A Fictionalized Account of the adventures of Draggy and Riona in the North East. It’s only related to Prequel in that we stopped in to see Kaz on the way and some of the images I commissioned from Kaz to illustrate this are used – but I will use every source I feel like for them! I think it will be a 5-parter.
Part 1 – Departure
Draggy managed to pry open one eye just enough to see that it was morning before slamming it back shut again. But something in the back of his head was nagging him and he couldn’t go back to sleep. What was it? There was something…
“OH! I’m on VACATION!” he remembered aloud as he sat up suddenly, rolling Riona off the bed. He sheepishly looked over the edge to see what damage he had caused this time.
The cat was looking none too pleased as she glared at him, her whiskers twitching and rubbing her butt.
“Good morning…?” he said, smiling as inoffensively as he could.
She took his head in both her hands and pulled herself to her feet. “Draggy, if you know what’s good for you, you’ll go down and get me some coffee. Right Now.”
Instead he gave her two kisses on his favorite parts and was gone before she could swat him away.
“Decaf!” she called, “I’m going back to sleep as soon as we’re on our way!”
An hour and a half later she made good on her prediction and he felt her snoozing on his back as he began the long twelve-hour flight northwards to the Capitol. Long and boring. But he didn’t mind. He was FREE! No work for the next week. They’d been planning this trip for months in fact, and now at last they were off to see DC and New York City. Not that either hadn’t made this trip before, but there was so much to both cities that he’d had no problem making a rough itinerary of new places to go.
One plan though that Riona had insisted upon was that they not be TOO structured so they could stop along the way and do whatever came up. A couple of hours into the trip Draggy spied a likely distraction he thought she’d like. A cheese farm in Philadelphia, Tennessee.
Riona awoke, of course, feeling him descend and slow. “Bathroom break?” she asked.
“That and a cheese farm. Looks interesting.”
“Mmm! Good choice,” she said, appraising the sign below. "Stop in front – I want to get a selfie!“
An hour later they were back underway with a pound of cheese added to their baggage.
The weather had been fine for the first few hours, but as they continued northeast along the Shenandoah valley the clouds thickened and a light shower began. Riona did manage to get some excellent pictures of a rainbow before darkness fell and the rain began in earnest as they turned eastward towards DC. Draggy had a vague plan that when they got to their hotel in Bethesda, he might get away to go see Kaz for a couple hours, but the rain was delaying their speed and it became clear that wasn’t going to happen. When finally they found their hotel, checked in and got into their room, his eyes were spinning after hours of trying to see through the gloom and rain.
"You doing okay?” Riona asked.
“Yeah, just tired. And hungry. The lady at the front desk said there’s a little store just down the street. Maybe some crackers to go with the cheese?”
Riona perked up at that. “And sardines! I’ve been craving sardines!”
“You got it! Mustard or Tomato sauce?”
“Surprise me!”
When he got back, they feasted on Sardines in Louisiana Hot Sauce, crackers, and Garden Cheese. Maybe not a Michelin 3-star meal, but pretty good fare for a late night in-room snack. Draggy was smart enough to rinse off the cans and flush the remainder down the toilet before going to sleep though. Sardines might smell delicious right after opening the tin, but in the morning the aroma wouldn’t be so appealing.
Finally he wriggled in beside Riona who was busily tapping away at her laptop.
“Facebooking?” he asked, glancing over her shoulder.
“Mmm hmm,” she answered, tickling his nose with her ears.
He shoved his head under her arms, between her and her laptop.
“I can’t see when you do that, you know,” she said, mildly annoyed but stroking his head-fins.
In answer, Draggy nuzzled his head down between her breasts with a big grin and closed his eyes happily snug between her pillows. He listened to a deep intake of breath as she sighed and felt the laptop move, to be replaced on top of his head. He fell to sleep with the warm air from the laptop on top and the softer warmth of his wife underneath with the familiar clack-clack of the keyboard as his lullaby.
bdprequel 