He smiles back at me, and it’s more natural this time, as if he’s finally figuring it out. Cute.
I lift my binoculars and scan the surroundings. The bookstore is in a busy area south of an old highway, with lots of additional stores clustered along a side road. Ideally I’d like to find a big box hardware store, but I’d settle for a small mom and pop store. Heck, I’d even settle for a grocery store because they might have a grill somewhere, or at least some pans I might be able to use to jerry-rig a makeshift smoker.
I don’t see any of those things, though. I do see an old pharmacy, though, a chain one that had a small amount of groceries at the front along with the drugs at the back. The oldsign is crumbling, but the building it looms over looks mostly whole. Well, I can start there.
“I’m going to go back down,” I tell him, pointing at the ground.
Murr eyes the side of the building and then gestures about picking me up and carrying me over.
“No! I can do it myself.” I shake my head violently and take a step back. It’s not that I don’t trust him, it’s that…okay, so I don’t trust him. He’s still a dragon, no matter how normal he might seem at the moment. Dragons have destroyed the world I used to know in their endless wild rampages. Just because he hasn’t eaten my face yet doesn’t mean I’m safe.
It just means he hasn’t killed meyet.
I move to the ladder and start climbing down before he can suggest it again, and hurry back inside when he turns into a dragon and flies down on his own. I wait just inside to see if he’s going to come in, and sure enough, he enters a moment later and follows after me, curious. In his human form, his skin still looks scaly, but it’s more like a snake—luminous and patterned—rather than hard like a lizard. His body is sleek with muscle, and as he walks, my gaze is drawn to the hypnotic swing of his dick between his legs. How does he get anything done with that in the way?
How is it I can’t stop looking at it? God, I’m a mess.
Face hot, I head back inside and run into Rabbit, who’s coming out of the lavatory. Her eyes widen in surprise at the sight of Murr a few steps behind me.
“Surprise,” I say. “Our visitor is still hanging out.”
“Oh, cool,” Rabbit replies and leans over to make eye contact with the dragon-man. “Hi Murr. Remember me?”
“Ribbit.”
She giggles, face bright. “You do! Did you bring your cats?”
“No cats, love. I’m sure they’re still in the parking lot, but stay inside until I get back, okay? We don’t want him to feel like his cats are threatened by us and I don’t know how he’s going to react.”
“Are you going somewhere?”
I indicate with my thumb. “There’s a store in that direction a few blocks that I’m going to check out. I should be back in a few hours. Maybe make a fire? Roast up some meat for breakfast and save a bit for me for when I get back?”
“I can do that,” my daughter agrees and kisses my cheek. “You bet. Be careful, Mom.”
“Just no fire near the books,” I call after her as she heads back deeper into the store.
“I know. I’m not a kid!”
“Yes, you are,” I mutter under my breath. But she does know how to make fire safely at least. I can’t stress over that too much. I glance at Murr to see what he’s doing.
He rubs his cheek thoughtfully and stares at the spot on my face where Rabbit kissed me. Now how am I going to explain that gesture? In the end, I give up and pretend like it didn’t happen. I just smile, grab my quick-travel pack, and head out the door.
Unsurprisingly, he follows.
CHAPTER 12
MURR
I’m learninga great many things about humans from watching Dakotah. I’ve never had an interest in them in the past, and my vague memories of the time before when I was lost in my mind are filled with very negative thoughts about humans. Of wanting to destroy them and rip them to pieces.
I’ve never felt the need to rip Dakotah to pieces, so that part of me is thankfully asleep.
She is strange, though. She makes more noises at her daughter and picks up a long, smooth stick with spikes on the end of it and belts it at her waist. A weapon. Amusing. As if she needs a weapon while with me. A lesser warrior would be insulted, but I understand her unease. She has young to protect. She also grabs a sack and puts the twin-eye-cones around her neck once more. She raised them to her eyes on the roof and stood like that for a long time, which confused me. Does their presence mean she is returning to the roof?
But no, she heads out the other end of her strange building and starts walking fast.
And because I am not sure what she is up to, I follow. My curiosity always gets the best of me.
