I don’t see any of those things, though. I do see an old pharmacy, though, a chain one that had a small amount of groceries at the front along with the drugs at the back. The old sign is crumbling, but the building it looms over looks mostly whole. Well, I can start there.

“I’m going to go back down,” I tell him, pointing at the ground.

Murr eyes the side of the building and then gestures about picking me up and carrying me over.

“No! I can do it myself.” I shake my head violently and take a step back. It’s not that I don’t trust him, it’s that…okay, so I don’t trust him. He’s still a dragon, no matter how normal he might seem at the moment. Dragons have destroyed the world I used to know in their endless wild rampages. Just because he hasn’t eaten my face yet doesn’t mean I’m safe.

It just means he hasn’t killed me yet.

I move to the ladder and start climbing down before he can suggest it again, and hurry back inside when he turns into a dragon and flies down on his own. I wait just inside to see if he’s going to come in, and sure enough, he enters a moment later and follows after me, curious. In his human form, his skin still looks scaly, but it’s more like a snake—luminous and patterned—rather than hard like a lizard. His body is sleek with muscle, and as he walks, my gaze is drawn to the hypnotic swing of his dick between his legs. How does he get anything done with that in the way?

How is it I can’t stop looking at it? God, I’m a mess.

Face hot, I head back inside and run into Rabbit, who’s coming out of the lavatory. Her eyes widen in surprise at the sight of Murr a few steps behind me.

“Surprise,” I say. “Our visitor is still hanging out.”

“Oh, cool,” Rabbit replies and leans over to make eye contact with the dragon-man. “Hi Murr. Remember me?”

“Ribbit.”

She giggles, face bright. “You do! Did you bring your cats?”

“No cats, love. I’m sure they’re still in the parking lot, but stay inside until I get back, okay? We don’t want him to feel like his cats are threatened by us and I don’t know how he’s going to react.”

“Are you going somewhere?”

I indicate with my thumb. “There’s a store in that direction a few blocks that I’m going to check out. I should be back in a few hours. Maybe make a fire? Roast up some meat for breakfast and save a bit for me for when I get back?”

“I can do that,” my daughter agrees and kisses my cheek. “You bet. Be careful, Mom.”

“Just no fire near the books,” I call after her as she heads back deeper into the store.

“I know. I’m not a kid!”

“Yes, you are,” I mutter under my breath. But she does know how to make fire safely at least. I can’t stress over that too much. I glance at Murr to see what he’s doing.

He rubs his cheek thoughtfully and stares at the spot on my face where Rabbit kissed me. Now how am I going to explain that gesture? In the end, I give up and pretend like it didn’t happen. I just smile, grab my quick-travel pack, and head out the door.

Unsurprisingly, he follows.

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OceanofPDF.com

CHAPTER 12

MURR

I’m learning a great many things about humans from watching Dakotah. I’ve never had an interest in them in the past, and my vague memories of the time before when I was lost in my mind are filled with very negative thoughts about humans. Of wanting to destroy them and rip them to pieces.

I’ve never felt the need to rip Dakotah to pieces, so that part of me is thankfully asleep.

She is strange, though. She makes more noises at her daughter and picks up a long, smooth stick with spikes on the end of it and belts it at her waist. A weapon. Amusing. As if she needs a weapon while with me. A lesser warrior would be insulted, but I understand her unease. She has young to protect. She also grabs a sack and puts the twin-eye-cones around her neck once more. She raised them to her eyes on the roof and stood like that for a long time, which confused me. Does their presence mean she is returning to the roof?

But no, she heads out the other end of her strange building and starts walking fast.

And because I am not sure what she is up to, I follow. My curiosity always gets the best of me.

Dakotah does not burble more sounds at me as I follow her, but she knows I am with her. I do not try to hide my presence, nor do I shift to battle-form to watch her from above. She is nervous around my battle-form, preferring my weaker two-legged form. Perhaps because I am less threatening in this puny shape?

She walks and walks, sometimes pulling the cones to her eyes again and turning in a circle in place. A ritual, perhaps?

“Jstuppa hed,” Dakotah’s mouth noises surprise me. She points and then keeps moving.

Curious, I keep following.

She approaches a new human building of some kind, one that smells musty with misuse. There are tattered scraps of something red hanging from the roof, and it is another strange, square building with many clear walls that somehow do not let the air in. She pushes at a door and makes angry noises when it does not fall open for her. She pulls out a long metal bar that was in her pack and wedges it into the seam of the door, grunting when it finally slides open far enough for her to go inside.

Then, she waves me in after her.

I shove the door open, ignoring the crashing sound it makes when it shatters, and she stares at me, her mouth falling open. Then she purses her lips and shakes her head, clearly in awe of my strength.

Inside this place, it smells even worse than outside. There is a heavy layer of dust on everything that offends my senses, and the stink of mildew and mold permeates the air. It’s dark inside, and cluttered. Unlike the building that she has claimed for herself, this one is smaller and has a great deal of tumbled things all over the floor. A hole in the ceiling drips murky water from above.

Dakotah makes a dismayed sound as she surveys the place and then sighs heavily and goes deeper inside. Curious, I follow after her. What is it she’s seeking?

There are long rectangles toppled on their sides all over the floor. Shelves of some kind, I decide, because she hefts one up and things spill off of it as she does. She seems to be looking for something specific, as she kneels down and picks through the items on the floor, brushing aside leaves and detritus and lifting what looks like a cylinder. She squints at it and then screws the lid off and sniffs it, then puts it in her bag. Another cylinder she sniffs and tosses aside, then digs through the rubble a bit more.

I squat next to her and pick through the mess on the ground, looking for more of the strange cylinders she’s interested in. When I find one, I hold it up and offer it to her. She shakes her head without even sniffing this one. “Snogood,” she burbles. “Butdankyoo.”

Her mouth sounds encourage me. Perhaps I am doing this right. I pick up another thing from the ground—this one a small box wet with rainwater. Something shakes inside it, so I hold it out to her.

Dakotah chuckles and takes it from me. “Dankyoo.”

I pick up another and hold it out to her.

Her lips purse, and I can tell she’s trying not to laugh. She looks around, then spots something and climbs over the mess to pick it up. It’s square and red—a basket—and she sets it down atop the mess and indicates it. “Inheer.”

I don’t follow what she’s saying. When she indicates the basket again, I pick it up, trying to see what it is she sees. There’s nothing inside.

Dakotah giggles again. She sets the basket down once more and then puts the little cylinder and the small box inside it. “Inheer.”