by JL Bryan
Chapter Twenty-Seven
They dusted off their instruments and managed to drive away as the fire department arrived. Dred's van rode uneven and bumpy now, after being quaked hard by her drum, but it still drove.
They were quiet as they made their way out of Minneapolis. Mitch played the Rolling Stones on the stereo, and Dred didn't stop him.
“Dragonslayers,” Grizlemor said, shaking his head. He sat on the heap of pink-dusted instrument cases behind them. “Queen Mab will have a new respect for you. Which isn't necessarily a good thing.”
“I told you guys the fairies were nothing to worry about,” Jason said.
“You call getting attacked by a giant candy dragon nothing to worry about?” Dred asked.
“Grizlemor,” Mitch said. “I'd like to ask you a few things.”
“Such as?”
“Things about being a goblin, basically.”
“Ah. I happen to be a learned scholar on the subject.” Grizlemor puffed his way from the back of the van to the front. He sat on the dashboard, dangling his feet while he answered Mitch and Dred's questions about goblins, fairies, elves and unicorn-dragons.
“How’s your back?” Erin asked Jason. “Shouldn’t we go to a hospital?”
“Nope, I’m fine. It’s just a scratch.” A diagonal streak of pain burned across his back where the dragon had clawed him. It did hurt, but he didn’t want to complain. He wanted to get home.
Jason and Erin looked at each other, smiling. He took her hand, and she let him hold it for a minute. Then she slowly pulled away and gazed at the night outside her window. Her reflection showed a confused look. She would be thinking about her boyfriend, the one who was too busy shooting a German pizzeria commercial to see her first show.
But she had kissed him, and Jason knew she didn't hate him. Far from it.
Jason closed his eyes. Despite the aching wound in his back, he gradually dozed off as he rode home, and he dreamed of fairies, and of music, and of Erin.
Book 2: Fairy Blues
For Bryant