Warning: I should Have Known I'd be On My Own.

Grabby curled his body. Wings extended from his back. The glide softened his fall. Claws caught the edge of the concrete pillar. One arm supported his crouch while he clung to the pillar.

The book floated next to the overpass. If it went any higher, it would be visible to the train traffic.

Grabby waved to catch its attention.

It floated downward toward him and away from the view of any passing train. A red glow pulsed from the ruby as it approached.

The hood of Jorseph’s green hoodie slid from his purple hair and revealed pointed ears. Sneakers blurred in the midst of rapid kicks. Clawless fingers clung to the cover for life.

Symbol laden tendrils lashed from the pages. One curved toward the imp. It stretched into a needle thin point that came to a stop in front of the imp’s bright red pupil, “Where’s Zenobia!?”

“Gah!” the imp dodged the needle, then crawled up the concrete pillar, “It’s worse than I thought. Fidglesticks!”

Tendrils struck the pillar. Chunks of concrete burst outward.

Grabby had already taken flight. Wings extended as he glided with his back tilted toward the sun. He angled towards the raging book. The oval ruby on the cover reflected a concentrated beam of sun at his eye. He angled upwards, then dove with a flap of his wings.

“Clever book, all the more reason to eliminate that will of yours!” Grabby shouted.

The book angled to target his vision with concentrated beams of glaring sun. It swung Jorseph as it quickly adjusted its angle. The blinding ray stayed pasted to the center of the flying imp’s eye if he tried to catch the book.

Leaking shadows oozed from the page exposed side. They swirled about like tightly coiled whips. They lashed at Grabby without touching Joseph or interfering with the beam. A dark lance thrust from the symbol shadows and pierced Grabby’s right wing. Letters burst apart to disintegrate once the blow struck.

“Gahhhhhh!”

Jorseph looked down. Sweaty palms clutched tighter to the cover. As a dragon, that fall would be no problem. As this creature, he felt threatened by the drop. Arms shook as he clung desperately despite exhaustion, “Lilly, if I fall in this form, I could die.”

The book lowered itself to safe distance for Jorseph to drop, “Get off.”

“No, you’re going to kill Grabby. I can’t let you kill him. He’s a family friend.”

The voice sounded raspy, resigned, “Is that so? I should’ve known I’d be on my own.”

A burst of energy burned at Jorseph’s hand. He let go and fell on the ramp. A stalk of knotweed broke under his body.

He reached out to the book, “Lilly!”

The formation of symbols growing from the page side of the closed spell book suddenly looked much thinner.

Grabby took the momentary distraction as a chance to get his bearings. Red streaks formed like cracks along the edge of his eye. They branched as they grew toward the iris. His pupil glowed red as he swoped in.

“You’re just a book! Behave like one!” he screeched.

The book tilted to catch the sun, more slowly than before. The thinly constructed arms of symbols laconically extended from the pages and the ends of the spine. But it was too late.

Grabby caught the book. It screamed as his claws dug into the cover. Weak swirling tornados of letters and symbols tried to counter but merely evaporated into smoke with a hiss. Grabby swoped down. Left wings retracted as he ran up to the top of the skating ramp. He stood victorious with the pacified book under his arm.

The empty satchel caught his eye. He hopped down while keeping the book tightly held under his supervision. His left had already folded into a barely visible appendage on his back. However, the right wing refused to close. A thick red ran down the edge of the thin flesh between the supporting cartilage. Grabby strained to slowly close it despite the drip of red across the back of his jeans. The tighter the wing folded, the more it squelched.

Red vessel lines branching across the white of Grabby’s eye pulsed as they thinned, then withdrew under the violet lids. Veins bulged at the top left of his lid under his second set of lashes. Claws clutched the book tightly. A dark red aura pulsed against him from the ruby.

Jorseph stood, then brushed the litter off his long shorts, “Grabby? Are you okay?”

“Do I look okay? Are you Jorseph!? No, I’m not okay at all because of you and from the looks of it neither are you! Did the book make you human? You opened the maintenance closet! You stole my key! Bad! Bad! Bad! You’re in such trouble I can’t even begin to describe the hell you just made for yourself! If it wasn’t for you, my magic items would still be safely curing and none of this disaster would have happened! Do you realize the trouble you caused?”

Jorseph winced at the scolding, but then gathered his courage, “W-what are you going to do with Lilly?”

“It’s taking all my energy to suppress her. You went and fed both id and ego. Now I have to start the process of curing over again from scratch. This is really bad, really, really bad. But it could be so much worse. Who knows if the wrong dragon has already seen this. Fidglesticks. For now, I’m going to put her back in the satchel.”

He picked up the bag and gave it a whip to flatten it out. The book barely fit the leather that tightened as it enclosed around the cover. Grabby pushed the spine with his palm. A drop of sweat formed on his lid as the book pushed against him.

It released a whining cry as it resisted the darkness of the satchel.

“It doesn’t want to go in there again. You’re being cruel. Don’t put it in there!”

Grabby snickered as he fought the book, “Don’t let it fool you. You can’t be cruel to an item. Items exist to be used, even dangerous ones.”

“I don’t think it’s an item.” Jorseph grabbed the satchel and pulled against Grabby, “I think it was a human. And I think you did something bad to it! Her! Let her go, you’re hurting her!”

“Nonsense! Stop feeding its will!” Grabby screeched, “Let go! Let go this instance! Just wait until your mother finds out what you’ve been up to! I’m so done with ever watching you again, ever!”

Jorseph fell backward, unable to rescue the satchel from Grabby’s clutches. He sat on the ramp with his fingers pressed against it. Suddenly he growled. Muscles flexed. He shot up and dove for the satchel.

Grabby jumped out of the way.

Jorseph rolled after diving past. The boy bristled, “Give it back!”

“This book is library property. It’s mine!”

“She’s not anyone’s property.”

An energy pulsed from the satchel that made the big eye squint.

“It’s not a person! Stop feeding it!”

Jorseph dove again, but Grabby was too fast.

A foot with retracted claws struck Jorseph’s chest.

His back skid over the cement before he rolled to a stop. He jumped up again, only to get sent back by another kick.

“We can keep doing this until sundown or you can come back to the library so I can figure out how to help you. If I’m a match for a dragon’s speed, imagine what I’m capable of against you now!”

Jorseph panted. They were in the sun now. Knotweed grew around him in every direction. Sweat flung from his forehead as he swatted the stalks aside. The imp darted back and forth faster than Jorseph could think.

Grabby broke through the stalks to tag him on the shoulder, then vanished before Jorseph could turn around.

“Give up!?” Grabby screeched.

“You’re a bad imp!” Jorseph lashed out, “I hate you!”

A soft palm tapped Jorseph’s head, but at this point the imp was merely teasing the winded boy, “Really, we’ve been friends for nine years and one day with an errant magic item turns you against me? First you steal from me. Then you blame me!? I’m shocked! I’m disgusted! I’m saddened that would you think so little of me.”

Jorseph darted at the sound of the screechy voice, only to get smacked down by an imp suddenly twice his size.

“Because I’m the one who should think so little of you! Thief!”

Jorseph landed flat in the dirt. Rope coiled from a liminal space the imp had one foot in. It wrapped Jorseph until he was tied neatly with legs and arms bound. Grabby shrunk as he withdrew his foot from the liminal space. He sat over top the bound Jorseph while holding the satchel against his chest. He sighed in relief.

“Okay, that’s two problems solved. I hate to take you there, but I must get you to the library without anyone else noticing. You’ve done enough damage to last a lifetime already. I’ll get you back to proper form before Avelina is ever the wiser. But don’t expect to ever be welcome in my library EVER AGAIN!”

“You can get me back to normal!?”

A piece of tape slapped against Jorseph’s lips followed by a piece of cloth tied over his eyes, “Shhh! You sound like a whimpering human. It’s disgusting.”

The satchel strap went over Grabby’s head. The bag felt oddly hot, like concentrated will. Grabby put one foot back in the space. After growing substantially, he hefted Jorseph across his shoulder and jumped inside.

A clawed hand reached out of the portal to zip it closed.

A MukDrogan’s bag filled with leftovers sat left behind. A crow swooped down to tear at the nice smelling paper. Another crow joined. They cawed at each other as they shredded the bag apart. Cicadas chirped ever more loudly at the edges of an abandoned skate park.