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Sephiroth stepped out of the doorway and returned to the mat, sitting near the female hatchling. He watched Seferia’s movements, then slowly shrugged. “How about a hinged door? Simple solution really… I’m sure somebody around here could make hinges.”
The male hatchling pushed his head up against Seferia’s chest and closed his eyes once he was in her arms. He stayed still for a brief moment and then began singing for food all over again.
After pondering over Sephiroth’s suggestion for the briefest of moments, Seferia nodded in agreement. A door did sound like the easiest solution. However, if materials were in short supply, Seferia would have been more than happy to accept just a child’s gate or a half-door.
“See what you can do to get a door for us, Sephiroth. If you can, have it arranged by tonight.”
On hearing her son’s pleas, she glanced down at him before frowning in displeasure. Still, even though she was angry with his recent behavior, she could not deny him the right to eat. So, the black dragon set her hatchling down next to the previously abandoned food plate.
~Just do not run away or bar your sister from eating again, understood? You are not alpha. Sephiroth and I are alpha.~
The male cautiously crept over to the food bowl. He had gotten in trouble before and he was already wary. He sat there for a moment or two, and when there was no problems, he promptly dipped his maw into it, snatching up a mouthful of food so he could skitter away into the corner to eat.
Sephiroth sighed. “I’ll have a door made before the sun goes down.” He rose to his feet and headed out the door, waving. “Don’t worry about it.”
Rizon just observed the two hatchlings, amused. He grinned at Seferia, then chuckled aloud when he watched the male run away. “So why only two? I was from a clutch with about twenty of us… also looks like you’re going to have your hands full.”
Seferia tilted her head at Rizon’s question. As she considered over what he was asking, she mouthed the words “why only two?”. Finally, she shook her head, before she calmly responded to the younger dragon, “There are two because that is the amount of eggs that were fertile. I didn’t choose to have only two. That is just the way things are.”
Meanwhile, Nizhoni continued to nap on the mat that she had been placed down in. As she dreamed, her wings twitched. However, she was feeling peaceful and safe.
Rizon tilted his head and sighed. “Next time you can breed more by doing this.” He lay down and rolled onto his back, sticking his feet into the air. He stood up again, dusting himself off, grinning. “I probably don’t even need to explain the mechanism of that.”
Seferia narrowed her eyes as she watched Rizon. She found it a bit insulting that a dragon that wasn’t even old enough to breed at all was trying to give her advice on producing more eggs. In addition, Seferia could hardly believe that such a move would change how many of her eggs became fertile. The ones that seeded would live, those that didn’t would not. In her mind, it was as simple as that.
“Thank you… for the advice. However, I can assure you that I was on the bottom and Sephiroth was on top.”
Rizon softly chuckled at Seferia’s irritation. He returned his attention to the male hatchling who was cautiously returning to the bowl. He seized his opportunity, quickly moving down to catch the hatchling. He held him up to check him over, seeming most intruiged.
“This is a hybrid, right?” He said curiously. “I can’t see an ounce of hybridity on him. It’s like all your genes were dominant.”
The male began squeaking in distress and kicked his legs out, wanting to go back down on the floor.
“Yes, both of my hatchlings were sired by Sephiroth,” Seferia affirmed. “I have not been with any other males. Nor do I ever intend to be with any others. The two of us are mated now.”
The black dragon stepped forward as she heard her son squeak in distress. Shaking her head, she laid a hand down on the hatchling’s head before she sent a psychic song to him, hoping to soothe him.
~Be still, my young one,~ she softly spoke to his mind. ~You need to not be controlled by instinct. A dragon controls his instincts and commands it, not the other way around.~
The male slowly stopped his struggle. He made a snorting sound, and then sneezed, ejecting bits of mushed up meat that had gotten up his nose in his round of greedy gulping earlier. He shook himself off and turned his head down, beginning to groom himself. After another moment he looked back up at Seferia and telepathically replied with a vague array of colours, mostly blues and greens.
“Eeeep.” He said firmly.
Rizon shook his head. “Heh, I see. Such a shame because we need more dragon-dragons in the world if you know what I mean….” He began preening his arms at the thought, grinning in amusement once again.
Seferia knelt down to gently scratch the side of her son’s neck. She then nodded to the food bowl, trying to draw his attention to the still available meat.
~Go ahead and finish eating, little one. You need your food.~
As she finished giving her son instructions, she looked up at Rizon before she shook her head. She then firmly replied, “You should know as I do that our kind never populated at rapid paces. The only dragon that was ever ever thought to be able to do that was Tiamat. Our species grows at slow and steady paces.”
Rizon sighed lightly. He moved to sit down on a nearby chair, which happened to be Sephiroth’s bathing stool. He picked up the food bowl and set the baby dragon on one knee, the bowl on the other. Then he picked up some of the meat and gently fed it to the youngster.
The male did not object in the slightest. He patiently sat there as food was fed to him and wagged his tail, happy to have food fed straight to him.
Not having expected the assistance at all, Seferia blinked in confusion for a few moments. She then lowered her head to show gratitude toward the other dragon.
“I thank you for your assistance. Even though it is not required of you, your actions are welcome,” she humbly spoke. Then, the dragon looked over at the food storage before she let out a long sigh, “I have not had the chance to stock up properly. I will begin regurgitating food for them in a day or so. For now, I will have to file in for additional resources.”
Thus, Seferia moved over toward a small stand to the side of the room. Once there, she began to sort through the belongings so that she could find the proper paperwork to claim more food for her household.
Rizon shook his head. “Don’t even bother going to the effort. You can just continue grinding food like you did here.” He stuffed another lump of meat-mush into the male hatchling’s mouth, smirking when the baby began to slow down because of fullness.
“We take hunting parties out,” He said quickly. “Your rank means you’d get first pick… or near first pick.” He grinned. “Seriously, flaunt your rank. Get good food for these guys.”
He quickly added, “Oh and if you want a babysitter… I know how to take care of baby dragons.”
A faint hint of a smirk appeared on Seferia’s lips as she looked back at Rizon. Nodding, she smoothly responded, “Yes, I’d imagine that you would know how to take care of babies, being a baby yourself.”
A rumbling chuckle emitted from her throat as she finished this proclamation. She then pulled out the needed paperwork. As she began to scrawl out the information, she continued on, “I know that I can flaunt my rank. However, leading by example is also something that should be taken into account. If I at least have it written down that I need more rations for an official reason, it won’t look like I am abusing my authority.
“Does that make sense to you?”
Rizon raised his brows at the jab from Seferia, but didn’t react beyond a small laugh. He quickly shrugged it off, setting the now distended male hatchling next to his sister on the mat in front of him.
“I should hope the babies mean a legitimate reason for more rations,” He grunted. “More mouths to feed, more food.”
“And I am not a baby,” He said finally. “I’m almost sexually mature. I can… well. I can do the deed and impregnate somebody. I think that counts.”
Seferia once again emitted a chuckle before she moved in closer to Rizon. As she stepped in toward him, she shifted her form to her customary black feline guise. Once the black feline was properly standing in front of Rizon, she looked him in the eye before she tilted her head to the right side.
“Really now? What are you, only 40? You are much too young to be claiming any form of maturity,” Seferia shook her head as she continued on. “You should embrace your youth and enjoy it. You won’t be able to go back to these days with little responsibility later on.”
That said, the dragon set her right hand on his shoulder before she nodded at him.
“There is nothing wrong at all with being a baby when you truly are a youth.”
Rizon made a slight frustrated sound. He understood Seferia’s point but he still wasn’t entirely happy at the concept or thought of still being a child. He looked up at her and grinned hopelessly, shrugging his shoulders as he tried to turn the subject to a more favourable position for him.
“What good is youth when we have no childhood?” He shook his head again. “We’re born, we hide, we grow up, we bear the next generation, who hides, who grows up, and so on….”
He snorted. “That’s not much of a future. I would rather be out there ripping the Nemesis apart than sitting on my ass all day hiding from her, trying to enjoy my childhood.”
Seferia once again sighed as she looked on at Rizon. Still, she decided that it was best to leave him to his own decisions. She didn’t like the fact that he had such a cynical attitude. However, with things as they are, she saw no reason to argue this point.
So, she nodded before she spoke, “Yes, I would like things to be better for us all. Still, you should embrace the fact that you are still a juvenile. There is nothing wrong with it. You can be a juvenile while at camp, and when out there, you may be serious. Does that make sense?”
Rizon rose to his feet, flicking an ear. “You wouldn’t like my kind of juvenile behaviour,” He said slowly. “Flying aroung, scorching trees, burning the countryside? Yeah, I’m hardly going to get a hall pass for that one.” He folded his arms.
“Might as well just… stay grown up and deal with what is in front of, huh?”
Seferia sighed at Rizon’s proclamations. She then shook her head before she calmly replied, “Well, yes, that is true. I wouldn’t want you to set fire to trees or garner us attention. However, there are other ways for you to enjoy being a child. There are human children that play ball games in the street. You could join in with them.”
Seferia then hopelessly shrugged. Sadly, she couldn’t give any real good advice at all. She never really had much time to be a juvenile herself. Those times that she did “play” were spent eating humans in Clawina’s colosseum, not that she wanted to advertise that any longer.
“Just be yourself, alright. And be proud that you’re still a whelp. Whelps can have a lot of potential.”
“It’s the potential that frustrates me,” Rizon grumbled. “Not yet, but soon! Oh you can be great you know. Can, soon, will be, why not now?” He put his head down and snorted. “The future hasn’t even happened yet, it’s not set in stone. What if I… lose my foot tomorrow or something? Then I can’t do any of that stuff.”
“Destiny and potential is one thing,” He moved to the doorway. “But what is, is what is. And if you don’t have much, then it’s not much. I want to do something with myself, now. Not down the road… I’m tired of waiting. That’s all we ever do.”
A frown graced Seferia’s face at Rizon’s speech. In reply, she lifted her hand up before she pointed at the long jagged scars that started at her mouth, past her eyeridges, down her throat and chest, and ended all of the way down on her bad leg. As she pointed out these scars, she gave Rizon a dead-pan look.
“If you loose your foot tomorrow, you find new ways to make yourself strong. I have been taken down in severe ways; however, I refuse to make myself an invalid.”
Rizon openly frowned as Seferia showed her scars and injuries. He bobbed his head lightly, then meowed, finally slipping outside.
“That is admirable…” He said slowly. “To think that you would do that despite life threatening injury…” He began to walk away. *”I will consider what you have said. I would feel a little bit silly playing with the other children though… especially considering they will grow faster than I will…”*
Seferia hummed in thought as she considered over Rizon’s predicament. While it was true that the other children would grow up faster than him, there would most likely be new ones to take their places. However, that would leave him with the problem of never bonding with any given being.
Finally, she nodded before she responded, “Then perhaps you should mentor as you join in on their care-free times. You have more life experience than them, even if your maturity level is the same. So, I would never expect you to be the same as human or even feline children.
“Still, we need bright spots of hope even in times such as these. More often than not, children make the best out of the worst for they rarely accept the worst as all that there can be.”
*”It may even be more worthwhile to bond with your children,”* Rizon telepathically replied. *”They’re probably going to grow at the same rate I grow. We are cursed and blessed by our species traits at the same time…”*
Meanwhile, Sephiroth returned to the house, looking particularly pleased with himself. He began to examine the door-frame, runnning his hands along it, deep in thought.
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