Dragons are Forever

by H. M. Gooden

  "Maybe make sure he's sitting down? I've got a feeling he may pass out when you tell him."

  Mai snorted at the idea of Jake stretched out on the carpet, passed out like a guy in a sitcom after hearing his wife is pregnant. "Good idea. I'm positive it'll be a little bit of surprise."

  Mai waited in the room alone for what felt like an eternity, worrying about what Jake's reaction would be. She knew that he wanted to have kids, some day, but wasn't sure he was ready yet. She wasn't ready at all, especially if there were three kids in there. Maybe three little dragons. She pictured tiny cartoon dragons flying around the house, knocking down vases and books, and smiled. It could be fun though, if she lived through it.

  "Are you alright?" Jake's voice interrupted her reverie with a question that was starting to irritate her and she answered with a snap.

  "Yes, already. Can you stop asking me that? I'm starting to feel like I'm dying, the way you ask every time you see me."

  Mai felt bad the second she spoke and apologized immediately. "I'm sorry Jake, I know you're worried. I'm fine, I promise. Cat just told me what's happening and I think we need to sit down and talk about it."

  Mai sat and patted the place beside her for Jake, who came and sat next to her on the bed with worried puppy dog eyes.

  "Jake, you know how much I love you, right?"

  His face whitened at her choice of starting words.

  "Mai..."

  He spoke with hesitation and Mai gently cupped his cheek.

  "And I know how much you love me. What happened today is still fresh to me and I still don't quite understand how it happened, but Jake, I'm pregnant."

  She kept watching his face, her hand feeling the prickle of his five o'clock shadow, and saw the moment his color drained away completely. He swayed slightly and Mai moved her hand down to steady his shoulder.

  "Jake, breathe!" Mai ordered.

  Mai felt him take a deep breath, but waited for him to speak. They sat in silence for a few moments while Jake watched her with stunned eyes. It seemed like an eternity until he spoke again.

  "How?"

  Mai almost couldn't hear the whisper, but when she did, she just shook her head.

  "I have no idea. Well, other than the obvious." Mai sighed then soldiered on. "Are you ready for the rest of it?"

  Jake's eyes opened wider. "What do you mean the rest of it? There's more?"

  Mai smiled nervously before answering. "Just one more thing, well...two, really. Cat could see three auras, all different colors."

  Jake blinked at her several times.

  "Three? Three babies?" he said, his voice cracking with emotion.

  Mai nodded. "Three babies."

  Jake smiled then stood up. He whooped with joy before picking her up and spinning her around. He twirled her a few times before she started to feel queasy.

  "Woah! I'm going to throw up!"

  Mai warned him with a half-laugh, mostly joking but also uncertain of the strength of her stomach. Jake let her slide down to regain her footing on the floor, placing a gentle, lingering kiss on the mouth before looking at her in awe.

  "We're going to be parents."

  He spoke in such a reverent tone that tears sprung into her eyes again.

  "Yes, we are. I'm happy, but wasn't expecting this so soon. What are we going to do?"

  Mai concentrated on drying her eyes and sat back down on the bed.

  Jake sat next to her, tucking her hand into his and holding her close.

  "We're going to raise them, of course."

  He said it so simply, even though Mai knew nothing about it would be simple. She was pretty sure he didn't understand what worried her the most.

  "Jake, while I'm happy we're pregnant, I think we need to be prepared for the fact that this isn't going to be a normal pregnancy."

  He looked at her with confusion. "What do you mean? I know that triplets are a higher risk pregnancy, so you'll probably have to be careful."

  Mai shook her head. "No....that's not it. I shouldn't even be pregnant yet Jake, not according to human timelines, anyway. We haven't been...together...." she said, blushed, then continued, "for long enough for me to be pregnant yet. Or for Cat to see three auras. I'm wondering if we're having...dragons."

  Jake's look of disbelief quickly changed into excitement and he jumped off the bed.

  "No way! You really think so? That's amazing! I don't think that's happened in years!"

  Mai was surprised to see how excited he was.

  "So, you've heard of this before?"

  Jake nodded emphatically before doing a little dance."Yes, but according to my parents it's been a really, really long time. My parents are distant cousins and they were both dragons, but other than them having us, there haven't been any dragons born in Norway since Christian. While we don't know about what happens in the rest of the world, dragon births are pretty rare. I think you need to have two dragons or the children usually end up being human. It's like, a recessive gene or something."

  Mai thought about Naunet, the water goddess who'd appeared to Mai as a mermaid in her dreams at that moment. She remembered when she'd first learned about her powers from her. Naunet had taught her about her dragon form, as well as eventually teaching her how to control her powers. Mai remembered her saying how there were so few dragons anymore and that she was the last of the azure ones. She hadn't really thought about the significance back then, but that must mean that dragons had been dying out and not reproducing. If she were to have three more dragons, that could potentially shift the balance, but would it be a good thing? Mai looked at Jake's happy face and wondered what would happen, then smiled. There was no way having three children to love could ever be bad.

  "Let's tell your parents. If this is so rare, we need to know what they know. I don't even know what it means to be pregnant with a human, let alone dragons. Will I give birth to a baby or a dragon? "

  Jake agreed quickly. "They'll be super excited and definitely we need to ask what they know. It'll be wonderful, Mai. No matter what happens, we can handle it together."

  Mai smiled. She knew that regardless of what else happened, he'd always be there for her. But now it was time to find out what her in-laws knew about her slightly inhuman pregnancy, and what to expect when one was possibly expecting dragons.

  CHAPTER 18 GREAT EXPECTATIONS

  Jake and Mai crept downstairs, attempting to remain unobserved until they knew who was waiting for them. Luckily, it was just their friends there, Aud having left to hang out with her own friends. The moment they saw Jake and Mai, all conversation stopped.

  Vanessa spoke first. "So? What's the big news? Miss goody-goody over here wouldn't tell us the big secret. I've got my suspicions, but she wouldn't answer. Jerk." Vanessa glared at Cat, who just shrugged.

  "Not my story to tell, big sis, so there. Got to get the details from the dragon's mouth this time."

  Vanessa snorted, but appeared to be more curious than angry. Zahara was sitting with her elbows on her knees, leaning forward and obviously waiting for Mai to answer.

  "Yes, please. It's killing us!" Zahara said.

  Mai smiled and sat next to Jake on the couch.

  "I'm sure you're suspicious, based on the timing alone, but apparently we're going to be parents."

  Both Zahara and Vanessa spoke at once.

  "That's fantastic!"

  "How amazing!"

  Mai nodded. "Thanks, guys. We're very excited. But," she said, then paused and looked at them seriously. "There's a pretty big but this time. It sounds like we are having three babies. And there's also a strong possibility that they're going to be dragons."

  Vanessa shrieked.

  "No way! That's so cool!" She was almost crowing with delight and Mai chuckled at her response.

  Zahara looked surprised, but just as happy. "That's so wonderful. There can never be too many dragons in the world."

  Mai smiled. "Thanks. Now we just have to figure out how to tell Jake's parents. Then
we'll need to ask them what it means and what we're supposed to do. Dragons apparently aren't known for reproducing very often, from what Jake's heard."

  "Tell Jake's parents what?"

  A familiar masculine voice came from the doorway. They all turned in surprise to see Anders and Astrid carrying groceries inside.

  "Wow, speak of the devil." Vanessa muttered to Zahara under her breath, while she covered a giggle with her hand and nodded in agreement.

  "Mom, Dad," said Jake. "We were waiting for you to get home."

  Astrid put two bags on the counter, brushing her ice-blonde hair out of her face.

  "You were, were you? Alright, what are you up to? It better not be expensive, Jake Larsen."

  Astrid answered with the usual suspicion with which the mother of three almost grown kids approached life on a daily basis.

  "Um, maybe you should sit down?"

  Jake smiled nervously and gestured at the couches in the living room at the same time that Cat jerked her head to the stairs, giving an intense glare at her sister and Zahara. Getting the not-so-subtle hint, the other girls stood up.

  "We're just going to go upstairs and rest. Jet lag." Vanessa smiled graciously at the Larsens, while Cat and Zahara murmured in agreement, before bolting up the stairs.

  Anders came into the living room with his brow arched in question.

  "Okay, this is going to be expensive, isn't it?"

  Jake started to shake his head, then paused, looking to Mai for help, his eyes suddenly going wide with the realization.

  "Oh, my God, it is going to be expensive," he moaned.

  Mai laughed at Jake and sat down, patting the couch beside her.

  "That depends on us, really. But yes, it could be."

  Astrid came over now, finished with groceries and intrigued by the exchange.

  "Hmmm, so potentially expensive. And I see that your friends have escaped, so it must be something big and related to family."

  Astrid stopped suddenly and sat straight up on the plush sofa, as though she had a rod down her back, and looked at Mai.

  "Are you pregnant?" she asked, her voice squeaking with excitement.

  When Mai nodded, Astrid jumped back up to give her a hug.

  Jake's father clapped him on the back.

  "Well, congratulations! The wedding was just in time apparently. Good job!" Jake shook his head in denial.

  "Well, not exactly. You see, we've had a rather old-fashioned relationship almost up until the wedding. So we're shocked that this is even happening."

  While Anders looked confused, Astrid nodded her head sagely and stood up, going over to the fireplace to take a small decorative box off the shelf before sitting back down beside Mai.

  Anders looked at his wife with surprise. "What is it?" he asked. "What's in the box?"

  Astrid showed them all at once, displaying it in her hand. It wasn't very big, just about the size of a pencil case, but it was a beautiful blue with green engravings on it. What surprised Mai was that it seemed to have Chinese characters on it, not standard western ones like she'd have expected. Astrid opened the box and inside was a folded piece of parchment that looked to be hundreds of years old. Carefully unfolding it, she handed the paper over to Mai.

  "Please, read this. It's been waiting for you, I think. My mother gave it to me and her mother gave it to her before that. It's been in our family for a very long time. I was always told to keep it safe, until the time arose. When I asked when that time would be, my mother just said that I would know."

  Astrid looked at Mai, her eyes sparkling with unshed tears, and gave her a tremulous smile as she waited for Mai to look at the paper.

  Mai carefully took the paper, not sure that she should even be handling it due to its age and examined it. It wasn't a long letter, only a few paragraphs in total. It was written in Mandarin, which Mai found difficult to read because of the shaky handwriting, but she did her best to translate and read it to the others.

  DEAR DRAGON-CHILD,

  You are the last of the azure dragons if this box has made it into your hands. As such, you have a great responsibility to balance the elements. You have within you the future of the dragon race. Like the ancestors, you have control over the element of water. You shall birth forth three who will be joined together to fight for the world, a trinity of power who will cleanse the world of evil. You must protect them until they can take up their mantle. Their birth will begin a new journey and bring balance to the world. Your journey shall begin in thirty six days from the beginning.

  May you live for hundreds of years and be blessed with safety and peace.

  MAI LOOKED UP, FEELING as though she'd been lost in another world. The writing had taken her back. While the paper was older than she was now, she knew the author. It was the same as writing she remembered from her childhood, when she'd snooped through her father's papers. She wondered now if he'd known what was coming, that he wouldn't be there for her, that she'd somehow be transported to the future. She'd been so young at the time. Her parents had hidden her dragon from the world around them, and even from her until after they'd died. By the time they'd had been lost in the storm at sea, Mai hadn't even known that she had the ability to become one. And yet, here she was, almost one hundred and fifty years from the time her parents had lived, reading words her father had written to her. She didn't know how she knew it, but she was sure that it was his words that were speaking to her now from the page.

  "What is it, Mai?" Jake asked.

  Mai smiled at Jake through tears. "My father wrote this."

  "What? How's that possible?"

  Mai shrugged, letting the paper drift to her lap absently.

  "I don't know. But do you remember when I told you that he was a diplomat? He often travelled by sea and had business dealings with other diplomats. During the late 1800s, there were many immigrants coming to San Francisco. It's possible he gave it to someone to bring back to your family, Jake. Or maybe even to one of your ancestors."

  Anders shook his head in wonder. "The world is a synchronous place. Sometimes what seems completely unrelated ends up being connected after all. Your father has given you his blessing, Mai, after all these years."

  Mai looked at Anders as her face crumpled and tears leaked out, slowly tracking down her cheeks. It was true. She felt as though she had family approval after all, as if her father knew where she was now, and was happy for her. She took a deep breath and willed the tears to evaporate. Mai chose her next words carefully.

  "If this is true, and my father wrote this, he must have been able to see into the future. There's no other way that he could have known about this situation otherwise. He saw the three babies, and said that they'll be an important trinity to balance the elements, and the world."

  Jake nodded. "It makes sense, Mai. You're part of a powerful group of element-wielding women that have recently balanced evil in another way. Maybe the three of them will be tasked the way you, Cat, Vanessa and Zahara were."

  Mai sighed. "Is it wrong that I'm sad for them? That they'll have these powers and be charged to defend others, instead of living a normal, powerless life?"

  Astrid smiled at her sympathetically. "That's the mother in you speaking, my dear. That protective feeling often hits right at the start and never leaves. That being said, you'll also raise them so that they know their powers and use them correctly. It's your duty and will be your pride."

  Mai bowed her head in agreement. "I will. But I know that they'll never have a normal life because of it. Because of me."

  Jake patted her knee.

  "Hey, cheer up! I never had a normal life. And I feel like I turned out okay. I grew up knowing what I was and that my family was different from everyone else. But it's been great, because I was always loved and accepted for myself. We'll do the same for them."

  Mai smiled. "Yes, we will." A thought suddenly crossed her mind, making her pause. "What did he mean about thirty-six days from the start?"

  Mai looked at
Jake and his parents and the same sinking pit in her stomach opened up as she watched Astrid's eyes dart over to Anders then back to Mai.

  "Oh, damn."

  The blood drained from Mai's face and for the first time since she'd felt nauseated at the restaurant, she fainted.

  AS MAI SLID OFF THE couch, Jake leapt forward, catching her limp body in his arms. He held her tenderly, anxiously looking at his parents.

  "Is she okay? What should I do? Should we call an ambulance?

  "No, son," Astrid chuckled, smoothing out her shirt before looking at him reassuringly. "She's simply fainted from all the excitement, and maybe a little because of the pregnancy. I remember my first pregnancy with you, dear. I used to go down at the slightest stressor. And having triplets in just over a month takes a lot of her energy, I'm sure. Why don't you take her up to her room, so that she can rest?"

  Jake sighed, brushing Mai's hair back off her face, and bent to give her a kiss on the forehead. Poor Mai. It was a lot to handle, all at once. The trip to Norway, meeting his family, getting married, and now finding out she was pregnant with triplets. It was overwhelming for him and he didn't even have any physical symptoms to deal with, on top of everything else. He moved her onto his lap and put both arms underneath her, lifting her up as though she were an infant. He walked up the stairs, his father following silently behind him. Once they arrived at the room, Anders opened the door and Jake deposited Mai onto the bed so gently that it hardly moved. He tucked her in with a duvet, making sure that she looked comfortable, then turned the light off and left the room.

  "Now what?" Jake heard his plaintive question as he closed the door and felt like a kid again, asking his dad for help.

  Anders smiled, his eyes crinkling with the wisdom that Jake had always respected.

  "Well, son, now you get to learn how to be a father. There's nothing as rewarding as watching your children grow into good people. And whenever you need help, your mother and I are always here for you."

  Jake laughed and it almost turned into a cry as he leaned into his father's broad shoulder.