Page 60 of Grave Affairs
“She’s an irritable, annoying shark of a woman!” Wanda yelled.
Deep within the store, my mother laughed.
“Was that a good idea?” I whispered.
Wanda grinned at me. “It absolutely was a good idea. Now she knows I’m here, as once she decides she’s buying something, she gets tunnel vision. She might even visit me before she leaves. She’s one of my cousins, several times removed. We don’t track that nonsense, else we’d be listing where we fell in the family tree for ages rather than get anything done. She likes that I’m willing to call her out. I would have said something far worse, but there are children in the store.”
I was somehow related to Wanda?
I foresaw many different problems, especially if the woman realized we were related. That I had relatives in Dragon Heights hadn’t crossed my mind. How was I supposed to go back to a somewhat quiet, mostly boring, but otherwise safe life if I was related to dragons in the city?
Then again, I should have known better.
Dragon Heights bustled with dragons, so having at least one be a relative made sense. My parents had to have come from somewhere. I’d even known my mother had more than a little red dragon in her heritage.
But for Wanda to be among the red dragons related to my mother, thus related to me?
I needed time to digest that news.
Wanda winked at me. “Try not to worry yourself overly much about those dragons. While I have no doubt they wanted to make sure Garnet is in a good home, they get bored, and you are not boring. It’s truly all right to accept their gifts without worry. They may be mean old dragons, but they’re never cruel.”
* * *
Saturday, April 25, 2167
The Emerald Ward
Dragon Heights, Wyoming
If given their way, my parents would spoil Garnet rotten. As I wanted my kitten to have some perspective about eating out, I taught the carbunclo why going to the restaurant counted as a special occasion. Like our first trip there, we sat on the patio, and the waiter brought the carbunclo a platter of milk to tide her over while the rest of us placed orders for our drinks.
The restaurant had made a note of her favorite, and I praised the kitten for taking her time with her treat. The table had plenty of room for even five people, and I went to work situating Garnet’s spot so she could eat with us.
“I’m surprised you know Wanda,” my mother said, raising a brow at me.
“She was in the store where I got my new phone,” I explained. “Then Garnet charmed her, and she helped me buy my new furniture. I believe she was bored.”
“Undoubtedly. If she was in the store, you went into the chain her clan owns. All the locations in Dragon Heights have a dragon working every shift. It brings their customers into the store when they visit here. They do special visits for other locations, and they advertise them heavily in the area to draw attention to their brand. Wanda is an exceptionally distant cousin of mine. Our branches of the clan view each other as tolerable menaces. There are talks about having some of the hatchlings reunite the branches; there are at least twenty generations of separation between Wanda and me, which is distant enough for healthy hatchlings. In dragons, there only needs to be six generations of separation to erase most ancestral inheritance excepting for certain traits. Coloration is a trait that can linger through at least thirty generations.”
Humans typically counted generations in twenty year increments. I puzzled over the peculiarities of draconic generations until our drinks arrived and the waiter asked if we were ready to order. My parents went first, and I attacked my parents’ wallet through ordering steak and seafood. While it took a little work to get Garnet to order rather than sip her milk, the kitten opted to try a creamy pasta dish topped with seafood. Understanding I owned a potato thief, I ordered three servings of mashed potatoes, hoping I might get some.
I had my doubts as the carbunclo could somehow pack away more than her weight in food when hungry.
Tourmaline received a dish with nectar decorated with a flower bloom, which we put closer to my parents so the excitable kitten wouldn’t disturb the bird.
“Dare I ask how someone figured that out?” I took a sip of my tea while keeping an eye on my pets, grateful I could take them onto the patio but worried someone might create problems for us.
Tourmaline could fly away if trouble came calling, but I worried about Garnet.
I wanted her to only know safety, comfort, and love.
It would be a challenge protecting her from the nature of the world.
“One of my sisters is a silver dragon, and we haven’t had a silver in the bloodlines for at least that long. And yes, we’re quite certain there were no dalliances, especially not with a silver. My grandfather made use of magic to confirm that. Then he got his ass handed to him by my sister, who took severe offense to the suggestion that our parents might not have been loyal to each other. Considering we’re from the same hatching, I may have had a turn with that old snake myself. He got trounced six times, once for each of us from that hatching. She’s the only one who turned out to be a silver from my parents. The rest of us are either red or orange. I confuse people, as they can’t readily tell if I’m red or orange.”
“You’re both,” I muttered.
“I know that, you know that, but everyone else likes pretending I’m not as dangerous as I am. Fools, all of them.”
