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The uproarious squawking of geese interrupted whatever his response was going to be. I whirled in time to see my silver tiger bounding through the trees and springing for hisprey.
“Sindari!” I yelled as the birds flew away en mass, feathers fluttering down in theirwake.
Only when he hit the water did I realize the geese hadn’t been his target. He could have caught one if he’d wished to. He landed in the river with a great splash, then proceeded to frolic like a kitten in theshallows.
“Is that atiger?” my mom’s nutty houseguestasked.
“Really more of a service animal. I’ll be right back.” I jogged toward the bank, glancing at the house visible through the trees to the right. A dog was barking through a fence atSindari.
“What are youdoing?” I wrapped my fingers around the cat figurine, prepared to send him back to hisrealm.
Cleansing my nostrils.Sindari flopped on his side below the bank, water lapping at hiships.
“What? Cats don’t like water. What are youdoing?”
I am a tiger, not a cat, and swimming is joyous. I have webbed paws.He stuck one into the air, demonstrating his soggy webbing.But I had to clean myself because that dreadful pet urinated in its cage and stank up the air. And those sitting in the air. I do not believe it is pleased to have been left in a box in the car with atiger.
Ugh.I dropped my forehead into my palm.When I find the crazy elf that tried to blow up Colonel Willard’s building, I’m going to slice her in half with Chopper. I don’t care if she’s the last elf onEarth.
Leaving Sindari to clean himself, I headed back to the front door. A squirrel chattered angrily at me from a tree branch. It was possible I shouldn’t have called Sindari out for my roadtrip.
The houseguest was staring back and forth from me to the tiger, a smart phone raised to his ear. Who was he calling? The police? Given the dubious way I’d acquired my current vehicle, I didn’t want to deal with thelaw.
“Could you put that down, please?” I offered my most polite smile while resisting the urge to knock the phone from hishand.
He lowered it, but I had a feeling he’d already made hiscall.
“Police?” I glanced toward my bathing tiger. “Or animalcontrol?”
The squirrel cursed me in his chatty tongue. No question which he wouldprefer.
“Deschutes County Search and Rescue,” hesaid.
I almost asked if my mom was missing, but then I remembered she’d been training her golden retriever for the program the last time I’d been here. And that it would be shocking if my mom of all people got lost in thewoods.
“Are she and Rocket out volunteering?” I asked, hoping to prove to this guy that I wasn’t some trickster trying to pass as my mother’s daughter with plans to do nefarious things to the cabin. Or the yardart.
His shoulders did grow a little less hunched when I used the dog’s name. “Yeah. They found the guy. Some idiot who flipped his ATV on an old logging road in themountains.”
“It wasn’t found twenty feet up in the trees, was it?” I remembered the dragon flying past the reststop.
“What? No.” There was that squint again. This guy was positive I wasshifty.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but who are you, and why are you hanging out in my mom’shouse?”
“Dimitri, and I live in the van, but she lets me come in for showers and to use thekitchen.”
“Do you pay her?” I couldn’t imagine my mom letting some charity case intrude on her life. She’d risk her ass in a snowstorm to rescue a drunken idiot in the mountains, but that wasn’t the same as having someone in her personalspace.
“Three hundred a month. It’s less than an RV park, she lets me use the shop for my projects, and it’s got a great view—usually not as weird of a view as now.” He pointed at the river. Sindari was now sunning himself in a sunny patch of grass, hopefully one devoid of goosedroppings.
I wished I could let Maggie out to explore here, but she would probably take off and get eaten by a mountain lion or acoyote.
I have excellent hearing,Sindari informed me without looking over.I heard you call me a service animal and that man call me weird. You’re both in danger of having your feet gnawedoff.
Will that be before or after you dry off while napping in thesun?
After.
