Page 48 of Victoria's Discovery

Determined to reclaim her sense of adventure, she chatted back and forth with Snitch as they explored the room. By the time a knock sounded on her door a little while later, she was feeling more like herself.

That was due in no small part to the wonder she felt at discovering all the magical technology the room boasted. There was some kind of fabricator in the bathroom with a mind-boggling list of things it could make. When she finally finished playing with it, she had body wash that smelled like a dream, every hair product she could think of, a brush, a variety of clips and accessories, and something that apparently ‘rid the epidermis of unwanted pelt, barbs, and cilium.’

She’d also discovered another fabricator in the main room. That one took quite a bit of tinkering, but she figured it out eventually and now had a set of clothes and shoes to wear.

Finding out the bed could change shape was a particularly unexpected revelation, especially seeing as she’d been sitting on it when Snitch accidentally set off that function. She’d seen him land on a screen set in the nightstand but hadn’t thought anything of it… until it beeped, and the bed promptly swallowed her.

Shock kept her from freaking out. At first. After realizing she was trapped in the pitch black, inescapable cocoon of softness, she may or may not have descended into hysterics.

She could hear Snitch’s frantic squeaking from outside her coffin and the rapid beeps of the screen over her very high-pitched demands for the monster, people-eating bed to release her.

Whether by dumb luck or persistence, he managed to find the transformation command again and flew at her face the moment she sat up, gasping for breath as though she’d been trapped in there for hours instead of a handful of seconds, clinging to her ears with his little hands and her collarbones with his feet while yelling incoherently directly at her eyeball.

“I’m okay, I’m okay! Whoo! And I am AWAKE! Talk about an adrenaline rush!” she exclaimed, laughing a little breathlessly.

Prying Snitch off her face, she cradled him in one arm and climbed off the bed, intending to play with the settings and find out what all it could do.

Snitch had other plans.

As soon as she was safely off the surface, he leapt out of her hold, grew in size mid-air in the span of a blink until he was as big as a Great Dane, then went full-on Tasmanian devil on the bed. He laid into it with teeth and claws, snarling and growling with his leathery wings spread wide and flashing red in a clear threat display.

Victoria just stood there gaping, both stunned and impressed at the ferocity he wrought upon the poor, unsuspecting bed.

A couple of minutes later, Snitch paused, spit out the material stuck in his pointy teeth, and eyed his handiwork. Apparently satisfied with the shredded mess he’d made, and that the bed had been taught the error of its people-eating ways, he gave a chuff, tucked his wings against his back, and turned to gaze at her, looking rather pleased with himself.

Someone was undoubtedly going to be pissed about the destroyed bed, and she no longer had anywhere soft to sleep, but she’d deal with that when the time came.

Unable to resist his toothy grin, lolling tongue, and expectant black stare, Victoria smiled back and kicked the side of the bed in a show of solidarity then held her hand up for him to high five.

“Nicely done, little, uh, big dude! You showed that bed what’s what!”

Chest puffing up with pride, he did an excited little wiggle then pushed up to stand on his hind legs, rising until his head was at least three feet above hers. He did an adorable side-to-side waddle strut like a preening penguin across the wreckage and poked her palm with a claw.

Laughing, she shrugged. “That works, too.”

That was when a knock sounded on the door.

Chapter 26

Victoria startled a little and eyed the door like it, too, might come alive and try to nom her, but Snitch chuffed happily and stepped off the mangled bed.

Wondering if he had X-ray vision, an amazing sense of smell, or could just somehow sense who was on the other side, she stayed where she was and watched as he remained on his hind legs, wings folded tightly to his back, and waddle-strutted to the door to press a clawed hand to the screen.

It wasn’t even fully open before he started babbling excitedly, regaling Vi’kail, Thegan, and Thorn who were standing outside, with the grand tale of his battle with the bed and how he valiantly saved her life.

She assumed that’s what he was saying anyway.

It came out in a mash-up of burbles, warbling trills, and growls, but from the way he was baring his teeth, pointing at her, and pretending to attack something, she was pretty confident of her translation.

All three guys stood rapt, eyeing Snitch with expressions that varied from long-suffering affection, amusement, and bafflement—with a heavy dose of confusion from the giants that the formerly small pet was now seven feet tall—until he finished his tale with a firm nod and no small about of preening.

As one, they slowly turned their heads to look at the bed, taking in the pile of shredded, white fluff.

Vi’kail sighed and rubbed his fingers between his white eyebrows like he had a headache, but the giants looked suitably impressed, if still notably confused. To answer the questioning glance Thorn and Thegan shot her way, she shrugged.

“It tried to eat me.”

Thorn made a garbled sound in the back of his throat and went a little pale while Thegan’s eyes widened in alarm then narrowed on the bed in new understanding before he turned back to Snitch and gave the smug dragon-squirrel a pat on the shoulder.

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