Page 37 of The Monster at the End of This Courtship

Chapter 14

Axel

After I finished my last day of alpha training, Tuft and I walked to a cabin not far from mine to wish Punky and Lark well on their adventure to Earth. I was so glad I brought Tuft with me. After three hours of trying to get Robin to finish his dinner and Ernie and Grover to stop fighting, we realized Clementine was missing! She wasn't far, thankfully. She'd wandered off to her room to conduct suspiciously chirpy experiments.

Even after Punky and Lark returned and I walked Tuft back to his room, I couldn't escape the terror of misplacing someone else's child. I had uneasy nightmares where Clementine ran outside to meet the dragon. In another, she was at the mouth of the dragon's cave and fell down the mountain while I was still too far away. In another dream, she was swallowed by a giant cricket.

After getting very little sleep, I was grateful the next day was my graduation day. Merritt laughed when I explained why I looked like shit.

"Get used to it," he said. "You'll have your own clutch before too long."

Before then, I needed to plan the dragon's pavilion and survey the giant field for the different court locations and measurements. It was Wednesday, so I had a four-day weekend to prepare.

Our new recreation area would be outside the circle of cabins at the perimeter of the fortress. We had plenty of room to build new cabins between the fortress and the outer ring where my cabin sat. We also left room for farm fields to the northwest and southeast, if the farmers wanted to move their magical fields above ground.

I'd planned to build the recreation area to the south of my cabin because it was equidistant to the dragon's mountain and the quarry where we would get the sand.

There was a relatively flat area that would be perfect for the tennis courts. The ground beneath the grassy field was harder than the rest, reminding me of the overgrown path of a torn-out railroad track we had followed to get from our Texas grade school to the nearest creek. I wasn't surprised to learn the south field had once been the village square. It had contained a beautiful dragon mosaic before it had been burned to ash and abandoned to nature.

The square must have been massive enough to fit a dozen dragons. In the middle of our sports complex, I fit a pavilion big enough for two dragons on the edge of the tennis courts, where our dragon could rotate in a circle to watch whatever kobold games interested them that day. They could watch tennis and pickleball to the north, volleyball and badminton to the west, baseball, softball, or kickball to the south, and soccer to the east.

On Saturday, Tuft volunteered to help me mark the court lines with surveyor's paint so our team of builders would know where to move sand on Monday. Tuft's two beta volunteers, Kolge and Benz, got some others to help. Before we knew it, everyone in our little village came out to look at the funny lines,as Grover, Lark's younger alpha boy, called them. We drew the final lines about an hour before sunset, the perfect time for the dragon to swoop out of the south without us noticing and land in the circle I'd designated the pavilion.

"This is perfect," they said. "I can see everything from here."

"I told you they would do well." Mac slid from the dragon's back to shake my hand. "This is far bigger than I expected."

"Grand. Splendid." The dragon nosed Mac in the side with their snout. "Do not make him think I do not like it."

Mac chuckled. "They like it very much. They especially want to know if you'll play any games with the dragonets and dire weasels. Punky has been filling their head with Kentucky Derby stories."

"I want to wear a hat," the dragon said. "Will you get me a hat?"

"I'll take you to Earth for the Kentucky Derby, I promise." Mac rolled his eyes.

"You want us to play polo with dragonets?" I laughed.

"Polo is more for dire weasels," Mac said. "The dragonets would like an obstacle court or two, or some flying hoops."

I realized I'd been planning this far too small. I'd been thinking of Earth sports. When I'd asked the dragon for ideas on what they'd wanted, they gave us the idea for the pavilion, but, "I should have been thinking bigger."

Mac patted my shoulder and turned with me to look at the survey lines in each direction. "You did well," he said. "This will give everyone a reason to come outside, Galen included."

"Galen?" Tuft asked.

"I am Galen." The dragon leaned down to bump his snout against my mate's chest. "Mac calls me Galen the Grumpy."

Mac's laugh was an uncomfortable, high-pitched whine. "I only call you that when you're being unreasonable."

"He won't tell me what it means," Galen whined. "Will you tell me, kobold Tuft?"

Tuft laughed. "It means … discerning. Particular. Brilliant."

"All good things." Galen huffed. "I will reward my secretive beta for the compliment, then. Come, Mac."

Mac gave Tuft a quick nod of thanks before climbing onto Galen's back. Galen took flight and quickly disappeared into the twilight sky.

"That was a kind definition of grumpy," I teased as I reached for Tuft's hand. Instead of leading back to the fortress, where we ended most nights, he led me to my cabin.

---