Dawning Skye

The smell of Amara’s whiskey was wafting towards him, and making Tidas nauseous again. Zazzy moved her tail so that he could lean against her. He thanked his sweet scaly lassie, then turned to his wife with a pleading expression..

“I swear I won’t drink for a month if you heal me now,” Tidas stated half-jokingly, but Skye didn’t take it that way.

“Aye! Agreed! Amara, yer a witness,” Skye stated as she got up to go heal him.

“Aye, yer Majesty!” Amara replied with a flourished bow, which made Skye scoff.

“I told ye not ta call me that!”

“But we’re in private,” Amara countered with a playful grin.

“I told ye not to then, either!” Skye practically roared at her.

“Actually, ye said that ye didn’t care. I wore ye down, remember?” Amara replied cockily.

Skye huffed out of frustration; “I recall just wantin’ ye ta get to the point! Just like now!”

.....

Amara grinned with amusement; “Fine, Skye it tis, then.. Anyway, Zazzy’s mother was Lazarus, correct?”

After the two nodded in the positive, Amara continued; “Well, Lazarus was an Empress Class dragon, which means that she was able ta command other dragons when she reached maturity. She was also a breeder, since Zazzy is proof of it. I bet she’ll be the same as her mother, although I doubt she’ll find an Emperor Class male ta mate with.”

Zazzy had huffed and started to make tiny grumbly noises as Amara talked. She didn’t like the conversation..

Petting her to calm her, Amara added; “She may be the last of her class..”

“Don’t you mean kind? It’s not like there’s any other dragons left,” Tidas said in a grumpy tone.

Amara smirked; “If ye think dragons are gone from this world, laddie: that just means that yer not lookin’ in the right places..”

Skye perked up along with Zazzy; “Have ye seen any others before?”

Amara laughed lightly; “Na, I just know that they still be around.”

Tidas scoffed; “I think that if they still existed, someone would’ve seen one by now..”

Amara kept her cool expression; “Yer a fool fer thinkin’ that one of the oldest creatures on the planet got snuffed out by us. Do ye really think they wouldn’t figure out a way ta survive? Ta blend?”

While Amara carried on, something from her Roland Snare journals popped into Skye’s head. While she was reading about dragon development, it had mentioned a specific gene dragons have that allowed them to shrink down in size, once they had fully matured...

Hearing Amara threaten to ‘slap the sense’ into Tidas had abruptly brought Skye out of her thoughts. They were currently insulting each other’s intelligence levels, and were practically screaming their taunts. Zazzy had inched back inside her little home, they were so loud.

Murdoc and Petrie had made their way outside, and were standing by the door; watching with amused expressions on their faces. Skye gestured to the two squabbling, but he shook his head in the negative..

Skye sighed deeply, walked over to the bickering two, and lightly smacked the backs of their heads. They both glared at her, but backed down when they saw her irate features.

Taking a ‘Peggy Stance’, Skye shook her head in a disapproving manner as she chided them; “Ye two are lucky that we’re outside! What would people think ta see ye two bickerin’ so fiercely over nonsense?”

Looking between the two in turn, she added; “Yer the Commander of the RMC, and yer the Head of the Highlander Council: Act Like It!”

Amara bowed with a smirk; “I apologize, yer majesty-”

“Don’t call me that!” Skye replied in an exasperated tone.

“But ye sound like one.. And Amara’s right,” Murdoc added as he laughed at Tidas’ expression.

Realizing that he was Murdoc’s source of entertainment, Tidas straightened up a bit and asked; “How could you possibly know that I’M the one that’s wrong?”

Murdoc eyed him; “Crabbit kinda drunk, aren’t ye?”

“Not usually,” Tidas replied curtly.

“Ye would be too, if ye had just puked yer guts out,” Amara informed them with an evil grin.

Murdoc smirked; “Gettin’ a wee bit too dependent on yer bonny, aren’t ye?”

“...Shut up on it and answer the bloody question. How do you know I’m wrong?” Tidas countered, obviously aggravated.

Petrie stepped forward; “Cause of the journal..”

“Tsk, ye stole me fun, ye clipe!” Murdoc bellowed.

Amara cleared her throat to stop their arguing before saying; “The journal I have says that dragons are excellent at camouflagin’ themselves, and some could even shrink their size.”

“That’s part right,” Skye commented as she relaxed her stance, and continued; “I think our journals said somethin’ about how they can all shrink down due to a an evolved survival gene..”

“But people would know a dragon if they saw one,” Skye added after seeing her husband’s expression turn dower.

“If it wasna big, would we still call it a dragon? Or mistake and label it somethin’ else?” Amara asked with a grin.

“Get to yer point, Amara. I’m freezin’ me willy off out here!” Petrie bellowed since he wasn’t as warmly dressed as the women.

After taking another swig of her whiskey, Amara handed the flask to Skye again as she stated; “Dragons are all around us in plain sight, ye just call ’em different things now. Like ‘lizards’ and ‘fish’, but they all be dragons.”

“Zazzy has the potential ta bring dragons back to their former glory, but only if she grows up strong enough to handle humans that would threaten her kind. According to Roland: dragons won’t acknowledge a weak ruler. Even if they’re the only one..”

Zazzy had listened to Amara intently, fascinated that she may not be the only one of her kind. Since she had her parents, it didn’t bother her very much that she might be the last of her kind. She had never smelt or seen another dragon, but she had a feeling that she wasn’t alone; like a sixth sense.

‘I wonder what they’re like? Do they have humans that take care of them, or are they raised by their birth parents? I wonder what mine was like?’

‘Mother’s told me about her, but I wonder what foods she liked? What was her favorite meat? What things had she seen? I wish I could’ve met her..’

As Zazzy’s demeanor shifted, Skye pet her gently, earning an herself an adorable cooing noise from her scaly bairn. Tidas walked over by his wife, and joined her. Zazzy cooed again with the addition of her father’s affection, then relaxed.

He looked at Skye with a small smile, but she didn’t return it. She was still angry that he’d let himself get so drunk, and how often he’d been doing it lately. Tidas knew that his duties and rank held him to a higher standard, and that he shouldn’t be drowning in self-pity how he had been.

As he watched Skye going back and forth with the Highlanders, Tidas sighed heavily. He knew that she was serious about him not sleeping in their bed, and wasn’t dumb enough to push the matter..

As he contemplated his sleeping arrangement, Petrie gave up standing outside. He’d taken off his outer coat inside, and wasn’t as protected from the cold as everyone else was. Murdoc had done the same thing, but he was smart enough to grab his coat before coming outside.

As the three went inside, Murdoc stayed with Tidas and Zazzy a moment to talk with them..

Looking up at Zazzy, Murdoc smiled and said; “Actually, tis her help I’ll be needin’. We’re decoratin’ the tree outside the front of the entrance tomorrow, and we canna reach it. The equipment we usually use is too big ta get outside.”

Tidas nodded; “So you want to enlist Zazzy to do the tree topper then?”

“And a few of the decorations along the top. The one machine they use is still too short to reach the top ten feet or so..”

Looking up at Zazzy again, Murdoc said; “Well Lassie? Ye wanna help decorate a big-ass tree tomorrow?”

Zazzy cooed and squealed with delight at the Highlander King’s offer. She remembered the pretty decorations from when she hatched, and loved peaking into the bunker to see the ones strung about inside.

Tidas grinned broadly as he watched her tail smacking the wall inside her little house. Zazzy was far more excited about helping than he thought she would be, and he couldn’t help but smile at her genuine enthusiasm.. ‘She really is more like a human child than a dragon sometimes..’

As the thought crossed his mind, Tidas thought about how excited she would get when she saw all of her birthday presents..

According to Murdoc, some of the Highlanders were already making her Yuletide gifts. When they found out that it was her birthday as well, a few gifts was quickly turning into hundreds.

It warmed Tidas’ heart that so many were thinking of his scaly bairn, and would hopefully make feeding her easier..

Skye could speed up a harvest, but she couldn’t speed up the life process. Zazzy was already eating around a goat and a cow every other day from the Highlanders, plus what she hunted on her own. Judging from what Tidas could see on the floor of her home: Zazzy liked bear meat.

Bear pelts left over from when she hunted were spread across the floor of her little house. There would’ve been more, but Skye through away the burnt ones. Zazzy wanted a little separation from the cold ground, so she had Skye treat the hides so she could keep them..

‘It amazes me that she knew to ask Skye to do that. I know the Highlanders walk around in furs, but still.. How did she know that they needed to be treated in the first place?’

As Tidas’ thoughts ran amuck, he yawned. The alcohol was kicking his ass, and sleep sounded better and better by the minute. Murdoc was too busy telling Zazzy about their day tomorrow to notice his exhaustion.

He waited about ten minutes longer before excusing himself to go brush his teeth and wash up before bed. Murdoc waved him off as he was telling Zazzy about her mother’s special surprise for the RMC Members, and how they were going to use the tree as a kind of presentation.

When he went into the bunker, Tidas saw that Skye and Amara were completely wrapped up in a conversation. Thinking he might annoy her for saying good night, Tidas went straight into their room. After doing his nightly routine, he grabbed his pillow, and headed outside to sleep.

Murdoc was gone when he came out, and Zazzy was comfortably curled up. She cooed with happiness when he laid down on the floor next to her, and wrapped her tail along his other side to try and keep her father warm. Thanking Zazzy for the gesture, the two snuggled down, and fell asleep...