Page 16 of Matched in Mayhem

“I know I’m not supposed to swipe family members but he’s new,” she hung her head for a second before looking up at us. “And I like these!”

“How many have you had?” he asked her and she held up all her fingers.

“And how many meats have you had since lunch?” Slyvin asked.

“But meats aren’t sweet,” she sighed and then jutted out her pouting bottom lip. Yep. That was the look that always got to me. For the first year of her life, she didn’t want to eat anything. So, now I mostly fed her what she was willing to eat without putting up a fight.

“How many meats do you owe me?” Slyvin asked and she flashed her little hands up with all her fingers wiggling.

“Exactly,” he nodded. “If you have a sweet, what do you have to have?”

“A meat,” she sighed. “Why do you want me to eat everybody?”

She flopped back onto the table and stared up at the ceiling. Daisy wasn’t having a tantrum as much as she had plopped up to regulate her little nervous system. I took the moment of quiet as the opportunity to introduce Alby to Slyvin. He stood up and shook the older tiger’s hand.

“I know your grandsire,” he said. “Clyde’s a good guy.”

“He tries,” Alby said, humble as always.

“Heard Raziel got one over on you guys,” Slyvin said.

“I don’t think he knows what a prank is,” Alby laughed.

“He’s certainly defined the word in his own way,” Slyvin nodded.

He opened his mouth and shut it again. For a second, I thought maybe he had some comment to add to Raziel’s pranking ability, but that wasn’t it. He had a secret and it was fruitless to try to pry information from him. He took his vow as a follower of Frost very seriously. It could be annoying at times, but it was also one of my favorite things about him.

“He means well, but is dealing with forces bigger than himself,” Slyvin finally settled on saying. “Though, I have no complaints. It’s good to see young people happy and dragons meddling in the right direction. Welcome to the family, Alby.”

“Welcome to the family,” Daisy echoed him from her spot on the table. “I owe you another meat now.”

“Ah, yes. Are you ready to go home and pay off some of your debt?” Slyvin asked, scooping her up into his arms.

“I guess. Can they be chicken nugget meats?” she asked.

“Some of them,” he nodded. “But you have to eat some cow too.”

“But I like cows!” she groaned.

“Well, you didn’t know this cow,” Slyvin said, heading out the back door. “He was a very mean cow. So we decided we had to eat him.”

Neither one of us said anything until we heard the door lock behind them as they left. Then Alby laughed.

“He has his hands full with that one,” he said as I sat back down.

“Everyone does,” I nodded, still grinning. “Sorry about that.”

“No, she’s cute. Kids have the right to be kids. I’m sorry she scared everyone, but more often than not they know what they’re doing by that age. She hid in your car. She knew your car would eventually go home and you’d be there. Though, I’ve never seen a feline baby not want to eat meat.”

“She likes meat,” I said almost automatically. “She just likes sugar more. Plus anything with dairy in it. Those are protein cheesecake bites. So I’m not worried. Raziel is a dragon so he tries to buy the protein version of everything.”

“Not a bad plan,” Alby said. “Slyvin seems really nice. I’ve never met him in person before. I think everyone knows who he is. I don’t do a lot of temple things because… Well, I don’t know why.”

“It’s not for everyone. I mean, the temples are there for everyone, but not everyone’s inclined to participate and that’s okay. Plus, from what I know about Clyde, he’s not inclined to wait around for anyone’s ancestor to do his dirty work and I can respect that. Slyvin grew up at the Temple of Juda on Hemlock Mountain. I practically grew up in the Temple of Frost.”

“You enjoy the order the Tenets give your life,” Alby observed.

“I think they’re a good foundation for life. It covers the basics,” I nodded. “I always imagined my own kids would be in and out of the temple just as often as I was. There’s something nice about having a group within a group to call your own.”