A good thing I hatched before they came around,” Abaddon pointed out.
“I wouldn’t be so sure of that. Did you hear them asking if I’d seen a lizard?”
“Yesss,” he hissed. “The hunters already seek me.”
“But how would they know to look for you? You said it yourself, you were in that volcano a long time. There’s no way they could have known you’d emerge in the eruption.”
“I don’t know how they’d be aware of my birth.” Little Fella shrugged. “But can we discuss this later? I am starving.”
“You just ate a whole loaf of bread plus all the peanut butter and jam.”
“My tummy is rumbling.”
I rolled my eyes. “Of course it is.”
I chose to do something quick and easy, handing him an entire box of Raisin Bran which he declared boring.
I promised to buy him something better when I went shopping.
At this rate, I might have to pay an exorbitant fee to get a large grocery order delivered.
I couldn’t keep popping out shopping every other day, soon to be daily.
I’d deal with the grocery issue later. First, I wanted to search the internet to see what I could find out about the RCMP and those guys in the hazmat suits.
Something that strange had to be documented somewhere.
The regular news outlets had no mention of it—no surprise.
I ended up finding posts about it on X and Reddit.
Anyone else have govnt SOBS demand to come on your property and search for lava rocks? I told them they could kick some and to come back with a warrant.
Are the rocks from the eruption dangerous? I just had the three I found confiscated.
And then on Facebook marketplace, of all places, I found an ad seeking to buy any rocks larger than six inches from the recent Tseax spewing.
Why were they being collected? The search for stones combined with the supposed lizard on the loose story really sounded as if someone knew a dragon had hatched.
I glanced at Abaddon, watching The Simpsons, sitting with a rounded belly, and getting bigger by the day.
How long could I keep his presence a secret, especially if people did actively pursue him?
I didn’t want to see him locked away in some government lab. Abaddon hadn’t done anything wrong.
Yet.
I couldn’t help but remember the dragons in the movie Reign of Fire who burned the world and hunted humanity. I could only hope my chunky lizard wouldn’t do anything so evil.
The paranoia the RCMP incurred prevented me from leaving the trailer at all. Instead, I dug through all my cupboards to keep Abaddon fed. I kept the curtains shut and potatoed myself on the couch with my laptop, going down some internet rabbit holes as I tried to find answers.
A rumble of an engine midafternoon had me suddenly jerking upright. That sounded like—
“About time he came to report for duty,” Abaddon grumbled, sliding off the couch. “He better have brought snacks.”
I eyed my outfit. Disreputable didn’t even start to cover it. A threadbare tank top, short cotton shorts, my hair in a messy bun. Did I have time to throw on the robe I’d worn this morning to greet the cops?
Knock. Knock.
Nope.
Sigh.
Not that my looks probably mattered after last night. Although, I did wonder why Maddox had come by.
Before I could fling open the door, Abaddon leapt up and grabbed the handle, yanking it down.
My brow arched. He had gotten bigger if he could reach. Smart, too, using his body weight to activate the lever.
A plaid-wearing Maddox—who looked delicious in his snug jeans—stood outside holding flowers in one hand and a giant watermelon in the other.
To my surprise, Abaddon bowed his head and said, “I would like to express my regret for my behavior the previous evening. It was unbecoming of someone of my stature.”
My jaw dropped.
“Already forgiven, bud.”
“Excellent.”
Maddox turned his attention from the dragon to me and smiled. “Hey.”
“Hey. What are you doing here?” I sounded terse, mostly because I wasn’t sure how to act. Maddox didn’t seem angry.
“I thought I’d check in on you and Abaddon, and I wanted to apologize for how things ended last night. I should have known better than to leave Princess alone with Abaddon. She’s not good with other animals.”
“Ha. Told you she taunted me,” my dragon huffed.
“And you fell for it,” I chided in reminder.
“Next time, we’ll make sure to keep them in separate rooms,” Maddox stated.
“Next time?” I blurted without thinking.
“That is, unless my cooking sucked and you’d rather I never attempt it again.” Before I could reply he thrust the flowers at me. “These are for you. And this”—he crouched and held out the watermelon—“is for our dragon friend.”
“Ooh.” Abaddon dug his claws in the melon and to my surprise had the strength to hold it up, if awkwardly, given its size.
“Um, you can’t eat that in here.” I could just imagine the mess. But then I remembered my morning visitors. “Fuck, he can’t go outside either.”
“Why not?” Maddox asked.
“The RCMP were by this morning with some dudes in head-to-toe protective gear.”
“What for?”
“Collecting lava rocks. Oh, and I was told to keep an eye out for an escaped pet lizard.”
Both our gazes went to Abaddon who sniffed and licked the outer watermelon rind.
“Do they know about him?” Maddox murmured.
“You tell me. I couldn’t find any reason why they’d be after the volcano’s rocks, and the lizard story seemed just a little too pat. Then again, it’s not as if they’d come out and admit they were looking for a dragon. I take it they didn’t swing by your shop?”
Maddox shook his head. “No.”
“Odd,” I muttered. “You’d think they’d have questioned the one shop that sells reptile supplies.”
Abaddon began gnawing on the green shell and I had a nightmarish vision of my future mopping watermelon juice from my floor.