Buster by Caleb Huett (ebook reader library txt) 📕

I was done. A Windswept Manabyte summoned Vera Descent, the Glittering Acrobat, for Tonio’s side—she wasn’t as strong as Flashlord without other cards helping her. I’d picked Mia’s deck for myself because even though she put hers together haphazardly, at least she stuck to “the strong cards.” Tonio still hadn’t committed to a final design for his decks, so they weren’t as consistent.

Back on my turn, I put another Flaming Manabyte on the table, but all the rest of my cards were too expensive, because Mia overloaded the deck with high-power heroes. I could only attack with Flashlord, but since he had 3 power and Vera Descent had 2, I thought I’d be okay.

Tonio dropped a spell card, Stormbomb, which was free as long as you had at least one Windswept Manabyte on the field. It added 2 power to Vera for the rest of the turn, making her stronger than Flashlord—but defending heroes can’t kill attacking heroes, so nothing happened and the fight canceled out. I whimpered a little, disappointed that Flashlord didn’t win, and Tonio’s eyes widened.

“No way. There’s no way you know how to play Beamblade! You’re a dog!”

I lifted my ears and tilted my head, letting him decide for himself whether or not I was playing Beamblade. He stared me down, then sighed.

“Okay. I guess it’s my turn.” He drew a card and placed a Drowned Manabyte. He placed a tech card next to Vera Descent—Nanobot Wand. She got a permanent +1 boost to her power, but since we would tie if he attacked, he passed his turn to me.

I placed a third Flaming Manabyte and used all three to play the spell card Summon Familiar.exe. Flashlord got a dragon familiar with 2 power who would fight with him in any battle. They attacked, and Vera Descent was defeated. I ate one of Tonio’s treats, and he ran his hands through his hair in disbelief.

“Wait, okay, what’s dog for yes?”

I bobbed my head—Underspeak for yes.

“And no?”

Since there are a couple different ways, I taught him the most basic and bared my teeth, just slightly.

“Got it. Have you been smart this whole time?”

Yes.

“Okay. So … were you lying to me just now? With the test?”

Yes.

“Why?”

I tried to think of a way to tell him, but he didn’t know enough Underspeak. I bared my teeth and bobbed my head at the same time to express that it was a more complicated answer than I could do right now. I also tapped the cardboard, to show that it was his turn, because I knew that he could work through this life-changing news a little easier if he was distracted by the game at first.

And also because I was winning.

He dropped Cordurboy, the Fabricant and equipped him with Self-Driving Armor, which took out Flashlord. I countered with Mightas, the Golden Barbarian, and cast a Refresh spell on Cordurboy, which reset his stats and got rid of the armor. The next turn, with five whole Flaming Manabytes (lucky draw), I was able to activate the Red Beamblade, and Mightas, the Golden Barbarian, TORE THROUGH Cordurboy with ONE CLEAVE. As I ate the final Spirit Battery, Cordurboy unraveled down to his last stitch, which blew away in the winds of time, forgotten for eternity! BEHOLD THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE POWER OF A BLADEMASTER!!!

Uh, excuse me. Sorry. (It really is a good game.)

“You beat me,” Tonio mumbled as he stacked his cards back up. “I just lost a card game to my dog, which is, well— It means—” He stopped. I watched a series of emotions run across Tonio’s face and was briefly scared I had triggered another anxiety attack. But after a quick pinch on his arm and a glance out the window to see if anything seemed dreamlike, he eventually settled on a nod.

“I was right. You have been paying attention like a person does, because you are a person.” He stood up and put a hand to his forehead. “Wait, are you a human that got turned into a dog? Or a dog that someone did evil science on?”

No.

“So, all dogs are like you.”

I mean, I’m a unique individual, but— I nodded. Yes.

“You’ve been forced to be around me all the time for weeks! You must be so sick of me by now. All I do is sit around here and draw, and I didn’t talk to you enough, and when I did talk, all I did was complain about my life, and—”

I barked to interrupt and jumped up onto Tonio’s desk chair. I grabbed the bottom of a marker awkwardly in my teeth and held it out to Tonio. He reached out and pulled the top off for me.

Holding a marker this close to my messed-up nose was not pleasant, and it overwhelmed everything else with its sickly sweet scent. I tried to hold my breath and maneuver my head to write words on some leftover cardboard on the floor—also not an easy task, as you know. After half a minute of working, I finally wrote out, legibly:

I like you.

“But you didn’t have a choice. They took you from that shelter and trained you to help me without ever knowing what you wanted, and now you’ve had to be around me, and I’ve got to be one of the worst dog owners ever. I’m sorry, I—”

I had continued writing as soon as he started talking, and he finally noticed my sentence.

I’m here because I want to be.

Tonio stared at my marker scribbles uncomfortably. Here I was, telling him the truth about one of the biggest secrets on Earth so he would believe me about this small one, and his anxiety wouldn’t let him. He couldn’t just accept that I liked being around him—that I found him valuable on his own.

“It’s time to go!” Mrs. Pulaski called from downstairs. Oh, right. His appointment with Dr. Jake is today. Tonio jumped at the reminder of the outside world.

“We have to tell my mom!” Tonio whispered. “There’s no way she’ll send you