Pib's Dragon (3 page)

“
How is it that you’re not
even winded?” Wil demanded as he walked up beside him.

Pib smirked over at the man. “Because
I’m obviously much more physically able than you.”

He ducked and evaded Wil’s arms, then
walked over to the front door of the cottage. “Come on, Wil, we’re
going to open the door together.”

Once Wil was beside him again, they
reached for the handle and together they turned it, pushing the
door open. Expecting stale air, Pib was pleasantly surprised by the
crisp, fresh smell. For a second, he even thought he caught a whiff
of his mother, but that was impossible.

“
Wow, it smells just like
it always used to,” Wil whispered.

“
I guess that answers the
question of whether the enchantment aired out the space,” Pib
remarked, taking a step into the room with Wil right behind
him.

As he looked around, a sense of
contentment filled him and the day finally seemed to catch up with
him. “Which room do you want, Wil? Because I’m seconds away from
crashing.”

“
I think we should just
keep the same rooms we had before, don’t you?”

Pib nodded as he made his way to the
hallway and the room on the right. “Sounds good to me. I’m going to
bed. Make sure you close the door.”

The sound of the door closing and the
lock engaging was comforting. Realizing he still carried Wil’s
bags, he gently placed them on the floor where the hallway branched
off. He stumbled to the right, and his door opened for him. Seeing
his childhood room, emotions overwhelmed him, and he was crying by
the time he made it to the bed, the door magically closing behind
him. He cried for the loss of his parents, the loss of his best
friend for nine long years, the horrors he’d endured and done in
that time, and he cried for the pure relief he felt at finally
being where he belonged. In no time at all, sleep overtook him, and
Pib willingly surrendered.

****

Within the mountain, in a room filled
with treasure, a plain Taaffeite gem lit with an internal
fire.

After waking up from the best sleep
he’d had in years, Pib got up and wished Wil a good day working.
The first thing he did was investigate his escape route to the
outside and from the outside back to his room. Then he’d gone
exploring. So far he’d found a few corridors that led to empty
caves, and in one case, a hot pool, which looked very inviting.
There were some caves he’d had to shift forms in order to get into,
including one that was close to his room. Standing in his human
form just inside the opening, Pib surveyed the room.

“
Hmmm,” he said quietly,
then shifted into his serval and leaped at the wall, digging his
claws in before climbing.

At one point, he was hanging upside
down from the ceiling, a small purr sounding through the air. He
knew it was odd for him to climb the walls, usually only lizards
did that, but he’d honed his skills until he’d perfected the
ability. His claws were sharp enough to dig into the rock and give
him another means of escape if he needed it.

This will be the perfect
cave for me.

Releasing his claws, he fell from the
ceiling. Halfway down, he twisted midshift so that he landed on his
feet in human form. His serval purred with contentment in the back
of his mind, happy about the place they’d found.

A quick look around revealed that there
were no other ways in or out of the cavern, so Pib walked to the
entrance and placed an enchantment on it. Not only would it keep
people out of his space, but all sound and light would remain
inside the cavern.

“
Now that that’s done,
let’s see how big this place is,” he said aloud.

Lifting his hand so his palm faced up,
he conjured a ball of light and sent it flying up into the ceiling.
Upon impact, it illuminated the entire space.

Pib whistled. “Wow, this place is huge,
and completely enclosed. Perfect! Now I just need to fill it
up.”

Satisfied with the space and location,
Pib waved a hand and the light went out. Shifting back into his
serval form, he exited his new space and continued to explore,
letting his cat have the freedom to walk around.

After finding a few dead ends and
routes that led to the outside in different locations than his
escape route, he walked into another cavern and stopped in his
tracks. Had he been in human form, he would have pinched himself or
at least rubbed his eyes. As it was, all he could do was stare at
the enormous piles of gold, tapestries, chests, gems, and who knew
what else, before him.

Pib had no idea how long he remained
standing there dumbfounded, but when he came back to himself, his
serval was happily sitting atop a pile of gold, batting a sapphire
between his paws. It took Pib longer than normal to get control
back from his cat, and when he did, he shifted and quickly glanced
around, looking for danger. Relieved that no one seemed to be
nearby, he made it out of the room as quickly as
possible.

Deciding he’d done enough exploring for
one day, Pib returned to his room and collapsed on his
bed.

“
Ouch!” Sitting up, Pib
looked at his hand. “What the…” There, in his palm, was the
sapphire his cat had been playing with.

“
Oh hell. You’d better hope
that no one misses this,” he muttered aloud to his cat, who just
purred in his mind.

Sighing, Pib flopped back on his bed
and tried to ignore the fact that he’d somehow carried the sapphire
all the way to his room without realizing it.

Pib sat at the table and twirled the
sapphire in his hand, admiring the square cut of the gem while his
serval admired the shiny factor. The stone was about the size of
his palm and a brilliant blue that had him staring at it for
countless minutes. At times, he swore he could see a swirl of color
in the center, but whenever he looked closer, it was
gone.

“
I’m just seeing things
that aren’t there,” he mumbled to himself after leaning in for the
fifth time and seeing nothing.

Pib was still playing with the sapphire
when Wil walked through the door. After tucking the gem away, Pib
focused on his friend.

“
Hey, you look like shit,”
Pib declared, watching as Wil collapsed in the chair in front of
him and rested his head on the table. Although the bang when his
forehead met the tabletop wasn’t very restful.

“
What happened,
Wil?”

Wil mumbled a response, but even Pib’s
super hearing had trouble making out what he said.

“
What?”

The exhausted look on Wil’s face when
he raised his head had him feeling bad that he hadn’t thought to
plan in advance and make something to eat.

“
The three idiots found out
that I took my stuff and vacated their little house. They’re being
difficult about me leaving, but I think it’s more the fact that I’m
no longer under their thumb that pisses them off.”

Pib didn’t like the weary way Wil
admitted that. “Difficult how?” he asked, aware of the slight growl
in his voice.

Wil sighed. “They’re trying to claim I
owe them more money even though I always paid a month in
advance.”

Growling, Pib stood up and stalked to
the door. He’d barely reached it when an arm on his elbow had him
spinning around, his fangs dropping, and a hiss leaving his mouth.
Taking in Wil’s surprised face, he pulled his cat under
control.

“
Damn, that’s a lot scarier
now that you’ve grown up, Puss,” Wil whispered.

Blinking, Pib felt himself return to
normal. Smirking at Wil, he replied, “I’ve always been scarier than
you, Pup. You just didn’t want to admit it.”

They looked at each other for a moment
before bursting out laughing. When their laughter finally died down
after a few minutes, they stood and stared at each other, smiles on
their faces.

“
Come on, let’s go for a
run and get some food. I’m starving. And since you didn’t cook,
you’re buying, Puss,” Wil said, slapping him on the shoulder as he
walked past.

“
Why do I have to buy? Why
did I have to even cook?” Pib sputtered, again feeling slightly
guilty about not making something, but not giving up
easily.

“
Because I spent all day
working while you probably spent the day being the lazy cat that
you are,” Wil replied, never stopping or turning.

“
I was not, I went
exploring,” Pib declared, his mind immediately jumping to the new
cave he’d acquired and the sapphire in his pocket.

“
Find anything
interesting?” Wil asked when Pib caught up to him.

“
Yeah, there’s a hot pool
nearby, and I found a cave to claim.”

“
You’re claiming a
cave?”

“
Yup!”

“
Um, Pib, you can’t just
claim a cave.”

“
Why not? Who’s going to
stop me?”

“
Maybe the
owner?”

“
Well, the owner should
have protected it better. Now it’s mine.” Pib glanced at Wil,
amused at the befuddled expression on his face. “Don’t worry, we’ll
find you and your wolf a cave too.”

When they reached the bottom of
Dragon’s Keep, they wasted no time before shifting and taking off
running. The trip to the village took longer than it should have
because they kept pouncing on each other, playing in their shifted
forms. When they finally reached the edge of the village, they both
had goofy grins on their animal faces and Pib was sure his coat was
just as dusty as Wil’s, but he didn’t care.

Shifting back into their human forms,
they walked into the village side by side and headed for the tavern
and some food.

Lying on his pile of gold, Dray stared
off into space, not really seeing the world around him. At least,
until a ruby hit his face, snapping his attention to the present.
Growling, he looked around until he saw who his intruder
was.

Damn
.

“
Come on, Dray, get off
your scaly butt and snap out of it. You’ve been here for a month
already!” the man said, planting his hands on his hips.

Knowing that he wouldn’t leave until
Dray spoke to him, Dray sighed and slowly stood, trying not to
dislodge the gold and jewels he’d been lying on.

And I had finally found my
spot, too.

Looking over at the irate man tapping his foot, Dray
realized he would have to hope he could find his
spot
again another day. Taking flight, he shifted mid-air and
landed on two feet in front of his guest.

“
Yes, Del?”

“
Don’t you
yes,
Del
me!” Del said, poking him
in the chest with each word.

“
Must you poke me?” Dray
asked, taking a step back, away from the finger and the man
attached to it.

“
Yes!” he yelled, his voice
sounding louder in the cave.

“
Del—”

“
No! You’re going to shut
up and listen to me.”

“
I could have listened in
my other form,” Dray protested.

“
Oh please, your dragon
would have gone to sleep, and I would have had to keep pelting it
with its own treasure until it finally woke up.”

Dray didn’t argue the claim because he
knew how true it really was.

“
Now, you’re going to
listen to me. You’re going to snap out of the pity party for one,
which you seem to be having. It’s been a month, time for you to get
out and—”

Dray stopped listening and let his mind
wander again until a sharp pain brought his attention back onto
Del.

“
Did…did you just kick me?”
he asked in astonishment.

“
Yes! And I’ll do it again
if I have to. I’m not letting you get lost in your head anymore.
It’s been a month. You got fired, get over it!” Del said, crossing
his arms over his chest and glaring.

“
But what am I supposed to
do now? No one wants to hire me, and I can’t really blame them. I
fell asleep on duty, and the princess I was guarding was able to
sneak out. I deserved to be fired.” Dray cringed at how whiny his
voice sounded, but he couldn’t help it. He had failed in his duty,
and he was fired, end of story. Although secretly he was glad the
princess was out there somewhere with the man she loved rather than
the prince her father was going to force her to marry.

“
Then we’ll find you
something else to do. Just because you’re a dragon doesn’t mean
that there aren’t other job opportunities out there for you. We
just need to go and look.”

“
We
?” Dray snorted and
shook his head. “Del, you’re a prince, even if you don’t live in a
fancy castle. You don’t need to work.”

“
Well, technically neither
do you, Mr.
I-sleep-on-a-pile-of-gold-and-jewels-instead-of-a-bed.”

“
But if I use my treasure,
then it will slowly disappear and then I won’t have anything and
then—”