You’re welcome.
Roam sighed and picked up a pebble, flicking it at a nearby root. “Look, I know you think everything is about Spring, but it’s not like we’re… boyfriend and girlfriend or something. I mean, come on. I’ve known her my whole life. We’ve played in the palace tunnels, fought over stupid stuff, and, well, we’ve done lots of stuff together, and she used to be pretty cool, but lately it’s like nothing makes her happy! And it’s not like she’s the only girl in the world, you know.”
She the one for me!
“That’s not fair!” Roam protested, then stopped. “Okay, I get it, really. And maybe she’s only been such a pain because her dragon is as bad as you. I wouldn’t know.”
You no ASK!
“I know! Ok? I know. I’m just saying, she might be the only one for us, but it doesn’t hurt to—to make sure, does it? I mean, it’s not, like, bad to have a little fun now and then.”
His cat growled low in his mind.
Roam flopped back onto the moss with a grunt, arms flung wide. “It’s not like we’re never going to see her again,” he muttered, more to himself now. “I just want to live life a little. There’s time. Plenty of time… if something’s going to happen between us.”
You don’t understand.
Roam grumbled, “You don’t understand.”
His cat ignored him.
Roam sighed. “Do you want to explain it to me? ‘Cause it really seems like sometimes you should be taking my side!”
His cat didn’t answer. Instead, Roam felt it turn away from him, curling up deeper within his soul, its presence tense and flickering like the tip of a tail swishing in agitation. Roam grimaced. The air around him felt tighter, the warmth of the moss suddenly less comforting.
A hollow ache bloomed in his stomach. He turned his head and gazed at the empty sky through the towering trees. Even the leaves looked unreal—huge and curled like sails from an old pirate ship. The bark of the trees rose like castle walls around him. The scale of it all sent a shiver through him that had nothing to do with the cool breeze drifting in from somewhere above.
Unease filled him. Spring had been gone for over an hour now.
What if… what if she doesn’t come back this time?
He sat up slowly.
Something was wrong.
A faint rustling off to his left made him freeze. His eyes narrowed as he turned, searching the shadows between two thick roots. A wet, slurping squelch echoed across the clearing.
Roam stood quickly, brushing moss from his pants as he stared into the dim forest. “Hello?”
The answer came in the form of a low, heavy slide of something massive moving over wet ground.
And then?—
It emerged.
A snail.
But not just any snail.
A colossal snail, its glistening brown shell taller than Roam, its antennae twitching as it oozed across the moss with dreamlike slowness.
Roam stumbled backward, his mouth falling open. “What in the… snail-slimed stars is that?!”
He reached for the shift, for his inner cat?—
Nothing.
“Come on!” he hissed aloud. “Shifting is literally your job!”
