Purrfect Roast: A Dragon Cozy Mystery by Verena DeLuca (the giving tree read aloud TXT) 📗

I old," I asked with an insincere shock. "It's not just old ladies with their cats. It's not that lame."

"How long have you been on the tea?" Aubrey asked, laughing. "Have they been replacing your coffee?"

That would explain the off taste.

I laughed. "I would never partake in that vile drink."

This made Aubrey laugh all the harder because of my serious tone.

I took another bite of cupcake, savoring the rich flavors. Dessert for breakfast was the best way to live life to the fullest.

"Did that lady just mention the breed of her cat?" Aubrey asked, nodding over to a woman walking by.

"Of course," I said. "They require owners to submit their cat's breed at check-in, otherwise you get filtered into the household category which does not compete for Best in Show."

"So that means you actually know Azure's breed?"

"Bombay." I reached down to rub Azure behind the ears.

"As if you knew it prior to having to fill out my paperwork," Azure transmitted with a huff.

I did not give him the satisfaction of a response, taking another sip of my espresso instead. I did in fact know his breed long before the show.

"Fascinating, well, that settles it," Aubrey declared. "I am going to discover as many cat breeds as possible today! The kids will get a kick out of this. We just thought there were cats with different colored fur."

It was my turn to laugh. "I don't think I even know them all. They keep breeding new ones too."

Okay, truth be told, I would have never known Azure's breed had it not been for Tona discussing it, and I could not pick out breeds within the sea of cats at the show. It was all various colors of fur to me. Even the ones I knew were Bombay's did not look like Azure.

"Oh yeah," Aubrey said. "This is going to be fun."

"It'll probably be more entertaining than the ceremony," I said. "Speaking of which, we should make our way into the main room. The ladies will have saved us seats."

I finished the last of my far-too-small cup of coffee and led Aubrey to the room where the events took place all weekend. Today they had set up the stage with a three-step podium for the winners to stand on. With as many subcategories as they had, there was an excellent chance Azure would win something. Whether it would be gold, was left to be seen. I hoped he was not too disappointed with silver or bronze. I refused to consider what would happen if he did not place at all.

Skylar waved from the other side of the room and came toward us as we made our way through the entrance. Her red hair stood out in the crowd of onlookers waiting for the ceremony to begin.

The room was spacious enough to host a formal ball. Not that I had ever been to one. The stage sat at the far end and spanned the width of the room with a curtain hung behind it. From the center stage, a catwalk—pun intended—shot out into the center of the room. They placed seating on all three sides of the catwalk enough for one hundred spectators and participants.

Before Skylar could say hi, Aubrey jumped in asking, "What breed is your cat?"

Skylar gave me a puzzled look, and I shrugged it off, laughing. What was I supposed to say? When Aubrey got a crazy idea, she always saw it through. Thankfully, they were few and far between.

"He's a Korat?" Skylar said in a high-pitched voice, implying, "Why are you asking?"

"That's neat." Aubrey used her phone to take a photo.

"Thank you," Skylar said. "Shadow is totally going to take home gold this year."

"Isn't that right?" Skylar asked as she scratched Shadow's back.

He arched into the scratches. It made me smile to see how much joy the dragons got out of being cats. While Shadow's dragon form was scales of deep greens and a lighter shade for his belly, his cat form featured silverish gray-toned short-haired fur and a small build. When he stood next to Azure's medium build, and silky black fur, he looked like he had a shadow. Especially if Azure closed his eyes. This had obviously been a photo-worthy moment for us over the weekend.

"Not if Azure has anything to say about it," I teased.

She stuck her tongue out and we laughed. For us, it had been a weekend of taunting. While our dragons were dead set on taking gold, we were not picky about the trophy.

From where I stood, I could hear Shadow purr. It was such a deep rattle—I thought he might shake the actual floor.

We followed Skylar across the room to our seats, and the other ladies said hi, introducing themselves to Aubrey.

Only two of the event coordinators were on the stage. The awards were scheduled to start in one minute. All weekend the three coordinators wore the same khakis and logoed polo, making it easy to spot them in the halls. Or duck out of sight if one was avoiding unneeded conversation about the competition.

We had cut it close, but it was better than sitting there with nothing to do besides stare at the sea of cats and their owners. The bat pens on their badges made it easy to see that dragon protectors made up half the attendees.

"Thank you everyone for coming out today," Nathan said. "We want to recognize all of you, without whom this wouldn't be possible. Let's all give a round of applause."

The room filled with thunderous applause, and more than one cat meowed.

"Before we get to announcing the winners, let's take a moment to thank everyone that donated prizes."

He listed off over thirty businesses, some names I recognized, like big box pet stores. I probably should have planned ahead for how we would handle taking swag back with us. Carpool was the most efficient way to get the tribe to the show, but it turned luggage packing into a game of Tetris. Hopefully, Aubrey would agree to filling