*Chapter 164*
With the calm chatter of the six beings behind her, Tessa lay on Zed's old bed. In agreeance to catching up in Zed's old loft, when he was still considered 'Zane', hours droned on through warm bouts of laughter, story telling and nostalgic cues that led to deeper memories and flowing topic changes. Tessa had been a part of the raw, gentle game of catch up, though, with the onset of fatigue that reminded her that she was preparing new coding, she had made herself comfortable on Zed's familiar sheets. With Lickity largely curled around her, the two snuggled for a few hours of droning in and out of light sleep. With a bit of a louder gawk of laughter, coming from the kitchen island, Tessa's eyes peeked open. She furrowed her eyebrows and, through a sudden pang of nausea, she was reminded just where she was. She heaved a hard sigh and nuzzled her face into the bend of Lickity's shoulder blade and wing. It was lined with the softest patch of short, tan fur. As she began to tenderly stroke it for comfort, Lickity's ear twitched.
"G'morning," Lickity softly whispered to Tessa, she opened her eyes a little wider and fixed her curious gaze to the side of Lickity's face. She smiled a loving smile as Lickity's tail curled a little tighter about Tessa's body, and as her wing draped over the entirety of the two, she snuggled deeper into the side and belly of her dragon companion.
"Sun's not up, yet," Tessa croaked quietly, the chatter across Zed's old, small loft continued on enthusiastically.
"Yes, it is," Lickity mumbled as she closed her eyes and sunk back into the bedding, though not without repositioning her paws a little.
Tessa furrowed her brow and through the peek of her squinted eyes, she got a good look out Zed's windows, which were still shattered from when Orion had previously busted them, all those months ago. With such destruction, it let in a calm, warm breeze. The humid Dead Zed atmosphere enveloped the place in a neverending taste of summer. The sky was the gentlest of pastel blue; she slumped her shoulders, and with this information, she wondered if the boys had done enough catching up for a lifetime. She grumbled a noise, and as easily as she could, she pushed herself into a sitting position, so not to disturb Lickity. With a gentle scoot, she finally slid away from Lickity's irresistible warmth and began to head across the still loft, to Zed and his new lot of brothers. As she pushed into the kitchen, which was connected to the big sun room his bed was in, all eyes slowly peeled away from the center of the conversation and to their new sister.
"Sorry, Tess, did we wake you?" Finn quietly wondered, each boy slowly lowered their demeanors to a soft tenderness they knew would take some time to get used to, especially with a new baby around.
"No, it's fine... I just dozed off," Tessa's tired voice croaked, she shook her head and pushed closer to Zed, who immediately opened up his arm for her, "I think a good nights sleep is likely out of the question, for the next year of my life."
"We were just discussing the baby," Zed stated warmly as Tessa slunk into the front of his chest for a warm, snuggling hug. He gripped one arm tight around her shoulders and smooched the side of her head, "... And, the fact that my mountain side loft, across the game, isn't enough space for all eight of us."
"Ten," Jax reminded, everyone chuckled.
"Ten," Zed corrected quietly as Tessa slowly pulled away. She peered up into Zed's eyes as if to calmly wonder just what was going to be done about said notion.
"It'll be so nice to have access to a code room, again," Finn stated dryly, "You realize how hard it was to live up in trees and such?"
"I liked those tree houses," Duke protested with a smile as he crossed his arms, "We should, at least, keep those houses for vacations or something."
"He's right, those tree houses were just a walk away from those falls," Jax nodded as he and Duke caught eyes, "Definitely worth keeping."
"We'll have to move our stuff over, though," Orph heaved a hard sigh, "We'll need to make a big enough home for all of us."
"Well, where did you guys used to live? Y'know... Before all this Radex and memory deleting mess," Tessa wondered, the warm flicker of the kitchen light, overhead, lit the room in a calm, still orb of ease Tessa never wanted to end. The way each boy held their inquisitive gaze to Tessa and Zed, the soft peek of the morning sunshine on the horizon. Tessa let her circuits come unglued from her skeleton, once and for all, though she knew somehow this loving stillness wouldn't last.
"We were just on the outskirts of Dead Zed's largest city," Orph grumbled as he crossed his arms, "Before Zed went nuts and kicked us out."
"I moved the loft away from Ekreth, User knows why," Zed shrugged and looked down, "But, we can always move back."
"I always did like that location," Finn nodded softly in agreement, "Why DID you leave Ekreth, anyways?"
"I'm assuming Ekreth is the city you guys used to live in?" Tessa quietly wondered.
"Well, we were up on the cliff side twenty miles out," Zed stated as if he was excited to finally root Tessa deep into Dead Zed's way of living, "We had such an awesome view... The city really is beautiful."
"Did anyone know you were up there?" Tessa asked as she finally felt life slowly come back to her being as if embarking on this brand new adventure was finally setting in.
"Doubtful," Orph crossed his arms and chuckled, "We only really ever went into the city if we wanted to grab a bite to eat or drinks or something."
"Or attempt to socialize," Duke rubbed his face sleepily.
"Look how well that turned out," Finn gestured to Tessa, "Only girl we've ever truly come across is Tessa, and she's already taken."
"It took turning into an asshole and forgetting your family to gain a girlfriend," Jax barked towards Zed, though everyone easily laughed at his joking notions, "Guess we should follow in Zed's footsteps!"
"Is everyone in favor of going back to the outskirts of Ekreth?" Zed stated loudly through a hard chuckle as if to dodge the teasing topic altogether, "We can get there via the code room... Though, since Tessa and I don't have a game day, we will likely be building our new home for the entirety of the day, today."
"Not fair! I want to help," Orph suddenly complained, "I want a say in where my room goes."
"Can we make a bonus room?" Jax's eyes lit up.
"Oh! Oh! And an indoor pool!" Orph beamed.
"Can we include a library?" Tej quietly suggested.
"I'd miss quarter alerts for this nonsense," Orph argued though everyone flinched as Lickity mumbled a hard, annoyed groan and got to her feet. She began to mosey on over to the seven that loosely hung out in Zed's old kitchenette, which was now in light shambles.
"You can't miss quarter alerts, Orph," Zed muttered with a tired sigh though Orph furrowed his brow and looked Zed over.
"How did you get to be so lucky? No quarter alerts, y'got the girl, new baby on the way, free reign of the whole game," Orph listed though Finn laughed and raised his finger.
"Not to mention, you left the Arcade," Finn added.
"And brought back spawn that I'd be willing to bet will have User abilities," Duke joined though Zed angrily waved his hand about.
"We'll take everyone's requests into consideration," Zed mumbled as he stepped out into the circle of his brothers, which now included Tessa and Lickity.
"And what of, uh," Orph trailed off, and as if to look mildly disgusted, he gestured towards Lickity, "That... Thing."
Tessa nervously honed her entire attention to Lickity. Lickity cocked an eyebrow muscle, flattened her ears, and stabbed her dominant eye contact straight into Orph's existence.
"I-I mean, it can't live in the house with us, right?" Orph's voice got a little louder with his growing insults though Tessa nervously darted her eye contact between the two as Lickity finally hummed a low, throaty growl through her closed mouth.
"You know, 'IT' can understand you," Tessa snapped as she crossed her arms, "IT also has a gender."
"Tread lightly, Orph," Zed mumbled as he finally took a few steps away from the escalating situation and closer to his open bay windows, so to get a good look at his other cliffside loft in the distance, the one with the code room safely tucked away inside. Tej, Duke, and Finn began to slowly follow suit.
"I'm serious, though, can we make like a pen for uh... her?" Orph argued as he nervously began to move around Lickity as if to seem mighty though Tessa could tell his footwork was cautious and scared.
"We're not making her an outdoor pen, Orph," Tessa glowered, "She's as much my family as Zed is yours... She's staying indoors. She's going to have a baby, too, for crying out loud."
"And, she WILL sass you into next Tuesday, so I'd watch what you say," Zed pointed as he finally turned back to Orph, who was on his way to Zed's doorway. Everyone slowly prepared for the trek to Zed's cliffside loft.
"What, she just going to growl and snarl me to death?" Orph uttered in a dull, disinterested tone, "It's not like it will read me my rights."
Before Tessa could continue to warn Orph, Lickity suddenly lashed out the hand of her left wing, grappled for Orph's shirt and sharply raised him off his feet. With a hard tug, she hovered his face just to her snout, and as Orph let out a yelp of growing terror, Lickity flattened her ears and, as the slit of her pupil shrank to a sliver of black hatred, she finally showed her teeth through words of intelligence far beyond her original coding.
"I have a name, y'little twat," Lickity's deep voice snarled angrily, the claw of her thumb, on her left wing, tucked tighter into Orph's shirt as she shoved her large snout straight into Orph's nose, "It's Lickity. The day you put me outside is the day you're joining me so I won't starve."
"Easy, easy," Tessa urged as she finally pushed on Lickity's neck, and though she knew Orph deserved a good throw around, she was excited to see Lickity finally unhand Orph, albeit in a clumsy, shoving fashion. Orph stumbled to his feet, nervously rubbed his neck and peered up at Lickity in dumbfounded surprise.
"Don't act so thrilled... I can talk, and understand everything you're saying," Lickity glowered as she kept her sharp, unforgiving gaze straight into Orph's quivering soul, "You'd better watch your back. Bearing offspring won't stop me from contemplating using you as a chew toy for a teething baby dragon."
The whole loft fell silent in stunned fear though Zed slumped his shoulders and peered to Orph in a knowing, 'I told you so' fashion. Zed rolled his eyes and caught stares with Finn, who looked near traumatized. Before anyone could get any other words of shock out, Lickity perked her ears in Tessa's direction and hunkered to the ground, to request leaving.
"Let's go," Lickity snapped, though as Tessa climbed aboard Lickity's spine and into the proper riding position, Lickity largely began to stomp towards the gaping holes in Zed's windows. She gave Zed a cheeky smirk as if to barely apologize for traumatizing Orph, though to also express she was just warming up, "Meet you at the loft, yeah?"
"Yep," Zed chirped in a dull tone, though before anyone could stop the two, Lickity's large body pushed past everyone, and with Tessa safely on board, Lickity jumped out of Zed's loft and gracefully took to the pale morning sky. Zed heaved a hard breath and gave Orph a sly side-eye over his shoulder, "I can't say I didn't warn you."
"She can talk?" Tej exclaimed in growing excitement.
"This whole time?" Jax added though Zed laughed and nodded.
"The being she swapped codes with had the ability to talk," Zed shrugged, "She took on said ability. Life hasn't been the same, since."
"Life hasn't been the same since a few other things, as well," Finn stated dully.
A/N: Pst - I've got some exciting news to announce to you guys :D Check out my deviantART, and look for my latest piece 'Origin's Promise' for more details.