Inside his mind, his monsters set up a cacophony of rejoicing.
She’s back, she’s back!
Our little friend is back!
Hello, small beauty!
Welcome back!
Carter pried the dragonette off his shoulder, held her up, and looked sternly into her sapphire eyes. She squeaked in protest.
“You need to leave,” he told her.
She squeaked louder and struggled. Her translucent wings looked so delicate, he was forced to let go of her in case he hurt her by accident. She promptly returned to his shoulder. Her little claws pricked his bare skin.
“I don’t want a pet,” he said.
We want a pet,growled a monster.
A sweet little sister,hissed another monster.
Notanypet,squawked another monster.This pet.
She wants us,put in a monster.
[happy aqua]
The little dragonette buried her head in his hair and wrapped her tail around his ear.
“Stop that,” said Carter, but he could hear the futility in his own protest. This golden beauty had, inexplicably, chosen him. Like everything else in his life, there was nothing he could do about it.
But apart from the completely ridiculous figure he was making of himself, wet and half-naked with a tiny golden dragon winding itself around his head, and the fact that he had to keep her out of Fen’s sight, he couldn’t help wanting to keep her.
She wasaffectionate. She wouldn’t shed. She was very clean—cleaner than him, right now. Her insistence on choosing him was touching. He knew from the other people with magical pets that you could teach them to be invisible in public, so it wasn’t as if she’d always be this much of a bother. He still needed to get out of the swamp without Fen ever seeing her, but after that…
The dragonette poked her head out of his hair and chirruped.
Carter gave a sigh of resignation. “Okay, fine. I guess you’ve got me. Come here and let me take a look at you.”
He held out his forearm. The dragonette jumped onto it, spread her wings, and preened. She really was a beautiful little creature, like a precious ornament come to astonishing life. The membrane of her wings was translucent amber, and the rest of her shone and glittered like purest gold. Carter gave a wry laugh as he recalled himself trying to shoo her away, when most people would never let her go.
Never, never,howled a monster.
In a distinctly Gollum-like voice, another monster gurgled,She’s ours!
“‘My precioussss,’ huh?”Carter said aloud.
The dragonette gave a trill that sounded like approval.
“Okay. Precious it is.” He raised his forearm, looking her in the eyes, and said, “Precious, youcannotlet anyone but me see you. Don’t come unless I’m alone. Understand?”
Precious gave an eager chip and booped his hand with her nose. Maybe she did understand. And that gave him an idea.
“Hang on, Precious. I have an errand for you.”
Carter took out the writes-on-anything pen he’d invented and a piece of moldable plastic. He stroked Precious while considering what to write and who to send her to.
As far as he’d seen, the magical animals could go to people they’d met and places they’d been to, but their ability to find people they’d never met before was limited to the owners they wanted. He couldn’t send her to the Defenders or anyone else he knew, because she wouldn’t be able to find them. He couldn’t send her to the nearest human, because that would be the people hunting them. He couldn’t send her to just anybody, because they wouldn’t know about magical animals and she might fall into bad hands.
