Page 105 of A Light in the Dark
“Maybe we should go buy him a camera so he can photograph the rabbits before we kill them.”
“We’ll hit a hunting store on the way, see about licenses for you both, and get you two starter bows, too. We can make it fit in the back. Joel, no excess silk. We donothave room for a cooler, a bunch of rabbits, and excess silk.”
“There’s just no way I can win this, is there?”
“There really isn’t.”
Joel heaved a sigh. “I’ll try not to explode into silk upon shifting, but I’m not making any promises.”
Coraline decidedJoel would endure shifting in the parking lot of the shipping store, as she anticipated so much repressed masculinity would explode forth into beautiful fiber for me to collect and use. As he proved her right, we lost twenty minutes to collecting the silk, packing it up, and shipping it to Yolana. According to the receipt, she had two hundred and twenty pounds of silk to play with, and we’d needed ten large boxes to fit it all.
I included a note that I, as a benevolent dictator and captor, would continue to provide the woman with my luna moth’s precious silk.
To keep Joel from causing us problems, we stashed him in the plastic prison, and I carried him on my lap on the way to the restaurant, where he’d enjoy his meal while shifted, something he assured me was a rare treat he’d enjoy before his transformation.
Most restaurants refused to serve shifters in their secondary form.
While the waiter seemed a little puzzled, once he realized Joel was a shifter, he set up the table to better accommodate the luna moth and his voracious ways. That left me with a chance to talk to Coraline about her favorite hobby, which was skinning rabbits to pay for books.
The entire process fascinated me, especially as she promised she’d teach me how to do everything so I, too, could buy books and fiber with my earnings. When I told her about Joel’s allergy to rabbit fur, she dissolved into helpless laughter while the luna moth glared at us both.
To settle the issue of the bill, we waged a thumb war. I suspected her wolf ways gave her an edge, but I held my own for several minutes before suffering through defeat. I waved my fist at her while she huffed her pleasure over the victory.
Joel, who’d eaten enough for three people, dosed over the ruins of his dessert, which had consisted of fruit, ice cream, and caramel sauce. I marveled how a luna moth could eat that much, but rather than worry about it, I wiggled my hand underneath him, transferred him to my shoulder, and made certain he wouldn’t fall before gathering my purse.
“That’s definitely a selling point for being a luna moth. If Calden passes out after a bender, I can barely move him. We don’t change our mass when we shift, and he’s packing a ridiculous amount of muscle on him, so he weighs a ton.”
“Two hundred?” I guessed.
“Roughly, yeah. Are you going to be able to wake him up to sniff the roses?”
“We’ll find out, and if not, we have the luna moth prison.” I giggled at the thought of locking Joel up again,took care with walking so I wouldn’t knock him off, and followed Coraline out of the restaurant. She led me to the ticket counter, explained to the woman who Joel was, and that we wanted three tickets. The woman laughed over issuing a ticket to a moth but had me carry his wrist bracelet in case he shifted back to human. She confirmed he could even sniff them however much he wanted, and that the roses and flowers being bred were handled in a special greenhouse or covered with bags meant to prevent cross pollination.
With that settled, we explored the gardens, and when we came across the main rose garden, I picked up Joel, bounced him until he woke up, and stuck his head into the nearest bloom. With the luna moth thus amused, I put my cell phone to work, taking pictures and sending them to my boss whenever I got a good one.
After the third such picture, my phone rang.
“Hey,” I answered, keeping an eye on my neighbor so he wouldn’t get any ideas.
“Where are you?”
“At a garden in Moonriver. We stopped for lunch, and I shipped a bunch of silk to Yolana. We’re now getting Joel skunked on roses before we force him to shift again for the border crossing. It’s playtime right now.”
He laughed. “I see. Are you coming back tonight still?”
“We’re going hunting for rabbit first, but yes. We’re going to get licenses in Stonecreek, and Coraline is going to teach us. Joel is going to be mad and watch us hunt rabbit due to his allergy to their fur, though. We’re having rabbit for dinner tonight. It’s a good thing he’s not allergic to their meat. That would be a serious problem.”
“You could have just sent me a text to buy you some rabbit at the store.”
I sniffed. “It’s more fun this way.”
“Ah, I see. You’re enjoying the high life as a free woman before you return to Stonecreek.”
“That’s right. I’m protesting the election result through having dedicated playtime on the way back.”
“I suppose that’s better than generally protesting the election result.”
“I’m only going along with this because Allasandro will suffer as well.”
