Page 46 of Dragon in Boots

Damien winced. “Is there no end to the torture you gods will subject us to?”

“I don’t know. Is there?” Cimil smiled giddily and looked at Jac. “Do you want this night to get worse or better? End in tragedy or in a glorious sheen of dragon frosting covering the lands?”

“Cimil, I don’t understand.” Jac winced.

“Dash has sixty seconds to live. Yes or no? Will you do what I ask?” Cimil asked.

“Yes. Fine,” Jac snapped. Anything to make this night end and protect Dash.

“Excellent. Then go take your place among the others in the theater. Hurry now!”

Jac headed toward the curtain, taking the shortest way to the theater seating. Damien followed along and helped her into a chair near the back, where he sat beside her.

“This is chaos,” she muttered, looking around the room. The women were out of their seats, waving their arms and yelling for Cimil’s brother to leave.

The god, who only wore a pair of tight white underwear, flapped his arms like a chicken and then twisted his hips. “Are you not entertained?”

“No!” the audience yelled.

“Are you all right?” Damien asked as Jac doubled over in her chair.

“I think my appendix is rupturing, and I don’t know what’s happening.”Oh God. It hurts!

“Stay calm. It is the way of Cimil,” Damien reassured her.

“Calm? She just said that Dash is going to die.”

“She always does this. She creates a crisis and then magically resolves it in the last second.”

That didn’t explain her pain. “I need to go to a hospital.”

Jac looked up to see Cimil dragging her brother offstage.

“You’re welcome, lizard hags!” Belch grabbed his crotch and then disappeared.

Suddenly, the lights went out, and a spotlight appeared at the center of the curtains. Loud techno music with pumping bass flooded the theater.

Boom.

Boom.

Booooom.

Boom.

Boom.

Booooom.

Jac’s pain began traveling down. Her breathing became more hurried.Oh no. I think I have to go to the bathroom. She was just about to run for it when Dash burst through the curtains.

The women went insane, clawing at the air and screaming:

“Rarrr…mamma like!”

“I want some o’ that!”

“Take it off, big man!”

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