After many tries, James walked into my room. He looked around and saw us sitting on the floor.
"I'm gonna get going." He was hesitant. I looked at my watch, it was four in the afternoon. Wow we'd been at this for a long time.
"Peony you need a ride?" James looked hopeful.
"Yeah," she turned to me, "thank you, for everything."
"You're welcome." I walked them to the door.
"Tomorrow we're going to work on your knowledge of magical creatures." Her face it up.
"That would be awesome!" Her eyes all but shined.
"Meet me at the ranch at nine."
"Okay!" She pretty much danced off the porch. At least she's eager.
Stretching, I made my way indoors. Richard was sitting on my couch watching Kitty who was on the floor watching Richard. Ugh males.
"No offense," I said getting Richard's attention, "but I need sleep."
"None taken." Thankfully he got the hint and walked to the door.
"I think you can do it." And with that he was gone.
"Do what?" I asked Kitty. The creature just looked at me.
"You're not very helpful." He started panting, a goofy grin filling his face. Grabbing his face I shoved it to one side playfully, and took off running down the stairs. Howling, Kitty chased after me. I answered his howl with one of my own. When he reached the bottom of the stairs I tackled him. We went rolling around the basement. Breaking free, he looked for something to play keep-away with. Choosing a dumbbell that weighed roughly one-hundred pounds, he howled at me. With the blockage, he sounded more like an old man then a fierce Hellhound. I lost it giggling. When I didn't chase after him he trotted over to me to see what was wrong.
Now Kitty had longish black hair, with a red stripe on his spine that stood straight up when he was angry, and a long red bushy tail. Complete the look with a wolfish face and bright red eyes, he should be a monster. However he was a total Kitty as his name suggests. Standing over me weighing two-hundred pounds with ease, he had his head cocked as he looked at me in befuddlement. He didn't see what was so funny. Almost frowning at me, he let out a soft woof. Still sounding like an old man, his bark only made the giggles return in full force. I could all but see the steam coming out of his ears as he tried to figure out why I was on the floor laughing instead of playing with him. Finally he gave up and sat down, set the dumbbell on the floor in front of his feet, and let out a noise that was a mixture of a whine, a bark, and a howl which I translated to mean 'Come on! Play!'. Choking back the laughter, I stood and made a little jump and dropped into a running pose. He saw and understood the gesture and happily picked up the dumbbell. Dropping into a crouch with his butt waving in the air, he let out another old man howl. Stifling another giggle, I ran after him.
We played keep away for another thirty minutes, I hadn't had much opportunity to play with him for months. By the time we were done I was panting as hard as he was. Looking down at him (his shoulders came to my elbow) I said his two favorite words, "how about we eat dinner?" The happy dance started right away. With a laugh, we made our way to the kitchen. I went to the fridge and looked for any and all meat.
Meat is something I have always craved but for the first ten years of my life I never had. I was adopted by hippies and lived the vegan lifestyle. Then one time at a sleepover at a friends house we had ribs for dinner. They were amazing. I had never had meat before in my life and it was wonderful. I ate a whole rack by myself. The next morning we had bacon and eggs. They were, again, amazing. We had hotdogs for lunch. That was easily the best sleepover I had ever had. That night when I got home Moon-petal (my mom) asked what I wanted for dinner, so I told her ribs. She fainted. After Green-meadow (my dad) revived her she asked where I had eaten such a thing. Me being a foolish ten year-old told her. I was never aloud back there. It really was no use, I had eaten the forbidden fruit and I wanted more. I didn't have meat again until I was thirteen. We had moved to a colony of hippies and they made me pray to the Mother Nature for forgiveness for eating leaves for dinner. One night when my parents were high on mushrooms I was informed that I was adopted. It didn't really shock me. By then I knew I was different. Instead of freaking out I snuck out to a late night deli and ordered a sandwich with as much meat as I could afford. That became a common thing for me. Unfortunately Mom found out about my late night mean runs and put a stop to them. We moved again, this time I went on strike. I wouldn't eat anything unless it had meat. It took three days for them to crack. It was a difficult process but it was worth it. I didn't know at the time but the reason I craved meat so much was because I was a Damphir; part human part vampire.
