The Dragons Mark

Chapter 8: The Morning After

     The sun was just rising as the door flung open "good morning Xerus!" Doc bellowed.

     Xerus's head popped up from the nest all disheveled and confused. He scanned the room quickly until he saw Doc, with a quiet angry snarl he prepared to attack.

Teal yawned "Xerus don't you dare..."she ordered then rolled over trying to untie herself from Xerus's tail.

     Doc spun around and saw his face "oh-no"

     Xerus looked longingly at him then at Teal with a pout. "No," she finally wiggled free of his grip and continued "you are not to attack him."

     Xerus dropped his head to the edge of the nest in a pout and huffed out a large breath of hot air.

     "What time is it?" Teal climbed out of the nest wishing she was still asleep. She stretched and tried to run her hands through her hair "Did you have to tie my hair in knots last night as you played with it?"

     Xerus blew a breath of warm air at her nearly knocking her over then grinned.

     "Well, this is a pleasant surprise" Doc beamed "I guess we won't need to distract him as we clean up around here anymore."

     Xerus's head popped up with a look of disbelief that made Teal laugh "Don't worry, I'll make sure they still entertain you like you prefer." She turned to Doc "So, what's up..."

     "Don't say it." He frowned

     "Sorry" she rolled her eyes as Xerus stifled a laugh.

     Doc looked at them both quizzically "So, are you going to be sleeping here with him at night?"

     "No," she tried to stretch out the kinks "I am so stiff and sore..." she frowned "that nest is so uncomfortable. I prefer the bed, but he may occasionally force his way." She glared at him and he looked up at the ceiling like he was totally innocent.

     Doc chuckled "you have a way with him for sure my dear." He sighed "let's see how many of these beast want to go to the flight ring today?"

     Xerus leapt up and ran out of the room plowing down everyone in his way. Teal tried not to laugh as she rolled her eyes "well, I guess he is eager."

     "It appears so" Doc patted her on the back. He watched out the door with confusion "he is never that eager..."

     "Anyway, I'm going to bathe again..." she brushed at her skin and clothes "he drools in his sleep."

     "That I didn't know" Doc laughed

     "Afterwards can I see the flight ring?"

     "Of course," he pointed out the door "just follow the main hallway." He went over to the nest to see what he needed to do to fluff it.

     Teal retreated to her space and a nice long hot soak hoping to avoid the main event.

She soaked & cleaned up, put on fresh clothes and headed back through the nest room. She hit the doorway just as a group of workers were bringing in some furniture. "What is this? I haven't looked through the catalog's yet..." she examined the pieces.

"Doc is cleaning one of the storage areas and we need a place to stash these for a few minutes." He smiled at her "we were going to stack them in the nest area until the storage room is ready for them again... is that okay."

Teal sighed hoping that her instincts were wrong and that they weren't trying to manipulate her in some way. "Okay, but get them out of here within the hour or I let Xerus have his way with you." She smiled back at him "got it?"

"Y-Yes," he stammered

Teal hurried out of the room and made her way to the flight ring. As she walked through the hallway she noted that the doors were open and being cleaned, none of the Dragons were present. "That means they are all in the flight ring." She thought. "I wonder what I am going to find..." she came around the corner and stepped in the the large open area where she and Xerus had first met.

     She could see people lining the walkways all the way up through the flight ring. Their gaze was all focused on the same thing and more than half of them were cheering.

     Teal followed their gaze until she saw it, Xerus was fighting with a large Blue Dragon with iridescent eyes. "What the?"

     "That's Kob," a busty, fit, dark skinned woman with copper hair and green eyes walked up beside her "he is the one that obsesses over Nyala."

     "So I take it..."

     "You knew huh," she nodded "interesting."

     "Yeah, I apparently gave permission, which means..."

     She smiled and chuckled to herself "yeah, welcome to the crew." She signaled to the rest of the humans standing around them with a broad swooping gesture. "My name is Sage, you'll meet everyone eventually." She smiled and extended her hand to Teal who shook it eagerly. "So tell me, how much do you know?"

      "Well, I know enough to be quite aware that there is no way all the workers I see come and go are completely clueless." She hesitated to state anything revealing. "How do you know them?" She gestured at the Dragons.

      Sage smiled as a deep purple dragon with a black metallic shimmer landed just to the right of Teal with a thump and slowly walked over to Sage. It purred at her and nuzzled her, then turned and growled at Teal.

     Teal's eyebrows went up as she registered shock at his threatening metallic black eyes focused intensely on her sending the hair on the back of her neck to attention.

     Sage quickly captured the dragons attention again "This is Knifejaw," she kissed his nose and whispered in his ear. He calmed down and turned to head back up into the air "he's mine" she grinned. "I find it hard to believe you have captured the heart of Xerus."

     "Why, because he can be a smartass or because he has a temper" Teal smiled.

     "Both" Sage chuckled "it takes a strong person to capture that one..." she shook her head "I still can't believe you allowed him and Nyala to..."

     "Nyala is something else entirely isn't she." Teal smiled as she remembered the dream from last night. Teal lowered her voice to a near whisper "Such a fluidic feminine powerhouse..." she shook off the excitement it takes two strong women to..." she thought of the right way to put it "capture Xerus, I guess"

     "You like her?" Sage was pleasantly surprised and greatly amused.

     Teal grew a bit nervous "yes,"

     "No worries," Sage smiled and put her dark slender arm around Teals waist and pointed at a pale blonde nervously pacing on the wall near them. "See her," Teal nodded and Sage continued "That is Jonquil, she owns Babiana's heart." She pointed up to the top of the flight ring. "Babiana is the pale golden dragon that avoids everyone and the only female dragon here that the aforementioned workers have been desperately trying to get a male to breed with."

She gave Teal a hug "my point is, you're normal and you're not alone, I'm here if you need to talk..." she stepped back and greeted Knifejaw that had landed behind her "our room is three doors down from yours on the left." Knifejaw scooped her up with a flick of his head. Sage quickly made herself comfortable on his back and he took off for a fly around the giant room as Teal watched in awe.