Page 9 of Jace

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Jace

Jace tapped the float-ray’s back since the noise of the ponies was too loud for him to be sure it would hear him click his tongue.

He hoped his mount would respond in spite of the confusion around them.

To his great relief, it slid through the air immediately, allowing him to lean down, grab Susannah around her waist, and hoist her up beside him, baby and all.

“Oh,” she cried out, startled.

He kept his arm around her, tapping the float-ray with his other hand.

It lifted higher, out of the range of the frightened beasts. From this height, he was able see what had scared them in the first place.

A wolf-like canid of some kind and its pup were trotting toward the meadow from the next clearing. Though they did not seem to have aggressive intent, the ponies were still spooked.

Susannah and Zeke could have been trampled.

He was almost weak with relief, but anger burned in his chest, keeping him from sagging.

“Never approach a wild animal that way,” he raged. “And when I say stop, you stop.”

He half expected her to stand up to him, like she had before.

“I’m sorry,” she told him meekly. “I knew the horses wouldn’t hurt us, but it didn’t occur to me what would happen if they got scared.”

“First of all, you don’t know the horses won’t hurt you,” he said. “If you got near one of their foals they would have kicked and bitten like any wild animal.”

She nodded, her lips buttoned.

“Secondly, you can’t compare the animals from your planet or storybooks to the ones here,” he said. “Sure, trained beasts from your planet might be tame, but you don’t know how these ponies evolved and you didn’t stop to ask.”

“Sweet stars,” she breathed. “Have they evolved into predators? How are they different from before?”

“These ponies may be a bad example,” he said, clearing his throat.

“What do you mean?” she asked. “How have they changed?”

He paused, wishing he could change the subject. But she was looking at him, eyebrows raised with urgent curiosity.

“Their fur is shaggy now,” he said.

“That’s all?” she asked after a moment.

“Pretty much,” he replied honestly. “But you didn’t know that before. They could have evolved into something dangerous…”

But it was no use. She was laughing again.

She tilted her head back and let the sound fly, her golden hair sliding over her shoulders in a silky curtain.

He simply watched her, shaking his head. Silly Terran. Why did watching her act the fool make him so happy?

“Come on,” she said after a moment. “You have to see how that’s a little bit funny.”

He shrugged, but couldn’t stop the corner of his mouth from lifting ever so slightly. Not because he understood what she was laughing about, but because he couldn’t help but reflect back a tiny portion of her joy to her. The more time he spent around her, the more her emotions seemed tied to his own.

Mate, the dragon said solemnly in his mind.

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