Bum bum buuuum...

Bum bum.

MINE.

~Angel~

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“You...are less shocked about this than I was picturing,” Dracen frowned at his mother as she seemed busy in her smaller chamber of treasures in the deeper part of the lair he'd grown up in. When he was little, this was the hatchery, but now it was his mother's more personal space since Sini had outgrown the hatchery. “I was expecting more scrambling and panic...unless...”

His mother, Malandra the Keeper of the Word of Dragon Magics was too—calm for him not to be suspicious, even absorbed in her books. Although his mother was smart, she was never good at hiding when she knew something, and she knew something.

“You knew this could happen? You knew didn't you?!” Dracen stated pointing a finger at her as she looked at the ceiling. “How long have you known?!”

“Oh Dracen...only...a little while,” His mother answered, making Dracen's jaw drop as she shut the book she was reading and scribbled something on her cow-hide parchment.

“And you didn't think about telling Magnus?!”

“Of course not,” she answered with a sort of playful pout. “They needed time to copulate, and if I had said something about a possible cross-breeding they would have been careful about it.”

“MOTHER!”

“What?” She looked positively aghast at his shouting. “He always wants to be left alone so I gave him his space. I wouldn't want to ruin his and Rayne's time this early in their relationship.”

Dracen sat back on his haunches and put his paw on his forehead. His mother was evil, extremely careful and plotting and sneaky. Dracen knew he hadn't gotten it from his father but he had clearly under-estimated his mother's deviousness. If he ever mated, he would definitely take several steps to ensure his mother's meddling was watched carefully.

“When Magnus finds out you've known this could happen, he is NOT going to be happy,” Dracen stated.

“Oh please, Dracen. Don't be so dramatic,” she scratched his head with her tail blade and began gathering what ever she was working on and slipped it into an alcove high above the ground. “You've always been so very playful. Dramatic's not good for you. Now go and fetch your father and Sini, we should be going.”

“Sini? SINI is coming?” Dracen demanded as he stood back up on all fours.

“Your father's coming with me, you know that and unless you want to hatchling-sit for me while I go see your brother—”

“No, I definitely would not want to do that,” Dracen huffed at his mother. The little blue dragoness was too much like his other little sister, especially at this age. All they wanted to do was chew, beat, pounce, fire breathe, roar...thank the gods he had to only live through that once and he wasn't planning on living that again for a LONG time.

“Sini's not all that bad,” his mother said with a small smile. “You can't compare her to Glynwen.”

“I can compare her to whomever I like, mother,” Dracen said calmly, “And I'll go and fetch them, but then I'm leaving. I don't need nor want to see Magnus' face when he's realized you've brought along more than just your mate.”

“Can't you call him Dah?” his mother requested in a sad face as she brushed up against him and nuzzled his cheek.

“Not if I want to live.”

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Magnus let his sister and her horde of gold scaled dragons stay in one of the far back alcoves. It was big enough for them all, easy to find their way back out of the lair, no where near the Word he protected and no where near his and Rayne's sleeping quarters. He didn't need little gold demon-hatchlings peering in and deciding they needed to sleep in the cart with their new favorite triplet or his sister's poking and prodding. Xanthus seemed to be keeping his distance, which Magnus appreciated since he didn't know how much of the brute he could take. After getting them what he considered settled, which was barking rules at the lot of them about his things and not to go wandering down corridors without his permission, he returned to Rayne and found her on their strange but efficient bed surrounded by books and one of her journals, scribbling away.

“What are we up to so late tonight?” Magnus inquired as he shifted and pulled himself up into the cart.

“Preparation,” Rayne muttered in a small way, her mind working away but ignoring most around her at this point. He picked up one of the books and scooted behind her, looking over her shoulder to see what she was working on this time.

“Morning sickness...nausea that occurs after a month's gestation...” Magnus muttered as he tried to keep peeking but she finally gave him all her attention by turning her head.

“I'm trying to figure out what this is going to be like,” she gave him a clearer answer. “So I've been reading up on the common knowledge in these books to determine what is going to happen and when.”

“Mammalian mortals have a pregnancy lasting an average of 9 months...” Magnus was holding onto the journal's hide to keep peeking. “Weight gain and...breast expansion for breast feeding? What is breast feeding?”

“That is how cubs get nourishment after they're born,” Rayne stated, pointing at her chest. “These aren't just here for your entertainment. Unlike dragons, birds and lizards, mammalian species aren't born with their eyes open or claws or teeth right away as far as I can tell.”

“...Born,” Magnus repeated, the word known but still foreign to him. His kind were hatched, but his offspring would be born, need nourishment from its mother, its eyes wouldn't even be open.

“Which brings us to our next problem,” she sighed out as she leaned heavily into his chest and shoulders. “As far as I can tell, there are always other mortals called mid-wives present when the cub is being delivered.”

“...Delivered?” Magnus repeated in a far more confused tone than he would have liked to have let on.

“When the baby is being born,” Rayne clarified, which clarified nothing to him. “There are other females around to help the baby...come out.”

“...Alright.” Not really, but he was going to let her talk to see if could understand a bit more.

“In the books usually they are family, sisters, mothers, cousins, aunts, that sort of thing,” Rayne stated. “A healer is usually present, or sometimes a witch. I don't have a mother or sister to rely on to help me.”

“You have my mother,” he replied as he thought carefully.

“I think your mother will know less about mortal pregnancy than you do,” Rayne stated with certainty. “I won't go into Sagewynd and try to get anyone from there, not that they'll believe me about having a dragon's baby anyway...or decide I'm some sort of unholy creature, and with all the commotion...”

“Yes, we're not going back there,” Magnus agreed, wrapping his arms around her ribs and pulling her back farther to lean himself into the cart's wall.

“The option I keep coming back to...” she muttered quietly. “...Is a witch.”

Magnus' grip tightened on her ribs as he looked down at her in dis-belief.

“A...witch? Witches...do not like dragons,” Magnus grumbled a bit. “Witches like dragons as much as dragons like other dragons...and witches.”

“A witch is much more likely to believe this whole situation,” Rayne explained like she had made up her mind already and was just trying to get him to agree. “They are versed in all elemental magics. They are trained far beyond healers—”

“You are not going to let this go, are you?” Magnus questioned, his mouth tight but his voice clear.

“I still have three valid points to make—”

“I'm sure they're very convincing,” he muttered as he tried to keep from thinking about it. Having a witch in his territory...almost as bad as family. “Do you know where we can find one?” he questioned although it came out with a small growling to it. She shifted a little against him as her head tilted forward, the one duck in her row she couldn't account for.

“That...is the hardest part,” Rayne muttered as she began to braid her hair nervously. “I haven't ever seen a witch...”

“Very reclusive by nature,” Magnus murmured before pulling her hair from her nervous paws and ran his own fingers through it to calm her. “And with all the changes of the mortal gods I'm sure they've gone deeper into hiding until they are needed.”

“Needed?” Rayne asked as she relaxed back again.

“Desperate people seek them out even if it is against the laws of their gods. The gods may be silent but the witch a mountain climb's away can heal the sick and dying for a price,” Magnus answered. “Usually souls of the healthy to save the souls of the already damned.”

“You're not just telling me hatchling stories to keep me from finding one, are you?” Rayne asked with a little smirk quirking itself on the corner of her mouth as she turned her face to look at him from the corner of her eye.

“You think that I, of all dragons would believe those stories?” He responded, rubbing his nose into her hair. “I don't believe in much unless it is standing in front of me OR has been properly accounted for. Witches are one of those things that my mother made sure I knew to keep away from. There are several spells they use our kind for, scales, teeth, blood...one of the only other beings that is born with magic in their blood and knows how to use it. My transfiguration band was designed by a sorcerer looking for his own gains, but witches are loyal to only their own and the nature they draw power from.”

“I know it would be asking a lot,” she whispered, “and I will keep looking for other possibilities but this might be the only one.”

“If it is, then we will find one and it will cooperate,” Magnus responded, beginning to move around her and pick up the books littering their bed. “For now we need rest, its been a very trying day and I doubt it will be much better tomorrow.”

“You have issues with Ethera,” Rayne stated calmly as she stripped off her shirt and began to wiggle out of her pants. “What did she do?”

“She tortured me simply because I was there to torture and she was bored,” Magnus answered, “And when she was around my father seemed to forget that she was the older dragoness but somehow I was always in the wrong, except the time she nudged me off the cliff with her wing to watch me plummet to my death. Mother still won't forgive her for that one, although mother won't forgive father for laughing about it either.”

“She nudged you off a cliff?!” Rayne exclaimed, her face suddenly very worried as he set the books down—or more effectively dropped them in a big pile—over the side of the cart. She didn't seem to notice so he took it as a good sign she was very concerned about him at the moment. “And your father laughed?!”

“Remember my father, Arjun the Scorching?” Magnus replied as he reached his hand out to the room and doused the torchlight with a mere thought. “He was teaching me how to fly, and she thought it would be more effective if I had no ground under me. My sister may be civil, but be on your guard she's more like my father than she will ever let on.”

“I will keep that in mind,” Rayne agreed as she wiggled under the blankets and furs in the now dark cavern, lying on her side away from Magnus but pulled him down behind her. He nuzzled his nose back into her hair and slipped his arm around her middle, making sure to be touching and protecting her as a good dragon should. Her heartbeat slowed and soon he knew she was asleep but through her own slower beating he could hear the little buzzing heart of the being inside her. His paw rested on her abdomen, ruffling the fur there for a moment and stirring Rayne from her light sleep. She whined a little but still seemed quite content to try to stay asleep, putting her paw over his and squeezing it before it fell away as she was lost again.

If a witch would bring his offspring into the world safely, he would sacrifice his soul, he had no doubt about that. Perhaps that was why he didn't want one near them, the witch would know how much he could loose and how much he would sacrifice.

He would just have to keep those ideas from his mother.

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She inhaled the deep scent of her home as she bolted upright in her very small bed. The house was one room, her bed on one far end, a table for a single furson in the wall with a small stool to match, two windows, cupboards and pantries storing food, herbs and medicinal plants. She had been living alone in this place for at least a decade, and though she knew where everything was, she had never actually seen it truly with her own eyes.

She had been born blind, although that wasn't completely true either. She could see some things, mostly through the magic they held but she had never seen the world as others did. The living plants in small pots stood out like beacons in the dark room, the moonlight flooding in sparkled and lit some of the floor and cupboard doors.

She was definitely alone, then why had she felt as if there were another presence around her?

No one was there but her dream...no her vision felt like she could have reached out and touched it. She saw the pulsing bright being in a landscape of red, but something seemed to be warning her. What could they be warning her about? The visions were never clear, most of the time she thought of her dreams as stepping into another magical territory. This one may have been a step too far...but the magic never lead her wrong before. She began to wonder what would have happened if she had touched it...the brightness yielded no color for her, no sign of which element the being stemmed from. That was a little disconcerting, as was its shapelessness. It seemed to be more of a consciousness than anything...what magical being could have a consciousness and no shape or body? That may have been too deep of a thought for this late night or early in the morning.

She looked at her paws and flexed her digits a bit. She had been told that she was a black furred wolf, but her own sight made her always seem green and brown, odd colors but her elemental gifts were steeped in earth magics. Everything sounded as it should, inside and outside. The bats flitted by as the crickets hummed with their wings. If someone were nearby they'd surely stop their songs of the eve. She vibrated her lips as she left out her held breath, shaking her head and rolling back over to go to sleep. She had a lot of drying to do in the morning, her magic would just have to keep to itself until then. She didn't need to be going where she shouldn't be, astral plain or not she could get into a lot of trouble by over stepping her bounds. Even though dangers were far away from her small hidden home, they were a lot closer if they could follow her magic back to her body.

She sat upright again as another thought hit her hard in the chest. What if she didn't go to it, what if it had come to her?

Now that felt much more like a warning.

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Rayne had been up for some time since her “morning sickness” as it had been referred to in one of the books, had the decency to wake her up just after the sun started to peek out over the treeline. The nausea hit, but she didn't vomit as per usual. She thought that was a good sign but the feeling never left her while she tried to go back to bed. Instead she decided to try and see what the forest was looking like, her bow and quiver with her as she moved through. She brought some ginger root with her and was chewing on it heavily, which helped her stomach settle as she inhaled the morning scents of a dozen different flowers and trees. Small bugs were floating through the air like pedals, not bothering her but simply going where the wind seemed to carry their wings. She found a moss covered log and crawled up onto it, listening to the birds singing in the morning light. She closed her eyes and let her face look up at the sun peering through the leaves, warming her.

She felt the distinct sensation of eyes upon her all of a sudden, pulling and arrow from her quiver and tightening it in her bow so fast by the time she would have turned completely around she would have fired.

“Woah!?” The young gold, Eytan shrieked a bit with the arrow pointed at his eye and backed up into the treeline. “I didn't mean to scare you!”

Rayne pulled down her bow quickly as she put on the best smile she could at the moment, she couldn't say she was happy to see the young dragon following her but he didn't deserve to be shot for it.

“S'alright,” she replied, “I'm probably a little jumpy. You move rather...silently for someone your size.”

Eytan peered back through the foliage, in this case branches a good few yards above Rayne's head. He blinked at her like she would pull the weapon on him again at any moment, so she put the arrow away and slipped the bow across her chest.

“You're the first female mortal I've seen this close,” he stated suddenly but still stayed behind the wall of greenery. “Most of the mortals I've seen've been...males and...dragon killers.”

“I am sorry for pulling an arrow on you,” she apologized sincerelly, “I—just have run into dragons and—dragon killers in these woods. Not all dragons believe I'm more than a snack.”

“Not all mortals believe I'm more than a gold hide,” Eytan responded. She nodded a few times, before smirking up at him and stating,

“I bet you're hungry.”

Eytan's eyes thinned as they looked down at her.

“...Maybe.”

With some spooking by Eytan, Rayne managed to kill a good sized buck for the youngling to eat all to himself. He offered her some, but she knew her stomach definitely couldn't take venison right now, much less watching the youngling eat. She managed to climb up a tree and jump to a taller branch on another while the sound of breaking bone and gnashing teeth played on behind her. She knew she wouldn't be able to climb anything when she became rotund with the hybrid cub, so she wanted to test her limits, better to have something else around in case she fell and broke something valuable.

“How long've you and uncle Magnus been together?” Eytan asked while finishing up the rest of his meal, leaving the head since antlers could easily puncture something on the way down.

“Not very long,” Rayne answered as she found a branch to stretch out on, leaning her back against the girth of the wide trunk. “We've known each other for—a couple of months. Which is crazy, I know it is.”

“Is it?” Eytan asked, tilting his head a little. Rayne's brow drew down in confusion.

“Isn't it?”

“I dunno about all that mate seeking stuff,” Eytan scratched his guard scales nervously. “But mah said that grandah and grandmum didn't have a long time between their first meeting and matehood. Grandah saw what he wanted and made sure to get it, you know, dragon stuff.”

“Do you know how long?”

“Pfffft, I dunno, three days? A week? Something like that,” Eytan answered. Rayne's mouth dropped. Three DAYS?

“That's—you're sure?”

“Mah said so, yeah. She didn't tell me the whole thing, not that I would've been listening so much,” Eytan answered.

“And what about Eth—your mother and father?”

“Me mah was only a decade'r so older than me when dah got her but I don't want to be mated to anything that soon. I mean females are pretty and I'd like spending time with them, y'know? But I want to have my own lair for a long time before having to share it. Me uncle Dracen is 556 and he's still alone and happy, going to find females if need be and I wanna have some freedom like that.”

“Freedom's always nice,” Rayne smirked from her spot. Typical teenager, freedom and free tail, only two things worth living for. Now that she though about it Dracen was much more a giant teenager than a full grown dragon.

“How come grandmum is coming here?” he asked suddenly as Rayne watched a pair of small birds make a hasty retreat.

“That,” Rayne said in a strong voice but not threatening, “Is a private matter, I'm afraid.”

“Private matter? But family's never private about their matters,” Eytan responded with a little pout.
“I'm sure that's very true, but I wouldn't want to ruin your uncle Dracen's fun in telling you,” Rayne responded. “He does seem to like to do that sort of thing.”

“OUT!!!” came the bellow from Magnus of the century. The birds flitted off in a great display of feathered fear, making Rayne sigh heavily.

“I see your uncle Magnus has woken up,” Rayne replied calmly.

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