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My relief was overwhelmingwhen I opened the door to my tiny apartment. We’d made it home without too much drama, and without creating a scene. There had been a sketchy moment or two when I thought Zonkut was going to panic bend into his dinosaur, but as long as I kept my hands touching his skin, he’d held it together.
His control was short-lived, however.
Albert Einswine came rushing out of the bedroom, high-tailing it toward us as fast as his tiny little legs would allow.
“Albert!” I dropped to my knees, scooping the mini-pig up in my arms. He squealed happily in response.
The little pig was my best friend on earth, and no matter how crappy my day had been, he could always put a smile on my face. My apartment hadn’t been keen on welcoming a pig, no matter how much I tried to educate them on the cleanliness of pigs. Thankfully, one of the managers had fallen in love with Albert, and with a wink and a joke about silly typos, she’d changed where I’d written ‘pig’ to the word ‘pug’ on my applications. I made sure to bring her cookies and coffee a couple of times a month.
Albert spotted the men and stiffened in my arms, an adorable warning grumble coming from his throat. I loved my cute little guard piggy.
Zonkut shouted, causing me to jump and almost toss Albert across the room. Rezkac held his human form but darted behind the couch, where he peered at the piggy in my arms. Zonkut’s body shimmered with light before shifting into that of his dinosaur form.
Squeezing Albert tighter in my arms, I stared in horror at the panicking raptor. Thank goodness I lived on the bottom floor, otherwise his weight would have sent us crashing through to the apartments below. Although the cramped room couldn’t handle his size. I only barely managed to duck beneath his tail as it whooshed through my tiny living room.
Zonkut’s tail crashed into a shelf, sending two of my vases tumbling onto the floor, where they shattered into a thousand shards. The noise of the vases hitting the floor caused Zonkut to jump. He whirled around to face the racket with his huge teeth bared, as though he was expecting an attack. “Calm down! Albert’s harmless!” I shouted, hoping to get through to the terrified dino.
That beast in your arms is not harmless. I know of his kind. They are creatures of mischief that moved through the cover of darkness during my time.
“You had pigs back then?” I asked. While I was no expert, I’d given enough museum tours to know that pigs like Albert hadn’t lived during the time of dinosaurs.
Pigs? That is not their true name. No, they were creatures of dark magic that fed on the chaos they caused.
I snorted. He wanted me to believe they had magical goblin-like pigs who wandered the earth as instruments of evil?
They weren’t all evil. Most were just instigators of trouble. It was never a good sign when you spotted one of their kind, as bad luck was likely to visit you soon after. Rezkac watched me scratch under Albert’s chin, shock replacing the fear on his features. You keep one as a pet? You are even more powerful than I had first believed.
I wanted to ask him what he meant about ‘powers,’ but Zonkut’s tail was swinging toward my modest-sized flat-screen TV. Let’s be real, it was only slightly bigger than a sheet of computer paper, but I was still making payments on it. With a shriek, I dropped Albert on the floor and dove toward the TV, yanking it away in the nick of time.
Albert stormed toward the raptor, backing Zonkut into a corner. The raptor actually trembled and cowered away. The sight of my tiny teacup piggy facing down an apex predator would have been amusing if I hadn’t been terrified that Zonkut would realize any minute that bacon came from pigs and decide to have a quick snack.
No one could resist bacon.
“Please don’t eat him, Zonkut!” I begged. Setting the TV down on the sofa, I edged toward Albert, trying to avoid startling Zonkut.
Eat him? I assure you that will never happen. To eat a creature of the darkness would be to take that darkness on ourselves. It would likely bring more of the creatures to our dwelling to torment us.
These men were crazy, but I decided to stop arguing over whether my pet was an ordinary pig or a malicious pocket-sized monster. He was safer if they thought he could defend himself with the powers of hellfire and dark magic.
Easing forward, I snatched the angry, snorting pig from the floor. “Let’s get you some food, Albert. And maybe it’s best if you hang out in the spare bedroom tonight.”
Ignoring Rezkac’s slack-jawed expression, I made my way down the hall to the tiny guest room. I could admit I had a slight addiction to buying things for my spoiled pet, and his room already overflowed with toys, costumes, and oversized beds. I poured some piggy kibble into his favorite food bowl, the one that had been custom painted with his name. With a happy squeal, he began stuffing his face.
“Today has been a confusing mess. I cannot wait to tell you about it. But first, I need to calm down a dinosaur,” I whispered while giving him a quick kiss on the head.
Albert gave a grunt of acknowledgment but didn’t bother to look up.
Closing the bedroom door, I moved into the living room again. Zonkut hadn’t moved from the corner Albert had backed him into. Rezkac had moved to sit on the couch, although he still looked uncomfortable sitting straight up, and his eyes kept glancing down the hall.
I rubbed a hand down my face. Exhaustion and adrenaline were catching up with me, not to mention the mental gymnastics I was doing to try to wrap my mind around the fact that two dinos had come to life. I was getting tired.
“He won’t be coming out of the room right now. Not until we sort out some of this mess.”
I’m not sure we have enough time to ‘sort out this mess’ tonight. There is much you don’t know, and it will take many days to explain it all to you.
I sighed. “Well, I have tomorrow off, so that is how long we have to figure this out and decide where you two go from here.”
