Claus was lucky to have had clothing over at his grandfather's house. His mother had to repetitively dump a lot of bucketed water to douse the ants from him and his clothing. She even had to comb through his hair to make sure that there weren't any hiding in his fluffy red hair. He was sulking in a chair his mother made him sit in as she combed through his hair just a little more to make extra sure that they were really off of her child.
Hinawa's father was amused as he watched his daughter comb through her son's hair. He chuckled at his grandson, "Pretty lucky you hardly grew much for your old clothes to still fit. Huh, Squirt?"
The red-headed boy who always lived up to his hair color scowled at his pesky grandfather. He was also growing agitated of his mother's constant combing, even if she was doing so for his well being. He felt like she had done so long enough and also felt that this was speeding up the process of being stuck under a hat like his father Flint. He scooted out of the chair with the comb still in his thick hair and said, "Thanks, Mom, but I think all of the ants are off of me now!"
"I'm just making sure, Honey," Hinawa said and plucked the comb out of his hair and smiled at his surprised cry. She giggled,"Your hair is so adorably thick."
"Hopefully it'll stubbornly stay in its socket then!" he snorted and headed for the stairs, ignoring Alec's roars of laughter at his smart-mouthed comment on his father's baldness. He hurried up the stairs to find his twin so that they could finally ride the dragos, unlike last year when they couldn't because their mother claimed they weren't old enough. The idea caused the eagerness to boil up inside more, and in excitement, he called for his twin and ran into the room to find his twin buried under the covers and snoring. He strode over to the bed and pulled the covers off of him, forcing the still strong and bright summer sun to shine all over his twin's face.
Lucas covered his eyes and muttered, "Buzz kill."
"No! We get to ride the dragos this year! Don't sleep the opportunity away!" Claus pleaded and shook his twin's shoulders.
"I-I'll go, Claus. Just that the sun suddenly hitting my face like that could give me a headache. You shaking me won't help either," he said and frowned.
Claus replied, "I'll be out front, okay? Don't sleep on me!" and hurried downstairs. At the bottom of the stairs he saw his mother quietly writing at the dinner table. Being the trouble making rascal that he was, he tackled her chair and got a shriek from her that he found amusing.
Hinawa wasn't in the mood to play with her son and handed him a bread roll from the table and said, "Here, have a bread roll."
Claus took the roll and looked up at her confused because very rarely was she annoyed with his antics. He asked, "What for?"
"Just take the roll…Mommy's busy," she sighed and returned to writing whatever she was writing.
Claus decided that he was going to get to the bottom of his mother's weird behavior one step at a time. Just to see if she would get angrier in the process. Seeing her this way was rather fascinating to him because she was almost always happy, giggly, and playful. He tried to play cute to see if that would help and asked, "So what'cha writin', Ma'?"
"A letter," she flatly said as she continued to write the letter.
Claus grinned and asked, "What kinda letter and to who?"
Hinawa groaned and answered, "A letter to your father, Claus."
"But you didn't say what kinda letter!" Claus chuckled and tugged at Hinawa's dress.
"Just a letter, Claus. Go outside and play!" Hinawa answered rather angrily and pointed towards the door.
In shock, Claus immediately let her dress go and looked at her with a hurt expression for a few moments. He expected her to apologize, but her stern expression stayed intact as did the arm pointing to the door. He frowned at her and slugged his feet to the outdoors and sat on the stoop waiting for Lucas to come out. He didn't see Boney napping anywhere and figured he must've went back home, expecting a blue shoe to the face if he had stayed.
"Smart dog…" he muttered and sulked on the stoop more.
Lucas saw the way that his mother angrily sent off Claus and was rather intimidated himself. But he promised Claus that he would be outside and didn't want his brother's flame to be totally put out, and on a birthday no less. Even if he was curious on what put his mother in such a sour mood, he hurried past her to meet with his sulking older twin.
"Claus…Let's go see them! They're only a few minutes away!" Lucas spoke in the most energetic voice that he could muster. Claus continued to sulk and Lucas tugged at Claus's shirt that was his favorite shade of green and yellow. He couldn't be so down in his favorite colors near dragos! "Pleeeease?"
Claus looked at his younger brother with that same frown he had given Hinawa. He felt like a genuine unwanted pest and asked Lucas, "Do you find me annoying?"
"No, of course not! And I want to play with you! With some dragos! Please, Claus?" Lucas answered and tugged as his brother's hands.
Claus chuckled, "You're right. We should!" and got up from the stoop and led the way with a tight hold of Lucas's hand. When they entered the meadows east of their grandfather Alec's house, they saw all the dragos walking around and minding their own businesses.
Lucas pointed to little dragos that hopped around and squealed, "Those weren't here before!"
"Babies!" Claus exclaimed and ran further into the field.
Lucas looked for the Drago couple that he and Claus play with every year since they were eight years old. He saw that the mother was curled up and resting and that the father recognized him and roared for him to come over. Lucas and Claus ran over to the tall pale green drago who playfully growled his hello to the tinier ones before him. The smaller ones looked up to the larger one and mimicked a growl of their own at the drago. While they were play growling with him, one of the babies that they saw earlier nuzzled his curled up mother and did a little weak growl it tried to make sound strong.
Lucas hurried to the little drago and gave him a gentle rub on the head. He cooed, "You're even smaller than me! You're so cute!"
"Gaooo," it roared in appreciation in it's tiny and undeveloped voice. Lucas squealed again and hugged the chubby and small baby drago.
The father drago enticed Claus enough for him to tackle him. Realistically, no tiny person could knock him over, not even a full-grown masculine adult would be able to knock him over. But papa-drago was a playful guy and played along with the red head's tackle and fell over with a fake defeated cry.
"Yeah! I'm awesome!" Claus cheered and watched the drago get up and go into a playfully defensive stance. Claus growled mischievously and tackled the drago yet again.
He did as before and playfully cried and rolled over. His relaxed female companion was still curled up but snorted at how child-like her companion was. Not that she minded, as long as he kept the wild one from jumping on her head again like last year. She liked how the blonde one tenderly cared for her newborn. She wasn't the least bit surprised because that was the very same kind boy who wrapped a bandage on her injured tail when they first met. She wouldn't mind doing favors in return for the gentle boy in the future if he would need her.
Lucas giggled and nuzzled his head onto the little drago and said, "You're like both of them in a tiny little body!"
The little drago happily growled and bumped his head into Lucas's. Just like his voice, the bump was weak and soft.
"Lucas! You're not going to tackle the pop like Claus?" Alec asked in his heartily loud voice.
Lucas frowned as he continued to pet the baby drago. He responded, "No…"
"You're a sugar puff!" he joked to try and get Lucas to tackle the drago, but unlike Claus…
"I know I am!" Lucas easily admitted things and often did not fall for mocking. Alec crossed his arms in defeat, foreseeing his mocking on the brighter grandson would go no where.
"Nah! The dragos need energy to carry us around!" Claus said and ran over to the pale green drago and climbed up it's back.
Lucas was surprised to have the darker colored drago's hot breath blast his back and up his shirt. He shuddered and turned around to see the that she was offering for him to get on top. He carefully climbed up her head to her neck and gently grabbed her ears just in case. She slowly rose with what sounded like a purr and stretched.
The lighter colored male drago that Claus was on roared loudly and took the lead. Claus felt like he was strong and on top of the world on top of this drago. He was up so high and the drago's heavy steps that caused tremors made it seem like he was doing such.
"This is awesome!" he shouted at the top of his lungs as the drago sped up in equal amount of excitement.
Lucas and the mother drago were much more quiet and slower paced. He could see the sun setting over some of the rocky cliffs and stared at it. He patted the drago and spoke in awe, "Wow, Mama drago… you get to see sunsets clearly like this all the time…Thank you for letting me see too!" The mother drago did her gentle growl as she always had when she 'spoke'. When she saw Hinawa she suggested for Lucas to get down by lowering herself to the ground.
Lucas nuzzled the mother drago's head before getting off of her and running to his mother. He happily informed, "The dragos let us ride them! And I got to see the sunset on the mama drago's head! It was really pretty!"
Hinawa patted his head and looked for Claus. She saw that he was walking off with Alec with his hands in his pockets. She frowned because she felt bad that she had treated Claus that way earlier. It wasn't his fault that she was disappointed and aggravated with Flint being unable to go see her father with her again. Once inside, she saw that Claus was no where to be seen in the lower rooms.
"He went upstairs to nap, he seems pretty beat!" Alec chuckled and drank a cup of water.
Lucas yawned and asked, "Mama, we can nap, right?"
Hinawa nodded and said, "Yes, but not for long, alright? We can't walk through that forest at total night time."
Alec laughed again and said, "Lucas could walk through that forest alone! It's that safe!"
Lucas snorted and headed up the stairs. He knew that he always won against his grandpa when he ignored his mock-games instead of argued back.
Hinawa smiled sadly up the stairs and held the rolled up letter with a pink ribbon wrapped around it close to her heart.