“You good now?” I heard Gary ask.
I looked up, squinting against the sunlight to see Gary and Tiggy standing over me.
“Define good.”
“Better than you were?”
“Maybe.”
“Good. So, Kevin and fake-Ryan are talking to the dragon, trying to get him to open up.”
“Damn right he’s a fake me,” Ryan muttered.
“And how’s that going for them?”
Tiggy shrugged and held up his hand, seesawing it back and forth. “Eh.”
“Great. That’s just great.”
“We did get a couple of things out of him,” Gary said. “One, he did feel you coming and could hear you like you could hear him.”
“That’s… good?”
“Two, he says he didn’t want to eat you, because he thought you were just playing a game.”
“A game.”
“Yeah. Like tag. Or something.”
The urge to rock back and forth was almost too much to resist. “Go on,” I said through gritted teeth.
“Um. Okay. Also. Don’t get mad.”
“Because of course when someone says that, it obviously works every time.”
“Someone is sassy today,” Gary said. “Tiggy! Guess who’s sassy today!”
Tiggy scrunched his face up. Then, “Sam?”
“You win!” Gary cried, prancing in place. “Guess what you win!”
Tiggy looked excited. “What do I win?”
“You get to tell Sam that one thing that might make him mad!”
Tiggy started clapping. “Yes! Yes! I win! That—” He frowned. “That not good.”
“Might as well hit me with it now,” I said. “I’m already knocked on my ass. What’s one more thing in this desolate wasteland known as my life?”
“Yeah,” Ryan said. “You and the new dragon are going to get along just fine.”
“I’m not an emo teenager!”
He patted my hand.
“Okay,” Tiggy said. “Sam not mad?”
“I’m not mad,” I assured him.