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his feet, and did the gas thing one more time. I wiped my face with my sleeve. Darrios did allow himself to smirk, but wisely didn’t laugh.
    We started walking again, Rufus right on Darrios’ heels, panting like an asthmatic basset hound.
    “Is he okay?” I asked, concerned about the way he was breathing.
    “Yeah, that’s normal. It’s how they all sound. You’ll get used to it.”
    “Fantastic. So, how did you two meet?”
    Darrios chuckled. “He saved my life.”
    I glanced down at the bizarre, gassy, slobbery, sinus-challenged animal and looked back at Darrios skeptically.
    “Really, he saved your life. Uh huh. How did he do that? Did he render them unconscious with his tongue bath or pass gas at the bad guys and chase them away?” I asked, just as the damn draggle did it again.
    “Remember what I said about the draggles keeping the monsters away?”
    I nodded.
    “They’re natural enemies. Draggles are on our side. They kill the scabras and viocomen. One day, about four years ago, one of the viocomen had me cornered. I thought I was a goner, for sure. Right before he struck, Rufus here came out of nowhere and chomped down on its leg.”
    I glanced over at Rufus, who was now chewing his own foot and grunting.
    “Before I could even draw my knife, Rufus had that thing down and was quite effectively ripping out its throat.” He patted Rufus on the head affectionately. “He saved me from that viocomen and we’ve been friends ever since.”
    “Wow, he doesn’t seem...”
    “Vicious?”
    “Yeah, I see him as more of the goofy, drooly, roll-over-and-get-you-to-scratch-his-belly type than a top-notch killing machine.”
    “Well, I’m living proof that he is. Seriously, Maggie, I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Rufus.”
    On that note, Rufus stopped. He perked up his ears, sniffing the air to his left then to his right. He let out what I can only describe as a terrifying, high-pitched howl then a feral growl only worthy of a monster-killer, convincing me we were lucky to have Rufus on our team.
    “What is it?” I asked, a bit panicky.
    “He smells one of them. We’ll know if he gets it.”
    We heard a scuffle nearer to us than I was comfortable with, and then a horrible screeching death-wail. I covered my ears, scrunching my eyes shut as tightly as I could. Darrios pulled me close and I welcomed his embrace. While I hadn’t fallen instantly in love with Rufus, I certainly didn’t want him to be killed or to suffer.
    When the screaming stopped, I opened one eye. I dropped my hands, my heart racing.
    “That was a viocomen, Maggie,” Darrios said soothingly. “Rufus killed it. He’s okay.”
    “Are you sure? How do you know?”
    He nodded. “Yes, I’m sure. I’m very familiar with what the viocomen and scabras sound like when they die and honestly, I’m quite happy to be able to say that.”
    I exhaled heavily, relaxing my muscles. I hadn’t realized every one of them had been tensed. “Why isn’t he back yet?”
    Darrios shrugged. “I doubt he will come back. He’s probably eating his kill right now, and then he’ll go find a shady spot and go to sleep.”
    “So now we’re in danger again.”
    “Technically, but I told you, Maggie, I won’t let them hurt you.”
    I found myself scanning the area, silently willing the monsters to stay away and missing the digestive-distressed draggle.
    As we walked, Darrios began talking about normal, mundane things again, I’m sure to try to get my mind off of the potential danger we were in until we reached Inland.
    “So you said before you gave up your life. Why did you do that if you didn’t want to?”
    “I guess I was being a little dramatic, but it’s kind of a sore spot with me. I loved my job. I worked for a medical billing company and I’d been there since the company started. When I was fifteen they hired me as sort of an errand girl. I worked up through the ranks and a lot of opportunities were beginning to open up for me.”
    I