I stood there—panting, though I had done nothing strenuous—and stared at the proof of who Kaspian was. Irrefutable proof. I couldn't reason this away. Kas was a Dragon. And a dragon. Upper and lowercase. All the cases. And he was from another world. A world of magic. He had magic. And he wanted to fuck me. Holy shit!
Pull it together, Met!
I cleared my throat. “Can I call you Puff?”
“What?” Kaspian sat down on his haunches as a dog might.
“Never mind. Holy shit. Okay, I believe you. I completely believe you.” I ran a hand through my hair. “Holy fuck. How did you get here?”
“I told you. There was a glow that became a portal.”
“Right. A portal. A magic portal from a magic world to this one. Because that happens. Wait. It does happen. It did happen. Immense electrical discharge and blammo! Dragon on Earth.”
The blur came again. A bit faster this time. In a few moments, the dragon went from lowercase to capital. Then naked Kaspian walked past me to where he'd left his clothes and got dressed. I kept staring at the spot where the lowercase Kaspian had stood. Specifically, at the holes his claws had left in my lawn.
“He's a dragon,” I whispered. I turned to look at him. “You're anactualdragon. And a Dragon.”
“And a king.” He pointed at me. “Don't forget that part. I had to fight many of my kind to gain the crown.”
“You had to fight other Dragons to become King?”
“Of course. How are your leaders selected?”
“Uh, we vote.”
“You what?” Kaspian paused with his T-shirt halfway up his glorious arms.
“We vote. Everyone of a certain age or older can vote on who they want to lead our government. It's called democracy.”
He snorted. “It's called insanity. Damn humans.”
“Could you stop saying 'humans' in that tone?” I crossed my arms. “I'm getting offended.”
“I've tried to see things from your perspective, and I've admitted that I was arrogant with you. But I grow weary of monitoring my speech to save your pride. I have shown you who I am and now, I wish for you to show me the same consideration that I have shown you. Try to understand me in return. Even on Serai, humans don't have magic. Because of this, they are considered to be the lowest race on the planet. Not just by Dragons but by all the races of Serai. Even they see themselves as the least powerful.”
“Right above the animals?” I grimaced.
“Yes, now you see things as I do.” He waved at me and went inside. “I wish to watch the frivolous morons some more.”
“Hey, fuckhead!” I stormed into the house after him, then slammed the front door behind me.
Kaspian spun toward me with wide eyes. “What did you call me?”
“You heard me. I called you a fuckhead because you're being a fuckhead.” I shoved him in the chest. “And guess what? I don't care how big you get. We have things here called rockets and bombs that could blow your lowercase dragon up into teeny.” I poked his chest. “Tiny.” Poke. “Pieces.” Poke. “I just saved your ass today! Without me spinning that story, you'd be dead and dissected on several metal tables in Area 51—which I'm now certain exists. Because if you exist, everything else must too. Werewolves, vampires, aliens. Motherfucking Bigfoot probably camps in my backyard and I don't even know it.” I waved toward the back. “It would explain all the massive piles of shit I find.”
Kaspian blinked. “Bombs?”
“Yes, bombs!” I made the sound of an explosion while I burst my hands out in the universal sign of something going boom. “Gone! Blammo! No Kaspian! Do you understand? We are not helpless here. On this planet,youare the least powerful!”
Kaspian backed up.
“Those guys who came looking for you don't want to make friends, Kaspian. They want to kill you because they see you as a threat to our world. And after they killed you, they would gleefully cut you open to figure out what makes you tick.”
“Tick?”
“Yes, like a clock. Tick-tock, how does Kaspian become a dragon? Tick-tock, how does he put out a fire with his fucking mind!?”
“It's my magic.”
