Well here's the next chapter, yay
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Lloyd backed up a bit, eying her with his neck craned up to observe the vibrant female. There was a low rumbling that at first Lloyd thought to be a growl before realizing it was in fact, a purr. She was purring, her head tilted just slightly, scanning him as she lowered her head before him.
"Strong young wyrmling aren't you? A lot like your father was at this age..what are you, twelve?"
That statement struck enough of a cord.
"Wh-? No!" he huffed, puffing his chest up. "I am not twelve years old!"
She opened her mouth wide and let out choppy, shrieking sounds. Lloyd jerked and nearly tumbled over his own legs in his attempt to flee from her. Then he realized she was in fact, laughing at him.
"Twelve years old? Oh you are a funny one aren't you? If you were twelve your mother would still be tending to you in your nest," she said with an odd reptilian smile, purring. "No dear I meant twelve thousand, I did not think I had to specify that…though Kratos did say you hurt your head. Are you well?"
Lloyd stared at her. Twelve..thousand? What? Was she joking? There was no way- wait, how long did dragons live? They couldn't really be that old though, could they? That was crazy, even from the things he'd seen it was completely nuts.
"Your name was Lloyd, yes?" she asked, tilting her head to examine him. "Odd, rather human name…"
"I-" he began only to be interrupted by a loud gurgle from his stomach.
"Oh poor thing…" her tail swished behind her. "You are hungry. Has your father gone to fetch you sustenance?"
"I- yeah, he said he'll be right back," Lloyd said.
He felt light-headed and his stomach felt like it was dissolving itself. It was so nice and warm in here, too, he was beginning to feel sleepy. The former swordsman was so dazed he didn't notice when the dragon had curled her tail around him, pulling him to her. Lloyd looked up at her with glazed eyes as she purred, curling around him like a mother cat.
"Are you sleepy, little one? Shhh…it's all right then, take a nap, sleep until your father brings food for you, I will protect you."
He instinctively wriggled in an attempt to escape her, struggling against her scaled hide. The boy let out a shout of protest that came out more like a squeak and jerked his wings in panic. Then…she began to sing.
He stopped, frozen, staring off into space as the notes met his ears- not just hearing, he was feeling, feeling the vibrations of her song through her body into his own, thrumming in his bones. The same voice, the same song, the one that had been calling to him this whole time, since it all started. His heart began to beat faster yet still he found himself becoming more and more tired, his eyelids drooping. It was warm, curled up in her scales. Nice and cozy, safe, like he was being hugged…
"That's right, Lloyd," her voice cooed, gentle and soft. "Just take a nap…"
Lloyd yawned, his jaw stretched wide revealing his array of sharp teeth. His eyelids drooped closed finally and he curled up, snug into the spot she had formed around him with her tail. In the back of his mind he just barely thought to himself that he should get away from her, but he just felt so tired, and it was so comfy…
"Get away from him!"
The song stopped and the cave shook around him, jerking Lloyd from his daze, startled. He let out a sound of surprise that sounded embarrassingly like a squeak and didn't even get to get his bearings before he was plucked from the female by the ridge around his neck, dangling from Kratos' mouth again, feeling the vibrations from the large male's growling surging through his body.
"D- Dad-?!" Lloyd blurted, wriggling in his grip.
The diamond female regarded Kratos with narrowed eyes, smoothly slipping back onto all fours, her wings giving a sharp jerk before settling against her sides once more.
"What are you angry about, Kratos? I was caring for him while you were elsewhere."
"It's not your place to care for him," Kratos responded with a low growl.
"Of course it is, it is my place to care for all the young," she said, tilting her head a bit as if amused. "I am the Mother, it is my duty to care for the wrymlings and see to it they are properly brought up."
"Well you are not necessary," he snapped through his closed jaw. "I am his father, I will care for him-"
"What of his mother then, hm? Obviously she is not doing a proper job of raising him if he is so out of touch, that is not your fault though, but I would expect you to be picking up some of the slack in that situation, Kratos-"
Lloyd ducked his head as two plumes of black smoke shot from Kratos' nostrils with a shrieking hissing sound, sparks cracking. It didn't take much more than that to realize that Kratos was angry, especially given what had just been said about his wife.
"My mate is deceased," Kratos said flatly. "And you dishonor her memory with your insults."
The diamond dragon appeared to be surprised and a bit shamed for just a moment before she turned her mouth down in a frown, brow furrowed.
"I see…no wonder you are having trouble with your wyrmling, I misunderstood, I apologize."
"I am not having 'trouble' with him, he is fine and we don't need your 'help'."
With that Kratos turned on tail, blatantly ignoring the female as he walked off to another more isolated part of the cavern. Lloyd dangled from his father's grip, frowning, trying to make sense of it all when he caught the scent of…he wasn't sure, but it was food.
The bronze little dragon blinked, sniffing the air, tongue flicking as he desperately tried to locate the source of the good smell. To his delighted, when he located it he realized Kratos was carrying him to it. There was a pile on the ground of some weird…squishy looking meat, he didn't know what it was, but it smelled wonderful. Kratos set him on the ground before it and Lloyd didn't even think about it, launching at the pile and digging his new set of sharp teeth into one of the large glob-like hunks of meat.
It was delicious, he had never tasted anything like it. It was weird, it kind of felt like jelly, squiggly, a bit slimy, but his teeth went in smooth and hooked firmly into the tissue. He tore off large chunks at a time, swallowing them whole before attacking the meat again for yet another mouthful of meat. Whatever it was, it tasted wonderful, like pork ribs glazed with honey.
There were only a couple bones, they were weirdly colored though. They were shiny almost, like they were made of metal. He gnawed on them curiously, finding his teeth would barely dent them. They even tasted metallic, what had metallic bones? He-
…Wait..
Lloyd blinked, staring at the bone he was currently gnawing on. Slowly he processed what he was seeing, the dents from his teeth in the bone, the smell of the fluids plastered over his snout from his meal, the weird taste in his mouth and the full feeling in his belly.
What…what had he just eaten? Lloyd drew back, jaw clenched tight as he stared at the remains, embarrassed.
"You don't have to be embarrassed, Lloyd," Kratos spoke up. "That's how dragons eat."
"I- but-" Lloyd shook his head, stumbling on all four feet to turn to look at his father.
He was laying there, massive tail curled partly around his body, his head seemed so far away, up on the monstrous trunk of a neck. Lloyd suppressed a whimper that came out of nowhere, trying to escape his body. He felt so freaking small…
"Dad what did I just eat? Why did I get like that? Why-"
"Hush," Kratos frowned, turning his head to survey their surroundings. "…Keep your voice down, she's still watching us."
"She-? That dragon lady? Why is she watching us- what's her deal? Why was she acting like that to me? How do you know here? What's-"
Kratos sighed deeply, even that seemed to be a large, deep sound to the now young dragon. The russet drake frowned, lowering his head to Lloyd's.
"I understand you have questions, but I can't answer them here, we need to leave. We can't until she does though..she'll follow us otherwise."
"But who is she-?"
"I just told you I can't tell you here," Kratos cut him off quickly, his voice hushed. "Later, until then just stay by me and try not to draw any attention to yourself."
Lloyd fidgeted, his tail curling around his legs. The young male frowned, blinking once or twice before looking at the scaly appendage. He hadn't even really taken the time to look over himself, what with all the chaos and the creepy dragon and…well, everything. There was so much on his mind, but he knew he wouldn't' get any answers just yet. Well…he'd just look himself over then, he was already staring at his tail. It was bronze, not a dull bronze though, it was a bright, bold metallic shade, catching the red light from the magma just like the diamond dragon's scales, making his scales look as if they were on fire. It was pretty cool, actually, if not for the fact it was on his own body.
He flicked the tail back and forth a bit, moving it around, figuring out how much control he had over it. It was kind of like a cat's in terms of how he could move it, it was flexible enough but he couldn't control it really finely. Lloyd look at his feet, or forepaws, claws, whatever, he wasn't sure how to call them. They too were scaled bronze, like the rest of his body, with four big toes and one smaller one on the side of each foot. The tips of his toes ended in large, sharp talons which dug into the ground. He experimented with them a bit, finding he could retract and extend them to a degree, pulling them in and out of the ground. His eyes widened in surprise when he managed to pull his toes apart, finding there was some kind of…webbing, between them. Not like the kind of webbing he'd expect from a duck or the like, it didn't look like it'd be good for swimming. The 'webbing' was more like leather instead of scales and it wasn't strung tightly, the middle sagged and the ends near the tip of his toes was pulled up, it looked more like-…a pouch.
Yeah, a pouch, didn't he see that before? When that green dragon had chased him, at the start of all this, Kratos had put some gold into a pouch between the dragon's toes. So they were like…pockets? That was a weird though, dragons had pockets…then again that was probably the least weird thing happening to him at the moment. He turned his attention to his side, at the wing folded to his side. Well that shouldn't be too much of an adjustment, right? He had wings before…given they were made of mana and structured more like a bird's, but-…
He tried to open the wing, to splay it, but succeeded in only making it jerk a bit before going limp.
Lloyd frowned, frustrated and attempted it again only to have the same success. For a while he tried to open up his wing, it was much harder than he thought it would be. Then again, his angelic wings didn't 'fold' like this- or did they? Really he had never tried, he just dismissed them when he wasn't using them…he'd have to try that some time, assuming he was ever back in his real body- but he had to be able to do that, right? Kratos had been going around in a human- er, angel- whatever, humanoid form, so he should be able to. Besides, he had said earlier that dragons could take a human form like that, so either way he should be able to get his normal body back. He sighed a bit and looked around, surveying the cavern and spotting the diamond dragon, her eyes locking with his. A cold chill ran down his spine and he quickly looked away, his tail curling tightly around his legs.
What was she? Were all dragons like that? Did they all sing the same, was that why he thought her singing had been like the one in his head? Did they all hear songs in their head? Was that 'normal'?
Or hell, maybe he was just totally insane.
It's dooooonnneeeee..yay
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