Don't Jump In Puddles You Can't See The Bottom Of

Chapter 3

Tahga drives, which surprises me. Sun seems like the kind of girl who would refuse to enter a vehicle except through the driver door. Since I'm in the backseat, Sun talks to me over her shoulder.

"You've gathered how territorial and protective we can be." she says as intro. I assume 'we' means dragons. She continues. "That's why the boys fought and Rama burned up Luke's couch. The territoriality gets worse when someone of the opposite gender is around. I've been known to kidnap male jumpers from Luke before."

She says it so offhandedly, like it's a fact of life. For them I guess it is.

"So even though I'm his sister and a female, Luke was loath to let you come with me. And he's already on edge from Rama being there."

"And Rama kidnapped you because you're a girl?"

Sun nods. "Yep. But he won't make that mistake again. But don't worry about Luke or feel awkward. Just because he's hyper protective doesn't mean he feels anything romantic toward you. Ugh, some of the girls who jump through are the worst at thinking he has an insta-crush on them when he honestly can't help it."

"So did you actually want to take me on a girl date or--"

"No. Well, yes; that sounded terrible. But no, I did it primarily to get you away from Luke and Rama so Luke will calm down. I could tell the instant I walked in that he was wound up pretty tight."

"He was fine yesterday--"

"It's Rama. Luke's as cool as can be if you're one on one with him. You get him in a group of three or more and he freaks out."

"Oh. Okay."

Tahga pulls into a parking lot and finds a spot to park. "I'm so glad I don't have your dragon drama." She tosses Sun her keys and climbs out of the car. I follow suit and look around.

"Where are we?"

Sun's already charging toward the door of the building. "Lunchtime."

And that's how I found myself out to lunch with a dragon and an elemental. Then they dragged me to the mall and bought me some souvenir clothes to take back home, and finally brought me back to Luke's.

Rama was gone, for which Sun unashamedly thanked the stars. She let us in, since she had keys to Luke's house, and found him sprawled on the couch with an impressive amount of paper, notebooks, and journals. He was so focused on his work he didn't notice us immediately.

"What's he doing?" I ask as they sweep me past the living room and unto the kitchen.

"Documenting whatever knew information he's gathered about the hole." Sun says, unloading a grocery bag into the fridge. (Oh yeah, we stopped at a grocery store too. Sun said she needed to make sure her brother had enough food on hand. I'm actually not sure which of them is more protective of the other at this point.) "He keeps rigid account of all activity related to it."

Tahga has flipped open the blinds and is staring out at the wormhole. "He wants me to build something to get Anika up there?"

"If you can." Luke's voice comes from the couch.

Sun walks over to him with a package of fire crackers (Not explode-y things. They're a popular dragon snack, Sun told me) and drops them on his stomach. "Hey, idiot."

He picks up the package and reads the label. "Oh, wow. Thanks."

Tahga steps out on the back porch and flips her hand as if swatting a bug and the entire house shakes like an earthquake erupted right under the house. Luke tumbles off the couch and Sun sways on her way to putting a gallon of milk in the fridge. I plop down into a dining room chair to keep from splatting on the floor.