“I need that too!” he said, jumping from foot to foot and waving his rock in the air.
“We’ll refill it after I fix its boo-boo.”
“Why do they all keep breaking?” he sighed.
Eventually, I hoped he’d put that together. Rock plus plastic equals springing a leak.
Jondi followed me into the bathroom where I dumped out the water and dried the pool as best as I could. Then I grabbed a face mask from the bathroom cabinet and made him put it on.
“I don’t like it!” he stomped his feet.
This was a light day for him. He was handling this better than he would’ve when he first moved in with me. Add in all the tension in the air and the fact that Eran was bringing his whole family over in a few hours and he was having a really good day.
“Just while I breathe fire. You know the rules,” I said.
“But you’re the one breathing it, not me!” He said, sinking down into a squat.
I was just happy that he was keeping his mask on. A second later, once I was certain that mask would stay in place, I blew the lightest little puff of fire at the injured section of the pool until the plastic melted in on itself. Outside of my wings, I didn’t show many draconic traits, but I did have a fire in my belly. Sometimes my mane caught fire too if I was irritated. Fortunately, it took a lot to irritate me. When I was satisfied with how melted together the pool was I dunked it under the faucet until it cooled.
“How did you do that? You made it go back together!” Jondi peered over the tub before climbing in. “Fill it up?”
“We will in a minute. We need to talk about when Uncle Eran comes over,” I said.
“No putting the babies in the pool. No putting the babies in the tub. Or in the potty! No putting the babies in the sink. No putting the babies anywhere. No feeding the babies fish or anything. Uncle Vatten is still tired and he’s going to stay in his real form and not be in person form.”
“And we’re all going to stay inside this time. We’re going to keep everything shut up tight,” I added. “We’re not going to answer the door for anyone.”
“What if it’s someone on fire?” he asked me.
“Why would someone be on fire?” I asked, arching a brow.
“Because they played with the stove or something,” Jondi shrugged.
“You let me or Uncle Eran handle that then,” I told him. “If someone comes to the door for any reason, you let us handle that.”
“What if it’s a bad dead man?” he asked.
“What’s the plan if it’s a bad dead man?” I asked him because we had talked through this a lot. I hated scaring him, but having a plan for a guy like Ferrick only seemed logical.
“I get into the basket with the babies as the real me,” he said and I let the semantics go for now. “Uncle Vatten will lay on top of us and I stay there until you or Uncle Eran come get us. Or I can go with Grandpa Carmine or Uncle Vius or Claw. I don’tbelieve anyone else. And I keep my eyes closed and try to keep the babies quiet.”
“You got it. What happens if I pick up the basket but don’t say anything?” I asked him.
“I stay quiet because we might be going out in secret,” he said. “But the bad dead men are leaving, right?”
“That’s the plan, kiddo,” I ruffled his wet hair. “Are you ready to have your pool back?”
“Yeah. I just hope my rock doesn’t get mad and bite it again,” he sighed.
“You gotta use your cutting board, baby,” I smiled, knowing good and well that before Pras Lavender left that pool would spring another leak.
Chapter 3
Beryl
Guardians of Glitter Bomb Territory
I was all for flying to the GGB by wing power, but Sermon wouldn’t hear of it.
