Chapter Twenty-Five
Mac
With both a kobold and a dragon baby, I'd worried Galen would give more time and attention to Slate and leave me to worry about Opal. The opposite happened, instead. Galen spent so much time with our little girl, I worried she wasn't getting enough time with Slate. The curious little dragon followed me everywhere, which made it easy to include them in bath time, meal prep, and even taking out the garbage. They stopped short of following the bovinji and beef bones over the steep ledge into the refuse pile.
I'd noticed a wild dragonet flying around our trash and wondered if she was the one responsible for Sunny's hatchlings. I hadn't seen them in months. I had a feeling they weren't little anymore.
Dragonets left our larger kobold children alone, but I didn't know what she would do with our babies. I made it my mission to catch her so I wouldn't have to find out.
I had help. Rapture followed us each time we left the cave. If Slate strayed too far, he herded them closer to me with wings spread and long neck guiding them.
The fresh bones were too tasty for the wild dragonet to resist. She swooped in after I threw a handful into the pile, picking them out one by one.
This was my chance. I still had a few bones in the lined grocery bag slung over my shoulder. I gathered Slate from where they and Rapture had been playing and took them back inside.
"I'm going to catch her and take her to the barn," I told Galen on my way back out. "I'll let Han and Sunny know Rapture is staying with us, too."
Galen shook their head. "I don't like you leaving, but it will be easier to catch her now." The ancestral birthing cave sat atop a ridge of mountains. The bone pit was a narrow dip between three peaks. I assumed that was the main reason the cave was left for temporary use instead of a permanent residence. The times between uses allowed for most of the bones to decay, but daily use would pile up quickly.
The small area worked to my advantage. I removed Rapture's harness and tucked it in my hand in a way that would be easy to slip it over the wild dragonet's head. Rapture and I flew to an adjoining peak, and I tossed the remaining bones into the pit.
She was too hungry to care there was another dragonet nearby. She lunged for the bones, and we swooped from the peak.
As much as I wanted to think I hopped from Rapture's back and landed gracefully on the wild dragonet, it probably looked more like falling to the untrained eye. It felt like falling, too, with how hard my tailbone hit her spine. She roared and spit fire into the bone pile, but Rapture had already wheeled away, headed back to protect our little home away from home if I failed to capture and tame her.
Glory. I would name her Glory.
She was still hungry. I eased into our bond by offering her a snack back at the paddock, and then, all the food she could eat for a few days until she returned to her full adult weight.
Our bond snapped into place at the promise of food. The temporary bond between us would be easy to pass to anyone willing to give her a treat.
Through our bond, I showed her where I wanted to go, to the dragonet barn. She already knew of it, which reinforced my guess that she was the mother of Sunny's hatchlings. She probably followed them at a distance, too afraid to attack the little kobold child with her baby dragonets in his pockets.
I felt a stab of anxiety for my own babies. I wouldn't want anyone to come along and take them from their nest, either. I passed my empathy along to her and reassured her she would see them again. If there had been any fight left in her before our brief discussion, it disappeared at the mention of her little ones.
When we landed, I gave her a jerky snack. When she followed me to the closed barn door, I gave her another. Han answered my knock, surprised to see me. "What are you doing here? Your little girl hasn't molted yet!"
"I couldn't resist the chance to bring another dragonet home to roost. This is Glory."
Han knew the drill with dragonets. He had a pocketful of snacks ready and handed her yet another one for being such a patient girl while Sunny pushed the door open for us.
"This is their mom!" Sunny recognized her right away. "Here! We'll take them out to the paddock so they can be reacquainted."
"Not so fast," I said. "She's starving. She'll need to eat a few meals before we take her back out. She can meet them in the pen inside."
Sunny nodded. "She likes food bribes. Got it." He led her off to the pen and then brought Copper and Nickel, the two hatchlings, out from theirs.
"How do you plan to get back?" Han asked me.
"I was hoping you'd lend me another dragonet. Rapture's enamored with our daughter and won't leave the cave."
"Rapture's sister is still here." Vice had bitten me a few times, hence the name, but she was a decent enough mount now that she was two years old. I handed her a few pieces of dog food and a hunk of jerky, and she seemed eager to come out of her pen to fly with me.
* * *
I could feel Galen's excitement through our bond while I flew back to the cave. It wasn't strong enough for me to hear their thoughts the way they could hear mine, but they were vibrating with joy. Despite my relief that our wild dragonet had been caught and tamed so she wouldn't die of starvation or become dragon food, Galen wouldn't be nearly this happy about my success.
When I landed at the cave and sent Vice on her way, Rapture did not greet us at the landing. I entered the cave and found him far from his usual place. He, Galen, and Slate were all huddled over baby Opal.
Our kobold daughter had shed scales all over the stone floor. The pile of blankets that had once formed our nest now lay in a heap along the edge of the bowl to give her room. She slithered and wriggled across the floor on her back, discarding old scales and skin and bringing a bright new set to the surface.
I joined them, completing the circle around her.
"Ahp!" She wriggled closer to me, and the last bit of stubborn scale attached to her tail came free, leaving her all shiny and new after her first molt. She climbed up my legs until I could catch her under the arms and hoist her to my shoulder. Another molt, and I'd have to leave her on the floor and take her hand, but for now, she was still my shoulder-riding little buddy.
"She calls me Para, but it mostly sounds like Pa,'" Galen said fondly. "And Rapture's name has been shortened to 'Rap.'"
"Ahp!" She repeated for me.
"Opal," I said, turning to give her a peck on the cheek. "I'm proud of you, little one. We can go home now."
While Galen and I still had a long way to go to restore our magic, Rapture had no problem taking us back to our cave with all our belongings in his interdimensional space. Galen held Slate, and I held Opal for the short flight.
The cave was cold and damp at the entryway, but Galen lit a fire while I gave the blankets a quick wash and returned them to their original place in Galen's bed.
"This won't do at all," I mumbled. We had no privacy in our cave. The bed was near the pool we used for water and bathing, but it was only a few paces from the kitchen.
"This is the fun part," Galen said. "Now you get to tell me where you want the bedrooms and playroom."
"What about the bowl you made for your bed?" I asked, pointing to the giant dip in the floor.
Galen held out their hands and raised them. As they did, the floor raised with them until the blankets I'd just washed were now in a neatly folded pile in the middle of a flat stone floor.
"I worried our cave wouldn't be big enough for two babies." Galen gestured at the space larger than the fortress's gym with a vaulted ceiling high enough for Galen to stand on their hind legs and still not touch the peak. This was important to them, so I tried not to laugh.
"I've learned how to make the interdimensional spaces Rapture uses," they continued. "We can section off an area for the kids to play, and our bedrooms can be larger on the inside than they appear on the outside."
Opal was already asleep in my arms after the flight. Slate had crawled onto Galen's shoulders and nestled around their neck, but our dragon baby's eyes were closed. We needed to get them to bed.
"Let's make a makeshift nest here," I said. "While they sleep, we can plan."
We got the babies situated in a much smaller temporary version of our prior nest when we heard scrabbling at the doorway and an excited chirp from Rapture.
"Hello! I heard from a little dragonet wrangler you were home!" I recognized Coz's voice. We'd had many conversations before he'd felt comfortable letting Sunny train with me at the barn.
"Are you dressed?" Tuft's high, clear voice echoed in the cave, now that Galen had shoved all our furniture into an interdimensional space.
I ran to the doorway and greeted my friends with hugs. Coz had brought Sunny with him, and the little beta was petting Rapture's nose and telling him what a good dragonet he was for guarding the entrance. Punky walked around, examining the walls, while Lark hastily tucked something back into an interdimensional space of his own.
"We thought you'd had time to plan a nursery, with all these requests," Tuft said. He was decked out in a rainbow tie and suspenders over his vibrant yellow shirt to match his stripes. Even his belt buckle had a rainbow on it.
"They weren't home," Axel reminded him. "And they warded the entrance so no well-meaning friends could stop by and build nice things for them while they were off having babies."
"So we improvised!" Tuft tugged on the air between them, pulling into view a beautiful ironwood dresser with delicate carvings etched into the wood. "Where do you want this?"
"Give us a moment to decide where to put the bedrooms," I said. "Better yet, come help us decide."
"Not touching that," Punky said. "I'm the worst at interior design."
"Aww, look at him," Grindl pointed to Tuft, who vibrated with excitement. "He was made for this, Mac. You've created a monster."
I laughed and extended my elbow to Tuft. "Come with me."
Galen had a much better idea of what they wanted than I did. Axel was more carpenter than stone mason, but he had a good eye for architecture.
While Galen and Axel discussed the new rooms, I worried Tuft would launch into redecorating the rest of our space. I was pleasantly surprised when he dragged me to our makeshift nest instead.
"Look at how adorable they are!" Tuft whispered. "Do they always sleep like that?"
Opal was draped over the top of Slate's head again, clutching their horns with her claws.
"So far, yes."
"Clementine wanted to come with us," Punky said, joining us around the nest. "We ran out of room, even after we stuffed our individual spaces full."
"You are welcome to bring all your children," Galen said while they and Axel measured a few doorways against the rock wall.
"Soon," Punky promised.
Once Axel had the doorways drawn against the outer wall, Galen and I worked together to create the rooms. Each room was like an interdimensional space, but open to the cave so it filled with air. Then, Galen tied off the magic so it would hold until we needed to expand the space, which we most certainly would as Slate continued to grow.
Opal's room was in the middle, sandwiched between two dragons. Axel also included a doorway between her room and Slate's so they could play together, but in their own rooms.
I walked Punky, Lark, and Tuft through my wish lists, sharing what I'd ordered for each room. We had another pile of toys and games left over for the playroom, so Axel, Galen, and I discussed where to put it.
We used a ton of magic to shuffle the kitchen from the back of the cave to the side along the entrance, which would make food prep and cleanup much easier when Galen hunted. This left plenty of space to turn half of our former bedroom into the play area and the other half into an entertainment room, complete with a television.
"You mean we could have been watching movies on a big screen this whole time?" Galen whined.
"I told you about TVs," I said. "They're glorious."
"You made it sound like they did less than your tablet without emphasizing they are bigger!"
Punky backed away slowly as smoke started rolling from Galen's nostrils. "Well, now you have a television."
"Your bedroom is still bare," Tuft said from the doorway.
"We can handle it from here," Galen said.
I fully expected them to chase our friends out of our enclosure, but they invited everyone to sit and show them how to work the television. The kids had awakened from their naps, so we moved the makeshift nest in front of the television. Sunny sat with the babies on the floor while the adults filled the giant sectional couch to watch a half-hour of Sesame Street .
Growing up on Ignitas, I'd been denied the wholesome education offered by the cute and cuddly monsters. I wouldn't let my kids miss out.
"This is such a cute show," Galen said when the episode ended. "If I'd known humans had something like this, I wouldn't have needed a trip to Earth to evaluate them."
"The show's existence doesn't mean all humans are good," Punky reminded them. "But yes, it was one of the best things about growing up on Earth."
I'd picked up on some familiar names in the episode. "Are your kids named after the show?" I asked. Ernie and Grover each had a skit, but no Clementine or Robin.
"They are." Lark had his arm draped over Punky's shoulders along the back of the couch while we watched, but now he gave him a light squeeze. "That was all Punky's idea. I was clueless about names."
I'd felt the same way, even when Galen asked me to name Opal. While I was still thinking about baby names, Coz and Grindl reminded us they needed to get home.
Coz pointed to Sunny, who was asleep with his hands wrapped around Rapture's neck. "Our boys are getting ready to molt again," he said. "They've been tired and cranky."
"Ours, too," Punky said. "I was hoping we could stay longer, so Mint and Juniper know what they're getting into." Mint, a newly adult alpha, and Juniper, an omega my age, had recently discovered their mate bond.
Tuft laughed. "We babysat for you, and it didn't discourage us."
"That's why we teamed up," Coz said. "They're watching the other nine kids at Punky and Lark's."
"We'll be lucky to have a house left," Lark said. My alpha best friend pulled me into a rough hug full of back thumping and congratulations.
"We'd love to watch your little ones sometime, to give you a night off," he whispered in my ear. "On one condition. Can Slate breathe fire yet?"
"Third molt," Galen answered. "Their eyes change at the second, but their little furnaces aren't big enough to do more than smoke."
Lark nodded. "Cool. How does two weeks from now sound?"
"Wonderful," I said. After hugs all around and a promise to bring Opal and Slate to the dragon pavilion to meet everyone soon, our friends left.
The quiet overwhelmed me after the rush of the day. Now, the hard work began. We had to learn how to be parents.
Galen approached behind me and wrapped me in their embrace. Their breath was warm on my nape as they kissed and licked their way to my shoulder.
"That feels too good," I muttered.
"We still need to decide how to decorate our room," Galen said, "and then I thought we could?—"
A peal of laughter from the entertainment room made us both blush and pull away from each other.
"Wait," I said. "I don't want our kids to think touching each other is weird or embarrassing." I held out my arms and Galen stepped into my embrace. They held me close for a moment before dropping a chaste kiss on my lips.
"We should feed them and get them to bed. Then, we can work on our room."
I liked the sound of that.