Some of them cared. Some of them were nice.
Some of them looked at Wally with the same paternal glint in their eyes that Giles did when he looked at Buffy.
Cheeks warm, Wally set the claw on the bedside table and went to pull back the covers, intending to nest for the night, when something scraped his bedroom door. It wasn’t loud or forceful enough to merit concern, but it was startling. When it happened a second time, Wally abandoned thoughts of sleep and climbed to his feet to investigate the noise.
It seemed to be coming from the hallway.
“Hello?” Wally called through the dark. He stood within arm’s reach of the door.
There was a pause. The door jiggled, then became still. A second passed. The scraping noise repeated itself, followed by a low whine. All the puzzle pieces clicked into place and Wally, grinning, opened the door. Beatrice waited on the other side.
“Beatrice!” Wally squatted down to pet her behind the ear. Beatrice leaned into his hand and wagged her tail.
“Where is your master?” Wally asked. He craned his neck to look down the hall, but saw no trace of Grimbold. “If you don’t go back to him, he’ll miss you.”
Beatrice wagged her tail at twice the speed as if to tell him that all would be well.
Unsure what to do in such a situation, Wally sat in the doorway and devoted his attention to the dog. She soaked up his love, pushing into his hand and directing his affection to all the parts of her body that needed his attention the most—her head, her neck, and her rump. Wally spent a long while scratching the spot at the base of her tail. Despite her old bones, Beatrice bowed down until her chest was on the floor and her butt was in the air and used her back legs to dance back and forth, clearly in doggy heaven.
“What am I going to do with you?” Wally asked after a long while spent devoted to petting her. He looked down the hall again, but saw no one. Either Grimbold was asleep, or he didn’t mind that she was missing. Wally wasn’t sure where his bedroom was, so returning her was out of the question. All he knew was that it felt important to keep her safe. “Do you want to sleep with me tonight?”
As if she’d been waiting the entire time for an invitation, Beatrice nosed her way past him and trotted into the room. She crossed the carpet and set one paw on the side of the bed, but didn’t attempt to jump up. Wally smiled, climbed to his feet, closed the bedroom door, and followed her.
“You’re sure that we’re not going to get in trouble?” he asked as he scooped the dog into his arms and placed her on the bed. As soon as he let her go, she began to nose beneath the covers. “I don’t want for either of us to make your master mad.”
Beatrice snorted and wiggled beneath the covers, disappearing from view.
Wally glanced at the door, half wondering if he shouldn’t go find Carsons so he could return Beatrice to where she belonged. It would be the right thing to do if he didn’t want to be punished.
Punished.
Wally licked his lips nervously and folded his arms over his chest. The fear of being reprimanded was an old habit he hoped one day to break. Doing his best to keep his cool, he distracted himself from his thoughts by surveying the bedside table. His dragon claw rested there next to a few small stacks of gold coins that he’d fished out of his bed earlier that day.
Grimbold would not punish him.
Grimbold might never punish him.
Heart fluttering, Wally climbed into bed next to Beatrice, who tucked herself against his stomach and quickly fell asleep. There was no fear in her—she didn’t cower in the face of her master, nor did she have reason to believe that Wally would hurt her. To Beatrice, Grimbold’s lair was a safe space. And now, Wally thought as his eyelids drooped and sleep reclaimed its hold on him, it was his safe space, too.
* * *
“YouJERKFACE!”
The bed rocked. Two very solid somethings tumbled onto the mattress, crushing Wally’s legs. Wally woke from a dead sleep and bolted out of bed, his heart a good ten paces ahead of his body.
Two young boys tussled on top of his sheets, clutching what appeared to be tablets.
Beatrice dug herself out from beneath the blankets and growled at them.
Wally had never seen the boys before. He’d assumed that if Grimbold had young children that they would have been present at dinner, or at the very least, audible in the halls during the day. Especially boys as rowdy as these ones.
The boys were fair and blond. One wore a red t-shirt and the other wore blue. From what Wally could ascertain, they were approximately eight years old.
“I won fair and square!” cried the boy in blue. They rolled across the bed, almost flattening Beatrice, who growled louder, but did not attack. Concerned for her safety, Wally scooped her out from beneath the blankets and held her to his chest.
“Did not!” the boy in red shrieked. “You used a blue shell right at the end and that'scheating!”
One of the tablets flew across the bed. The second quickly followed suit. Horrified by what was happening, Wally stroked Beatrice's chest and stayed still and silent.
