So....

ONWARDS! The reason this chapter took me so long to do was that--I really dislike hurting Dracen anymore than he was hurt. It took a toll on me to explore those feelings between him and Rori so just be aware of all that. It is hard to see a loved one suffer, even if they're fictional characters.

~Angel Wox~

STORY. CHARACTERS. PLOT. EVERYTHING. ALL MIIIIIIINE.

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Interested? The beginning of this universe is listed here!

Dragonologist: COMPLETE. 163,532 words.
Part 1--The Dragon: 20 Chapters in length (COMPLETE. 51,795 words).
Link: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/5918826/

Part 2--The Mortal: 31 chapters in length (COMPLETE. 111,696 words).
Link: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/7690309

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Lick it off, Rori snorted at the thought. It was an awkward trek through the fire breather's lair, but she finally made it to the grey clouds of a cool, winter day. The small flakes falling outside twinkled around her as she started to try to rub the strange paste on the snow covered ground. The snow simply stuck to it in a large, soft clump. She pouted, searching for the creek the little mortal tigress said was outside.

Apparently it had become cold enough for the little creek to have frozen over, making Rori sigh heavily and contemplate what to do. She chose to rub her floppy paw on the bark of a few trees, hoping the feeling of the numbness would wear off rather quickly.

Within the quiet of the wood, she found herself thinking far too many things. While living with Dracen's family, she saw the strange love and companionship they all seemed to have for one another, life threatening barbs aside. It was becoming clear to her that fire breathers weren't what she was taught to think. They had large territories for sure, but saying they never interacted with each other wasn't the case. These dragons were essentially a tribe of their own, relying on one another when things were dire and even to raise young. Arjun liked to call them his “brood” and smile daggers at her, but he wasn't a demon dragon sent from the ice breather hells, he was a male who clearly adored his immediate family but kept from over stepping his bounds.

Malandra on the other claw wanted to be in everyone's business, especially her own ramlings. Rori knew when she was gone that the larger female dragoness had been checking on Dracen, as if Rori wasn't hunting for him enough or wasn't giving him enough attention. But Rori knew that seemed to be something Malandra and her own mother had in common, Rori's mother being just as hovering when Rori was still in the tundra.

In truth, the whole family here was making her sick for home, for familiar spats and little one's climbing all over her. She had so many things she wanted to speak with Dracen about, but it felt like there was never a good time. Soon, she would have to before it started to make her crazy like it was now.

Rori felt the tell tale paws of Ryre, the tiger cub, climbing from her swishing tail along her fur and wiggling into the fluff between her shoulder blades, pulling her from her thoughts and glancing at the silvery shine of his furred frame. He was gibbering again and she pretended to nod in agreement.

“Oh is that so?” she chirped at him, lying down in the cushion of the freshly powdered flakes and letting him climb aboard her muzzle. He clung to her crystal scales to keep hold as she turned her head back round, looking at her strangely numb paw around the tiger cub. “What do you think, little one? What should I do?”

Ryre gave out a little purring sound as he put both his front paws on her forehead and leaned his nose against the scales there.

“Rorrri,” The cub purred at her, making her eyes soften at the little tiger. “Rori pway?”

“Does momma know you're outside?” Rori asked quietly, letting Ryre settle perched on her nose.

“Uh-huh,” Ryre nodded, “Mama out too.”

Rori evenly turned her neck to keep the cub from tumbling off, looking down at the frozen creek below and seeing the mortal Rayne walk a warn path up the steeper slope. She was again dressed in her warmer garb from shoulder to toes, letting off huffs of warm breath as she made her way towards them. It took Rori a moment to realize Ryre was wearing a pair of little trousers but no boots, his paws and back feet warm upon her muzzle.

“The creek froze,” Rori informed the grey tigress as Rayne came along side her. “So I had to wipe it off.”

“I forgot what time of year it is,” Rayne snickered a little, looking rather—sad? But amused. “With all the fire dragons in the lair, sometimes it feels like summer in there.”

“Needed some air then?” Rori asked as she tilted her ears towards Rayne, something seemed off with her, she almost looked as melancholy as Rori was feeling. Rayne nodded a little, reaching her arms up and signaling her offspring to simply jump from the tip of Rori's ten-foot high nose and into her embrace. “Are you alright, Rayne?”

“Yeah,” Rayne answered as she let out a deep breathe, “Just—worried. I mean, not as worried as you and Dracen must be but...”

There was a silent understanding between them, Rori taking another deep cleansing breathe and looking at the white coated forest beyond.

“I am going to ask you something, I do not mean to offend you for asking it but I understand it might,” Rori muttered as she twisted her head back round to the mortals crunching in the snow a bit.

Rayne smiled genuinely at the words, shrugging her shoulder after she set Ryre loose on the closest foliage not covered in the numbing paste. The growling gibber gabber and the breaking of branches had become somewhat normal for the tundra dragoness, Ryre seeming to still be in a rather destructive age.

“I've been mated to Magnus for at least four years now. I feel I should let you know that it might be hard to offend me anymore.”

“How close are Dracen and you? Really?” Rori tried to keep her jealous little voice from peering through but there was just some things she couldn't control.

Rayne's spotted brows quirked up a moment as the mortal simply absorbed the question for a few beats. Rori counted four of Rayne's calm heart beats before she took in another breath to answer.

“I never had a—big family when I was young, not in the traditional sense. Mortals are hung up on a great number of things when it comes to what is okay and what isn't, and the way I came onto the land—wasn't okay,” Rayne explained as she simply started climbing a tree next to her son, brushing off the snow ten feet up and settling herself on the strong branch so her and Rori were eye to eye. “So when I tell you that Dracen is more like the brother I never had, I want you to know I mean it. I love him like blood because he is to me. Do you know what that feels like? What I'm trying to say, I mean.”

“Yes, I believe I do,” Rori agreed as a rush of memories came flooding forward at Rayne's words, “I have seven brothers and two sisters, most mated and with little ones of their own. After living together for so long—it is hard to think of them as anything else but blood.”

“Mama! Mama up!” Ryre whined down at the base of the tree trunk, having torn a few hibernating bushes to bits and now wishing to be with his mother. Rori obliged the little thing when it looked like Rayne was about to climb back down, offering her still functional clawed paw to him and raising him up to Rayne. He purred deeply at her as he rested his whole body against her chest and stomach, Rayne opening her thick over garment and tucking him inside it.

“So, why are you this far south then? It sounds like you miss—your family,” Rayne inquired as she let the cub wiggle until he seemed comfortable. “Unless you don't want to talk about it.”

Oddly enough, Rori didn't really mind talking about it with the little mortal. It was strange, but since Rayne seemed to be opening up to Rori so easily, she felt like she could do the same. In the off chance she told Rayne too much, she could always threaten eating her or something.

“I am the last of my parents brood and am considered a runt,” Rori confided in the small being, “In order to prove I can pull my own weight in my tribe, I was cast out for a year to survive on my own. I thought the exile would be far easier in the south.”

“Your family cast you out? For—the way you look?” Rayne questioned in a bewildered manner. Her little face started to turn a deeper crimson, before she seemed to have a conversation with herself in her head, her expressions changing rapidly before she shook her head. “You know, I can't say that I APPROVE but, I think if my father knew I was alive when I was born, he probably would have done that indefinitely.”

“Mostly, I pressed it, on them—my parents,” Rori confessed as she felt the weight of that confession full forced. “I—wanted to be mated off, but the only way I could was to go through the exile and return.”

“Some things work out then, hm?” Rayne smirked in a knowledgeable way, petting the black mat of hair sticking out of her jacket. Apparently Ryre needed a good nap after tearing the shrubbery apart.

“What about you?” Rori inquired to try to turn the conversation from herself back onto the mortal. “I cannot say I know of any mortals taking dragons for mates. There are stories of old about mortal servants but...”

“That,” she closed her eyes and tried not to grin, “Is a mess in itself. It just sort of...”

“Happened,” Rori finished her thought, knowing the feeling in and of itself.

The quirk of that grin appeared again on Rayne's muzzle as she let out a soul-deep sigh.

“Arjun's young don't tend to do things slowly,” Rayne clarified calmly, “If they want it, they do everything they can to have it, including trickery—or always using it.”

Aurorianna snorted a little through her nostrils, flexing her numb paw when the tingles of feeling started to become a distraction. She chanced standing up and putting weight on it, feeling the unease and off-balance of the still insensitive digits but the more she seemed to press on it, the faster the feeling was coming back.

“I wanted to thank you,” Rayne suddenly chirped, disrupting them both from their thoughts, “For how much you've allowed my son around you while Dracen recovers. You're very good with him and he likes you too.”

“As I said, most of my siblings were mated and had lots—and LOTS of little ones,” Rori emphasized, “He makes me feel a little less—tribe sick, even if Dracen doesn't seem to tolerate him very well.”

Rori took a chance to wander a bit in a circle, glad that she could put more weight on her paw and keep from limping a little as Rayne made a noise of understanding.

“How many little ones do you have, then?” Rori asked as she enjoyed the somewhat inane conversation. Over the time they had spent in Magnus' territory, Rayne seemed to be busy trying to help with Dracen's wing. Rori knew there wasn't anymore residing inside the cavernous system but they could be grown up and gone for all she knew.

“Just Ryre,” Rayne answered with a hint of anxiety, “For now.”

“Oh,” Rori muttered, “Waiting between them, then?”

The mortal tigress seemed to shift uncomfortably, only a little but it was enough of a trigger to see she was—nervous about the subject. Rori's brow rose a little, though it wasn't any of her business, she found herself looking at Rayne's sudden shy expression. She always thought mortals were just there to breed more mortals. Since they lived such short lives and their young could easily die, she assumed that they just had little ones—lots of them.

“Do you want another one?” Rori found herself asking as her curiosity got the better of her.

“I don't know,” Rayne snapped a little, covering her sleeping son's ears with her garment and paw, “Ryre—wasn't expected. I mean, I am mortal and Magnus is well—not. We didn't think about being—careful. I love Ryre, more than anything but—I am far more careful now so we can be ready for the next one.”

A little twinge of hope popped up in Rori, if a mortal and a dragon had young together, perhaps a fire and ice breather could as well. Dracen and her were far more compatible in that aspect than Rayne and Magnus. Not being careful seemed to be the easy way to at least try.

No, she shook her head at her own thought. Deceit to try would be terrible, their relationship was new and untried, they still learning their own flow within and without each other. Rori wouldn't do anything without making sure Dracen had full say in the matter.

“Does Dracen know?” Rayne inquired, drawing Rori out of her thoughts of deviousness.

“Know what?”

“You want little ones,” Rayne answered with a small devilish grin. “Does he know?”

“Are you batty?” Rori snapped at her a bit, “We haven't had not ten minutes to each other since he broke his wing without Malandra the Ever-Present popping about. I want to speak with him about it but I just—haven't wanted the extra ears listening. I don't even know if it is possible to have them WITH a fire breather!”

Rori let out an aggravated breath and flopped back into the snow, feeling the melancholy from before seep back in and smacking her muzzle and eyes with her clawed paw.

“If it makes you feel a little better, I know what it feels like to be the outsider,” Rayne explained after her hatchling like tantrum. “Malandra will leave, as soon as she thinks she's done all she can to help her son.”

Rori let out a calming breath through her nostrils, sending the newly fallen snow about in a cloud around her front claws.

Rori's gut suddenly clenched as her ears picked up the muted sound of a roar of great pain, the fur from head to tail fluffed out as she jerked her head towards the dispiriting sound. She felt herself stand up as the flare of protective impulse over ran her normal thought processes. Was it Dracen? Or one of the other males there?

“Unck,” Ryre whispered next to Rori's alerted senses, the dragoness' head twisting rapidly as she saw the cub staring towards the direction of the cave. His eyes were focused, ears twisting around as he seemed rigid still inside his mother's over garment.

The next roar she heard, she knew it was Dracen. And it sounded worse. Much worse.

Rori let out her own shrieking roar before sliding and slipping down passed the shallow stream, galloping towards the cavern's entrance as fast as her clawed paws could go. Heart pounding in her ears, she clawed her way up into the wide entrance and roared again, remembering the last time he had made such a sound. When the red had broken his wing so completely.

When he didn't respond to her call, she willed her legs to move faster, tucking in her wings to make her bank across turns like her tail were aflame. She heard his cry of pain, agonizing and tearing at her innards like claws through flesh. Where was everyone? Malandra? The white males? Why were they ignoring his screams like they were nothing? She turned another damp corridor and skidded to pull her body around, making sure she could run inside their chambers—

Rori crashed into hard, unforgiving rock, her skull cracking against it and forcing her whole body to slam her side into it as well from the speed she had gained. She tumbled back, stunned as her vision splintered into white sprites and the shimmering dark walls of the cave. Her legs weren't staying under her as she sought balance, slamming into another wall before she found it easier to lean against it than attempt to walk it off. She swung her head as it felt leaden, blinking slowly as her sight began to adjust normally before she felt the drizzle of warmth from one of her nostrils. She touched her nose gingerly with a clawed digit, pulling it back to reveal a streak of blood on her white digit tip. What happened? Had she made a wrong turn? The entrance she thought was right here...

The roaring on the other side of the strange new wall told her that he was there! The chamber was there! But where was the cave mouth?! She screeched as the anger and fear of her natural drive told her to get to him! She hit the wall with all the force she could muster and scratched her clawed deep into the solid stone! Scratching and slamming her clawed paws into it! Wildly she sprayed the hard surface with her icy breath! Chilling the entire area with it and slamming her crystal tipped tail blade into the middle of it! The ice chipped off with a loud shatter! But the stone only yielded small rocks and craggy thin sheets of wall around her feet, nothing that would penetrate the new surface.

Rori stalked and paced outside it as she tried to think of anything else she could do quickly, the roaring from him suddenly eerily quiet and making her feel like she was losing valuable time. Had the wall collapsed? Was there a way to wedge herself inside? She growled and stomped, thrashed once more against it in feral frustration as everything in her nature told her to get beyond the wall, to do the impossible to get to Dracen. Pressure, everything felt like it was pressing in on her, the walls, the silence. She closed her eyes and tried to find her will to fight against the panic but it was all consuming, the helplessness.

She leaned her head against the cold stone, gritting her teeth and pushing against the solid surface as if her raw anger and fear would move it aside.

Rori heard the sound of voices vibrating against the rock face, opening her eyes and leaning her ear fully against it as the chit-chatter of deep tones reverberated within the air pocket beyond. She couldn't understand what they were saying but she knew someone else was in there with Dracen and without his family coming to see what the fuss was about she had a good idea of who was in there.

“MALANDRA! LET ME IN! LET ME IN!” Rori bellowed as hard and loud as she could, slamming her clawed paw against the wall.

As if the rock had finally gotten enough abuse, the stone slid back down into the ground and became the cavern mouth again, the rock itself forming back into floored surface. She only had a second to admire the transition when she was greeted with the wide stance of Arjun the White Death, wings wide enough to cover any sight beyond them of the chamber and head down in a warning position.

“Be calm,” he rumbled at her, his red guard scales reflecting his hard gaze and slender pupils. “He be alrigh'.”

Rori didn't realize until Arjun folded his wings away that she had skidded back into the hallway with his display of feral power. She curbed the impulse to hiss at him and focused now on the sight of Dracen, awake, alive and locking gazes with her. Wasting no time, she launched herself passed the large fire breather and skidded to a stop in front of Dracen, grasping his chin in her clawed paws and looking him over thoroughly.

His broken wing was now wrapped tightly with a long menagerie of mortal cloth items, rugs, tapestries, blankets all fused—or sewn together to create a gentle sling that held it tightly in place against him, the fabric wrapped around his neck and hips to stabilize it. She stroked the fabric around the base of his neck and made sure nothing else was drastically different in her panicking observation of him.

To her surprise his face frowned at her, his clawed digit coming up to touch just under her nostril and along to the tip of her muzzle.

“Wh-what happened to you?” He questioned, his throat raw and scratchy no doubt from the roaring she had heard. She flared her nostrils at him, slicking her tongue out and tasted the tang of her blood still dripping from her nostril.

“Nothing,” Rori whispered, wiping away the blood with her clawed paw and feeling the gentle wave of relief calming her. “Are you alright? What was going on?”

“We set his bones in his wing,” Malandra explained in her high and mighty way, the rush of territorial anguish coming up Rori's throat as if it were vomit. The ice breather whipped her head around and stared daggers at Dracen's mother, feeling every ounce of his pain was caused by her. Magnus was there with Malandra but the male made a quick retreat into the hallway once Rori turned her eyes round. “It had to be done to make sure it would heal properly.”

“Why didn't you come to get me then?!” Rori growled as she started to stand to face the know-it-all dragoness. “I could have helped—”

“How mad were yeh? When yeh heard'm?” Arjun suddenly questioned from the archway, lolling on his side half in and out of the chamber. “Yeh hit th'door damn hard. Th'whole thing shook. Though' yeh was coming straigh' through.”

Rori stood stunned with the question, shaking her mane out and huffing angrily.

“You—thought I would have tried to stop you? You have no idea how I would have reacted!” She snapped at them all, staring at them each in turn in disbelief.

“I do,” Malandra responded but the voice she was using was sad and attempted to be soothing. Rori saw the fire dragoness' eyes directed at Arjun and saw then the great white displaying his wing. There was a clean scar in the webbed black tissue, fused now but Rori knew that it would have been the end of Arjun's flying if it hadn't healed properly. “So understand, Aurorianna of the north, we were making this as painless for the pair of you as possible. Be angry with me, curse my name unto your ice breathing heavens but know that I know how important Dracen is to you and what damage seeing him in agony would have done. Even if you held your own nature in check, you would have been in far more pain seeing him such.”

“Mother,” Dracen attempted to interrupt. Rori locked eyes with the female dragoness and saw the seriousness there. It didn't feel threatening or dominant but—Rori knew the stare. Malandra was not only trying to protect Dracen from the emotional turmoil, but she was protecting Rori as well? It took the rage and anger out of Rori, the melancholy still remained but she had the feeling that they all were feeling that.

“Oi, female,” Arjun rumbled as he stood up slowly, shaking the ground under them. Malandra seemed to have been jogged from her own thoughts with the pet name and took in a quick but deep breath.

“We will be leaving in the morning,” she announced as the blue dragoness gracefully began to walk towards the exit. “Send for us if something comes up.”

“Thank you mother,” Dracen thanked from behind Rori. Without another word and without waiting for Arjun to leave the chambers cave mouth, Malandra pushed up and along Arjun's side tightly, running her tail along his chest and wing before disappearing around the corner. It was a small hint of how affected she had been within those moments just before, wanting to know the one who cared for her the most was there and safe took precedence over any formality.

Arjun bowed his head regally and followed the waving white tail blade of his mate, snapping at it a bit when he deemed it too close to his nose for comfort.

“Mal, yeh almost sliced me nose,” Arjun griped at her.

“Yeh almost sliced me nose,” Mal mimicked in some interpretation of Arjun's deep rumbling tones.

The argument seemed to dissipate the farther away they became, Rori simply letting her muscles go lax. It had been an effort to keep from simply breaking apart, the energy and the emotional turmoil she had gone through draining her to the point of drooping her neck and head down in raw defeat.

“Rori,” Dracen purr-growled from over her shoulder. She felt his warm body press up against hers soothingly, swiping his good wing over her whole body and pulling her protectively into his side. She pressed her head under his chin, letting him fold her as much as she could be against his blue scaled form.

“This—has just been—a lot,” Rori whispered as the strain of the passed week wore hard on her.

“I know,” Dracen murmured back, his throat vibrating against her cheek and somehow making her nerves less edgy. They went quiet, the simple act of acknowledging it and taking a moment to rest far greater than anything Rori had ever known. Would things be alright? Or calm down? Or change? At that minute, she didn't care. She only listened to him breathing and let him do the same.