Epilogue: Muzo
“Uh, Muzo? What are you doing?”
Aurum’s question made my ears flick in his direction. I had all four paws and my nose to the floor. Beside me, Lazuli did the same. My kid was excellent at copying me—especially when it involved getting into mischief.
But this was no mischief. This was very important work.
“I’m teaching Lazuli how to track scents,” I clarified. “It’s part of their jackal heritage.”
“Okay,” Aurum said, still confused. “And why exactly are you doing it outside our bedroom?”
“It just happened to be on my route. The scent trail leads around heresomewhere, I know it...”
Saffron either heard the commotion, or was psychically summoned by his twin, or both. He stuck his head out the door, then gasped. “Lazuli! Hi!”
He reached to pick Lazuli up, but the dragonet chomped Saffron’s hand. Clearly, snuffling around on the floor was more fun than being held in their uncle’s arms.
“Ow,” Saffron mumbled, nursing a baby bite wound.
Aurum snorted. “Serves you right. Not every infant wants to be captured and doted on by you.”
“Well, they should,” Saffron argued. “Wait, so what’s going on again?”
“Muzo and Lazuli are tracking a scent,” Aurum explained.
“Oh. Why?”
“Because Blueberry’s missing for the three-millionth time,” I said.
Saffron gasped in horror. “No!”
“What areyouso upset about?” Aurum asked.
“Because I also asked Taylor to sew me a plush dragon,” Saffron uttered, his face pale. “What if the thief steals that, too?”
Aurum pulled a face. “Guys, come on. They’re toys,not priceless artifacts.”
Taylor’s dry voice interjected. “Say that again after I spent hours patterning and hand sewing those one-of-a-kindtoys.”
He silently appeared out of nowhere with his usual tiger’s grace.
Now Aurum was the one going pale. He began to stammer. “Sorry, Taylor, I didn’t mean—”
But he didn’t get far. Saffron and I instantly noticed that Taylor hadn’t joined our conversation empty-handed. He carried not one but two dragon plushies—one blue, and one yellow.
“PLUSHIES!” we yelled simultaneously.
Taylor chuckled at our zeal. He tossed me the blue one and handed the yellow one to Saffron. The yellow-haired twin lit up like a neon sign, squeezing the matching dragon to his chest. “Look at him! He looks just like me. I think I’ll call him Saffron Jr.”
“The resemblance is uncanny,” Aurum remarked.
Meanwhile, I was thrilled to have my plushie back. “Taylor! You found Blueberry!”
“Not quite,” Taylor said, nodding behind me.
I turned around to see Cobalt kneeling there. My tail wagged instinctively.
My alpha smiled. “Blueberry kept going missing, so I asked Taylor to make a second one. Hopefully Blueberry 2.0 will stay put.”
