“You want me to hide?”
“For now. Yeah. I gotta drop you off and race back to the other house.”
“You're going to leave me?”
“Just until after I talk to the people who are after you. I want to throw them off your scent. Mislead them.” I glanced at him. “Once I convince them you were just some crazy guy who ran off, I'll come back.”
“Crazy,” he muttered.
“Look, I'm trusting you. We're strangers, but you helped us yesterday. That means a lot. So, I'm going to do right by you. But to be honest, I don't know if I fully believe your story. Maybe it was a fluke and the fire just happened to go out.”
“You don't believe me?” Kaspian's voice lowered into something that sent shivers down my spine.
“I mostly do,” I hurried to say. “But you need to understand that we don't have magic or dragons here. They're myths. And you don't look like a dragon.”
“And what am I supposed to look like?”
“A big, scaly, lizard-monster that breathes fire.”
“That's a rather crude way of describing the noble dragon form, but I'll accept it since you have never seen a real dragon.”
“Hold on.” I swung my head toward him. “Are you saying that you can become a big lizard?”
“A dragon. Yes. In this form, I am a Dragon with a capital D. In animal form, I am a dragon with a lowercase D.”
“Big and little Ds?” I snorted a laugh. “Okay.”
“You still don't believe me?”
“I want to. But I can't wrap my mind around the idea of a man turning into a giant monster.”
“I am not a monster!”
“All right. Relax, T-Rex. We call them monsters here.”
“Humans,” he growled. “Humans without leadership.”
“Hey! I told you we have leaders. We have laws. We govern ourselves just fine, thank you. We don't need alien lizards. This isn't V.”
Kaspian snorted. “Oh, yes, you're doing an excellent job of protecting your forests.”
“There's that arrogance again.” I scowled at him. “That doesn't go over well here. Especially not in Oregon.”
“Oregon?”
“The state we're in. I told you about it before.”
“We are in a state of oregon? Is that one of your words with multiple meanings?”
“Yeah, it's not an emotional state. Oregon is a region within a nation. We call them states.”
“Like a kingdom.”
“Sort of. America is only one of many countries on Earth. Countries are more like your kingdoms. Actually, there are still places with kings and queens. But America is considered a country. We divide the country into states to make governing easier. Each state can make its own laws in addition to the primary laws that the entire country obeys. We are divided into states but united as a country. And so, we are the United States of America. USA for short. Or just America.”
“United states.” He sighed. “I don't understand.”
“We can try again later. For now, just know that you've come to a good place. Some countries don't have laws like ours. They might have shot you on sight.”
