27 Years later
Tacoma Dragon Preserve
Southern Colorado
Tyro's POV
Sozenn crashed to the ground, red in cheeks and panting as I pined him and held him under my weight.
"Looks like I win again Sozenn",I said with a prideful smirk.
"Yeah yeah",Sozenn said laughing,"nice one Tyro".
Sozenn was my best friend and we had the worst case of rivalary that you can possibly imagine. But we looked out for each other. One time when we were little, we had sunk away from our hunting group and gone after a caribou. I had stalked it and was getting ready to pounce when a pack of Bobcats had attacked me. I could take three or four on my own, but the ten that there were would have ripped me to shreds had it not been for Sozenn and his reflexes. Sozenn was a dark green Woodland dragon with grey scales running down his undersides. He was a good deal smaller and faster than I was, but if I could pin him, he didn't have the power in his limbs to force me off. Most of our duels end with him pinned under all of my weight. He has bright yellow eyes like a bobcat and razor sharp scales on his thirty foot wings that can slice very easily through a fully grown pine tree. His two, three foot long grey horns protrude backwards from his head like spines on a rose bush and there is not a place on his body that is not covered with scales, expect his wing membranes.
I let off Sozenn and he righted himself as my two boys, Ace and Dusk, continued to spar in the grass.
Ace, my oldest, was only two. He had tan scales and a blue underbelly. His horns came back about a half foot and his eyes were a bright green. He was about three feet tall and nine feet long with wings that were about eighteen feet in length. Like me, he had spikes around his eyes and on the back of his neck. He also had armor on his snout that went all the way up the ridge of his head.
Dusk on the other hand, was only a year old. He was about two and a half feet tall and seven feet long, considerably smaller and skinnier than his older brother. Unlike either me or his mother, he had black scales and a grey under belly with bright blue eyes. His horns were stubby only being about 4 inches long and he didn't have any spikes or armor to speak of.
Ace had locked his jaws around Dusk's shoulder and wasn't letting go.
"Dad!",Dusk whined,"make Ace let me go!"
"Ace",I said walking up to them,"let your brother go, he dosen't want to play anymore."
Ace let Dusk go, leaving behind deep teeth marks. His shoulder was bleeding pretty badly and Dusk was fighting to stay standing, crying as he did.
"Hey sweetheart?",I called,"come out here a minute."
My mate Adelind exited our den with our youngest cub Helix following her. Adelind was a Mountain Dragon like me. She was streamlined with no horns, spikes or even head armor to speak of. She had tan scales like mine and a blue under belly with crystal like blue eyes. She was about seven feet tall and twenty four feet long with wings about 120 feet in length. She also curved in a way that drove me mad.
Helix, only a year old, was our only daughter and our youngest. She was mostly red with a blue underbelly and bright blue eyes like her mother. She also had the spikes and armor that I did and the arrow on her tail was blue like Ace's and Adelind's.
"What's wrong honey?",Adelind asked walking over to me.
"Ace and Dusk were sparring and Dusk got bit, it looks like Ace bit a litter harder than he should have".
Ace looked guilty.
"Sorry Dusk",he said quietly,"I didn't mean to bite you so hard."
"It's okay",Dusk replied.
"Well it looks worse than it is",Adelind said inspecting his shoulder,"just try and stay off it for a while and it will be fine."
Adelind licked the blood off Dusk's shoulder and then carried him into the den.
"Must be nice",Sozenn said.
"What?",I asked turning to face him.
"Being a father",Sozenn said,"my eggs still haven't hatched yet and I'm starting to lose it."
Sozenn and his mate Cora had tried a while back and when Cora birthed two eggs, it looked like they were successfully. Then, the time came to hatch and they didn't. Sozenn had gone insane.
"Ah don't worry",I said slapping him with my tail,"they'll hatch, who knows, they may even be like a Christmas present."
Unannounced to Sozenn, Cora had told me a few days ago that their eggs were making noises, she thinks that they're extremely close to hatching.
"Speaking of",I continued,"are you and Cora coming for Christmas?"
"Course we are",Sozenn said smiling at me,"there'll be caribou wont there?"
Sozenn was a helpless Caribou addict, Cora's even told me she sometimes catches him eating leftovers.
I returned his smile,"There will."
"Great" Sozenn said,"I gotta be getting home."
"So early?",I asked tilting my head,"you said you'd be over all day."
"Yes",Sozenn replied smirking,"but my mate owes me a favor."
"Dude",I said glancing at my kids,"you don't even have to say that kind of stuff in front of my kids."
Sozenn glanced over at Ace and Helix, who were darting in and out of the bushes around my den playing tag.
"I doubt they even heard me",he smirked,"and if they did they didn't understand what it met."
"If one of them asks me about it I'll have to beat you",I said tilting my head and smirking.
"Is that a threat?",Sozenn asked spreading his wings.
I laughed,"sure is, take it easy Sozenn."
"You too brother",Sozenn said taking off.
I walked back into my den. It was a cave that was formed right into the side of a mountain. It was about a hundred feet back and twenty feet high, perfect for us. In the way back of the den, Adelind was trying unsucsessfully to apply some herbs to Dusk's bleeding shoulder. Dusk was crying from the pain of the bite as well as the sting the herbs had. He never had to high of a pain tolerance.
"Mom",he whined,"it stings."
"I know honey",Adelind said softly,"but if I don't put them on it's going to get infected."
I walked to Adelind's side.
"Let me try",I said taking the herbs from my mate,"hold still son, just two seconds."
Dusk gritted his teeth as I gently pressed the leafy plant onto his shoulder. The herbs had strong healing properties, but they'll knock you out. I'm the biggest dragon on the preserve and an ounce of the stuff can knock me cold for every bit of ten hours. Dusk instantly fell asleep, wings and ears falling limp. I gently picked him up and put him in his bed, covering him with one of the extra furs we had laying in the back of the den.
Adelind breathed a sigh of relief,"I thought I'd never get them on."
I smiled at her,"how you ever get me to take them is a mystery."
"Please",Adelind said nuzzling me,"you've been jelly in my paws since they day we met."
"I have not",I replied returning her muzzle.
"Have so",she replied me.
"Have not",I replied nuzzling her again."
This went on for several minutes, the entire time Adelind and I were nuzzling each other, with Adelind pulling me into a deep dracoinc kiss at the end. Without my seeing them, Ace and Helix, sweaty and panting, came padding into the den.
"AWE SICK!",Ace shouted sticking his tongue out of his muzzle and making a gagging sound.
I couldn't help but laugh as I broke my and Adelind's kiss.
"If that is disgusting then don't you ever let me catch you with a female."
"Don't worry",Ace replied,"I don't want a girlfriend."
"Yeah",I said sarcastically,"and I said I was never going to have a mate or kids, then I met your mom, now look at me."
"I think it was nice",Helix said shooting Ace a look,"it shows mommy and daddy love each other."
Ace made another gagging sound and rolled onto his back, pretending he was dead.
"Pff",I said smiling,"are we sure he's ours?"
Adelind smiled,"Well if he's dead then Helix can have his deer."
Right on cue, Ace was was back from death as a vengeful spirit.
"That's my deer!",he said in a deep voice.
Helix gave off a fake shiver,"Daddy, I just caught a chill."
"It's my deer mortal!",Ace said,"relinquish it or forever be haunted by me!"
Helix pretended to pass out from being cold as I picked Ace up by the scruff of his neck.
"Spirits are forbidden to dine with mere mortals such as us",I said,"be gone."
"But I like deer",Ace said pawig at my face,"it's my favorite."
"Alright boys",Adelind said,"enough of this, let's eat."
Helix revived herself as Adelind pulled a huge deer that I'd gotten this morning with Sozenn from the fire and set it down on the floor.
"I call the drumstick!",Ace shouted ripping it off.
"No fair!",Helix said,"I love the drum sticks!"
Helix quickly ripped off the other drumstick and began chewing on it. I pulled off a big strip off the meat and placed it in between my paws before ripping a chunk off. It had sweet spots and spicy spots and the two flavors mixed together to form a taste that was like eating a rainbow, if that was even possible. It didn't take long for the four of us to finish the deer. Once the bones had been picked clean, I took the bones far away from the den and buried them before returning. I lay in front of the fire with Ace on at my side and Helix at Adelind's. We normally spent an hour or so after we ate telling stories that we heard from other dragons around the preserve, made up ourselves or in rare cases form eves dropping on human campers. I had recently heard something from a few guys who regularly camped near our den about something called "Bigfoot". When I told it, Ace and Helix listened with wide eyes and perked up ears. They had fallen asleep before I had even finished my story, as they always did, so Adelind and I put them into bed.
"Why do I even bother telling them stories if they're just going to fall asleep?"
I asked my mate as I kissed my cubs goodnight.
"I don't know",Adelind said checking Dusk's shoulder.
It looked better than it did. The bleeding had stopped and he didn't seem to be into much pain as he had a light snore. Adelind and I lay beside each other by the fire. It was snowing outside and the heat from the fire helped to counteract the cold that whispered it's way in through the large opening that led into our den. The deep orange glow of the fire cast shadows of my mate and myself on the wall behind us. In Adelind's crystal blue eyes, I could see the reflection of myself. Our eyes met, my bright green ones with her blue, I could never get enough of them.
"You look so beautiful",I whispered to Adelind.
She smiled and lay her head on my paws. I lay my neck over her head and twined my tail with her's.
"So Cora told me their eggs are making noises."
Adelind glanced up at me.
"Really?",she asked surprised.
"Yeah",I said licking her across the snout,"she think's they'll hatch soon."
"Do they have any names?",Adelind asked.
"Galzra and Inioth if they are boys and Nilanth and Kelarth if they are girls."
"Hopefully",Adelind yawned,"he'll have a daughter and then Helix will have a girl to play with."
Quiet fell over us as the sun set completely and our den was swallowed by darkness, leaving only the fire as our light in the dark. Adelind relaxed and me with her. I felt my heart rate drop and my breathing settle, my entire body relaxed.
"I love you",I said licking Adelind across her snout.
"I love you too",Adelind replied returning my lick.
Adelind soon fell asleep, and me with her.