The lid creaked open the rest of the way.
“Ta-da!” Xtelle threw her front legs up by her ears and jiggled them like jazz hooves.
“Jesus,” Ryder said, holstering his gun.
“What are you doing in my trunk?” I didn’t lower my weapon an inch.
“Exactly what you told me to do.”
“I told you to stay at my house and watch videos about horses.”
“I’m sorry? No speaka da being held prisoner in a town youinsistis equally welcoming to all creatures.”
“How long do you have to listen to that?” Ryder asked.
“Every minute her mouth is open.”
“I never thought I’d be happy about the pig,” he said.
“Pig!” She narrowed her eyes and tipped her head to ramming position. Good thing her horn wasn’t visible. “What did you call me, human?”
“Simmer down,” I said. “It’s a dragon anyway. It just takes the shape of a baby pig.”
She lowered her hooves and placed them neatly in front of her on the edge of the trunk so she could peer right and left. “It’s a…adragondo you say? Isn’t that interesting? So interesting. Does it…uh…run wild in the town?” Her eyes were too big. She looked nervous.
Ryder gently pressed down on my gun arm. “We don’t let it run wild.”
I sighed and holstered my firearm.
“Dragon pig lives with Delaney and me.” He nodded toward his truck. “And rides shotgun.”
“So it’s…here?” Her voice carried a small flutter. “Dragons and unicorns do not mix. I hope there’s no reason we’d need to interact?”
“There’s nothing written in stone about it,” Ryder said.
Then the door to his truck flew open. Xtelle scrambled out of the trunk and quickly trotted around to hide behind me.
“Oh, come on,” I groaned.
The pig seemed to get more adorable the longer it stayed in Ordinary. It tip-toe-trotted between the two vehicles, the pebble-on-rock sound of its hooves announcing its approach.
“Help me,” Xtelle breathed into my knees. “It knows what I am!”
“Take it easy,” Ryder started. “It’s just a little…”
“Violence isn’t allowed,” I reminded Xtelle. And myself, because, really? The drama coming off of this unicorn could fuel a high school theater company.
“…dragon pig,” Ryder continued. “Perfectly harmless. Hasn’t done anything violent toward anyone. Unless you count that thing it did with the fire hydrant. And that was more a theft with intent to break my leg. Not actual violence.”
“Just settle down,” I said. “Laws of Ordinary apply to you too now, you know.”
“I don’t know the laws!” Xtelle moaned. “I haven’t read them yet!”
“You would know them if you’d stayed home like I told you to.”
“But that’s boring, and unicorns cannot survive boredom. It’s our one flaw.”
One flaw? Oh, let me count the ways.
