6. Hernan

Chapter 6

Hernan

“It’s time for Daddy to go to work.”

Holly looked up at me from her spot in the sun. She was the world’s best kitten.

“I’m not carrying you. If you want to come, now’s the time.”

She came over to me and sat on my foot as if to say, “Bet.” A bet she won, as I scooped her up and put her on my shoulder. It was nearly impossible to say no to her. I should probably stop trying.

“You aren’t the boss of me.” There was absolutely no credibility in my voice as I sing-songed my scolding. She was 100% the boss of me, and we both knew it. And the truth was, I didn’t mind. Neither did my dragon.

I’d set today aside for firing. I’d been creating like a boss, and a good chunk of my pieces were bone-dry and ready for the next step. My dragon was ready.

He loved to burn shit, but where we lived it was rarely safe for him to do so in the wild. The last thing we wanted was to start a forest fire. But in here, fueling my kiln, he was able to let go and release his fire to his content. It had taken a lot for me to get things just right, using kilns of days gone by as my blueprint, but it worked for both of us.

Growing up, I always assumed I’d get a day job. It wasn’t that I was drawn to that kind of environment, but I came from a family that valued money, and money was usually paired with a tie and office. As I got older, I realized that I’d be miserable in that environment and pivoted to my true love, working with my hands. I tinkered with glass blowing for a while before settling on all things kiln. It still allowed me to work with glass via glass fusing, but also to venture into pottery and ceramics. Best of all, it sated my beast.

I set Holly down on the bench. “Now remember, the kiln is hot.” I’d given her an entire lecture on the way over about not getting burned. Truth was, I didn’t need to. She was a cat, not a small child. She was going to stay far away from it, and if for even a split second she didn’t, I was taking her back to her spot in the sun.

After taking inventory, I realized I had mugs everywhere and decided to start with them. I loaded the kiln and then took off my clothes, setting them to the side. It was dragon time.

Holly adored my beast, and the second he stood in the studio, she was begging for attention. It was both adorable and a pain because I had work to do.

I still remembered when I built my studio space, how difficult it was to find designs that would accommodate my beast. He was hardly small. But I had, and there was plenty of room for Holly—still she sat on my foot.

My dragon bent down, intending to communicate it was time for Holly to move, and she did move, right up to his face, rubbing her body along the side of his head and purring. No one could see this moment and think of my beast as fierce, that was for sure.

It was a half hour of dragon-kitten snuggles before Holly gave up and headed to the other side of the studio for a nap. Finally. We needed to get this done.

This normally took an entire day to do the first round for mugs when done the human way, but with my beast, we managed to cut the time down significantly. It was still well past lunch when they were ready and I retook my skin.

My dragon was exhausted, in the best of ways, and so was I. It took a lot out of us to keep that high heat consistently flowing.

“Holly, Daddy’s tired.” I was probably going to get tomorrow’s small load organized and call it a day. I had to wait for the mugs to cool before removing them anyway. There was no rush.

She didn’t even pretend to be listening. What a life she lived, all naps all the time.

I pulled on my clothes and unlocked the door. My neighbor Penelope, AKA the head of the Christmas Festival promotions, mentioned stopping by to “see my new styles,” which was her way of checking on me. She tended to be a little controlling, but I didn’t mind. The festival was her baby, and she meant well.

Next, I began moving things around. Only halfway through, I got an idea for a glass fusion ornament and stopped to sketch it out. I’d need to find some gold glass to make it work, but the idea was simple enough that I could probably make a few dozen to sell in one afternoon. I added a trip to the local stained glass studio for supplies to my list of things to do.

“I know, Holly. I’m supposed to be ticking things off my list, not adding them to it.”

I glanced up at the elves. At first it looked like they had multiplied, but that was ridiculous. They were Christmas decorations, nothing more. Just because I talked to them, that didn’t make them real.

“You guys startled me.”

Holly jumped up—knowing her, she was jealous they were getting my attention. I hadn’t known she could get up that high. And maybe she couldn’t have even the day before. She was growing like a weed.

“Get down, sweet girl. You don’t want to break Daddy’s friends.” I scooped her up and placed her on the floor.

Somewhere along the line, her tail must’ve hit one of the elves because the next thing I knew, they were toppling over, tumbling down to the next day’s firing projects.

Instinctively, I lunged for them, not wanting them to break, and I caught one midair. The next thing I knew, I was no longer standing in the room alone. In front of me was the sexiest man I’d ever seen in the most ridiculous outfit. I raked my eyes up and down his body, trying to figure out what was happening. I stopped when I reached his ears, his very pointy ears.

“What the… who are you?”