Page 23 of Cruel Daddy Dragon

The trash panda lands ungracefully on the ground in front of me, waddling forward a few steps before sitting back on his haunches. He has something in his little teeth, and he starts fiddling with it as he sits back.

“What have you got there?” I ask gently.

I get to one knee, and I see what he’s chewing on; it’s a copper ring. An unusual one. It looks like an average engagement ring, except for where the diamond should be. Instead, it seems to be topped with more copper in the shape of a diamond.

When I see it, it doesn’t justlookunusual; laying eyes on it, I get a certain jolt through my body. It feelsunusual, like I can…sensesomething from it.

That seems crazy, but crazier things have happened lately, so I’m willing to take it as a sign of something.

A copper ring… Lena’s shop was robbed for some copper rings, wasn’t it?I remember that case; it made meangrythat any bastard would dare come into town to aim for my best friend’s shop. But if these rings are special… Relics, even…

I know Rufus’s things are always getting stolen; it could be one of his. Or, the alternative is that it could be anewrelic, which they’re looking for.

Roscoe puts the ring back in his mouth and starts sauntering off at an easy pace. He knows he has nothing to worry about from me, so the borderline chubby little animal starts waddling off without any rush in his step.

I ought to go back inside and tell Mrs. Harrison that her home is safe from the intruders she’s imagining, but I can’t lose Roscoe.

Sorry, Mrs. Harrison. I’ll be back to reassure you in a bit.

I follow Roscoe at an easy pace.

***

I think I have Kaius to thank primarily for Roscoe putting on enough weight to be easy to follow. I mean, he doesn’t feel any need to run from me, but he just pads off at an easy pace. I keep him in my line of sight but don’t follow him too closely. He walks all the way from Mrs. Harrison’s house to the edge of Merl’s property—quite a trek for a fat little raccoon. Once he gets close to Merl’s, he veers off toward the forest bordering the property, slowing down as he crunches through the thick snow. There’s several days’ worth of build-up, so it takes Roscoe a while to wade through the powdery snow. He stops sharply by a particular boulder, like he knows exactly where he is supposed to be stopping.

As soon as he stops there, he starts digging, holding the copper ring in his teeth as his little mittens scrape out the softened snow.

What is he doing? Has he just been burying his goodies under this rock the whole time?

If so, I should probably just dip in and reclaim everything he’s stolen back from now on.

But just as I’m wondering hard about it, Roscoe suddenly disappears. He just vanishes down into the ground, his little tail coiling as he goes.

Oh… that changes things.

I wait for a little while, watching the hole. My police boots resist the cold and wet, at least, but the snow sinks into the hems of my pants and starts chilling me to the bone. The snow is piled so high that it tries to slip into the tops of my boots. I’ve never liked how snow feels so cold and dry when it first hits me, becoming wetter the longer I have to sit in it. That’s probably because I have to sit in it more than the average person has to.

Eventually, Roscoe pokes his head out from the snow pile and starts padding off, sans ring. I see, so hedoeshave a hidey hole where he puts everything.

After Roscoe walks back off toward the town, I approach his hidey hole. I soon spot it under the boulder now I’m looking for it, and stick my hand in it to reclaim the ring.

My hand goes in… my arm… soon I’m up to my shoulder, and I still haven’t found the bottom.

How deep is this hole? Did Roscoe dig this?

I pull my arm out and turn on the flashlight on my cell phone. When I shine the beam into the hole, it’s so much deeper than I imagined. It’sspelunkingdeep down there—but inside is a treasure’s trove worth of shine.

How many of these might be relics?

Well, clearly, I can’t investigate further on my own without any equipment. I think it’s about time I sat those dragons down and made those scaley bastards explain exactly what these relics are and how many might be stuck in this hole.

Chapter 9 - Rufus

I stare at the ceiling of my room, hands linked behind my head, on my bed, thinking of our time in the car the night before. It’s hard to even imagine how we got there—it happened so suddenly. One moment, we were arguing back and forth, the next…

Well, those arguments are getting sexier every time we go through it. The way she tosses her glossy blonde ponytail, the way she smirks when she knows she’s got me, the way she puts her hands on her hips… Every mannerism is so familiar to me now. Andsohot!

I sigh. It’s a happy sigh.

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