Speaking with an animated Fricassa, Felicity enjoyed spending time with the small green dragon. She suspected Fricassa had no idea about the new life growing inside her. Felicity could not determine whether there was more than one. The green dragon’s condition appeared to be fairly new.
“It is wonderful that Raene and Vidar are going to be parents.” Felicity opened the conversation to gauge whether Fricassa knew.
She glanced at Maeze, but doubted her dragon had any idea either. Maeze nuzzled her and Felicity wrapped an arm around the blue dragon, her heart swelling at the affection shown. She agreed. “I missed you too.” She murmured this to her dragon.
Maeze’s youth meant she still needed some stability and Felix must have thrown off that sense for her. Having Fricassa and Aern probably helped, but Felicity was happy to provide that security for her dragon as well.
“Yes, we are all very excited for Raene and Vidar. Aernie is already making little digs at Vidar that both of them are enjoying.” Fricassa’s twittering furthered Felicity’s belief that Fricassa had not turned her thoughts inward yet.
“Has Vidar teased you and Aern yet about starting your family?” Might as well head in that direction.
“Of course. Aernie takes it well.”
“Dragon reproduction is tricky.” Maeze said this as though the thought had made itself known.
Interesting.
“Did that tidbit come from your mother’s memories?”
“It did.” Maeze blinked her yellow eyes. “She and my father were uncertain whether they could produce me.”
“We can enjoy each other but reproduction is an unknown. At least for the dragons I have recently conversed with.” Fricassa’s sigh emitted from deep inside her.
“Would you be excited if you did learn you were with dragon?”
Now it was Fricassa’s turn to blink. Her black eyes shut and opened much more slowly than Maeze’s had. A small tear welled. “I would love to be a mother.” This emerged from the same deep place as the sigh.
“I remember when Maeze’s mother was expecting her.” Felicity offered this information to Fricassa to do with it as she pleased.
“You remember when Salunga and Keark realized they were going to become parents?” Fricassa pressed closer.
“Oh yes.” Felicity smiled. “You could hardly find two more excited dragons.”
“How did they learn of Maeze’s arrival?” Fricassa’s intensity increased.
“Salunga’s appetite increased dramatically. She also gained weight at a rapid rate. That had never happened before.”
Fricassa and Maeze looked at each other, then both pointedly looked to Felicity.
“Are you saying…” Fricassa’s high-pitched semi-question made Felicity hide a smile.
“There was some discussion about how much you are eating now and that you have gained weight.”
“My Lajos mentioned this?” Affection interwove the green dragon’s question.
“He might have. Vidar did as well. There is some excitement that he and Aern might be fathers soon.”
Tears did well in Fricassa’s eyes. “You think I might be with dragon?”
“All of the same indicators are there that I saw with Salunga’s condition. Do you become emotional for no reason?”
“Yes.” A wispy whisper.
“You are eating far more than you normally do?”
“Yes. But I have gone through phases of that in the past. Where my hunger increased for a short span. But I was not mated then.”
“We believe your need for additional calories has everything to do with securing the fertilized eggs. If there are no eggs, then everything settles and returns to normal. Salunga used to do the same at times. Actually she and I cycled around the same time after a couple of decades.”
Fricassa latched onto one aspect of that statement. “Will I lay eggs?”
“I do not know. Salunga did, but she thought it was rare.” Felicity shoved her braid off her shoulder. “Some dragons give birth to live hatchlings while others lay eggs. Salunga laid an egg. Keark and Salunga were disappointed they only had one. But they were thrilled with Maeze. They simply wanted her to have siblings.”
“They did not know there was only one until Salunga laid Maeze’s egg?”
“That is correct. She coughed, and Maeze’s egg, a speckled blue one, landed on the nest she was consumed with making for about a week.”
Maeze cleared her throat at Fricassa.
Fricassa paled, before her scales brightened considerably. “Aernie has been teasing me about my urgent need to build a nest. He keeps saying dragons left the custom of building nests a millennia ago.” Fricassa’s voice cracked.
“That is true. Except when they are going to have young” Felicity spoke delicately.
Fricassa started to sob. Felicity surged forward to hug her as Aern’s head reared up and he galloped across the chamber to Fricassa. He did not trip over his own feet until he was safely stopped beside Fricassa and there was no fear to falling on her.
By then, his hind feet gave out, but he crowded her, asking questions faster than his tongue could work. Words tripped off his lips. Felicity and Maeze both soothed him.
Then they faded away to Rykert and Felix. Maeze’s cheek scales also brightened as she sent a shy smile to Felix. Whose yellow chest puffed as the seasoned dragon acknowledged this with a world-weary nod. An experienced, mature male who she was right to trust.
Felicity had a hard time hiding the grin that kept trying to escape. A hard male arm slid around her waist and snatched her against an equally hard male body. She snuggled in.
Warm lips caressed her temple. “Are you laughing at my dragon?”
“Maybe. I have never seen Felix in courting mode. It is fun.”
“What made Fricassa cry?”
“She is with dragon.” Felicity said this loud enough for Felix to also overhear.
His yellow head whipped around to the two dragons who stood close together, their heads tight against each other, whispering.
“Fricassa is going to have a dragon?”
“There is every indication that is true. They will have to verify this. That is likely what they are doing right now.” She smiled at the dragon mates as they delved inside Fricassa.
“Our species will continue.” Felix stated this in a voice that clogged. As though emotion had bubbled up.
“I am evidence of that.” Maeze pointed out.
For some reason, this all pierced Felicity’s heart. She and Rykert were the last of their species. And thus far they were doing little to alter that fact.
‡‡
After a time that looked like more cuddling and whispering than an actual conversation, Fricassa and Aern made their way to their little group. Rykert noticed immediately that while Aern did trip at one point, his stride could be more named a strut than a walk.
The black dragon could barely contain his excitement. He kept bumping Fricassa with affection and pride.
“Have you checked?” Felicity leaned toward Fricassa.
“We both did. I am definitely with dragon. There is at least one, but I understand now why Salunga and Keark had trouble telling if there were others.” Fricassa stated with a slight frown.
“It is difficult to tell, but we did see one egg.” Aern’s chest swelled.
“Why can you not see them all?” Confusion flashed across Maeze’s still expressive face.
“There are eggs there, but it is impossible to tell which are fertilized and which are not. They are all clumped together and the first one blocks any others. We can see a small dragon forming in the first one.” Fricassa answered with maternal surprise and delight.
“The first one is growing and appears healthy. Fricassa was right to make our nest.” Aern wrapped his tail around her.
“Instincts are what has kept our species alive this long. I could not ignore the urge to build a nest.”
“This would explain why we have built nests in Swiftland and Montequirst. And she has been nattering about building one here as well.” Aern stated this in a musing tone. “This is because we do not know where we shall be when the babes come.”
“How long will the eggs need before they hatch?” Fricassa asked Felicity.
Rykert admitted that he only followed about half of this conversation. Perhaps not even that much and a side glance at Felix proved his dragon appeared to also be struggling. Good, he should hate to be alone in his lack of knowledge.
“Maeze took about a month to hatch after Salunga laid her egg. Salunga fretted because she had a memory of some dragons giving birth to live dragons. Then also of others who laid an egg or more but their hatchling or hatchlings broke through within the week.” Felicity indicated Maeze. “I wondered if Salunga laid hers early because her aging body simply could not accommodate a developing hatchling.”
“My instincts are clamoring that I will keep this one until it hatches.” Fricassa sank deep within herself. “I know my cousin had a live birth. Perhaps it depends on our family line.”
“That makes sense. Salunga remembered her older sister laying eggs. She only did so twice, but both times they were eggs and they hatched within a week. She fretted because Maeze was so long in the egg.”
“Does the male’s lineage play a part?” Rykert inserted this into the conversation because Aern’s lineage should make an impact.
A long expel of breath with a smattering of dragonfyre rushed from Fricassa’s nostrils. “Of course. Aernie’s genetics would make a difference here.”
Then her scales paled.
Felicity rushed to place a hand on her. “You and Aern are mates. His massiveness is not going to impede your ability to birth or lay your babes. Nature does this perfectly.”
“I was tiny when I was born. All of us were. Marxin and I are/were the largest of my family, but we all birthed small. And if I remember correctly, we were birthed not hatched.” Aern rushed to reassure his mate.
Marxin had been Aern’s older cousin and Kellen’s dragon who eventually had succumbed to old age and moved on to the next life. Kellen still missed the dragon.
With the birth of Fricassa and Aern’s dragon, hope could be restored to the Aasguards who had said goodbye to aging companions. Ari had also lost hers to old age and had sought out her brothers for comfort when her dragon passed.
Rykert watched Felix dancing around Maeze and wholly understood his dragon’s reticence of mating with a dragon so young. She was as cute as could be. Of course, that would fade as she became more familiar with her parents’ memories and learned how to best interpret them.
A thought jumped into his mind. As a battle scarred warrior in his own right, Felix had all the necessary tools at his disposal to aid Maeze in that endeavor. He could help her to evaluate the memory and garner the most good from each one.
This should help to mature the youthful dragon. At least enough that it would not seem so wrong to mate with the young, adult dragon.
Did this mean he and Felicity were able to join to their lives together? The lingering concern that they could open a portal remained in the back of their minds. In addition, her warrior instincts and their psychological stunted growth made it so they probably needed to hold off on their union. He and Felicity could work on a couple of those issues while they hunted Aasguard treasure.
“There is need for experts in dragon and Aasguard well being.” Where this came from, he did not bother to determine but it made all of them pause.
“It would be helpful to have an expert or two who knew a lot about dragons and their physiology.” Felicity gazed at Fricassa. “Especially those with dragon. Right now Fricassa no doubt has plenty of questions. We could also use an authority on Aasguard healing and childbirth.”
“We have never had a child birthed before.” At least Rykert had never heard of that.
“I am wondering if some of the healing mages might be able to aid us?” Felicity said.
He had not considered that. “Of course. They are different than us, but not so different.”
“Some mages are born, some are made. It all depends. We have always been made, but now with some of us mating, that could change.”
“Kellen is friends with Mozark, is he not?” Rykert had heard that Kellen had called upon his friend to aid them in the desampus battle.
“He is. We all met him. He is kind and seems very knowledgeable.”
“Do mages mate?” Aern stirred beside Fricassa.
“I do not know.” He answered honestly and Felicity agreed with this.
“Nor do I.”
Perhaps they should ask the others. “This is the place to ask that sort of question.”
“Especially in light of all the Aasguard warriors in residence at the moment.” Felicity hugged Maeze.
They said goodbye to the dragons and soon made their way back upstairs.
The future had always stretched before them with monotony. Now, it stretched before them with questions, but also hope.