Here be Dragons!

Chapter 16

It is now one year later

Kate was home after a long day in the city. At no time in her life had she ever thought she would be a teacher but now she was one. She taught elementary students all she knew. She'd even brought home homework for herself. She had tests she had to check tonight before bed. As usual it meant Rick got to do the cooking.

However, as she stepped in the door, after settling Patches in her stall and giving her some hay for now, she heard her daughter laughing her head off. Kate clapped a hand over her mouth, smiled, and tried to keep from laughing. Alexis was standing there wearing nothing but her diaper since it was really warm and humid outside and laughing silly. Kate watched as Dog was blinking all around her while Alexis spun in place trying to catch him so she could pet him.

Dog, she was happy to see, had taken to having Alexis around really well. Lately they'd been inseparable. Dog slept in her room and when anything outside made any noise at night Dog was up and growling at whatever it was.

Even for once in his life Dog had a real bed to sleep in. It wasn't a magic sleeping bag but it was better than any other bed a dog had.

Kate retreated to their bedroom to unload her homework, use the bathroom, then went in search of her husband. She found him in the kitchen cooking dinner. She kissed his cheek and looked to see what he was making. They still had the same magic spice cup so their meals were always tasty. The trick was not to burn it on the wood fired stove. The cantankerous stove had its hot spots that if they weren't careful could burn anything in almost seconds. What they really needed was a better one.

They had actually ordered a new one but it wasn't expected to arrive for another six months at best. Their little city might be a trading city but getting certain things took time.

Kate was satisfied with what he was cooking so she went back to her daughter who wasn't laughing her head off any longer. Kate saw that was because Alexis had caught him and was hugging him while using him to help her stand up.

"Mama!" She'd been spotted. Alexis let go of Dog and made her way to her mommy. Kate met her halfway, scooped her up, and lavished kisses on her.

"Did you finally catch Dog?" Kate asked her.

"Dog!" Suddenly Alexis wanted out of her arms and back down on the floor so she could go after Dog again. So Kate put her down and let her do just that. Kate went in to Rick.

"I have test papers to grade so I'll be in our bedroom." Kate kissed him again and retreated. She had a small desk in there with a chair. As big as their bedroom was she was thinking of taking over the third bedroom for her school work. That presented its own problems.

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Kate was about a third done. "Dinner!" Rick yelled.

Kate found dinner on the table and Alexis in her chair which was where Kate stopped first before sitting down. "Here's yours." Kate laid a few papers on the table next to Rick.

Rick had helped in the past and he would help again. "I never dreamed I would be a teacher's assistant," he commented as he ate while watching Kate cut it all up for Alexis to help herself with.

"Welcome to my world," Kate said and began eating even if her stomach was feeling like it was beginning to roil. It helped to confirm something she already suspected.

"Well, your world's going to be without me for a few days, up to a week," Rick informed her.

Kate's fork stopped a little short of her mouth. "Why?" She needed him for a number of things. Alexis was a picky eater and she didn't always like what she liked one day the next. On occasion just so she could give Alexis something, she would nurse her. However, that was happening less and less. Most of all she needed him to make love to her. She was still addicted to him and didn't ever want to stop.

"Something is attacking the jade miners and I volunteered to hunt it down so they could keep the mine open. We'll get a discount on jewelry in the Jewelry Market," Rick said.

She had heard something about a monster from the kids in her school but she had left it to just talk by kids. Apparently it wasn't. "Starting when?"

"Tomorrow, hopefully. The day after if I have to. I'm going to be taking everything with me and live in the jungle for a few days. Probably be taking Dog with me, too."

"That isn't going to make Alexis happy," Kate mentioned since she knew Rick was the perfect person for the job. And getting a discount on jewelry was a bonus.

"How is Patches?" Rick changed the subject since Kate hadn't sounded angry and nor wanted to try and stop him.

"She's doing fine. It would be nice to get her to the farrier that moved out here soon. I worry about some of the stuff that's in the jungle area. Though I am creating a trail." It sounded like that was going to have to wait until Rick was back.

"You can ask around and maybe find someone to make your trail wider and safer. We have the gold," Rick said since they still had a lot of gold. The house had cost a fair amount as had the barn. But everything they'd spent had come from the Pirate base and they still had gold left over. Not to mention a lot of what they'd been paid to get the Green Star metal to its destination.

Pirate treasure.

754,356 Silver pieces
484,113 Gold pieces
69 gems that totaled 94,000 gold
3 paintings that totaled 45,145 gold
1 tapestry at 23,224 gold
Cloak of the Bat (If you activated it it turned you into a bat and you could fly like a bat)
Rope of Entanglement

They'd kept everything this time even if they didn't know what to do with all of it.

"I'll ask when I get a chance. My first day off in a couple of days might work. You want to come to school with me?" Kate turned her attention to Alexis who was making a mess while trying to feed herself with what she liked.

"Sool." Alexis was ready.

"Just stay safe, babe. I'm not raising our children all alone." Kate cringed. The words had just popped out and that wasn't how she had wanted to tell him.

Rick coughed on what he was eating and stared at her. "Children? As in plural?"

Kate gave him a weak smile that said please don't be angry. "Pretty sure I'm pregnant again." She was late and feeling the beginning of her morning sickness. Which was why she didn't want to take over the third bedroom for her job. She would just have to move back out eventually.

Rick knew it was certainly possible. Once they had started making love to each other they never really could keep their hands of each other. Even when Kate was really pregnant they kept making love to each other. They just had to be careful. Then after Alexis, Kate had shown she was interested only a few weeks later.

Alexis had her own bedroom that was colored the color Alexis had picked out and that was only about 2 weeks old.

Rick used a finger to get Kate to lean closer then closer still until he could kiss her. "Another baby. Hope you're not a fan of sleep." Rick was happy to have another child. Though he would be happy if this was the last one.

"I survived Alexis, I can survive again. Just think, your Black Dragon friend finds us he'll have to worry about 4 Gold Dragons."

"I can survive never seeing that guy again, thank you very much," Rick retorted.

They both felt it. Alexis was a shifter and she was a Dragon. She just hadn't shifted on her own yet. Kate remembered her first time had been somewhere around 5 years old so they were both betting they had a few years yet.

"Four Gold Dragons and one Dragon Turtle." Kate was all smiles.

"If Alexis is Gold," Rick pointed out since they wouldn't know until she actually shifted.

"Bite your tongue! My baby is Gold. All Gold." Her baby didn't have a mean bone in her body. Plus Gold was a beautiful color to be.

"I meant she could be Silver, Bronze, Brass, or even Copper. It's not up to us." Rick reminded her of what she already knew. "For all I know she's another Dragon Turtle."

"You're a Gold Dragon, aren't you, sweetness?" Kate cooed. Her daughter dropped what she was trying to pick up and looked down at it. She was more interested in her food than what color Dragon she was. "Though a Dragon Turtle would be interesting."

"She could be a Gem Dragon, though. Doubtful that she is an Oriental Dragon but anything is possible," Rick added.

"You like the new Shrine change?" Rick changed the subject again since he didn't want to start a meaningless fight with his wife. He had learned she was stubborn when she wanted to be and she obviously had her heart set on Alexis being a Gold Dragon.

Kate reminded him she was right…again. "I warned you the City wouldn't let us roar at everyone." Though she had to admit the change was a really big hit with the kids.

Now they put a coin of any valuation into the bowl, plucked out a tiny platinum colored Dragon and Bahamut would come out of the wall, look down on them, and spread his platinum wings wide, as usual. That hadn't been changed. Instead of a roar, he still opened his mouth wide and instead of nothing, now out came an illusionary breath weapon then he retreated back into the wall.

It was all illusion and didn't actually do anything. Next year Rick was thinking of tying to figure out how to add smoke, mist, water spray, something to really make the little kids scream in glee. Even the Temple to Sune didn't have their popularity now. At least with all the kids.

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Kate had made love to her husband this morning because she didn't know just when she was going to see him again. He had said something about up to a week.

She was dressed for school while Rick was putting on his armor and boots, then putting his weapons into place after packing his backpack and putting it on. He was even taking his portable hole with him. He'd transferred out as much as he could into Kate's portable hole last night.

"I haven't seen you look like that in a while." He was as handsome as the first day she saw him.

"It almost feels like I'm more my old self. Not in a city and out exploring. Should be fun." Rick was looking forward to this. He doubted seriously that it was something he couldn't handle.

Kate walked up to him and grabbed hold of him since wrapping her arms around him was no longer possible because of his gear. "Just come home, babe. That's all I ask."

"Bahamut will look over all of us." Rick kissed her with passion since he wasn't going to get to kiss her again for he didn't know how long.

"Have you filled the fresh bags? Loaded up on trail rations? Have water?" Kate checked him out.

"Yes, yes, and yes," Rick assured her. "See you later." He gave her a quick kiss. "Let's go, Dog. It's just you and me again." Rick got him to bark and watched him blink for the door.

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Kate watched while holding Alexis until she couldn't see him any longer. "Doesn't Daddy look so handsome and strong?" Kate asked her daughter.

"Da da." Alexis waved bye bye at him.

"You get to come to school with me. Go for a horse ride." Kate kissed her.

"Hossy!" Alexis was ready.

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It took Rick almost the entire day just to reach the jade mine and meet the miners. The best he got out of them was that whatever it was looked like a snake except it had two arms and it had weapons. They had run it off easily enough each time. However, one of them had been injured that last time.

"I'll get started at first light. Leave it to me. I'll find him or it or whatever it was," Rick assured them and set up camp and waited for morning. It felt really strange sleeping in a big tent without two horses and Kate. He was amazingly homesick already.

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Come morning after a restroom break he and Dog got busy trying to either find a trail or pick up a scent.

Rick was sticking to more solid ground and he had found some tracks except they were clearly four legged and really large which had him betting dinosaur.

"Snake-looking, huh?" That had Rick moving closer to the edge of the more swampy looking area. He also unsheathed his sword in case he saw a large snake in the low hanging trees just waiting for him to stumble under him or her.

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He had stopped for lunch but was back to looking now. He could hear a dinosaur in the distance and he only knew that because of the dinosaur races. It sounded familiar.

Then Dog growled low and Rick looked around. Then he was looking where Dog was looking. Dog's hearing and ability to scent were far better than his. Rick moved to a tree to hide himself behind and waited and watched.

In a moment he was rewarded with watching what had to be the biggest damn snake he had ever seen in his life slithering through the shallow water.

It wasn't so much it was long, though it was that. It was just that if he wasn't seeing things it had an upper body area that was fat then tapered down to a thin tail.

Since it was getting farther away Rick put his sword away, pulled out his bow and took out two standard arrows, and tried to slowly and quietly follow it.

It was going to be dark in about an hour so he needed to make a choice soon.

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A few minutes later he saw it slither out of the water and onto dry land. Once most of it was out of the water it did something impossible. It raised up to show that it did indeed have an upper body. In fact it had two human-looking arms though it had a snake body and a snake head.

It also had a bow over its back that it moved to get ready. It nocked an arrow and started to slither farther onto the ground. Then Dog growled apparently a little too loud and it spun and fired an arrow. That arrow just barely missed Dog who blinked away immediately.

Rick stepped up, fired his two arrows, and saw both hit. It looked like they hurt but it didn't fall down. This time it saw Rick and fired a single arrow toward him, however, his 50% chance of the enemy missing worked. Rick fired 2 more arrows back and watched it fall to the ground this time.

Putting his bow away and drawing his sword, Rick moved in carefully to examine whatever this was. A quick check showed that it was indeed dead. It was wearing bracers and had a quiver with a few arrows in it. It also had a belt over its other shoulder that had a small backpack attached to it.

A check showed that it was just a touch over 12 feet long from head to the tip of its tail. It was beige on one side and green on the other and was all scales.

"Just what the heck are you?" It certainly fit what the miners had talked about though. A quick spell of Detect Magic told him that only his bracers were magic.

He needed this body so he could show it to the miners then take it back to the city and show them. Maybe someone in the city knew something he didn't.

So he opened his portable hole, rolled the dead body into it, and closed it up. "Come on, Dog." It was time to jog back to the mine and spend the night there before going home.

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The City hadn't seen anything like it and had him take it to the Temple of Sune. He skipped picking up his wife and daughter since he wasn't sure Alexis needed to see this thing and end up having nightmares.

The miners had no idea and the priests in the Temple of Sune had never seen anything like it. Rick left everything save the bracers with the Temple and went home and stripped down to his usual clothes and waited for Kate to come home.

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It is now 7 months later

Rick was sitting in one chair holding his son. Kate was sitting in the chair next to him holding his twin sister while Alexis was standing next to Kate and looking her new sister over from head to toe.

She was bone tired but happy to be home. She still had a lot of pain but it would fade eventually.

Dog was blinking all over the house but had stopped barking when it caused the recently born babies to cry. In his eyes he had two new playmates. Now if they would just grow up faster than the first one he would be even more happy.

"Twins, huh?" Rick had been shocked to see them delivered and equally shocked to be home with them. What they needed was another bed since they only had the one Alexis had used.

They were going to need a lot more diapers and no one in this house was going to get any sleep for weeks, months really.

"It was a surprise to me too, babe. I don't remember Mom saying anything about twins being in the family. Let alone all this red hair." Technically Alexis's hair was orange and not red. She was betting Rick had something to do with this. Now both of her breasts and particularly her nipples were going to take a beating.

But there was one thing she did know. She loved both of them. She loved all of her family including her husband.

"We need names, babe. Do we just use the ones we agreed on if it was a boy or a girl? Or do you want to start all over again since they're twins?" Kate was open to either since this was unexpected.

Granted she had been bigger this time and she actually had more baby weight to get off. She wasn't looking forward to doing that. But she wanted Rick to still be interested in her and find her sexy.

"Addison and Aiden still work for me. All A's." Rick didn't see any reason to make changes now. "We're going to need to have bunk beds made for the girls. Hopefully Alexis won't mind sharing her room while her little brother gets a room all to himself." They could maybe looking into how to build an addition. It was just that it took 3 wishes for each pod last time.

"We need to look into an addition. Eventually they're going to be teenagers and want their own room." Kate was trying to think ahead.

"That means another ring of 3 wishes and we got really lucky last time. It's not that we can't afford it, since we can. It's just finding one is another matter," Rick warned her.

"Yeah." Kate knew he had a point. Still that was years down the road. They had time to try and plan this out.