Page 16 of Culture and Curiosities (Blue Ridge Charm #1)

Wren

“Is coloring during meetings typical for our people here, my mate?”

Daddy Manny was being very Daddy as he watched the meeting with me.

“No, but it’s making it more fun and it seemed rude to tell the diner men no.”

They’d offered, so I’d been polite…and if polite was fun that was just a bonus.

“At least it’s not more cupcakes?”

Daddy hadn’t liked how many of those I’d needed to eat to be polite.

“Your logic is manipulative, my mate.”

Yep.

“Oh, I think we’re finally going to do something besides tell stories. Pierce is getting antsy.”

Daddy’s very well-done sigh said he was on Pierce’s side. Even hanging out with Klynn at their campsite wasn’t keeping him occupied, but that was mostly because Klynn was ignoring him in favor of reading.

“No. I apologize for interrupting, but it was brought to my attention last night that while a significant portion of our group appreciated the stories we were telling yesterday, it might be a good idea to deal with the situation logically.” Pierce was trying to be polite but he looked like he wanted to strangle everyone who sighed.

Interestingly enough, it was the cupcake dragon Kenzie who decided to get us going in a more fascinating direction. “Making decisions about sending people to other planets is scary. Maybe we should ask WWPD.”

Daddy was confused but I was trying not to laugh as Merritt coughed and barely stopped himself from giggling as he translated for everyone. “What would Picard do.”

I was really starting to like him…especially when he nudged Kenzie’s idea into a more mainstream one.

“I think we need to start with an understanding that we’re not sending unwilling people there.

We’re asking dragons and mages if they want to do something strange and reckless. They’re going to volunteer.”

That had everyone around the table nodding and even Daddy shrugged in my head.

“He is not wrong, my mate.”

Daddy knew that because he’d volunteered for something stupid and reckless too.

“We do not have to feel guilty about people volunteering to answer questions. I’m sure half this town would volunteer to go.” Meritt didn’t seem to understand just how right he was, but I’d make sure he knew it at some point.

“We do dangerous things on a regular basis.” Kenzie shrugged as his Daddy looked like he wanted to shake his head.

As part of the Sherrif’s department, he saw our fun firsthand and was having a hard time looking bored as Kenzie continued.

“Daddy pointed that out when I started to worry. I cannot worry about the stupid things other people do. So I will confidently send several stupid people through the portal and I will be very excited when they come back with good stories.”

“Should I apologize for being shocked this is the most logical local dragon?”

“I don’t know, but if you do, I need to as well.”

Maybe we could just be rude together and not confess it to anyone else?

“I agree.” Merritt looked like he’d agree with me and Daddy Manny too. “I’ve personally seen half this town do incredibly dangerous things on a regular basis. This is just important and dangerous.”

When Pierce straightened again, he looked less likely to murder everyone. “We need information. We need to know where we come from. We need to know who’s on the other side. We need to know if they realize the gate is open. I could keep going, but you get my point.”

Daddy Manny was nodding along, but Pierce got sighs from the rest of the room before they gave in and nodded.

They just wanted to keep playing pretend instead of actually making decisions…and it was making me and Daddy both wonder how some of them had gotten picked.

Pierce probably had questions about that too, but I’d been good at avoiding him for the past couple of days, so I wasn’t sure about it.

“We’ve already agreed on the need to make sure the gate is monitored at all times.

We’ve agreed on a combination of remote and in-person monitoring. We’ve actually made a lot of progress.”

“Klynn and I both agree that progress has been made and monitoring would be necessary.”

Daddy was firm about that because Klynn almost had to out himself to keep a couple of teenagers from going through the portal.

The cranky dragon had not been happy about that…and neither had Daddy.

“So next we need to start by making a few more basic decisions and then we can go from there.” Pierce paused but no one was stupid enough to argue with him.

“From my perspective, I think the first decision we vote on this time is if we’re going to ask a mixed group of volunteers to go through the portal. ”

Now we were getting to the good stuff.

The grumpy dragon, Boyd, who was in charge of the locals on the council decided to throw a wrench in the progress. “Another important decision we need to make is if we’re telling the US government what’s happening.”

“The looks are confusion, my mate? Why? Isn’t that reasonable?”

Nothing anyone did around here was reasonable.

Boyd would agree with both of us based on how he rolled his eyes and seemed to think they were idiots.

“We’re not our own country no matter what some people seem to believe.

We could end up bringing anything from aliens to dinosaurs through that portal.

Is that really something we want to surprise people with? ”

Boyd paused before rolling his eyes again when they didn’t seem to understand the gravity of the situation. “What would your mothers do if you brought home a fucking dinosaur without warning her?”

“Oh.”

Best. Town. Ever.

They’d even done it in unison.

I was doing great at behaving myself, even ignoring the great ancestors above comment from Daddy, when Kenzie leaned in close to Merritt. “Do you know a spell that would make a light bulb go off over their heads when they do that oh thing?”

Yes!

“No.”

Kenzie’s Daddy was a party pooper, though, and his look made Kenzie sigh. “Never mind.”

“Now, let’s start at the beginning and see what kind of progress we can make before we break for lunch and you all tell everyone that we’ve done nothing but play pretend all day.

” Pierce’s glare made me think that was personal because it was the same look he gave some of our relatives when they drove him nuts.

Yep.

One of the Canadian men huffed. “The men at the diner got me. It’s not my fault.”

I loved the diner just as much as I loved the rest of the town…possibly even more.

“It’s understandable.” Pierce must’ve been practicing being nice because he should’ve called Canada guy out. “At least we know it’s an efficient system for distributing information.”

“And we’ll know everyone’s opinions on our decisions by breakfast.” One of the other dragons I hadn’t met shook his head. “If they think we’ve made the wrong decision, we’ll hear about it soon.”

Pierce took that as his cue to keep us moving. “Alright, do we have any logical questions or topics of discussion about the first vote to send a group through the portal?”

Way too many people looked excited for that opening, causing Boyd to glare at them. “He said logical questions. Don’t ask anything stupid.”

“I don’t think that’s a reasonable order, my mate.”

Oops.

Laughing had not been the right reaction to either of them.

Meetings were hard but at least I still had two more coloring pages.

****

“I think I’m done going to meetings alone.” Crawling up on Daddy’s lap, I ignored the low words coming from Pierce’s room. He and his mate were cute but Daddy was more important than their silliness. “They keep getting distracted and I’m not sure what I should tell them.”

I was tired of being a boring grown-up and we were at the point where one of the Florida men was just going to wander across the portal to see if they could find a dinosaur.

“My thoughts were similar, my mate.” Daddy kissed my head, snuggling me close. “As were Klynn’s.”

That made me giggle. “There’s no way he wants to come.”

Daddy’s laughter filled my head. “No. He made his thoughts on that understandable in a clear and slightly threatening manner. However, he believes it is time for me to introduce myself and help steer their plans.”

“Pierce is getting tired of having to take charge.” Especially when there weren’t enough real grown-ups around to help make good decisions. “Merritt is really smart but they need more information to work with.”

Daddy’s thinking sounds filled my head but he gave me kisses and good snuggles making being patient easier. “I think we should approach Pierce and Merritt first before going to the council as a whole. They are family and need to understand the situation before strangers.”

Oh yeah.

“And that way his mother can’t complain.

She’d be pissed if he wasn’t one of the first to know.

” There was going to be so much drama already, I didn’t want to add any.

“It’ll be good to have them comfortable with the idea first too.

That way it’ll be harder for Florida to panic and do something stupid. ”

Everyone kept saying dragons were impulsive…and he had to stop proving them right.

“Should we approach Pierce and his mate tonight?” Daddy’s question had us both listening more carefully and he shook his head as I giggled. “No. We will make me known tomorrow.”

“Good plan.” They sounded very close to little time or private time, and either way, we shouldn’t interrupt. “What is our plan for tonight going to be?”

I was good with almost anything as long as I didn’t have to debate it or make decisions.

Daddy must’ve heard that through the bond because he made a soft sound and soothing feelings came through to me. “We are going to play squirrel and toys.”

I liked playing squirrel.

I liked toys.

Oh.

“Then can we play big boy toys later?” Wiggling, I straddled Daddy’s lap and gave him my best good boy smile. “I have lots of toys.”

Oops.

Daddy’s head cocked and his thoughts got thinky…not bad yet but maybe heading in that direction. “My mate, is this a reference to the small black bag?”

Technically.

“Not if it would make you bad squirmy, Daddy Manny.” Kissing both his cheeks, I wiggled over his lap again.

Not too worried and not bad squirmy yet.

Daddy sighed in my head as his hands grabbed my hips to pin me in place. “No cheating, my mate.”

“I’m not cheating, Daddy. I’m distracting.” And checking. “I’m little. I can’t cheat. That’s what Daddies do.”

Daddy looked skeptical.

He felt skeptical.

He sounded skeptical in my head.

He even sounded skeptical out loud. “I will not concede that logic.”

Daddy used it so good I had to give him more kisses. “You remembered that one. Good job, Daddy.”

We’d spent boring meeting time, and when Klynn was pouting and avoiding Daddy, going over good words from the dictionary. Daddy liked learning and I liked not being bored.

I’d colored too fast.

“Thank you, my Wren.” Daddy was still watching me close, but he didn’t do anything silly like tell me I was being sneaky. “Let’s finish our conversation before we change the subject.”

He’d probably think I was being naughty if I told him he was doing good with his sentences too, so I sighed and didn’t say it out loud.

Or think it.

Not much, anyway.

He was being dramatic and ignored it, though.

“Daddies cannot be dramatic, my mate.” Daddy shrugged like he’d been practicing and it looked very human…Earthy? Earthian? “The diner men explained that.”

I wasn’t sure I liked all the stuff he was learning from the diner men.

“I think—” Daddy stopped me, giving me a quick peck to cut off my words.

“You think it is time to go back to our conversation.” He kissed my cheek that time. “Good boy. Now, grown-up toys is a comment about the items in the black bag?”

Part of me said I should change the subject but even I knew that wasn’t an option. Daddy was just feeling very serious, though, and I wasn’t sure I liked it. “Yes, but we don’t have to do that if you don’t want to. Everyone is different.”

Daddy studied me closely before the bond got brighter in my head and his thoughts filled me up like a bathtub. I loved the almost overflowing feelings and slowly curled into him so I didn’t slosh them around too much. “That’s…that’s nice.”

Showing him how long my day had been, I let everything in my bathtub brain make waves back and forth like it was rocking me from the mate bond out.

Daddy squeezed me tight, making the feelings even bigger or better or something.

“Yes, we will give you lots of nice feelings and help you relax. You’re going to be my happy squirrel and we’re going to play. ”

I liked playing.

I liked being full too.

Tummy full.

Head full.

Bottom full.

I liked being full.

Daddy was good at making me full too because he kept hugging me and kept me filled with all of him. His happies and his naughties and his complainies.

“We’ll…we’ll find a way to make Klynn not a pain in the butt, Daddy. We can do it.” He wasn’t happy because he was still working on little stuff and liking people stuff and needing people stuff. “We’re…we’re smart and we’ll show him he can be happy.”

The waves of thoughts and emotions made me feel like I was being rocked on a boat and it was almost hypnotic. “I think…I think he’s worried.”

Daddy kissed my head, barely relaxing his arms and lowering the bathtub emotions a tiny bit. “Do you think his worries are about finding his mate?”

I might’ve nodded.

I thought I nodded.

Maybe I nodded?

“Yes.” Heads didn’t matter anyway. “I think he’s worried…worried about finding his mate back on your world. He’s curious…he’s curious about being little and you guys don’t have that.”

They didn’t seem to have subs or kinks or spankings either…so I could understand why he was worried.

I’d have worried too if I was Klynn.