Rabbit waves a hand. “It’s just me telling you that I want to talk with youin private. Away from Mom and Aggie and Dottie.”
Ah. “I away. Talk now.”
She steps deeper into the building, eyeing the mounds of trash and debris that are now covered in piles of hay. There are no cats to be seen but I can smell them underneath the scent of the cut grasses. “Are the cats in here?” she asks. “Can you tell?”
“Cats here,” I agree. Is this what we came to talk about? “Want…find?”
“No, I don’t want to scare them. I hope they’re all right. I worry about the cats, that’s all.” She crouches low and puts a hand in her pocket, pulling out a clear bag that is filled with dried meat chunks cut fine. She tosses them in front of her, and when one cat—a big fluffy gray—appears and hisses at us,Rabbit clicks her tongue. The cat growls a warning but moves forward enough to steal a few bites of food. Another cat emerges and sneaks towards the food as she tosses it. This makes Rabbit happy. She smiles at me over her shoulder. “Whew.”
I am still puzzled by all of this. What does this have to do with talking? “Cats here. We talk?”
“Oh. Yes.” She tosses another handful of chunks, and another cat emerges, covered in hay. She scoots back a bit to seem nonthreatening and casts a look behind her at me. “What’s going on with you and my mom?”
“Going…on?” These are familiar words, but I do not understand the context. “Explain.”
Rabbit finishes tossing the food and backs up carefully so as not to scare the cats. “I want to know how you feel about her. Do you like her?”
“I like.” I want her to be my mate, but I do not have the words for this. There is no human word they have taught me yet. “I like big yes.”
“Do youloveher?”
“Explain.”
“Love is…big like. Big, big big bigbiglike. All the like in the world.” She gestures, moving her arms in a giant circle as if to encompass everything. “Is she your favorite person ever?”
I nod. This is easy to answer. “I big like Dakota. All like is yes.” It seems we are thinking along the same lines, and I want to confess to someone my intentions. “I…want bite.”
“Bite?!” Her jaw drops.
“Good bite,” I say defensively, worried about her response. “Makes…dragon and human…” How do I explain mating bites to a human child? I lift my first fingers in the air and then bring them together, rubbing them. “This Dakota. This Murr. Kiss, kiss. Bite, bite…big happy?—”
“Whoa, okay, okay.” She grabs my hands before I can do more. “I get the picture. You want Mom to be your wife.”
“Wife. Yes. I want Dakota wife. I wife, too. Dakota Murr wife together.” Then, I sigh. “But no.”
“Wait, whyno?”
I drop my hands. “Murr…broken.”
“Broken? What do you mean?”
“I no have words. Dragons no speak…” I indicate my mouth, then point at my temple. “Speak here. No sounds. Murr no have head speak. Murr broken.”
Rabbit’s eyes grow sad with understanding. “You lost your telepathy? Is that how all dragons speak?”
“All but Murr.” My shoulders droop with the shame and isolation of it all. “Murr no good wife.”
“Now that’s not true.” Rabbit gives me an affectionate slap on the upper arm. “You are the nicest dragon I have ever met.”
“Only dragon,” I correct, amused.
“That’s right. That’s because all the others eat humans and set everything around us on fire. That makes you the best and the nicest.” She beams up at me. “But I understand why you feel like you can’t be with her, if you feel like you’re less than. Have you tried telling Mom this?”
Tell her about my flaws? Bring them to the forefront? I shake my head slowly. “Easier to not talk, only kiss.”
She makes a strangled sound. “I haven’t seen you kiss Mom. You guys act super weird around each other. I wasn’t sure if you were together and just not saying anything or if there was something else going on. Are you guys having sex?”
I don’t catch a lot of that. “Kiss only. Kiss, sleep, kiss.”
