Magnus's brother, Dracen almost eats Rayne and bares a warning for Magnus of an old she-dragon.

MINE.

~Angel~

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Magnus was sleeping in the main cavern, his flight back far faster than Rayne's trek through the thick forest. He had spent his few days without her attempting to sleep off what had happened. Was it working? He seemed to be over the worst of his new found desires and had reached a point where...

He hadn't heard the small heartbeat until it was practically against his body. He kept his breathing slow and steady and opened one eye slightly to peer at what was touching the scales along his ribs. Rayne ran her warm paw along his scales, head slightly tilted and fur and clothes covered in dirt and foliage. She looked like she'd sprinted back home. Home? Was this her home?

She stilled her paw and pressed into his body firmly, letting her arm rise with his breathing before chancing getting a little closer. She leaned against his ribs, ear turning to listen to his lungs, his heart while her paw still ran along the mother-of-pearl quality of his white scales. Magnus grinned evilly, before snaking his tail around her feet without alerting her. Rayne's eyes closed, and then Magnus grasped her tightly around her calves, before snatching her into the air!

She let out a high squealing of surprise! Grasping the coiling tail as if he would let her go at any moment. Magnus' lifted his head up and yawned in her face, before he realized she had started to laugh. He shook his head as if he was sleepy, before looking to her with his bored expression.

“Rayne? My pupil? What are you doing exactly? Molesting my beautiful scales?” he asked in a dreary voice, looking at his claws.

“Sorry Master,” she still laughed, “I was just curious. I didn't mean to scare you with my molesting.”

“Indeed,” he replied in a calm manner, before setting her down. “You look like you got in a fight with a tree...what happened?”

“Nothing, just didn't clean up before I got here,” Rayne stated as she walked towards her cart bed. She took a long look in, before tossing her pack into it. “Thank you for the new hay, my lord.”

“I don't like the smell of rotting hay,” Magnus responded. “Its easiest to dump it when you aren't in it. But, yes you are welcome, my generosity must be a little overwhelming for you.”

“Of course, Master,” Rayne bowed a bit but she was hiding a smile, he knew that. But he didn't really mind.

“Get yourself cleaned up,” Magnus ordered, beginning to stand and stretch his wings outwards. “I need something for breakfast. After I come back I'll begin the lesson for today, whether or not you're clean and dressed so you best not waste time.”

“Yes, Master Magnus,” she nodded quickly as he started to walk from her. His tail blade snaked under her arm, but instead of fearing it, she simply snorted and shook her head. Magnus, somehow, could live with that.

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Rayne scrubbed herself clean and was hanging her things outside on one of her ropes. She wore her underthings for now until she would go inside and put on her other change of clothes. She let the sun bake her a bit, trying to dry her wavy and wet hair as her fur fluffed up. She was going to have to bring her brush with her one of these days, pulling at the wavy strands . She heard a far off roaring and assumed Magnus must have been heading back from his breakfast run. She scrambled up her rope ladder to get her clothes on, not really comfortable running around in her underthings during her lesson. After dressing she moved deeper into the cavern, sitting on the flat rock that had become her seat during lessons and waited for him to return, not facing the entrance as per usual.

She felt the lumbering of large footsteps and watched his shadow cast over her, waiting for him to step around her and lie down so they could begin.

But instead she felt Magnus sniffing rather close to her head, warm air casting through her hair and down her back. She frowned a bit before asking,

“Master? What's wrong?”

“Master?” an unfamiliar, male dragon voice asked in a humorous tone. “Maaaaster? Is it? Well. You must be a present from my brother, mhmhmhmhmhm. I am a bit peckish...”

A claw wrapped around her torso firmly but not to crush her, blue scales...Blue scales! Rayne tried not to panic as black talons far more sharper than Magnus' were on each digit wrapped around her. The paw lifted her up and around, Rayne held still, afraid if she'd struggle he would hold her tighter and she would surely pass out then.

She met the muzzle of a blue dragon with four black horns sticking out of a black mane. His eyes weren't gold, but silver and his guard scales held the same silver coloring. Rayne tried to keep from staring at his scales, but they were marvelous!

“A very odd morsel...are you a silver tigress?” he asked in a slow rumbling of words, baring long, white teeth at her.

“Uhhh—I am,” she answered him, before his silver eyes looked down at her chest. Rayne looked, or tried to look down at what his eyes focused on.

“Damn,” he rumbled, before pouting slightly and setting Rayne back down. “You took an oath with my brother did you? You bare his scale, there.”

His long claw poked at her harder than intended, hitting the scale and knocking her back onto her rump.

“Opph, I didn't break you did I?” he asked with some small hint of worry. “If I broke you, I doubt my brother would forgive me for it. He gets so touchy about his things.”

Rayne looked up at the blue dragon, by the gods he was much more muscular than Magnus! They seemed to be around the same height but this dragon's horns didn't rub the lower stalactites, nor were his horns as long as her Masters...The dragon smiled down at her suddenly.

“You're not afraid, are you my little morsel?” he asked in a gentle rumble, before his head arched up and his eyes grew wide. Before Rayne could ask what was wrong he was pulled backwards and clear out of the cavern! Claws dragging along the cave's floor before Rayne lost sight of him.

Rayne got to her feet and was about to follow the blue dragon when Magnus appeared, looking around in panic.

“My lord!” Rayne called before trotting over to him. He let out a heavy sigh but his face read annoyance.

“Did he try to eat you? DID HE?” Magnus demanded in an almost roar.

“No, Master,” Rayne shook her head quickly. “He—saw the scale on my chest—”

“See?! I didn't touch your morsel!”

Magnus roared loudly before turning back around and galloping back out of his lair. Rayne fell over once more, covering her head as loose pebbles shuddered free. Her eyes grew wide before she darted towards the feud, watching Magnus pin the blue under him and raising his tail threateningly.

“I didn't! I swear!”

“YOU DARE COME INTO MY TERRITORY?! INTO MY LAIR?!” Magnus bellowed before striking the blue with a claw.

“MAGNUS! COME NOW!” the blue pleaded before flapping his wings and trying to pull out from under Magnus.

“Master Magnus!” Rayne called out, scaling the ladder as Magnus grunted and turned towards her. “Master Magnus, I think he's had enough.”

Magnus turned slightly and lifted his jowls angrily, but clambered off of the muscular blue dragon, not before slapping him with his tail a few times.

“What are you doing in my territory, Dracen?” Magnus growled before standing in front of Rayne, his tail snaking around her possessively.

Dracen rolled back onto his feet and scratched the places Magnus struck him with his tail blade.

“You—you struck me!” Dracen growled slightly.

“I'll strike you again if you don't TELL ME WHY YOU'RE HERE!” Magnus roared in his brother's face.

Dracen leaned around to peek at Rayne, brows quirked up on his forehead.

“See what I mean about the touchy?” Dracen replied, Magnus' claw was raised again. “ALRIGHT! Alright! I came to warn you! Don't hit me again!”

Magnus frowned slightly, pulling his paw back down and staring at his brother. Rayne merely watched the events before her, taking down every detail as much as possible in her mind.

“Warn me about what?” Magnus growled, his tail blade tapping the prairie land ground near Rayne, but he was more than aware of where Rayne stood and kept it far from her.

Dracen seemed to have clammed up after that, staring at his tail blade and making sure it was sharp.

“Oh, sorry, you didn't introduce us,” Dracen replied as he felt Magnus' glare devouring him. “Your morsel and I is what I mean.”

“I don't have time for your inquiries, Dracen. I will send your wings to mother without your backside attached if you don't tell me VERY soon,” Magnus nearly roared.

“My lord?” Rayne inquired, touching Magnus' tail gently. “I can introduce myself if that's a problem.”

“Look at how polite, and she's not pissing herself,” Dracen stated, smiling widely, Rayne hoped as a friendly gesture and not one of hunger. Magnus' wing expanded out and blocked Rayne from his leaning sight. “Well don't get snappy again.”

“She is of no concern to you,” Magnus replied, trying to steady his anger towards his brother. Dracen sighed a bit through his nose, shaking his mane and slamming his tail blade into the ground a few times. “Dracen, speak now or leave.”

“It has to do with Xipil,” Dracen stated like he was excited to say it. “And her claiming she's coming to take you as her own.”

Even from behind Magnus, Rayne saw his body stiffen up, his ears turning backwards. Something about this news obviously was bad...Very bad.

“When?” Magnus asked in a far calmer tone than his body language suggested.

“That, I didn't find out,” Dracen replied with a little sigh. “But its not like she ever has a time table, brother.”

“Indeed,” Magnus rubbed his brow with his paw, his wing relaxing and letting Rayne peer around him. She saw Dracen looking at his arm, frowning at the new scars there.

“What happened to you, brother?”

“A knight, with an acid enchantment,” Magnus answered before looking at the scar over the palm of his paw. “Is there anything else, Dracen?”

“A nice fat cow would be appreciated, I flew all the way HERE without my breakfast,” Dracen growled, eyes narrowed at his brother in anger. Magnus waved his paw in the air a bit, letting his brother know he could go hunting in his territory without being attacked. Rayne watched the white tail wrap tightly around her waist and grasped at it as she rose off the ground. Magnus crawled up into his lair but Rayne turned as much as she could before they disappeared to talk with Dracen.

“Be careful! There's a dragon slayer around!” she replied to him as Dracen watched Magnus lift her away.

“I will keep that in mind!” Dracen grinned at her again before bowing his head . He spread his wings wide before flapping them down and rising up off the ground and heading into the sky.

Magnus finally released Rayne when he was certain his brother left, setting her down next to her cart before sitting on his haunches and rubbing his temples with the pads of his digits. He had to go about this carefully, as he usually did when it came to the demanding she-dragon. But there was a new factor he had no idea what to do with, Rayne.

Xipil the Charring, a red dragoness with purple guard scales and wings and a burgundy mane once held Magnus' attention for a long time when he was a youngling. She was aggressive, stubborn and thought she was always right about everything, including Magnus and her spending their very long lives making hatchlings and raising them. When he went a different path than destroying mortals and other dragons, they seemed to separate, or Magnus had.

She would pop up every so often to come and take him as hers, and he would find some way to deny her, and then an entire kingdom would be wiped from the land. Xipil would disappear only to pop back up again thinking in time he would be easier to convince. At least his nosy little mutation of a brother had the good sense to warn him when she returned from what ever conquest she'd made up for herself. He hadn't gotten word of her in half a century, hoping she finally got it through her thick skull that he just wanted to be left alone with the Word of their kind. Dracen was one of the only beings Magnus tolerated, and even then he didn't want anything to do with his little brother most of the time.

But knowing his brother, as he did know the large mutant whelp, he would be telling everyone Magnus had a mortal now. And if Xipil was anything like Xipil and caught wind of that rumor before coming here to find out on her own...

Rayne touched the side of Magnus' leg, looking up at him with a worried frown. Magnus grunted in his throat, before taking in a stabling breath.

“We should get to the lesson,” he stated officially. “At the moment there isn't anything we can do.”

“What is going on, My lord?” Rayne asked in a quiet voice. “Who was your brother talking about?”

“Something we can't control at the moment,” Magnus answered, motioning she take her place on her flattened platform. “But promise me this, if she shows up, you run into the cave and don't come out until I come find you. She doesn't take kindly to mortals.”

“I promise, Master Magnus,” she answered with a quick nod.

“I'll get rid of her as I usually do,” Magnus mumbled, “But now we can forget about it. We have lots to get through today and less of the day to do it in.”