We have lots of family introductions lol.

MINE!

~Angel~

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The gold bull came around the side of Ethera, taller and clearly more bulk than grace the way his steps jerked through the floor under their feet. His mane was almost blonde, as his four horns colored bronze like his tail blade pierced through it. His guard scales on his nose and down his neck and chest were a deep brown, mat unlike his tail blade. His right eye was a harsh blue, but the other had a jagged scar through his brow line, the eye white with blindness.

“Look! A mortal! We only saw about ten-thousand on the way here!” He said in a far too chipper but sarcastic way, before his face turned to complete disdain as did his tone. “Can we go home now?”

“Ignore. Him,” Ethera replied in a fake tone, trying to keep him from insulting Rayne? She didn't know. “My mate has no real concept of—manners.”

“Most dragons don't,” Rayne stated with certainty.

“Wait...Are you naked?” The gold asked suddenly, shoving passed his mate's neck with his own to get a closer look with his good eye. Then Rayne saw them, eyes, four eyes looking at her from behind the mane of blonde hair. The gold's head turned to regard his mate but the eyes stayed on Rayne, one pair blinking, then the other. “Don't they usually have on garb?”

“I think she's sensitive about that,” Ethera responded to her mate but saw Rayne's fixation and smirked. She nuzzled into his mane and pulled out what the eyes belonged to. As gentle as any mother, Ethera held two gold tails in her jaws, dangling a pair—no twin gold dragon hatchlings. They had their father's blonde hair and brown guards scales but were too little to show their horns through the silk manes, although their little white claws lead Rayne to believe they would have white horns one day. Their silver eyes shown brightly and still watched her curiously. Ethera set them down and as if given permission to be crazed, they slipped along the ground like geckos, little wings still thin and close to their bodies as they came right up to Rayne and nudged at her with sniffing noses. They were about the size of deer but far more muscular, claws clicking on the cavern floor as they moved around her. One nuzzled under her arm and leaned heavily again her, curling its tail around her torso. The other put his chin on her shoulder and made an odd “churtling” noise up at their mother. Rayne rubbed the cheek of the one leaning into her, Magnus always liked that and apparently so did this one.

“These are my twinlings,” Ethera almost purred proudly. “Aurous and Euros.”

“They're beautiful,” Rayne remarked as the one resting his chin on her shoulder nuzzled under her chin a bit.

“Handsome,” the gold grumbled. “They're handsome...Aren't you going to tell HER who I AM?”

“No,” Ethera answered plainly.

He lifted his jowels at her but she masterfully ignored him, making him turn to Rayne still being nuzzled to death by gold scales.

“I am Xanthus The Hulking.”

“Good for you?” Rayne giggled a little and realized that neither of the twins had tail blades, only little pointed ends like an arrow tip.

Rayne suddenly cringed when one of the twins leaned into her bruised back from Ridder's punch, making a strangled noise and as fast as the twins came, they skidded off and hid other their mother's protection. They looked positively sorry and scared, worried they had hurt her.

“I am sorry, they don't know when to—”

“No, no. It's alright,” Rayne interrupted as she straightened herself upright again. “I got punched yesterday.”

“Punched?” Ethera repeated in a bewildered manner as Xanthus' head tilted in question as well. “By whom?”

“A knight,” Rayne answered as the pain subsided. Ethera's body language completely changed, rigid, alert and angry.

“I'll fetch the youngling,” Xanthus suddenly grinned and began to back out of the corridor, understanding something Rayne had completely missed. “We'll go kill him. EYTAN!”

“Yah, Dah?”

“How would you like to go kill someone with me?!”

“No! NO! You don't have to—” But Ethera was following him out of the corridor along with the twins under her. Rayne ran around her quickly and shouted up to her. “He's already dead!”

They were in the main chamber now when Ethera stopped, Xanthus turning around and the other dragon, a much younger gold looked down at her.

“Dead already? I didn't even get a chance to kill him,” Xanthus muttered as Ethera leaned a bit forward.

“Magnus killed him,” Rayne explained. “Don't go—killing anybody.”

“AW! Come on!” The smaller gold whined. He had white horns and a blonde mane, the blue eyes of his father and the silver guard scales of his mother but definitely not big enough to be considered a bull yet. “I wanna kill something!”

“We have to wait to kill something if it hasn't threatened family,” Ethera explained to the youngling, Eytan? Rayne assumed. “We can't kill anything in Magnus' territory without his permission, and I don't think you want him biting your tail blade off.”

The sound of flapping wings had them all turning to the entrance, Rayne taking in a big breath and holding it. This was not going to be pretty.

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Watermelons, a whole cart of them. Magnus was sure this would please his mate so he snatched up the whole wooden cart by holding onto it in his jaws. Even though all he could smell was watermelon juices and the manure used to grow them, he sensed something was off a bit when he started his careful climb into his higher cave entrance.

Then he saw them, not just ONE or TWO, but THREE—NO! FIVE OF HIS FAMILY MEMBERS CASUALLY MAKING HIS HOME THEIR LOUNGING SPOT! His eyes were wide as the cart fell from him mouth, smashing into many little pieces as watermelons rolled everywhere.

“THE HELLS ARE YOU ALL DOING HERE?!” He roared, “GET THE HELLS OUT! THIS IS MY LAIR!”

“Magnus,” Ethera chastised as if he was still a century and she'd only shoved him off a cliff to see if he could fly yet. “Is that any way to talk to family?”

“I'M NOT TALKING! I'M ORDERING!” He roared back. Ethera, his perfect older sister with her gold wall of a dragon AND their youngest demon spawn! “OUT! NOW!”

As if Magnus had brought the watermelons for them, the two twin terrors slipped out from under their mother and each bit into the thick rinds of the green fruits. Magnus descended on them quickly and growled warningly,

“THOSE are not for YOU hell-spawn.”

The gold wall Ethera had mated to stood over them and looked down at Magnus as if he owned the place, and the damn fruit!

“Best not do that, brother,” he growled back as the twins disappeared with the fruit in their jaws. If Magnus had bad hearing his nose would have been cut off, but he jerked back as the white tail blade smashed into watermelon and cavern floor between them.

“Younglings, lets play nicely,” Ethera warned both of them. Xanthus backed off first and bowed his head a bit, at least he was aware he wasn't in his territory. “You both are going to make us look back in front of the mortal.”

Magnus' body straightened before he moved quickly to make sure he spotted Rayne and they hadn't eaten her. Family kept trying to DO that sort of thing. He spotted her with the youngling, dear fire gods last time he saw that youngling he was barely two horses tall, and the twins close to the back wall. The twins had surrounded Rayne like she was a third hatchling, munching on the fruit eagerly and making a great mess doing it.

Magnus turned and pointed a claw at Xanthus the gold mountain of male dragon and growled,

“Did you try and eat her?”

“Magnus, no one tried to eat anyone,” Ethera said as she rolled her eyes and scratched his mane with her wing-claw. He batted it away and pointed at her next.

“YOU wouldn't try to do it until I was HERE. THEN you'd want to so you could PISS THE HELLS OUT OF ME!” He roared once more.

“I'm not 600 anymore, you youngling,” Ethera replied through clenched teeth, clearly he was hitting nerves, he didn't mind that. “I'm not here to try to piss you off.”

“CLEARLY you ARE! Or you would have had the good sense not to COME!” Magnus shouted.

Ethera turned her long neck around to look at Rayne as his mate rubbed the heads of both the hatchlings like they were her own! Well they weren't!

“You are definitely right about the manners thing. Is he always like this?” Ethera asked calmly.

“Only around family,” Rayne answered with a smirk as she pulled a bit of watermelon rind out of one of the hatchling's manes.

“Are you just going to IGNORE my ORDERS?!” Magnus shouted to get his sister's attention again, watching her head curve around and give him her usual high and mighty glare. “Get out. NOW. I can't have you all HERE—at ONCE! OUT!”

“And what of you, Rayne?” Ethera asked without turning her head back around. His mate would surely support this gesture. She was pregnant, his mother would be arriving either tonight or tomorrow which meant his father would be coming at least. She couldn't expect all of this to remain a private manner with most of his family present! She would shoo Ethera off but politely.

“You can stay, but only until morning,” Rayne answered. He gaped at her, which Rayne seemed to be quite proud of creating. Treacherous little mortal mate! “I don't think he could take much more time than that.”

“They can't all fit in here! What happens when mother—”

He stalled when Rayne started shaking her head, but he had already blurted out the semi-important information, at least the information that Ethera would care to know. Blasted all knowledge and reason!

“Mother is coming?” Ethera asked as she looked between the pair, “...why?”

“None of your business,” Magnus grumbled before stalking over to his mate and looking down at her in the gold pile. “I need to speak with you, privately.”

“Alright,” Rayne answered as she slipped from the grip of the hatchlings. “Why don't Xanthus and Eytan go get something to eat? We won't be long.”

...How would SHE know that?! She wouldn't! Magnus growled and stomped off to their shared room, stalking inside and shifting to his little form to help keep the echo of his yelling at least somewhat private! He was pacing by the time she came in before he charged up to her and leaned into her face.

“Stay until morning?” he grumbled even though she didn't flinched with his closeness. “I want that—all of that OUT of here NOW!”

“Would you rather they stayed here a bit now and get what they want, or have them keep coming by to try to get what they want while I get bigger?” Rayne asked, giving him a choice between his tortures as she looked up at him defiantly. “You want to get rid of them? You give them what they want and then they'll leave faster.”

“How do you know that?” Magnus growled, yellow-gold eyes narrowing at his mate.

“As far as I can tell your sister heard about me from Dracen,” Rayne explained in a stern but controlled manner. “And she wanted to see what was going on with you which seems to be a trait with your family since you don't keep in touch with them.”

“I keep in touch. Dracen comes to see me, I beat him up, he goes back to inform all of them I'm still alive,” Magnus stated. “Why isn't that enough?”

Rayne closed her eyes like he was being unreasonable. He wasn't being unreasonable, he just wanted his family to butt out of his life! That was NOT an unreasonable request.

“Just let them stay until morning,” Rayne sighed, beginning to rub her paws along his chest and shoulders to calm him. “Be civil until then and then they'll leave and we can hopefully...figure out what is going on with...It.”

“It?” Magnus asked as he frowned his brow. Rayne looked at him more pointedly before grasping his paw and putting it on her abdomen.

“It,” she said again more adamantly, before releasing him and not giving him the chance to argue. He growled as he watched her dress, but if her plan would get his big sister out of here faster, he would do it. He would endure the torture of family...for a few hours anyway.

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Rayne came back out dressed and washed up a bit and was immediately surrounded by the twinlings noses and chortles, keeping close to her and brushing up against her even as she walked back to the main chamber. Ethera was lying on her side looking positively bored but Xanthus and Eytan were gone, making it easier for Magnus to get at least civil, or so Rayne hoped. Ethera turned her head around and bowed her head slightly to Rayne.

“My brother has accepted us until dawn?”

“With much less acceptance and more...toleration of it,” Rayne said calmly. Ethera was...different than most dragoness'. More like Malandra but far more versed in conversation it seemed than knowledge. She knew how to interact with others without seeming threatening. What bothered Rayne more was the fact that Xanthus and Magnus seemed to fear her. Where Xipil and Malandra wore their more aggressive natures on their sleeves, Ethera was reining it in. Rayne was not stupid, she knew dragoness' were far more dangerous at some points than male bulls, what was curious was why Ethera felt the need to be polite and pleasant. She shook it off for the time being and turned her attention to the twinlings. “Is there a reason they seem so clingy around me?”

“You smell like a dragon, but you are small,” Ethera stated as she reached out and stroked one of her twinlings down his back. “They assume you are another hatchling, so they keep close instinctively. Hatchlings who are related even not by blood will group when the parents have gathered, makes them easier to protect if danger comes.”

“How old are they?” Rayne questioned as she rubbed the cheek of the one pushing his head against her own cheek.

“57 years,” Ethera smiled a bit as the other came charging up to her and started to chew on her paw and claws. Rayne did the math inside her head and they would almost be 3 years old in temperament of a mortal.

“And your youngling, Eytan?” Rayne asked as she walked to her normal sitting place where she would listen to Magnus' lessons. She let the hatchling, only the gods knew if it was Aurous or Euros to her eyes, curl around her and lay his head in her lap, draping his tail behind his head.

“He is 312 years old,” Ethera stated. “Just about his time to leave the lair in another half a century or so. He is seeking his title though, but I blame Xanthus for that.”

“How...how did Xanthus get the scar over his eye?” Rayne questioned as her inquiring nature won out over being polite. Most of the time being direct with dragons worked better. Ethera looked at Rayne and gave her a wry smile as the other twinling came rushing over and wrapped himself around his brother.

“You mean through his eye? I did that,” Ethera answered. Rayne's stomach tightened a bit, but she tried to keep from reacting externally.

“What did he do to deserve that?” Rayne inquired in a more serene tone than she thought she had in her, but it felt better to remain as placid as Ethera was. The white dragoness seemed to be almost testing Rayne, perhaps seeing if she was worthy of her little brother and Rayne wouldn't give her any reason to doubt that.

“Well,” Ethera began calmly. “I was still a youngling living in my parent's lair looking for a reason to make my father mad. Xanthus was a very handsome bull but after a while he began to get attached and said he was going to tell my father that he wanted to be my mate even though I was still considered to be too young for that sort of thing.”

Rayne cringed a bit, thinking about Arjun listening intently to Xanthus, then trying to cut his head off.

“I told him that I would speak with my father on the matter, but he didn't listen to a word I was saying and thought he would somehow convince my father without loosing his valuable bits,” Ethera explained. “He came into my father's territory and of course my father reacted as any male bull would to that, but before my father and Xanthus could really get into anything I slashed between them and ended up clipping Xanthus in the eye with my tail blade. My father just laughed and said he could have me since he knew I could take care of myself then and Xanthus wouldn't be able to give me up after that.”

“The more dangerous the female, the more they desire you,” Rayne replied in understanding. “How did Malandra react to that?”

“Ohhh, if you want to talk about dangerous females,” Ethera said actually cringing a bit. “I was lucky not to be gutted by my own mother and that she had Magnus to take care of and Dracen was still an egg. Her instinct to keep near her egg outweighed her coming to find me while she was still livid.

“But enough about that,” Ethera smiled, but Rayne sensed it was for show only. “If we're trading war stories, tell me how Magnus and you became mated. I'm sure its interesting to say the least.”

“There wasn't much bodily harm,” Rayne answered, leaning into the strong muscle of the hatchlings surrounding her. “I have always had a fascination with your kind, and finally heard one was near here. I went to investigate and—well—tricked Magnus into making him teach me about your kind. He didn't want me around of course so he decided to get rid of me by trying to trick me back.”

“Crafty,” Magnus suddenly said as he came into the main chamber. “I was crafty and had the perfect plan for getting rid of her by using a transfiguration band and a dragon slayer disguise. It was too bad that I'm so very attractive no matter what form I'm in. Rayne couldn't resist me.”

“Who decided the trade off was a kiss?” Rayne questioned over her shoulder. “Because as I recall it, that was YOU.”

“Who decided that was an acceptable trade? You could have skirted off back to your little village, but no. You WANTED to kiss me,” Magnus argued as he came around and was smiling deviously at Rayne. “Admit it.”

“I wanted you to go away,” Rayne argued back. “And YOU came back looking for me after I thought I'd gotten rid of you.”

It took a moment but she heard Ethera snorting back laughter, before Magnus glared at his older sister and narrowed his eyes.

“She really did snap you up, didn't she?” Ethera asked her brother with a sort of reverence and laughter. “Like a baby cow between her jaws.”

“I snapped HER up,” Magnus clarified as he slammed his tail blade down to make it official somehow. “I did all the plotting and consorting to keep her safe and make her mine. She had no choice in the matter after I kept her from becoming Xipil's next morning meal.”

Rayne rolled her eyes heavily, which made Ethera snicker behind her paw and Magnus's head dart back and forth between the two.

“When did you get him to be so protective? He was never that protective when he and Xipil were together,” Ethera replied to Rayne.

“I have no idea,” Rayne answered as she shrugged a little and stroked the manes of the twinlings gently. “Although I doubt Xipil would have liked a protective dragon, she seemed to be far more into the—aggressive side of things anyway.”

Ethera's face focused on Rayne, then Magnus.

“I heard you ripped her tail blade off, was Rayne there when you went territorial bull on her?”

“No, I made sure she was safe,” Magnus answered as he slowly laid down around Rayne and even the twinlings, but he didn't seem too happy with them being there. He pointed at the scar on his collar and chest. “She gave me this though before I bit the blade off. Then she came after Rayne a few days later when I was still healing.”

“Came after?” Ethera asked, demanding clarification. “As in alone?”

“Yes, sister,” Magnus said with pride, his grin suddenly coming across his muzzle. “Rayne defended this territory and took the bitch-dragon down.”

The bewildered expression on Ethera's face made Rayne think she was seeing the dragoness for the first time, but she seemed to pull it back in quickly.

“Dracen was null on that part,” Ethera mumbled, frowning a bit. “I wonder why.”

“Little whelp actually shut up about something,” Magnus snorted a little as Rayne stayed quiet. It seemed the siblings had come to a sort of middle ground of less shouting and more talking and she didn't want to disturb that. “Surprising.”

“That is...interesting,” Ethera stated before clearing her throat and beginning to make a sort of high-to-low milky growling. The twins heads jerked up, blinking at their mother before churring in their throats and darting to her. She lowered her head and let them slip into her mane before standing. Magnus looked positively eager to see her leave as his tail snaked around Rayne slowly.

“Leaving so very soon?” Magnus asked in a sort of pouting voice.

“I should take the hatchlings outside to pee,” Ethera stated as she kept walking. “Unless you want them pissing on your floor, or your mate.”

“Outside is much better,” Magnus agreed with a growling grumble.

“Don't think you've gotten rid of me that easily,” Ethera laughed almost evilly. “I still want to know why mother is coming here, and I won't be leaving without an answer!”

But she was out before Magnus could shout something, which Rayne appreciated. Her ears could only take so much of the shouting of dragons.
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Xanthus = Zan-th-us
Euros = Your-aws
Aurous = Ourr-ous
Eytan = Eat-an
Xipil = Ship-ill