FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

This story is self-contained and can be read alone. Rating: Clean (1,643 words)

Terminology: A drake is a male dragon, a drakka is a female dragon, and drakken is the collective term for the species. The human equivalents would be man, woman, and humans. Drak is a gender neutral honorific, the combined equivalent to sir or ma'am.

The sun had set several hours ago, but the City of Wings was never truly dark. The flyways were kept illuminated by light crystals marking out buildings and landmarks, providing a navigational aid for the dragons who normally relied on bright daylight to guide their way.

Zilarin didn't have to fly very far between her workplace and her home, and in less than ten minutes she was on final descent. The drakka carefully flared her wings as she landed in the street, gliding as much as she could to avoid creating noisy wingbeats. Likewise she kept things quiet and stealthy by turning her key slowly in the doorknob, gently pulling the door open, and then closed behind her.

Silently Zilarin went past the kitchen and the living room, heading down the corridor until she reached one particular room. Dragons walked on four legs, and although their forepaws were dextrous, door handles sometimes caused them difficulty--push bars were more commonly used to open doors. She placed her paw on the door's push bar and gently pushed, moving extremely slowly so that she made no noise at all. The door swung open quietly, and the drakka poked her head in.

A cot was placed inside the room, just beside a closed window, and inside that cot was a tiny dragon who was barely a fraction of Zilarin's size. The hatchling was sleeping quietly, curled up into a ball with her wings wrapped around herself and her tail coiled around her hindlegs. She was snuggled up against a stuffed soft toy which was as large as her--the toy was shaped like a dragon, so it almost looked like there were two hatchlings snuggling together inside the cot.

Zilarin silently watched for about a minute, then she quietly closed the door again. All was well.

Next she went to the master bedroom--the only room in the house which was lit. Inside, a familiar drake was sitting at the desk, using the inked tip of his tail to write on paperwork. In the darkened room, Zilarin knew that her own azure-coloured scales were hardly visible, but from the table lamp's illumination she could see that the drake had scales of a warm, golden-yellow. For a moment she just stood at the door, admiring the drake who she'd somehow persuaded to become her mate. They'd been partnered for years, and yet still her hearts jumped in her chest when she saw him.

Moving quietly, Zilarin padded up to the drake and surprised him with a lick on his snout. "Galon," she murmured.

Galon glanced up from his work, his neck frill perking up. He smiled and licked her snout back. "You're home early! How was work?" he asked.

"It was fine," Zilarin replied. She could have given a more comprehensive answer if pressed, but really that was all that needed to be said. Her work in the medical centre had been exhausting and stressful, as always, and as expected. Today she'd managed to come home just an hour after sundown, which was much earlier than usual. Yet somehow she sometimes wondered if she'd gotten the better trade between the two of them. Using her magic to heal injured or sick patients was draining and demanding, but the work was meaningful and never dull, and at least patients (usually) didn't resist. In comparison, hatchlings obeyed no such rules. "I see you've gotten Jarzyl to sleep," Zilarin noted, referring to their daughter who was only a year out of the egg.

Galon nodded. "She fell asleep right after I fed her dinner, and with hardly any complaints--that's a rare enough occurrence, but she did have a tiring day. And what about you? Have you eaten dinner?"

Now it was Zilarin's turn to nod. "I ate earlier. The shift change went much faster than usual, so...here I am." Because Zilarin was spending so much of her time working long hours in the medical centre, Galon was doing the heavy lifting when it came to housework and parenting, but he somehow also found the time to do part-time work helping out with auditing their clan's projects. Even as Zilarin reflected on this now, she felt another surge of adoration for her mate. Leaning in, she gently touched her muzzle against his in a kiss. "You know, since Jarzyl's asleep and I'm home early, there's something we can do that we haven't done in a while."

Getting to his feet, Galon wiped his tail clean of ink. "I think I know what you mean..."

"Mm, I bet you do." Zilarin kissed Galon again, then she pulled away and headed towards their bed. Her tail curled around Galon's foreleg, gently pulling him after her. As she walked, she reached for the straps of her flight harness and loosened the gear, letting it slide off her body.

And then the two dragons went to sleep, enjoying a night of peace and quiet shared together. With so much of Zilarin's time spent working as a doctor, and with a young hatchling who often insisted on her demonstrating her "free-will" by refusing to sleep, it was a rare occasion where the two parents got to just curl up next to each other and rest.

Zilarin was out in the wild, surrounded by swampy wetland. Strange animal calls could be heard in the distance--in particular there was a shrill, repeated chirping sound which instinctively sent a chill down her spine. Zilarin tried to turn and find the source of that terrifying sound, but she began to sink into the ground. Quicksand surrounded her, coating her whole body in sticky soil which actively resisted her every motion. She tried to open her wings and jump into the air, but she couldn't pull free of that clingy muck.

Ants started to jump down from one of the nearby tree, forming mounds of tiny wiggling legs that spread out across the ground. Zilarin frantically tried to escape the insects, but the quicksand kept her from running. The ants came closer and closer until they were all over her, covering her body and stinging and biting her scales all over.

She wanted to scream, but she feared opening her mouth would let the ants in there too.

Zilarin jerked awake. Her hearts were pounding in her chest, and it took a few seconds for her instinctual panic to fade away as her mental faculties reasserted themselves. The drakka took deep breaths, trying to calm herself. It was rare for her to have nightmares like this, and for a brief instant she felt another surge of panic as she imagined ants crawling all over her and biting.

Just a dream, that was only just a dream, she reminded herself. She was lying on her bed beside Galon, and their bedroom was dark and quiet. Even though they'd fallen asleep snuggled up beside each other, sometime afterwards they'd both moved to opposite sides of the bed where there was more space and things were cooler.

But just as Zilarin was closing her eyes to go back to sleep, she distinctly felt something touch her tail, which had slipped off the side of the bed and was resting on the floor. It wasn't just her imagination--something had grabbed her tail. "Mmh!" The drakka made an involuntary panicked exclamation and flicked her tail sharply--the impact sent whatever had grabbed her tail flying away, sliding across the tiled floor.

The darkness made it impossible to see what she'd hit, but Zilarin's mind instantly came up with terrifying images of giant insects or monstrous creatures with long teeth. She snatched her tail off the ground and hurriedly slapped a paw down on the bedside table, flailing around for a few seconds before she could turn on the reading lamp.

When the light finally came on, its warm illumination washed away her absurd fears. Instead of nightmarish creatures, there was only a tiny hatchling with scales of orange colour, crouched next to the wall. "Jarzyl...?" Zilarin slowly relaxed at the sight of her daughter. "Did you grab my tail? Sorry, I...uh... Are you alright?" Shaking her head, Zilarin jumped off the bed and walked over towards her daughter. She picked up the hatchling and looked her over, using her healing magic to check that the young dragon wasn't injured. "Why are you awake? Go back to sleep, dear."

Jarzyl let out a soft, rumbling purr when her mother gave her an affectionate lick, and she raised her neck frill. "Mmrrr... I'm thirsty." Raising her paw, she tried to reach for her dragon-shaped stuffed toy which was lying on the floor next to her.

"Thirsty?" Zilarin took the soft toy and let Jarzyl hug it. She glanced back towards the bed--Galon was now awake as well, but Zilarin shook her head when her mate made to stand up. "I got her," she assured him. Zilarin left the master bedroom and went to the kitchen, with Jarzyl trailing behind her and holding onto her mother's tail with her jaws. The hatchling carried her stuffed toy on her back, draped over her shoulders.

After pouring out a glass of water, Zilarin watched sleepily as Jarzyl stuck her head in the glass and lapped at the water. "Yes, drink up. It's...good to be hydrated. Water is very important..."

Jarzyl stuck her nose under the water and blew bubbles for a few seconds, then she pulled her head back and let out a satisfied chirp. "Eep. I'm done."

"Good, good." Zilarin picked Jarzyl up and let her ride on her shoulder, carrying her back to her bedroom. She put the orange-scaled hatchling back in her cot. "Just go back to sleep now. Good night."

Jarzyl yawned wide, then she curled up again and closed her eyes. She took her stuffed toy and hugged it tight. "Good night..."

END