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The Coming of Dragons

Chapter Eleven

Kelvin's broken heart was not so easily mended, but that was simply because there were some things, as a dragon, that one did not bounce back from easily. A human being did not bounce back easily unless that was their way, so why should it be that Kelvin should instinctively be "alright" after such an upheaval? Yet she had her sisters around her, more troubled about being a dragon than ever but still, in a way, accepting that it was to be her life.

"There are different ways that people cope with loss," Alex said, though she had taken a long time to reveal what had happened to her and Sandra, back when they had been humans, the depth of their loss. "People react differently, not always rationally."

Kelvin had sighed.

"Then she should have been glad to see me... This was different. I know it was, but I... I can't make sense of it."

She knew, in a way. She'd read enough, though had been blinded to the cause of the change, the twisting manipulation, how it curled through, tugged at her heart, pained her right to her core. But Kelvin had only thought that that sort of thing happened in fiction, fantasy, the sort of thing that one could wrap themselves up in, lose themselves in.

She'd never thought that that would become her reality. That Casey had relished in her disappearance, what it had given her... Kelvin shuddered, shaking her head, shrinking into herself even while Isla-Rae laid her near translucent wing over her, comforting her softly without saying anything at all. Their shades blended together, the splotched blue and white of Kelvin coming together with her light, easy on the eye, pearlescent hues. Yet every dragon there was so much more than their bodies, than what they looked like. It was merely their outward garb, all as they changed and learned on the inside.

There had been something wrong even before Kelvin had disappeared. That was all she could tell, but maybe the answers, for her, would be uncovered in time.

And there was a comfort to be had too in how her stomach felt heavier and heavier, weighing her down even while she tried to throw herself into flight and being, simply, a dragon. If she was going to be like that forever, after all, she'd thought that she should engage in every aspect. The others supported her but they all could not help the fact that they were more and more laden with their pregnancies, despite not showing. It was felt in how their balance was slightly off, waddling a little more, their bodies wanting them to stay closer and closer to the nesting sites, just until the time was right.

After that... Well, all would come right.

She had to take it slowly and lightly, bit by bit, breathing out as she was the first to lay her eggs. Kelvin did not want it to be here but, as a way to take a wingbeat towards mending the heartbreak, it worked as well as anything else.

A family to love and a family to care for... Her eyes misted over even as she paced and paced, the nesting grounds set out where they could be well protected from both the elements or any predators that may have wanted to take their eggs from them. The trees loomed, offering some protection in the little valley they'd settled on (well, Isla-Rae had insisted on it being the best location), and the dip kept the nesting mounds away from the wind and rain. She'd already prepared a mound of earth, but Alan had assured them that once one of them began to lay, they all would.

"Certain seasons for mating and certain seasons for laying," she had said, others imagining her pushing her glasses back up her nose, though those were something long lost in being a human being. "We will go through cycles. I think...it will become clearer when these eggs hatch."

Would divine intervention render them pregnant again? Or would they choose mates from their friends' offspring when they were of age? That Sandra and Alex were comfortable as a couple was set but would motherhood lure them on to raising a family or other families in less conventional manners? Only time, in that case, would tell. And there was no longer any rush for any of them to get there, despite the hasty pace of everything else in the world.

"Are you alright?"

Arya followed her closely with a tilt to her antler-like horns, disliking letting Kelvin out of her sight after the incident. It was a good thing that they did not need as much privacy as humans, allowing them to, at least, be easy about each other's presence. Kelvin couldn't get the words out as she lay down and got straight back up again, unable to find a comfortable position.

Arya called the others, not wanting her to be alone, dragons pressed to her on all sides as she was encouraged to squat, her hind legs braced apart so that she could direct her eggs, as the contractions worked them out of her, into the nesting mound. A neat hollow had been made in the centre, but they were hardly eggs the size of chicken eggs but much larger with a firmer shell, Kelvin's breathing panting and labouring as she laid each one of them.

The dragonesses helped, scraping away at the mound with her, helping Kelvin bury them. They were cautious, treating every lay, the very first one, as something special, something to be cherished as a group. They had to be deep in the middle of the mounds to stay warm during the harder months of winter, the young within growing and becoming little dragonets, though only time and the gestation period within the eggs would allow them to become dragons. All nests resided in a circle, protecting one another, as instinct and their discoveries came together, weaving knowledge with what they simply knew.

Only later, however, when fire licked at their bellies, the backs of their throats, betraying another ability, would they realise that they didn't have to be quite as deep and as careful as they had made them to be. First-time mothers would always take things a step too far, not realising, even at that time, that the ability to warm their eggs had been inside them the whole time. The protective circle of the nests too helped them, guarding them, allowing one dragoness, at all times, to stand watch over them, allowing the others to rest, feed, hunt, to live, just as they needed to, the course of life drawing them all together and onward as a singular family unit.

Kelvin grunted, Arya leaning over her with a worried look in her eye.

"Here... I'll keep them warm for you. Only worry about laying. It's all okay."

Kelvin moaned, shaking her head back and forth, though the strain was new to her, her guts churning and aching, her tail trying to lift. Nothing felt right and yet everything did at the same time, things coming together in a way that felt comfortable. And her eggs were not alone either, so close to the other mounds that it would feel as if all their children were growing up together before they'd even hatched.

"You're doing so well."

"Just a few more."

"You have such a big clutch."

"A little more, you can rest soon."

The encouragement of her sisters, her coven, soothed her, eyes falling half-lidded as she allowed them to carry her onward, to buoy her up. She didn't have to make her own wind when they were the wind beneath her wings. Her heart may have been in pieces and her pride, what little she had had, in tatters, but she could face the world, she thought, with them by her side.

Would she be a good mother? Would she be able to look after the little dragons as they deserved? Was she ready for it? Some questions had answers and others did not but that she was all as it was going to be, Anniyah and Jenson flanking her with the strength of their bodies as the very last of her eggs dropped safely into the mound.

"There now," Jenson soothed, touching Kelvin's tail tenderly with hers. "Scrape the earth over. That's what Alan said."

They may have had more experience in raising a family than the rest of them, bar Alex and Sandra who had had the one child, but they deferred to Alan when it came to dragon behaviour. Instinct may have taken care of it, but it was good to know what to do, what to expect, everything that experience did not cover. Living life as they had was all very well, but their eyes had, finally, been opened to a new life and a new world, something that they could push forward into, bravely carve their own path.

Once the mound was covered, Kelvin was led off by them, the dragoness weakly lying down, her strength gone from her. Brent and Sandra hovered over the mound, though it was only at that point that a new ability came to light, something that they had not, before, felt the fiery prickle of in the back of their throats.

Fire. No wonder their eggs would survive the winter buried in the mounds. They were more fragile than expected and required close caretaking of them, Brent lifting her head back, eyes wide. Her body was not like that of any reptile that she could have known and only later would the sacks of gas, that both offered them buoyancy in the air and what was about to be shown, be revealed in their continued studies. But she knew, somehow, how to click the "strike" at the back of her mouth, something gritty residing there that she hadn't understood.

Fire, however, roiled forth from her maw in a sputtering blast that grew in strength, scorching the ground around the mound and the mound itself. Instinct was, indeed, a powerful thing, Sandra pressed comfortingly up to her side, Kelvin's eyes on them the whole time, motherly instincts kicking in.

"What if I'm not good?" Kelvin mumbled, half-covering her muzzle with her forepaws. "What if they don't like me?"

"Darling, you're going to be a wonderful mother," Anniyah murmured, resting a wing over Kelvin's back. "You're not alone. None of us are. We may know some but we're all going to need all of our sister dragons in this venture."

"It's okay to be scared too," Jenson said. "It would be wrong if you were not scared. This is one thing where concern and fear... Well, in small, healthy doses, they are what show love. A different kind of love to what you may have experienced so far."

Love? All she felt was loss. But love could come to fill that hole, showing her a route that she may like to follow, for nothing was set, even when their fate and destiny had been laid out so many years before in the dragons that had come before.

She would be a mentor to others too, taking all she could and passing it on, her knowledge and learning something that everyone could benefit from. She was the first, after all, to meet someone from their past life and experience heartbreak from it, yet she could use that experience to do something good.

Kelvin sighed, her lips softening, easing into a light smile that was almost not there.

She would do all she could. They all would. And the fire that lived inside them, a tangible, flickering substance, would bake the earth until it held its warmth, topped up daily by dragoness after dragoness, warming their eggs through winter. Only when spring came would they see their dragonets for the very first time, their passions coming together in the gentle joys of motherhood.

Maybe they needed something softer and lighter, especially after everything that they'd gone through. Yet all that they needed to take on would be done together.

The others followed her in laying, driven by need, and she watched with tired eyes from a small distance, needing the time to rest, at least for a little while. Sandra aided Arya, who she had grown quite close to, her tail twisted tightly around hers for support, sides pressed together. It was a long labour for her to lay her eggs, an even larger clutch than Kelvin's, yet it was something that Arya too knew that she only had to bear through.

"Oof... Sandra... How...how many is that?"

"Ten, darling. Keep going."

Arya gulped. There was so much ahead but she had to push on. There could be no going back. The rest of their lives had begun, whether they were ready for it or not. She'd seen the same trepidation in Kelvin's eyes. Her eyes half-lidded, breathing laboured, yet even she felt the pull of flame in the back of her throat, almost as if it was working its way up from deep inside her. That was something new, a little distraction, something that could help her wriggle her hips ever so lightly, bearing through the last of the eggs, the first laying of her life.

Santino and Jenson seemed to feel the urges to lay at about the same time, choosing nesting mounds that were next to one another, though it was more difficult for them to lay. They were never meant to, but they were no longer men, and the very act of laying was an act of release to their past lives. They could remember and cherish what they had had but it was time to take another step forward and embrace a part of being a dragoness that, fairly, had worried them. Each had expressed it differently but having someone near who understood was a sort of quiet companionship that each understood. Even if Santino had covered up his worries with brashness and loudness, covering up the fear with so much noise that even he did not have to look at it.

Sandra had to lay, allowing Arya to rest, but she was proud to see Kelvin up and supporting Isla-Rae, the two of them and their soft, light personalities coming together well. The coven had grown in strength with them and the lightness they held for one another, especially after the rescue in the city. Her laying was the easiest of all, her heart lifting, sending a silent prayer up to the heavens where she hoped her daughter was watching.

We love you, darling.

_ _

Forever and always, it would be so. One clutch of eggs or more would not take their first daughter from their lives and Sandra finally knew, with reassuring certainty, that she would see Julia again. Her eggs plopped down, one after the other, but she smiled and shooed off Brent when she waddled up, even though she was clearly on the edge of labour herself.

"I'm quite fine, dear."

Yet she could not rest after her laying, taking her leave to look after Alex, her sweet wife, the dragoness swallowing hard, her eyes narrowed, though she was not in any pain.

"It will not hurt, sweetheart."

"I know, it's just..."

She was in her thoughts too. Sandra folded a wing around her, drawing her in close.

"I know, I know. She's here with us. I can feel it."

Alex had no qualms about being a father, or even a mother, again, even if she would have to learn a new way of caring. Mothers were life-givers and the ones that felt the pressure of labour, feeling a little of what Sandra had had in her human form. A fresh respect for that would do him well as they moved forward, together, their two clutches the promise of a new start and new life to come, delighting in it.

Kelvin paused over a mound that didn't look quite right, as if something had shifted inside. That was something that she might well have to ask Alan about, for she knew more than anyone else about eggs and laying and how they would have to remain inside the mounds, but, on carefully scraping the top layer of earth, she realised that the eggs had not been laid deeply enough.

"Oh no..."

One was cracked, though not all the way through. Something blossomed in her, flaring up, but it was not the fiery breath that one might have considered typical for a dragoness, lowering her nose through instinct alone. And it was good for her to lean into that instinct, relaxing, exhaling, a cool mist seeping from her mouth around the egg. It cradled and held the egg as tenderly as a mother's claws, the crack sealed shut again, Kelvin smiling faintly.

That helped. Only a little, but it had been enough to help. There was more they could do, she thought, covering the eggs back up with a good layer of earth, firm and secure, to keep them warm too.

Brent was left to lay, along with Anniyah, yet she tried to hold off for as long as possible, despite the rising urge. How could it be so that they all needed to lay simultaneously? Maybe it was species related or culture related but none of them could deny that the urge was there, as much as they may have liked to take some space between laying moments for themselves. Regardless, everyone had someone to support them, even Brent who gained Arya and Isla-Rae on either side.

The dragonesses moved amongst each other, one by one, all of them laying their clutches. The youngest of them laughed a little giddily, some sharing their worries, yet the qualms were laid to rest, at least in part, by the oldest of them leading the way.

"We'll show you how to raise them."

Anniyah.

"There'll be nothing that any of them want for."

Sandra.

"We'll be the very best they can be."

Jenson.

"All will be part of the coven. We're all in this together."

Alex.

Thus, it was so. The mounds lay well-covered, the eggs warm within, though they would rest there until spring and kinder seasons for little dragonets to burst forth into the world. Only then would life be suited to them, allowing them forth, and there was time yet for the experienced among them to share stories of caregiving, laughter and memories, all of which would lead them forward into a way of being that they could not have before anticipated holding for their own.

Yet it was Kelvin who lay there at the end of it all, staring at the mounds, though she was not needed to guard and protect them, not yet. Santino was nearby, taking on that role, though Kelvin watched her mound avidly, imagining already that she could see the earth stirring.

"Will the dragonets dig their way out?"

Sandra lifted her wings.

"I did not think you heard me here."

Kelvin smiled, half-turning, swivelling her long neck to look back over her shoulder and wings.

"You're quiet but you have a certain tread to your step. It's nice to know when you're around."

No further words were needed. Her fears, their worries - everything - had already been laid bare. To tread over old ground all over again would be wearying and tiring, traipsing and traipsing when there was no need for any of it. They could sit there, quietly, and enjoy the dawn, the first rays of light easing down into the valley while the rest of the coven, bar the patrolling Santino, slumbered sweetly.

It was not perfect, but it was life. And, sometimes, it was the messy parts of life that led to the most glory in the end.

Life. Love. Family. Companionship.

Kelvin took a deep breath. With her sisters, she would be prepared to face whatever came.

A core belief in the coming of dragons.