“Well he’s a boar. If he was a pig, without the tusks, I think Eliot and Dave would tear him to shreds. The tusks are what keeps him alive. I better get back to the game.”
“And you want to bring a human into this world?”
“I think she has an open mind. I think she’d understand it. She’s different. She wasn’t afraid to stand out as a human. I think she’d appreciate our world.”
“You mean she looked like a pixy.” Phoebe giggled. “I think we’re going to take off.”
‘Have a good night. Don’t be a stranger.”
“I won't be.” She kissed his cheek then sashayed back to Teagan. Alistair couldn’t help himself; he watched her walk away. After all, she was a good-looking woman. He returned to the table. Half the table now had tails. He was surprised to see Balthazar had his wings out. Hank was still in his full human form for once. He nodded to him.
Tibs dealt the next hand. Alistair asked for three cards this time. He was determined not to pull out more than his wings. Alistair won the second hand, so everyone else had to reveal another part of their animal. Ears popped out. Andrew now had spotted ears on the top of his head. Dave had sleek black cat ears. Eliot’s furry ears hung down the sides of his head. Bob had bushy round brown ears, and Hank had fuzzy brown ears. Balthazar chose to pull out his tail instead, the seat backs were specially made to accommodate for tails. Balthazar won the third hand, and Alistair was begrudgingly forced to let his tail out.
“But that’s it, that’s as much of the dragon as you’re going to see.” Alistair’s dragon was a deep emerald green. Balthazar’s was black. The tip of Balthazar’s tail forked while Alistair’s was long with an arrowhead at the end. Balthazar folded and called it a night before any more of him came out. Alistair stayed in the game even after he was forced to push out his ears. Paws, claws, and hooves began to appear around the table. This made card holding very difficult since they all lost that opposable thumb their human forms gave them. The black panther head appeared on Dave. Eliot’s dog face appeared. Hank was still holding on, only one hand had seen him transformed, and he had his ears and his tail, but the rest of him was still human. Alistair was hanging in there, too. The rest of the bar patrons had long left. Alistair sent the bartender home. He tended bar for his friends. Now that Balthazar was gone, only his friends remained around the table.
“So, can I ask you guys for your opinion on something pretty important?”
“Of course.”
“I’m all ears,” Eliot said lifting his ears to hear better.
“I’m in love with a human.”
“Aren’t you engaged to Phoebe?”
“I was, but she chose Teagan over me, so even though our parents don’t seem to have gotten the memo, we called it off.”
“A human, huh? Well, I say good for you. You’re not the first, and surely you won’t be the last.”
“Do you think that if we mate with humans, the shifters will die off?”
“Nah. There are too many pure bloods still, and purists; we’ll never die off. Clans will die, that’s inevitable. But the shifters, we’ll always be here.”
“Unless the humans hunt and kill us again.”
“Even so, some of us will survive and we’ll continue on. We’ve been among humans for centuries now, right under their noses, and they don’t notice a thing.”
“Are you going to show her your dragon and teach her about our world?”
“That’s the plan. I got to get her to talk to me, again, but once I do, then yeah, that’s the plan.”
“How come she’s not speaking to you?”
“She might have heard Phoebe say something about our wedding, but she was breaking it off. Sarai, that’s her name, she wouldn’t give me a chance to explain. She just got so mad, she got in her car and drove off. She won't take my calls, and I don’t really want to make a scene at her place of business.”
“Smart move. Women get hot-headed with jealousy, give her time to calm down. If it’s meant to be, she’ll come back.” Dave said
“Well when you reconcile, we’ll throw a party.” Dave said.
“Yeah, because we like humans, and we like you. So, if you like a human, then we are all for that,” Bob said.
“Thanks for the support, guys. I really appreciate it.”
“We all live in this world together; we should get along. That goes for humans, too. This is their world, too.”
“If a pig and a cheetah can get along, well, we all should.”
“Well said, piggy.” Andrew reached over and bopped Hank on the head with his paw.
