A Dragon's Tale #Watty's2015

The Job

The next day our squad placements came back. Raven Squad wold consist of me as the acting CO, Hudson as my second in command, Ator, Vez, Val, Rolland, Issac, Wyatt and two others named Logan, who was a 17 year old SAW master, and that was putting it lightly, and Trent, a quiet, 18 year old combat medic. The ten of us were instantly a family. We were all hitting the range sometimes as often as three or four times a day, playing wargames and just practicing and honing our skills. Val had overcome his fear of being a soldier and had become quite a sniper, often out doing Rolland. We had even taken a new squad picture.

 I stood up at my full 11 feet with Hudson leaning on my side, his signature sunglasses on and his FAL in hand. Issac was standing up straight and tall Trent with his Remington 870 and Logan with his SAW crouched in front of him. Wyatt, Val and Rolland were all together, dressed in Ghille suits covering everything but their heads and Vez was next to Val. Adelind was laying at my feet and the kids were laying next to her. We each had a copy of the picture somewhere in our vests. I had mine rubber banded to my dogtags.

 And the weeks dragged on. Passed as quickly as they came. Just another hot day at Firebase Charlie. One morning we went to the mess hall for breakfast and Shadow and his friends met us there, as they always had.

 “Hey brother”, Shadow said as we found our usual seats, “got your gremlins with ya huh?”

 “Stop calling us gremlins!”, Helix howled.

 “I call it as I see it”, Shadow said, “how your Dad keeps track of all of you astounds me.”

 “Wait till your eggs hatch”, Adelind said, “your learn very quickly how it's all done. Sometimes it's easy, other times it's not.”

 “What was it like when Ace hatched?”, Nina asked.

 “First off”, Adelind replied, “I didn't birth eggs. Mountain dragons have live cubs.”

 Shadow tilted his head, “really?”

 Adelind nodded, “yeah. And it was the single best day of my life.”

 She looked at me and then nuzzled me.

 “Other than the day he told me he loved me.”

 “You made the first move”, I replied.

“Please not here”, Cloud said gagging, “get a room.”

“Ace is a bad influence on you”, Nina said laughing.

“I agree”, Shadow stated.

Cloud was never one for the romantic stuff. He wanted a mate bad and was never really one to play with my kids for too long, though he always had fun when he did. I guess he just really wanted kids of his own. I didn't blame him.

“I am not a bad influence!”, Ace said defending himself.

“Yes you are”, Nina said nuzzling him.

“Am not!”, he whined.

“Are so”, Tyson said.

Ace placed his paw on his brother's snout, “I am perfection!”

 Tyson laughed, “you are not! The only one of us who even comes close to perfect is Dusk.”

Ace shot Dusk an evil look, “well then I'll just have to get rid of him.”

“I am immortal!”, Dusk said, “those who wish to harm me shall burn in cleansing fire!”

Ace laughed, “mere mortals such as yourself do not scare us sprites.”

Cloud picked Ace up by the scruff of his neck, “Sprites are forbidden to enter the mortal realm. Be gone!”

“Dude you stole my line!”, I said laughing.