Grind 2.3

Sunlight streamed through the window to beat down on my face. I rolled over and ignored it. I wanted to go back to the dream I'd been having. It had been amazing. Mom had been there, just holding me and cooing reassurances. I'd felt so loved and wanted.

I managed a sort of almost-sleep until Rocky woke up, and informed me that he was hungry. His pitiful chirps along with the disembodied sensation of hunger woke Beauty and Diver, who soon joined him in demanding food.

Most effective alarm clock, ever.

"Alright. I'm up, I'm up." A blurry streak of Bronze resolved into Diver as I rubbed sleep out of my eyes. "Who went and taught you how to do puppy dog eyes?"

"Chirp." Stinking adorable dragon. Maybe if I gave them more at dinner they would let me sleep in a bit.

"OK, OK. Hotdogs, coming right up, just stop already." The little bronze dragonet, trumpeting his victory took to the air before popping between, presumably to the kitchen. The other two followed him. I was sorely tempted to roll back over and try to get just a few more minutes of sleep. I knew that would be hopeless though. Besides they were my responsibility. That and taking care of them eased the guilt, if only a little. I rolled out of bed and headed for the kitchen.

"TAYLOR, will you please tell your pets that they are not allowed to eat the bacon!" I walked into the kitchen just in time to see my friends pull off an impressive display of guerrilla tactics. Rocky and Diver distracted Dad, dive bombing the plate of cooked bacon. While Dad fended them off with a spatula Beauty popped between to appear right above the plate, snagging a few strips of bacon in her mouth and claws before disappearing again. Rocky and Diver followed suit presumably to claim their portions.

Dad grumbled a bit, but I smiled a little at their display of tactics while I set about preparing a full meal for my friends.

"It's good to see you smiling again kiddo." Dad was smiling at me from the table. "You've been in a real funk the past two days, you had me worried."

"All that sleep helped."

"Uh huh… Taylor I called that Piggot woman last night, the Director from the PRT."

My hand slipped, I only just managed to avoid dumping the boiling water on myself. "Why?"

"A lot of reasons, they can help you figure out how your power works, and they can help find books and games for you to use your power on that won't be so difficult for you to deal with."

"You could do all that too." Dad gave me a tired smile.

"I could but it would take me a lot longer than it would take them. Besides I'm worried about you. What happens if your power activates in public? You need to figure this stuff out before something like that happens."

He wasn't wrong, and the Wards seemed nice, but Sophia had been... well she had been a bitch. She had also been a sociopath, psychopath, whichever, both. The Protectorate, the Wards, the PRT, they all let her get away with it. She was clever and the school moved heaven and earth to keep her out of trouble. But still, was it really worth whatever training and support they could give me?

"Taylor, I don't trust them either. I really don't, but there are some things about that meeting with the director I didn't tell you. Taylor, she's concerned that you could end up an S-class threat if you fall into the wrong book."

"What?" my brain ground to a halt, how could I be a threat on the same level as an Endbringer. Before I could process that my friends landed all around me. Beauty landed on my shoulder, Rocky perched on my lap and Diver stared up at me from the table. The three of them were putting out confusion, concern and reassurance, trying to keep me calm. I wasn't sure if it would be enough.

"They think, that I, that I would do…"

"No! No they don't think you're going to do anything bad. That's not it at all Taylor. It's just that your power has the potential to be that strong. They're afraid you might pick up a power you can't control. You remember the movie Alien?"

"Yeah, why? What does that have to do with anything?"

"What if you're power made something like that? A creature that can develop and spread quickly, killing anyone it meets. Your little dragons are harmless, they are almost perfect pets, but that doesn't mean that your power couldn't make something dangerous. They just want to make sure nothing like that happens, and that if it does, then someone will be on hand to deal with the problem. I can't deal with those sorts of issues, but they can Taylor. Besides Piggot made a mistake. When I talked to her and she tipped her hand." With that last sentence my Dad's serious expression changed to a vicious grin.

Dad's experience with the dockworkers union gave him a lot of practice negotiating. He might not look it, but I had no doubt Dad could have held his own in a boardroom full of corporate CEO's. That was a look I only ever saw when someone from town hall screwed up and had to throw the union some work, to prevent making a scene.

"Piggot told me something you wouldn't believe. Dragon, the Dragon, is interested in your potential. She wants you to get training, and practice until you're old enough to join the guild. Now, you don't actually have to agree to join the guild, but even if you do you won't need to fight on the front lines. You can just be a tinker and support them, the way Dragon does."

"Taylor, if someone that important has a personal interest in you then we have leverage. More importantly, you haven't done anything illegal. If that Piggot woman becomes more trouble than she's worth I can pull you right out of the Wards. If it comes to that we can ask the guild to watch out for you directly. Taylor, right now we've got all the cards, as long as we play them right you'll be taken care of no matter what."

Dragon was interested in me. The director of the PRT thinks I could be as dangerous as an Endbringer. Dad thinks I should join the Wards. I'd only been up for about ten minutes. I needed tea, the biggest strongest cup of black tea I could get my hands on. I might even need an entire pot.

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Dad called us both in sick, again. I felt a bit bad about how much work Dad had been missing lately but he waved me off saying "The union will still be there on Monday and right now we need to focus on our upcoming meeting. We want every advantage we can get."

We spent the rest of the day talking about my power, and the meeting. We went over every detail I could remember and tried to figure out the rules that defined my power. We made a little progress. We suspect that my power does not activate until I open the book or hit start on the game. That was a good start, but it still left a lot of questions. As in, we filled a page, took a break, came back to it, and filled another page. We basically gave up after we tried to figure out what would happen if I read the bible, and agreed that I should never try.

Dad's plan for dealing with the meeting went a lot better. It boiled down to a few key elements. Dad had been a bit panicked when he had called the director. To make up for that we needed to put our best foot forward and show up looking confident. His plan for the meeting itself was pretty straightforward too.

Dad wanted them to help me figure out my power before sending me on patrols. He wanted me to actually have some decent defense and offense options too. Above all else though, Dad said we had to make it clear that if either of us thought I was being mistreated I'd walk. Dad said Piggot wouldn't like that, but we had to be firm on it or else she would walk all over us.

I didn't want to believe that about the woman in charge of the PRT, but she had let Shadow Stalker get away with bullying me, so it made sense to take precautions. The biggest precaution though, according to Dad, was our backup plan. If the Wards didn't pan out he wanted to try and get support from Dragon directly. It was the backup plan because neither of us wanted to move to Canada. Still it was better than having no backup plan at all.

The only real moment of excitement was when we ordered mushroom pizza for dinner. I grew almost three feet from what probably amounted to half a mushroom spread out over one slice of pizza. Dad was laughing pretty hard until the chair broke. Then he started groaning about having to fix it. My dragonets didn't seem to know what to make of my sudden growth spurt, but they absolutely loved that they could all perch on my shoulders at the same time now. It wore off after about an hour.

I was still nervous about tomorrow's meeting as I crawled into bed, but at least I felt like Dad and I were as ready as we could be. I was going to be a Ward. I really didn't know how to feel about that. Still, Dad seemed to think it was a good idea and I could always leave. One thing was certain, tomorrow would be interesting.