Barely moving his head, Jenkins peered over the top of his horn-rimmed glasses. Ezekiel Jones sat across the workroom in a tilted-back chair, feet lackadaisically propped up on his desk, his dark eyes glued to his phone.
As his eyes narrowed in satisfaction, a tiny, lopsided smile came to the immortal's lips. He slowly leaned back on his stool a couple of inches, just enough to allow him to see the small tea dark green dragon hunched on the floor next to the leg of his high oak desk. Franklin looked up expectantly, his hindquarters wiggling in anticipation and with barely-controlled excitement. The Caretaker surreptitiously made a sign with his hand, and instantly the little dragon shot across the floor like an arrow toward the unsuspecting Australian.
Over the last couple of weeks, Bái Shān had been working slowly and patiently with Franklin, teaching him this new trick. Being a highly intelligent creature, it hadn't taken Franklin very long to learn the trick, plus he was motivated by his desire to please his new father. Bái Shān was always very lavish with his praise, not to mention the sweet white cubes he gave to Franklin whenever he did the trick correctly.
Now they were going to do the trick with Fēng, the tea dragon name Franklin had given to Ezekiel. The name meant 'Wind', and the dragon had chosen it after observing how easily and quietly the thief moved about the Library and Annex, often unseen or unheard by the others, just like a soft spring breeze whispering through the tea fields. But he had also observed instances of how Jones could be a powerful, unstoppable force, like a strong gale. Franklin had observed, too, that Fēng was something of a trickster; he was continually stealing things from the others without them knowing it, just like a magpie. If he liked such tricks, then Fēng should certainly enjoy this trick that Bái Shān had taught the tea dragon.
As soon as he was close enough, Franklin leaped onto Fēng's lap with a high-pitched cry, startling the Librarian and causing him to lose his balance in the tipped-back chair and fall all the way over onto the floor. Franklin sank his claws into the heavy denim fabric of Fēng's black jeans and held on tightly as the young man first shouted, then thrashed and flailed about in surprised panic before wildly scrambling to his feet. Fēng looked down and into the eyes of Franklin, Fēng's own eyes suddenly flashing in irritation and embarrassment. Franklin merely grinned up at him, which the human interpreted as a snarl.
"Oy! Get off me, you little bugger!" yelled Jones as he danced around and swatted at the tea dragon climbing over the front of his jeans. The wiry animal deftly avoided the blows and dived head-first into Jones's front pocket, his tiny claws firmly gripping the denim as the young Australian tried to pull him off.
"Jenkins!" he called out to the large man calmly reading a fat book across the room at his high desk. "Jenkins! Get your mangy dragon off of me or I'm gonna wring its neck!" Jones finally managed to pull the dragon's head out of his pocket—a second, disposable cell phone clamped tightly in his jaws—but Franklin still refused to release his hold on Ezekiel's leg.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Mr. Jones," replied the Caretaker in a bored tone without even looking up from his book. "I would be obliged to report you to the ASPCMA."
"The ASP-whatsits?" Ezekiel demanded impatiently, still tugging on the dragon.
"The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Magical Animals," Jenkins clarified. "And I assure you that they take a very dim view of cruelty of any kind perpetrated against magical animals. Considering how rare tea dragons are to begin with, if you were to wring Franklin's neck I'm afraid you would be subject to the most severe penalties the Society could impose." He turned the page of his book and continued to read.
"Oh, really?" snapped Jones sarcastically, still pulling at the burr-like reptile gripping his leg. "And what penalties exactly would those be?" He managed to dislodge one of Franklin's feet from his jeans, the creature squealing shrilly in protest the entire time.
"Well, let's just say that the men responsible for the extinction of the dodo bird in the wild met with very…unpleasant ends." The tall man's frame visibly shivered at the thought. "Of course, the American branch of the Society didn't exist then, so it was the European branch that actually imposed and carried out the sentences..." Ezekiel cast a quick, doubtful look at the older man.
"Dodo birds?" he asked skeptically. "Dodo birds were magical animals?" Jenkins finally looked up from his book, giving the thief a disbelieving glare.
"Heavens, yes!" he exclaimed sharply. "And thank goodness the Library was able to acquire several breeding pairs before they went extinct in the wild, otherwise the polar ice caps would've completely melted hundreds of years ago, and we wouldn't be having this conversation today!"
"Yeah, what a loss that would've been," Jones muttered under his breath as gave one final hard pull, and Franklin was dislodged at last. Besides the prepaid cell phone in his jaws, he also now had Jones's apartment key clutched in one small claw.
"Hey! You little thief, gimme those back!" Jones snatched the key from the dragon. After a brief tug of war, Ezekiel managed to pull the phone from the dragon's mouth, then dropped Franklin onto the wooden floor of the workroom. "Go on! Get out of here!" he yelled irritably, lightly stomping one foot to frighten the dragon off. The little animal scampered across the floor to Jenkins's desk, quickly shimmied up one of its legs and onto the desktop. Knowing that he was now perfectly safe with Bái Shān right there with him, Franklin turned to face Fēng and give him a series of short, low-pitched hoots, the tea dragon version of a raspberry.
"It's not even a decent thief!" muttered the younger man. He sourly eyed the little beast, a gnawing suspicion coming to his gut that he was being ridiculed by the animal as he shoved the apartment key and the phone back into his pocket. He turned the chair upright again and shoved it testily back under the desk he had been sitting at. With one final glare at the Caretaker and the hooting tea dragon, he then turned to stalk from the workroom, still muttering threats to dragons, magical animals or not, under his breath.
Franklin moved to sit on his haunches in front of Bái Shān and watched him expectantly, his long tail whipping to and fro eagerly and dislodging several small items from the Caretaker's desk. At another hand signal from the big human, he then lowered his head and disgorged from a special, craw-like storage pouch in his long neck Ezekiel Jones's solid gold money clip, containing a rather large collection of twenty-dollar bills. As he looked up at the Caretaker with glittering, hopeful eyes, Bái Shān smiled with satisfaction and picked up a cube of sugar from his tea saucer. He gave it to the eagerly waiting dragon, and as Franklin greedily munched on his prize, the immortal picked up the slightly damp clip of bills and dropped it into a drawer of his desk. Chuckling, he gently rolled Franklin over onto his back and began to give the dragon a good belly scratching.
"There's my clever fellow!" he rumbled affectionately to the madly wriggling creature. "You carried that out to perfection!" He stopped scratching Franklin's belly, and the tea dragon immediately rolled back onto his feet, whimpering for more. Unable to deny his beloved little friend, Jenkins began scratching behind Franklin's ears, causing him to whine softly with happiness.
"Now, then," Jenkins said to the dragon, looking quickly at his watch to note the time. "Let's see just how long it takes the world's greatest thief to realize that he's been pickpocketed by a mangy dragon who's not even adequate at the art of larceny, shall we?"
