In the end, we learn that she is quietest when my mouth is on her.

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OceanofPDF.com

CHAPTER 79

DAKOTA

It’s never occurred to me that I can just fly off with my husband for scavenging. For some reason, when I’d pictured us heading out, I thought we’d be trekking on foot. I put on my most comfortable hiking boots, stuffed my traveling backpack with supplies for the day, and checked in with Rabbit to make sure she’d be okay staying behind.

“Can I come on the next trip?” Rabbit asks, using two forks to shred a pan of leftover meat for a bevy of howling cats. “I want to see what it’s like to fly.”

“Fly…?” I echo.

And then I feel stupid. Of course we’d fly. Murr has wings. With him flying us, we’d be able to scout from above and look for stores that are more out of the way and less picked-over. I can look for plant nurseries in the hopes of finding some wild sprouts. We can cover so much more ground.

I just hope I’m not afraid of heights. Riding a rollercoaster as a kid is one thing, being held in a dragon’s claws as he flies hundreds of feet into the air is another entirely. Surely I can be brave about this, though? I smile at my daughter, even though my thoughts are spiraling. “Next time.”

Then I go and hug her tightly. Just in case I don’t get another chance.

“You’ll be fine, Mom,” she tells me with a laugh.

“I know. Murr won’t let me fall.” I hesitate to let her go, then whisper in her ear. “Keep an eye on Dottie, okay? I’m worried she’s not feeling well and hiding it.”

She nods, eyes wide.

I hug her again, and then I head off to find my new husband. He’s not inside, so I open the door to the store and head back out near the fire again. It’s not unusual for Murr to be out and about in the morning. I’m not much of a morning person myself. I drag myself from bed to make a fire and boil old coffee grounds in the hopes of squeezing a bit more flavor from them. Once I’ve had the saddest, palest cup of coffee in creation, I start to feel human. Murr is very much a morning sort of dragon, however. He is up at dawn, hunting or digging furrows for the garden I might have offhandedly mentioned the day before. He checks on all his cats constantly, making sure they’re fed and that the little ones are taken care of.

When I find him this morning, he’s got two piled into his lap and he’s cradling a third like a baby. The cats give me sleepy looks, unmoving, but Murr beams at me. “Hello, wife.”

I get all warm and mushy at his greeting. “Hello, husband. Still want to go scavenging today?”

He nuzzles the cat in his arms and sets it down, then displaces the others carefully from his lap. He’s wearing one of his kilts today, I notice. No more shorts for him. He bounds to his feet with a nod. “We go.”

I smile wider, adjusting the straps of the pack over my shoulders. “How do we want to do this? If you shift into your other form, how do we communicate? How am I going to stay on your back?”

Murr takes my hand in his. “No stay on back. Murr hold like this.”

And he makes a grasping motion, his big fingers encircling my forefinger. I guess I’m the forefinger in this scenario? Yikes. “So you’re going to just…hold me around the waist?”

Why does that make me feel faint? I don’t like the idea of my legs dangling as we fly through the air, but he’s the expert here.

The dragon-man nods and taps my hand with a quick double-tap. “Hand talk.”

“Okay.” I can do that. I rack my brain, trying to communicate what we’re looking for specifically. Normally when we scavenge, we dig through whatever we run across in the hopes of finding something useful. If we can fly, however, it opens up new worlds of possibility. I don’t want to be greedy, but there are certain stores we haven’t run across that I’m dying to find. We’ll start there. “We’re looking for buildings with plants. Big green signs. I want seeds and plant nutrients, or if we can find entirely whole plants, that would be amazing. We’re also looking for camping or sporting goods stores, since they’ll most likely have food supplies that survive long term instead of a grocery store. We want signs with a fish on them.”

He absorbs all this, blinking at me. “Fish store. Plant store.”

“Yes, perfect.”

“Explain…store?” He gestures at the bookstore that we’ve made our home. “Is not store?”

Oh, oops. I guess I took for granted that he’d follow everything. Of course he doesn’t really grasp what a store is and what it’s for. “No, this is a store, too. It’s a big building like this, but we want a different one.”

The door to the store opens just as I gesture at it, and Aggie steps out. She brightens at the sight of the two of us standing in the parking lot. “Good, you’re still here. I need a favor.”

OceanofPDF.com

OceanofPDF.com

CHAPTER 80

DAKOTA

Aggie walks out to us with slow, measured steps. She’s by herself, and as she approaches, she looks around furtively. “Is anyone else out here?”

“Just me and Murr,” I tell her, curious. “We were about to go scavenging. What’s going on?”

She moves in closer and puts a hand to her mouth, as if sharing a secret. “I need a favor. Dottie’s eightieth birthday is coming up and I want to give her a party. Cake, hats, presents, the works.”

I’m torn. Part of me loves the idea, but I’d be willing to bet we can’t find most of those things. I need to set proper expectations with Aggie so she isn’t disappointed if we come back empty-handed. “We can look, sure, but I don’t know how we’d find flour or make cake at this point⁠—”

She waves off my concerns. “You’ve got a dragon. You’ll figure something out. Get what you can. I want to make her feel special. She’s my best friend, you know.”

I should tell her that there’s no way we’ll find everything on her wish list. But there’s something about the look in her eyes and my worry over Dottie that makes me pause. “We’ll check some party stores and I’ll look for a grocery that hasn’t been destroyed. I can’t promise anything, though.”

“I know you’ll do what you can.” She pats my arm.

“What does she want as a present?” Maybe that will be something simpler that I can satisfy if nothing else. “Clothes? A pillow?”

Aggie is slow to answer. “She never says she wants anything, but I think she likes cups.”

“Cups?” I echo. “Like for coffee?”

“Not exactly. Coffee is best in a mug. She likes a teacup. Them fancy little things you see English ladies using with their pinkies out.”

Oh. Like porcelain china teacups. Good god, she’s better off asking for a cake. I haven’t seen a lot of fine porcelain that’s survived the After. “I’ll see what we can do.”

I glance over at Murr, but he’s just waiting patiently for me to explain to him what it is we’re after, and probably what the heck a fancy teacup is. If anyone can find it, though, it’s the two of us together.

Okay then, birthday party stuff. Hats. Ingredients for a cake. Wrapping paper.

Porcelain china.

And me with a backpack and a dragon.

No problem at all.

Aggie heads off, pleased with herself, and I’m left alone with my new husband. “A few more things to get,” I explain to him apologetically. “This might be an all-day trip.”

“Day with Dakota, good day,” he says, and I get the warm fuzzies.