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1

The Awakening of Dragons

2

Chapter One

The mountains, a rough and rugged landscape, held many secrets, but none as great as what had occurred in one expedition underground that had opened a nest of new experiences and changes for a certain team. They had only been exploring the cave system with two experienced guides, Alex and Sandra, a couple of their friends and a group of university students, yet things had transformed beyond all human belief.

From skin to scales and arms spreading in the fashion of wings… For them, there had been no going back to human lives once they had become dragonesses, standing tall and proud, even if they had begun, as humans, as males. That had been something more for the men to understand, though every dragoness had had another to turn to, comfort to take where there had been scarce some before.

The wind blew, Kelvin picking up her head, the dragoness blue-scaled, mostly, and splashed through with white, so that she bore a mottled pattern. Things were more settled for her, though she had been through the “ringer”, so to speak, and she knew, wholeheartedly, that she didn’t want to go back to her old life. It was not so much running from the aches and pains, the relationship that had exploded in her face when she had sought out the love of her life, but understanding that the time to heal was as imperative as all else that had become their day-to-day there.

With light, delicate horns, she was not a dragoness who would have been considered a fighter, a defender, though that was more Jenson’s forte, the strong, silver-black dragoness bulky and the most masculine of their flight. Kelvin’s watchful eyes swept over the resting dragons, the mounds of their nests where the eggs lay buried, her gaze always patient, waiting for something that not even she could put a name to.

That was something she had learned also. There wasn’t always an answer for something and that was okay too. She didn’t have to know everything and her past life as a human, as a man, felt so very distant, so very far away, that she couldn’t ever imagine not being a dragon, let alone a dragoness, ever again.

She smiled, the tip of her tail wiggling back and forth, playing with her own body, the flexibility in her lithe yet strong form, muscles compacted, a sense of comforting strength under the surface. At the very least, she could be glad that some of the unrest had settled. But she was not the only one who had changed.

Things had changed for the dragonesses, the beings that had begun as humans but had always been meant to be dragons, matriarchs of a species and a new age of the world. In their favoured spots near the nesting ground, they rested, at peace, tails twitching faintly, though not all the dragons were asleep. Anniyah and Jenson sat close with Isla-Rae sleeping soundly, the rusty bronze dragoness preening her partner, cleaning her scales with all the love and care that they had devoted to each other as humans.

“You always get such grime in your wings,” she murmured to Jenson, Isla-Rae cracking open a sleepy eye, watching them on the edge of sleep. “Jenson, sweetheart… You must take better care of yourself.”

3

Jenson only rumbled faintly, relaxing in the attention. She had settled a little better than some of the others into being a dragoness, though she had not had the easiest of lives, truthfully, before as a man with dark skin. There were a lot of differences in her experience as an African Canadian man and that of others with paler skin, perhaps even those that could “pass” as white, yet that perhaps set her up the best to see how their relationship with the rest of the world would come to be seen.

No one knew about them, not really, not yet. Well, there had been that debacle in the city, when they’d had to retrieve Kelvin, to bring their sister home again, but that had not gone anywhere near as badly as it could have done. For that, Jenson was grateful, peaceful, relaxing, letting the thoughts go. In a dragoness’ mind, thoughts like that didn’t have any place. They didn’t belong there.

Alan had noticed that all of them, even her with her red-green scales that blended into a soft, camouflaging brown when she shifted just so, had grown larger too, the most studious of the dragonesses. She was always recording, noting, observing, even experimenting, though they had quelled some of that when Alan had gotten a little too personal with them. Not everything could be shared with the flight, after all, but one thing that Alan had noted was that they had changed, even with their increase in size.

A small spine. It was innocuous, not something that affected their daily lives, but it was there, at the base of their skulls. It matched everyone’s unique colouration, not a similar shade between the spines amongst them all, and Alan had suggested that it denoted that they had laid a clutch. Of course, it was something that could only be confirmed when they laid a second clutch, she supposed, but she was perhaps the most eager out of all the dragonesses to see what was to come. If someone could have found their life’s purpose at the forefront of discoveries, experiencing it all for themselves too, that definition would have fit Alan perfectly.

Far from mere beasts, they had, however, embraced their new, draconian natures, their personalities blending, shifting, finding a new sense of themselves. It had to change, of course, it did, but the moments were theirs to take at their own pace, day by day. They hunted where needed, but also used every part of their kills, treating the land respectfully, giving back all that they took from it. They’d also discovered, through trial and error and Alan’s research, down in the cave system, that they could eat berries, roots and other things too. It was difficult to sustain creatures like them on mere vegetation, of course, but it gave them more options, cooking food and finding different flavours and different ways of making it their own. Arya had mused over planting vegetable plots, remembering how she had spent hours cultivating plants when she had had a human life.

Arya, in particular, enjoyed weaving through the trees, flexing the suppleness of her new body. The swing of her tail helped balance her and she paused before a pine that had taken on an infection – a fungus that clawed its way deep. Her brow furrowed and the dragoness crooned softly, nudging at it, though she didn’t quite know what it was that she could do. Maybe Alan would know of something, though she didn’t think anyone else had spent as much time with plants as she had, even if it had only been a hobby for her.

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Brent and Jenson were, most likely, the strongest dragonesses amongst them, their physical activity keeping them strong, the most muscular of the dragonesses, even though Brent had gained a powerful beauty too. She was not a dragoness to back down easily, though she’d only had to scare a pack of wolves off once when they had come sniffing around the nesting ground. They did not know the scent of dragons, after all, and to respect and give them space, though Brent did not fight them. All it took was a good roar and a buffet of air from her wings to send them on their way, a new respect for dragons set in their minds to pass down to the next generation.

In appearance, it was as if their bodies had settled into their new forms, over the few months that had passed with them living away from humanity, near the caves, protecting their land and gently dissuading humans with blockades from scaling the rugged terrain. It was not that difficult, particularly as the weather worsened, to put people off from disturbing them and uncovering their presence, but it was a concern that they had to hold in mind every day. Sooner or later, it would happen, and then everything would change.

For the moment, however, everything was soft and peaceful, all that it needed to be. They preened and they pressed in close to each other, taking comfort from one another. Isla-Rae often sat close with Anniyah, grooming one another with their lips and tongues, though there were certain plants too that they had found could be rubbed into their scales too in tender areas, like between the forelegs, to condition where they needed a little more attention. Bathing together was more difficult through the colder months, though the shock of cold water had invigorated them, rising dripping from the lake, water sparkling from their hides, powerful as they were, their heads held high.

There was no longer a dragoness amongst them that did not take on a regal clarity, as if to slouch would have been to lower themselves, a little bit of their minds coming to accept what had happened to them and a little encompassed in their bodies simply growing stronger as they used them correctly. Dysfunctional movement, such as when they were stumbling and trying to work out where to put their limbs, did not build easy muscle, but the rolling lightness of their gaits, as they grew, allowed them to be far more comfortable as they were.

Alex, Sandra, Anniyah, Jenson, Brent, Santino, Alan, Arya, Isla-Rae and, of course, last but never least, Kelvin. They could not have done what they were doing without each other, without the support of the flight of dragonesses.

However, everything could not remain the same forever, not always, not when they were on the brink of civilisation, the edge of the world that had once accepted them, more or less, as they were, as human beings. The wind stirred, rustling old, dried leaves across the rocks, though the vegetation up in the mountains was as tough and as rugged as the landscape that it was forced to take root in. The valleys were better, dipping into luscious green, fruitful where they knew how to find sustenance, though the dragonesses had had to be savvy to keep themselves going, especially in the early days.

Sandra lifted her head, tongue flickering out, always on alert, even when she should have been resting and slumbering softly. Although they were a good two hours,

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perhaps even three for a slower, less experienced hiker, from the old trail from which they had diverged to go to the cave system all that time ago, there was still a risk.

The scuffle of feet on rocks… A brush of cloth on a twig, catching, pulling. The dragoness’ eyes widened, tail stiffening subtly.

“Someone’s coming.”

Alex was alert in a moment, the larger dragon clad in red scales, rich and powerful, something of her and Sandra speaking of royals in her regal blue too. Yet there were no royals and no nobles, no queens, not amongst their flight. They may all have had their strengths to step to the forefront at different times, but they were all equals, giving and taking to keep the flight together, to keep them strong as a whole.

Time seemed to slow, her breath catching, the moment taking a step back. She had to hold on, however, for there was no danger there and the small, white scrap of a face wrapped up in a huge, puffy coat and a scarf that was not as well-suited to hiking as the woman it belonged to might have liked appeared over the edge of a rock. They were down in a little hollow of a valley, with their egg mounds, trees framing them, though the woman’s eyes shot wide as she looked down on the beasts.

It would have been silly to pretend that they were not there, that they were not dragons, yet Sandra’s heart surged. Alex didn’t seem to recognise the human, yet Sandra’s nostrils twitched and pulled at even the cool chill and nip on the air, sifting through to find that old, pungent aroma of patchouli beneath it all. Heavens, how she had hated patchouli before! Yet it was like greeting an old friend to feel that scent sifting into her and her lungs, taking deep, panting, greedy breaths, her flanks shuddering with every one.

“Dear? What is it? Who is it?”

She shook her head, though brushed her wing comfortingly against Alex’s, comforting her. She would be fine, they would all be fine, there was no doubt in Sandra’s heart about that.

Yet how was it to be handled? Alex, that day, was the only one so far who had realised that a blue coat on a human form had appeared, a spot of non-dragon colour in a landscape that was still recovering in the prelude to spring. That was when they anticipated that their eggs would hatch, though Alan was still working on the hatching times, how long their young, their sweet little ones, would remain safe in their eggs. There would be time later to go into that, however.

Sandra rose, trying not to disturb the others, though heads lifted, Arya blinking sleepily in a low, languid yawn that set off the others yawning too. They muttered and shifted amongst themselves, news spreading, eyes locking onto the point at which Sandra’s eyes were fixed, following the lead of the other matriarch.

“Julie?”

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She spoke clearly, the wind carrying her voice, wincing at how loud she must have been. She didn’t want to scare her…not her friend, not the woman that had held her so close when they had lost their daughter, her and Alex. Julie shifted slightly, but otherwise gave no other indication that she had heard Sandra, if she even recognised the dragoness’ voice at all. Even then, Sandra was acutely aware of how much deeper it was, lower, though not as booming as Jenson’s. That raspy, deep tone was not something that Jenson, after all, had lost after becoming a dragoness, keeping herself in the change.

She had to be the one to approach Julie, step by step, up a small incline, though it was gradual enough that she could keep her pace careful, slow, as unintimidating as possible. As always, she was acutely aware of the looks of the other dragons, shifting closer to one another, seeking comfort. Maybe they knew as well as she did that there was no going back from a moment of exposure like that, not when it was someone they knew.

It was the start of pebbles rolling down the hill, bouncing, scrabbling, picking up speed. She only hoped that her family of dragons would not crash at the bottom and knew, in her heart, that they would do all that they could to spread their wings, together, and take flight from it.

“Julie?” Sandra said gently, standing on the same level as her old friend, her face more familiar, if worn, with a few more lines around her eyes than the dragoness remembered. “It’s me… Sandra. Please… Please, be calm. Don’t scream. Not like that time we were watching the horror film, you know? You scared Alex so badly…”

She tried to make light of the moment, pulling an old memory to the forefront of both their minds, where a jump scare had gotten the better of Julie and her friend had thrown an entire bucket of popcorn in the air. With the scarf pulled across her lips, however, Sandra could not tell if Julie recalled the moment or not.

The moment stretched out between them, a tense silence that could not so easily be broken. Sandra swayed her tail, searching for another tact.

“Julie, please,” she implored. “Please, say something. It’s me, it’s really me… Say something, say anything. Oh… I have missed you.”

She shuddered and it seemed to be that little shake of her body that took Julie out of her haze, her lower jaw dropping, eyes suddenly blinking when she didn’t even realise that she had been holding them open for so long.

“S-Sandra?” Julie stuttered, fumbling with her words, looking up at the dragoness who, at that time, towered over her, moving her tail to communicate as much as she used her words. “What are you… No… What… No. I’ve hit my head or something, haven’t I? This can’t be… You… No…”

She shook her head and made as if to step back, hands at her head, but Sandra gently adjusted her body to block her way, though she intended no harm.

“No, Julie… You’re not dreaming, it’s real… It’s…” Sandra chuckled shortly and shook

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her head, half-lifting her wings in her version of a shrug. “Well, things have changed. Why don’t you come sit down? Alex is here too. In fact…everyone from our expedition is here, alive and well. No one was harmed.”

It took a little convincing, though Julie did not say much, wide-eyed and staring, Sandra gently guiding her down, though she didn’t take her to where the nesting mounds were. There was something more primal inside her that said she was not to take someone “new” around the eggs, though Sandra was sure too, in the back of her mind, that that could be tamed, that it would not rear its ugly head.

She had to have her friend and, oh, how her heart pulled for Julie, sitting her down near a fire that Anniyah breathed life into, the flicker of fiery breath something that seemed to come most easily to the flame-coloured dragoness. Where she spoke of autumn in her scale colouration, the fire within her burned brightly. They’d learned, at least a little, that they could do “things” with their breath, though not everyone had found their flame yet. Alan had assumed things there and, as always, was trying to find the answers.

It took a while for Julie to stop shaking but, to be fair to her, she had always been quite level-headed, not the sort of woman to be a hindrance in a crisis. There were no cups of tea for the dragons to make her, though they had used some of the clay pots that could be used to at least make hot water over a fire. Alan especially had become one of the most dextrous with her claws, after spending so much time down in the cave system.

The mere act of holding a cup of steaming water between her gloved hands, at the very least, calmed Julie, made her feel like things were a little more normal, even if she was settled down in a frosty clearing with a group of dragons. Actual, living, breathing dragons.

Her daughter was never going to believe her when she told her. No one was going to believe her.

Brushing her brown hair back from her face, her hat and scarf, at least, removed with Sandra sitting close enough to warm her with her body, Julie took a deep breath, cheeks rosy with the cold.

“So, let me get this straight,” Julie said, though there was a tremor in her voice that Sandra had never imagined hearing before. “You all went down into the caves…and came out as dragons.”

“Dragonesses,” Santino chipped in, always quick, a smile on her lips as she waved her purple tail. “All of us. Even Jenson, who really needs a new name now.”

Jenson rolled her eyes and sighed.

“I’ll choose a name if it feels fitting…shrimp.”

“Hey now – that’s not fair!”

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Santino slumped to the side as if she had been mortally wounded, startling smiles and snickers to the lips of the dragons. It was not out of character for Santino, though it was good to see her acting more like her usual self after being a little quieter since Kelvin’s rescue. She’d never quite said what went down when she was the last to join them in the air after causing the dust storm as a distraction, but everyone knew that something had happened. With her well and as happy as she could be with all the changes going on, they knew that they had to wait for her to open up on that one.

“That is the gist of it,” Alex added with a tilt of his head. “Not the names and the comedian over there, but that we all ended up as female dragons here. There seems to be a change coming, but a good one, not like all those doomsday films that we all used to be so into.”

She laughed, shaking her head, her tail twitching in amusement. Little things like that had become more natural to the dragons over the course of their time transformed, though it was strange being around a human after so long apart. Where they had learned to communicate, more easily, with their bodies, they had to actively think about speaking more, not trusting their bodies to fill in the blanks with little twitches of muscle, pushes of their tails, looks where their eyes spoke louder than words. It was more difficult than they could have expected.

“Could you imagine looking at those and thinking any of what went on in those things was possible now? We’re the change that came… I’m not sure what more I can say on that, really…”

It was different, Julie had to agree, though her mind raced, trying to quiet the frantic pounding of her heart. She had so many questions, all tangled into one another, so she was left chasing the tail of one while distracted by another. It was not as if, however, she could do anything about it, parting her lips again.

“I have so much to ask you, but…there’s got to be contact details for people, emergency contacts that we should get in touch with… Sandra, Alex – didn’t you handle that?”

Sandra nodded, a light in her eyes.

“Yes! Oh, we can finally get in touch with Sara for you, Arya! And your daughter, Anniyah!”

Many must have thought that they were dead and the hunger to reassure them, to finally let them know, safely, that they were well and alive, thrummed through the dragonesses like an undercurrent of electricity. Yet Alan could not sit still for a moment longer, standing as she uncurled her tail from around her feet.

“Yes… We need to do something, to let people know what’s happened, now that you’ve seen us,” she began, working her tongue around her mouth as if she, for once, was struggling with the right words. “But… Julie, I think you have to go. You’re not down in the caverns, but you’re the first person who’s been here. We don’t know what might happen if you stay here for too long, I need to look into this more, I need to…”

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She trailed off, clamping her jaws together. For, through all the research in the world, she could not find all the answers at the tips of her claws at every moment and that was something that made her soul ache. She wanted to know, wanted to have all the answers – and, yet, she did not.

That spurred the others into haste, Sandra and Alex getting Julie up, on her feet, as if she was a child being ushered on and out.

“Yes, yes… She’s right, we need to make sure you’re safe,” Sandra said, mentally kicking herself for not thinking of Julie’s safety sooner, her old protectiveness surging. “The second drawer in the study bureau! That’s where all the information is, everyone on the expedition, everyone to contact.”

One voice, however, as Julie prepared to leave, cut through the noise. In a way, she had learned that she did not need to raise her voice to be heard.

“Julie.”

Kelvin spoke quietly, so quietly that they had to strain to hear her. She was more comfortable, however, than she had been with their eyes fixed on her, the attention of her loving family, her sisters.

“Don’t call my contact,” she said after a pause that had sunk fangs into the old wounds of her heart. “She doesn’t want to know me. She already knows we’re dragons…and I don’t want to know her anymore.”

Arya leaned in against Kelvin’s side, sharing body warmth, letting Kelvin sigh and relax, a little of the tension slipping from her. The blue-splotched dragoness smiled, grateful for the contact. She didn’t know where she would be without them.

“I’ll speak to my family… If my parents are on there as a backup, though I don’t think they are, they can be contacted. But I’ll see them soon, because this isn’t all going to stay hidden for long, is it?”

Anniyah sighed and shook her head. The dragons seemed to be doing a lot of that lately.

“I doubt it, Kelvin. But we all knew that this was going to come out sooner or later. What more are we to do? We’re as prepared as we can be.”

Which meant hardly at all, yet the need to meet their families, their loved ones, urged them on, hustled them into making a change that their hearts yearned for. If there was one thing they had learned it was to listen to themselves, their hearts, their bodies. As dragons, and perhaps even as humans too, it would not lead them astray.

“I’m sure everything will be fine, even if it isn’t straight away,” Julie said, fussing with her bag, eyeing the descent of the sun. “But you’re right, it’s time to go. At least I know where you are now!”

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Jenson flexed his wings, bobbing his nose to gain her attention.

“We will lead you down.”

“No, no…” Julie blushed and flapped her hands at him, the dragon the largest of them all, easily dwarfing her. “I think I need some time…to take all this in. You can’t just walk in, find out your friends turned into dragons and just be fine about that. I am fine, I mean, but I need to think about it a bit more. The walk down won’t be as difficult, it’ll do me good.”

“Then we will watch you from the air,” Brent said, standing to shake off the tiredness from her limbs, “and guide you from there, so you don’t go astray as the light fades. It’s the least we can do when you’re taking news back to our families, our…”

She broke off, the words choked in her throat. There was a lot to say there, but it would all come in time. Maybe she would get to see her little brother again, but the image of his face in her mind had her guts churning and twisting as they had once before a football game.

They could only hope, however, that it was only the one time, a one-time thing, that had happened to them, that there was not something other to happen to Julie, though Alan had to admit that it was rather unlikely. Surely more changes would have happened to them, after all, being that they had stayed around the cave system, in the surrounding territory, if there was more powerful magic down there?

Yes… That had to be it, she reassured herself, watching Brent and Jenson take flight, watching Julie as she made her way back down the mountain, though being observed by two dragons perhaps wasn’t how she had imagined the trek home going. It was a long walk for her, though one that was easier downhill where the dragons also could guide her, taking her on shortcuts that only they knew, the land changing with the course of the seasons. Still, the day was as it was and things would never again be the same, not as the dragonesses at her back playfully joked and squabbled, like sisters, over what they were to eat that evening, for the stirrings of hunger called once again.

Never again the same…though they would not have wanted it to be.

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Chapter Two

It was stranger for them with Julie gone, a hole amid the dragonesses who had, even over the course of a cool afternoon with the ground still hard with winter’s chill, become used to her. Maybe it was simply a relief too for all of them to see a human again, someone that they didn’t have to hide on – well, if they had tried to hide, the cat would have well and truly been out of the bag on that one. There was only so much, honestly, that they could do.

Julie had said that she would only tell their emergency contacts first, but, after that, there was no telling how the information would filter through, who would turn up. It left Brent pacing nervously, though she was usually the most confident of them, the one who had invented numerous games to play with their new bodies, often using pinecones as substitute balls. It required a little more tact than playing with the footballs she’d been used to as a human, to say the least.

Still, even if tensions had been frayed and relationships fractured, they could be repaired. That was one more thing that Brent had learned, as a dragoness. Perhaps she would have learned it anyway. It didn’t quite stop the twisting of anxiety in the pit of her stomach.

Yet no one could have quite predicted what happened next.

*

Julie rubbed the back of her neck on arriving home, though she’d found it difficult to concentrate on the drive back. It was not quite right, what had happened to her friends, though it felt as if it was all out of her hands. Everything that she had organised before, all the days out with Sandra, the expeditions they had gone on (in less volatile territory, to be fair), had changed in the blink of an eye.

Nothing would ever be the same for her again and she had to grapple with that, going to bed alone that night, though it was not as if her bed had not been quiet for a few years before that point. She’d loved her husband dearly and when his time had come to pass on, quietly and gently, she had not wanted to be with anyone else. It had always been her choice.

Yet her eyelids were heavy, so heavy, and she was dragged into a much-needed slumber before she could even think about clinging onto her whirlwind of thoughts for even a single moment longer.

Her dreams were filled with twisting figures of dragons, winding all around her, from Sandra to Alex to Jenson to Isla-Rae – to every last one of the new dragon coven who had all been humans before. In her dreams, she paused before a mirror, touching her face, startling back when she saw a dragon staring back at her, yet the moment was gone, in the claws of the dream, as quickly as it had appeared. As if it was a fleeting image – “blink and you’ll miss it” – the notion of being one of them, just like them, appeared and disappeared, leaving with it a deep sense of discontent, as if something was missing and gained, both at the same time.

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She did not remember the dream when she woke, humming a tune to herself over coffee, though it didn’t taste quite right to her anymore. Making a face in the quiet peace of her suburban kitchen, she checked the packet, gave it a “sniff test”, and put it back down again. As if that was going to tell her anything about coffee beans still being “good” or not, though it was just something that she did without really thinking about it.

“Maybe I’ll skip the coffee today then, hm?”

She didn’t talk to anyone other than herself, though hearing her own voice, well, it reminded her of lighter times. Her children had filled the house with noise and bustle and energy, once upon a time, though they had all grown up and moved on with their lives. Sometimes, Julie got to be a part of it too, though she did not mind too much. It was good that they were free to live their own lives, not restrained in any way, and she was confident that they had set their kids up, both her and her husband, to be more successful than they had been. If parents could not do that for their children when they had the ability to, Julie would have considered them sorely amiss indeed as parental figures too.

The back of her hand seemed sore, rougher than usual, even a patch up her arms, and Julie paid it no mind – not more than taking an extra moment to apply some soothing cream, a little something to ease the roughness. The cold, mountain air surely had gotten to her and it would be a long drive back to the mountains once she’d gotten things in order too.

That was one thing she had to do that day, right after she’d been for her hair appointment, refreshing the colour. She had to go to Sandra’s house, hoping that the spare key still worked and, well…that would open the door to telling the rest of the families and friends, emergency contacts spreading the word, what had happened. There was only one dragoness who had been dubious about anyone being told and that was the little blue and white splotched one, only small in comparison to the others as if she had been shrunken into herself for longer.

Well… There would be the option to still call her emergency contact, depending on who it was. There was a story there that Julie did not know, but neither did anyone want those they cared about to not know what had happened. But the pain in Kelvin’s eyes had told her that they had been hurt.

She knew that feeling. She had been through a lot in her life, seeking out adventures, though it had led to hurts too, hurts that left wounds that felt as if they would never heal. Yet she had come through every one of them, all the same, finding her husband, the light and life he had brought to her world.

There would be that for Kelvin too. Even if she had to work out how to set up dragon dates…or something like that.

But yes: her hair colouring appointment. That still had to be kept, a little spot of normalcy in a world that felt as if it was spinning out of control, though, for once, it did not involve Julie. Her fingers quivered as she sat back in the hairdresser’s hair, the light smell of hairspray tickling her nose, blow dryers softening the air with a

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background of white noise, the pleasant smile of her usual hairdresser, Prim, curving up in a hint of pink lipstick.

However was she going to keep things hidden? Julie pressed her lips together, giving a weak smile in return, her reflection in the mirror not suited to convincing anyone. But she couldn’t just tell Prim what had happened, no matter how long she’d been cutting her hair for!

“So, are you going anywhere nice on your holidays this year, hon?” She said, bustling away, setting up her client for her colour. “It’s been so long since you’ve been in!”

“Oh, um, yeah…” Julie cast about, though holidays seemed like the furthest thing from her mind. “It’s… Hm, France? My daughter-in-law invited me, something about revisiting, ah, the site of their honeymoon…”

She did know what her daughter-in-law had invited her to, of course, but the words would not leap to her mind at that moment. The rough spot on her arm did not seem to have softened at all, spreading, taking on a coarser texture still and a paler shade. Julie did not self-tan, not anymore, preferring to enjoy the sunshine in the warm months of the year and let her skin do what it willed the rest of it, but it was paler than normal. Almost like a scar that had been left white after doing what the body did to knit skin back together over a wound that could not be hidden.

“Oh, your hair is a bit fragile today,” Prim commented, pursing her lips as she held up Julie’s locks. “Are you sure you want to go for a colour today? We could go for a condition… Get some nice strength back into these lovely locks of yours… What have you been doing?”

“What? No!”

The words burst from her lips without her thinking about it, flustered, waving her hands, trying to make things sound less aggressive than they had come out.

Darn it!

“Oh, um!” Julie tried to backtrack, smoothing the black gown down over her legs, her untouched cup of coffee sitting before the mirror. “Oh, I didn’t mean that… Just I want the colour – yes! I’ve been really looking forward to it! Is there anything you can do?”

Prim, to her credit, did not comment further, only doing as Julie had asked. She’d seen more than enough people pass through her chair to know that she could only do her best by them and a deep conditioning and treatment, even if it extended the time that Julie was going to be there, would most certainly help.

Little did either of them know that there was nothing that could actually help Julie, simply because there was nothing wrong. A course of events had been set off by what had gone on in the mountains, meeting Sandra again, gaining new friends, a new perspective in life… There was no going back from that, even if Julie did not yet understand what was taking place.

14

The patch on her arm spread, rougher, easing up over her shoulder, down her back. In the seat, Julie shifted, though Prim wisely chose not to comment as some of her hair came out in the sink while it was being washed, the colour holding richer and redder than expected. It was a good thing that it was close enough to the auburn that Julie had been going for, though Prim advised her to come back and have her eyebrows done too.

Emerging, later, from the hairdresser’s salon with russet red hair that was a more prominent shade than she had expected, Julie felt a little more herself, though felt a little silly too. It was just hair… If she hadn’t been able to have the colour that day, would it have been the end of the world? But it had felt like too much to her, even if it had only been a small thing, her mind frazzled after so many, much larger revelations.

That only left Sandra’s house to enter and, thankfully for her, it had not yet been sold, likely still standing empty while the extended family dealt with the will. That was not something that Julie had been involved in so it was not as if she would know the intricacies of it.

Thankfully for Julie, she was able to get inside using the spare back door key, which had not yet been changed, though it was likely that it hadn’t crossed anyone’s mind that someone would be entering the place who was not related. Her clothes didn’t sit nicely over her shoulders, however, as she tried not to be unnerved by the house, how quiet and how still it was. She hadn’t been in there since Sandra had disappeared, but the kitchen table haunted her with memories of coffees made and laughs taken.

At least she could still have that again, with Sandra, Alex…and so many more new people. Or dragons. They were still people though, if it was okay to use that collective term.

The office, however, did not help her out as paperwork towered in stacks, a half-empty bottle of whisky in the corner of the desk. It was small and cramped with a tiny window overlooking the street and Julie could not shake the unnerving sense that she was being watched. She rubbed her back through her shirt and winced at how the fabric pulled over her skin. It didn’t feel right. Maybe she was having an allergic reaction to her newest laundry detergent? Or perhaps she just didn’t sleep right after seeing the dragons, that would make sense…

“Where is it, Sandra? Where did you put it?”

She dug and dug through as much as she could, wrinkling her nose when she finally uncovered the crinkled, crumpled list of emergency contacts: a hand-written list that, really, should have been uploaded onto the computer and sent to the local authorities before even going on the mission. It was fortunate that nothing worse had happened to the team, for while Sandra and Alex were diligent on an expedition, the set-up and preparation had slipped without them realising.

But that was in the past and no harm had come to anyone. There was no point in dwelling there when it was not something that was not even going to happen again and had no possibility of repeating itself.

15

She took the list home, not liking to linger in a house where people didn’t expect her to be. That would be strange, if someone walked in on her, though others may have thought she was trying to steal. She’d only taken the list, however, not even the couple of things that Sandra had borrowed from her, months back, before the expedition, for it did not feel like her place to take them anymore. With Sandra and Alex never able to return to their little house with the garden, now overgrown and tangled, it no longer felt as if she at all had permission.

Maybe it was better to leave the entire place as a museum to times gone by, in one way or another. It was all she could do.

*

“Yes… Yes, they’re really dragons. I’m… Yes, I’m aware that sounds crazy.”

Julie rubbed her forehead, fingers pressed to her temples, smoothing around and around in easy circles. She didn’t blame people for not believing her and, well, pictures of dragons on her phone did not help as much as they could have either, to be fair. She’d tried sending some, but they, including Arya’s mother who had seemed nice at first, happy to talk about her daughter, had still claimed that they were nothing more than photo manipulations.

“How can I convince you?” She’d pleaded desperately. “Do you think I’m bringing up your dead to tell you they’re not dead because it makes me happy? I wouldn’t be doing this if I wasn’t trying to tell you that everything we know has changed! And they’re alive, I promise you that – they are alive and well!”

Brent’s father, though his name, to her, was lost in the mix of contacts she’d called up, speaking to some more than once, had been drawn up short by that. She could understand that. Imagine if she had been told that her husband was actually alive, after believing that he was dead, though she had sat quietly with him, at the time, as he’d softly crossed over. Still, she would have clawed at and clung onto that tiny fragment of hope, done anything at all that she’d thought she could do to hang onto it.

That was why he had been the first to talk to her and she had told him about Brent and how the dragoness – that had had to be revealed, as much of a shock as it had been to the man – had been making up sports games to play as a dragon. He’d laughed at that and likened them to the kind of games that Brent had made up when she’d been much younger, but, well, Julie had thought she was well on her way to convincing him.

Kelvin’s emergency contact had slammed the phone down on her. Figured that Kelvin didn’t want them contacted, though the surname had not been the same as Kelvin’s, so, hopefully, it would somehow filter through to Kelvin’s parents, their family of some kind. It was all she could hope for, doing her bit, though maybe she could speak to Kelvin and find out if she remembered the number of anyone else that could be contacted for her.

Regardless, everyone got the location of the dragonesses, whether they believed her or not. Julie made sure to text it too if she got hung up on, though there was an e-mail

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too, for a back-up. One way or another, she wanted to make sure that they could go seek out those they loved.

Yet she was not comfortable, grunting and shifting, feeling as if something was stuck in her throat. The back of her neck and all down the length of her spine ached too, feeling as if she constantly wanted to stretch, though her muscles were not tight. She fingered her hair and recoiled, while on a video call with Alex’s old fishing buddy, Tan, when practically a handful fell out all at once.

“Ugh… What the heck?”

She made a face and shook away the handful of hair, though even with it sprinkling her shoulders and the floor behind the chair that she had perched in, back at home. Why was it falling out? Maybe Prim had been right about her needing to take better care of her hair… Though there was no honestly telling why it had gone so bad so quickly. She’d had to sit down as she’d kept tripping over things, as if her poise was off, not quite knowing the space that her body took up anymore, her head heavier, everything feeling more difficult. But there was no reason that Julie should have suspected what was taking place.

“Are you okay? Julie… Julie, was it?”

Tan peered at her in concern, looking as odd as most people did while face timing, as if their features were out of proportion, even when they were looking dead-on at the camera.

“Oh, yeah, fine…”

But he only looked closer, as if he was squinting at a phone screen that was too small for him. Or perhaps he usually wore glasses?

“Julie, I don’t think… Your face?”

It was not something that could be easily brought up, but Julie peered back at him, her hand lifting unconsciously to touch her face.

“What? What’s wrong with it?”

Yet there was nothing wrong, not really, not as she shook her head and gasped, her hair falling out, coming out in clumps, though it was replaced with starker, redder hair, pulling back into a line at the back of her neck. It ran down in a thinner line, shrinking back on her scalp too to form that line as if it was trying to keep as close to her spine as possible.

Oh no…

She wheezed, clutching at her throat, her back aching, stretching, straining, a lump at the base of her spine boding ill.

“No… No! I don’t… I’ve got to go back!”

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She grabbed at the phone, babbling, holding up the list, saying something to Tan about sending him the details, that he’d have to keep talking to people for her, because she couldn’t.

“But where are you going, Julie? Julie! I’ll call an ambulance for you!”

“No!”

For there was no ambulance or human service in the world that could help her and she could only think of going back, that what was happening to her must be something… Something to do with the place that she had been.

Oh, why was it so hard for her to get her thoughts out, hoping against hope that everything was going to be okay, though it was still early enough in the day for her to stumble down to her car, having sent Tan the list. He had everything that she had and access to her e-mail too, in case that was useful to him, though Julie had to climb into the car, curling her fingers around the steering wheel, feeling the comforting solidity under her hands all over again.

That helped. It was something familiar, even as she shoved a cushion that she had taken out with her under her buttocks, softening the lump that was growing there. Her heart hammered and she wiped the sweat off on her jeans, not the sort of clothing at all that would have been suitable for going back to the mountains, but…it was all she had. With a sick twist of her stomach, she did not think that it was wise to head back and get her clothes.

It was too late for that. Far too late as she forced every last scrap of her attention on the road, how the white line in the centre disappeared under the wheels of her car, bit by bit. Every minute had to pass one way or another if she kept going, if she kept driving, if she tried to breathe deeply and evenly, as much as every second, merely for the fact that time was passing, felt like torture.

One thing that Julie was aware of, however, was how much she needed to concentrate. There was no pain, yet her body shifted without her consent, without her moving, bones crumbling and forming new bone right there under her skin. It was needed. It felt like it was needed, like the heat of a fever creeping through her when it was burning her up from the inside out. Yet a fever was merely a reaction of the body to illness, fighting infection, fighting a virus.

That was not something that she could think about too much, if hardly at all, the afternoon wearing on, though she hoped against hope that she would be able to get there in time. She didn’t know what would come of her if she had to pull over and sleep in the car, but it at least seemed like things were slow, very slow. That was something, at least, for the bone pressing through the skin of her back, like the spines she had seen on some of the dragons.

After being told what she had been about the transformations of the dragonesses…there was only one thing that Julie could think was happening to her, as much as it made her heart pound.

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But why?

That was a question that she could not answer, shaking, shoulders rounding, hunching over. The car seemed smaller than it had been before and she drove without using her GPS, trusting herself to find the way, though it was more like being called somewhere, following the road like an arrow allowed to let fly from the bow.

To the mountains… To the expedition sight. Her legs ached with the urge to move and she hoped against hope that it would be enough to drag her up the mountainside, to get her where she needed to be.

As carefully as she drove, her tongue thicker and heavier in her mouth, her teeth gradually growing sharper and sharper as her tongue ached to come back to them and to play with them, The bones of her cheeks lost their shape, her jaw a little longer, though Julie did not dare try to talk, not when it felt like she was losing everything that her body was made up of.

Her hair… There was no natural hair left on her, not as her nails grew longer, narrower, small changes that made them look more claw-like. Julie’s breath came more and more tightly in her chest, though that was not something she understood, whether it was from her body…changing or whether it was merely stress getting to her.

This can’t be happening.

She wanted to close her eyes against the horrifying worry of it all, wishing her husband was there. But he wasn’t and it was one more thing that she would have to face alone, the knobbly ridges on her back growing more pronounced. She shifted forward in the driver’s seat, focusing only on the road, as if focusing on that and that alone would make it right.

I’m…

She took a breath, though it shuddered, broken in her chest.

I’m going to be like them.

Which wasn’t a terrible thing, no, not when everyone was healthy still and well, but it wasn’t exactly something that Julie had prepared for in any way. There was a life left behind her, the kind of world that she knew and was used to, a world that she had carved out for herself after everything had changed. But change came at the most inopportune times, she had found, though there was little she could do about that.

Her bones ached as if they were scraping together, but as they pushed across her back, somewhere, perhaps, under her shoulder blades, she didn’t know what was happening. If those were to be wings… How would they work? Where would the muscles come? Her body shifted slowly, a strange feeling of bubbling pouring over her, as if her very skin was frothing. Most of her was pale by that stage, the edges of scales showing their definition, though she tried not to think about that. Best to keep

19

her hands steady on the steering wheel, to set that aside, to be strong. He would have wanted her to be strong.

The end of the drive could not come quickly enough and she stumbled out of her car, only then realising just how her body had changed. Her jeans, which she hadn’t had the foresight to change out of, were too slight around her hips and split at the back as she moved, the nodule that reached the base of her spine bearing through. She didn’t pause to feel just what had broken through there, the size of her body simply too great for her clothes, filling out her loose T-shirt even as her chest grew softer, flatter. That was perhaps one of the reasons it had not split over the shoulders or down the sides yet, for what was gained was also lost in other ways.

Are they there? She forced herself up the mountain, though, somehow, her transformation seemed to slow. Maybe it was the frantic pace of her breath raking through her chest, taking in how her legs felt thicker, clunkier, though her muscles were stronger. I really really hope the dragonesses have not left…

The day wore on, though the late-winter brightness was wan and fading and she huffed as she climbed higher. Her body seemed more malleable and, as awkward as she was, she could use a little more brute strength to haul herself along. As her bones shifted, arms longer, it was easier to run on all fours too, kind of, though it was an awkward, lumbering gait that left her feeling foolish. Julie, however, supposed that there was little she had to feel foolish for again, however. All that had changed. All because of them, the dragons, the dragonesses.

The dragonesses, however, were not to be blamed for not knowing what was taking place not so far away, Julie dragging herself up the mountainside, grunting, wheezing, straining to work her halfway something body in any way possible. The dragonesses lay stretched out, comfortably, around their nesting mounds, warbling and murmuring softly to their hatchlings, still tucked away safely in their eggs, waiting, watching, relaxing. But that peace was destined to be disturbed.

It came in a crash of undergrowth, something larger than a human but not the size of a dragon smashing through the old pine trees above the nesting ground. In a moment, Santino and Alan were side by side with each other, their teeth bared, snarling a warning: stay back!

“What is it?” Arya shouted, jumping into the air for a better look. “An animal? A bear?”

Bears had never bothered them before, though the change of the seasons could have brought a hungrier one into their territory. They clustered together, Kelvin hunkering in the centre of the nesting mounds, her eyes darting furtively back and forth, protecting the nests as if she would not leave them, not even under the grandest of duress.

Yet there was nothing to worry about, no threat to be had, even if it would further change the course of all the dragonesses had to face as something crashed down the slope. Arya lunged with a growl that would have struck fear into anyone’s heart, though drew up short at the last moment, head whipped back, front feet shoved out before her.

20

“What the – Julie?”

Julie staggered, hands up, though her coat was torn, the blue ripped through where spines were trying to make themselves known, straining and stretching, her eyes wide, skin pushing and bulging with the forming of new bones and muscles. Her lips parted, showing how her teeth itched and ached into sharp points, a tongue writhing back and forth as it whipped about, striving to find a way to hold itself steady.

Julie let out a gargled cry, collapsing to all fours, her back shaking, though she twisted, the push from the base of her spine, a feeling of being stretched out against her will, becoming increasingly pronounced.

“You… Sandra! Sandra… Sandra, you’ve got to help me!”

She stumbled over her words, fighting to get them out as her lips changed shape, though it was obvious already to those whose minds had caught up with them that what had happened to them was happening to Julie too. Slack-jawed, Santino sat back on her haunches, staring openly at the woman as she slowly transformed, a long tail pushing from her growing back end. Her modesty, for the moment, was still protected, yet that was not something that was at all in the mind of a dragon anymore, considering that they were all female there. Dragons, of course, didn’t have cause for either clothes or that manner of modesty, merely a human construct.

“It’s…” Santino cocked her head, grappling with words while Sandra crooned and soothed Julie the best she could. “It’s happening again… Is it this place? What’s wrong with it? Or right with it?”

“Right with it?” Arya started. “What do you mean, right? It can’t be right if anyone and everyone who comes up here is going to end up a dragoness like us!”

But maybe it was, the first guilty flicker of hope lighting in Santino’s heart again, for the secret that she had not allowed into the light yet, not the light of her sister dragons, at least. The secret was out, to a select few, and they would come, one way or another, even if the dragons could cut them off.

If changes were possible…it left the door open to more. Though she could not allow Sebastian that far, that close, if only to keep him safe. She still wasn’t sure what she would say to him, though it went without saying that Seb had been her emergency contact. He always would have been, wherever she’d gone in the world if she had not been by his side.

Damn it.

She hissed through her teeth. Couldn’t anything be simple? Yet she would not deny how her heart surged at the thought of seeing him again, the idea that change, of some kind, could come. It meant something, even if she did not yet know what.

“Julie, can you tell us what happened?” Sandra asked gently, leaning down to brush her muzzle tenderly over Julie’s growing hide, scales peppering her body where bare

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skin showed through the shreds of her clothes. “You must have gotten home… But it’s as if you never left.”

One day, Sandra would know why the words leapt to her lips as if they belonged there, though Julie struggled. She was not a dragon, she was a human! It was hard enough that she had found her friends again, relieved that they were alive yet shocked that they were dragons…but what was she to make of her life? Her jeans split down the legs as her own legs seemed to change how they bent, though she’d later see that it was merely her body pushing up onto her “toes”, a different kind of foot bearing down, a hock forming as if she was on her toes and the hock was her ankle.

Sandra nuzzled her, though all she could do was take in shuddering breaths, eight foot tall, shirt shrugged from her body, her coat on the floor, though she couldn’t remember how it had gotten there. She only dimly recognised the shreds of it, her back aching as the spines pushed out and out, every millimetre felt in sharp definition. Still only half-transformed, she grew slowly, Sandra having the good grace to shield her modesty with her wings, though it was not as if it was necessary. To Julie, however, it would still have been needed.

Julie struggled with words, her face re-shaping itself into a dragon’s muzzle, smooth and sleek with a lightly hooked tip, as if she had a hint of a beak there. When she’d stumbled into their midst, she’d been transformed in part, bursting out of her clothes, such cloth no longer enough to hold her, though enough to maintain her modesty for a moment. Her tail wiggled out through the back of her jeans, bursting forth when she had no longer been cramped into the car, though the scales had settled into a white shade that could have been mistaken for her skin at first glance. They’d teased her, in a friendly way, about how pale she was before, though there was no indication that skin colour lent any meaning to a dragon’s scale colour, to be fair.

Half-transformed had left her with a longer neck too, her arms less useful and her legs thicker and chunkier, muscle pulling into more useful places, though it was no way to run, crashing up the mountain and stumbling, cutting herself accidentally on sharp shards of rocks even as her body changed. The injuries, as small as they were, were easily healed as she transformed, though the gasping rake of breath in her expanding lungs brought a fresh flush of fear with every step.

Her arms pushed out before her, settling a little, her shoulders rounding, though the muscle there was hidden in a quadruped body, not the round shape that could be seen in a human being. The shifting of muscle and the feel of it thickening was as if she was being filled with icing, something squeezed into her from a piping bag, muscles fleshing out softly, giving her strength.

“I… Unff…” She twisted, shoulders pushing down a little more, into the position on her body that befitted a quadruped. “It’s… I got home, I went straight…to your home, your place…”

Sandra stroked her head gently with a claw, letting Julie get there in her own time, though the transformation, perhaps thankfully, did not seem to be a particularly rapid one. Julie grunted, her jaw settling into its long shape, muscles working around the corner, forming her new cheek.

22

“Take your time.”

“I spoke to people… They didn’t believe me, some, but I gave them the location, they know…where you are.”

Julie may not have been in any pain, though it was a struggle to get out her words in the order intended as her face shifted, slowly, though the layer of soft, delicate scales forming and enlarging helped ease the edge of her appearance. It softened it a bit as her nostrils pulled up into a lightly defined draconian shape, allowing her to breathe more deeply. It loosened the band around her chest just a little.

“They know…but then I felt strange, like my belly was gurgling, bubbling. I had to get outside and then…” She trembled, eyes closing. “I knew something was wrong. I got in the car and came back as quickly as I could. I just kept getting bigger in the car….until I could hardly drive. Then things got quicker when I climbed the slope. I was faster than before, but clumsier too… Does that make sense? Oof.”

She worked her jaw as her face settled into a long, elegant, draconian muzzle at last, her teeth taking their time, drawing themselves into their final sharp points, one after the other. That was better… It had felt “wrong” to have them half-transformed, though in a way she could not put words to. Halfway between one thing and the other…no. She pushed for a dragon, what she saw as the result, something that could not be set back through any means.

She licked her lips, her tongue sweeping across, more muscle control there, though the straining pull and stretch of her tail felt as if she was lightening, as if something was being drawn from her. That didn’t make sense, but there was little there that did, as her tail tried to wiggle. It wasn’t as long as that of the others, not yet, but she would soon see how long it could grow, running her tongue along her new teeth, wondering at them. No more would she need molars, not when their diet was so often of tougher fare, though she would be glad, later, to find out that they were still able to eat vegetables. She hadn’t taken that course of vegetarian cooking classes for nothing, after all.

“It’s going to be okay, Julie,” Sandra said, flanking her protectively on one side, Alex on the other, Brent starting a fire that would, hopefully, ease Julie’s mind a little more. “You’ve seen how we are, what’s happened to us. You’re not going to be in pain, you’re not going to be hurt. We may not know what our purpose, quite, is here yet, but everything is going to be fine. Most importantly, you are going to be fine.”

Julie groaned and laid her head down, awkwardly positioned, though her transformation continued at a steady pace that the eye could follow, starting at her front legs while she slowly grew in overall size too. There was little else for her to do, fearful, worried, shrinking in close to Sandra and Alex, though no amount of hunkering down into the ground would make it so that she disappeared completely.

She had to lie there, her new friends and her old ones comforting her, soothing her, letting her know that everything would be okay. Her hands shifted fully into feet, what had begun of her nails forming into red claws, though it was not the red of blood but

23

bright red, like berries on a holly bush. She liked that, though she was struck by how her thumbs slipped away, taking a little dexterity while the flat of her “foot” pressed into the ground. Her tail stretched out behind her, muscles lining it, allowing her to move the appendage, thick and functional, the kind of tail that might have been used for balance while clinging to a rockface.

More transformed, bit by bit, her clothes taken away when she was more dragon than human, on her request. Julie didn’t want to feel them scratching and shifting over her body, rubbing her scales. It felt wrong, something that wasn’t supposed to be touching her anymore, though her mind swirled with too many emotions and sensations, all crowding in on one another all at once.

Without her clothes, there was nothing to be hidden from her transformation, her scales and new body holding her modesty intact, transforming into a dragon that was much smaller than the others, though one that would grow in time. The swelling of her body felt strange, as if she was being blown up, though her scales came right along with her, allowing her to grow without straining. It was a better feeling as she tried to find the new muscles for her tail, to twitch it back and forth limply, the ache of new bone forming in the growing, smooth horns raking through her skull. That sensation was gone almost as soon as it had appeared, growing overall, her mind flitting from one sensation to the next.

The pull of her tail reaching its final length, a smooth, rounded tip gracing her new form.

The ache at the back of her jaw as her bite strength increased.

How she felt even how the tips of her horns curled ever so slightly, as if the ends were tapering, being shaved off.

The feel of her new hindquarters, the sensation under her feet, earth and tiny stones shifting, crunching.

Julie stood shakily, finding herself, how the set of her body felt different. She was smaller than Sandra and Alex but roughly one-third, but that was an estimate that would be better placed when they stood side by side. Her white scales did not gleam, though they surely would in the right light or with a sheen of water on them, the dragoness swinging her suddenly very heavy head back and forth, inspecting herself.

“This is…”

Julie licked her lips, not sure that she had the words, though she was thankful that they slipped from her throat as they did, not taking speech from her. Her feet, no more hands, came with red claws, like berries, the flow of hair down the back of her neck not unusual, for she had usually had long hair in her life, though it didn’t quite look like what the other dragons had. Although she could not see it, from her position, her horns curved back into a fish-hook shape, red too, though not a bloody kind of red.

Yet her face retained a sense of femininity too, a moderate muzzle that was neither slender nor chunky, but perfectly set for her as she worked her jaw, running her tongue

24

around her sharp teeth. The slimness of her tongue caught her attention, though it was not forked like that of a serpent, even if the tip was narrower and thinner, more sensitive.

Sandra led her gently to a span of water, an eddy of a river where the water stilled, to show her the new horns atop her head, the red and white stripes, how her wings were set on her back. She stretched them out tentatively, showing the bat-like shape to them, though how they were set into her body was uniquely dragon. There would never again be anything like it found in nature.

“Soon, you’ll be able to fly too,” Sandra murmured. “Like us, I think you will see your belly swell… There will be little ones for you too, eggs to lay. But that is only an assumption, dear, it might not happen to you.”

Julie shook her head, angling it so that she could better take in the raised ridges of nostrils on her snout, how her nostrils flared and puckered obviously with every breath. It was weird…like she was looking into a funhouse mirror, even if she hadn’t been into a place like that in many years.

She swung her tail lightly, the tip rounded, soft, her wings extending with off-white spines, the membranes lightly translucent. Yet her eyes gleamed with a rich red brown that suited her fine, reminding her, ever so slightly, of the fire of her younger years.

Julie smiled – or tried to, at least, the best she could with a dragoness’ muzzle.

“Maybe… Maybe I can get used to this. Even the…eggs, if you think that’s going to happen.”

That was something new to take in, something uncertain, for whether she ended up like Sandra and the others, frankly, remained to be seen. Only time would tell, but already her scales itched in anticipation, wanting to know despite the flutter it sent into her heart, anticipation battling with anxiety.

Julie coughed lightly, something tickling the back of her throat. In time, she would learn to use her fiery breath, though did not yet know it was a possibility. The sensation of something there being charred, however, made her want to swallow, to send a cool slick of saliva down to her stomach.

Any disconcertion, however, would pass, the dragons that had become her sisters bowing their heads softly, allowing her to be, allowing her to come to her understanding of what was happening to her. It would change her life forever, as it had for them, and the dragonesses both knew and assumed, for it seemed the only sensible course of action, that there would be no going back for Julie either. There would be no way for her to be human again and it had been her perseverance and determination in finding Sandra, what had happened to her, that had ultimately led to her change.

But maybe change was a good thing. Maybe it was something that not only their little corner of the world in their wilderness needed, but the entire world.

Maybe.

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All would be seen in time…

26

Chapter Three

Julie was not the only one to find them, though they staked patrols, trying to ensure that they caught their friends and family at a reasonable distance, so that they would not transform if they came near. It was not something that should have been entered into without consent, though the dragons also bore in mind that it was not something they could stop others from experiencing if it was truly what they wanted. They didn’t know how far the magic stretched, especially when they had thought, before, that it only affected the caverns themselves, though that in itself was their downfall, at least for the first to slip into the magical influence of the caves.

Some distance out from the caves where she flew on patrol, hopefully far enough away, Arya tensed, eyes narrowed, her wings spread with the leathery, green membranes stretched out between the spines. Her antlers had become stronger, though it did not look like she had to shed them like deer, more horn-like in that regard, even though they spoke of a more cervine appearance. She flew her patrol with eagle eyes, scanning the rough landscape for any sign of movement. She’d supposed that anyone would be easy enough to spot though with the bright coats that people seemed to be wearing in fashion those days.

And it was the case.

There…

Her heart leapt. It was her mother – oh! Trish! Her mother! Oh, she had found her, though she had never thought that she would scale a mountain to look for her! That was pretty much what she had had to do, though her mother had dyed her hair a platinum blonde whereas Arya had left her hair natural.

She didn’t even look like her mother anymore. Arya’s heart panged, but she could not draw herself up short from a dive, wanting to see her mother too badly, plunging into it all head over heels, losing the sense of herself. She had to be there, had to be with her mother – but she had to keep her away from the caverns too.

“Please! Don’t run!”

She called out as she flared her wings, though the woman gasped and dropped to the ground, all the same, buffeted by the air from her passing, the dragoness grunting, scraping, claws raking over rock as she struggled to land. Oh, how she wanted to rush in, to throw herself into her mother’s arms, though she was struck by the difference between them, how big she was, how small and frail and delicate her mother was in comparison. Whereas her mother had always been the strong one, she had to hold back, could no longer throw herself at her mother, a frustrated whine breaking her lips even as Arya clamped her jaws down against them.

Trish crawled up to her knees, hands held up, her light hair tugged free of her hood, lips parted.

“Arya? Was… Julie was telling the truth?”

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Her mother had never been one for fantasies and daydreaming, though neither had Arya either, truly, being so career focused. So it was that the dragoness gave the biggest sob that a dragon could make, lungs shuddering, her head bowed as her mother clasped her to her chest. Just her face and head, of course, for there was only so much that Arya could do, the size difference between them so great, her mother just about coming up to her chest when Arya was standing tall. Jenson, however, was as large as a cottage, if his head was above the roof, though he would have filled the moderate, imagined cottage with his body too, if that had been the case.

“Mom…” She groaned out, trying not to cry, for the tear ducts of her face didn’t know how to handle that. “I… I missed you so much.”

She choked out the words, her mother holding her, pulling her scales in close, fingers running over her muzzle again and again, half in comfort and half in wonder. It must have been hard for her to come up against dragons who were as large as buildings, even if small buildings in the grand scheme of the world, their bodies functional with muscle, though their wingspans differed. It was difficult to see such a thing as Arya pressed her head down over her mother’s shoulder, her mother wrapping her arms around as much of the dragoness’ neck as she could. Even though her fingers could have just about touched on either side of the dragoness’ neck, she fumbled too much to do so, stroking Arya’s green scales softly.

“There, there… It’s going to be okay, Arya… Everything’s okay, I’m here now. But what have you gone and gotten yourself into this time?”

Arya gave a strangled sort of laugh, startled into mirth, though she could do nothing else with her mother’s smile filling her vision, as blurry and as hazy as it was. The one thing she did have to do, however, was keep her mother from continuing to move nearer to the caverns, thankfully far enough away down in the lee of a rocky overhang for shelter while she darted back to get Brent, someone that could support her. Then more than ever, she needed the support of her sister dragons.

They weren’t quick enough, while Arya and Brent were with Trish, to stop another from stumbling into the scope of the cave system, above ground. Alan scouted from the air and tried to mark it out, calculating distances roughly without her usual tools, but missed the man coming through, working his way along the line of trees with gritty, resolute determination.

With dark skin reminiscent of only one of their previous, human, forms, he could only be related to one of them, the spitting image of the man that Jenson had used to be. It may have been some months since he had been in touch with his father, tensions arising between them, but he had still been listed as the only emergency contact that his father could imagine, his son from his first marriage. Though he had been with Anniyah for many, many years, that marriage had ended quickly, in his early twenties, the relationship with his first wife, sadly, not strong enough to last. Whereas their split had been amicable, Darius had not taken it well over the years, the distance growing while his mother had primary custody of him.

The distance could be enough for a young, growing boy who did not see his father as much as his mother, but the relationship had not repaired itself in adulthood either.

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Jenson had tried, but everything came off as superficial, almost materialistic, for what was he to do other than to try to spend time with his son? But if he tried to take him on a holiday, it came off as trying to buy his affection, even simply taking him out for dinner so that they could sit down and talk, just the two of them. They had always needed to be doing something, so that they did not merely sit there and dwell, and hiking, for a time, had made things a little easier between them.

Darius muttered under his breath, lips pressed together, a line of tension more prominent on one side of his jaw than the other. He shouldn’t have come, shouldn’t have said anything to that woman, but if he was going to say goodbye to his father, having the location was one way to do it. A necklace, a simple washer with metal stamping on a leather cord, was tucked away in his pocket, his offering to whatever deity had his father in their hold, the afterlife that Darius still believed was possible. It was just the morality of the world that he lived in that he doubted.

He rubbed the back of his neck curiously. Was it rougher there? No… No, that was ridiculous.

He pressed on, straining as dark fell, though he could not pay attention to the flicker of unease in the pit of his stomach. He had his camping gear and his father had prepared him well for sleeping out in the open, the elements not worrying him, at least now that the worst grip of winter was over. The temperature would be chilled, even if it did not drop below freezing, though he had everything prepared, his sleeping bag lined with insulation, the metal foil type crinkly but enough to keep him warm. He’d sleep in his clothes.

Or so he thought, tucked away from the wind in a cave that he found, alone with his thoughts, having eaten a cold dinner without lighting a fire. He was not to know that the sweeping entrance to what looked like a well-trodden cave system was not how the dragons there had originally found everything to be, but how they had made it, tucking himself right down into the edges of where the magic happened.

Darius grunted, slumbering unsoundly, though the changes in his body were not enough for him to wake. He’d always been a deep sleeper, though there was perhaps something in the magic of the transformation too that had him still and silent, even as he pushed, softly, through his sleeping back, his limbs growing larger, stronger, no longer feeling the cold at all.

He wouldn’t feel the cold ever again, not as something warm and heated curled and spat in his chest, the fire that had always been there but needed a dragon’s body to burst through the fabric of the man he had once been, becoming something more. Only then could the fire of his breath be truly seen, burning up from the inside out, a swathe of heat unlike any other.

It was not what Darius would have chosen, his scales covering him, grunting and groaning even in his exceptionally deep sleep. Alan would give him a little comfort, later, in the use of the magic, how it had surely rendered him softly and gently asleep, all to make sure that the dragon suffered no worry through their transformation. Unlike the others, his scales dipped to pure silver with black stripes running over his back, the points of which curved around his barrel as if they were mimicking his ribcage.

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Dangerous plate scales like those of a Stegosaurus, from his old picture books as a child, liked his back, jutting up roughly so that his spine was protected, from the back of his head to where they tapered off, lessening in size, down the length of his tail.

His jaw was like that of his father’s, chunky and blocky, powerful oozing from him, though it came quietly, as if it was there the whole time, merely residing under the surface. Darius, of course, knew none of that, not even with his ridged horns appearing, his scales noticeably devoid of what the others had gained: the single spine at the back of their heads that denoted that they had borne a clutch.

Deep in slumber, a club-like appendage rounding out from his tail tip, Darius grunted and groaned, twitching as if he was having a nightmare. Though it was not that bad, would not be that bad, not even with all the changes that were to come as he rested there, a newly formed, newly re-born dragon, complete with bat-like wings that were more leathery at the base than the others, the muscle that connected them to his back stronger, more obvious.

The coming of dawn did not wake him, but someone else had business in the caverns that could not be put off any longer than she was willing to.

Alan stumbled to a halt the next morning, rocking back on her hindquarters and practically sitting on her tail. Her jaw dropped in a way that would have been comical if not for the severity of the situation, stuttering and stumbling, the normally studious and well-put-together dragoness suddenly at a loss for words. Cautiously, she stretched her head out, taking in the new dragon, sleeping there in a pile of shredded fabric, telling the tale of what had happened.

“Oh, feathers…”

She didn’t like to swear, though it might have been the appropriate time for swearing, another dragon sleeping before her, though the dragon smelled different, a little like Julie, a human smell, but not like Julie at the same time. Probably because she was a dragon, though Alan could not shake that there was something familiar about the dragon’s scent too, as if they were known to her.

Alan dithered back and forth for a moment, tail wriggling, but she could not hold off from waking the dragon, as much as she didn’t want to bring them to the harsh reality of the waking world, all that their life had become.

“Er… Excuse me.” She prodded the dragon with a claw, wincing. “You’ve got to wake up now… But slowly, please… There’s a lot you need to see.”

Darius woke moderately, though it was fortunate that they did not yet know how to use their new body, for the lunge of his jaws and the frenzied snap did not connect with Alan, not as she skittered back. The dragoness hopped and cursed in another language (maybe that made it better?) but Darius fought and fought to struggle upright, flashing a maw full of fangs, teeth shining with saliva. Although Alan had never felt scared of any of the other dragons, that felt like it was about to change with the silver dragon who had transformed without even knowing. But maybe their rage was understandable.

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“Now – look!” Alan snapped, cracking her tail like a whip for good measure as Darius staggered, half upright but not really doing much of a job of it as they slumped into the rock wall. “You’ve got to calm down! It’s happened to all of us too, no one is hurt, everyone is alive: you are fine. You are a dragon, but you are fine. Can you be calm?”

Darius eyed up the even-sized dragon, Alan struck by how large they were even then. Darius was close to the same size as Alan, even though Alan had had much longer to grow. However, the dragon was still smaller than Alan and, as times progressed, would forever remain smaller than the other dragonesses. The dragoness met Darius’ eyes levelly.

“Now… Will you talk?” She prodded, trying to get Darius to do more than hurl themselves about and growl. “Who are you here for? What is your name?”

Darius blinked at her, though he could not help being frenzied, fear roiling through him. What the hell had happened to him while he’d been asleep? Why was his body so different? And what was a literal dragon saying to him about him being a dragon?

It didn’t make sense, nothing made sense, a low, pained growl rolling from his lips. Darius clenched his jaw, settling his stance, the club-like tip of his tail swinging back and forth. In terms of self-defence and if he had been a little more present in his mind, Darius would have quite liked that. It was a useful weapon, one that would serve him well, while not weighing his tail down all that much.

“My…” Darius grunted, trying out a voice that rasped more harshly, more guttural than expected. “Ergh… I came to see where my father passed. But he’s not dead then, if this was all real… Jenson. His name’s Jenson. You know him?”

Alan nodded. She did not see how hard it was for Darius to say his father’s name, putting it down to nerves, the dragon’s anger and upset at being transformed without any knowledge or consent understandable to her at least. She could not have imagined how she would have felt if she had simply woken up one day and found that she had become a dragon. Out of them as dragonesses, Sandra probably had it the worst, for the fear of her transformation, so many months ago, had been the first out of them all with Brent following a close second behind.

“Yes, they’re out hunting at the moment, probably doing some foraging too, they’ll be out all day but back tonight. What’s your name?”

Darius lifted a foot, testing their balance, grinding his teeth together. It was better than when they had thrashed awake, heaving and panting with lungs that didn’t understand how to work themselves efficiently. It was not quite right, not right at all, but focusing on something made the upset of conflicting emotions that they could not quite untangle easier to deal with.

“Darius.”

“All right, so, Darius, that’s a good name,” Alan said, though it was a pretence at a conversation at best. “So, everything’s okay, your father will be back soon. You must

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have been his emergency contact, I guess, if Julie spoke to you… If you calm down, I’ll try to show you how to walk like this, at least… Heavens, did you transform while you were asleep.”

Darius had to swallow a whine that did not feel at all natural on his lips. His sides quaked and he shook, not knowing how to step, how to walk, even how to move. For him, it was fortunate that he had someone there to show him, now that his initial shock and rather understandable rage had cooled, yet it had left him feeling as lost as he had when he’d been a young boy, his father moving out to live somewhere else.

He could understand, logically, why something had happened even if his mind refused to understand it emotionally.

Maybe, in time, with his father, all would come to light. But it would be some of the most difficult conversations of his life as he sat down with Jenson, the larger, older dragoness folding a wing around him. Conversations that would end up in a blur with shards of clarity within.

There was history there. History that went far, far beyond being startled into becoming a dragon, his chest tightening and heaving with worry, stress, even genuine upset too, though Darius had learned to keep that pressed down, buried deep. Relationships were not that easy to bear for them and the time that he had thought was going to be spent saying goodbye to his father was instead going to be an extended visit.

Darius pulled away from Jenson’s wing with distrust in his eyes, jaws locked against the past. No, never again. It was not Jenson’s fault, not really, but it was hard to consider the blame of a child when it was laid so bare and so raw against the lines of the past. Some things got locked in too deeply to cut free. Yet there was no closure in death for Darius, only the opening of the discussion, talking to come.

Not immediately, however.

In the end, he sat with his father, quietly, watching the water flow by. No words were needed, not yet, but they would come in time. As it was, they could sit and watch and wait and observe the passage of time, as they had on those little hiking trips they had taken once upon a time, not so long ago.

Times might have changed, but they would have plenty of times, now that Darius was a dragon, to come to a gentler kind of reconciliation with one another.

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Chapter Four

With Darius taken care of, Santino and Brent were on patrol duty for the next few days, the quickest flyers with the best stamina – which was rather surprising when it came to Santino. But the purple dragoness loved nothing more than to hum, the sound of her throat trembling with the subtle vibrations carrying her away. It softened the edge of her worry, though Julie had admitted, while she was calling people to let them know where their loved ones were, that she had also told Santino’s partner (or ex-partner? Were they still together? Kind of? Sort of?) that she was there.

She didn’t know whether she hoped that Sebastian would show up, but, ultimately, it was not Santino’s decision, not as information, passed on by Julie and filtering through to those that she had not been able to speak to, the ones not listed as emergency contacts, was disseminated. She tried to set it from her mind, but Seb always had a way of dragging it right back up to the forefront of her mind.

It all happened in a moment.

Santino froze, the water lapping at the edge of the lake, the cliff face towering above them, casting them into its freezing shadow. For a moment, neither dragon nor human breathed, though Sebastian was the first to take a huge, shuddering breath.

“Oh fuck… Santino… She was right. I knew what I saw.”

Santino snapped into motion, a broken cry ripping itself from her lips, but the dragoness’ heart was too frail and fragile to take another iota of heartbreak – the heartbreak of losing her lover that she had been shoving down for months on end. She’d laid a clutch and she’d been without the man who had made her heart sing, though that was way too corny and cheesy for her ever to say aloud to Seb. Still, she’d caught herself in the dead of night, her sleepy gaze lingering on the couples amongst them, wishing that she still had that closeness, that that kind of relationship was still hers to hold close, to cherish.

She had not even had a chance to say goodbye. But maybe she wouldn’t need a chance to say goodbye.

“No!”

She jolted into action, lunging forward, eyes wide, wild. Her heart pounded, roaring into motion, thoughts screaming, yet she could not force her limbs to move quickly enough, not even as Sebastian stepped back, his hands raised as if to protect himself.

“Away from here!” She bellowed, wings flapping, sending sweeping ripples across the surface of the water. “You’ve got to get away – if you stay, you’re going to end up like me!”

Sebastian’s jaw dropped, though with the buffeting force of the dragon’s wings, it was all she could do to stay upright, sort of, lips moving soundlessly. Anything she had to shout was whipped away by the dragoness trying to dissuade her, trying to force her back, though something roared in Sebastian’s ears that was not the dragon.

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Her head fell back, ears ringing, eyes wide, straining against the blue of the sky above. Something was wrong, something very wrong, yet all Sebastian could take was great, deep, shuddering breaths, his lungs feeling as if they were growing larger and larger with every breath he managed to drag in. It scraped and pushed – and then Santino was there again, the purple dragon anxiously pressing in, trying to push him away, though all Sebastian, finally, could do was cling onto their partner as if for dear life.

Even with scales, it still felt so damn good to have the dragon in his arms again. And that was enough, would have to be enough, if only for the moment. The rest could be worked out later.

“Sebastian – you have to leave! Now!”

Santino thumped her tail forcibly into the ground, sending up a spray of pebbles that had not been all worn smooth by the passage of time, one foot in the cool water of the lake. The mountains rose forlornly behind them, yet she could already see it in Santino’s body, the shift of it, how h was already down on all fours, as if being there was a more comfortable position, naturally, than being upright.

She tried to snap her fingers, forgetting for a moment that she had feet instead and could no longer so easily “snap” her partner out of it, dithering, pushing, not wanting to hurt him. She was so much bigger than Seb! What if she squashed him or hurt him in any way? Yet it was not as if she could exactly not try to snatch him up in her claws and drag him away, somewhere, anywhere, all to get him away from the place where he would become just like her. Yet that would have run the risk of harming Sebastian, especially as the man transformed in her hold.

Or…she could let it happen. If she did that, Sebastian would end up as a dragoness, one just like her, and they could be together again. She hated that the thought even crossed her mind, shoving it away as quickly as it had appeared, snapping her jaws closed around a snarl.

“Santino?” Seb said faintly, on his knees, his hands on her leg, balancing there. “This… This is crazy… I… I don’t feel good. I feel weird.”

Santino growled, stomping a foot.

“That’s because I’ve got to get you out of here! Alan says anyone who stays here for too long with transform – you’ll be like us! Dragons! I mean, we don’t know how it all works yet – but I’ve got to try to get you away! Come on – get up!”

Yet it was already in full swing within Sebastian, the molecules that made up his body shifting and changing, enlarging his body as he panted, holding his trembling hands to his face. It was rapid and steady and Santino gasped, reeling away as if she’d been burned.

Quick! Why was it so quick? She darted her head out, wanting to do something and not knowing what on earth she could do, something to stop the horror from happening, from feeling as if everything had ended up leading Sebastian into a trap. Would Seb

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even still want to be with her after everything that had happened? There was no way for her to tell and a big part of the dragoness didn’t even want to find out either.

Her family was coming though, filling the sky, settling her heart, though it had to have been her bellowing roars that had called them there. They clamoured down in a flurry of colour and flapping wings, struggling to control their descent at a decent pace, even as Sebastian’s shirt ripped down his back, a line of spines showing, however small they were.

“Alan!” She cried out, dragging the dragon with the most knowledge over to them. “You’ve got to do something – can we take him somewhere, stop this? We’ve got to try!”

Yet Alan had had a dragon slip through their net only that morning, currently still sitting with their father, and didn’t know what to say, her mouth opening and closing slowly. She didn’t have all the answers, shaking her head, wanting to give them and coming up with nothing.

She didn’t like feeling useless. She didn’t like it one bit, the sick churning writhing sadly in her stomach as if it was curling through her guts like a worm. Santino shouted something that she did not catch and she held up a claw, staying her frenzy. She had to try too, yes, even if she was shaken by the idea that there was so much more for them to know, while she had not found nearly enough of it out from the caves. But it was all Alan and them had.

“Hang on, we’ve got to think logically here,” she said, a little more comfortable once she’d found her voice. “Sure, we can start by taking him away – but will it be too late? How are we even going to move him…”

“Sebastian! His name is Sebastian!”

Alan gave Santino a look, the intensity of her cry sawing through her.

“I understand that you’re concerned, Santino, but we can’t rush anything. We don’t want to make it worse…”

“Make it worse?” It was time for Seb to speak up, though that was difficult with his head shifting, becoming more and more draconian by the second with a layer of scales of a nondescript colour beginning to form, one after the other. “What do you…mmmph…mean? This… Dragon? Am I…dragon? No…”

The transforming man moaned, though no one could blame him for the fear in his heart even as Santino snapped and lunged, tail cracking out with her eyes wild.

“Come on, come on, come on…” Santino fretted, snaking her head back and forth. “Alan… You said…we could do other things with our breath, the ones who weren’t breathing fire, at least not yet! I can do something with that, surely, dragon magic? I can stop this!”

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The decision had already been made, Alan shouting, stretching a wing out before her as if to stop the dragoness, yet Santino was not to be halted when it came to doing absolutely anything that she thought might work to save her partner. Seb would not be hurt by the transformation, but they thought it took some time and he had to have been close enough within their territory for some time already for the transformation to be taking place. No one knew, not then, why it was so quick, quick enough for them to see, yet her gut twisted with the frenzied urge to do something, to do anything, to see to it that Sebastian came through it well and happy, one way or another.

The rush came upon her and silvery ribbons of a softer kind of breath than fire pulled up from the back of her throat where it was emitted from, cool and wafting, curling around her teeth. She felt it rise, infusing her with a sense of power that was not pure strength, eyes fixed on Sebastian, kneeling before the lake. Sunshine danced on the clear water, the striking shadow of the cliff cutting across the water to his back, but Santino knew what she had to do.

“No!”

It was too late for Alan to stop her, the dragoness pulling on the desire to heal, to make whole again, inside her, trusting instincts that she didn’t even know were there. That was all she could do, all she could hope for, heart hammering so loudly that it felt as if it was pounding its beat solely against her eardrums. It did not flow from her like a fiery swathe of breath, what they could use to keep their nesting mounds toasty through the claws of winter, but lighter, gently, like a living mist.

Yet it was still a kind of mist that she could direct as it curled around Seb, the man trying to struggle up, though he had part of a tail, only a little, and his legs were trying to adjust themselves into a position more apt for a quadruped. His eyes widened, sweeping his fingers inadvertently through the wafting mist, blue and white and sparkling through with shades of teal – a surprising colour coming from a purple dragon. Yet it was not as if the blast of a dragon’s fire matched their scales either, so perhaps that was merely something that they had come to expect from numerous fantasy novels and films about dragons.

Santino pulled back, still breathing out the healing life force, what she thought would return Sebastian to his normal body, safe and sound once again. Yet it all happened before her eyes as if she was watching the scene play out before her in slow-motion, her body locked up and unable to respond, not even to clamp her jaws down against the flow of her breath. It poured and poured and, before her eyes, Sebastian groaned and arched, his back rounding into a draconian ridge.

No!

She screamed inwardly and Arya shoved her off-balance too late, Santino’s breath winding around and around the man before her. Yet it cocooned around Seb as if it was a chrysalis, a vector of transformation, the man shifting more and more rapidly without them being able to do anything about it. His back burst through his clothes and his jacket, ripping it to shreds, sharp, jagged, yellow spines tearing their way free. He let out a strangled noise, though could barely be seen in the winding of magic, the breath taking on a life of its own, even after Santino had shut it off, forcing had she

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could back down her own throat. It was all that she felt she could do, but the damage, if it could even be called that, had already been done.

She was unable to stop the transformation and, if anything, she had sped it up. Seb twisted into the form of a dragoness before their very eyes, howling and crying out, though Sebastian reassured them all alter that she hadn’t felt any pain, which had been scant relief for Santino, not knowing if she had pushed too far, done too much. No one was to know when that was happening, the first so rapidly accelerated transformation that all of them had seen.

Yet her back had rounded with large, dominant spikes with a backwards curve to them, her tail shooting out and whipping about like a serpent that had suddenly found itself trapped. The colour of her scales settled into a pale teal with her points yellow, including the spines, the scales larger, less of them seeming to cover more of her body. Maybe it was something to do with the rapid transformation, though that would be seen in time as the dragoness, for that was all that they believed her to be, gasped with her new lungs for the very first time.

“Oh!”

Her voice had softened, yet rang through the clamour crystal clear, eyes wide open and tongue flickering out as it too transformed. A dragon’s tongue was not forked, but they could still flicker it out somewhat like a snake to taste the air and sift through scents differently. Scent, after all, gave them even more information about their environment, though her muzzle was moderate in length, not too wide and not too narrow, her nostrils defined at the tip with a neat tuck and curve.

Santino’s breath caught, heart racing, lifting. Why did it feel so good to look at Sebastian like that? She wanted to stop it all, of course, but she wanted to see too, craning her neck, her lower jaw hanging slack, the dragon’s yellow points pulling up into smooth horns with a curve in the middle, the tip pointing towards the sky. Sebastian had always been looking skyward, as fitting as that little detail was, pointing out constellations, trying to teach her about worlds beyond her comprehension.

Maybe they would have that again, one day. Maybe.

But the dragoness before him, her claws curling down into the ground in a flicker of yellow, forcing the mountain pebbles to shift under her feet, was beautiful. Sebastian was beautiful as a man and as a dragoness and that was something, very much so, that Santino never would have denied, not in a million years. She’d known, when she’d met Sebastian’s eyes back in the park when rescuing Kelvin, that she still loved them dearly, that she was head over heels for them.

That gave her hope, yet it was a strange feeling indeed to let hope rise even as her heart sank, the dragoness standing shorter than her, but resplendent in teal scales with yellow points, the large, sharp spines on her back with a dangerous edge to them. Her tail was tipped with a yellow triangle also, along with her strong, moderate horns, a dragon who should have been proud of her form, though it had never been Santino’s intention at all to drag her down into dragonhood with her.

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The dragon settled on the ground, her flanks heaving, her eyes wide and wild, wings splayed out around her, though they seemed longer than those of the other dragons, bigger still, stretched out like the wings of an eagle that could fly for days upon days, taking on long-distance flights. They still, however, bore the typical bat-like features with the spines between leathery membranes, strong and resistant to harm. Santino couldn’t help but notice that there was a touch of purple in the membranes, if she looked carefully, the sight of it warming her heart. Maybe that had been because of her.

“Seb… Sebastian?”

She approached cautiously, yet Sebastian grunted, staying her with a flick of her tail, accidentally demonstrating remarkable control over her own body even after only a very short time of being in it. Maybe that was a good sign too. Or perhaps Santino was merely clutching at straws. Who could blame her, honestly?

Sebastian’s mind reeled, parting her jaws, feeling out her new teeth with her tongue. It had all happened so quickly, all in a way that she had not been able to control. It had been like a dream, in a way, where she had not wanted to stop it either, even if she knew, ultimately, that the change was not one that she wanted. She licked her lips, the feel of scales so foreign, overwhelmed with so many new sensations that her mind couldn't catch up with every last one of them, not then. That would take time, though there was certainly no going back to the city for her. Her studies too, well… She hadn’t taken all that well to university anyway, to be fair.

She chuffed softly, laughing, as Santino looked on, dithering with worry, not knowing what to do. That would be par for the course, for a while. No one was to blame there. She tried to stand, yet that proved to be more difficult again, slumping down, one leg in the water. The cool of it was almost nice, though just another sensation that her mind, somehow, had to catch up with, keeping up with all the changing things at a pace that she was very much not comfortable with.

It was what it was, however, the shreds of her clothes around her, trying to be embarrassed in her nakedness, as a dragon, but, frankly, Sebastian didn’t find that she had it in her.

A dragoness, not even a dragon. But changing from one sex to the other, when Sebastian had been, well… Santino’s heart twisted, blood roaring, his stomach lurching as if she was about to lose her lunch. Whereas she had been bisexual, Sebastian had been gay. And what the hell did that mean for Sebastian, what she thought of herself and who she was, let alone what it meant for their relationship? When it was placed against Sebastian’s sense of self, even Santino could put aside her longing to have their relationship back, exactly the way it was, in lieu of caring for her partner.

With Sebastian as a dragoness, however, her scales wet from the water, panting heavily, eyes wide, they would have all the time in the world to talk and understand, though not quite in the way that they had wanted to.

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Alan muttered under her breath about not expecting that to happen, though the insecurity of not knowing everything and not being able to find the answers as easily as she wanted to claw at her innards. She slunk away, swinging her tail sadly, delving into the caves for research, the cool dark wrapped around her, shielding her from the outside world. They would be fine, she was sure, now that Sebastian had transformed, as the rest of them had been afterwards. That was a good thing, though a thing that would change everything.

Alan groaned. There were too many “things” to keep track of. Maybe she was fighting a losing battle even trying to keep track of them at all.

All she knew was that she had to try.

*

“So.”

“So.”

Like it was that goddamn easy. The dragons sat side by side on a bed of moss, tucked away in the forest, the sound of nature around them. Birds sang and hopped from branch to branch, not at all worried about the dragons in their midst, a squirrel looking for buried nuts while they came to the end of their hibernation. After caring for their eggs, buried, for the winter months, the dragons were glad to see signs of spring coming, fresh buds on the trees and the green of fresh flowers poking through the soil. There was rebirth all around them, if only they took the time to look for it.

Santino, however, didn’t know how to look for it. Sure, she had something in her, something that she had only touched on once with Alan, when they were trying to see what “powers” they had (it seemed like a silly way to put it), but…what good was it? What did it all matter when all she had done was speed up her partner’s transformation? If they even were partners anymore… They certainly weren’t boyfriends. She didn’t know what they were anymore.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, forcing the words out, hating how they tasted in her mouth, leaving a foul lick of bile behind. “I’m so sorry… I thought… I rushed. I thought I could stop it. I’m so, so sorry… I don’t expect you to forgive me.”

To her surprise, however, Sebastian laughed, though the mirth, if that’s what it even was, did not loosen the lines of tension from the dragonesses body.

“Oh, Santino… You were always like that though, weren’t you? You rushed into things without thinking and, really, it’s okay. I’m kind of glad that you didn’t change that much.”

Santino tried a small smile, the tiniest of smiles. It didn’t make her feel any better. Things had gone better than she had imagined, the worst-case scenario being Sebastian not turning up to find her at all, but it was not as if they had gone the best that they could. They still did not know where they stood and maybe they would not, at least for a little while. Not everything was sorted in a flash of light, after all, even if Sebastian’s transformation had raced on practically at that rate.

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“Still, I should have thought, we’d been trying so hard to keep people away from where we think the magic spreads…” Santino shrugged helplessly. “But it didn’t work, I’m sorry. There’s so much about this place that we don’t know, it really can make you feel small sometimes, tiny. As if we don’t matter.”

“From what Julie said on the phone, about you guys, I think you matter more than you realise.”

Santino gave her a strange look, as if she could not quite believe what Santino was saying.

“Maybe,” Santino said doubtfully. “Alan thinks so. We don’t know know yet though. I wish we did, I think it’s starting to bug Alan too.”

There was time, the afternoon stretching on. Santino let Sebastian rest, foraging for her, enough for her to try out her new palate, though winter berries and roots would not go very far on a dragon’s stomach. They would do for a start and they would look forward to richer pickings in the warmer months when spring came, taking their grace in hunting until then. At least they could more easily cook their meat with a flicker of fiery breath, adding what herbs they had managed to store and dry to it. It made them all feel a little more as they had been, before, in a good way.

They may have been dragons, but they were not pure beast and not human, certainly not. They were their own beings and it was up to them to define exactly what that meant to them.

Sebastian shifted her weight, something she needed to say bubbling up from deep inside. Sadly, for Santino, it was not a love confession, or a confession of continuing love – not yet.

“I guess…” She struggled with the words, rolling them around her mouth before managing to force them free of her jaws, practically with a thrust of her tongue. “I’m a dragoness too…I guess?”

“Yeah,” Santino said softly, twilight slowly pulling at the sky, as if a soft shade was being drawn over it, the stars coming out in the lull of late afternoon teasing into the early evening. “Yeah, I’m sorry. All of us are like that… It happened to all of us.”

Sebastian sighed, slouching a little, her wings hanging on either side of her body, as if she was slumping into the ground. Somehow, she had ended up lying down on her belly, her legs tucked under her, though everything happened naturally, instinctively, without the dragon even having to think about it. Settling in as close as she dared, Santino murmured soothingly, warbling and crooning as if she was trying to soothe one of her sisters. In a way, that was what Sebastian had become. She still held out hope that they would become more than that again.

“Kind of sucks when I never liked girls though.”

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Santino nuzzled her softly, laying her wing softly over and around Sebastian’s back. The dragoness, whether consciously or not, leaned into her embrace.

“You’re not a girl, you’re a dragoness,” she said, firmly, decisively, as if there could be no doubt in the matter at all. “That’s different. You’re different. You’re perfect.”

Sebastian’s lips parted as if so

*

With the fire flickering, comforting them all after a rather tumultuous day, the dragons gathered together in their sleeping clearing, with a cliff face to their back and the forest before them, protecting them. It was a spot that they had learned to take flight from without the aid of a cliff to leap from, though it was not easy. They’d always considered that, one day, they might have to do so in an emergency, even if none of them wanted to think about what kind of emergency could push them to that.

Jenson and Darius… They’d talked. A little. Mostly, Darius had tried to work out their new body, but it had been harder than usual, perhaps as they had been sleeping while it had all taken place. That was something for Alan to wonder over, but the dragoness was quiet, her head laid down near Isla-Rae. The smallest dragoness of them all soothed her softly, twitching her tail back and forth over Alan’s scales, letting her know, always, that she was there, was her sister, always there to support her.

No one had come to see Isla-Rae yet, but that was not entirely unexpected. Her family had not been in the country and she’d doubted that they would have been easily accessible, though there had been a couple of friends down as emergency contacts. But after several months, there was little way for her to know where in the country they were or even what they were doing. She knew their curiosity would be raised, however, over what had happened to her and, one way or another, they would find her in the end. It just might take them a little more time and maybe a few more phone calls to get to her new corner of the world, the place that she felt she had made her own.

Isla-Rae watched the others, how Brent and Arya were unsettled, the two perhaps most active dragons unnaturally still, like statues that had been posed lying down, their tails curled tightly around their bodies. Although they did not touch, there was a sense of comfort in how they placed themselves, two tense mounds that slowly softened, as if they were melting under the heat of the fire. Arya’s mother had left, guided down so that she could go back to look after the rest of Arya’s family, though already the pang of missing her caught in her chest.

Isla-Rae would talk to them the next day, but was confident that Arya had more than enough help for the time being with Brent there to comfort her, even if it was harder to tell what was going on with Brent. With their sister dragons around, no one was truly alone. But she had to stay there for Alan, softening her demeanour without the words that Alan loved. She always thought that she was the dragoness who had taken the most to it, not feeling as if she was leaving as much behind as the others, but there were things too that she’d left behind. It was more as if something had clicked in her mind, slotting softly into place, bringing everything into the light for the first time.

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It felt right. As long as she had that warm glow of settlement in her heart and her mind, everything else, she knew, would fall into place, exactly as it was meant to be. She had been religious, to a point, before, and a little of that had carried over for her, the idea that there was a higher power and a plan for them. If she was following in the tracks of all that fate had laid out for her, there could be no harm, no harm at all.

She was content and she only hoped that she would be able to help everyone else see the best of themselves as dragons too, bit by bit, day by day. It was a slow process.

Like it would be a slow process, most certainly, for Darius. They shifted their weight, half ignoring their father half the time, though Anniyah respectfully kept her distance, being the wife, that Jenson had married after their first relationship had ended. She’d never meshed well with Darius, though he had somehow managed to accept Anniyah a little more as “the wife of his father” over time. Not as a stepmother, for their relationship had never been such, not when he had his own mother, of course, who loved him dearly. Thankfully for Darius, that was not something that he’d ever had to doubt, which had perhaps given him the courage to head out to say one last goodbye to his father.

Instead, he found himself trying to take in his father’s words, Jenson calm and quiet and softly spoken. He’d never quite heard that from him, always looking up to him, as a son so often did to a father. It was easy to settle into that kind of role too when his father was larger than him still, making him feel like a child again, even if Darius, very clearly, was not.

“I’m sorry, Darius, that you had to come here,” Jenson said softly, though the obvious love for her son shone in her eyes, brimming over in a glitter of emotion. “But I’m glad too… I hope the change to being a dragoness wasn’t too stark for you.”

Darius blinked.

“Um… What’s that?”

Alex nodded, settling in close.

“Ah… I hope that isn’t too much of a shock, Darius,” she said as gently as she could. “It’s happened to all of us. There was not any…hm…correlation between sex when we transformed. The females stayed female but the males… We became female too. All of us.”

Darius’ head snapped back around to his father, eyes wide.

“Wait, so you’re a woman now? Just like that? How didn’t I know? You’re like mom?”

Jenson laid a wing comfortingly over her son’s back and, for once, Darius did not shake her off.

42

“With so much happening, I didn’t think to explain it, I’m sorry. But how are you feeling about being a dragoness too? It was a big shock to all of us, though we worked out partway through that all of us were becoming dragonesses, not just the women.”

Darius scoffed and blinked, though the roll of his eyes was something human, something that should have been far more deferential when it came to speaking to much older, more refined dragons than him.

“No, I’m a guy, I’m definitely male, thank you. I don’t know what you’re talking about there.”

“We understand if it might be hard to understand and accept,” Alex said as gently as she could, though there was no easy way to break such news, “but you are like us now, a dragoness. We’re all the same, though it may take some time for you to understand.”

Darius cocked his head, though did not back down, a twitch to his tail that promised trouble. In time, he might be able to let go of his humanness, to relax into a softer way of life and being a dragoness, yet with seeing his father after a time apart and the fractured relationship after his father had remarried… Things took time to heal, his mind and emotions resorting to anger in the immediacy of it all.

Darius’ brashness and bluntness, however, would not fade, an intrinsic part of who he was.

“I hate to break it to you…but I’m fairly sure that girl dragons don’t have penises,” Darius grunted. “I have one, unless that’s some sort of freaky dragon thing that still makes me a girl.”

They stared at the silver dragon, unblinking, silence falling over their group. The fire crackled and snapped up kindling, the dryer twigs that Kelvin had been feeding it with Isla-Rae at his side. Alan, who had been so tense and quiet the whole evening, picked up her head, the only dragon to move as the others froze.

“I’m sorry…” Alan said at long last, breaking the silence. “But you’re going to have to repeat that. You’re… You have…a…”

She could not find the words, though what she did know, as she interrogated Darius more than thoroughly, was that the man had not transformed into a dragoness. Of course, Darius was not amenable to in-depth inspections and still had their modesty to hold in mind, though that would most likely slip away in time, allowing them to become more and more dragon-like over time. He did, however, mumble something about “it being out” when he went to bathe, though that was not something that Darius, fairly, wanted to get into. There was no rush to it, but it left Alan brimming over with more questions than ever, wanting to dive right back down into the cave system and pick up where she’d left off earlier.

But could she learn even more about the dragons by simply studying and being with her sisters as they were, together? It was something that had rolled around and around her mind as she considered Darius, all that had been right there before her eyes.

43

They’d all assumed, after their initial research, the old drawings and markings made by dragons long gone by, of other times, that showed them all as matriarchs, as females. But what if there was more to it than that? What if there were to be more dragons?

That would make sense, she reasoned with herself, settling into a restless sleep late at night, though she would surely nap in the caves between her session on the coming day. She couldn’t spend all her time in the caves, but she was more fired up than ever to see what secrets they hid, all that they could uncover, in time. But perhaps she should not have rushed through it. Despite her need to know everything, the hunger for knowledge that clawed at the pit of her belly, there was only so much that Alan could do.

It was about time she realised that, recording the passage of all that had come to them. Still, she really wanted to see what those breath abilities were all about, whether they could even affect the land around them properly…

Her dreams were filled with discoveries, a smile pulling at her lips, even in slumber.

Nearby, Santino and Sebastian sat, looking up at the moonlight, in a companionable, if awkward silence. Truth be told, it was not all that different to how they had been before, still working out what made the other tick, their relationship slow and steady, the kind of relationship that was still finding its feet. It had been a little rocky from the start solely as they were young: they weren’t meant to have all the answers. No one expected them to have all the answers, but sometimes they thought that they should.

“So…” Santino said slowly, breaking the silence, the two of them sat apart from the rest of the dragons. “This is happening then… You’re…here to stay, I guess?”

She said it as a question, though there was no question about it. Seb could not leave, though Santino’s heart pulled to see her partner changed so. Once men, now dragonesses. After Darius’ revelation, Santino could only be grateful for the fact that Sebastian had not been transformed into a male dragon, for that was something that would have raised more problems than it solved. Even if it might have been more comfortable for Sebastian…

Oh, curses, there was really no right way to go about things, was there?

“I don’t think I can go anywhere,” Sebastian said quietly, shuffling her feet. “It’s weird… I always thought it was fun to play a dragon when we had all the guys together to play Dungeons and Dragons… I always wanted a dragon character. Now…”

Santino chuckled softly, leaning in a little closer to Seb. The pressure of the dragoness’ back against her, despite everything, could not have felt more right.

“Yeah… I remember that. You ended up with an anthropomorphic one half the time, one that was humanoid…kinda? Everyone said you were a furry.”

“Hey – you did too!” Seb had the good grace to laugh, bumping Santino with her wing, though the jostle was only partly accidental, still getting used to her body. “You always

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said that! But, er, guess I did look at rather a lot of dragon art and the costumes those people wore too were pretty cool. Maybe I was a furry?”

“Hey, hon.”

Santino nuzzled her neck, letting the coolness of her breath, the life force within fluttering out in ribbon-like tendrils across Seb’s scales. Sebastian shivered, though hardly realised the motion came from her.

“You can be a furry still if you like, even if you are a dragon. You’re, like, top tier now, or something like that.”

Sebastian chuckled and shook her head, Santino chancing that there was a gleam of fondness in her eye. She swallowed. She hadn’t realised how much she’d missed that, how much she had been suppressing the aching longing for her partner, the light of her life, the one who had made everything slot into place “just so” even while they’d been fumbling along with life itself.

It was good to be together again, Seb nuzzling her back, noses brushing in a dragon’s kiss, if only for a breath of a moment. It was all it needed to be.

“Hey, Santino?”

“Yeah, hon?”

“I still love you.”

And those words were all that made Santino’s heart swell in the glow of the night, the twinkle of the stars above.

She could get through anything as long as she had Sebastian with her.

She’d never be without them again.

45

Chapter Five

After the “Sebastian incident”, they were at least able to tighten up their security, putting up more blockades further away and hindering the approach of any humans, though it had clearly proven difficult for them to make sure that they could be safely found only. If Julie had not transformed too, or if they had known that more would become dragons – not only dragonesses – before, they would have been able to warn everyone. Yet setting up signals and signs for where they were, where their friends and family could find them, was something that had had to wait, sadly, until two had already become dragons.

Not that that was too much of a bad thing… Julie seemed to be taking it better than expected, though the dragoness was quieter than she had been as a human, which worried Sandra greatly. She’d never seen Julie so quiet and composed, the dragoness often lost in her thoughts and looking out across the valleys. She hadn’t expressed any interest in going down into the caverns, though her introduction to dragonhood, to be fair to her, had been different. Alan had suggested broaching the subject to her of the idea that Julie might be pregnant too, as they had found themselves, but Alex had quashed that one. That was something that, surely, would be too much too soon.

They had time. Even as Arya settled outside the “ring” they had determined caused the transformation, where the cave system stretched out underneath their feet, to talk with her mother. Even as Brent sat with her father and tried to explain to the man that had raised him that she was never going to be the same again, her father constantly getting her pronouns wrong. Brent didn’t mind too much, as long as her father tried. Although she had lived her life until becoming a dragon as a male, it would have been wrong to be male and a dragon. It made sense to her and, for the time being, that was all that was needed.

Arya was no longer her mother’s little girl, the career-driven young woman who was going to make her proud. Neither was Brent her father’s sports star, the man who was going to get all the way to the top, whichever way she chose. Those were live left far behind and they were alike in the sense that it unsettled them both the same to see one of their parents mourning the fact that something had been lost, something had been left behind. Maybe they had been blind not to see it, though their parents brought it into stark relief.

Arya’s father had not even been able to bring himself to come to see her. Her mother had not said it aloud, of course, but she knew it in the way her mother slid her gaze away. His absence spoke louder than anything else and she took a flight afterwards, just to clear her head.

Did he hate her? She wondered. Did he think her disgusting? It was not something that she wanted to delve into all that much, for she wasn’t so sure that she would like the answer to the questions she had to ask. Her mother was enough and she would have to lean into that, relax with it, enjoy her company, her presence, something that she honestly thought she had lost before. She was glad that what she had thought was gone forever had, at least, come back in some part.

46

Maybe with her dragon sisters around her, those that she dearly loved, she would find her new place in the world. For it had become clearer and clearer to her that she needed a purpose, that she needed something to fly forward into, her wings spread, charming and confident, the dragon that she had never known that she needed to be.

Julie reassured Sandra, perhaps a little too much, that all was well, though they tried not to let the guilt weigh them down as a whole. Something was going on in the land and the caves that was greater than even them as dragons and they were not to be held to blame, not to be held responsible. It was only the way of a fate greater than theirs, though they still had control over the destinies they chose, as Kelvin had inadvertently demonstrated. Maybe her breaking from the expected “norm” had given them the freedom and release in knowing that they too could choose their fates.

The newly transformed dragonesses, as the days passed, were at least able to confirm that they were with eggs, though Sebastian struggled with that the most, Julie having had a daughter already in her life. It was not something that Sebastian could honestly find the words for and Santino comforted her with her wing over her back, allowing what had been suspected but not confirmed prior sink into her partner. Together, they would be able to take on anything, though Seb was at least privately soothed by the fact that laying eggs and all that had happened to Santino had not seemed to harm or hurt her in the slightest. That, at least, had come through.

Arya took her mother, once, to see the nesting mounds, though could not stop a sense of unease in her. It was strange to have a human at the nesting grounds, as if they were sacred, though she’d tried not to pass it on to her mother too much. It would have been rude and yet rudeness, in that way, was a human construct, not something that she had to force on herself anymore. Her mother had laid her hand on her shoulder and stood with her, though Arya would forever remember the words she uttered there.

“You’re going to be a fantastic mother.”

That, despite the turmoil of losing her new life and being thrust forward into a new one racing away before her feet, helped Arya, at least a little.

Sometimes that was enough.

Alan, however, found herself with a new sense of purpose, forcing herself on as the educator, the one who would find herself and find the answers one way or another. Nothing untoward was going on there, though Brent spent more time down in the caves with her, as if the other dragoness too was trying to escape from something. Alan didn’t question it though, merely grateful for the quiet help. If Brent had something to say, she would say it when she was good and ready. Otherwise,

Taking Santino, the strongest of those with another breath ability other than fire so far, to a clearing, Sebastian sitting and watching, her curiosity perked. Though she made sure, that time, to be far enough back that Santino would not catch her in the line of fire, so to speak. The clearing was larger than where they usually tucked themselves away, a little exposed, though they were a little more confident than before that they would have plenty of warning if anyone came – when they came. Word was spreading,

47

according to the people coming and going to see them, and soon their world would change yet again.

The dragons would deal with that when the time came. They had never expected to stay hidden forever. Yet they knew their time was running out as the days grew longer and longer, the sun remaining a little longer in the sky every day. The warmer days, milder, pulled at their scales, though it made Santino, in a way, reach for the coolness of her calling, the flow of rippling breath that seemed able to heal and do…something. She’d only managed to heal a small cut, implored to do so by instinct, and Alan was the one who had dragged out as much scant information as she had from her. What more could it do? Well, that was what they were there to find out. What they did know was that others seemed to be able to breathe the life breath too, but to varying degrees of success. It was something that had to be trained, though everyone seemed to adequately be able to breathe fire to a moderate degree. Alan said that maintaining a flame, however, had something to do with lung capacity and strength…whatever that meant.

“Now… Relax and breathe, I guess,” Alan said, her nose crinkling a little cutely in a way that would have been enough to make any dragon’s heart skip a beat. “Let it out, as if you are letting it flow from you. You didn’t use fire much before, did you?”

Santino shook her head.

“No, it was never strong enough to reach deeply into the egg mounds. I think I know what you mean, but this feels a lot more natural to me than fire.”

The dragoness pulled her head back into a proud S-shape, like a swan, her breath rippling around her tongue, lingering in the back of her throat. It was a good feeling to let it out, flowing from her jaws like a stream, yet it was pushed too as if there was an urgency behind it that, even then, could not be halted.

Across the grass, it flowed, soothing, sinking into the ground and, before their eyes, it changed. Grass sprouted into the tickling ripple of breath, fresh and green, rich with fructose, fingers reaching for the life-giving breath that had rejuvenated it so swiftly from a winter slumber. It was difficult to kill the seeds and the roots of grass and Santino did not yet have control over what sprouted forth, even if new life could be planted too.

Flowers grew, leaves unfurling, blooming as if it was spring already, in pinks and purples and even blues. Some came with lines on their petals, special marks that would lead pollinating insects to where they needed to be, others larger with many petals, all clustered in together, one on top of the other. Some had trumpets and bells, snowdrops dangling with heavy, solemn heads, bowing to the quiet contemplation of forget-me-nots.

She kept exhaling, a growl behind it, her eyes wide with wonder, reflecting the light purples and blues of her breath, though there was only so much capacity in her lungs as new life bloomed. Even Alan was amazed – and it took a lot to get her to be in awe, considering all that that she had been at the forefront of, at least so far.

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This, she thought. This is what I was meant to do.

She’d liked gardening, a long time ago. She’d not had much chance to do it at university, of course, being a student and limited in things, but she’d still liked going out to walk their dog, particularly through the city gardens and outside the city to nice places with nice flowers. She knew all the Latin names of her favourite plants and flowers, though had been embarrassed to reel them off, even when she found a particularly nice specimen out on her walks.

Being a dragoness, however, took all of that from her. There was no need, not anymore, for her to hold back, not in the slightest, not when it could all be boiled down to her being her true self. Climbing plants twisted at the base of trees at the edge of the clearing and she realised, with a shock, that she had nearly covered the entire large clearing before her in green growth and luscious plant life.

Letting the last trickles of her breath die out, she lifted her head high in wonder, surveying the splendour, as if the ground before her had been strewn with jewels. Yet there could be nothing finer and more extravagant, to her, than a garden like that, sprawling with flowers of every size, shape and colour – even a humungous orange blossom that was larger than her head, speckled with red dots leading to the stigma and stamens. Alan’s lips parted, a genuine smile pulling at them, eyes wide and shining.

“Wow…”

They played a little more with her breath, though the use of it left Santino more exhausted than expected, her throat sore. Perhaps it was the sort of thing that required more stamina to pull off, though the excited flutter of anticipation to try again curled deep inside her. What more could she do? What could she bring life to, if it came to giving life like with growing plants or healing an injury?

Sebastian helped Santino build a shelter to give at least some of her new garden some cover, though it was still on the cooler side. There was no telling if another snap frost would come, especially up there in the mountains, and sweep her work from the face of the earth, though the seeds and the roots, where born, would remain. Santino could always build it again, but the first deliberate use of her life-giving breath had her heart trembling, as if it was constantly skipping a beat but all in a way that made her feel as if that very life force and energy was thrumming through her. She leaned into her partner, of a sorts, a smile on her lips, Sebastian sharing one back with her.

“Thanks, hon, I’m glad you’re here to see this. It makes it better… Maybe more real?” Santino chuckled, ducking her head a little shyly, devoid of the jokes and forwardness that had been her previous norm. “I dunno what I’m saying. I just want to spend the rest of my life with you, raising our offspring…together.”

But when Sebastian tenderly rested her snout against Santino’s sharing the moment, sharing breath, humming softly, they both knew that all was right with the world.

*

49

Training a dragon’s fiery breath was easier and Brent and Arya took charge of that with Isla-Rae also being one of the strongest in that regard, strangely so. Maybe it took a finer control to direct it, but they cleared dead wood and trees by carefully setting them ablaze, the ash something that would crumble down and fertilise the ground in a way they might not have considered before. Where the land could be burned down, it was an act of rejuvenation in itself, allowing the dead to be cleared and fresh life, once again, to spring forth.

Isla-Rae leapt and bounded, making a game out of it, setting each branch alight of a lightning-struck tree, one at a time. It made it harder and Arya growled as she struggled to keep up, more one for brute force rather than accuracy. But that was why they trained and practised, Brent cursing. She knew the dragoness wanted to be the best, to be ahead of everyone else, her natural competitiveness coming to the forefront, but Arya also did Brent no favours if she made everything easy for her. Not like she was winning either anyway – Isla-Rae chirped and laughed and joyfully left them both in the dust.

“Oh, now you’re just showing off!”

Brent grumped, sitting on her haunches and tucking her tail around herself, wisps of smoke still coming from her nostrils. Yet the release of breathing fire had warmed her body all the way through and she felt a little better, even if she was still struggling to find her place there, what she was meant to be doing. She’d thought she was okay with everything, in the weeks after her initial transformation, but even she had to admit, after seeing Kelvin’s struggles, that the mind could lie to itself. A bit deep for her to be thinking, if she was honest, but it was what it was.

Her stomach growled, their thoughts turning to hunting.

“I can’t wait until we can grow some vegetables here,” Brent grumbled, though even she had to chuckle a little at the fact that she was the one wanting something other than meat. “It’ll be a change… I liked eating a variety before, you know? Lots of different things.”

“Winter should always be the hardest time for us,” Arya said, her mind cast back to old lessons in biology. “I think we should have plenty of opportunities and we’ll be able to travel further afield too if we perhaps need to grow grains and stuff on the lower slopes where it’s milder. Maybe we can even store it?”

Little did they know, at that point, that Santino and the use of the life-giving breath might have just the answer for them, which would prove to be at least one little thing to boost Brent’s spirits. That would be soon seen, however, as the dragons practised breathing fire, finding it burning deep within them, striking at the back of their mouths to release the blaze.

There was a lot to consider, a lot to wonder about, a world of opportunities stretching out before them. The people that came to visit them, most often, did not stay too long, for they had to get back down the mountain while it was light, for it was a treacherous terrain. Darrius’ mother and Jenson’s ex-partner visited, though Anniyah did speak to them and they were civil enough. Maybe it was something about such a great change

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coming over them that they had to, in the end, put at least some of their differences aside. Life and love, unfortunately, came with changes and they could only be as gently and as diplomatically handled as possible: something that was not always actually possible when one brought emotion into the mix.

“You know, I didn’t think it would end up like this,” Brent said quietly, preparing with Santino to head out on a flight. “You seem so settled…especially with Sebastian. And Isla-Rae too. But I didn’t think… I guess I didn’t believe that all of this would really be permanent.”

Santino rumbled comfortingly, rubbing her side against her sister’s length to soothe her, gently and lightly.

“Oh, Brent… I didn’t know you felt like that. How long have you been feeling so? Do you think it’s similar to what happened to Kelvin?”

“No…” Brent shook her head. “No, that was different. But I think I’m getting there… I mean to something better. Maybe?”

Santino smiled and nodded.

“Well, whatever you need, all of us will be here for you, whatever, whenever. Even when you’re being a real pain in the –”

“Okay! I think it’s about time we head out now!”

Laughing and jostling, they rough-housed briefly, playing with snaps of their jaws, though the call of the hunt was upon them and they needed to bring back a carefully claimed meal for the flight of dragons, especially with three more to care for there. Spreading their wings, Brent’s heart a little more settled than it had been before, they took to the air.

Simply being together was enough, for the time being.

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Chapter Six

“Are you doing well, Darius?”

Isla-Rae smiled, glancing back at the silver dragon as they flew, though it was a lazy kind of flight, the kind of flying that was undertaken purely for pleasure rather than any purpose. He’d gotten a lot better over the last month or so, but had been the quickest to take to flying, only out sped by Brent, even if she had learned to fly a long, long time back, so long ago that it felt, even to her, as if it had been a lifetime ago. Thankfully for them, they did not have to hunt that day, comfortably full still yet not weighed down by their last meal. Darius did not spend too much time with Isla-Rae, but even he had to admit, as he tried to cope with the changes in his life, that she was an easy dragon to be around, light in heart and mind – or so he could see. It was a good counter to his way of being, overthinking everything, often delving far more deeply into his mind than was strictly needed.

Darius, however, had to practice flying, drawing a lot of curiosity from others as they were a male dragon. They called him a “drake”, but it was just a word, he guessed, like how one could be referred to as a “man”. He didn’t mind it too much, liking the little sense of identity it gave him. It was better than disassociating, staring blankly at whatever was in front of him for hours on end, trying to understand, failing to understand, losing a bit of himself.

What was lost could be gained, however… That was what Isla-Rae told him. Her kindness, even then, was appreciated and Darius could not help but warm to her, however slowly it came, days and weeks passing softly together.

He cursed lowly, dipping a little, struggling with the height of his flight. He could not lose his altitude too much, not when there was less updraft to lift his wings. He could glide for hours on the right air current, not understanding that they wound their way across the mountainous landscape like currents in the ocean, the shift and pull of the air more alive than he had ever given it credit for. The winds were apt to change, particularly at higher altitudes, and they tried to avoid flying too close to the ground most of the time.

Isla-Rae, however, had other things on her mind, drawing conversation out of the larger drake slowly and sweetly, embracing him as if he was one of her sisters. Yet one thing that she could not ignore, of course, was the fact that he was a drake. It was not intrinsic to motherhood, of course, but her curiosity had been roused in a way that could not simply be laid to rest. Truth be told, she didn’t think that it needed to be either, enjoying the moment and only the moment, exactly as it was.

They talked about their lives before, their families, what they had planned, what they tried to plan, however small those things could be. Darius wanted to fly to the highest peak – and higher still. Isla-Rae longed to see her young growing, nurturing and caring for them. It was, in a way, a childhood that she would never have, being born as a human and not a dragon, though

“I’ve seen you spending a lot of time with Arya,” she said, a glint in her eye. “I think she enjoys your company too.”

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Darius’ jaw dropped as if he was about to say something, though he stuttered and stumbled and fumbled over his words. True, he had been trying to pull on his fire with her, like dragging something out from deep within his gut, but it had not come in more than a sputtering gasp and flutter of flame. Yet her determination and the gleam in her eyes had had him wanting to try again, though Darius had not quite acknowledged the fluttering inside him, which was behind it.

“I, uh…don’t know what you mean… I mean, nothing’s been said about me talking to her, as it?”

Isla-Rae grinned, though didn’t let him see her smile. He might not have been so open with her, though it had taken a while to simply see some words slipping and then pouring from the usually reserved dragon, if he thought she was laughing at him. But she didn’t want to laugh at him, merely enjoying the comfortable familiarity growing between them. It was like caring for him, but in a closer way, showing him the way as a dragon and even teaching. Brent may have been a better choice to show Darius how to fly efficiently and to improve his stamina, but Isla-Rae had offered. It spoke volumes, to her, that Darius took her up on the offer.

“Nothing, of course not,” she assured him smoothly, “but I think she’d like to spend more time with you too. She’s been quieter of late… I worry about her. I think she’s struggling. You had your mother and your father here and to visit, but Arya’s father hasn’t come. She said that there was something there, something about the study path she’d chosen before. It sounds like it was hard for her, before too.”

Darius chewed over that, but his thoughts slipped between Arya and Isla-Rae too easily, musing, contemplating. In companionable quiet, they flew together, Isla-Rae showing him without speaking where the thermals clung to the cliffs, allowing them to rest their wings for a bit. They could not fly for too long, however, not with Darius’ inexperience, and they perched on a small clifftop, an outcrop of rock that jutted out from the face of the mountain in a small plateau. It would have barely been large enough for four dragons, though would have been sizeable to a human.

There, they talked. And talked. There was time enough while Darius laid out his wings, relaxing, slipping his gaze away, though his thoughts were between two dragonesses and his heart, to say the least of it, was confused.

But one thing that he held close that Isla-Rae passed onto him was that he didn’t have to make any decisions immediately. They would have a life as dragons, of course, but that didn’t mean everything had to be fixed straight away. That was a human construct. Where there was no emergency, there was no rush.

Darius smiled. He liked the sound of that.

He liked the sound of that rather a lot, in fact.

*

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It was Kelvin and Isla-Rae that surprised the dragons one morning, however, when the light was crisp and the air sharp, though Santino fretted over her plants, despite reassurances that she could replenish her garden anytime needed.

“Before we patrol the edges, and meet up with those waiting for us today,” Isla-Rae said, lifting her head, making sure her voice was nice and clear, “I have something to say. Actually, both Kelvin and I have something to say. Don’t you too, dear? Are you sure?”

Kelvin nodded, a smile on her muzzle, more at peace than any of them had seen for quite some time. Isla-Rae took a deep breath, her new dragon family there, her human family waiting for them – or at least her dragon family – on the edge of the zone of magic.

“We’ve decided that we want to take on new names, to embrace being a dragon, completely and truly,” she began. “It feels right, though I don’t think it may be right for everyone. I don’t want anyone to feel forced to copy us or anything, but I’m sure some might like to take things forward too, with new names.”

Sandra smiled gently, nodding to encourage her, though Isla-Rae did not need any encouragement, the solidity of the ground under her claws and Kelvin resolute at her side all that she needed.

“I will now be Tilsa,” Isla-Rae, now Tilsa, said, the moment clear with the lightness of her voice rendering them spellbound. “I like my old name…but it is not me anymore. When my family and my friends come here, I’d like to introduce myself to them as my new self, the blend of the old and the new.”

A Sumerian name, or one that came from a combination of words – not grammatically or technically correct, but what needed to be, for a dragon? She had been interested in that kind of thing, ancient languages, though it had been a passing hobby where some words had stuck with her. Kelvin had liked the idea too and Tilsa was glad that she could pass a little more on to her sister. She smiled, nudging Kelvin even as her family congratulated her, Darius tucked in close to Arya.

“And I will be Usuakusu,” the dragon, formerly known as Kelvin, said with a smile. “I think it’s time for me to choose too. Tilsa suggested this one for me… I think it has “dragon” in the name?”

They were congratulated, coming together, Tilsa smiling and standing softly tall and proud, somehow the centre of it all. Her stature had no hand nor any claw in bringing humans and dragons together and, in a way, she hoped she could do more of that, going forward as their world changed to show humanity that there was so much more that they could all do together.

Her hope led the way for all of them.

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Chapter Seven

The news of their transformations, all that had come of them, filtered through their group of friends, their loved ones, even a little beyond. For there were some amongst them that wanted to transform too, to leave their lives behind, even though they could not be entirely sure, not quite yet, whether they would become male or female dragons, when it came to their genitalia, at least.

There was no telling too whether one’s mind would change too, as it had for the original dragonesses, how they would become something more, something new, though for all that had transformed it was more a sense of finding themselves, as if it was a shape that settled over them. They had to learn how to act and to be in their new bodies, though there was room for all genders and sexualities there, shrugging off the bonds of human constraints and boxes. It would end up being one more thing for Alan to dive into with her research, the dragoness forever hungry for knowledge.

One by one, others insisted on staying, regardless of the trepidation in their eyes, the tremors in their bodies. They all had their reasons for waiting within the bounds of the cave system, where the transformations could take place, though some were more open about them than others.

Harry, Jenson’s friend, laid his hand shakily on the dragoness’ foreleg as the first changes came over him, shifting his skin to scales, worry lining his gaze. Yet he did not need any words to show everyone how haggard he was, much younger than Jenson and yet appearing older than Jenson back when she had been human. The dragoness with two-shaded scales, shifting between silver and black, let her head lay softly beside him, always there, always comforting, one of her people though there would be no telling what his scales would become.

Slowly but surely, Henry transformed, there only with Jenson, his dark skin fading to bright, sunny scales, mostly yellow but with a few orange ones dotted through, almost as if she had been speckled in the process. Her legs grew strong, though Jenson explained to her what was happening when it became a little more obvious what was happening to her body, her sex changing, the two of them comfortable together after all they had been through.

Oh, but the lack of words… Harry had never been much of a talker, though she might well have found her words as a dragoness. She had known it was a possibility and did not mind it, not one bit, for anything would give her a respite from the dark twists and turns of her world, her life, the traumas that plagued her. There was no telling, truly, whether she would still want to turn to substances and the abuse of them when she was a dragoness. But it was her last try, the last thing she could relish in as her gaunt frame changed, fleshing out, bringing her into a way of being that finally allowed her to fill her lungs with a breath of air that felt as if it flowed through her, at long last.

“How do you know I’m female?” She asked once, quietly. “I don’t know. I don’t feel different, like that.”

Jenson rumbled comfortingly, shading her with a wing, which was easy enough at her size.

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“We grew a little more accustomed to the change in scent, though it is faint,” she assured her. “You will see it in time too. But you will bear young too, just like us, I am sure. It is the coming of us, as dragonesses, that is bringing about a new age, though even I do not fully understand it.”

Harry nodded and laid her head down, her neck longer, wings taking shape, a patient transformation that cleansed her inside and outside. There was a lot for her to take in, mind reeling, though she had made her decision and would stand by it. Yet her life would never again be the same, all for the better, exactly as she wanted. Others, of course, had their own reasons for wanting to transform, sometimes in plain sight and sometimes below the lines of pine trees, the vegetation growing thicker and denser with the encroach of glorious spring in full bloom. They could have privacy or not, as they liked.

“I want to be myself again,” Alan’s sister, on the other hand, proclaimed, a fiery, short woman with hair dyed red, though it was already falling out, a dye job that was never supposed to last long. “I don’t want to spend the rest of my life in a hospital bed…”

Alan shifted her weight back and forth, torn, snaking her muzzle. But what could she say? So much had happened after her transformation and it felt like she had been left out of the loop on so many things, though she should have known already! It was not as if her father had not been to visit her, to understand what had happened… Why didn’t he tell her that Annabelle was…that Annabelle was…

She couldn’t make herself say the words, visions of hospital beds and IV chemotherapy filtering through her mind, a shroud of ill-intended thoughts that clouded the forefront of her mind.

“Annabelle…” She groaned, the tightness in her throat too much, head spinning. “Why… Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t dad tell me, when he came? I didn’t know… I would have come, if I’d known…if I’d known that you were sick.”

Annabelle shook her head, lips pressed firmly into a thin, hard line. Her determination was one of the many things that Alan had always loved about his sister, how she took everything as a challenge, refusing to be bested. But, with the news that Annabelle had brought along with her, it seemed as if that was one battle as a human that she simply could not face.

“I don’t know if it will change anything, Alan,” she said, kissing her brother (though was Alan really her sister now?) between the eyes, her wide forehead greeting her. “But I want to try. If nothing else, it is one last adventure. And, besides…” She forced a smile that was less watery than the one Alan would have been able to give her, if the roles had been reversed. “Consider it something for you to research too. Would you really want to give up this opportunity, hm?”

Alan shook her head, gulping, shaking lightly.

“If it meant that you stayed alive, yes. A thousand times, yes.”

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But it was one way in which Annabelle could be saved, if her end was not to come in a hospital bed, slipping away, bit by bit. Even if she could not be saved in transformation, to rest out in nature and to be freed of the tight constraints of human medicine, which seemed intent on prolonging the kind of life that Annabelle was afraid would no longer be worth living, in the long days and months before the end, was worth it. To Annabelle, it would always be worth it. And her opinion was the only one that mattered.

She transformed quickly, though it was a surprise as her smooth horns and blue and purple scales revealed themselves that she…well… That there was no going back from that point, though it was just as well that she did not become a male, for that might have been one change too many for a body that had already been put through hell. Annabelle became a dragoness, her body powerful, not as large as the female dragons who had been dragons for months longer. Considering that she would have a lot more time to grow, she was already sizeable, to be fair to her, bigger than those that had become or stayed males, like Jenson’s son.

Her body, however, was longer and more sinuous than that of the dragons who had transformed beforehand, as if she was becoming a dragoness from another part of the world entirely. Alan’s eyes gleaned, wanting to record it even as she dithered, supporting her sister, whiskers tickling free from the scales of her face, hanging down lightly in a purple sheen, fins around her head taking the place of what had been taken to be horns on first glance.

Alan peered, stretching up to see the fins, how the spines of them straightened, allowing a fan of soft skin to form between them, incredibly sensitive. The skin there bore a light blue shade, contrasting the spines of the fins. Yet even down the line of Annabelle’s spine rose a flush of blue fur, taking the place of the dorsal ridges and spikes that had been seen on others, the bulk of her body blending into her tail, which was thicker and almost more rudder-like.

“Wow… Annabelle, this is… Well… Amazing!”

The dragoness, transforming, grimaced, waving her tail back and forth where the tip grew thicker and fluffier, the long, supple hairs there fanning out. It would most likely flow wonderfully underwater, the warming weather up there making the lakes more appealing still.

“This… This is weird.”

Yet it was a distraction for them both, Alan becoming female, prior, and Annabelle becoming female to join her, right then and there, the studious dragoness torn between supporting her “sister” and seeking out a way to record everything. She fluttered and dithered until Annabelle snorted and pinned the tip of her tail to the ground by lying across it, sending Alan squawking while Annabelle giggled at her fury.

It was just the sort of thing that they had gotten into before as brother and sister and would still, though Annabelle would be the one to support her sister through the raising of the hatchlings first while, assisting the matriarchs as her body and mind healed. Going from strength to strength, the end was not as near as everyone had said it had

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been for her. However, her body would bear young too, already ready with the eggs of offspring to come, though there was no round to her sides, not yet. Like those that had gone before her, that would be seen in time, the dragoness settling into something of an Eastern dragon form, longer than the others but no taller that the dragonesses after their transformations.

Her wings, however, were strange, different to the more typical, bat-like wings that the “original” dragonesses, the first to be transformed, had gained. They could have been missed, in a way, for their laid down against her longer, more sinuous body like fins, a little more typical of the different type of dragoness that she had transformed into. There were only three spines in each wing, providing the soft, skin-like membrane a frame, but the tops of her wings, where they extended from her shoulder blades on her back, was softer, lighter, almost feathered. There were no scales there, but a fluffier substance, like fur, laid down the length of the “arm” of the wing. Even in the light breeze, it flowed and ripped, the same blue as the hair spilling down her neck, while her scales remained a soft shade of mauve, the colours lightly highlighting the new features of her body, complementing all that had been set in place.

Yet there would be much more for Annabelle to discover, living and loving and learning in her new body, the body that had offered her more of a life than she ever before could have hoped for. And, of course, her brother, as a dragoness, would be right there beside her.

She grinned, shaking her head. Brother, sister… Did it matter much anymore? At least, to her, it did not.

A friend of a friend, David, didn’t really know anyone there, though he gaped in awe at the dragons. With a little digging from Arya and Brent, it was uncovered that David was from Wales and knew Santino from their studies together, though David had been a foreign exchange student.

“I…” David shook his head, sitting back on his hands, cross-legged in the opening to a cave mouth, talking while he was still able with his bones, softly, remodelling themselves. “I just… I can’t go back there. This is a choice that we all can make, right? You’re not going to make me leave, are you?”

“No, of course not,” Arya assured him. “But I’m not sure… Why do you want to stay here? Why do you want to be a dragon? I mean, we can go get Santino if you want to talk, she can’t be far away.”

“No…” David shook his head, resolute, his hair coming away, though it was only to make way for smooth, brilliant scales. “I don’t want to. I don’t want to run away from anything…but this is starting anew. I never was tied there, always waiting, always wanting something more. I feel it, I do, I think this is it. I know this is it.”

For, sometimes, there did not have to be any huge reason for someone to want to be part of a change as David grew and transformed into a male dragon too, just like Annabelle, from the new dragons who had joined them. His scent did not change, not as a dragon, and he stood tall and proud with a long, lean body as if he was destined to be a swimmer or more reminiscent, in outline, of an Eastern dragon with a longer,

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more sinuous body. His head shaped itself with whiskers trailing around his face with leathery skin rather than scales where they hung, curled faintly, sensitive to touch. Only time would tell how those would come in use, frills surrounding his face and his scales blustering in light blue with forest green markings to his crest and down the line of his back.

His wings, however, were interesting – not at all like Annabelle’s, even though the longer form of his body was reminiscent of the dragoness that she had become. With five spines in each wing, they seemed more like fins with two parts to the arm that allowed him a greater range of motion. There seemed to be more muscles around the base of his wing-arm too, where it connected to his body, which allowed him to tilt and rotate his wings to a greater angle than the Western-type dragonesses, like a fin that could aid him through the water. Experimentally, settling into his new body, he flapped his light blue wings, the thicker membrane between the spokes of his wings like the skin of a dolphin – or close enough that it retained a light, wet look, smooth, leathery skin flowing down the arms of his wings.

A swimmer… Maybe?

He’d never been keen on the water but it seemed, somehow, that would have to change. It would take him some time before he was bold enough to dive into the water and see what that part of his body was all about.

He knew his reasons, though getting used to a new body would be a big change for him, a change that could never again be taken back, leaning into it wholeheartedly. Maybe Santino would be surprised that he had chosen such a path, yet the casting off of human worries freed him, the new drake shaking himself off, despite the wobbles in his legs. Spreading his wings, he allowed Arya and Brent, however shyly he dipped his head, to support him as he stood, the matriarchs holding him up.

There, he was finally home.

Two humans came together, hand in hand, to transform, though they had not known each other before the climb up the mountain. Yet Isla-Rae knew her friend, Aki, deeply and flung herself at him, the Asian man, though he was mixed Japanese and Korean, as he would so often tell people who made silly assumptions, laughing as they were, at long last, reunited. The reason that a man, however, who was transgender would want to transform, well… To Isla-Rae, that needed no explanation. Healthcare where they lived very rarely paid for surgeries like that, as necessary as they were when requested.

Still, Aki made sure to introduce her to Mark first, as if they were long-time friends, drawing forth her admiration, once again, for him, his compassion. Even then, he put everyone before himself. Though that Mark was a friend of Brent’s, when the dragoness had been quite devoid of company in the throngs of people that made their way to them, whether to talk or to transform, was a surprise. That was something she would have to ask Brent about later, though there were more pressing things to concern themselves with as Mark and Aki, slowly, transformed.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” She made sure to ask, even as Mark allowed his

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transformation to settle, fingers shaking as he drummed them over a stone. “It… What if you become female? What if it doesn’t work?”

Aki laughed, his smile flashing, pulling at her heart as her friend had done all those years ago. She’d been with him through so much, coming out publicly – and that had been enough to bring them together, when it should have been a time of joy for Aki rather than strife.

“Isla-Rae, if that happens, it will only mean that I am in the same position,” he said gently, resting against her side, his legs kicked out, shifting as his spine, slowly, began to lengthen.

But all was well, her transgender friend, finally, at long, sweet last, able to spread his wings as a dragon, a drake, a male, his body portraying what he had always known inside. The body sometimes did not express accurately who someone was, even if modern medicine was excellent when it came to surgery. Yet what could be better than a transformation into a male that did not require any surgery, casting off the final shrouds of so-called “femaleness” that the rest of the world had told Aki was true when, absolutely, he was male?

Male at last, in his true body, the red and green dragon was trying to fly before even her wings had grown fully and her horns come in. Though Mark was just as eager, despite the man’s apparent nerves, becoming a drake also. The matriarchs, still, only wished that they knew better what structured the transformation, why some became male and others female. In the end, however, they had to trust that the cave system knew what the dragons needed, diversity in their species allowing them to go forward as they were, a coven, a clan.

They were dragons and there was nothing that would hold them back in the world.

Despite all the odds.

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Chapter Eight

Peace could not last forever and it was Arya’s mother, Trish, who rushed to their meeting point at a small plateau with an overhang at one end with company one day, just after noon. It normally took a lot longer for her to hike from the trailhead (the main trail not stretching too far from the parking area and information centres for the wild park), but those that had come with her had helped clear additional routes – with the help of the dragons, of course. It made it so it took only a couple of hours to hike from the trailhead to the meeting place, if one knew where it was, a stone’s throw into the mountain range.

But those that had uncovered them had no concerns for easy access, only restricting them. Perhaps it had been the trip out with Trish, even though the dragons had not been the ones to go into the actual town, to buy pillows to more comfortably rest their heads, or the time they had gone deeper into the mountains, where a remote ranger’s station may have still been set up for surveillance, even though they had not thought it would be manned for the full year. Either way, secrets did not remain such forever.

“Get off me!”

She growled, blonde hair whipping around her face, though the weather was warmer by that point on the cusp of spring. Arya snarled and lunged, leaping into the air, though the humans there were no true threat – not against dragons, anyway. But she didn’t know that when they had her mother surrounded, everyone but her mother uniformed and looking far too serious to be favourable, Arya’s dragon family at her back, Darius at her side, a hair’s breadth away.

The humans cursed and held their hands up, releasing Trish, though she scowled and wrenched herself away anyway, the windy day the perfect forlorn backdrop with grey clouds filling the sky to a revelation. They would never find out who had told someone with connections or how the information, quite simply, had been found out by the authorities, but they knew that their existence was not something that the government could simply ignore.

Arya lifted her wings, threatening to lunge.

“What do you want?” She growled, eyes intent, fixed on the small group of six, not too many. “If you’ve come to hurt anyone, you’ll find that it won’t be as easy as you think!”

Her eggs… Her thoughts locked onto them, the eggs she had to protect. Her mother’s instincts were there, seeing danger in their green coats, badges denoting who they were, though Arya did not care to know even as Tilsa, formerly Isla-Rae with her pearlescent, shimmering scales, came to soothe her.

“Relax, Arya, there’s no danger here, we knew this was going to happen…”

“Wait! We just want to talk!” One of the men spoke up, his flat had pushed back, revealing a balding head. “Will you talk to us?”

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It was over. It was all over, Arya’s heart sinking even as she bundled her mother further away from the intruders, a growl rippling over her lips. She had everyone there and it was only a small group of humans, one that held out a tablet sort of computer – god, it had been so long since she had even looked at one of those – and tapped on it, as if reading from a script.

“Welcome, dragons,” he said, tugging at his collar, shifting his weight. “Now, we understand this must be very strange for you, but we come with reassurance. You are not the only ones and we come to you also, as we have the others, with the intent of no harm. We intend no harm to you and ask that you extend the same to us.”

Arya glowered, though Tilsa was quicker to answer.

“Of course. This was going to happen sooner or later, that everything came out. We are a caving expedition, we probably went missing months ago… Well, we’ve been here ever since. But, please, don’t come any closer. Some others found us and they’ve been transformed into dragons too. This is a safe spot to meet though, as the magic does not seem to reach here.”

She paused, something moving in the corner of her eye: a drone. That it hovered around, like a giant, buzzing insect, had her tail twitching with unease.

“Ah, quite… Yes… Hm.”

The man didn’t seem to know what to say, though it did not escape their notice that he fussed and fiddled, hardly at ease with anything. Yet the dragons had learned patience and they settled, waiting, allowing him to continue. Only Arya seethed quietly, her protective instincts not quite yet settled.

“We request a meeting with you, seven days hence, where we will discuss where you are to remain, how your rights are affected, and pass on select information to the media regarding your experience here.”

It was rigid, formal, so much so that Arya could have rolled her eyes. Like they cared anything about that, really… He didn’t even seem interested in them, not like the other people that had come to see them so far, but that couldn’t just be because they were family. It set her on edge even more so than she already was, how he spoke to them, for Alan and her had, at the very least, thought that scientists and more would be tripping over themselves to learn about them – in a good way. To have that disconnect… It was disconcerting.

But he was still talking, droning on, reading from his set script.

“You will be given sustenance and allowed to rest. The meeting will be at the ranger station on the lower slopes.” He hesitated, obviously uncomfortable and coughing into his hand. “Do you require the coordinates?”

“No, we know where it is, thank you,” Tilsa said with a smile. “Is there anything more that you’d like us to prepare?”

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Alan shuffled her feet, not wanting to give up too much of what she had learned too soon, but the man shook his head and stepped back, setting the tablet to the side. It didn’t seem like they were hungry for knowledge, not when it was not something that would immediately serve humankind.

“No, no, that will quite suffice…thank you.” It was as if the words didn’t come naturally to him, sludging their way out through his mouth. “That is all for the moment. I trust this is the best location in which to contact you when required. Of course, you will be under surveillance at all times and will not be able to leave the established territory.”

Brent scoffed at that, Alan exchanging a glance with her. They were sure they could knock a drone or two out of the sky… Accidentally, of course. But no one wanted their privacy to be invaded like that. Tilsa’s jaw tightened a fraction, thinking of her dragon family, everything that they had grown and all that they had become together.

“We would enjoy our privacy too,” Tilsa said, her head level, some of the softness gone from her eyes. “I am sure you understand.”

No one had heard that firm edge from the small dragoness before and the man stuttered and stumbled, trying to find the right words and coming up blank. It was not as if, quite clearly, he was at all used to dealing with dragons, one instance where they had the upper hand – or claw, perhaps.

“Er, yes, very good then…”

He muttered, the others ogling the dragons, though that could have been a couple of the less expressive looks they were getting. The dragons did not have typical eyebrows and did not make facial expressions like people, after all, which had meant they were a little more difficult for their human friends and family to read. It was sure to cause problems from time to time, but that was simply something that the dragons and humans dealt with.

Where tensions had crackled, the encounter had ended up rather anti-climactic, a sense of unease curling between both parties, things left unsaid that would come to light, surely, at the meeting at the rangers station. They all knew exactly where it was, for it was something that they patrolled, from a distance, from time to time, keeping an eye on the infrequent comings and goings. It was not often manned and most often deserted.

They watched the unwelcome group of officials make their way back down the mountain, Alex and Jenson flying high above to make sure that everyone left, that there were no more unwelcome surprises to come. Even though they could not retreat fully to rest, Trish still being there, they settled on the bare plateau, made a little more comfortable with some chairs and human comforts that helped their human friends feel a little more at home there. All outdoorsy and the sort of thing that would handle the elements better than an armchair, but a little human “softening” was pleasant, nonetheless.

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“Mom – what happened?” Arya said, a little calmly, lying down while she invited her mother to sit with her. “I thought they were going to be armed or something the way they were dragging you about!”

Her mother let out a sigh that carried the strain of far more than what had been discussed in it. Santino let out a whine, seeking comfort from Seb.

“It all came out today, Arya,” Trish said, sitting down with her back against Arya’s leg while Darius kept an eye out for anyone else approaching, even the drones. “I don’t know how they did it, but they’ve somehow got footage of you – they must have had smaller drones or something out too. The media’s got hold of it and everyone wants to know what’s happening, whether it’s a hoax…”

“What did he mean “others” though?” Arya asked, tail sweeping back and forth along the floor in unease. “That doesn’t make much sense…”

But her mother was as clueless as she was on that matter, laying her hand protectively on Arya’s leg, though the dragoness was far better placed to protect her than her mother was the other way around.

“Well, it looks like you’re not the only ones to turn into dragons.” Against herself, Trish managed a chuckle and a watery grin, however shaky it was. “Isn’t that something? Well… A big something. It looks like there was something…at Machu Pichu, I remember the name. A group of tourists were in the ruins there, though the rumours say that the caves were artificial. I don’t know what the difference is myself, but, well…it happened to them too. They transformed, becoming dragons, though I think they’re struggling with it a lot more than you are. It’s hard to tell when all you’re getting from that side is fed through the TV and you’re right here, talking to me.”

They took a moment to digest that information. That they were not alone was a revelation, but it had not felt like they were alone, anyway, not with their friends and family.

“So…” Alan said, breaking the silence, her interest in learning overcoming all else, as if she could claw everything to her and find a new way of understanding the world around her. “There are…more like us? What do you know?”

Sadly, she didn’t know that much, though she had watched and recorded the news on her phone, pulling up the articles for them to read. Following that sort of thing on an admittedly small phone screen, however, was not always the easiest of things, especially for dragons.

It didn’t look great, however, something about a mining operation (more a rumour than anything else) falling prey to the same phenomenon, though it didn’t seem to be as much of a phenomenon anymore. The pictures of the miners that might or might not have transformed (it was so hard to tell what was a hoax with so much going around the internet) showed the dragons to be pregnant from the light swell of their flanks, even though they were a bit grainy and shot from strange angles, though there were no credits as to where the photos had come from. That didn’t help, not really, but they could only try to understand what they could.

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One bit of information that did come to light, however, was that the differences in those that were deemed pregnant were more obvious to see in a larger group, simply put as there were males amongst them too, a little smaller than the dragonesses, at the point of their initial transformations and as they grew. Still, it was impossible to know, at that time, how much was speculation and how much was the truth, how far along, even, they were in their pregnancies.

Only the true details of how and why that came to pass would be told when the world delved into dragon biology, how and why they were as they were, why, if it was true, males had appeared in other larger groups of transformed dragons and not their little group. Alan would have a field day when it came to digging into all the fresh information laid out at her claws, when she could converse with the wider world.

“With others transforming, maybe two flights of dragons,” Tilsa said, “there might even be more to this. People… Wow… They’re going to have a lot of trouble taking all of this in.”

Trish stilled. Arya’s head shot up.

“What is it, mother?”

Her mother pursed her lips, turning away.

“I didn’t want to tell you… It’s… Well, you are right, Tilsa, they are trying to understand this, but not everyone is seeing it the same way. Some say that you’re gods, others think you’re the coming of the apocalypse. You’re not, are you?”

“No!”

They would have laughed at that, if the moment was not as serious as it was. Arya prodded her mother, eyes intent.

“Go on.”

Trish’s fingers curled into the scales of Arya’s leg. The dragoness stiffened.

“Well… Some want to see you. That’s normal. That’s why not more have been let through, though I think you’ll be able to make sure that you can see family soon, others that didn’t come through. We’ve set up a group chat and we’re trying to pull everyone in. Jonathan, Brent’s father, he’s trying to keep it all secure. We don’t want things to leak, you know?”

They all knew that, though there was something more sinister still lurking behind her words. Sensing that she wasn’t going to get away with not saying what had been said, Trish sighed and rubbed the back of her neck.

“There are people that want to experiment and lock you away, like animals in a zoo. That you’re still people hasn’t filtered through yet, but it’s all a mess at the moment.

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There were even those that thought they could get their guns out and put a price on you – but I don’t want you to worry about that!”

She leaned more firmly against Arya, the closest she could get to a hug as the dragoness did the same. Of course, there was plenty to worry about there, but a mother’s love would always try to shield her child from the gruesome truth, as much as she shuddered against the leg of her daughter.

Tilsa growled, eyes darkening.

“They would never hurt us or get to our eggs,” she hissed, though it sounded like a promise as well as a statement. “Some people don’t change.”

“But some do,” Usuakusu added, formerly known as Kelvin, her mottled blue and white splashed hide calming to look at under such stressful circumstances. “I’ve seen it both ways. We just have to talk to them. If we don’t talk, we will not get anywhere.”

They all knew it to be true, though it didn’t help things, not really, not while preparations for the meeting that would change everything, and dictate the course of their years to come, were in motion. But they would tackle it all together.

That didn’t mean, however, that it was going to be easy, that anything at all for them during their lives as dragons had proven to be easy. Usuakusu sighed, laying her blue muzzle down on her forefeet.

“It seems like a trial sometimes, doesn’t it?” She said forlornly, perhaps the quickest of them to slip into a melancholy state of mind. “There’s always something. I suppose we’re lucky things didn’t escalate more sharply, they even could have when we were in the city.”

“Don’t worry, Usu,” Anniyah murmured, twisting the end of her tail around Usuakusu’s softly, holding her there like she might have held her hand, before. “There will be something we can do, there’s always something, like you said. Have faith.”

Yet that faith was more and more difficult to hold close to their hearts, unsettled and restless with all that could come. Still, they had to prepare, had to rest, had to allow their bodies to settle before they faced the truth of where their place in the world, ultimately, was to sit.

*

One speaker, shaking with fear, returned to give them instructions, though they didn’t seem all that confident about the fact that the dragons had resisted surveillance. Evidently, him coming alone, middle-aged with a touch of grey winding into his trimmed moustache, was something that had been trialled with the dragon colonies that they had spotted earlier, apparently, but kept under wraps for a time. Maybe there were even more dragons that had managed to hide their existence beyond the three that had been identified.

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“Y-you may still have visitors from your list,” he said, trying to keep his voice strong while Tilsa sat patiently before him, so much bigger even though she was the smallest of the dragons. “But no one outside that. They will be v-vetted and monitored.”

She met his eyes calmly.

“No, I don’t think that will be possible,” she said smoothly. “We need our family and friends to visit – we are not prisoners. We are merely humans, who have become dragons. Nothing more and nothing less than that, I assure you. No surveillance is needed when we have done nothing wrong. You agree, surely?”

She smiled, though showing her teeth was probably not the best thing she could have done under those circumstances. He stuttered and pulled anxiously at the sleeve of his jacket, too lightly dressed for such an expedition. If things had been more favourable, Tilsa might have offered to build a fire for him so that he may warm himself through before making his way back down. But things were not so and she was not as favourable towards him as she could have been. There were times for softness and there were times for a mother’s steadfastness, how she raised her head in challenge, tongue flickering out, telling him, without any words at all, that there would be no objection to that.

He moved on quickly, assuring her without saying it directly that all would be well, that there would be no further surveillance. They hadn’t hurt anyone, of course not, but tipping the drones out of the sky and easily disabling the cameras with an “accidental” swipe of tail where they had been fixed to trees in their territory was not something all that trying to them.

“Ah, yes… Quite so… The region now, from tomorrow, will be closed to humans. I trust you will be able to inform those that we are not that trespassers will be taken to the ranger station and back to the city from there to face the justice system, the full extent of the law.”

He bit his lip, Tilsa narrowing her eyes at him. There was no question as to their concern. Having such large, powerful creatures in the world that were intelligent, as humans, proved a problem for a species that had long seen itself at the top of the food chain, the pecking order of the world. Their presence changed everything. But what to do about them was another question entirely and not one that Tilsa could answer for herself too.

She and the dragons would discuss it and come to an agreement. That was all she could focus on. It was bound up in legalese and field specific lexicon that those outside military operations and law enforcement were unfamiliar with, but anyone familiar with the American armed forces knew how swift they were to use weapons to make their point quite clear, something that had become more and more evident over recent years. They would come in with weapons, force them to comply – and yet how would the dragons even respond to that? They had differing powers to humans, of course, but to be violent simply was not in their nature, didn’t feel right, even though lethal force, it was sure, would be used against them.

That, in the end, left them with the only suitable weapon left to them: words. In words,

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there was power too, more so than bullets, more so than anything the forces could throw at them. Where the humans that they expected to deal with them were prone to knee-jerk reactions and resorting, very swiftly, to aggression and violence, they had more at their disposal to try to circumvent what was so often what those in power resorted to.

That would take time, time that they didn’t quite have, and consideration. Fortunately, there was more than one dragon there, able to share their ideas, once the official had left, of course, working together as a group, never alone.

However, with the last of their human visitors that day, they did uncover, as a group, that there had been two confirmed reports of dragon transformations, including the group of miners, who could have been considered lucky or unlucky for the fortune of their fate. Who knew where their lives would go from that point, truth be told, but that the dragonesses had not only been female, but composed of a more even male and female group, surprised them. It could have been as simple as it being a larger group, of course, that had transformed, but there were still so many questions to be asked.

“It would make more sense if the transformations were the same,” Darius mused, busying himself thinking about it, Arya and Alan with him, though he was always more aware of Arya, heat rising to his scales. “But they’re not… And they’re most likely stuck there too, whether they have laid their eggs or not. Why?”

Alan grinned.

“I would have liked to sit down and talk with you before, if you ask questions like that. But we can now…”

Arya half-listened to them, her mind busy with worries, though there were other things brewing, a tickling tingle deep inside her that had her eyes drawn back to Darius again and again. She would have blushed at the attention she was giving him, if she had been able to do that anymore. Dragons didn’t blush, not like that, but the memory of heat under her skin, as a human, remained, a ghost of a sensation.

Still, she eyed the drake out of the corner of her eye as they spoke of the transformed, what they knew of the other groups, though some information, apparently, was not to be trusted. As they settled into a spirited debate over how long their isolation would be, courts and legislature coming into play as to what was to be done with them, she laid her head down, easing into a light doze. It was comforting to hear them talking over and around her, feeling safer with Alan and Darius there, though the heat of the male had her attention, tail twitching back and forth even in slumber.

In time, she would understand the draw to him, though more than one thing was going to come to a head before the meeting in three more days.

Still, before then, Arya spent time with her mother, her head bowed reverently over the nesting sites, for there were some things that were never supposed to be hidden from family, not when she was as close to her mother as she was. Of course, there were some dragons there that were not as open with their families, some still with things to process, but she would not have hidden that.

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She stood, her head bowed, her mother holding her head gently – the only way that Trish could cradle her daughter anymore. The nesting mound that belonged to Arya and her eggs rose before them, though it was a moment of joy, even though Arya trembled. Soon, she would be a mother, just like Trish, only never like Trish. And yet Trish would still be there for her, as she always had, even though the situation was different.

“I’ll always be with you, my darling.”

Arya swallowed, trembling, pressing in a little closer to her mother.

“Thank you, mom… Always.”

Together, they stood, though the precipice of change, even then, was upon them.

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Chapter Nine

One good thing over the coming week, those that had been there already allowed through, was that it looked like not everyone that entered their territory, the magic zone, transformed. There were a few slip-ups, especially when the media tried to get in on things before their designated “interview” time, as Arya called it, but they seemed to get away scot-free. That was something, at least, for it could have led to more negative attention than positive and, frankly, they could use all the positive they could get at that time.

If people were allowed in, however, sitting down in the cool dark of the caves, Alan had a theory, Anniyah and Sarah taking their time with her, different groups of dragons coming together with different things.

“I think…this shows…” She muttered, working through her thoughts as she traced a pattern on the wall, an inscription. “That those that transform into other sexes do so for a ratio between male and female. That’s easy enough, but why others don’t transform, even when they’ve been stumbling around in here for a while is another question.”

Tilsa had been curious about that, wanting to know if her friend could transform, though she had not gone into detail, specifically, as to how the friend that had not yet made it there would even think about that. Perhaps it was a conversation for another day, another time. Or maybe her friend had a reason to want to become another creature, or even another sex. There were people from all walks of life on the earth and all manners of gender identification and sexualities too, to put it very broadly. If the dragons could help people with such issues find themselves safely and comfortably, it would be one more good thing that they could do for the world. Those that wanted to come and were informed about what was going to happen could do so.

They would have liked, however, to see more people coming, though Alan buried herself in the caverns after her friends, from outside, became too spooked to visit her again. Her family had not been by for a while, growing concern about military presences in the area ramping up tensions, her tail flicking back and forth anxiously. She slept unsoundly and researched as much as she did, but not even excavating another cavern had brought many new answers. After the wealth of information she had gained in the early weeks and months after her transformation, the trickle of information had slowed for the moment.

She didn’t want to be as frustrated by that as she was, but it was difficult. That the ratio of dragon sexes had to be maintained by magic, somehow, the dragons as much a part of the land around them as the land was linked to them too. It went both ways and it was, at the very least, something that Alan could explain to Sebastian, helping her through her change the best she could.

“I know this will be strange for you, at least you have Santino to help, even with the pregnancy… You can see us care for our hatchlings first and we will all, of course, be here to help with yours too,” Alan explained, showing her what she had understood from the markings on clay tablets, all carefully stored and preserved when she had

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dug them out of a pit. “These are precious… But, here, you see, it’s meant to happen, all of this. The caves tell the tale, but I have not learned to read all of it, not yet.”

Sebastian blinked at her and shook her head slowly while Santino sat quietly, there as support. She had been quieter still since Seb had come, choosing her words more carefully, more wisely, though a little as if she was unsure too when everything would deign to implode around her. Sometimes, others caught her nuzzling Sebastian’s flank while she slept, as if she was tenderly soothing the hatchlings inside.

“So… You think I want to be a female? A dragoness?” Seb said, screwing up her muzzle. “I dunno… I don’t think so, never thought about dragons like that before, really, I swear.”

Alan splayed her wings out softly, a smile on her lips.

“I know, but…I don’t think that’s it. I just meant to say that there’s a reason for us all to be here, even if there may not be a reason that we could be happy with, something logical, for us to become drakes or dragonesses. But there may be a reason for you to find, something to settle your heart and your mind. I’m happy to help, but I think with each of us so far, though not everyone has come to terms, that notion and purpose has to come from you. You must find your peace with it. Truthfully, we still are, some of us further along than others.”

For as much as Alan wanted to help, she could only lead the way and guide her charges in knowledge, understanding and accepting that she could not know everything. That was harder for her to take in than expected, yet she softened the blow a little bit by telling herself that at least she was at the forefront of dragon research in the world. That had to count for something and, truly, the only way it had to count for something was with her.

If a transformation was not desired, however, it seemed that simply staying out of the zone of magic would be enough to prevent it from happening: if one did not enter the area where the magic was present, it would not occur. A transformation that had already begun, however, would not be prevented, regardless of how they roamed, which had been the case for Julie, even if they could slow. That, however, was unconfirmed, as much as they would have liked to find more information on it. With no flexibility for such accidents in the future, others that did not understand the transformations stepping into their zone of magic, they increased their patrols, which was helped at least a little with the greater number of dragons there to conduct them and a tighter zone to manage.

In theory, the site of the caverns could continue to transform people into dragons whenever there was a “need” in the world for them, though that was as personal as Alan anticipated it was for the individual people and dragons. She anticipated that the magical influence could be heightened if a life breath, as an example, was spread through it, though that was one notion that she kept to herself after Santino had accidentally sped up Sebastian’s transformation. If things came to a head, however, it was a soft strategy that they could use to let the magic of the caves and dragons do its work. In a way, if the life and healing breath, as she thought, could extend the power

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of the caverns, it would be like nature taking its true course, transforming those that were in need and leaving any that were not to be.

Still, she hoped not to. She’d much rather see people transformed, going forward, if they chose it for themselves, even if the choice would be ultimately up to the inquisitive tug of the magic reaching for them. But the dragons had all found something there to make their own, even if they were still in the process of uncovering it.

*

Santino and Sebastian… Well, they dated. As much as dragons could, taking a flight together, laughing and reminiscing, sitting before a private fire on their own, as if they were out camping. It could have been just camping, if not for all the scales and the wings and the teeth, but it was comforting for them to simply be together. Perhaps a reconnection of sorts should have been more difficult for them, but it was easier than they could have expected to slip back into softening old patterns and ways of being, everything that made them feel whole again, as if they had been back together for years, or that they had never left.

“Come on, I think we should try it,” Santino said with a giggle that sounded a little more girlish than intended. “It won’t be bad… Come on!”

Sebastian laughed along with her, though the shake of her head was more dubious than what Santino was proposing.

“It’s not going to work! Our lips don’t move like that anymore!”

Yet she obliged her partner and, dare she say, her lover too, pressing her lips to Santino’s and feeling out just how kissing might work between them. Truth be told, she was correct in assuming that it was too much of a human construct to work for them, but flickering their tongues out against one another’s muzzles was nice too, exploring each other. It was different, like they were getting to know how their bodies fit together all over again, but in a good way, an exciting way.

They laughed into the “kiss” if it could even be called that. It was more a lapping of each other’s muzzles, tongues flickering over scales, lips and even the tongue of the other too. Whereas they could move their lips a little over their teeth, there was not enough flexibility there for them to purse them into a kiss, though that was not something that was all that important to them. Being together was of far greater importance than anything else, they were both sure of it.

Being on the same page helped them come together, softly, kindly, lovingly, knowing one another. They had changed, physically, and their minds had changed too, been forced to change to cope with the physical transformation, but they were still themselves underneath all that. Their personalities and who they were had not been lost, not by any means, and it was a relief to press in close to each other, feeling the other under the heat of their scales.

Day and night, they grew closer and closer, hardly noticing the slip into three days to the meeting, their hearts full of one another, besotted, intermittently shy. Meeting the

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other’s eyes and looking away, embarrassed to be caught looking – it was a good thing that the other dragons (perhaps bar Darius) found it amusing rather than annoying, but they would have done it all anyway. It was not as if falling in love, let alone falling in love with the same being for a second time, could be controlled.

The others felt themselves shifting, seeing themselves differently, even though the change in them had been coming over time. Slowly but surely, with the introduction of new dragons, the elders had taken their role as the leaders, though their hierarchy was fluid, a little like a herd of horses. While there was no alpha leading them all absolutely, they would all step forward, from the line of first-generation dragons, to lead where they were the most skilled, all having something to offer.

Where they were matriarchs of the new world society, the first generation were protectors and matriarchs of their own kind too,

Darius, however, took a moment to investigate himself, settling down alone before a craggy outcrop, nothing of beauty there, but that was what he hoped to change. Whereas the others, including Santino, had been playing with the development of their life breath (and hoping there were more powers that they could uncover in time), he had been more interested in fire, a bit more like Brent and Arya. Some seemed able to play with different breaths, but some only one. Things like that didn’t seem to have a reason behind them, though he was as interested as Alan to know the reasoning that was actually there. Hopefully, he could help Alan uncover it. But his calling was clearly not in making things grow, regardless of how pretty the elegant flowers were that Santino grew just for Sebastian, the dragoness warping them into more and more elaborate shapes and colours, things that would not be found naturally. In a way, she was envious. But maybe that meant that he could do something too.

Maybe.

Darius could only try.

But settling down with a pile of rocks between his front feet, he took his time, his scales ending up blackened and a little smoky around the edges (well, dragons weren’t fire-proof then, not completely, who knew?) he had what he wanted. A jewel-like substance, blasting away the rock and baking it both under intense heat and pressure, forcing the stone to form to his will.

Of course, Darius’ failed attempts were scattered around him. There was only one beautiful, roughly faceted stone that would draw any eyes there, the blue and red firestone, for he could not possibly call it anything else, born from fire itself. At first, the dragon thought that he was stripping away the outer layers to bring life to the gemstone beneath, but it was not that. It was something new.

It was cut off-centre, not perfect, but perfectly imperfect. It shone as if a dragon’s fire was flickering in the centre, about the size of a child’s fist. It was small but it was perfect, exactly the way it was.

Darius ducked his head, a low croon rising. He knew exactly the dragoness that he was to give it to.

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Chapter Ten

With only two days remaining, the dragons should have been sitting and talking about what was to come. And yet they found themselves splitting off comfortably into little groups, relaxing with one another, not planning, for the notion of worrying too much about something that might or might not happen was not in their minds. Absolutes, yes – they could worry about those. They could worry about the hurt they had caused another, however accidental it may have been, but the claws and hooks of worry where it was borne from stress no longer seemed to have as much of an effect on them. It could sink its teeth in, if it was particularly prevalent, but it was not as strong as it had been before, as humans, not for any of them.

That was something to be very glad about, but was what led to Santino and Sebastian taking themselves off to the very edge of the allowed dragon territory, at least for the moment, with the sleepy, blue glow of twilight wrapping itself around them.

They didn’t plan on it, not as they settled down together in a soft hollow near a waterfall of twenty feet, the plunge pool cool and inviting, their muzzles held close together. They did not kiss, but they allowed their bodies to touch, panting softly, sharing breath from fluttering, puckering nostrils.

Sebastian whimpered, her eyes going wide, but Santino pressed in closer, winding her tail around and around hers, softly holding her close.

“It’s all okay,” she breathed. “Relax, I’ve got you. We… Just tell me how you’re feeling, okay?”

But Sebastian didn’t know how to put into words the fluttering in her gut, a gut that was so much larger than it had been when she’d been human. Her body ached for something and she knew, in the back of her mind, what it was, even if she had not yet experienced that as a dragon. Her tail wanted to flick back and forth, even to lift, yet there was passion held beneath the layer of instinct, a want for her to do something, both in body and in mind.

She groaned, Santino nuzzling down her neck lightly, teasing her with sensation, yet the only words that passed her lips were sweet nothings, whispered so fervently that they were lost in the space between them, what little there was. The roll and light twist of her partner’s body against hers made her heart pound harder than it should have against the tentative barrier of her ribcage, though her body wanted to push back in strange ways too. Not everything, of course, could be transferred over from a human body to a dragon one and her mind wanted things that her body could not accommodate.

Santino’s eyes shone with love as they met, nuzzling in, sharing a soft kiss, tongues twining, something that they had decided they wanted to keep alive between them, from their previous relationship. And now they had a new one.

“May I?” She asked, wanting permission, despite the need in her own body. “I won’t do anything you don’t want… I don’t know how this body works, in that way, either. But I want to try, with you… We can learn together.”

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Sebastian whimpered and nodded, her throat tight with emotion, heart hammering, lungs shuddering within the cavern of her chest. She didn’t trust herself to speak, but she did allow Santino to wriggle up against her, writhing lightly and laughing, bringing an edge of humour to something that could have been awkward, for them not knowing how to work with a female body.

But everything was all right, as long as they were together. They didn’t need to worry about anything more than that, not ever, not as Santino laid on her back, pulling Sebastian over her, so that the slit below her tail hole was on show. Curiously, she stroked around it with a claw, not flexible enough to inspect that part of her own body that intimately, and wondered just how things would have gone if Sebastian had ended up male, like Darius, and not female. But that was not something she wanted to think about too much, the scent of her lover’s slit enticing her, drawing her in.

She groaned softly, playing her tongue around the edges of it, getting a feel for what was going on, though instinct helped a little, her tongue seeming to know some of the motions, already, that it could make, all in the nature of getting her partner excited for her. Sweet nectar flowed from the dragoness’ slit, separate from where she relieved waste from her body. That wasn’t going to worry her, however, as long as Sebastian was comfortable with everything. Strangely enough, Santino’s comfort was not at all on her mind.

She did not mind, not as Sebastian trembled against her, rocking her hips a tiny amount, trying to work out how to move, what she could do. But they had time, and plenty of it too, Santino’s tongue, slowing and gently, teasing its way inside her, seeing just what her slit held. Her own had never been investigated like that and the warm heat of the dragoness sucked her in, a needy growl bursting from Santino’s lips as she could not help but press up against Sebastian even more eagerly than before.

“Oh!”

Sebastian cried out, rolling her hindquarters, wings flapping.

What they did not see, however, as Sebastian moaned and whimpered, was the flow of nature around them. More so that the simple, targeted growing and healing that came with the flow of Santino’s well-practised life breath, nature spread around them, flourishing, growing. The grass and moss of the hollow thickened, dotted with tiny flowers, the trees growing stronger, branches reaching higher, stretching out as if to put protective arms over the heads of the dragonesses themselves. Even the water gushed, flowing freely, disappearing into a white foam in the plunge pool at the bottom of the small falls.

The dragons, without even knowing what they were doing, brought life to the world around them, healing it, letting it thrive. And it came in the bliss of mating, between two dragonesses, Santino growling passionately against Seb’s sex, losing herself in the moment. Yet it was a kind of losing that meant that she could be found again as her own loins ached strangely, needing it all more and more, hardly knowing what she was doing. All she knew was that everything she’d yearned for was coming together

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in the blink of an eye, her heart soaring higher than any mountaintops that she had flown over.

She drove her tongue deeper, sweetness clinging to it, though her tongue eagerly flicked back up into her own muzzle, gulping it all down. It clung to her tongue as if it was sticky, yet it made the path of her lapping easier, deeper, curling her tongue up inside the other dragoness. She might not have known exactly where the sensitive spots in there were, but Sebastian’s trembling, braced legs, splayed on either side of her head, facing back down the length of her body, told her that she was heading along the right track. Sebastian moaned again, lost for words, and Santino stifled a smirk. It was good to get her partner into that state again. She hadn’t known how much she’d missed it.

Sebastian’s head swirled, chasing one sensation while another rushed forward to take its place. She’d not paid too much attention to her genitalia so far and now wished that she had as fiery tingles of pleasure raced through her veins, as if she was losing her sense of self and yet finding a new way of being. Her claws sunk into the moss on either side of her lover’s body, thankfully still wide enough to hold herself there easily, though that was not enough to root her in the moment.

She didn’t know what to do, but, thankfully for her, she didn’t have to either. Santino could guide her, teasing her body, flickering her tongue into her sex and curling it up deep inside her, testing the limits of such a tongue. Her sex pulsed and twitched around the dragoness’ tongue and she caught herself pressing back more urgently, losing herself, the tightening inside her growing and growing until it could not be held back for a moment longer.

She moaned and twisted, rocking in climax, though it was not like any that she had had as a man, a twitching grip that her tail thrashing, driving into the ground, losing herself, what was left of herself. Sebastian growled passionately, twisting her head back and forth with a long snaking of her neck, though to hold the dragoness back from that devout nuance of pleasure would have been a sin indeed. Santino let her ride her muzzle out through it all, tongue curling across her slit, the sensitive spots within that had caught her attention, though the press of her claw before the dragoness’ slit, close to her belly, brought a throb of pleasure that neither had expected.

Yet even orgasm could not stop Sebastian from being a good partner, a good lover, twisting and wrapping herself around and around Santino even in the throes of bliss. Being smaller and less adept at using her body, there was only so much that she could do, but Santino was amenable, giggling as she lay on her side and moved her tail out of the way.

“I’d never let you go without your own,” Sebastian murmured, her tone hushed, her nose dipped in shyness. “But you’ll…tell me what feels good, right?”

For she did not know how to please, but that was quite alright as they reconnected, learning the ins and outs of each other’s new bodies, coming together as they had always been meant to. Santino’s eyelids fluttered and she murmured as her nose dipped to the moss, the area around her body growing greening still, tendrils of breath

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slipping from her nostrils as if she could not contain it. It flowed and it seeped into the ground, covering everything in a spray of flowers, vines wrapping their way up trees, but not choking them, melding with their life force. Even in the fading sweetness of twilight, the moment was theirs as Sebastian explored and dipped her tongue deeper, tasting, following Santino’s gentle direction.

But it was the bond of the moment that made it what it needed to be for them, Sebastian experimenting, trying, always wanting to make sure that her partner felt good too. That had been one thing about her that had always stood out to Santino, how attentive Seb was, whether that was in sex or outside it. It didn’t matter to Sebastian and it mattered even less the sweet reasoning behind it as her sex closed and twitched around that delectable tongue, the heat inside her mounting increasingly.

Her breath flowed forth, though the land around her would have changed even without her playing a part there, panting, heaving, flanks shuddering and dangling vines draping from the trees when they should never have grown like that in such a climate. Nothing mattered except the power of her gift when it was fed into the land, the prickle of soft flower petals tickling her scales as she lay there. As heat mounted, she moaned aloud, losing herself in the touch of her partner, Santino pressing in urgently close, lapping, teasing, pleasing, as if nothing else existed in the world for her, other than Santino.

With the dragoness’ muted roar of orgasm came her pleasure, the exuding of her breath and her power, even as her passageway tantalisingly rippled and pulled around Sebastian’s eager tongue. As if with a flash of light, pink and red flowers burst, growing one larger than even Sebastian, the petals unfurling, lines of lighter pink leading to the centre, a trumpet-like fold of petals that glistened as if with the dew of the morning. She cried out and twisted her tail more tensely against Sebastian’s neck, though she had everything she could have craved, moaning, wriggling in close.

If she spent the rest of her life delighting in what she had with Sebastian, all Santino could say was that she would find herself a very happy dragoness indeed. For she could get through everything with her partner at her side, flying with the tips of their wings touching, hearts soaring together, as one.

They lay there in the beauty and wonder of their mating, heads close together, sharing the closeness of their bodies. The splendour of Santino’s powers lay all around them, evidencing their tryst, though only the true extent of how deeply those roots reached would be seen with the coming of dawn. For the time being, all the dragons had to do was rest.

*

“What… What is this?”

Arya blinked at the fiery stone, tilting her head one way and then the other, her stomach doing strange, fluttering things. Yet it was a warm kind of fluttering, that made her want to lean even closer into the silver dragon, the red points of his claws and horns appearing as if he had been dipped in fresh blood, always glistening, always wet, the essence of life itself.

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Darius shifted his weight, conscious of himself, how his body moved, how even the dragoness before him was larger than him, by about a third of his own body size. His tail curled back and forth anxiously, though he would never have admitted it aloud. Regardless of how Darius grew, the dragonesses, including Arya, would always be bigger than him. It was the way of them being matriarchs of the new society, after all.

“It’s…for you,” he said, swallowing hard. “I know dragons don’t have any need for these…but I wanted to give you something. I wanted to make something. I made it with my…the fire…the flame breath… Oh…”

He couldn’t get the words out that he wanted to, though Arya met his wandering eyes with her own, her antlers lightly tilted as if, in some way, she was amused by him. When he’d asked her to meet her a little away from their usual evening resting place, she had not thought anything of it, the clearing a sort of plateau in the side of the hill, lush and green, a soft place in which to lie. The ground was mostly flat there, enough for them to move around on without slipping down to the steeper slope of the tree-lined hill, but there were still rocks and crags jutting out in places, denoting the rougher landscape.

“I think it’s beautiful,” she breathed, putting the drake out of his misery, head picking up as he perked up. “It’s… I can’t believe someone would make something like that for me.”

Yet they would come to understand that the ways of dragon courtship were not as thoughtful, in the sense of overthinking, as human beings, rendering them simpler, sweeter, able to enjoy themselves more without worrying about things that may or may not happen. She crooned softly, urged to press her muzzle alongside the side of the drake’s, her body rubbing up against his as they stood facing the same direction, as close as they could be.

He shivered, though could not hold back a deep, guttural croon, a sound that neither of them had ever heard before, something warming him through, pushing up from so very deep inside. It had to come and the urge was there, the push and insistence of attraction that he had not paid as close attention to as he could have, at least before.

Arya crooned, matching his tone, her eyes shining brightly, though they didn’t have words to capture their emotions, the closeness, what had been tentatively building between them. It was not a one-night stand but something far more potent than that, drawing them together, not as humans but as mates, something that would transcend any relationship that they had known so far.

Her nose touched his, briefly sharing breath, the dragons moving around one another, circling, noses touching tails, bodies aching with soft readiness.

The slit of a male dragon was slightly raised between their hind legs, differing from the females, now that they had the chance to see and compare the two. His shaft needed no encouragement to slip free, firm and ready as it pushed from his slit, his testis internally held, for they had never been shown. Darius grunted, shivering as his length

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was revealed for more than expelling waste from his body, tail swinging back and forth softly while the dragoness’ scent overwhelmed him.

But he wanted to be taken, he wanted to be overwhelmed, he wanted to feel everything she wanted him to, the dragoness investigating him with a flicker of her tongue, though the concept of oral pleasure was not in her mind at that time. She laid on her right side for him, inviting his closeness, heart pounding, though she knew what she was doing was right. How could it ever not be with her heart thrumming as it was, that croon warbling softly through her?

On her side, she kept her tail pushed back, away from her body, her hind legs together, but stretched out before her, so that her tail and legs lay in opposite directions from one another, exposing the slit of her sex. Darius trembled, awaiting permission, though mounting her like that seemed crude, hesitant even as Arya nodded and smiled. The dragoness crooned.

“Come here, Darius… I want you.”

He met her smile with his own, jaws parting with a rumbling growl, a welcoming mating cry, the drake slipping over her as if he was afraid to hurt her, though she was larger than him. Her tail moved a little more to the side, freeing the space completely for his shaft, though they could have mated on all fours too, with him pushing over her back, if they had liked, despite the size difference. The position, however, was better for her as it allowed her to watch him with smoky, half-lidded eyes, smoke curling from her nostrils as if she wanted to allow her fiery breath free. The drake growled, his front feet on her scales, careful of his claws, though he could not stop the throbbing of his aching length.

Maybe in time.

His hardness pressed up over her scales and she gasped, sucking in a light breath, her tail twitching back and forth, curling around one of his limbs (she wasn’t honestly sure which) almost possessively. He was not poised and he was not skilled, not as a dragon, as he thrust, finding out how his body matched with hers. The one thing was that the height of her slit was perfect for him, in such a position, but other positions could be good too, in time, if the need drove them to seek pleasure with each other again.

Darius groaned softly, his croon fading, as his shaft pressed to her softness and, slowly, sank inside. There was no rush to his thrusts, but there was a rhythm, instinct dictating to him just how he was to move, even when his mind was all clamouring to work out what was what, where he was to go next. Yet there was none of that necessary as he pressed on, thrust after thrust, spreading out her sensitive inner walls as Arya moaned and tried to press back at him. The insistent pull and push of her tail urged him on, snapping her jaws, flame flickering in the back of her throat.

“Yes…” She breathed, struggling for the words yet pushing them out anyway. “Oh…Darius… Oh, that feels…”

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Yet she could not say how it felt when it was so overwhelming, overcoming her, lifting her up, thrusting her forward. Her sex clenched tightly around him and she tried to bear down even more, though it did not at all hinder the pace of his thrusts, how he claimed her and she claimed him, together.

His length speared into her with greater urgency than ever, following the rhythms of time, the patterns of all the dragons before them had gone through. Grinding in deep, he stayed deep, a shift of Darius’ hips catching her unaware for a better angle, her folds twitching reflexively around him as if she yearned to pull him deeper. Yet the passage of inner muscles would do what they wanted as they mated, some parts of their bodies, as they ever would be, beyond their control.

He thrust and thrust, breath rasping from him, even as Arya twisted her head away and released a jet of flame, their cries unbidden and yet not concealed in any way. There was no reason for them to be quiet at all, not when that sort of shame over mating did not exist for dragons, though they would not disturb the rest of their dragon coven either way. Mating would be something seen more frequently amongst them as they grew to understand one another, making relationships with each other that would last a lifetime.

Friendships, love, romance, platonic bonds… They would all come together one way or another, but all that mattered to them at that time was that pleasure swept through them with every thrust, every plunge of his hardness. He plundered her as the dragoness took all she needed from him too, lashes of flame leaping from Arya’s jaws as she reached the flaming high of climax. Orgasm burned through her as she snarled out her ecstasy, setting a nearby tree alight, though it was thankfully apart from the others and her flame such that it crumbled to ash in but a moment as if it had never been.

He could not stop, however, driven by need, grunting and bearing in deeply, knowing where he was, but his heart full, his body pressing in as close over her as he could get. Arya’s wing lifted to touch the side of his muzzle tenderly, keeping eye contact with him as he thrust and thrust, reaching that bliss of a high with a tender grunt.

There was no need for Darius to cry out as he plunged into her, seed flowing from him, the push to breed deep within him, sated: at least for the moment. But what he was not satisfied with was the feeling of being close to her, what he had not been at liberty to enjoy so far, his first mate. The pile of ash where the tree had been before smouldered faintly, the scent of charred wood tickling at his nostrils, pulling him even closer to her as he pushed in as hard and as deeply as he could.

It was where he needed to be, letting the moment wash over him, mating with her, Arya crooning to him, whispering to him, though Darius would have to ask her to repeat her words later. That would come, yes, another time, but the moment of tender warmth was too much, panting lightly, his flanks shuddering for that ever-elusive breath.

There, they rested, his length softening inside her, slowly retreating, her slit marked with his seed, though the dragoness, in her own way, had left her mark on him too.

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Leaning back with her long neck, she brushed her muzzle softly with his, a spark in her eyes.

“I think we should try that again sometime, Darius…”

The drake gulped, his grin shaky. But he would be more than happy to meet every need of the dragoness’ going forward, the best that he could.

For that was what one did when they had found a mate.

*

While the dragonesses, and dragon, enjoyed one another, bringing new life to the land in another way, Alan sat with her latest discovery, a quiet Brent at her side. Anniyah had known about it too and taken the information back to Jenson, another that was considered a matriarch of them, though the hierarchy between them was loose at best.

“This makes sense…” Alan muttered. “Though I don’t understand why. Brent, why do you think that the transformation effects would cut off when our eggs hatch? Would they come back again?”

Brent tilted her head. Her thoughts were calmer around Alan. Did the dragoness know what a calming effect she had on others?

“Perhaps there is no need for dragons to transform then, if breeding is taking place, technically,” she suggested, though things like that had never been her strong point, even if she had been going to university on a sports scholarship. “The transformations keep the dragon population under control, above a certain level. Like we had to keep a certain number of players on our team, even if they were benched.”

Alan grinned.

“I’ve never heard an analogy like that before but it works! And look – look at how healthy the land around us is now! We’re not just looking at spring, but this is the effect of our being here, perhaps the start of our wider purpose. And, in a way, all of this has come about without us doing anything at all.”

That could be so, though Brent could very easily see that the grass where the dragons had been living was brighter and richer, as if it had more goodness in it than any other grass. The trees were stronger too and even those that had had jagged slashes and scars in their bark now stood tall and proud, as if they were daring the land around them to try to fell them. If she knew anything about trees, she would have said that some of the ones around their favourite clearing had looked like they would topple down at the faintest provocation of wind, but now appeared strong, branches laden with leaves, a home for a multitude of wildlife.

It was more than that too, invasive species had retreated, allowing native ones to blossom and flourish, the bushes thicker, the flowers more prominent and even insect life more buzzing. It could have been just spring, if the region had looked like that

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before, but even a mountainous area that was well-known for being harsh and rugged had proven that life could thrive and flourish there, with the presence of the dragons.

Alan watched it all, recorded it all, yet even if they did not note everything, the dragons wound together, chirping and calling, exulting in the change to the landscape. They saw it flourishing and allowed the gladness in their hearts to seep through, circling their nesting grounds, their trumpeting cries and calls filling the air.

Alan smiled, her nose tilted to the bright spring sky, clear blue with a scattering of wispy clouds. For a moment, she allowed herself to hope that everything would be okay, that the meeting, only the next day, would render them in the next stage of their lives as dragoness, gladness held there.

She hoped.

But Alan was not convinced.

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Chapter Eleven

It had been strongly suggested to them that they walk down to the ranger station, the wooden built building with a solid roof slanted to the side, allowing rainwater to drain easily. There had been more rain lately, more so than should have been, edging into spring, though they did not know yet that the influence of the dragons was what made it rainier and wetter earlier in the year, the bright sunshine between heavy showers allowing the vegetation to grow thicker and more luscious.

The land would still go through the cycle of the seasons, of course, but not quite in the way that they understood it before, the harsh land becoming more fruitful, year after year. As long as the dragons were present, of course, though only the meeting, that day and for as long as discussions and negotiations continued, would tell far more than their speculations.

There was a crowd at the ranger station, sweeping in all colours, kept back behind red and white striped barriers, whereas the officials that they were to speak with were up on a stage-like podium. If they had thought that the dragons would fit up there too they would be sorely mistaken as the dragons swooped down from the sky, one by one, the sunshine shining through the translucent membranes of their wings as if they were precious jewels dropping, one after the other, from the sky.

They weren’t trying to put on a show, not at all, but they knew what they were there for, the severity of the situation, though they held onto the hope, considering that they had been human themselves, that there would be the chance for building bridges and educating. They could all live together, of course, but humanity had a strict place for everyone in the world. Arya in particular wasn’t so confident that there was any way for them to fit into such sweet, little bottles.

The crowd gasped, though the officials in what looked like some kind of military outfit stood tall, their shoulders braced, as the dragons landed on the empty side of the ranger station. People pushed and clamoured at the barriers, yet there were enough there, armed, to hold them back, Tilsa keeping an eye on them, a stirring of unease in the pit of her stomach. Not for the first time, she was glad that no one but the dragons knew the location of the nesting mounds. She wasn’t so sure of how things were to go, but the presence of guns would have set the hairs on the back of her neck up before, let alone with so much at stake.

Usuakusu shivered, stepping in close to Jenson, though she didn’t need the protection, being a mid-sized dragon. In the shadow of the comforting, older dragon, however, she felt a little stronger, a little more able to hold her own, though she would forever be glad of the comforting loom of her sisters, everyone there, everyone supporting her. And Darius too, though it would take a while even for Usuakusu to get used to the fact that there was a male dragon in their midst too.

Whereas it appeared that the everyday spectators had been deprived of electronics, there were some media there, a presence of cameras and a couple of drones hovering at a distance that still made Darius’ back push up, as if he wanted to snap them out of the air himself. It was only Tilsa on one side and Arya on the other that kept him firm, swallowing his growls. He’d been well-schooled in how to behave. That didn’t mean

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that it was easy to keep down the smouldering protectiveness, the need to put those that he cared about behind him, so that he could feel as if they were at least a little more shielded from any potential harm.

Yet they were more than capable of defending themselves, even if there was no need for their interactions that day to come to it, Sandra and Anniyah stepping forward with their lips softly covered, muzzles as relaxed as they could make them. In royal blue and burnt umber, the dragonesses struck a powerful scene even with their wings softly folded in against their backs.

“Thank you for meeting us here today,” Sandra said, lifting a wing in hello. “It’s lovely to see so many faces again like yours! We are the dragons that transformed after our caving expedition and have been out here for quite some time.”

Reporters called and microphones were thrust forward, though the maintained perimeter around the dragons was kept, so it was not as if they could be waved in anyone’s face. The clamour of noise sullied the air and Usuakusu made a face, the blue and white dragon fighting the urge to huddle down. She hadn’t realised how quiet it was in the mountains, their territory, not as her breath caught and the drum, drum, drumming on her eardrums intensified.

“Right, yes…”

The officials appeared keen to get started, testing the sound system, the microphones set up, one for each on the stage. With a backdrop of nature and the mountains behind them, they appeared more like they were opening a new part of the park rather than holding a meeting between dragons and humans. They tested the microphone, speaking into it, though it was nonsense words, pleasantries that the dragons had long done away with between each other.

No names were given. That did not escape the dragons’ notice. But they seemed keen to use their names.

“We are here today to welcome the following to the world as dragons, citizens that have undergone a massive change!” He spoke loud and clearly, the man clean-shaven though it seemed that he had short, blonde hair under his cap with a peak. “That would be…”

He reeled off all their names, the dragons listening intently. The crowd seemed less interested, busy gawking and shouting, but the cameras recorded everything. Sandra wondered if it was being streamed live anywhere, though doubted it. No doubt they would have wanted to moderate the information they disseminated to the masses through that means, though they’d wanted an audience of civilians too. Why?

“One moment.”

Tilsa cut in smoothly once their names were read, a smile on her lips.

“There are two names to amend on this list,” Tilsa said, her wing lifted to ensure all eyes were on her, kind of like raising her hand for calm attention. “I no longer go by

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Isla-Rae, but Tilsa. Kelvin no longer goes by that either, but Usuakusu. I trust this will be rectified?”

She eyed the official levelly, though they should not have been as taken aback by their name changes as they were. It was normal enough for humans to change their surnames and even their given first names. But they did seem to have some issues with that also.

“Uh… Yes, of course. Understood.”

An older man stepped forward, grey in his short, trimmed beard, devoid of a hat, though the official uniform was still in the same drab shade of green that left them looking like one unit, professional.

“It is wonderful to see that you are all alive and well and thriving with the changes that have been put upon you.” The microphone made his voice boom and echo further than was natural, the microphone crackling as an undercurrent. “As you are aware, you are the third group of dragons to be uncovered as simultaneous events happened around the globe. We believe you to be the last of the groups, the covens of dragons.”

The dragons murmured, though the questions of the media and the shouts of the crowd, some holding up phones that they had hidden to get past officials up to record. Those were swiftly, however, removed from their position with a quick grab, no need for violence to acquire them when surprise and swiftness were better tools for the guards to use.

“Now… I trust you understand that we have questions for you and we shall ask the same of you as we have the others, along with any follow-up queries that may arise. Do you understand?”

“Yes, yes, of course,” Alex said, though she bristled a bit – it was as if they were being spoken down to, something that she very much had not missed in her time as a dragon, away from other people. “But perhaps starting with these questions may give us a better line to go from?”

Privately, Alex thought that they didn’t know what they were doing, even if they said that they had spoken with two covens of dragons already. She swore that the dragons themselves had more questions brimming over on the tips of their tongues than the humans ever could, mentally separating herself from humanity without even realising what she was doing. But how could she not when there was so much to be said, so much to be done, tension strung out?

Even if the dragons had not realised the gravity of everything, their impact on humanity was far greater than the thread of allowing dragons into their society.

Thankfully, the official stood tall, a shift in his weight making him appear even more imposing than he had been before.

“Quite. I am the official Head of Dragon Relations,” he said, though that was all the introduction they would get, his name still deliberately omitted. “Our questions are as

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follows. To the media, please turn in all recordings at the cumulation of this meeting. You are bound by contract, as I might remind you.”

That spoke of conflict elsewhere, though there was nothing the dragons could do about that, not at that time. Tilsa lifted her head, the unofficial “spokesdragon” of their little, but growing, group.

“How did you transform into dragons?”

It was an obvious question to start with and one that had them still fumbling, as every one of their transformations had been different. After talking over one another for a few moments, Sandra managed to adequately sum up what had happened.

“I transformed first in the main cavern and the others helped me get out as I grew and changed,” she explained. “Brent too began changing down in the caverns, but everyone else transformed in the open air, mostly one after the other, which was easier with the space, I think. It was only partway through the transformations, as a group, that we realised that the men amongst us had become dragonesses too, though there were a few suspicions as we went along.”

The crowd shouted and Sandra laughed, in a way reminded of her daughter’s eagerness to be heard, how she sometimes could be so desperate to know something that she would have pushed her way right to the front of a crowd. She had been a journalist for a time, but the ache of the life that her daughter could have had and the life that had been lost to her would forever rest in Sandra’s heart. Even if it was not as heavy as it had been before her change.

Another question followed, sticking to it all as strictly as the Head of Dragon Relations had said.

“When did you transform into dragons?”

Tilsa tilted her head.

“On the day of our expedition. We don’t have calendars here, didn’t bring anything like that with us, so we can’t give you the exact date. The date we went missing though should show that.”

The Head of Dragon Relations pressed his lips into a tight line and Tilsa could have snorted, if she had not held herself as controlled as she was. They really were following a line of questions, asking things that they must have already had the answers to. It seemed silly, to her, but she’d never liked things like that.

“How many new dragons transformed after the expedition?”

“Three,” Tilsa answered more easily. “Julie, the first, but it was too late to stop the news spreading to the rest of our families and friends after that, through the emergency contacts list Sandra left at home, for the expedition. “Then Sebastian and, about the same time, we’re not quite sure when, Darius too. After that, we managed to stop

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everyone and make sure everyone knew to keep out of the region of the caverns, even above ground.”

The Head of Dragon Relations moved on, too quickly, to the next question, even as journalists tried to interrupt, tried to redirect things in a less rigid format.

“Have any dragons breathed fire yet? How long, for what duration, what intensity?”

Darius blinked.

“You can’t expect us to know all that,” he said dryly. “But, yes, we can breathe fire.”

He left out about the life breath ability, though it was one that, clearly, could only be used for good. There was only so much that people needed to know and it could be said that Darius, and perhaps Jenson too, were least well appropriated with the darker sides of human beings. It would have been too plain to say that the colour of their skin had led to that, though being dragons gave them the power and confidence, a certainty in themselves, that they had not had before. Still, they retained who they were, who they had been, even as they grew.

Not knowing about any more abilities, merely asking to have the answers recorded, they moved on, though the rest of the humans seemed to want to know everything about them. The eyes of even the media shone, grateful to be in on something so big, asking about how they’d grown, how high they could fly, what they could do, how deep in the caves they’d gone, even about how they had adjusted to becoming dragonesses where they had not begun life as female. It was refreshing, in a way, to have so much of an urge for knowledge pushed upon them, an interest in them, purely for who they were, the experiences they had gone through. It gave them, as a whole, the sense that they could do good, the good that they wanted to do, that there was more to humans now than the stuffy official.

“For how many minutes can you stay airborne? What is the diet of a dragon?”

“Um…” No one knew the answer to that one, not the first bit, at least, though Julie tried, joining in. “You… Hm… We all fly differently, I’m not very strong yet. I guess I can only fly for fifteen minutes, maybe? We don’t have clocks here either.”

“And we eat an omnivorous diet,” Jenson added. “We are greatly looking forward to having more vegetables and fruit now that the warmer seasons are coming! I believe Alan has already planted seeds that she intends to cultivate and Santino is assisting there too.”

The official nodded, his expression bland and blank, as if everything was not as expected, but boringly so, plain and nothingness. Alan shuffled her weight, tail twitching in agitation.

“They could look interested in the answers,” she hissed to Brent. “They’re just asking questions like they’re not interested in any of the answers at all!”

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Brent nudged her to be quiet, though agreed with a nod of her head. It was strange…and felt like there was something more to come. What if they were just asking questions until they found the information that gave them something that they were after?

“What are your intentions now that you are dragons?”

Arya scoffed.

“Are you trying to see how many times you can say “dragons”?” She challenged loudly. “We know we are dragons. I think, by now, so do you. You can ask your questions without making a point of it.”

The Head of Dragon Relations eyed her, his eyes as hard as steel. Yet Arya was not to be so easily made to back down.

“The appearance of dragons in the world affects us all…”

He paused expectantly, not knowing her name, yet he waited and waited, with his eyebrows raised, demonstrating the power differential between them. All, of course, until Arya grunted and acquiesced to his unspoken desire. She didn’t like how easily he seemed able to bend her to his desires.

“Arya, my name is Arya.”

“Arya. It affects us all. Therefore, we must follow the script and regiment as directed.”

Arya glowered, though Jenson answered the original question, lifting her voice to be heard.

“We have no ill intentions as dragons, I can assure you, as I am sure that is the thing first and foremost on everyone’s mind. Truth me when I say that all of this has come as just as much of a sock to us as it has been to you – we never imagined that anything like this could happen. But it appears that we are here for a greater purpose, though it feels overbearing just to say that… But it’s true. We’ve dug into the caverns, researched the paintings, the carvings, the clay tablets, the leftovers from a previous dragon civilisation long gone by, led and the great majority uncovered by Alan here.”

She nodded to the other dragoness who sheepishly nodded, embarrassed to be put on the spot. The Head of Dragon Relations glanced up at her directly when she mentioned artefacts in the caves, but otherwise kept his expression bland and unreadable. He had his orders, after all, and his questions to follow. Still, Jenson was keen to be heard, taking that flutter of heightened interest to be more than what it was.

“We intend to do what good we can in the world, wherever we are needed. We do not know quite yet the exactness of what we are to do, but we are confident that we will be able to bring something positive, new life, healing to the land. Look at how vibrant it is here!” She spread out her wing for emphasis, the crowd’s fuss falling quieter, at least for a little moment. “This is us, our presence, in part… We can bring healing to

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lands, make the world healthier. And we don’t even know what will come when our eggs hatch too!”

Her excitement, however, had gotten away from her as the official paused, thrown off his line of questioning and veering from routine with fresh information at hand. That was why he was the Head of Dragon Relations, after all, someone with the canny and skills enough to take things on the fly, even then.

“Let me hear that again,” he said. “Did you mention eggs?”

Jenson shuffled her feet, a little embarrassed, though her wife was quick to join in and explain.

“Yes, we have all laid a clutch,” she explained. “That is, the dragons that were the first to transform. Those that joined us and transformed before we were able to stop more from coming close, Julie, Sebastian, Darius, they have not laid a clutch. Darius also became a male dragon, the only one of us, so far, to be male.”

“Ah, I see… Then those that were uncovered, while pregnant, have not progressed to the stage that you are currently at. Where are the eggs laid?”

Tilsa shook her head.

“In our territory. We will not allow more information than that.”

A mother’s protectiveness battled with the inherent need for diplomacy, tensions strung-out between them, crackling in the air. She could have answered him plainly, but she didn’t like how the conversation had turned after asking about her eggs. Their eggs. All their eggs.

“As Head of Dragon Relations, I must insist that the co-ordinates are provided, otherwise we will not be able to provide adequate protection to the beasts after they are hatched,” he said, as if he was speaking about zoo animals, creatures that did not have sapient minds. “We do not know how second-generation dragons will behave and yours will the first to hatch. They may not be as civilised as you, as the ones that still have their humanity.”

“Our humanity?” Arya snapped, head raised, her antler-like horns giving her an extra bit of height. “We are not human. We are dragons. And our young will be dragons too!”

Tension crackled in the air, the crowd drawing back a little as if the dragons exuded a palatable force in the air, something that pushed and pulled anxiously at them. The Head of Dragon Relations eyed Arya levelly, taking in all the dragons at once. Darius bristled.

Quickly…something had turned.

“Of course, we are extending the ability to maintain your rights, as humans,” he said, emphasising the word, “to you. We understand that it was no one’s desire to be transformed and we trust that you will fully cooperate with us in all ways. But your

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offspring will not possess a shred of humanity, it has already been determined. They will not be granted human rights, but animal rights.”

And those counted for little, wherever in the world one was, in some parts of the world someone who abused or harmed an animal was not even given jail time, but a fine, a slap on the wrist. Tilsa drew her head back, a ringing in her ears growing stronger and stronger, blasting through, as if it had suddenly become the backdrop to a conflict that she had not realised was even there.

“No…”

The Head of Dragon Relations looked at her.

“Please repeat that.”

There was no softness in his tone, no lightness, no pleasantry that could have taken the edge off, the ring of the crowd pulsing. But was there an undercurrent of anger in them too, or was that only what Tilsa sensed in her restless, shifting dragon family?

No rights? Tilsa kept her eyes level, despite the pounding of her heart. Was he even authorised to decide that? The dragons stared, jaws clenched, tails stiff with emotion that they would not allow to show, which was a little easier to do, considering that they no longer bore human facial expressions so plainly.

“I said that our young will not be treated as mere beasts. We are more than that – we are not humans but we are equal. We do not intend to glean special treatment from anyone, but our needs are fair and simple. Our young will be granted human rights, for I will not see them treated as anything lesser.”

Her words were hard and her eyes unyielding, hiding the low growl rumbling in her chest, though Tilsa had to keep control over herself. There was nothing like an outburst that would see the humans thinking that they were in fact beasts, but that did not stop the raking in her chest, how hidden teeth snarled in her lungs, making every breath harder to drag in than the last. Her heart pounded, aching furiously, guts churning. But everything she did was for the dragons, her young, the young of the flight of dragons, her coven. As much as she reeled, she could not back down, even if a lack of rights for their children was hardly something that any of them, even then, could have possibly anticipated.

“That simply will not be done… Miss…Isla-Rae.”

“Tilsa. It is Tilsa.”

She would not have minded an error being made in her name, but her blood was up, heat roaring through her, as if she was about to unleash her fiery breath too, what she could draw up from her core of being. He was not to harm her children! The dragons rumbled around her, growling, standing, wings flapping, flaring out as if they were trying to, however unconsciously, try to make themselves look larger and more intimidating. It was neither something that they needed to do nor wanted to do, the humans drawing back, sensing unrest.

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The Head of Dragon Relations, however, appeared unfazed by what was going on, eyeing them up distastefully.

“Be reasonable, this could hardly be unexpected to you – and your eggs will be a valuable resource in understanding what dragons can do for humanity, you see, and…”

But he never got the chance to continue as dragon roars filled the air, warning them off, warning them back, overcome with protective, motherly instinct. It rang through them, snarling and seething for precedence, though they meant no harm and did not mean any attack, only to send those that threatened their young back with belting, bellowing roars. Their sides trembled with their motherly protectiveness, wings flapping, even Darius, Julie and Sebastian joining with growls and snaps and snarls.

Things were too tense to be resolved, all should have known that, yet even the officials tried to speak over them, clinging to their hats, leaning into the blasting wind of their breath. Their lips moved but if any sound came out there was no one there to hear it, not with the dragons taking precedence, overcome with fear for what would come of their children if they did not act now. No one could say, quite honestly, whether the Head of Dragon Relations could make such decisions, but it was fair to assume that he had what power had been granted to him as a new role in government. It was not something that they could brush off or take lightly, simmering and snarling with evident discontent.

But someone had to act.

“Perhaps we should reconvene two days from now,” Alan suggested, taking a moment, flapping her wings to lift above the clamour of dragons and humans. “Clearly, this is unprecedented and we all need to consider what has been discussed!”

Perhaps it would have been uncouth of them in human terms to beat such a hasty retreat, but anger and fear and concern twisted amongst the dragons as they launched themselves into the air, the matriarchs helping the weakest flyers higher and higher, using the air shaped by their wings to buoy them up. It was not an easy flight, not as snatches of conversation were hurled between them, worry building, the urge to get back to their nesting mounds, to curl around them and croon to their unhatched young, overwhelming.

Sometimes, as a mother, a dragon could not resist the lure of such an urge. And that was just why humanity, or at least that corner of humanity, had underestimated them.

Sandra exchanged a look with the others, eyes grazing everyone’s in turn, one after the other. They met her glance with steadfastness, even those new dragons who had joined them resolute in their conviction.

They would work together with humanity. But they had humanity to convince of that first of all.

That could be more difficult than anticipated.

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Chapter Twelve

“We can’t go through with this!”

“It’s not right!”

“They’re our children!”

“Quiet!”

Sandra stood tall, taking the lead, the one of them who had lost a child with her partner, although she didn’t make it well-known to everyone, not when so many other things had happened to the dragons. She hissed, drawing them to a softer kind of quiet, dragons and humans alike gathered before their meeting plateau. Where torches had been turned on, brought by their human friends and family, a fire was the greatest illumination, lighting up everyone there, all that needed to be seen.

It was a blessing that their friends and family, those that had been able to come, had come back to the edge of the magic-affected zone with them, slipping by those guarding. Chaos was a good thing and the officials were not as well practised as they might have liked to think, the holes in their defence and plan allowing them to move through, even if not unseen. Oh, they knew that they were there, dragons and humans conferring, though they had more at their disposal.

“Sandra, we do not mean to go through with this and I know you do not agree with them either,” Tilsa said calmly, her voice raised to be heard, though the concern for their young ached in the pit of her stomach. “What are we to do? We can’t compromise here… And they won’t agree either.”

“No, but some might.”

Heads turned to Alan, sitting close to Darius, though the dragon and the dragoness had never seemed all that close before, not obviously so. They exchanged a look, nodding faintly, and stood together, as one.

“Did you see how the crowd reacted?” Alan pressed. “They didn’t want the same things as the officials! The head… Whatever. Everyone there was there for quite different reasons and they’ve already made their first mistake, that was if they wanted to control us at all. If they’d wanted to keep things concealed, they shouldn’t have let anything go through to the media at all.”

“Yes,” Arya agreed. “Their hand was already swayed by other dragon colonies emerging too. If they hid another, that would be worse for them. Plus, it sounded like people were expecting us by now, that bits had leaked through.”

“There had been some rumours, sweetheart,” her mother said, resting her hand comfortingly on her daughter’s thigh. “Nothing concrete, the blurry photos I showed you.”

“It was enough…” Arya pressed. “It was enough to make us real in a good way to

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people, for people to start thinking about us. Maybe just as a fantastical sort of thing, but if we can show them what we can do, that’s all the better for us.”

Sandra sighed and shook her head.

“Really, it is a fool’s folly,” she said, interjecting, even as the other dragons murmured around her. “They expect to hide us…but we’re dragons! It doesn’t make sense, they’re scraping at what they think they’re going to be able to do, but they don’t know yet what they are going to do.”

Alex nodded, sitting close to her wife, as they so often were situated. She leaned into Alex, seemingly unconsciously, taking comfort. For no longer was Sandra the sole mother of the flight of dragons, all of them taking on different roles within the flight, becoming the matriarchs, finding themselves. How they were to develop into a type of society where each member had some strength to give and a position to lead from, all coming together as one matriarchal society, was still to be seen…

“But that means,” Alex said, continuing from what her wife had started. “That they are struggling here. They are rushing to contain us, to hide us. Maybe they want to take extreme measures, but I haven’t seen anything to suggest that, not yet.”

Alan frowned, kneading her claws into the dirt, cutting it up, forming and shifting it. Her unrest was perhaps more unsettling than the rest.

“They could though, we don’t know that, we know that the military isn’t exactly restrained when it comes to using force…” She murmured, the others craning their necks and leaning in to hear her, not usually one of the quieter ones. “But… But I think we can get people on our side, like Arya says. I think that’s our best chance, our best hope, right now, to protect our children and ourselves.”

Arya nodded, looking from one to the other, though she already had their support: she always had done. Darius’ eyes gleamed and he gestured with a front foot, sweeping from one side to the other.

“If we show them…that’ll get us ahead. That’ll get us into a position where we can do something, not just flounder around not knowing what will happen. We have information now!”

And they had just the means to get themselves out there, even if there was not, of course, any phone signal that high up in the mountains. That was just why there’d been an emergency contact list before, though Sandra had slipped up, back then, on notifying the correct authorities as to their plans for that day. In hindsight, that still had been for the better.

But they still had phones and electronics in human hands up there, offering a means of connection that they had to make use of, quickly too, if they were to change the course of events.

Darius steeled himself. It would not be easy and the lighting wasn’t great…but maybe, just maybe, they could get enough together in time for the next day. His heart pounded

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more than it did when he was flying, adrenaline pumping, breath catching, his body not suited to such high levels of stress. Humans may have adapted to it, but beasts such as dragons were most certainly not used to it, not in their new bodies.

“What do you mean, Darius?” Brent’s father asked, not catching on. “What do you need us to do? What are you going to do?”

If a dragon could have smirked, Darius did in that moment, firelight glinting in his eyes.

“Get us online, make sure everyone sees this, put us everywhere,” Darius said, his tone allowing no room for argument. “The people there… They weren’t looking for ill, there was no harm in them. There was no threat there.”

Arya made a face.

“Not like there was from that Head of Dragon Relations,” she agreed. “He was as vicious as a snake waiting to strike. Yet even a snake would not strike without due need and he has no need, not now, not ever. But what power does he truly have? It’s who he answers to that we need to appeal… He’s the best we’ve got right now.”

It was not easy, everything confused, befuddled, twisted up into a mess that they needed to untangle. He was not their enemy and yet they could not help, in a way, seeing him as one, the man who wanted to see their offspring stripped of their right. Arya shuddered, though strove to suppress it. It was wrong, so wrong… Already, the mountains felt like their home, a base that they could not give up so easily, so flying did not seem right. And there was no telling just when their young would be able to fly and get about either, if running away seemed like the best option at the time either.

Wherever they went…humans would find them, she was sure. If they were looking for them, a growing colony of dragons could not go on the run forever and that was not the sort of life that any of them wanted to bring their offspring into.

What the humans, if their offspring were not granted equal human rights, would do to their children, however…none of the dragons knew. It was not a question they wanted to be answered, though they had seen enough of the cruelties of human beings towards animals in their lifetimes to know that it was not a life for anyone, not the life they wanted to push their children into.

They had to fight for their right to be.

“Yes, yes, yes,” Darius brushed past her, pushing onto a solution, something that could help, the hour already late and the night wearing on. “But they’re not important. We’re not going to convince them to change their minds, not in one night. I wish we had more time, but we don’t – but we can pull in people who have more ideas as to what dragons can do for them.”

Brent frowned, her tail flicking back and forth slowly.

“But what can we do?”

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Santino grinned, standing.

“I know… Can you film this?”

It may have been dark, but it was still light enough, with the fire, for Santino to show her life breath, letting the slow, languid sweep of it across the entire plateau demonstrate just one of many things. If their medium was going to be recordings in such a way, it had to have a more visual appeal, so she grew flowers with great, folding petals, painstakingly asking them to bloom so that the camera phone could pick up as much detail as possible.

No one had witnessed Santino’s power for some time, though it was merely the most developed of them – Brent had shown the ability to use it too, along with Anniyah and Jenson, even if Santino’s was the most progressed. But it still struck awe into them, the dragons sitting in silence at the glowing bloom, tendrils of green glowing and snaking their way across the ground as if with a hint of phosphorescence. Grass sprouted in thick swathes and, for the finale, though it might not have been as impressive as a recording as it was in person, Santino grew a great oak tree, at the edge of the plateau so that they may have shade, great, gnarled roots sinking into the ground.

Where there had been rock, all broke to dirt, changing the very fabric of the mountain that they stood on in the pursuit of new life. The roots sank down and down and down, seeking out moisture and sustenance, the branches reached for the heavens, thick and flush with leaves with rounded edges, the uneven display of them traditional to the shape of oak tree leaves. No acorns, however, peppered the branches for it was not the season of that, though there would come a fair crop in the Fall of the year.

The tree rose and rose, though there was more for them to show, recording the flash of the dragons’ flight, even in the darkness, how they fanned the flames of the fire with their wings. Moving off the plateau, they set fire to the trees and smartly doused the flames, if not completely incinerating them, demonstrating their control, though to show such firepower was not, perhaps, more than something merely impressive.

Their talks, however…cameras facing them, self-conscious and shuffling, were perhaps the most compelling. They spoke of the love they had for their eggs, how they could not wait for them to meet the rest of the world, all that they had experienced as dragons, how their transformations had come about – in as much detail as they could for the time allowed.

Time… Oh, what they could have done if only they had enough time. Everything they said felt woefully inadequate, yet the underlying strain of tension and frustration was impossible to ignore. They could talk and talk and talk and yet they had to trust that all would reach the right people, across the globe and not only in their country. They would return to the ranger station at the meeting place after midday the next day, as agreed, but time was ticking and they could not tell who their messages would reach, or if they would even reach enough in time to cause a ruckus.

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That was all that was needed. A commotion. A stirring, the beginning of new thoughts and ideas. They didn’t expect an agreement and contract to be agreed in a day and it would be left unfinished – but it could buy them time, time until their young hatched and, perhaps, even time until they grew larger and stronger, better able to fly and fend for themselves, with their parents.

The dragonesses, with great care, flew their human charges back down the mountain that night so that they could be back in the range of phone signal again, uploading all the videos they could to every site they could. From there, it was out of their claws, only so much they could do, hoping against hope that it was enough.

Arya closed her eyes, pausing on the ground as the others took flight in the dark. If she’d been human, she might have squeezed out a tear, yet the tear ducts of a dragon did not respond to emotion in that way. The only tears that would come from her eyes would be if something was wrong inside the inner workings of her muzzle, her body flushing out a foreign body from her tear duct, perhaps.

Please… Please, let it be enough.

The enormity of it settled over her and she recalled her speech, what she had delivered with as strong a tone as she had thought she could manage. Yet even her tail had drooped, tiredness catching up with her. Even as dragons, they were not meant to go on indefinitely. Yet all the time, during her studies, that she had spent giving presentations in the sciences set her right, her head high, her body instinctively trying to push her shoulder blades back. Maybe, one day, she would still work in the sciences, though there was a whole new world opened up to her, one that dragons had a foot in the door to explore.

But, first, she had to play her own part in ensuring the safety of their children, doing all she could, all that she and her sisters could.

“I’m Arya… I have kept my name,” she’d said, the little light on the phone showing her that it was recording, the dancing light of the fire flickering and dancing on her rich scales, though it distracted her eye. “I… I want to tell you how much this has changed everything for me. I wanted to go on in my career, I wanted to be the best of the best. And now I’m a dragon, I’m a mother, I’m waiting for my eggs to be hatched, along with my sisters – those closest to me in the entire world. We’ve seen love lost and love gained here and we know that we are here to do good in the world. We only have intentions of positive will and I want to help in any way I can… I want to make things grow, like Santino, I want to spread life to all corners of the world. I want to take away as much illness and as much suffering as it might be possible for a dragoness to do, with the help of those with me.”

It had been hard to keep going, but she’d had to. There was no other choice in the matter, not as her chest tightened with emotion.

“I need to do it, I need to do it…to be myself. This world has given us so much and we can do something to heal it, to keep this world kind and loving and safe for humanity, for humanity and dragons and every other creature in the world. I don’t know how far

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our powers as dragons are yet to stretch, but I want to find out. I want to have that chance. I want to bring up my children in a world where that chance is there.”

Arya had spoken about her eggs less than the other dragons, but her speech struck home, her mother wiping a tear from her eye. For her, she only hoped it had been enough.

They’d find out the coming day, time ticking away. She could almost hear the old clock from the hallway of her childhood home. Tick, tick, tick, tick… There was no escaping that clock, a constant reminder of the passage of time.

Taking a breath, she spread her wings and joined her coven in the air.

Together, they would face it all. Together.

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Chapter Thirteen

A sense of trepidation hung in the air as the dragons swooped down, making no pretence as to their majesty and might, displaying themselves exactly as they were. Unlike the first time they had come out to the ranger station, they did not appear quiet and demure, merely landing and leaving it at that. No, they had an impromptu aerial display to put on, every dragon there imagining that they were performing for their children, the unhatched youngsters, for it was the only way that they could have possibly lifted their wings in any true semblance of light and life.

They needed to be themselves – no more hiding who they were just to think that they would not scare off people. If they kept doing that, that would be the end of them. Maybe humanity would really think that they were nothing more than animals, beasts, if they hid their true selves, if they did not go out there and show them everything they could do.

An aerial display came from the heart, however, and their wings trembled with passion as they spread them blissfully, letting everyone see them in their true glory, exactly as they were. Brent and Arya shot twin flames across the sky, crossing in an “X” before them, dissipating a moment before the dragons flew through the space that the fire had occupied a moment before. They were not fireproof, but somewhat resistant to flame: it could hurt them if they were not careful, though depended quite on the intensity of it too.

Exhilaration claimed Arya’s heart as she twisted in a vertical spiral, a move that she might have made when emerging from the lake to dry her scales, wings flared, the moment of all eyes on her. Her green scales glistened in the sunshine, groomed after she could not sleep the night before, the moment everything that it needed to be. Brent was there on one side of her and so was Darius, the drake and the dragoness supporting her through the spiral and the loop that she flipped into. Where she might have dropped, they flipped upside-down with her and used the buffeting force of their wings, shaping the air to their will, lifting her up and up to the point where the dragoness thought that it was impossible to fall.

Sandra and Alex flew in regal formation, side by side, Anniyah and Jenson bringing up the rear, as if they were aircraft doing a flyover, showing off the might of a force. Yet all they were, simply as they were in themselves, was majesty, quiet power, the might of a world that not even humanity understood, though, together, Sandra hoped that they may all understand just a little bit more.

Still, Santino, Sebastian and Alan led the more impressive act, sweeping down low with Seb and Alan flanking the purple dragoness. The colour of their scales, without following their names as closely as they would in time, was the easiest way for the humans there to tell them apart, and Santino flew long and low to the ground, so close that the treetops tickled her belly. It took a lot of strength to do what she wanted and she braced herself as she let her life breath flow, breathing out, letting it trail behind her in green and teal tendrils. Alan and Sebastian helped, though their abilities were not yet as strong, merely a demonstration of what they possessed, a supporting act to the dragoness who had come so far in such a short span of time.

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Flowers bloomed and great trees sprung up, branches unfurling as if they had been bound too tightly for too long. From birch to willow and oak and pine, there was no plant that Santino could think of that she did not conjure, imprinting her memory of them into the make-up of her breath, what she incited and encouraged the ground to grow, bigger than her, higher than her, always greater than her. The land was something that humanity had forgotten to give back to, after the earth had done so very much for them, and she led a trail of flowers spring in her wake. A thick swathe like the densest of wildflower meadows bore testament to her skill and ability, parting her jaws as she sucked in a much-needed breath, breaking from the flow.

It may have been difficult to see, but Julie drew herself up in mid-air, flapping her wings backwards to hover, a difficult movement at the best of times. That was not what would impress the crowds, though they did not spare a glance for the officials, not those on the staging, as she showed off what she had been working on, however quietly. She had never been one to take centre stage, but her heart pulled for her friends, her kin, those that had supported her through so much while her life took a turn that she had never been expecting.

She focused on the air before her, letting out a roar that went on and on, loud enough to force people to cover their ears, though she could shape the air as she willed, not just with her wings. It was more delicate when it came from her breath, the air condensing and flowing as if she was creating a current itself, winding it around and around into the long, serpentine shape of a slender dragon. There were few discernible features to it, mimicking something of the long body of an Eastern dragon in mythology (who knew, those were probably real too, she would do well to not discount it), it was still a dragon shaped from air itself that she could direct, however lightly, at will.

Julie could not hold it for long, however, hoping that it would be impressive enough, the strain of holding the air into a shape for so long taking strength from her, sagging in mid-air. Yet she had her sister dragons to guide her back to the ground, Tilsa swooping in to make sure that she was okay, helping her land, however shaky her legs were. She was still not the strongest of fliers, though that would all come in time, especially as Julie helped the others raise their hatchlings, everyone acting in their best interest.

Sandra, Alex, Brent, Arya, Jenson, Anniyah, Santino, Alan, Tilsa, Usuakusu, the original dragonesses, two with new names that better suited them. And then there were Darius, Julie and Sebastian, dragons who had transformed with a passion for the land, for the world around them, who may not have found their true calling in their new lives yet and still would defend the hatchlings of the coven whole-heartedly. There was no other option in their mind as they all lined up, supporting one another, no sing dragon standing alone. They would never again find themselves alone until their days on the earth were over.

The officials held up a loudspeaker, though the garbled announcement was lost in the cheers of the crowd, even as they tried to maintain order. Stretching out his neck, Darius strained to hear, digging up the earth, his chest tight with worry.

“Save them!”

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“Not animals!”

“The dragons mean no harm!”

“No experiments!”

He closed his jaws, fire rising in the back of his throat, worry curling it there, though he would not let it free, not now that their show was done. It was the start of everything as the Head of Dragon Relations scowled openly, though that could have meant that he was slipping up, that the moment was almost the dragons’.

“Everyone!” Darius bellowed, snaking his head back and forth, trying to make his voice go further. “Listen to us! You will have seen the videos, the recordings, some of what we have to say – and we have so much more!”

He paused, looking expectantly at the others, and Tilsa was ready to take his place.

“Our hatchlings are not animals and are to be granted the same rights as any of us,” she said, her voice crystal clear, though the loudspeaker cut over her, the handheld version crackling and not what they needed, as much as they struggled for control. “That is, human rights, the equivalent of, in absolute full. There is to be nothing less, no loophole, for all we wish for is to live in peace and to help the world, everyone that needs us. There is no ulterior motive and we have shown you a sliver of ourselves – let us show you more.”

Sandra’s sides rumbled, eyes glistening, emotion shining through. The crowd leapt and cheered, the air full of sound, coming from all directions at once. It could have been sensory overload, though even the dragons with how isolated they had been for so long could not hold back from it. They had to embrace it, for they could seek quiet later, when they had had their say.

“And I…” Sandra said, her voice low and gravelly. “Myself and my wife, my previous husband… We had a daughter. She was taken from us too soon and we have now been given a second chance, a clutch of eggs, each. We will care for them with our dear, dear daughter’s memory in mind and I hope a bit of her spirit is with us every single day. This clutch, our eggs, our hatchlings… They are dearer to us than anyone can imagine, but I hope we can impart a little of that to you today. Thank you, thank you so much for coming.”

The crowd screamed, though the officials, not even those who were supposed to be guarding and controlling them, had the means to quiet them – not that they were doing anything wrong, but the means of crowd control in cities and the like could have been brought out. That was all for the better as their speech and their support of the dragons were not to be quashed. They felt it, all of them, how it washed over them, a force unlike any other, something that had them spreading their wings as if the very feeling of love and solidarity could lift them into the sky. It was strange, setting their scales on edge in a good way, tingling all over, even Darius blinking in wonder as he exhaled a soft cloud of nearly white smoke.

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“Right, now, now, we must get back on schedule, ah, now that the dragons have returned,” the Head of Dragon Relations said, the microphone working, adjusting his tie, no longer wearing his flat military-style official cap. “After the abrupt departure, yesterday, on the part of the dragons, we have gathered here to continue questioning…”

“No – no, we have not!”

Usuakusu, formerly Kelvin, snarled, holding her head tall and proud, a glint in her eye as if she knew exactly where she was meant to be and was there.

“Our children are not animals! We are here to protect them, to love them, to care for them. I am sure that many of you are parents, or that you have younger brothers and siblings – how would you feel if someone said this about them?”

The screams of the crowd were all the answers that she needed, though all that the dragons had to say was infused with passion. It was not scripted, however powerful it was, and their words came through choked-up throats, emotion threatening to spill over. The clamour of noise pushed and pulled at Usuakusu as she swayed lightly, though Tilsa was there, as she always was, supporting her as her sister, another mother who knew exactly what she was going through.

“The dragons are our friends!”

“It’s not their fault!”

There was more, much more, coming from the crowd, though it was increasingly difficult to pick out any one word sometimes, much less a sentence. What they could tell was that there was no one screaming that they were wrong, that they were stupid, all the non-sensical things that they had hoped so very much would not come to be shown.

Catching sight of some of their new friends, the humans who had come to see them, Brent’s father, Trish, even Jenson’s ex-wife who had turned up at some point, everyone who had supported them, Usuakusu lifted her head again. They had all come. They should lean into those that cared for them, lifted them, supported them, forgetting the rest.

“You have seen us here and you will see what we can do, all the good we can bring to the world,” she cried. “But do not let us, as dragons, be what lets you allow our children to live with fair rights! Let your humanity, your care, your compassion, your sense of morality – let that guide you! I know you believe us – convince them! Don’t let them get away with it!”

The ire of the crowd turned on the officials, though they were better protected there. There were too many in the audience to stop them from taking photos and recording, having gotten devices in, perhaps due to the sheer number of them there, everything spiralling out of control. The Head of Dragon Relations’ frown deepened as he called for order over the microphone, but not even with their speakers turned up as loud as possible did they make a dent in the one-sided blast of the crowd.

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“My friends!” Arya faced the crowd, needing no microphone to raise her voice loud and clear, sides vibrating as she sent her voice out and out and out. “I implore you! You have seen us, but only a fraction of us! Let us show you more, let us show you who we are! We’re not animals – and neither are our children! Would you want your children to be treated as animals, caged, hunted, worse? Who knows what would fall to them if this was allowed to pass without due challenge!”

Muttering stirred beneath the cries, anger swirling, the crowd angrier and thicker than they had been the prior day. Somehow, there seemed to be even more of them too, though none of the dragons could honestly say how they had gotten through. That was something to be asked later, but the mood of the crowd was angry, fury seething, roiling, feeding one another. They did not want a mob, but, in a way, what they needed to do was to incite that sense of injustice, to rile them up to the point that they applied what was happening to the dragons to themselves too.

For they were one and the same, when it came to life and love and intelligence, things that humans cherished. They valued the sapience of creatures, themselves at the head of the pecking order, but dragons and humans would now have to share that perch, for there was room for them both in caring for the world, acting as kind stewards of the earth.

The recordings and photos and depictions of them must have been spread far and wide as someone stepped up onto the stage, whispering with a cupped hand, though that merely might have been to ensure that it was hard, into the ear of the Head of Dragon relations. He was not so well-schooled in public relations to keep the twitch of his eye from his face, hand tightening into a fist that he shoved deep into his pocket.

He snapped up straight and tried again, but it was all as good as pushing back against a wall, for the roar of the crowd was overpowering, only just about held back by the barriers. They may have been reinformed into metal fencing panels of some kind, six feet high, but they rattled and shook as fingers slipped between the bars, demanding justice, fighting for retribution.

“We must ask that you remain calm and quiet…”

At least, that was what the Head of Dragon Relations tried to say, though he was shouted over, forced back by the pure wave of noise slamming into him. His lips parted and the microphone squealed, though there was nothing for him to get out.

Tilsa turned to him, lifting a wing for a touch less noise, though she got it whereas the officials did not. It was all Arya and Darius could do not to smirk, sitting so close that their tails touched.

“Sir, I think the crowd has spoken. And I’m told,” she nodded towards Trish, who was near her with her phone in hand, “that there is a rather large audience only that would like to have their say too.”

She did not pose anything as a threat, not in the slightest, but he should have known when he was beaten, when the tide had turned against what they had wanted.

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Everything was too tenuous in the moment, his teeth obviously gritted, the set of his jaw hard and unyielding, firmly clenched into a hard line. Perhaps only the dragons noticed it, for others were too busy filming, the media even managing to stream some, though the dragons and those that supported them could only suppose that there was an intermittent nature to it. There was a better signal down at the ranger station, and perhaps a connection within the lodge itself, but there was not enough for everything to be fluid and seamless.

Like what had happened to the dragons as the officials all clustered at the back of the stage, still on show, though eyes were only half on them. The other half were on the dragons, cheering for them, chanting what they were, their names, hands held high, shouting support. It may have been lost in the mass of cries, yet the sound thrummed through them like a dragon’s purring croons, resonating deeply, filling them with love and warmth.

“They love you!” Trish shouted, clinging to Arya’s leg for balance. “Everything online – everyone wants to meet you! They want your children to be safe! They’re all with you, so many people!”

She couldn’t say more, not that was heard, but the gist of it was understood, that their reach had spread far, far beyond their little circle of dragons, their humans, the people that knew and loved them. Perhaps it had helped some that other dragon colonies had been uncovered before them, that they were a little more prepared for more dragons – and with all that there was in the world, no one wanted to fear dragons. No… No, that was not what anyone wanted, not even the officials, though the dragons would see to it that any use they had in the world was honestly and truly for the benefit of all.

Of course, they were not such fools to think that everyone in the whole world would be with them, but they needed that support, that protection, however grudgingly it was given, just to keep those on their side, the law. They still abided by it, even though they were dragons, looking to be the best citizens they could, in their own way. Yet if they were to abide by the laws of the land and the world, it was only fair that they and their young were given the fair treatment and respect they deserved.

It was a lot harder to turn an agreement, after all, that their children would not be given any rights into an agreement that they would be given rights. One way worked more easily for them, though they would never, not in a million lifetimes, want their children to be devoid of any rights. For they had as much right to the earth and the world as their parents and humanity did, those that wanted the best of them, taking them forward into a new age and light of being.

“What are they talking about?” Alex hissed, for once impatient as she craned her neck to see, more used to being the one leading, in charge, though she had deferred to others with greater experience more often lately. “I wish I knew… They can’t drag this out forever.”

Arya clenched her jaw.

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“Yes, you’re right, they’ve got to end this soon. If not, the crowd will be through that barrier and we’ll be the ones trying to hold them back. I don’t want to hurt someone accidentally!”

The thought of a wing flung out or a tail swung without thinking clawed at her mind and she shook her head. No… No, she couldn’t do that, staring at the officials with a long, hard stare, though wishing too that she could pick up the Head of Dragon Relations and leave him on a very high mountaintop. Not hurt, of course, just somewhere where he could not cause any more harm to anyone.

The sullen look when he returned to the microphone, his deputy holding their hands up, calling for order that was not gained until Sebastian let out a roar, pulling up onto her hind legs to stomp both front feet down into the ground. The resounded tremor had some people staggering, yet it was the most effective way to gain silence, attention, in as calm a way as possible with so much going on.

All eyes landed on the Head of Dragon Relations, his lips turned down, eyes hard, a sour look on his face. It spoke volumes even as the dragons huddled together, quivering with anticipation.

“Thank you for your attention,” he said, his voice more brittle than before. “There will be no further questions today, due to the unprecedented disruption. To conclude, we have one announcement.”

Santino leaned into Sebastian, suddenly faint, needing the support.

“For now… The dragons and their children, they will not be given full human rights, for now,” he forced out through gritted teeth, speaking through the clamour of the crowd, the roars and stomps of the dragons. “But they shall be able to live here. As policy dictates, a law must go through the chambers to be passed for means of protection, but emergency measures force my hand in declaring, until this is confirmed, that the exploitation of the dragons and their…children, is illegal from this moment on.”

Arya sucked in a breath, her eyes wide.

“And?”

She pressed him, though the official looked at her as if the mere sight of the dragoness left a distinctly foul taste in the back of his mouth. That, however, was the least of their concerns, as long as they and their children were safe and well, protected as they all needed to be. Nothing else mattered, not as Arya’s heart drummed, blood roaring between her ears, the pressure of her pulse on her eardrums deafening.

Please, oh, please…

She didn’t know who she was begging, but she had to, had to hear him, had to listen, had to be poised for the verdict that would change their lives.

“This includes but is not limited to the death, injury, use, theft, or any harm otherwise of the dragons,” he said, tone dropping into a drone as if he was already bored by the

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announcement that he had clearly been forced to give. “Anyone who circumvents this in any way will face the full wrath of the law.”

The crowd murmured, rising in triumph, though he tried to talk over it, his voice rising, lips twisting uncomfortably. But the hearts of the dragons were already soaring, looking at each other, jaws parted, flickers of victorious fire snapping in the backs of their throats. Were they going to be okay? At least for the moment?

It was enough, would have to be enough, even if things were not yet settled…

“This will be reviewed in one month's time, the date to be confirmed with the dragons in question. From there, we shall fulfil our line of questioning, with further queries, and look at what use may be had. The dragons may not approach towns and cities, though those allowed by the dragons may visit them. They have rights, as we do, people inside there.”

The dragons could have corrected him on his rather clunky, unconventional use of language – however he wanted to look at them, they were very much dragons and not people like he was used to anymore – but the triumph of the moment had them throwing their heads back. Cries rose to the sky, along with jets of flames, Julie clumsily shaping a “wind serpent” that twisted back and forth above them until it was disintegrated in a blast of flame. It was short-lived, however, though not as much as their wide-jawed grinning cries, shouts of joy passed between them all as they exulted.

All for them, them and their hatchlings, the life that they would have in the world, for they did everything for them. It was their world and they could not live in one where they would be treated as lesser beings and all the trauma that would entail, the dragons resolute in fighting every step of the way to show those in humanity that thought otherwise that they were there for good, nothing more and nothing less. They were not there to be used but they were there to bring life and health and sustainability back to the world, to lead it into a new stage of being, thriving, and no longer simply surviving.

It would be a long road to go, of course, and the answer was one that only set back the date when they would, again, have to stand up for those that could not, though tensions had begun and would likely continue. There was only a restriction on harm and injury, however that was chosen to be put into place, that could come to them, nothing actually about their rights: that was just lip service, for they could not be sure, not even then, that they were seen as anything more than animals, or if their children would face what had been proposed to them already, that their rights would not be extended to them. It left them open to concern that they would lose their human rights too, a fight bigger than what the dragons could ever have anticipated on their hands.

Together, however, they would fight it and they would meet every challenge head on, the ringing of the crowd in their ears, the people with them. With so many people cheering support for them, however, how could the dragons not feel as if they had won everything all at once already? They parted their jaws in grin after grin, sharing their joy with their friends, their family, attention softening back to their nesting ground.

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In time, they would hatch, sooner than they all would think. But there was so much more for the dragons in the world that the battle of words that they had fought and, when they were able to truly spread their wings and show their offspring the world before them, they would see just how far they could go.

They were who they were. They were dragons. Nothing was ever going to change that. Not the surly officials, not the scowling guards, not those that thought that they were merely there to cause a commotion, that they were disrupting the order of things. In a way, but a gentle, softening way, they would bring order to things, though life as humanity and dragons knew it would never be the same again.

Together, they would work it out. Tensions would be there and there would be discussions to be had, but they would face it all with the poise and grace that dragons embodied.

Always, together.

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Epilogue

After the tension of their brush with humanity, the lands around them were set to be opened up to people again, even if there would still be a military presence (or something like that) at the edges of the park, ensuring that nothing untoward was going on. Meaning no harm, it did not concern the dragons, but it did relieve them a little to know that there would be no easy hunting in the park. They didn’t want to have to show another side of themselves, not even then, not against humans. But they would defend themselves and their children, even if it brought them sorrow.

Pain and violence… They were not for dragons. Not the mothers of dragons as they softened around their nesting mounds as the first of the young bustled inside, pressing and pushing at their eggshells. Tilsa thought it was instinct that had drawn her back to the nesting grounds that day, though Santino and Sebastian, crowding over “their first clutch” together while Seb’s belly swelled with her pregnancy, said that they were sure they could hear the moving of their children within the eggs and mounds. No one would be quite sure, not the first time around.

“Come on, little ones,” Brent whispered, her tail sweeping back and forth behind her. “You can do it. Push. Push!”

They stayed with their egg mounds, their young coming at once, hearts swelling, brimming over with joy. One by one, they gently scraped back the earth from the top of the mounds, too caught up in the moment to concern themselves with wondering at how all had come together, how the magic of the caverns and dragons worked with their children. All they wanted was to meet them, only them, to bring forth the next generation of dragons and teach them all they knew.

The eggs were bared and the eggs cracked, breaking into sections, like an egg that had been tapped on the side of a counter, preparing to crack the contents into a saucepan. The dragons no longer had any need for such things, but how the eggs splintered into small sections reminded them of it, pushing up a small, wonky rectangle of shell, bit by bit.

A light wind blew as the first of the hatchlings blinked into the light, a beautiful, blue dragonet with red horns, though they were tiny, not yet grown. Sandra’s offspring reminded of both her and Alex, the nesting mounds of the two close together, though they had wrapped their bodies around the mounds to cradle them, lost in the moment. It was a moment for each dragoness to enjoy, the new life come, little dragonets wetly poking their way into the light, the world that was to become theirs in every way.

Brent and Arya were the first to rumble, a low bugle rising, half-trumpeting, bobbing their heads, snaking their necks, performing for their young. They were struck by the urge to hurl themselves to the skies, to fly back and forth, to streak the sky with lashes of flame that could not, not even then, burn brighter than the love they held in their hearts for their young.

But, no, for the moment, they stayed. They stayed there, humming softly, a dragon’s purr rising from deep, deep within them, welcoming their young to the world. None of the behaviours were such that they had exhibited before, but they were welcome to

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new experiences, love and motherly instinct overwhelming them. Yet if they were to be swallowed up whole by it, it would only see them placed right where their hatchlings needed them to be, brought forth into a new world where dragons and humanity put the world to light.

The hatchlings spread spindly little wings, appearing gawky and unnatural, even though they crooned and stumbled, trying to make odd little chirping sounds. Their limbs glistened wetly, coated in the protective fluid from within the eggs, though Tilsa couldn’t help but giggle as one of her hatchlings stumbled out into the waiting cup of her wing, tumbling head over heels down the mound that she had opened up for them to emerge from.

“Careful, little one…”

They would not take care, not before they had the knowledge in their minds and hearts to take steady steps, her little ones with different pearlescent scales, though they did not match her own lightly shaded ones, the light hues blending together. While they were reminiscent of their mother, they were not their mother, Tilsa allowing them to be, simply as they were.

Alex and Sandra sat close, helping to scrape the mounds down to expose the eggs, not wanting their hatchlings to have a hard time as they scrambled up and out.

“Little ones,” she breathed, lowering her head, eyes half-lidded as she murmured. “Come out… We’re waiting for you.”

It was as if the clutches were a mix of her and Alex, resplendent in crimson and blue, though only time would tell what their personalities would bloom into. That would come and Sandra and Alex bustled them together while the dragons who were technically lower in the hierarchy waited in the wings, starry-eyed with admiration of the hatchlings. Their bellies, where they were female, were round with their pregnancies, showing a little, though they had so much to look forward to. And the males would not be left out either when it came to loving and teaching the hatchlings.

They would need to learn, after all, how to walk, how to talk, following the conversations of the adults. Their wings would spread, when they were large enough, for the first time, and they would still need to be taught how to flap. Tenderly, Sandra laid flakes of white fish that they had caught in the river, light and easy on their stomachs, before their hatchlings: their very first meal. The hatchling dragonets gobbled it up as if it was a fine treat, throwing their heads back to wolf it down. Chewing was something that they would have to learn too.

Santino smiled widely, unable to keep the expression from her muzzle, as her daughters and sons bobbed their heads, crowding around her.

“Look! They know I’m their mother, oh! They know it’s me! Hello! Hello!”

Santino could not contain herself, chirping along with them, her throat trembling while she mimicked their little sounds.

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One by one, their hatchlings out in the open air, every mother took to the sky while the others nannied, looking after the little ones, ensuring that, in their stumbling, wobbly steps, they did not stray too far. It was a display driven by instinct and not something that could be secluded away, wings flapping, spreading, stretching, unable to hold back from the passion of flight.

Up in the air, they demonstrated an age-old ritual, driven by instinct, muscles aching through patterns of times long gone by. But the dragons themselves would bring that back to the present day as all heads turned up to them, those of their hatchlings, Brent’s son, the little one who had been first out of the nest, watching in awe, his eyes large and round. He knew who his mother was as she shot across the sky, crisscrossing with her sister mother’s, unleashing jets of flame.

The hatchling warbled, head bobbing back and forth, watching their mother fly. Oh! They were wonderful, magnificent, though the minds of all the hatchlings were not quite yet developed enough to speak or form words. Impressions and feelings, yes, those were there. A sensation of warmth when spotting their mothers, a feeling that they were softly cared for as another dragoness’ head loomed after them, checking them over. Even the drakes were protective forces, though one grey dragon with red claws seemed a little startled by them, wide-eyed. But he could have been just as in awe of them and the world as they were.

It was their world, Arya twisting and spinning in a jet of flame, Santino pouring her breath over the land, springing blooms to life in twists of green and sparkling pink. Everything she brought forth for the joy of their hatchlings reminded them of spring, the new life that was coming, what they had been waiting for, for it seemed like an age already since they had laid their eggs. Usu, however, was the first to dart back to the ground, breaking from instinct in her eagerness to see her hatchlings, to croon over them, murmuring and singing in the old tongue of dragons that sounded as if it was nonsense but meant more than any of them yet knew.

The purring hum curled through her throat as she nuzzled her hatchlings adoringly, admiring how they stumbled down the mound, so strong, so proud, all already so much so. They were splotched, like her colouring, but not limited to blue and white. Most, however, were in natural shades of green and blue with one brown and another purple hatched from her clutch. One thing that all had, however, was the splotching through of mottled white markings, breaking up the solidity of their scales.

Softly, Usu lowered her head, letting her hatchlings crowd in close, purring for them, murmuring, sharing breath as her nostrils puckered and flared. She had eight hatchlings in total and her thoughts consumed themselves with ideas of how far they were going to go in life, how much she was going to teach them, showing them the way and the life that would be better than the one she had led. She might have experienced her own heartbreak, but her fluttering, chirping dragonets would be protected from as much as Usu possibly could protect them from.

One day, they would have to be on their own, not held back by her. But she would care for them through and through, guiding them onto the right path.

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Together, they would surmount miracles. Together, they would find an accord. Together, they would thrive. But that could only happen with the compromise of humanity, those that sought to use them finding a different way, a better way, working with all that saw the potential in the good of dragons.

It may have been unexpected to find themselves transformed, but all had come right, at least for them, in the end. Sebastian pressed in close to Santino, a second mother to her hatchlings, as they would all share the load of teaching and caring for them, and Darius’ tongue flickered out in wonder at Tilsa’s children, the pearlescent hues of her scales evident already in some of her wriggling, emerging children. The soft sac of the eggs inside clung to their scales as they fatly wriggled free, unable to fend for themselves, limbs not seeming big enough to support their bodies yet. With soft, long laps of his tongue, Darius cleaned them, driven by instinct, the moment soft and wrapped around him in the light sunshine.

When they did not know what their purpose was in the world, their children would show them the way.

There was no more, not even then, that the dragons needed to know.

All was right with their little corner of the world.