?

  The Cat stared at the dragon as she flew closer.

  I smiled at her and motioned to the goods on the counter in front of me. I hoped she wouldn’t do a circle and freak the little guy out, though now I completely understood the Cat’s warning.

  Indigo flew faster as she noticed the seeds, her eyes growing wide. It only took seconds for her to fly over the table and closer to the counter.

  The customer streaked out from under the table, only a blur as he darted to the door. It slid open only two inches without a sound as he fled.

  A sigh of relief escaped me, thankful that nothing had happened.

  Indigo’s head snapped in the door’s direction, but then she turned to look again at the seeds on the counter again.

  “What are these?” She leaned down and sniffed at a pile of red ones.

  “Our customer this morning brought them in for sale.” I pulled the bin closer that had drawn my attention while in the storage room. The envelopes were the right size for seeds, reminding me of the magical sunflower seeds that I had given my brother and sold in the shop.

  The Cat leaned closer to the box as he stood up, stretching from his spot on the counter.

  “Where did you get those?”

  “The storage room felt like the correct thing to grab.”

  “The shop usually fills them,” he said before glancing at Indigo.

  She stuck her snoot closer to the seeds.

  “Don’t. Some of those might kill you.” This time his voice came out with more of a growl. He moved closer to the young dragon, and the seeds. “That purple spiky one is dangerous for dragons.”

  Indigo jerked back so fast from them that she also stumbled off the counter.

  “Should I wear gloves with them?” I asked, pausing with an envelope in hand.

  “They aren’t harmful if not eaten.”

  “I’ll make sure to wash my hands afterward.” I opened the end of the envelope and brushed the first grouping of seeds inside. It was the ones that could harm Indigo if she ate them.

  I closed the envelope and set it on the counter.

  Light glittered on the outside of the paper, and then words danced across the page.

  ‘Starburst Seeds’

  I blinked, but the words remained.

  “Okay, that is cool.” The little moments where magic just did little things impressed me the most.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Indigo scooted closer to the rest of the seeds. “What do they do?”

  “They are seeds. If you plant them, things grow. I don’t know what each of these plants do…” I glanced at the Cat with my unspoken question.

  He tilted his head and huffed. “Each of them does something different. Some are used in teas. The creature that came in collects special seeds and trades them for things he cannot find in his forest.”

  “What about the Starburst Seeds?”

  “They are used to create a magical dye. For those who breathe fire, they can be deadly.”

  Indigo snorted, and a puff of smoke came out.

  “Hold up, can you actually breathe fire already?”

  Indigo couldn’t be breathing fire without me knowing about it, right?

  “Only smoke.” She shook her head, but motioned to the seeds she sniffed at. “What about these?”

  “Read a book about them,” grumbled the Cat.

  This time I glared at him, but he only turned away.

  “Can you help us find a book about them?”

  The counter where he had been sitting rippled and a leather-covered book rose from the surface.

  “Magical Plants,” I said with a grin, flipping open the cover. “At least someone is helpful.”

  Warm pulsed under my feet making my smile wider.

  “Of course you are helpful, Betty.”

  “Betty is home,” said Indigo with a purr.

  My heart stuttered in my chest, and I felt water gather at the corners of my eyes. I blinked it away quickly. “Of course, she is home.”

  “Read book with me?” asked Indigo, glancing up.

  “As soon as I put these seeds away…”

  The counter rippled and the piles vanished, along with the blank envelopes in the bin. Then seconds later, they rose back inside the bin, this time with writing on them.

  “Reading it is.” I chuckled to myself as I snagged the book and headed over to the children’s area. The Cat had left the front of the shop, so I assumed we were done at least for the morning.

  I crawled onto the bean bag chair, then Indigo plopped into my lap when I opened the book. As soon as I cracked the first page, worry crept along my skin. The words were super tiny, and hand-drawn pictures dotted the page.

  “Magical plants can be found all across the universes, each a product of its environment…”

  “All done, ready for next?” Indigo’s claws touched the bottom of the page before she glanced at me.

  I stuttered to a stop. “You read the entire page?”

  She nodded frantically, and her tail twitched. “Move on?”

  “How about you read it to me?” I asked, swallowing hard.

  Indigo at some point had bypassed my reading skills, and now could read an entire page of tiny writing without a problem.

  “But then can’t use magic…” Her eyelids drooped. “Takes so long.”

  “Ah, so you use magic to read faster.” That made a little more sense.

  “Dragon magic. I learn fast.” She wiggled in my arms.

  “Well, if you use dragon magic, I can’t keep up, and that’s okay. Especially if you want to learn about the plants quickly.”

  Indigo’s eyes narrowed as she glanced at the book, and then at me.

  “Can you read other book with me?” she asked.

  “Of course.” I chuckled. “I have plenty of books to read.”

  Several minutes later, both of us sat on the bean bag chair with our separate books. Indigo flipped pages next to me quickly while I much more slowly sank into a cozy fantasy book. One that I hoped to add to the book club list.

  I carefully kept hold of my coffee mug, taking a sip every now and then as the story took over.

  #

  That dragon was going to be the death of me. As she sniffed the Starburst Seeds, I thought my heart stopped. Maybe the rumor about cats having nine lives saved me. The little one did not know how close they came to getting sick.

  Already, the instincts of this body made today harder than it needed to be. The amount of control it took to sit on the counter and not attack the tiny gatherer had raked my soul. Add in the stress from the little one, and I needed a rest. I climbed each step slowly as I padded around the upper level toward my cat tree.

  A nap in the sunlight called out to me, and I had plenty of time before lunch, and then our next customer for the day. Sable would enjoy the interaction, or at least I would bet part of my domain on it.