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Chapter 5
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“You know Sarah’s feeling homesick,” said Mindy.
Mindy was dangling her legs over the edge of the roof of my receiving hall. I was curled behind and to her left.
“Hmmm.” I sipped some whiskey from my bowl. I had discovered long ago the secret to getting intoxicated is to shrink down to a smaller size. “After the gala, we’ll have to do something about that.”
We both sipped our drinks.
Sarah and I were staying in Tonerg while we waited for her clothes and I took care of my administrative responsibilities. Sarah had been spending most of her time with Mindy when she wasn’t with me.
We both sipped our drinks.
“What about you,” I looked at the elf, “do you still miss your home?”
Mindy glanced at me, “I’m not your pet anymore, Yrog.” I held her gaze till she looked down at the whiskey tumbler in her hand. She sighed. “Sometimes I do miss the old forest.”
“Ever think about going back?”
Mindy looked up at the starry horizon. “Sometimes. But it wouldn’t be home anymore. How about you? Ever think on the past?”
I chuckled, “I try very hard not to. Why do you think I keep taking on projects and pets? Makes me understand why those old monsters sleep so much.” I held out my bowl for Mindy to refill. “But I must say, absconding with you is one of my favorite recollections. The fight with your dad’s wyvern corps was something else.”
“Hah. If they hadn’t been trying to rescue me, you never would have made it. The aerobatics made me sick for days afterwards.”
I chortled, “I do remember having to wash my claws quite thoroughly. Those teleportation glyphs you put on the Pet Pod™’s barf bag and breathing mask are truly inspired.”
Mindy punched my shoulder. “So, what do you plan for Sarah?”
“Well,” I shifted slightly onto my left side, “once we get her basic education done, I was thinking I’d enroll her in a mage academy.”
“Oh? You’re not afraid she’ll meet some young hunk at school and run away with him?”
“Hmmm,” I ran a claw along my jaw, “I suppose breeding her might not be a bad idea. You don’t find a brain like hers every day, after all.” I lowered my claw and gave Mindy a hard look. “But if I don’t like him, I’ll eat him.”
Mindy rocked back and laughed. “And I thought bringing boys home to meet my father was bad!”
“To hear you tell it, your father never let you meet boys.”
“Hmph.” Mindy leaned back against me and refilled her tumbler. “So, when are you going to have your own kids and stop stealing others’?”
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I lounged on the dias of my audience hall. Sarah sat across a chessboard from me. I castled, foiling her incipient knight fork. We had been playing two or three games each evening for most of a week and Sarah’s game had improved by leaps and bounds.
“Do you have any siblings?” I asked. Sarah looked up from the game.
“I have a younger sister, a younger brother, and three older brothers. My oldest brother married and moved out last year.”
“Oh?”
Sarah nodded. “I took over his flock. Mom and Dad had a big fight about it. My mom didn’t want me going out on my own.”
“Well, I, for one, am happy she lost that argument.”
Sarah blushed and looked down. A tear slid down to the tip of her nose and clung there a second before falling onto the chessboard.
“Tell you what, after this ball is out of way, we’ll go visit.”
Sarah looked up at me, a bit of light returned to her eyes.
“And I promise I won’t eat anyone or their sheep.”
Sarah giggled.
