Family matters
Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine (except for Alexandra Anderson), but belong to their respective owners.
The sun was sinking into the clouds. The day itself had been hot and sunlit, but a thick veil of clouds had been hovering around the horizon, and the settling sun was setting into that veil of clouds now...
"Is mistress Cutter completely satisfied?" Alexandra's jarring, metallic voice almost startled Helen out of her artistic reverie. Almost.
"Alexandra," the latter just shifted around her stance. "Quit your mockery – it's unseemly to you. You have only your mother, Iymrith, the Doom of the Desert, as your mistress, do you not?"
"Yes," the towering mass of muscles and scales clacked her jaws above Helen's head. "That I do. And she had won all but two of your games, has she not?"
"Why, you've doubted her, Alexandra? How unseemly," Helen smiled, even as she waved her brush beneath Alexandra's mouth and nostrils, splattering some paint upon them. "Stupid, too – your mother may not be liked by me, but I respect her too much to doubt her in what she's best at: making plans and causing mayhem."
"That I do," the much-bigger Iymrith towered not only above Helen, but above her daughter as well. "Helen – our argument stands, Alexandra – out of my sight."
"Yes, mother," Alexandra just hissed as she slithered away into sand. By now it was wholly night, but even that brought little relief over the sweltering sands of Anauroch's Great Waste – yet.
Iymrith herself followed her latest child closely, after casting one more calculating gaze at Helen who gazed back at her, just as inscrutably. But nothing more was said.
It was several hours later. The sun had wholly set and the crescent moon had risen. Helen's position was evident even in such shaky light, and it was still quite, quite warm – but then again, this wasn't Earth, the physics of this world were quite different.
Helen didn't mind. She just adjusted her position and waited – by now, it didn't take long. Rocks stumbled under a careless foot, the sandy dunes shifted positions, and Matt Anderson, flanked by Becker and several others of the ARC's security staff made their appearance.
"Very punctual," Helen nodded in appreciation. "I approve."
"Quit it, Helen!" Matt barked. "This time, you aren't getting away so easily!"
"Oh no," Helen shook her head in mock concern. "Tonight it's not about me getting away, tonight it's about your family owing royalties, remember?"
"My family doesn't owe any royalties to anyone!" Matt said, turning red.
"I see we'll have to do it the hard way," Helen sighed. "Your father, young Mathew, had many admirable qualities, including a keen knowledge of physics and electronics, but he was also an old goat, ready to flirt with anyone female and attractive. Correct?"
"What's your point?" Matt growled, carefully shifting his grip on the EMD for a better shot.
"Her point, young man," Iymrith spoke appearing in all of her glory of an ancient blue dragon, "is that your father had developed your weapon with my help, remember?"
To support her claim, Iymrith spat out her own lightning bolt – much more powerful than those of the EMDs, and much more effective.
"Yes, he does now," Helen nodded solemnly, seeing that Matt froze, caught in the throes of a childhood's nightmare. "How could he forget? Back then, his old nanny had to save him, as she has done now."
Slowly Matt switched his gaze from the ancient dragoness to a barely younger (if any) woman. "Nana? Is that you?"
"Yes, young padawan. Master of the bleedingly obvious you have become," Alexandra appeared from her side of the dunes. Even in the unsteady light of the crescent moon the familial similarity between Matt and the half-dragon hybrid was obvious. "Hi, Mathew."
"You should be very grateful to your Nana, young man," Iymrith said calmly. "If she hadn't paid to me my share on your behalf, this confrontation would have gone far worse."
"The dragons... they do exist..." Becker finally muttered as he began to recover from Iymrith's lightning bolt show.
"Yes, they do, and one of them almost became young Mathew's stepmother – at least temporarily," Helen spoke right from Matt's side, swinging her kukri in a vaguely threatening manner. "Mathew? This round is over. Go home – well, to your ARC home. You understand?"
"This isn't over. I will figure out – this must be a trick," muttered Matt, but for once he complied by walking through a time anomaly generated by Helen, followed by Becker and the rest of his men.
When the last of them was gone, Helen turned around, waved a parting wave to Iymrith and Alexandra and was gone as well.
The dragon and her half-breed daughter were left alone in the Anauroch's night-time darkness.
End