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Scale clad eyes narrowed as the dragoness strained her wings to travel faster. She stretched her magical senses to their limits and tapped into her reserves to boost her range as much as she could. She knew that all her hatchlings were as alive and well as she had left them. As her lair's entrance came into view, she tried to prepare herself for whatever was going on in there. She knew the pet with the Two Moons collar was in her nesting chamber, but what was going on?

"Two Moons Shock!", the message arrived as it had done six times now.

She could almost feel the collar straining to deliver so many repeated shocks to its wearer. They were powerful devices, designed to carefully and slowly recharged themselves, but they were not designed to deliver repeated shocks like this. Her fore claws protracted and her wings flared out to slow her descent as she aimed for a quick and messy landing in her cave. Someone was doing something wrong and they were going to suffer.

Her paws came down hard onto the smoothed, uneven stone that made up the floor of her nesting chamber. The entrance was not wide enough to admit her with wings spread, so she pulled them in tight at the last minute and landed heavily into a trot. She suppressed a wince as her paws complained at their ill treatment.

The dragoness immediately noticed the hatchlings gathered near the small nest of bedding where her youngest had spent nearly the whole week with her illness. The twins and her eldest seemed to be rather agitated and alert towards something on the floor that she couldn't quite see. They were all well, although the scent of fear and fox piss hung in the air.

"Command, Two Moons Punish!", called out the smaller of the twins in High Wurm.

The shape on the ground convulsed as the shock was delivered and the dragoness heard the usual message in her ear, telling her what she could already see with her own eyes. She vaguely remembered seeing a civilised fox wearing the Two Moons collar a few times before. A young male with coppery fur. But why were her hatchlings punishing him? And when had they even learned the command to do so? She had never taught them and their grasp of true High Wurm was in its infancy.

"What is going on here!?", she bellowed, her voice penetrating everything in the cave, causing every hatchling to flinch and turn.

"It mean to youngest sister!", the slightly larger of the twins almost squawked, a mixture of anger, righteousness and a little fear marking his voice.

"Enough!", she bellowed again, striding between them and the shaking fox.

The twins and the eldest were forced to back away as her huge body came to a stop, towering over them all. Her youngest and middle males looked on from the pile of furs and rugs that hid her ill female. The twins suddenly didn't seem so sure of their actions. The dragoness moved her attention to the prone fox and stretched her senses over him. Apart from the pain and the scent of piss hanging over him, he'd be fine.

"You'll live. Go back to your other duties.", she rumbled only a little quieter.

The young fox shakily climbed to his feet and wobbled towards the main doors leading towards the rooms and halls where her pets lived. She watched him go and then slowly turned her scaly head toward the twins. They sat defiantly, staring her eye to eye.

"What did he do?", she asked, her voice nearly back to its normal volume but still laced with her anger.

The larger twin slurred a bit, but still managed to say everything in High Wurm. "It called her disgusting prey!"

"He did?", she was genuinely surprised. Referring to a dragon as 'prey' was one of the worse insults you could give. She doubted that the civilised races even knew that. She spoke carefully, emphasizing that her pet wasn't an 'it'. "What did he say exactly? In his tongue."

The twins looked briefly at each other and then towards the eldest. The female looked up and her eye ridges furrowed in concentration. It made sense, her hatchlings' grasp of the civilised tongue was rather poor, but her eldest had taken to it rather well. She no doubt translated and the twins took it upon themselves to teach her pet a lesson.

"... shoo... you filthy beast... shoo...", she spoke carefully and accurately in the civilised tongue. Even a hatchling's memory for sounds and words was very good. She switched back to High Wurm. "But don't know what 'shoo' is."

Filthy beast? Disgusting prey? It was a bad but understandable translation, and she could see why her young had taken offense. A quick sniff of the bedding that her youngest was sleeping in was proof enough that it wasn't an inaccurate assessment either. The ill female had been in there for days now. Eating or not, the hatchling still made her bedding dirty.

The dragoness let out a long sigh. She was relieved that her pets hadn't begun to insult her hatchlings, but this sort of thing always caused problems. At least they hadn't eaten the fox. After the incident with her last brood, she had taken to ensure they didn't even lay a claw on pets at all. Her hatchlings knew where the line was drawn and even the twins wouldn't dare cross that one.

She smiled patiently at the three of them. "He didn't insult any of you. He was just trying to get your sister to move so he could change the bedding. He wouldn't have known our youngest was ill.", she turned to the smaller twin, her voice lowering and losing a little of its kindness. "Even if he had insulted her, you had no right to do that. He's mine."

There was a spark of defiance in the little hatchling's eyes. "Ours too! We do what we like!", he almost growled.

The dragoness's reaction to the young male's challenge was immediate. She rose to her full height, lips pulled back from her sharp teeth and shook the cave with a startling roar. Her fore claws protracted into the smooth stone and scored fresh grooves into the surface. Her tail thrashed against the ground, scattering a pile of furs nearby, wings mantled above her, casting them all into shadow. Her ear fins pulled back and her voice could have banished thunder itself.

"You dare challenge me in my own lair!?", the sound slammed into the hatchlings like an earthquake and the dragoness imagined that the entire settlement around her mountain home would have heard it.

They cowered before her, their fear at their mother's transformation was palpable. But that spark of defiance never quite left the smallest twin's eyes and she could hear the quietest of rumbles seething in his chest. Her anger was controlled, but she could not allow such disrespect to go unpunished. Her heart sank as she made her choice.This behaviour had to be stamped out now, before it became a far more serious problem.

With another roar and her own growl rumbling in her chest, she pinned the twins, one under each fore leg. They squirmed in her grasp, never clawing nor biting at her paws. They at least had the sense to avoid retaliation. Then she bit into the smaller twin's snout.

He howled in pain, his little claws scraping across her thick scaled paw. Blood rapidly oozed from his wound, but it was far from serious. The larger twin wailed in protest and struggled as he almost felt his brother's pain. Even as the howls died, that defiance had not faded completely from the hatchling's eyes. Their bond with each other was stronger than their bond with her, there was only one thing left to do. She bit into the other twin's snout just as deeply.

It was all she could do to keep them pinned, keeping her face a mask of anger. But that was all it was, a mask. Behind that she burned with sorrow and regret. Hearing their wails of pain tugged so painfully on her heart strings. Seeing their tiny snouts bleeding more than either ever had before in their lives was torture. She would have taken the injures onto herself ten-fold to protect them from it, but they had to learn somehow. She'd never had to bite them before now.

She growled to banish the uncertainty in her voice. "If either of you ever challenge me again, I will punish both of you equally. No matter how far apart you are.", she roared at them while they laid trapped under her paws.

The defiance finally left her hatchlings' eyes. The twins laid trapped under her paws, heads flat on the rocky ground, throats exposed in submission. They looked at each other, blood still oozing from their snouts as she slowly panted above them. Her aching heart gradually began to slow and she blinked at them both before looking up. The rest of her brood stared wide eyed at the scene. She'd never seen them so still and quiet. She never wanted this.

She returned her gaze to the twins. "Never give me reason to do that again. I love you...", for the first time her voice faltered a little.

The dragoness settled on her rump and literally scooped them both up, pulling them against her belly scutes. They didn't resist, nor even move. For a time she merely held them. She'd had no choice. If they behaved like that to larger dragons after flying the nest, they wouldn't last their first encounter with others of their kind. This was a lesson they had to learn now, with a dragon who wouldn't kill them or even worse, chew off their wings as punishment.

She craned her long neck around and began to gently lick the bloody snouts. They leaned into her gentle ministrations, purrs slowly growing in their throats. Those were not happy sounds. They were there to sooth sore flesh and sore emotions alike. She felt the flesh shift slightly with each stroke of her tongue and realised she'd bitten deeper than she'd intended. They would still heal just fine, she would ensure that they didn't scar and that the flesh would knit right.

The main doors to her nest chamber quietly opened and soon enough a familiar scent found her nostrils. She did not turn away from her physically and emotionally wounded young. The dragoness carefully formed the magical shapes from her reserves and wove them into the ruined flesh.

"Dranisi!", the middle male cried out suddenly and excitedly.

The tension seemed to at least partially dissolve and all seven dragons were quietly relieved. She tilted her scaly head slightly as she cleaned the twins' snouts, her rich blue eyes finding the source of the sudden excitement in her hatchling. The dragoness saw the little bundle of scales and limbs bound happily into the arms of a civilised lioness; at least that was his intent.

He collided with the lioness, his fore legs wrapping around her shoulders, nearly knocking her over. The civilized feline had braced herself and leaned into the collision with admirable timing, hooking her arms under the hatchling's fore legs as he licked her face energetically. As heavy as the dragoness's middle male had become, Dranisi was still heavier and just about capable of handling such playful treatment. It had been a long time since she had been able to comfortably lift him off the ground though and it would not be long before she wouldn't be able to brace herself sufficiently for such greetings at all.

"Oh Leaps, you're getting really big!", she spoke in the civilised tongue as they hugged. "Ugh, and heavy!"

Dranisi had given all of the dragoness's hatchlings names, but her bond with the middle male had been the strongest ever since the accident. Only the eldest had enough of a grasp of the civilised tongue to understand everything of what was said, but the two legged feline's tones were pleasant and the hatchling nuzzled her happily. The lioness gave the hatchling a big toothy grin and scratched his ear fins and around the base of his tiny horns. He began to purr shamelessly at the attention.

The dragoness smiled a little as she finished cleaning the twins' wounds. Their snouts were a mess and she carefully slipped in some more magical shapes. It would not make the wounds heal quicker, they needed to be reminded of their punishment, but the magic would make sure that the bites would heal right and without infection. She turned her head to look directly at Dranisi and gave her friend a tight lipped smile.

"I assume you know about what happened?", the great dragoness asked in the civilised tongue. She knew that news of what the smaller twin had done would soon spread through her pets; the fallout from this might be quite severe.

Dranisi didn't look up from the attention she was giving as she spoke. "He's pretty shook up, but no permanent harm done. He'll live.", the lioness said carefully. "Come on you, stop trying to crush me!", she laughed to the middle male as she extracted herself from his grip.

He reluctantly dropped back onto all four legs and nuzzled her leg before padding off to rejoin the others. The dragoness gently lowered the twins so they could try to put the whole incident behind them. Hatchlings were quick to move on and continue with life as before. They would be reminded of their punishment whenever they forgot to play carefully, but they'd be fine in the long run. Her youngest male was first to approach them and gave them both a couple of affectionate licks.

"Perhaps send a different p- someone different from now on.", the dragoness said to Dranisi as she watched her hatchlings form an inquisitive and sympathetic group around the twins.

"No. He'll be back later today to finish his task. I think it'll be good for him to see... that they were punished.", the lioness said, noticing the ugly bite wounds.

"I didn't punish them for what they did to him! I punished them for defying me!"

"He won't know that. It'll help with your reputation, especially now that some people fear the little ones more than they fear you.", Dranisi chuckled as the hatchlings began to play.

Initially there was merely curious interest and sympathy for the twins' punishment, but that very quickly turned into the usual chaotic play. The eldest pounced on the larger of the twins, taking advantage of his distraction and they tumbled together. Thankfully his snout didn't get caught on anything as the smaller twin defended his larger sibling. Youngest male joined in by grabbing the smaller's tail and dragging him away. The smaller twin thrashed about as he found himself unable to help his closest brother.

The middle male leapt into the confusing melee apparently without choosing a target and must have caught a wounded snout with a wing tip. A yowl was all it took for all the hatchlings to turn on their clumsy brother and he quickly vanished under a pile of scaly limbs and thrashing tails. The noise was surprisingly loud but generally good natured.

The dragoness seemed to suddenly realise what Dranisi had said. "There are some who fear my little hatchlings more than they fear me?", the dragoness asked, unsure of whether to be proud or insulted.

The civilized lioness casually walked to the huge dragoness and laughed. "Of course! Bigs and Smalls have quite the reputation of their own, you know. This whole... incident will only add to that."

"Not even fledged and they already invoke fear in the civilized people. I don't think I've ever been more proud.", the dragoness grinned, half joking as she lowered her head towards Dranisi. The lioness cradled the green scaled head, which exceeded her torso in size, and fondly scratched behind the dragoness's ear fins.

The Emerald Empress, the Lady of the Mountain, the Dreaded Great Wyrm; none of the names that the civilized races had given her resembled the dragoness now. Dranisi knew where to scratch, how much pressure to exert and exactly how long before moving to the next sensitive patch of scales or flesh. The dragoness began to purr ever so quietly, hoping that only the lioness could hear. Apart from her hatchlings, Dranisi was the only one who would ever see her like this.

The relationship between Dranisi and the dragoness was a complicated one. The lioness's mother had been one of the dragoness's pets just as her mother before her and her mother before her. For over a thousand years, even before the dragoness had claimed the lands as her own, the people here had kept slaves. The laws were such that a child born to a slave was automatically owned by the same master. Dranisi had come from a long line of slaves and then dragon pets. But for nearly ten years, the lioness had been free. Her line would no doubt be free forever.

"They've never laid a claw on anyone that I'm aware of, but there are still stories that they corner people at night and eat them. The servants tend to keep to their dormitories after dark.", the lioness spoke soothingly, her hands scratching around the dragoness's neck and rubbing between her nostrils.

The dragoness huffed at that, but said nothing. She was enjoying the attention too much to speak otherwise. There was still a part of her that urged her not to be so submissive, but Dranisi was her friend; it was nice to have a break from being the attentive mother, ferocious dragon and slave owner for a few precious moments. Her hot breath flowed out between the lioness's fingers. Dranisi inhaled slowly, taking in the scent and chuckled.

"So the rumour of a rogue male around the borders were true then?", Dranisi said tilting her head to look into one of the dragoness's eyes with a grin.

"What do you mean?", the dragoness said reluctantly pulling back a little and out of the lioness's grip.

"I can smell his... erm...", she laughed a little awkwardly. "... him on your breath. Along with... venison?"

The dragoness smiled, unlike the civilised races dragons were hardly prudes. Talk of mating was perfectly natural, no different that talking about hunting in many ways. You just didn't mate as often as you hunted. She lifted a hind leg and gave the side of her neck a good scratch.

"Yes, I happened upon the rogue who gave me this brood. He was a rather pleasant distraction.", she said simply and that was the end of it as she put her hind paw back on the ground.

The lioness nodded and walked over to the pile of furs and skins that made up one of the small nests in the cavern. It was the one she knew the ill female was resting in. All six hatchlings had known Dranisi all their lives and although the middle male had the strongest bond, they all saw her as more than just another two legged. Especially after she'd saved their brother.

That had been the day that their mother had permanently cracked open the collar and magically tore it from the lioness's neck. Her fur was still a little shorter and slightly paler where the tight fitting collar once rested, but that was the only evidence that she'd ever worn one at all. She'd always been trusted with the hatchlings, but from that point on that trust had been complete.

"You in there, Bites?", the lioness spoke softly as she knelt down on the edge of the little nest. Her nose wrinkled up slightly at the smell, but Dranisi otherwise politely ignored it.

The youngest poked her head out from the furs and made an effort to rub her snout against the lioness's outstretched hand. "Dranisi... hello...", she replied quietly in the civilised tongue. The little hatchling settled her head down on the furs and accepted some slow, gentle scratches. Her slightly older brother looked on a little protectively, but did not interfere.

"You have a little more colour in your fins today. I hope you're keeping warm and trying to eat something at least.", Dranisi spoke slowly in her own tongue. The little hatchling didn't reply because she understood only a little of what was said; but she could tell the lioness's words were kind and she let out a weak purr. Dranisi turned just in time to see a look of concern quickly disappear from the dragoness's face. She smiled a little. "I already know how much you love them. There's no need to hide it from me of all people."

"I know.", she shook her scaly head. "I'm just not used to... not being able to do anything.", the dragoness took a few steps to the nest and settled on her rump. She carefully uncovered her youngest and gently lifted the ill hatchling up and against her belly scutes. The slightly softer part of her belly had already began to heat up, as was the way that dragons kept their eggs warm.

Dranisi began to remove and then pile up the dirty bedding a little way off to the side. She replaced them with some fresh furs and cured hides from a nearby nest. All the while, the huge dragoness gently washed her youngest offspring. The little hatchling shivered despite the warmth of her mother's belly and her own elevated temperature. Her hatchlings could generally keep themselves clean, but youngest had been too weak even for that.

"There we go, Bites, all nice and clean and warm for you.", Dranisi smiled while lifting a large fur as if to encourage the freshly clean bundle of scales to climb inside of her own accord. She was too weak for that and simply stayed where her mother placed her in the nest.

"I'll see if I can get her to eat something. I'm sure they're all famished by now.", the dragoness said with a forced smile.

"I'll leave you all to it then."

The dragoness nuzzled the neck of her friend briefly. "How much do I pay you again?", she smiled properly this time.

"Not nearly enough.", the lioness grinned as she headed for the door and quietly left the nest chamber.

"You're right about that.", the dragoness whispered as the doors closed behind the lioness. She huffed, turned to her hatchlings and called out with a smile. "Who's hungry?"