Page 8 of Searching for Thanksgiving

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Later that night:

Bálint kept looking from Spring to Roam. Spring was chatting with her sister, Alice, and Adaline. He sighed and decided watching the aura of Alice’s colors was better than worrying about what kind of trouble he and Roam might be in if Spring found out it was the two of them who had been in her garden.

“See, I told you everything would be okay,” Roam mumbled around a mouthful of sweet bread.

“She doesn’t look mad,” Bálint acknowledged with a skeptical expression.

“She hasn’t said one nasty thing to me yet,” Roam boasted.

“Okay… she doesn’t sound mad either, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t,” Bálint muttered.

Roam wrinkled his nose at him. “She’s not. She’s the one who gave me this sweetbread.” He paused and held up the remains of the sticky bread he was eating before continuing. “You can quit worrying. I fixed everything in the garden before we went fishing. She probably didn’t even notice anything different.”

Bálint leaned forward and sniffed the bread.

You think Spring poison bread? his dragon asked.

Bálint snorted. No, she wouldn’t poison Roam, but something’s not right. She is too… cheerful and she is being super nice to Roam. Haven’t you noticed the way Phoenix, Jabir, and Alice have been watching Roam and grinning all night?

I no watch. I waiting for story time. Amber and Jade tells new story tonight!

Bálint groaned. He had forgotten all about story time for the younger dragonlings. The older dragonlings were going to act out the story. He was supposed to be the tracker, while Roam, Zoran, and Jabir were forest animals.

“Okay, everyone. Story time!” Jade called out.

“YAY!”

The chorus of excited cries and the stampede of little feet toward the living room made the adults chuckle. Well, most of them. Alice’s dad wasn’t happy that the story time was just for the kids. Bálint flushed when he overheard Alice’s mom, Emma, tell her dad that Alice would be perfectly fine.

“She and the other kids have been planning this special treat for months. You are not going to spend it glaring at poor Bálint and making him feel uncomfortable!” she gently scolded.

“I wasn’t going to glare. I was going to listen to their story. Don’t you want to hear it?” Ha’ven replied.

“We will… tomorrow night. We’re all going to have some adult time downstairs while the older kids entertain the younger ones. Don’t you want to have some fun?”

Bálint jerked when Roam snorted out a laugh. “You should see my dad’s face when my mom asks him that! His eyes get all big and glowy, and he gets this really strange grin on his face which causes my mom to squeal like one of Jabir’s animals. That’s my cue to go turn on the hologram games Amber and Jade sent me.”

“Bálint… you and Roam need to get ready. Roam, don’t forget, you are playing—” Jade was saying.

“I know… I know. I’m playing the disappearing cat with the funny face and the talking trees,” Roam groaned. “I still think I should be something scary… like the ugly worm or the crazy person who chases everyone.”

“I think you’d make a great ugly worm,” Spring commented with a saccharine smile.

“Yeah, I would,” Roam agreed with a grin.

“Maybe you’ll get to see what it feels like to be one,” she added before walking away with a toss of her shiny white-blonde hair.

Bálint shook his head at his clueless friend. Roam was grinning like a cat who just discovered a pond filled with sweet cream. He was sure Roam hadn’t seen the glimmer of anger?—

No, not anger… revenge… determination… glee?

His dragon snorted with delight. Cat-shifter in BIG trouble! This going to be fun to watch.

“Bálint! We need you now!” Alice called.

“Coming!”

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