“Oh, this motherfucker is cray-cray,” Tank whispered.
The other men took a step back, as if crazy were catching.
“I'm not sure that he is,” I said.
“What's with this 'not sure' shit?” Gromit asked. “The guy thinks he's a king of a make-believe kingdom. Did he say 'dragon?'”
“Make believe?” Kaspian growled. “If that means what I think that means, you will pay for the offense, human.”
And that's when Kaspian's eyes—the ones that already looked as if they were glowing—started to actually glow. As in light shone out of them like he was one of the X-Men.
“What the fuck?!” Gromit jerked back.
“All right!” I jumped between them. “Hey, Kas? Can I call you Kas?” I leaned into Kaspian's line of sight. “Hi, there. Can you do me a favor and dim the lights? They're kind of terrifying.” I waved at his eyes. “You see, we don't know Aravult because there is no such place on Earth. And we don't know dragons, because here, they're mythical creatures. But I've got a feeling you're not from Earth, are you?”
“What—like he's a fucking alien?” Gromit asked. “Are you serious? You're seriously playing along with this bullshit?”
“Look at his fucking eyes!” Tank shouted. “Yo! Call the cops! Call the damn government! Call someone who can deal with crazy guys whose eyes glow!”
Kaspian snarled at them.
“Hey!” I shouted. “He just saved lives! He put out a fire that we've been battling forever. I don't care if he's an alien or a real fucking dragon, I'm not handing him over to a bunch of spooks to dissect and study!”
Everyone went still and silent.
On the line, certain things were sacred. If you did a good turn for someone, it was all part of the job. No big deal. But if a civilian were to somehow help us, as rare as that might be, they became family. We took care of the people who took care of us. This one time, we were fighting a bad one, and a local sandwich shop sent a van out to feed us. That was great and all, but then the wind shifted. The fire jumped for us. A whole chain went down. And damn if those sandwich guys didn't save our asses. They drove their stupid food truck right into the fire, swung open the back door, and waved us in as if they did that shit every day. A food truck saved the lives of five firefighters that day. A fucking food truck that could have blown up, what with the fucking propane tank they had hooked on the back. But those guys didn't think about that shit. They didn't think at all. They just reacted, and God looks after the morons. The brave morons especially.
We only eat sandwiches from their shop now. We brought them so much business—not just from our station, but every station in the area and all the family of those firefighters—that they expanded to open sandwich shops all over Oregon. That's how we treat family.
And it doesn't matter what that family is—animal, human, or insane dragon.
“Get him out of here,” Captain Palmer said.
The men drew back, so I had a line of sight with the Captain.
He met my stare. Steady. Commanding. “You hear me, Met? Unless you want me to do it?”
“No, I'll look after him, Cap.” I took Kaspian's hand. “Come on, Kas. We've got to get you out of here.”
“Met, take the transport truck.” The Captain tossed me a set of keys.
“Yes, sir.” I rushed away from the black forest, men and women backing up to form an aisle of honor and let us through.
“Why are we fleeing?” Kaspian demanded.
“Because humans do bad things to people we don't understand.” I kept my stare forward. “And you are a very confusing person, Kas.”
“Ah.” His blanket crinkled as he walked. “I am in an uncivilized land where humans have been allowed to run wild. They will come for me because I represent the civilization they oppose.”
I snorted. “Yeah. Something like that.”
Chapter Three
All strapped in with some help from me, Kaspian stared around the truck's cab with an interest that couldn't be faked. Either he was insane and truly believed his lies, or—and I was shockingly leaning toward this option—he was telling the truth. And if he was telling the truth, I was sitting beside a man from another world. A man with magic, who could put out fires with a wave of his hand. Oh, and he could make his eyes glow. Really glow. Not just a trick of the light. If I hadn't seen it for myself, I wouldn't believe it. Even after everything I'd seen, I still doubted it. There had to be a logical explanation—that's what the rational part of my mind kept telling me.
But there was another part of my mind—a part I liked to call Peter Pan—who kept whispering, “But what if you fly?”
And if you don't get that reference, you're a sad, sad person who needs to readPeter Panimmediately. Or at least watch some Disney movies. Sheesh.
