Trinket (Reverse Harem)

FAMILY TIME

"Ethat, no!" Korr shouted, releasing me and bolting towards his brother as other dragons started to land in the garden. Ormiss ran after him.

Ethat snarled at Korr, snaking his neck out at his brother and nearly catching Korr with wicked fangs.

Ormiss smashed the end of his lantern staff into the snow. It made a wicked chime, and Ormiss blasted Ethat backwards with a bolt of lightening that made the air itself crack and shatter. I covered my ears as magic tore through my scars.

Ethat clawed back over the edge, singed and still crackling and twitching.

"Ethat, no!" I shouted before Ormiss could fling another bolt at him. Ormiss put himself between Ethat and the tail. I ducked around Ormiss, stumbling because my body felt disjointed and weird and something was ringing in my ears. "Ethat, don't!"

Ethat snapped his jaws at me. Fetid teeth and black flies got a bit too close for comfort.

"If you hurt her again, dragon," Ormiss' voice was thunder, "I will end you."

Ethat snarled, but it faded, ending in a dark trill like a hummingbird. He shook his head once. His dark teeth receeded into his jaw, and his eyes became green again, while the rot and decay fell off his dark scales. He swung his head back and forth, sad eyes focusing on the chunk of tail Ormiss guarded, and then to Asund, Korr, and Itek, all ready to attack him.

He tucked his head under one wing and trembled, making small hummingbird noises.

"Quick," Ormiss told the others. He grabbed the chunk of flesh and scales. "Get rid of these."

Itek and Asund grabbed the hunk of tail, while Korr grabbed the membrane wing, and they chucked the bodyparts over the edge of the cavern while I hugged Ethat. Or tried to, because I was in human form and he was a dragon.

"Not now, brother," Korr hissed, having shfited back into human form.

Ethat wept and remained hidden under his wing.

"Get out here!" Korr demanded as the flapping of wings came closer. "They're almost back and they can't see you weeping! They don't know, now get out here and pretend, damnit."

Ethat extracted his head tried to organize himself into something presentable just as the other dragons came back into view and started to alight on the snow in a glittering array of bright colors.

Itek and Asund herded me back into the house. When I protested, Asund groused, "It's freezing out here."

It was freezing, and I lacked any sort of fur or pelt or feathers or scales. Korr bit Ethat on the haunch until Ethat went back into the house, and he dragged Ormiss with him, hustling us all back into the structure before the glittering dragons--who apparently were not all family but helpful neighbors--started to get curious about the newcomers.

The house was massive and much warmer, heated from a huge hearth off to the side that burned a magical flame. There were rugs and woven mats and couches carved of stone draped in more rugs and mats, and a hallway that disappeared into the rest of the house. It was hard to take it all in compared to what my memory-but-not said should be here.

Half a dozen dragons crowded into the immense room, which was big enough to accomodate all of them plus some others. Korr and Ethat, in dragon form, shielded the rest of us with their bodies. Itek and Asund shifted into their animal forms, leaving Ormiss and I in human form. Ormiss kept his staff in hand, composed and more dignified than his wind-wrecked look suggested he could.

I hoped I looked half as presentable, because I was wind-burnt and my hair was a tangled mess despite having been in tight braids the entire journey.

The dragons were Korr and Ethat's parents--that was pretty clear. Their father was a dragon with scales of deep blue, while their mother was a pale greenish-gold. There was another, older dragon as well, with scales of lilac, and then a younger dragon with liliac-pink scales, and finally, still another dragon with pale yellow scales that were extremely cheerful, even if the dragon himself seemed grouchy.