Of Magic in Man

Blink

"What!? He's shy around me."

"He's not as afraid of you as he is of Hammer." 

Ruddy said nothing.

"Fine," she sighed, "Just give me like five minutes."

"I'll get breakfast started."

"Oh my god, I love you."

Eggs and coffee did wonders for Amy's mood, and she was back to her cheerful self in minutes.

"Your eggs are the best."

Ruddy grinned.

"No Ruddy, no. Down boy. No baby mamma jokes. We talked about this."

"...I was going to say, 'thanks for the compliment. I like, never get those.' but I suppose 'how many kids do you want?' works too."

Amy rolled her eyes and giggled, "Two, tops. That's all you get. After the wedding."

Ruddy smiled, "It's in like two weeks, babe. We could always start trying now and your mom would never know."

"Ha ha, asshole. We're already moved in together. She resigned herself to it a long time ago."

"Do you want to take the dog for a walk?" Ruddy asked, changing the subject, "It's a gorgeous Sunday morning."

"I can't," Amy sighed, "I promised Taylor I'd watch Abel today. She's going to the hospital to be with her mother for the day."

"How is she doing with that?" Ruddy asked in a concerned tone.

"Not well. Her mother is losing the battle. The doctors don't think she has much time left. Days, maybe a week."

Ruddy nodded his understanding. The Barleys were childhood friends of hers. They were all going through a rough time, and Ruddy felt kind of useless. His skills were with animals, not people. It had taken him months to warm up to Amy. He was just glad she stuck around that long.

"Ok, baby. I get it. I'll take Nails out on the town today. He's still young, and it'll be good for him to socialize."

"Even though you won't," Amy winked at him slyly.

Ruddy laughed, "Damn straight."

When Ruddy go to the park he let Nails off the leash and busted a frisbee out of his pack. Nails barked happily and ran in circles at the sight of the thing.

"Oh boy! Look it's your favorite toy!"

"Ruff!"

The frisbee zipped through the air as Ruddy released it. A strong wind picked up blowing the frisbee slightly off course. The lean young German shepherd easily corrected. The wind reached Ruddy and he blinked.

He was standing in a grove of trees, not unlike what he'd seen on Earth. His practiced eye easily picked out oak, beech, and ash trees in the waning twilight. He would've wondered what happened to the morning, but was too busy staring open mouthed at something that definitely didn't belong. 

The horse had a silver coat that shone as though with its own internal light. What's more it had a horn on its head. Ruddy knew enough physiology to know it was, in fact, connected to the skull beneath it. That or it was a really close wax model.

"Ok Ruddy," he murmured to himself, "Here's what happened. The wind blew the frisbee into your head and you woke up in Disney land. Checks out."

"You are the human wizard?" The horse with the horn on its head and LED skin tone asked.