When they were finished, he helped her clean up and found it wasn’t as bad as he thought a day of cooking should be. When he remarked on it she laughed, drying a large bowl
“Clean up as you go along, or all is lost,” she smiled. “That was the biggest lesson on all of the cooking shows I watched.”
He watched her as he put away the dishes. “Are you tired?”
She looked up at him. “I am full,” she grinned. “What did you have in mind?”
“Night flight,” he grinned right back at her, and pride filled his chest as she gasped and nodded eagerly.
“I would like to change into jeans, if you don’t mind,” she looked at him raptly and he nodded.
“Meet me back here,” he called out to her as she raced down the hallway.
She was back in a few minutes, looking absolutely beautiful.
“Do you wish to secure your hair?” He asked, and almost raised his hand to touch it.
“I will put a bubble around me as I did on the trip here,” she told him.
“Follow me,” he nodded and put his hand out to her. He was immensely gratified when she took it and followed him down to his hoard. He turned to her, “I have added you to my wards, so that you can come here, but please, do not go out on the balcony. I have no railing there and the winds here can be strong.” He looked at her. “I fear you might fall off.”
Fear? He was terrified at the thought.
“I wouldn’t fall,” she said absently, as she looked at a chalice that was on a pedestal. “I’m an air witch,” she said proudly, grinning up at him.
“I don’t know, exactly what that means for you,” he admitted.
“On Earth, I could never fly. There simply is not enough magic, but I can work well with yours, and I could easily keep myself in the air, even move about, or fly, if you will.”
He stared at her.
“I had planned on testing this out while firmly on the ground, testing my limits,” she explained. “My magic was close to worthless on the Demonworld, here it seems limitless, but I have not tested that theory,” she said quickly.
“Please allow me to be present when you do your testing,” he urged, his stomach now churning at the thought of her falling through the air. He grinned when she nodded and his stomach calmed down, slightly.
“I will change out on the balcony, and then you may... climb aboard,” no way was he going to say mount. Gods! Now he’d thought that and he couldn’t stop thinking it. He turned quickly and walked outside, taking his primary shape and bugling his joy. He heard her laugh just below him and he put his wing down so she could mou... board him. Dammit, he needed to get that damned word out of his mind.
When she was firmly on his neck, right behind his head, he leaped from the balcony and caught the updraft made by the water hitting the shore and flew up. He smiled as much as a Dragon could when he heard her laughter. He panicked slightly as he felt her hands let go of his spines and she crowed in delight. He could imagine, easily, her arms straight out from her sides as she mimicked his wings. For her, he would soar.
Chapter Seven
Sofia laughed as she stuck her arms out, allowing the air to flow over her. She looked at the sky, and like on most magical worlds, there was no light pollution to dull the stars overhead. They were not the stars of her childhood, and she’d not learned much of the stars in the Demonworld, never wanting to go outside alone, since her friends had all paired up. There was a half-moon and a crescent moon giving visible light, yet Sofia could see so much. She couldn’t make out details, but she could see fires in the distance that blinked in and out. She figured that might be fire breathing dragons letting off some steam, as Cassie would say. She could see dwellings far off in the distance, and she noticed that Ryluth was flying to the north. Every decent witch, on any world, always cast a spell to find True North upon landing on the world so that they would stay oriented and could generally find their way out of a sack.
They were flying over forested areas towards some mountains to her left. There were cliffs, very close together and she could make out dark spots that might be caves, like the one Ryluth had. She gasped when Ryluth suddenly banked and flew inland and she saw the lights of a small village not too far away. His flight began to slow and he brought himself down in a large field just outside the relatively small village, no larger than any she’d visited on the Demonworld. She quickly walked down his wing and waited for him to transform into his human shape. She felt uncomfortable watching him, as if she was watching him undress, so she turned her back for a moment so he could shift forms in a modicum of privacy.
“Follow me,” he said as he stepped up to her and offered his hand. She grasped it, excited to explore and meet new people. He shortened his stride to match hers so she wouldn’t have to run to keep up with him, and he was on a well-worn path leading towards the village. She was afraid that they had come too late to visit and meet everyone, but a someone appeared to be present around a large fire in the middle of the village.
A very tall male stood when they stepped into the square, alert, but then relaxed when he saw Ryluth. A smile began to form, but quickly turned into a glower when he spotted Sofia slightly behind Ryluth. She peeked out from behind him and gasped to see two small dragons sitting next to... she supposed he was another dragon in his human form.
Sofia loved children. She had loved caring for the young of her friends after they had come back and each birth was treated with the awe, joy and celebration it deserved. The small Dragons drew her, as nothing else would have, towards the fire. As she began to step around Ryluth to go meet the young she heard a snarl.
“What is she doing here?”
The questioner made she sound like an archenemy in the movies that Laurel loved so much.
“She is here as my guest,” Ryluth said quietly.
The Dragon who had questioned her being there relaxed slightly and nodded.
“My apologies, My Lady,” he was clearly uncomfortable with saying he was sorry. “I thought you were someone else.”
Sofia took another step towards the young Dragons but smiled at the elder Dragon. “I should have waited for introductions, sir, but I was enchanted with your young.” She looked at him expectantly, but he looked at Ryluth and Sofia saw him nod out of the corner of her eye.
“She is safe, Derno,” Ryluth. He looked over at the other male, and Sofia saw he was a carbon copy of the one who had questioned her being there. Twins? “Cenan, it is good to see you again.”
Both Dragons bowed their heads but called the fledglings over to them, clearly protective.
“This is Sofia, from Earth. She is an Air witch, recently from the Demonworld,” Ryluth introduced her to his males.
Both Dragons tensed up.
“She has come with some other witches to see if they can find mates and move here permanently,” Ryluth had seen them tense as well, Sofia stood quietly by his side.
“I wish them luck,” Derno said bitterly, looking down at the amethyst fledgling at his side. “Gods know their mothers had no interest in staying after they delivered the eggs.”
Sofia gasped. She had assumed they were born the same as humans and shifted into the dragon forms somewhere thereafter, but they appeared to be as Demis had been, born in Demon form and only taking a human form for the first time once they visited Earth. How was this possible?
“I will explain later,” Ryluth whispered to her. “I hope you don’t mind.”
Sofia shook her head, aware that her ignorance of other magical races left her flailing in the water now. She should have taken Seth up on his offer of his library to anyone who wished to learn.
“Please come sit by the fire,” Cenan said and cuddled his blue colored fledgling.
Ryluth led her to a bench near the fire and Sofia allowed her bubble to collapse and found the evening air a bit cooler than it had been at Ryluth’s home. She wondered how far they had flown. She had so busy trying to see everything that she’d lost trac
k of the time and distance.
“How are they progressing?” Ryluth asked the men and smiled as the purple fledgling walked over to him and nudged his boots. The Dragon King swept his hand over the small Dragon’s head, rubbing the top of his head. He smiled down at the small one. “Kristo’s horn buds were itching.” He laughed as the small head butted his hand for more scratching.
Derno chuckled. “My Kristo is a snuggler.”
Sofia looked up at the intimidating Dragon with golden eyes. “May I touch him?”
The twin Dragons were both silent but stared at her, but they both nodded and the small blue fledgling came over towards her. Sofia was bewitched by the small dragons. They allowed her to touch them, and run her hands over their heads. She lightly scratched where their horn buds were breaking through, with the velvet covering them.
The men began speaking, but Sofia was deaf to their voices, so totally enraptured with the small Dragons that wanted her to hold them, and hold them she did. She snuggled them, hugging them and lightly rubbing their wings since that seemed to soothe them.
“How old are they?” She asked, totally interrupting whatever conversation the males had been having. All three looked at her, only two of them surprised. Ryluth didn’t appear to be surprised that she took an interest in the young.
“They hatched on the same day,” Cenan said. “They are four years old.”
“They are adorable,” Sofia laughed, accepting the blue one licking her face, and rewarding it with a kiss on his softly scaled head. “What is this one’s name?” She asked, slightly lifting the blue fledgling.
“That is my son, Glym,” Cenan informed her, cocking his head to look at her. “It is his call name, not his true name,” he further explained.
Sofia glared at him, suddenly angry. But her voice was calm when she spoke. “I would never, ever harm a child, regardless of their race. I would easily kill anyone who would.”
Both Dragons shot her skeptical looks, but said nothing.
“It is odd to see her holding the fledglings. We have not observed that before,” Derno said quietly, while staring at Sofia playing gently with the two small dragons.
Sofia looked up at him, interrupting her play with the children, to her they were children. “Didn’t their mothers even hold them once they were born?”
All three males looked intently at Sofia.
“What?” She asked at all three males standing by the fire. “What do I not know?”
“Their mothers left within hours of delivering the eggs and have never returned,” Cenan said bitterly. “You are the first female they have ever seen.”
Ryluth watched as Sofia’s forehead wrinkled in puzzlement. “I don’t understand.”
“Do you not know of the Dragon system of procreating since the curse?” Derno asked.
“How could she not know? She’s a human mage,” he looked at Ryluth. “You are going to empower her for an heir,” he said in surety and nodded his head. “It gets that way for all of us.”
“What?” Ryluth looked at Derno then his face became a mask of disgust. “No! I asked her to visit to see if she might like to stay here and choose a mate, like the other five females at my palace.”
Sofia’s head whipped over to glare at him and he shrugged. He wanted her, had asked for her, and she was here and he needed to be honest. Perhaps he was a coward for doing this in front of the young and strangers. She would never say anything in front of strangers. Yes, he was a coward, but he would get it when they got back home.
“She doesn’t look to agree with your plan of action, Ryluth,” Cenan chuckled. “Perhaps she will leave and your young and you will join us here.”
Derno had never taken his gaze off Sofia. “She has never been to the Technomage World, has she?” He finally asked as the silence stretched out. He noted that she had begun paying rapt attention to the fledglings, playing with them and cuddling them as they seemed to crave. “She has no idea about what goes on with us, does she?” He finally turned his gaze to Ryluth, who acknowledged with a shake of his head, that she was ignorant of them and their traditions in trying to maintain their world.
Derno sighed and rolled his eyes and spoke directly to Sofia.
“Sofia, we have no women to mate with, like the Demons. We only hatch sons. We have contracted with witches, mages and the like that can breed at will, to come here to be fertilized and they gain some of our power once they conceive. Then, once they deliver the egg to us, they leave, and they don’t come back.”
Sofia never took her gaze from Glym, at whom she had been cooing. “I don’t understand any of that,” she said quietly, obviously not wanting to alarm the young. Ryluth was so proud of her and so interested in her mothering of the two small fledglings.
“We sleep with women, they are impregnated and then once the egg is delivered a few weeks later, they leave with their power increased.”
This time Sofia did look up. “But this is the agreement, correct? This is what you contract for?”
Cenan shook his head. “The contract is to provide progeny, but there is nothing that says they have to leave. We always give them the chance to mate with us if we feel so inclined. So far only a few males have, but they have always been refused.”
Sofia nodded and rubbed Kristo’s horn buds again. “It’s the egg I am stuck on, then.”
All three men looked at one another. She signed but continued her attention on the fledglings.
“What is this delivery of an egg thing? I was never educated on Dragons because I grew up on Earth where you are considered mythical beings and then held on the Demonworld, where you were never spoken of at all. As far as I’m concerned, I never saw a Dragon until I came here.”
The twin Dragons looked at Ryluth who sighed.
“When we mate with a female, who is not Dragon, and she becomes pregnant, within weeks she is delivered of a small egg, which then grows with our young, who is hatched a year later.”
Sofia looked up at all three males for a moment, then burst out laughing. The fledglings were delighted with her and began clicking and hissing at her which, she guessed, was their version of laughter.
“That is the most hilarious thing I’ve heard in quite a while, and I’m around Baxter Clancy a lot.”
She continued to laugh and play with the young and the three Dragons just watched, in awe.
“That is how we breed with non-Dragons,” Cenan said. “That is why their mothers are not here.”
“Did you want them to stay?” She asked, looking up from caressing two small Dragon heads. “Did you even ask?”
Derno’s nose wrinkled in distaste. “No, she did nothing but complain the entire time she was here. I was grateful for Kristo, but I was glad she was gone. I would not want to listen to her all of my life.”
Cenan just shook his head. “I liked my son’s mother, but she cried the entire time we mated. I did not feel a bond with her as others have.”
“So, the egg thing?” She asked and stared at Ryluth.
He swallowed. “It is well known in our worlds that the time spent here is not long, yet we’ve not had any female return, and they have to be magical, but an egg is formed and easily delivered.” He looked down at his shoes, clearly uncomfortable discussing this with others. “I have been told it is like severe menstrual cramps.” And his face turned red, he could feel the heat flash on his face.
Sofia just nodded and stared at them.
“This is the truth?” She asked Derno and Cenan, who nodded to her.
Ryluth watched her jaw drop, then close. She then looked down at the young in her lap and she kissed their heads, snuggling them.
“What is to keep the women from taking the egg and leaving?” Sophia asked the next question among the many on her list.
Cenan just grimaced and Cenan openly glowered at her.
“It is part of the magical contract as we don’t want our young created just so some mage or Faerie can attain power by their death,” Ryluth ex
plained glumly.
Sofia decided to leave it there as there was already too much for her to process.
“May I come back here to see them?” She asked.
Derno and Cenan looked very surprised but nodded.
“Now,” Sofia sat up and allowed the fledglings to find their fathers. “Why are you in Human form and they are in Dragon form?”
Ryluth laughed, clearly relieved and answered her. “We are hatched in our Dragon form, but our fathers maintain a human form and when we are around ten years old, we can take a human form and leave this place after flight training is done.”
She nodded her head, as if it all made sense to her.
“You stay here for ten years, then,” she restated what she’d been told, as if cementing what she’d learned. “What about the mothers who stay?” Do they have to come here as well?”
“No woman has done that since the curse began. No males have taken mates since then.”
Sofia sat back, a horrified look on her face.
“It is why I asked Cassie to ask women who would consider staying here as mates and not leaving once they gained their power boost,” Ryluth explained.
“Will they contract for this as well?”
All three men shook their heads.
“She would be a mate and not want to leave,” Cenan explained. “I know humans do not take mates, but we once had human mates, so very long ago.”
“And you form bonds with your mates?” Sofia asked, clearly knowledgeable on that subject.
All three nodded and Derno took Kristo on to his lap, holding his son like a cherished gift, which he was.
“It is a bond all races can feel,” he explained, caressing his son’s horn buds as Sofia had done and Kristo began to make a purring like sound, which signaled he was sleepy. “If you will excuse me, I must put Kristo to sleep.” He stood, looking at his twin who nodded and stood with Glym already asleep in his arms.
“It was nice to make your acquaintance, Sofia of Earth,” Derno said and Cenan nodded before they both walked off.
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