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Seferia inched closer to Sephiroth’s side. Once near enough, she allowed her tail to swish over to his leg so that she could gently tap him. The dragon then bobbed her head before whispering, “Do not become saddened. It is only a growing fetus. It’ll spend most of its time in dreams.”
Her eyes then clouded with sorrow before she looked at the ground in front of him. After rumbling in agreement, she replied, “Yes, it is a shame. However, at the same time… Clawina and I were prepared to become martyrs to our cause. We were fully aware that the human armaments out-matched and out-manned our own. That’s why Clawina invested time in crafted the disease that Sekhmet carries on her person now…
“Sadly, we cannot undo the mistakes of our pasts, can we?”
Sephiroth twisted his maw into a wry grin at Seferia’s comment about the past. “No, we cannot.” He stated very clearly, recalling his own mistakes and Jenova. “Not at all…”
He continued to walk on in silence. At least, he did until the egg began to tap again, the small occupant inside either bored, wanting to be tapped more, or a combination of both.
“Are you sure it is a few more months until they hatch?”
Bobbing her head, Seferia agreed with Sephiroth’s sentiments. To be honest, she didn’t blame him for the mistakes of his past. She felt that his actions were rather reasonable. Even if he had never been pushed by someone else, he would have gone mad with the life he lead. Well, that’s what she believed. There was no way for Seferia to prove of disprove anything.
As they continued on, she traveled in silence. Her mind frequently wandered over the long-term plans for the rebellion. No matter how she strove, she couldn’t think of a viable attack plan to get at Nemesis. Was there even a way to strike down a creature who could just melt away and rebuilt its body?
On hearing Sephiroth’s voice, it took Seferia a few moments to snap out of her reverie. However, she eventually looked up at him then blinked in confusion.
“I… cannot say for certain. Not all dragons have the same gestation periods. This is my first brood as well. So, it is hard to guess. Perhaps they will hatch in an hour, though I doubt it.”
Sephiroth slowly nodded his head and continued on, carrying the egg. It made no more sounds now and as he gently shook it, it did almost nothing. He was dissapointed.
“If it hatches in an hour while we are walking, it would be most inconvenient.” He stated quite plainly. “I hope this walk will be over soon. Maybe it won’t be over today, or tomorrow perhaps, but the sooner we’re settled down again and safe, the morale of this group will go up.”
“It’s never permanent though, is it?” He frowned and shook his head. “We are still going to run next time, aren’t we…”
Seferia released a soft rumble as she watched Sephiroth rock the egg. However, after a bit, she softly spoke up, “Be careful about that activity. If you are accidentally too rough, you might cause damage to the fetus. Not that you’re being rough at the moment.”
The dragon then frowned at Sephiroth’s comments about running. Lowering her head, she narrowed her eyes in distaste, “That might possibly be the case. Hopefully, we will be hidden enough that it won’t be needed. I would like to be stable for quite some time. The stability will help our men think of something to defeat that creature. I’m certain..”
Sephiroth began to ponder what the new camp would be like. He hoped it was out of the weather, that was for certain. While he could tolerate being rained on, he didn’t particularly like the idea of considering that in the long-term…
He was knocked out of his thought again and nodded at Seferia, placing the egg back into it’s carry-sack. He would entertain it later. He just continued to walk along, his ear flicking occaisonally when the egg continued to tap from the inside.
Seferia gave Sephiroth an affectionate nudge by pressing her nose against his shoulder as she continued on. For the rest of the day, she remained silent for the most part, partly because she never had been instinctual driven to voice her opinions. Her thoughts also frequently passed over the known elements of Nemesis. She frequently pondered over ways that should separate the two halves of the creature. However, she never came to any good conclusions.
Half way through the day, the group passed into the southern rim of the Grand Canyon. Since their destination was along the river, they immediately trekked down into the Canyon itself. Thus, about an hour after the sun set, they finally stopped at the ruins that they would be calling home for the foreseeable future.
There was some semblance of cheer and celebration when the group reached their destination in the canyon. The noise wasn’t terribly loud though, for the threat of the Nemesis finding them all still hung overhead. Despite this, the air was generally more celebratory than it otherwise would have been.
Meanwhile, when Sephiroth reached the new grounds, he had been at the back so he was able to witness and watch everybody else moving around him, attempting to re-establish themselves. He did what he did best – retreat away from the socialization aspects of the group, and head for one of the corners where he wouldn’t be hassled or talked to.
Seferia personally had no reasons to mingle with those that were celebrating, either. So, she promptly moved to follow Sephiroth. As she moved up behind him, she lifted her head to look at the various structures. soon enough, she nodded toward one to the rear of the ruins.
“That one looks more than sufficently large for myself and you. Also, it appears to have enough nearby room that I can return to my true form and stretch out if I need to. Do you approve?”
Meanwhile, Sekhmet was rolling her eyes at the way that everyone was celebrating. She then snorted before grouching out at the group, “Oh, settle down already. We’re probably the last group to arrive. Go get your housing assignments!”The feline princess’s tail swished as she stalked off in search of her brother. She was more than confident that he had already arrived and arranged for housing for the royal household.
Rizon kept his head down and tried to stay unnoticed as the celebration and cheering went on. He personally thought they had little reason to celebrate. No matter how he looked at it, Hope had still betrayed them and she was dead. Ontop of that, The Great Broodmother of Dragon-Creation had not been found. They were also in unfamiliar territory, and he personally felt that the area was more exposed than previous places they had been in.
Overall he wasn’t happy.
Meanwhile, Sephiroth nodded his head and moved into to the new lodgings. He unpacked his bag for the last time and sat down in the entry-way of the new residence, sighing. He was tired, in more ways than one. Despite everything however, he persisted.
Seferia was more than glad to follow after Sephiroth. Once inside the structure, she located a suitable spot in the far rear left corner of the main room where she could keep her eggs. Thus, she set up the sleeping-mat style nest for them before she set them down. She took her time in making certain that the eggs were properly positioned and swaddled in warming blankets.
Once the eggs were taken care of, she set down the rest of the items that she had been carrying before making her way to Sephiroth’s side. Her mate had been a feline for more than long enough, and the modification was no longer a necessity. So, the dragon had every intention of restoring him to his proper form.
Thus, without even giving him any warning, Seferia began to softly speak out the draconic incantation that would restore him to being his true partially human self.
Sephiroth felt a funny sensation in his ears. He flicked them a few times, and then there was nothing to flick. Over the course of the next few moments, he shifted forms, changing back into a teenage human male. While the transition had been less disorientating than before, he still found it weird. He shook himself off and glanced back at Seferia, nodding.
“Thank you.” With that, he returned his attention to the area of the camp again,
“You’re welcome,” Seferia promptly replied. After examining him over to determine if there were any indications of parts left unchanged, she nodded in approval. Soon enough, she moved to stand next to Sephiroth before she leaned over to whisper into his ear, “Now, you’ll need to repay my kindness to treating me to that wing of yours again tonight.”
A crooked and uncomfortable looking smile graced her lips as she stated this. Despite the unnatural expression, there was still a hint of the playfulness that she was feeling toward the subject.
A soft laugh made it’s way from Sephiroth’s throat into the open. “Maybe I will, maybe I won’t.” He smirked after his statement. “We’ll have to see, huh?”
He paused, pondering the eggs in the corner. “Try something for me,” He said suddenly. “I was tapping them before. One of them tapped back. Maybe….”
He went quiet, not wanting to voice his ponderings in the immediate. He only had a hunch right now anyway.
Seferia tilted her head in a manner more similar to a bird than a feline. She then blinked at him before she glanced over at the eggs once more. Frowning, she tried to process what Sephiroth was stating. However, no matter how she pieced together the parts, the dragon failed at determining what he was asking her to do.
So, Seferia turned her head to look at Sephiroth once more. Her eyes were wide because she still was relatively clueless and very confused.
Sephiroth sighed at Seferia’s expression. He nodded towards the eggs and back at her again, frowning openly. “Tap the shell,” He explained. “Like I was doing before. Keep tapping it and see if the infants inside the egg start to hatch.”
He shrugged. “It’s worth a shot.”
Seferia blinked once more at Sephiroth’s suggestion. She then slowly nodded her head, despite the fact that she felt that Sephiroth had lost his sense of reason for at least the immediate. In her opinion, the eggs should not be ready to hatch. Still, she had no good reason to deny Sephiroth his request.
So, she moved over to the eggs before she glanced up at the ceiling. She narrowed her eyes as she studied the ceiling for a few moments. After determining that the room was around 3.5 meters high, she closed her eyes. Soon enough, her form began to distort and shift as she meticulously changed her shape to a variant of her true self. However, she carefully restrained her form to make it about half the size that it should be.
Once she was fully a dragon again, despite miniaturized, she leaned toward the eggs then began to gently nudge them to see if anything would happen. As she nudged the eggs, she instinctually wrapped her lengthy tail about the pair of eggs.
Sephiroth sat there and watched. A frown crossed his features when he realized that not very much was happening. He was dissapointed to say the least. The male shrugged and dragged his backpack into the house so he could begin unpacking and putting their posessions around the place to make it feel more like a home.
“It was worth a try….”
~I suppose it was worth a try. However, I would not expect the hatchlings to arrive for another few months, if not another half a year.~
Seferia released a soft grunting noise as she pulled away from her eggs. For now, she didn’t feel like changing her form to either a human or feline. So, she moved to another corner of the room before she lowered herself to lie down on the floor. Once she relaxed, her weariness from days of travel seemed to fall onto all of her features. Over all, she appeared rather weak and tired out. In fact, if Seferia were to step out of her body and look at herself, she herself would proclaim that she looked pathetic.
Sephiroth watched Seferia settle in the corner and sighed. She looked as tired as he felt. He was relieved to finally be here, but he couldn’t help but wonder about what would come next. He just silently shrugged his shoulders as he packed things way, setting his jar full of grain off to one side.
Then he rolled out the sleeping mats and lay down, pulling out some covers to cover himself with. It had been a long day indeed.
Now that it was finally over, he closed his eyes and gave his body the proper rest it had been craving.
Seferia had closed one eye already. However, her other eye remained trained on Sephiroth. She watched his every movement as he unpacked. However, this was not because she was weary or uncertain of him. Rather, the dragon felt the desire to watch him move about with no shirt on. It was interesting, to say the least, to watch his lean muscles shift under his skin.
Once Sephiroth laid down on his mat, Seferia shuffled to her feet. Only mere moments after her mate had settled down, the black dragon shuffled over to press herself against his side. She spread open her left wing to drape it over his person before she curled up around him. Meanwhile, her tail wrapped around his nearest leg in a possessive manner. Once Seferia felt comfortable, she closed her eyes with the intentions of drifting asleep.
Sephiroth seemed a little confused when Seferia coiled herself around him but didn’t mind in the slightest. He shifted up against her tail and rested an arm on it, drifting off into a proper sleep not long after.
His sleep was not like Seferia’s at all. If she were to pry into his mind, half of it would have been completely inactive. The part of his mind that kept his natural processed active and alive though, were still going.
The occaisonal flicker of a memory from a dream would go through his mind over the next few hours, but he would otherwise be dead asleep.
Over the course of the next few months, the refugees and rebels settled into their new home. for the most part, the group had been more than happy to find that they had roofs and solid structures this time around. While the new location still lacked modern facilities, such as plumbing, the availability of actual homes and a nearby river was sufficiently pleasant.
Sekhmet did not take long to settle in at all; however, the feline youth had been used to the vagabond lifestyle from birth. Clawina had been well known for moving from base to base to inspect the operations of various squadrons. Not to mention, when the war against the human and her pet “snake” started, remaining elusive was as important as it was now.
As for Seferia, she had little concern for where she was at any given point. She was safe and comfortable. She also had her treasure, which in this case happened to be Sephiroth. Frequently, when the dragon stared at Sephrioth, her mind would simply chant out feelings cush as mineminemine ad infinitum. However, she never let her emotions get in the way of her work.
It took about a week for Seferia to regain her stamina. However, once she felt well enough,she returned to her routine of tending to the needs of the various squads as the commanding officer of this sect of the rebellion. Every night, she spent several minutes, if not an hour just sitting in front of her eggs. Sephiroth would have no problems picking up the psychic songs that Seferia sang to her offspring. However, any other being would just think that she was staring at the eggs.
Finally, at the end of the third month, Seferia began taking entire days off from her duties. The eggs had begun to shift about at frequent intervals. Every scale on her hide vibrated with the excitement of knowing that she was about to be a mother.
While Seferia might have felt motherly instinct and excitement towards the prospects of being a mother, Sephiroth personally felt numb to it all. If there was some big parental instinct one was supposed to have, he would be convinced by not that it was absent from him.
Life went on as normal for him. There was always something going on he could take part in, or use his strength to assist the others with their chores. Some of the workers had begun building small crude river-diversion aquaducts so he had been busy with that in recent days positioning planks and digging holes for supports to go into.
After each day’s work he returned back to the ‘house’ to find Seferia near the eggs, and grinned at her. She certainly looked like she knew what she was doing, that was for sure.
“Any day now.” He would remind her as he sat down after another hard day of work, and then began to look through his supplies for his wash-bucket and rag.
Seferia only briefly looked up as Sephiroth came into the house. For now, she had once again shifted her form to be a miniaturized version of her true self. So, she had her tail wrapped around the eggs while she laid down behind them.
Seeing that Sephiroth was her mate and not any stranger, threat, or person in need of assistance, she set her head back down. She then breathed a sigh as she continued to warm the eggs with her body heat.
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