Waywayaway, past the… big water.
But that was all earlier. It was dark now, but the dark wasn’t like it had been when it was just her and Pointy Teeth Lady and the tentacle man. There were so many bits of light in this darkness. Moving lights and zooming lights and faraway glowing lights. They wereallfar away. But close enough to get to, if she could just… maybe… just maybe…
Butno one would take her there, to poke at the lights and the moving things, no matter how hard she bit them. They kept just saying, “It’s the middle of the night,” and “We’re trying to sleep, Maggie,” and singing her stupid little songs and cuddling her. She didn’t want songs or cuddles. She wanted—she wanted—THINGS.
Maybe food? Was that what she wanted? Maybe more fishes? Maybe maybe?
Food,she thought desperately, rolling around on top of Keeley and Lance in their bed.Fishes! Fishes fishes fishes.
Lance rolled over, one arm over his eyes, and groaned. “We should nail a lid on top of the cot.”
“Like with goldfish,” Keeley murmured beside him.
“Goldfish?”
“Like… If you’ve got a cat.”
“More like nailing the cat in…” Lance yawned. “Remind me in the morning.”
They were both HORRIBLE. Maggie hissed and tried to find somewhere to bite them both again, but they hid under the covers.
“It’s time to sleep, sweetheart,” Keeley murmured from under the blankets.
Maggie threw herself down in misery. She didn’t want to sleep! She wanted to go OUT.
But… she didn’tneedKeeley or Lance to go out, did she?
Ooh. She could takeherselfout.
Then she would go and find the big dragon and show him how she was BIG and SCARY and she should be allowed to go out all the time, wherever she wanted. And make him tell her what a goldfish was.
The room was locked up, because her furry parents didn’t actually want her taking herself anywhere, but that didn’t stop her. She waited until they were both asleep, then pried open the lock on the door, then the other lock, and the “baby-proofing” lock, and crept out into the hallway.
The house was locked too, because pffffff stupid reasons, but she knew how to deal with that. It was even easier than getting out of the room! No one had guessed that she could squeeze herself out the tiny gap in the highest window in the bathroom on the second floor, but she could!
Oh. She also could have zapped herself through it. She tried, just to be sure.Pop,back inside.Pop,outside again. Aha! She could!Pop, pop, pop.
She stopped, her sides heaving. That was fun! But also, hard.
She didn’t like hard.
Maggie crouched on the edge of the roof, waiting for the tiredness to go away. It took soooooo long. Should she change her shape? Hrm. Hrm hrm.No.The other shape would have more energy, but it was also very very dumb. It couldn’t evenwalk.It didn’t have ANY teeth.
She gnashed her teeth together to remind herself how good her teeth were and trilled smugly.
Behind her, some people were shouting. Someone was calling to her, but pfffff. They weren’t as interesting as this: the cool night air whispering over her wings, promising her that she could fly very high and very fast and be the best dragon of all. The ocean was shining in the moonlight. It was big, and scary, and very horrible bad, but…
She tilted her head and chirruped. The ocean was big and horrible and wet, but looking at it now, it shone like a very large and very precious thing. Was the ocean a treasure? Could it behertreasure?
That was the best thought she’d ever had. She bet it could be. Even if it was scary. SHE would be SCARIER. She would show it!
She gathered herself up, ready to launch.
“Maggie? There you are! What are you doing?”
Carol was wearing a flappy robe over the not-very-much clothing that Maggie’s grown-ups wore at night. It was still more clothing than they ever managed to make Maggie wear. Carol was rubbing her eyes and staring up at Maggie like something was terribly wrong.
Which it was! She’d almost caught her!
