8
Maggie
Maggie woke up, warm and cozy, snuggled into—hrm.Hrmph.Someone soft and warm but who didnotsmell like Keeley? Who was it?
Ooh!Pointy Teeth Lady?
She wriggled around until she could peer up. Yes! Pointy Teeth Lady! Except her eyes were closed, and even though her mouth was hanging a tiiiiiny bit open, Maggie couldn’t see her teeth. Ugh.
And there was someone else behind Pointy Teeth Lady. Someone big and shadowy, and not-Keeley-or-Lance.
She chittered uncertainly to herself. Where was Keeley? Where was Lance? They were part of her hoard. She was meant to know where they were, all the time. That was why she had the box. Not that KeeleyorLance fit in the box. Pah.
She needed another box. A bigger one. Then she would go and get Keeley and Lance and never let them go away again.Andthe big dragon. And Pointy Teeth Lady. And…
The sparkle of sunlight on gently rippling water distracted her.Ooooh.
Maggie sniffed the air. Over there, sparkly sunlight. Over here… boring old rocks, all around and over top of her as well, as though they were in a box. Insomeone else’sbox. As though someone else had taken HER for their hoard. The thought made her feel like all her scales were going to burst into flame and explode right off her body.
She crept down out of Pointy Teeth Lady’s lap. If some other horrible dragon had stolenherfor their hoard, she was going to steal herself back again, right now.
A fragment of unhappiness poked at her memory, sharp and unpleasant. She froze, statue-still except for her tail whipping back and forth.Hadsomeone tried to steal her? No—someone had tried to steal Pointy Teeth Lady, and Maggie had stolen her back. And then… and then…
The sky had been full ofhorrible bad waterand the ground had been allhorrible bad waterand it had all been the worst thing that had happened in her entire life including when she saw her own reflection unexpectedly and thought another, exquisitely beautiful dragon was stealing one of her bottlecaps from her hoard.
She shivered at the memory, then remembered the water and the cold closing in all around and nowhere to jump to except more water and more cold, and she shivered again.
But…
There wasn’t any horrible water in the skynow. There was SUN. And the sun was puddling just outside the cave, warm and bright and inviting.
Maybe she should go and investigate?
Maybe there was some way to pick up apieceof sunlight, all sparkly-shimmery and hug-warm, and take it with her, until she found her hoard box again.
She crept forward, slowly, slowly, all memories of being afraid vanishing like a puddle on a hot day. She was going togetthe sun. It was going to be All For Her.
But… the other water was still out there. The bad water NOT in the sky. It was out there, glitteringat her, pretending to benicewater and not sneaky horrible bad water that got in her mouth and her nostrils and her ears andeverywhere.
She hissed, so that the bad water would know she didn’t like it, but quietly, so it wouldn’t hear her.
Something hissed back.
Maggie stilled, all her scales and spikes going rigid so that whatever had hissed at her would know she was Very Big and Very Scary. Whatever it was. Wherever it was. Where was it? Come back so she could hiss at it properly!
She craned her neck out as long as it would go, peering around the cave. Pointy Teeth Lady was still asleep. Nothing would ever hiss at Pointy Teeth Lady. Her teeth were SO sharp. And she was nice and snuggly to sleep on.
Maggie was done sleeping, though. She needed to find the hissing thing and frighten it away so she could be in the warm sunlight and figure out how to keep it forever, instead of having to walk around on the horrible cold ground.
“Sssss,” she hissed at the cold hard ground.
Sssssssss, something hissed in response.
She froze.
“Sssss,” she hissed again.
Sssssssss.
