8. Maggie

8

Maggie

Maggie woke up, warm and cozy, snuggled into—hrm. Hrmph. Someone soft and warm but who did not smell like Keeley? Who was it?

Ooh! Pointy Teeth Lady?

She wriggled around until she could peer up. Yes! Pointy Teeth Lady! Except her eyes were closed, and even though her mouth was hanging a tiiiiiny bit open, Maggie couldn't see her teeth. Ugh.

And there was someone else behind Pointy Teeth Lady. Someone big and shadowy, and not-Keeley-or-Lance.

She chittered uncertainly to herself. Where was Keeley? Where was Lance? They were part of her hoard. She was meant to know where they were, all the time. That was why she had the box. Not that Keeley or Lance fit in the box. Pah.

She needed another box. A bigger one. Then she would go and get Keeley and Lance and never let them go away again. And the big dragon. And Pointy Teeth Lady. And…

The sparkle of sunlight on gently rippling water distracted her. Ooooh.

Maggie sniffed the air. Over there, sparkly sunlight. Over here… boring old rocks, all around and over top of her as well, as though they were in a box. In someone else's box. As though someone else had taken HER for their hoard. The thought made her feel like all her scales were going to burst into flame and explode right off her body.

She crept down out of Pointy Teeth Lady's lap. If some other horrible dragon had stolen her for their hoard, she was going to steal herself back again, right now.

A fragment of unhappiness poked at her memory, sharp and unpleasant. She froze, statue-still except for her tail whipping back and forth. Had someone tried to steal her? No—someone had tried to steal Pointy Teeth Lady, and Maggie had stolen her back. And then… and then…

The sky had been full of horrible bad water and the ground had been all horrible bad water and it had all been the worst thing that had happened in her entire life including when she saw her own reflection unexpectedly and thought another, exquisitely beautiful dragon was stealing one of her bottlecaps from her hoard.

She shivered at the memory, then remembered the water and the cold closing in all around and nowhere to jump to except more water and more cold, and she shivered again.

But…

There wasn't any horrible water in the sky now . There was SUN. And the sun was puddling just outside the cave, warm and bright and inviting.

Maybe she should go and investigate?

Maybe there was some way to pick up a piece of sunlight, all sparkly-shimmery and hug-warm, and take it with her, until she found her hoard box again.

She crept forward, slowly, slowly, all memories of being afraid vanishing like a puddle on a hot day. She was going to get the sun. It was going to be All For Her.

But… the other water was still out there. The bad water NOT in the sky. It was out there, g littering at her, pretending to be nice water and not sneaky horrible bad water that got in her mouth and her nostrils and her ears and everywhere .

She hissed, so that the bad water would know she didn't like it, but quietly, so it wouldn't hear her.

Something hissed back.

Maggie stilled, all her scales and spikes going rigid so that whatever had hissed at her would know she was Very Big and Very Scary. Whatever it was. Wherever it was. Where was it? Come back so she could hiss at it properly!

She craned her neck out as long as it would go, peering around the cave. Pointy Teeth Lady was still asleep. Nothing would ever hiss at Pointy Teeth Lady. Her teeth were SO sharp. And she was nice and snuggly to sleep on.

Maggie was done sleeping, though. She needed to find the hissing thing and frighten it away so she could be in the warm sunlight and figure out how to keep it forever, instead of having to walk around on the horrible cold ground.

"Sssss," she hissed at the cold hard ground.

Sssssssss, something hissed in response.

She froze.

"Sssss," she hissed again.

Sssssssss.

"Ssssss!" She raised her wings, ready to leap on whatever dared hiss at her so much.

Sssssssss.

Was it in the cave with her? With Pointy Teeth Lady and the big boring man?

She peered over her shoulder at the big boring man, her eyes narrowed. He was so big, and the bigness just made his boringness more boring. She didn't know why Pointy Teeth Lady went hot and happy when she looked at him. There was nothing interesting about him. His mouth was even hanging a little bit open while he was asleep, and she could see his teeth, and they were boring.

Hmph.

She was about to go back to finding the hissing thing, or at least deciding whether to hiss at it again, when something moved in the shadows.

Crouching low to the ground, all senses focused for the hunt, Maggie crept forward. There! A slinky piece of darker shadow was curling up from behind the big boring man. It curled up, and up, and tucked itself into Pointy Teeth Lady's hand, lying upturned on her lap.

Maggie stared. She'd never seen a shadow like that before. One that moved.

Maybe big boring man wasn't so boring after all.

Sssssssss.

Maggie jumped into the air. The hissing thing! It was back! Pointy Teeth Lady was still asleep. Maggie had to protect her, like she had protected Maggie from the horrible water.

Scales prickling, wings shivering as she stretched them out as big and high as she could, Maggie prowled towards the noise. It was a slow noise, a sneaky noise. It hissed and then stopped for long enough that she almost thought it had gone away, and then! It hissed again!

She jumped into the puddle of sunlight at the mouth of the cave. Blinded by brightness, she rattled every single one of her scales, puffing herself into the biggest, scariest dragon the hissing thing had ever seen.

"Sssss! Sssss! Sssss!"

Ssssssssss.

Her eyes cleared. She widened them, then narrowed them, the way that always made Lance and Keeley jump and shout at her to not do the thing she was about to do, and then—

Maggie stared in flabbergasted horror as a gentle wave washed up on the pebbly shore.

Sssssssss.

It was the water.

The water was hissing at her. The horrible, cold, lashing, swallowing, stealing water that had tried to gobble her up and Pointy Teeth Lady and boring shadow man too. Was hissing. At her.

How dare it?

She pounced forward. And again. A few more times, because the water was actually quite far away. Was it running away from her? She would show it!