"You were saying, Ivo?" Shezumi purred, as the cat-man lashed his tail back and forth.
"That I could have done it too... This just wasn't my time."
"No," Shezumi said, with a beautifully arrogant gleam in her jade eyes, "it was not. Now, Tesimith is going to need to be oiled and then we must attend our weyrling classes. Can you occupy yourself without getting into TOO much trouble, Ivo?"
Shezumi looked at her distant cousin and he sulked. "I can," he said, "but I won't like it."
She patted his head, and led green-white Tesimith off to the front of her weyr. The new area where the pair were residing was large, but fit for two dragons at that. Since Ivo hadn't impressed at Ryslen's second -- and most odd -- hatching, he might have to be relocated entirely. But Shezumi demanded he remain with her. He was ... 'handy' as she put it, with things like, well, medicine and care.
Ivo had put himself to work in the infirmary in the sevenday after his cousin's impression.
That she got a dragon obviously irked him.
Why does he not like me? Tesimith asked her golden-haired partner.
Because he is jealous, my sweet. But you just wait. He shall find himself a fine dragon, and you and he might get along just fine then.
Shezumi seemed to feel every inch of the dragon's multi-colored and itchy skin, and knew exactly where to rub the oils onto her. Tesimith relaxed for a moment under Shezumi's ministering hands, and then woke fully when they were needed at the classes. As promised, the information the weyrling master had was not always good news.
"Threadfall the day after tomorrow," he informed them, "will mean that you'll all --" he seemed to dwell on Shezumi --"be needed at the firestone sacking."
There were some grumbles, but mostly the weyrlings were ready for their work. Shezumi almost -- almost -- tried to convince the weyrling master that she was above such dreadfully smelly work. But then... It would mean that Ivo would give her a bath later, and she simply adored it when he did her bidding. So much the better...
"Dearest," Shezumi purred, scrubbing down Tesimith's gleaming green-mint skin, "If you begin chewing that awful fire stone a moment before you've given this world offspring, I will personally see to it that every ounce of firestone on the planet disappears until you believe me."
But... Well, I DO believe you, but I think wouldn't it be grand to fly around and burn things?
Shezumi looked at her lifemate.
"I do that anyway, sweet, you know that." Shezumi changed from her human shape into her draconic one, which still somewhat startled even the people at Ryslen when she did so.
No other dragon has a bond like you!Tesimith beamed her happiness at her partner. Now, what will Impress Ivo? Ah! I know! A tunnel snake might be just exactly right for him.
"Oh, don't start. He's bad enough moping about. You know he keeps stealing knives from the kitchen to use in the infirmary?"
Why?
To scare the patients, of course...
"I KNOW what YOU want to do, my dearest. And give him time. He's just a little one. He must grow to adulthood for you."
The pair watched the sun set. The day was cold, and the sky had been slick all day with rain, like the night before, when the hatching occurred. It was obvious that there were other dragons than normal on those sands, and when the black dragon Faloritoth proved he had mated with the lovely green watch dragon, everyone seemed pleased.
Ivo had his dragon. And someone had explained to Shezumi that the bronze shading on him would mean that dragon was highly ranked. Shezumi smirked to herself. Something in the back of her mind clicked on, and Tesimith tilted her green head.
Why do other people think bad thoughts about you, when you think about Ivo? You are not THAT related. Isn't that what you've told me?
"You're right, they do look at us kind of funny. I suppose that claiming kinship and then... well, being lovers, is a little 'odd'. But you're right my sweet. Our ancestry goes back SO far, and is so different... We're from very different parts of the world."
And not our world at all. What will happen when you want to go back to your world, Shezumi?The dragon's voice had gone a bit worried.
If we decide to return to our home, you and Zkoth will be coming with us, of course. Shezumi promised the green.
"But first... When that beauty of a male grows up, you are going to have to show the world what dragons SHOULD be like!"
They of course did have offspring. Plenty of them, too. Both Shezumi and Tesimith bore strong dragon and dragon-kin after several flights around the Healing Den, Nexus and offworlds. Shezumi then found a place more to her liking, than merely a floating rock in the Nexus haze or a troubled and oft-assaulted planet full of ignorance.
She chose to found an entire race, magical and shapeshifting, all interconnected to the dragons.
Tesimith, at the first Ryslen Flurry, paired with Sunset Sampath and had four beautiful sunset-winged flurry-marked offspring (only two of which still exist to their knowledge)
Caul & Sunset Bronze Beolanth
Ainchis & Sunset Brown Ambroseth (Greek: Immortal)
Ielidyn & Sunset Blue Stirdalath
Noelani & Sunset Green Kigraith
And at the Healing Den's duo-tone flight, both Tesimith and Shezumi paired up with Ivo's Night Bronze Zkoth. The start of the Kazoku no Ryu began with his offspring, and some finding other, more unusually magical mates.
Cream Nakamak (japanese – companion), Black Blue Tengerk (japanese – sea/ocean), Lithya on Black-Teal Buszketh (hungarian – pride), White-Green-Teal Shikith (japanese – command)
And Tesimith also paired up with a lovely violet shaded Alendreth,
Ren on Silver-White-Violet Camkanak (female, hindi – to cause shining)
Some of these dragons have returned to the Healing Den, while others drift in the void, or still fly with their bonds.
It was quite some time after Shezumi had become the 'matron' of the Ryu, she was old, but she had not aged. Much, at least. She was tall and stately and dangerous, and no one trusted her to be alone with their sons or their male dragons for very long.
She had encouraged breeding only with magical dragons and those with certain talents for many generations, but wasn't about to refuse to acknowledge any of the distant kin she had that were brought before her.
It almost seemed like she was amassing an army. But to fight what? Even on her own world, there were things only to hunt, not necessarily ones which would ever usurp her control. It only looked like an army, perhaps it was not.
It was on a visit to a distant world, a dragonry called Akelara, that Shezumi found her very first 'pet'. She'd had animals around, but often they went missing - that was a danger when almost everything around them was a predator. She never got attached.
Not until she saw these tiny, winged creatures. Even Tesimith was enchanted by them, they were hardly the size of a cat, and certainly not smarter than a normal feline. But they were -
"It's so cute!" Shezumi squealed, like a teenager again. Her appearance certainly depended on her mood, and at that moment Tesimith noted well that she lost any hint of age upon her face or hands when she reached out to hold the little egg. It broke, hatching out a yellow and black colored creature.
It has your cousin's coloration, sort of... Tesimith noted.
"He does, it's almost like he's a little cheetah. Well, little thing," she said, popping a tiny morsel (a fly caught deftly between two long-nailed fingers) into its open mouth, "I think you belong with me!"
It was absolutely true. "Kimi," she stated as his name, "likes bugs for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and occasionally a snack," she laughed. The flitter-creature, a Padrien, grew quickly and stopped growing when he was just big enough to ride on Shezumi's shoulder and wrap his tail around her delicate neck. He became useful as a spy, quickly gaining Shezumi's attention when he would spot someone entering a place they ought not to, or taking something that she'd said wasn't available.
"Good little one, Kimi," Shezumi said, he'd foiled two thefts - and perhaps it was time that they did something about those dragon-hunting invaders that kept trying to kill her descendants...
