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It will not be safe here for much longer. She rose and stretched herself out with a series of tremendous popping noises from her body. Stay above me young one. Keep close to your Tom and Hayate. I have one last gift to provide you today.

Nudging me backwards until I was clear of her wings she launched aloft first. Circling around and around the clearing with her head swinging back and forth in search she climbed a little higher before calling for me to gain the sky. I cocked my head at the odd saying but nevertheless jumped at her direction. Considering that she was from the future I would follow her lead. Who fucking knows what danger may lie in wait that I did not know of. Oh, that's right, I just said it... She knows.

Remember young one. Stay with your mate and our friend well above and slightly behind me. I want you to watch what happens.

Spinning in an ascending corkscrew I made my way to my anxiously watching husband and our new friend Haruto. The teenager eyed my form as he circled around to check for injury. Tom however slid closer to me and we drew up to hover before each other and matched our wing beats together until our bellies almost touched. Extending his head out he began to sniff at the scales on the underside of my neck. My eyes rolled to follow his movement and I tried to churn up the most reassuring musk that I could for him.

I think she knows that something is about to happen. She would not tell me what or why except to say that we must keep together high above and slightly behind her.

I would say that it is in our best interests to listen to one from our future. Hayate helpfully and unnecessarily put in, while also ogling my body one more time. Just as I thought, the fucking lech, a teenage male. I caught him staring unabashedly at my hind legs and twisted my hips a bit to give him a show, which he took, and then I brought my tail whipping around into his head.

Boy, so help me! I shook my tail at him again warningly with fins extended. His response was cut off as we all heard a sharp crack followed by a loud roar. Snapping our heads down we could see the smoke plume of a rocket firing and heading quickly towards us from the top of a squat gray building.

Just as quickly, future me reacted to what she had obviously been expecting. Folding her wings she turned into a massive spinning ball and her own tail lashed out much as mine just had to bat the rocket into the ground where it exploded in a cloud of smoke and dirt. Erupting shrapnel tore tree branches and peppered my unconcerned future as she descended upon the structure. It was over as soon as it had started. With the collapsed concrete structure beneath her she had three bodies arrayed before her along with the launch tube for the rocket.

"This is an M47 Dragon Anti-tank missile. In time those that fight you will modify anti-aircraft weapons to lock on to our much lower body heat, but for now you will face many weapons similar to this. Line of sight only, they are relatively slow and easily avoided."

I landed next to her along with Tom and Hayate as she finished while looking down at the dead men before her. Tom snarled at Hayate to keep his eyes to his fucking self before twisting to respond to what other me had said.

"That is military grade equipment! Where the hell would they get..."

"This system has not been used for decades. Replaced by the Javelin, mothballed, there are hundreds of these missiles stored in surplus depots across the country. You think you have gotten rid of those like Sparrow but the shadow element within the Pentagon has shifted gears. Tomoko has allowed me to make this alteration to the time line."

She bent her neck until she looked at Hayate with an acidic glare in her eyes. "In my timeline while you were busy looking for peeks of my cunt this missile took your right wing from you. Those trees over there." She pointed with a wing talon. "Broke your fall and shattered your foreleg. I just saved you from a lifetime as a flightless cripple, don't ever look at my pussy again!" Straightening her neck out her head passed by mine and in that brief instance her enormous eye winked at me.

"Use the evidence before me to buy yourself some time and peace."

---

She pulled the spike from her chest and blood splattered the ground, unnoticed, beneath her. Sweeping the tail tip forward she showed me something else.

Look, young one.

I looked and hissed in wonder. The nub of an eighth spike was just now poking through her hide. She was pregnant.

We are fertile until our very ends, and this will be mine. I am dying young one. By the time these children open their eyes, I will be ready to close mine. I will rejoin the ones that have been lost to me. She smirked again.Or as Tomoko will put it. I will find their smiles once more and await the rest as they come to me. One. By. One.

Realization dawned on me, and my scales shivered as I tightened my curl before her and she looked at me with unwarranted sympathy. If I was right she was the one to deserve sympathy.

You... How many have you outlived? Where... Where is Tom? What has happened to my fucking soul?

For the first time I saw emotion enter her eyes. For the first time I saw a genuine reaction. She stared at me blankly as her wings retraced to her back.

That is not your concern young one. I am fine, and so are those closest to me.

My future self didn't fool me for one god damned second. She had sealed her emotions away with years, decades, maybe even centuries of practice. But she was still fucking me! I know when I am sad, and I was fucking sad! The scales next to her eyes creased and folded as she took in my reaction to her words.

Do not! Do not feel sympathy for me! Do you hear me little sister? I am here for you! I am here to make sure that you do not have to be me! I have led my life, and soon it will end. But it does not have to be the one that you lead! Listen to me little sister! Her great head bent until it nosed at a tremendous scar reaching from her lower breastbone to the base of her forward wing edge. I almost died fighting for my loved ones! I would fucking do it again! Do you understand me you underdeveloped, cum soaked, vagrant, fucking listless, half aborted, soulless, waif, barren self-absorbed, thoughtless, shattered, piece of...

She ended with a broken noise that made my heart stop. Even as great as I had become, it seemed I still could not escape my nature.

When did he die? When did our Tom die?

Her head crashed down onto my back, driving my body into the ground as she sobbed with ground shaking upheavals.

I thought... I thought I could do this... Little sister help me! I love him so much... I love him so much... It hurts... It hurts... It hurts... I do not want a life without him... I do not want to see my children's eyes without him by my side...

Brian! Stop licking that test slide you big scaly goofball we need your help! That culture won't be ready for six more hours!"

"I was just making sure that Sample C was not reacting to the glycol mixture that Sample H had!" Heavy thumping noises could be heard as the screen bounced in time with each one until a shadow fell over the screen and then Brian's head snaked into view.

"By licking it?" a perplexed Serena asked. "That's not scientific at all! How can we repeat the results? Just how much saliva did you spread on each of the slides?" She looked up at him for an answer but the looming scientist obviously was preoccupied by other matters. "Hmph" she muttered "I think you were just hungry."

Sitting behind him, Tom and Hayate looked down at my patio table with their bodies drawn tightly against themselves. A sheet had been drawn over tiny, helpless, lost little Me Two. I didn't want to hear what Alex had to say. I didn't want to hear the muffled crying and wailing coming from the monitor. My vision blurred as my head began waving back and forth in denial while a sense of burning began to grow in my throat and in my eyes. With his next words, I threw my head back and screamed at the sky.

"She's gone, I'm sorry."

I cut Serena off and began to explain what happened just a few days ago while Alex, Serena, and Brian all looked thoughtful.

"Just one pitcher of beer did that to you? At your bodyweight? Well... it might work... by interfering with nerve signaling. But do we really want to test this out on this poor child who already is suffering as it is?" Serena objected with a damn good reason why not to do this.

Without even noticing the humans among us we nudged them and the tv monitor out of the way with careless prods from our noses. Forming a circle around the bier one of the unnamed lost ones with us stretched his head forward to seize the sheet in his teeth and yanked it to reveal Me Two's still form. Alex had disconnected the blood drip that still tangled from my folded wing and had crudely sewn shut her wound and covered it. He had done her one last curtesy by folding her wing arms to her back and arranging her so that she appeared to be asleep on her belly with her eyes closed and tail curled snugly against her. With another anguished wail I retreated even further in my mind as tears ran down the sides of my nose.

Feeling my body shift through the haze blurring my thoughts her tiny body grew in my vision as my head stretched out to her and my large snout began to nose at her head. With my tongue darting outwards to caress her jaw delicately I began to hear a noise that I couldn't name at first. It took me a moment to realize that the soft moaning that I could hear was coming from my own throat. Without a thought, my wings opened again to drape across the two children of the egg next to me as I withdrew my head. In turn they extended their heads to repeat what I just had before extending their opposing wings out on to their own kin. Once everyone had had their turn, all of them turned their attention on me in expectation.

I love you, and no matter what has come before, no matter what comes next, your fight is always my fight.

Pllllleeeeesssss issss that yuuuuu? Yuuursmell. Yuuur voice! Doooon't let meee fall into the drkness again!"

His eyes briefly constricted with wary hostility as Robert's body tensed at the feeling of the invasion of his comfort and his mouth opened in a snarl. Just as Tom and I crouched to leap, his yellow eyes brightened once more as he struggled to keep talking. Robert began to tremble as his scales rattled noisily, but this time I didn't think he would be lost again. He had a touchstone to hold on to. He had returned for good.

"Ssssaysothg... I dotwaaaaanttooo go... Iiiimscarrrd feeelslippng... Dad? Issssityuuu? Pleasetalk to meee. Iiii scared" He begged, pleading to hear his father's voice again. I cried as I watched, and soon Tom's tears joined mine. We both knew, this was why we had to go to Boise. If there was even the smallest chance of bringing this feeling to one more family...

Alex turned off the screen and looked up at Prometheus. "And?"

"You are witnessing the beginning of the end of The United States of America."

I grunted, unimpressed. "Every fucking generation has some crisis, or issue, that they think means the end of this country. How is this one different?"

Alex earned a sharp glare from me when he muttered. "You mean first contact with aliens who turn humans into dragons?"

"Because I am not some disaffected malcontent with a political goal in mind. Consider my words with the same gravity you would give the ones within one of your history texts. Your country as you know it, will soon be at an end."

Alex looked at me as his face paled, my horror taking the form of the smell wafting from between my scales.

"How long?" Alex whispered.

Prometheus shrugged. "There are many, many variables to consider here Alex. The soonest, two years. The latest, 137."

I looked at Alex, and he put his hand against my cheek, before I looked back at our alien minder to ask the question that we didn't want to hear answered. "How many? How many will die?"

"That depends on you, and others like you Kim. It is important that you survive and survive you shall."

"Can we stop it?" I asked, hoping.

Prometheus looked down at me, and then the monitor for several minutes before answering.

"....No. But you were never meant to stop it Kim...."

"What!"

"I will say no more on the matter. Is there anything else you wish to converse about?"

"If I kill you, would anything about what is about to happen change for the better?"

"I am disappointed Kim. I have hope for you where Thumper does not. No, the future will not change if you force me to die in this form only to be born immediately into a new one."

"Well, sorr...nope. No, I don't give a fuck about your disappointment. What the fuck are you to judge me anyway? You conniving civilization destroying shit."

Anger appeared in the depths of his prismatic eyes. Which made me happy. It proved that the condescending shit that he was could feel the emotions that mere mortals did. I was equally apprehensive of that fact as well, however. If he could feel emotions, was his thought process as compromised as ours? How much had he changed since his exile?

Whatever emotions I may have imagined were in his eyes washed from them in moments.

"Kim." He admonished me. Making me swell with wrath. "Please, do not attempt to play off what you presume are emotions that I hold."

I flipped a forepaw upwards to flick him off. But stared at it mutely for a moment as I realized that only four fingers were pointed forward. Shrugging, I compromised and extended my middle two foreclaws at him instead. Regardless, I told him verbally what I intended to make sure there was no miscommunication.

Yes! Let me see... That is right... Yes... This means fuck you. FUCK YOU!

I spun my body to lash him in the head with the muscular side of my tail. I expected him to yowl or something, but instead I got an even bigger treat. The thick strong base of my fifth appendage knocked him out cold. His head dropped to the roof of my house as I chuffed euphorically. Yes! Fuck you Prometheus! You fucking fucked fucking motherfucking thing!

The rough texture of the spun textile I lay on tickled me, making me shiver as Tom's nostrils flared. First Light and Night Star chirruped about 'Fun!' while Dan sneezed and withdrew his head outside along with his uneasy reluctant interest. The air smelled like Kim, but I was Kim. Oh my god, was I grinding one out right in front of everyone? I collected my legs back under my hind end and tried to pretend nothing happened as the smell of my embarrassment overwhelmed the...other smell.

Yes! Night Star first! Then me! Rub, rub, rub! Fun smell! Shiver! Warm!

Yes! Sky know our names! Fun!

You come with? More fun! You know me, I know you! We same! Not same! More fun! Night Star invited me to her turn having "fun" with salacious flick of her tongue along her snout while glancing at my hips.

Me, you! No First Light! Me, her bad! Me, you good! Verrrrry good!

Idea: When Kim goes after the lost woman + child. Have Prometheus follow her. Have child be injured and guarded by the mother who is also much larger than Kim and in heat and seeking a mate. She challenges Kim and drives her away. Have Kim return to the grandmother and the husband wounded, Kim demands an explanation of why she is so big. Mention something about being brought up on a farm. Introduce her to her husband and show the mother's confusion when she realizes that it is someone who could make her pregnant before but can't now. Either use Thumper to transform the helpless husband, or reintroduce Brian for 'relief'.

We flapped frantically to catch up with the general officer, but our smaller wings were no match for his span, and we lost more ground on our race to the hotel. As we got closer, I could hear a kind of gun fire that I'd never heard before. A rhythmic but slow and heavy concussive blast that I couldn't puzzle out until I saw the armored vehicle opening up large holes in the convention center. On each side of it, a pickup truck with a fifty-cal. mounted to their beds. At first the two trucks were unloading on the back-loading bay, but the dozen dismounts clustered around the trucks for cover were quick to spot us and one of the gunners pivoted around in the bed and began firing upwards. Tom call out a warning and we peeled off from each other in four different directions that forced the gunner to make a choice. He went after Prometheus, seeing the load that he carried. Tracer rounds showed the path of the bullets arcing upwards at the fallen computer before he roared in pain as his wing was rapidly reduced to tatters and he began to list heavily. The unconscious female started to slide on his back, further fucking up his balance, until she slid all the way free and collapsed his wing making him spiral towards the ground.

My anguished scream ripped through the air as I watched the two of them tumble earthward. Prometheus' wing reopened and slowed him enough that he could make a disastrously hard, but not fatal landing. Tom threw himself into a dive that allowed him to get below the tumbling female where she collided with him and knocked them both to the ground behind the center. The shock of seeing my husband possibly falling to his death almost knocked me from the air, until I realized that I could still feel his mind. He was sending frantic signals to me indicating that he was okay.

Down to the General and me, I yelled to my passenger to hold on as I and the Air Force officer danced through the air. We flipped, twirled, and soared around the attackers and their hail of bullets until the fifty firing upwards at us had to stop and reload. That was the opening we had been waiting for. The General continued to expose his belly so that I did not have to and drew their fire as I plummeted towards the reloading gunner on the right. My left paw grabbed the hood of the truck just as the rear wheels spun as it tried to move out of my grasp, but when my right front paw came down on the bed it was all over for the truck and its occupants. I roared in pain as the fiery hot weapon burned my paw when I crushed it and the gunner manning it before lifting away with the entire truck. Small arms fire spattered my armored belly and chest, making me fear for my children but there was no time to stop. I was committed.

Juggling the truck in my forepaws, I got it pointed face forward, and then reared up with my wings flared to hurl the truck at the other that was swinging its barrel skywards. The driver of the truck that I had thrown screamed all the way to his death as they connected. Gasoline began leaking as sparks flew from the grinding metal of the impact and a fire started that quickly consumed both trucks.

The Bradley, and the eight or so surviving gunmen began to run, with the armored troop carrier dropping its ramp even as it pivoted and gunned away. Six of the gunmen made it into the safety of the tank before the General fell upon the last two. They exploded into gruesome chunks of giblets as the child of the egg galloped after the retreating tank while it raised its ramp. The turret was already spinning towards him when he reached it, and he jumped for the tracked vehicle just as it pivoted once more on one of its tracks. Missing his mark, the General did get a hold of the barrel of the Bushmaster cannon and wrenched the turret sideways, destroying the drive motor and leaving the turret spinning freely with no control. Stalling one track, the BFV made one last turn and rumbled down an alleyway too narrow for the hulking child of the egg stalking it to follow, and there it remained. Immobilized.

Standing up on his hind legs, I watched the General whip his head and ram his shoulders at the corners of the building to claw in savage anger at the tracked vehicle just beyond his grasp between the two narrowly set structure. Thudding to the ground, he opened his jaws wide and roared wrathfully at the sight of the fighters making a break for it. Jouncing on his forelegs, he snarled his next commands.

"Illuminate target! Fire!" Backing up, I noticed that the officer was keeping his head pointed squarely at the tank, his eye piece must have been a designator. Even as the ramp dropped and the hatches for the gunner, driver, and commander opened I heard a whoosh and then the roar of a missile firing from far above. An olive-green blur flew over my head and then right into the open troop bay at the back of the Bradley where the AGM-114P Hellfire II missile detonated. Luckily for the surrounding buildings, the heavy armored shell of the tank worked perfectly as a blast containment vessel. The turret popped off the top of the hull like a squeezed zit, and the malcontents manning the thing transformed into a bloody mist that coated the walls of the alleyway before fire washed over the surfaces as the fuel tank of the APC erupted with a loud pop.

Yelling my mate's name, I fled at a gallop with tears streaming from my eyes. The last words I heard from the General as I ran with terror in my heart were the bellows to his crew for emergency services. Alex's frantic voice calling into my ear demanding to know what was happening now only served to drive my anxiety over the top as I thundered around the convention center flinging cars out of my way as I went.

Which included in one typical afternoon: losing sight of my toes, crying about how thick my ankles were, screaming at Tom for a kettlebell to work out with, throwing it at him when he handed me the pink kiddy one he bought as a joke, and then demanding pepperoni sticks and strawberry ice cream for a post workout snack as I snuggled with him to watch Tropic Thunder while telling him he must be even more insane than I was to put up with me. I cooed warmly, startling Ulysses, as I remembered his hand rubbing my swelling belly and his whispers in my ear.

He couldn't meet my eyes and instead turned his head away from me which I took as the answer that it was. He was a coward. Not because he was afraid to fight, obviously he wasn't. But because he was afraid of change, of a future that is no longer solely in human control. It was why these aliens had come down on us like a tonne of transdimensional bricks. But even as weak as his bloody mind set was, he could not accept that that was the only way. It was a realization that had saved his life, because I was ready and willing to crush the life right out of his body with a twitch of my paw if he had told me that war was the only way.

What followed was about a trying experience as I'd ever had in getting fitted for clothes. I mean, don't get me wrong, when I used to go out on the town with Athena and my girlfriends I had been just as keen as the rest of them to try on some dresses and yell at saleswomen who suggested the wrong size after a few bottles of wine. Or, maybe that last part had just been me. In any event, trying on new attire had always been something I kinda enjoyed. That however was no longer the case now when I had to be zipped into a fucking Catwoman costume that needed to use ratchet straps to get the zippers close enough to engage. Once those zippers were fastened, final fitting was made using a spiderweb of the nylon straps that I had noticed before until I was covered from the base of my neck to tail in the carbon woven second skin.

, as she ducked when my tail swung over her head while I tried to get used to the feeling of the suit. Fuck, this was worse than the time I let Tom talk me into wearing a g-string and it rode up my...

"How does it feel?"

"It doesn't matter how it feels. If it puts one more layer of protection between my children and those that wish them harm, I will deal with it." I told Lieutenant Colonel Amanda Huygens where she sat watching the enterprise while also amusing a young child of the egg with her dancing tail. "How do you shit wearing this body glove?"

I laughed as my question sent the poor female into a flustered tailspin. "Ah...oh...um...you see...we have been using the WC before we put it on. But, if you have to wear it for several days...you must find someone you trust to...undo the flap that is...you know...down there."

I twisted my head to look at her with a shit eating grin on my face to needle her further.

"Someone trustworthy huh? Ever gotten...naughty wearing it?"

She would have been glowing red at this point, and instead raised a hand to fiddle with a big silver locket around her neck as she pointed her snout away from me. "Yes, another child of the egg is able to undo and redo the clasps with a claw, as by design. Being pregnant..." She peeked at me out of the corner of her eye as she chuffed a shy giggle. "...can be very exciting."

My grin threatened to split my head in half. I emitted an encouraging smell that swiftly changed her reserved one to a more relaxed aroma that strongly hinted at just how exciting it was.

"I was very loud." She admitted, making me thunder laughter as I slapped her on the flank with my wing. The woman watching us smiled up at us as we towered over her and engaged in good old fashion girl talk. We both worked to include her in the conversation as she kept making measurements and heaving at this strap or that while following my directions. This was really the first time I'd ever been able to talk to another female that had gone through what I'd had and was pregnant to boot. For once I had someone to compare observations with to see if the changes I had noticed were typical or not.

"So, against my wishes, there has been a change of plans." Boyd told me once I had vacuum sealed myself into the incredibly tight suit that grated against the very scales that wanted to open to signal their displeasure. The General pointed off to his side with his flared wing to indicate Dan talking quietly to his two heavily bandaged daughters.

"Dan has insisted on coming to help protect you. To be honest, I am mostly annoyed because I don't like last minute surprises and changes to well developed plans. However, having someone of his size and durability will be a valuable asset. Scans of his scales indicate that he will have a greater resilience than any of us even with the suits, and his extraordinarily large wing area will enable him to transport any of you that are injured."

"I don't think this is a good idea. His stamina is very low. If you were following us, you would know how frequently we stopped after he joined. He was the reason why. If he is going to loiter above us as backup during our meeting, he will not be able to circle overhead for very long."

Boyd grumbled in his throat and tapped his claws against the ground. "I thought as much. You are welcome to explain it to someone that has resisted all arguments that I can offer, and that is larger than any of us by some measure."

In the course of the lengthy explanation it was revealed who and what Tomoko was when I saw Sam's attitude change for the worse.

I could feel Tomoko stiffen and claw at my back before hopping down at Sam's request. Facing him, she drew herself up for what I saw coming in the bunched and tensed form of the man facing her. Out flashed his fist to crash into Tomoko's nose and sending her falling onto her side without a sound from her.

"What have you done to my sisters? Why have you done this? You evil, evil creature!"

Dan and I, slaves to instincts that drove us mad at the sight of a baby being attacked, were torn between understanding of what was occurring and blind reactionary impulse. The psychiatrists and the airman could only watch as Sam unleashed his fury at Tomoko. Who, after every shouted demand for an explanation and crash of a fist against her snout, righted itself once more without a sound. With a sympathetic smell coming off her scales, and a sad light in her golden eyes, she maintained eye contact with the furious brother as he unleashed on her for what had happened to his sisters, his family, that he protected.

"Why didn't you do it to me? Why did you spare me when you tortured my sisters? I am supposed to protect them, and you took that away from me? Why?" Out of breath, he fell to his knees as his head drooped to look at his bloodied hands. "Why..."

I can connect other minds so that they can understand each other's emotions. I can only do that and influence emotions, and only temporarily. I need my husband with me if this is going to work for your daughter. If you want this to last, I need my mate! If you want the connection to last more than a few fleeting moments, then Tom must be with me. That is what I think must happen. If he is with me, the effect is stronger, it could be permanent. And all of this...All of it! Is nothing more than speculation. Do you understand?

If you insist on going back now, you will be returned just forty-five seconds after I interdicted your impulses Kimmy! Twined tail promise! Passage of time here has no bearing on your source! I would do it sooner, but I need your residual electrical signals to return to base line to prevent interference! This is very tricky! Very tricky! If I make an oopsie, ouchies will follow! Ouchies of the mind!

One other change was that the thick braided scar tissue across her chest and shoulder was gone and replaced by an equally disturbing deformation around her front leg. The same arm that I had suffered the injury to.

I blinked, and she shifted to another form. Her cape, gone, revealing square meters of elaborate tattoos marching across and down her back. Her left fore leg was missing as well, replaced by a prosthetic that looked more advanced than anything I'd ever seen outside of the movies. Lifting it, she turned it over to look at it curiously as if she had never seen it before as she flexed its claws to test it with movements of her arm musculature.

"The future is in shift even now. Too many variables are at play for it to settle on whether or not our limb can be saved."

My heart soared as a thought occurred to me. "Is Tom still..."

Her eyes twitched briefly before they settled on me again as she quickly realized everything what I just said implied. The speed we processed things never ceased to impress. "As you change, so too does the future. I am from a timeline that most likely represents the path that you are on now. Whichever version of your future you may have seen before, my heart aches at the thought that they may have been without their Tommy. Yes, little sister. Tom is pressed against my side even as I talk to you now."

Tears leaked from her eyes at the thought of that poor, lost, broken, soul existing somewhere out there in the infinite number of possibilities even as my own eyes burned. Bending her head, she kissed me squarely on the tip of my snout and rested her chin on my muzzle as she hummed softly.

"Thank you, little sister. Tom is by our side, and all is right with the world."

"If your body is shifting...how is your mind not? Won't each version of you seem like what you've had since now?" I asked, drawing back to look up at her with wonder.

You will be returned just forty-five seconds after I interdicted your impulses Kimmy! Twined tail promise! Passage of time here has no bearing on your source! I would do it sooner, but I need your residual electrical signals to return to base line to prevent interference! This is very tricky! Very tricky! If I make an oopsie, ouchies will follow! Ouchies of the mind!

I wish I could take them up on their offer, but something was going on with Shadi and me and it seemed to be instilling a sense of urgency in her. Shadi had another burst of hidden communication with Tinkerbell as her body set into lines of determination and she smelled of impatience.

"Shadi, what is going on? It's just a cramp, I've had worse rolling out of nest in the morning."

The hissing and rattling of scales that I heard everywhere like someone had shaken a barrel full of rattlesnakes cut off as the rest of the staff returned to their positions. Wary eyes continued to track the party even after Sue cut off the sight of us with an alarmed yelp as the raptor leader led us to a wall spanning star map.

Now you see Kim. It is time to say your goodbyes, Kimmy. Your time on this world is at an end.

Blinking, I looked around at who was all still around me. Sue, after being told that we were leaving frowned fiercely as she concentrated further. I heard the dino leader gasp as Shadi and I became more tangible.

If you insist on going back now, you will be returned just forty-five seconds after I interdicted your impulses Kimmy! Twined tail promise! Passage of time here has no bearing on your source! I would do it sooner, but I need your residual electrical signals to return to base line to prevent interference! This is very tricky! Very tricky! If I make an oopsie, ouchies will follow! Ouchies of the mind!

We were not the enemy. I needed him to realize that. A memory stood out above his other thoughts. The police sergeant handing him a piece of paper, that he glanced at for only a moment to see a white circle on a black flag followed by a written statement that passed by too quickly for me to see myself, before yelling at her and crumbling the paper to burn it. So, he hated us for some reason but not enough to go rogue like his subordinate yet was willing to cover for her at least to some degree.

"You knew she was going to do something didn't you?"

"No!"

Yes...the fucking dumbass bitch. I told her she was getting in over her head.

He yelled at the same time he thought the truth.

"Are you willing to admit that she was involved with the attack on us?"

"No, you fucking animal! We're done here, and so are you! The mayor and the governor will hear of this! You have no fucking right to hold my officers, or any other red-blooded god-fearing American citizen in custody! This is my town. You don't belong! None of you belong here!"

He was afraid, and not just referring to those of us with scales...but of what?

"You are afraid, but not of me. What has you pissing in your foxhole, you bootcamp washout?" I provoked him and saw images flash before my mind's eye as his consciousness reeled in temporary confusion and shock.

One after the other, I plucked them from the ground using my incredibly long body and dropped Powell, Worthington, and the driver (he lost his job when the oil rig closed) where I could trap them between my two hands, hiding them from the sight of everyone else behind walls of scale, flesh, and claw. I could see them just fine from where I was conversing with one eye, I had all the proximity I needed for what came next. I channeled right into the heads of the two who had done the most damage the loss I felt from General Boyd, the hopelessness from Administrator Angelica, and the pain of everyone on the ground, the roof, and all that I sensed choking on their agony in the building.

Sergeant Powell was in mid shout about her rights to be charged with a crime that she was constitutionally bound to answer for when her eyes rolled up into her head and she fell to the ground convulsing. Chief Worthington looked down at her, stunned, as she frothed at the mouth. Next to them, the driver of the gun truck twitched bonelessly in the snow where he had crumbled like paper. I separated my interlocked talons and pulled my hands away to set them paws down on each side of the three. Fresh shouts for stretchers and diazepam came from nurses who had followed the injured gun truck driver while I hoisted him through the air.

"I have to go!" The neurologist shouted and took off towards the nearer Powell. He slid to a stop on his ass when I twitched my spine and my tail came thumping down into the powdery snow before him. Carefully, I circled his waist and lifted him to bring him back to my watching head where the scared stiff Doctor (Doctor Herath) remained.

"They are enjoying the consequences of their actions. I will make sure they live."

The others around me, drawn by a sorrow that I couldn't squelch, reacted to the angst I projected and roused themselves to gather around my wife and I. Dan, and the other aware ones, gave calming anecdotes and stories of grief from their own lives. The lost ones nuzzled my head and neck, placating me with soothing scents and hummed lullabies of their own making. Together we formed a massive pile of scales sharing each other's feelings as my control ebbed and flowed in waves, allowing all nearby to feel as the others did.

Children of the egg weren't alone in this either. In between some of the squirming bodies I sensed, or felt, the much tinier forms of the small ones. Drawn inexorably, the small ones who had been tending to the injured found themselves being snared by the vortex of emotion that I had slipped and allowed to form. Now, instead of checking vitals and tending to wounds as they should have been, they responded to empathic feelings brought about by their proximity to me. Finding themselves soothing ruffled fins and scales while cherishing the warmth and comfort imparted by the titanic slithering aliens around them.

, and to the surprise of us both, whipped his head into mine.

I gaped wordlessly at him. Not hurt by any stretch, but surprised at the alien violence of his reaction instead. Looking stunned himself, he bowed his head just as instinctively at spoke to the ground with a small voice. I knew his confusion as surely as my own.

"Why...why do I feel this way? Why did I hit you like that? Why do I feel...ashamed that I hit you? I...am sorry...you are...you are to be protected. Your life is too... Not..." Growling to himself, he trailed off in ever growing confusion and looked away. I understood. "Am I compromised, like they said? I..."

He got up and moved away from the rest of us shaking his head and snapping his jaws in frustration. I let him go. What was awakened in Kim and I was affecting others in our presence. Our minds were settling into the new patterns of our bodies. Slowly, we were adapting to who we were now.

"Virginia, can you please go help him? It might be best for him to see a face that he is beginning to more than admire the strength in."

She blushed, in our way, and nodded her head with one last bracing caress of my neck. She joined him at the edge of one parking area. His head resting on an abandoned and blanketed pickup truck while staring off into the snowy distance. A shy thrill of excitement blossomed in his head as Virginia's smell entered his nose and coiled around his brooding thoughts. Her larger wing spanned over the shelter on his back and I could see her hand hold his while their tails timidly chased each other back and forth behind them.

The other reason why I didn't go, other than not wanting to release Kim, was my naivety at what I was myself. Until I was sure of who I was, how could I help others make sense of that? It was hard, so very hard, when I felt like half a person. Half a being.

"Our children are asleep right now, and are unusually attuned to their mother's condition. If you cause her distress, you will cause them the same distress even locked behind the shells of their eggs. How would you like to be connected to know what your patient feels?"

"...um...what?"

"If you could feel what your patient felt, would it make you a more effective surgeon?"

"I...I guess...but..."

His hesitation stemmed from one, still not knowing what the hell I was talking about. And two, not knowing if such a thing would be a distraction or not. Well, I had already thought of how to make number two not an issue, and he was about to figure out number one. He looked warily up at a raised claw of my hand as I lightly placed it on his shoulder while in contact with my wife.

He gasped and fell against his dry erase board, knocking it and himself to the ground where he lay prone staring at nothing. His hand shook as it reached up from the ground and covered his stomach. Lips move silently several times until a whisper crept past his lips into the world.

"What...what is this feeling?"

A nurse, seeing him on the ground after coming from the tent, ran to help him up but the surgeon waved him off as he staggered to his feet. One hand remained on his stomach while he panted, overcoming the surge that the temporary connection I had made between him, my children, and my wife's pilotless body. Heavily filtered sensations fluttered about his small dim mind as I metered the connection. Didn't want him frying himself after all.

"That feeling, are the heartbeats of my children in their mother's womb." I quickly begged forgiveness for what I was about to do from Kim, wherever she was, and jammed my thumb claw into the meat of one of her forearms. Letting more of the impulse through as a demonstration, the doctor yelled in alarm at the phantom pain and grabbed his own arm.

"What...what the hell have you done to me? I'm...I'm not a woman! I don't have a uterus, how can I be feeling this?"

I felt my center of gravity shift upwards when the arms growing from my shoulders unfolded a little to flare in surprise when she called my bluff.

"Yes."

A red transmitting light on a box on the side of the camera blinked off and the camerawoman lowered the recording to challenge the other woman.

"Jessica!" She (Lindsay) hissed, looking at me and the Itos suspiciously. "You can't be serious! You don't know...this man could do anything to you!"

Jessica fiddled with her microphone, looking down at it for a moment, before looking up at me with conviction and defiance in her grey eyes.

"I have nothing to be ashamed of in my life, and if I act differently you will know Lindsay. I could be the first reporter to see into one of these people's minds!"

"Actually..." I wanted to point out. "I know of several children of the egg in the news fields already." She flapped her hand at me dismissively.

"Yeah, yeah. I know. But how many get to know how you think without having to grow a tail at the same time?"

My ears folded back as I narrowed my eyes warily at her. I knew what she thought she was going to get out of this and it wasn't going to be what she expected.

"You're doing this for all the wrong reasons. You won't be able to probe my mind like you think you're going to be able to."

"You're right." She said, with a beaming smile turned up at me that made my heart beat a little faster. "You're going to guide me to the answers I want and I'm going to say them out loud!"

She took a notepad out of her parka as another media team recorded our interchange and I apprehensively looked over my shoulder back at the hospital. God damnit, what excuse could I contrive to get out of this?

I had...I couldn't reach my own head!

Thump...thump...thump...thump

That thing...that thing on me moved! I was surrounded by animals!

Thump,thump...thump,thump...

What the fucking hell had happened to me?

Thump,thump,thump,thump...

I was too long. I was too big. I was...I was...

I WAS AN ANIMAL!

THUMP,THUMP,THUMP,THUMP...

"Shh...shh... It is okay son. It is okay. Breathe, young one. You are next to your mate and surrounded by those who will protect you just as you will them. Here, you are among friends. Everything is okay."

The calm feeling of Virginia's older mind and her soothing words broke through the panic that I still struggled with every morning since the change.

A small hole opened inside me with the reminder that Virginia was not Kim. Kim should have been the one helping me with my disorientation. Kim...the surgery...I fell asleep again, overcome by the overwhelming aroma of lavender coming from Virginia's scales. But also...from an invitation from a tiny spark of consciousness that led me from the waking world with a tug on the tendril that connected us.

It had taken well into yesterday's evening to complete the surgery, and I had been involved in every moment of it. Straining my mind and my abilities to their fullest. Operating on pure instinct, I had been instrumental in figuring out how to reconnect my love's severed arm to her body.

I could not, would not, force anyone to act as I thought they should. But I, and others like myself and my greatest friend, could show them that there was a way to move beyond what had brought us to this point. I didn't know what that was, but it wasn't.... this. It wasn't what we were doing now.

Was what I thought a solution to this manufactured crisis that had been thrown onto our collective laps? Or would it heal the seething resentment that lurked just beneath humanity's actions? Would it heal their relentless imperative to dominate the world in all forms? Could we treat each other and the world with respect? We would if I saw what I was meant for clearly and correctly. Why else would we have been transformed into these creatures with mental abilities so far beyond what we had before? Could the aliens be so sick as to have done this for their amusement?

I snorted dismissively with a shake of my uneasy head. I couldn't believe that everything that had happened to us would be so meaningless! I wouldn't! I won't!

Small steps first. Small steps before we could truly fly. As Prometheus had said months ago, we had to learn to fall, before we could find in ourselves the qualities needed to soar to unfathomed heights.

The officers who had fled to the safety of the store they occupied were preparing for their own response. I could see from Alyssa's sight that they were setting aside crowd control equipment in favor of the rifles slung at their sides. With the number of those armed in the riot, a blood bath was inevitable at this point. McLean's panic lashed us into greater speed with muscles burning in our chests and shoulders from the all-out sprint.

Alyssa, feeling the approach of her reinforcements, showed off her skills by having her flock spread out to minimize their vulnerability. I heard with my own fins her leading call as she led them through a quick spiraling search of the buildings overlooking the scrum. I was alarmed to see a group of men appear on a roof overlooking the mobs below armed with long guns just as the shadows of Alyssa's flight passed over the building. One man, with his eyes skyward, spotted the Children overhead and began to fiddle with a large diameter tube slung across his back.

I was too far, and the men far too hostile and intent, for me to make usage of my abilities in deterring what had all the hallmarks of an attack team. Making a guess at what the tube was when I saw the man lift it to his shoulder to aim at a female just older than my own Lucy. I sent a picture of the net that I and Big Bang had encountered before. The older female snarling her vexation into the frigid air we raced through at the memory of the chaos the weighted nets had wreaked.

Virginia stooped down and led us flapping around one last building before flaring up to halt just in front of us. The warning ping she sent us giving us the time needed to make our own sudden hovers. Spreading out as our wings beat back and forth with our tails dangling to touch the frozen street below as we bobbed and awaited Virginia's signal to land.

The blast of the wash from her wings when she flared knocked hundreds in front of her indiscriminately to the ground and cleared the air of the last clouds of irritant drifting nearby. I felt my eyes, felt her eyes narrow angrily as her head swung back and forth to surveil the scene in front of her. Marking the dozens of people that immediately began to fire at her from further back in the crowd hostile to our very existence.

Her shouts at them to stop proved useless as the bullets struck the scales of her chest and belly. Scales that proved impervious to the small caliber bullets impacting them. Ricochets shattered windows and small ones began falling to the ground screaming in pain as errant gunfire struck them. One woman slapped her hand to her eye and collapsed, dead before her head bounced off the asphalt. She was just one of many casualties from the violence.

Brian, marking the shooter through Virginia's sight, landed in a nearby parking lot. Accidentally crushing a snow-covered car with his massive tail, surging forward at a group of gunmen he ignored the damage that his body had created. With his head held low and swinging back and forth to keep anyone from being trampled by his paws he stomped towards the shooters with shuffling steps that sent protesters scrambling they weren't sent tumbling away by his strength and mass.

Disgustingly, those shooting at us didn't let a little thing like countless bystanders being in the line of fire stop them. But I had something that would shock them into stopping.

Thumping down with my front legs atop a restaurant, ignoring the tasty smell of burgers, I roared thunderously to get all attention on myself. Disrupting thoughts and focus among the attackers that I exploited. Sharing with them the feeling of those wounded by their actions. Brian made his way to the stunned attackers, some screaming in pain and clutching at wounds that weren't there. Two however, grit their teeth to ignore wounds that they knew weren't there, to fire on the one that they somehow knew was behind their pain.

Me.

Brian scooped them after the first bursts from their rifles hit the front of my chest. Comically begging their pardon and pleading with them to stop struggling as he held four of tacti-cool wannabes in each hand. Squeezed together and unable to express the wrath igniting their minds, they uselessly and ineffectively screamed and shouted at Brian instead. Who was quite firmly adamant that he didn't think they should be allowed to go free.

My second vision spun when Alyssa led her flight to stop the idiots that were about to fire on us with much higher caliber rifles than what we'd faced below. Making me wonder if that others had just been lying in wait for us to show up or if those weapons were meant for other small ones. I only got vague sensations from those small ones about us being here. Not enough for me to ascertain if they'd known ahead of time or had been merely hoping that Children would arrive so that they could attempt to bring some of us down.

Big Bang spun on one of her wings to skid backwards in midair until her feet touched a taller building. Windows exploded inward as she pushed off it, to launch herself towards the ground and the protesters there that were between the overwhelmed officers and the fallen. Mercilessly using her body as a plow, she cleared the area around the toppled armored vehicle and then settled the length of herself around it. Ignoring the humans beating on the wall she had formed with whatever melee weapons they had. Giving up on gunfire after seeing the lethally unpredictable results.

"Ow! Ow! What this? You stab Big Bang with sword? You treat Big Bang like dragon, I show you dragon!"

With pinpoint precision, I saw out of her narrowed eye when her leviathan tail curled up behind the small ones hammering away at her ineffectively with pipes, bats, and, I shit you not, what looked like a fucking broad sword. Sweeping the tip of her spine from left to right, she took the legs out from beneath all of them and left them holding their heads and groaning after slamming into the rock-hard ground. I spread their disorientation through the crowd to keep the hostilities down. The groans of hundreds rose as they stumbled on their feet holding their own heads in sympathy. I felt their confusion as to why they felt this way and blasted images of the fighting they had just been involved with.

Not many of the small ones made the connection unfortunately. Their pain only driving them to be more belligerent and willful.

The cops that had been ready to engage both sides in a gun fight to rescue their fallen ran into the protective harbor that Big Bang had created with her body while she nosed at each of the policemen laid out on the ground. I sensed that four were dead as they didn't have that feeling of white noise or static that I got whenever I tried to probe unconscious creatures.

The crowd wasn't done yet however as many that were perfectly fine just seconds ago attacking each other fled from a dozen Children peacemakers. With heavy thuds that sent black filthy snow flying more of Alyssa's youthful gang, some as young as my own children, dropped from the sky and threw out their wings. Forming a living shield, they separated the two sides from each other and called out demands that all return to their homes. A younger one, Hannah, barely ten years old, bent her head down to listen to an armored riot cop and added further instruction.

"If you don't leave, we'll arrest you! Yes I will! Hannah will arrest you! Lieutenant Murphy says I can! Aren't you cold? Please go home!"

Gunfire came from the roof of the building behind my lashing tail followed by screams after the flick of a tail that wasn't mine. Flexing my shoulder, I shot my wing out at an angle so that the outermost claw dug into the wall of the tower the falling bodies flew from to catch them. There would be no more deaths today, if I had anything to say about it. Even if the shitheads deserved being 86ed. But I didn't have to be gentle about saving their lives either. Arching my wing so that they slid back the other way towards the edge of my body, I flicked my wing to send them tumbling into a nearby dumpster. Knocking them all out cold when they rebounded off the metal side of the box.

A male, small for his age, came over to sniff at the militia and poke away their weapons with nudges of his tail at my suggestion. His head whipped skyward and his wings spread in alarm when a loud bang came from the roof and the struggle that continued there.

Alyssa was badly wrapped up in a weighted net that had indeed been fired from the large tube and lay on her side dazed by the suddenness of the impact of the entanglement. The price she paid for trying to minimize the harm that came to the gunmen and which had been taken advantage of by the two who had fled into the roof's exit. Outraged, one of her followers jabbed his tail savagely into the stairwell the two men had fled down. But they were beyond his reach and the teenager was left uselessly bellowing his frustration into an overcast sky that threatened new snow at any moment.

With their line reestablished, the police began to fire canisters of tear gas once again to clear the area with the help of the Children. I climbed down from my perch on the badly straining fast-food restaurant to help with the assessment of the casualties of the blast that had kicked off the whole mass casualty event.

I snorted at the cop that had struck my nose, a snout far longer than he was tall, with his truncheon to send him rolling away and clearing my way. I lowered my head with it cocked to have an eye on each of those injured to assess them carefully with sight and mind. Radios snarled and hissed painfully loud as I poured focus into scanning the injuries of each officer. Telling a Sergeant nearby, after telling her to move her ass and write down what I told her instead of screaming at me to fuck off, the condition of each of them. Those who had their eyes open and were able to understand what they were seeing tried to crawl away from my massive head that was entirely too close for their comfort.

I tried to project a sense of peace to them, but they weren't in a mind set that wanted to be at peace. The best I could do was to lower their heart rates and pulses. Anything more would have required force upon the small thoughts that I struggled to connect to. Which would have been an unthinkable assault on their minds that may have left them comatose or dead.

Prevented from airing their frustrations with each other the crowds turned to destroying the area they occupied. Anger and violence that I didn't understand at all and couldn't calm without an exertion that might kill the most fragile. The chaos of the multitude of minds began to dampen the effects of empathic pain that I broadcast.

I was learning more and more about just what it meant to be a guide. What worked, and what didn't.

A flaring sense of unease came from the direction of the hospital before dying away again. The facility too far for me to sus out what was wrong and setting me on edge with anxiety for the family that I'd left there. A Lieutenant had removed his helmet to talk to Big Bang and I, with a scattering of others watching from mine and hers backs. The smell of fire and smoke began to mingle with the tear gas that flooded the area.

"You all came from the hospital, didn't you? If you want to help, you must take my officers back there! The EMTs can't get through the crowds."

Big Bang was all about taking off with them and clacked her scales anxiously awaiting a chance to scoop them all into her arms and flap into the sky. I had my own concerns however the overrode both of their desires. Some of these people were not fit for aerial transport by Child.

"I will clear a path for the ambulances. Lieutenant Green, six of these people have suffered head trauma, our flight is far too jarring to transport them. It must be by ground. Green, we'll see to the crowds if you..."

"Absolutely not, goddammit!" As soon as medical assistance arrives, if you are not going to be any use, I want all of you to get the hell out of here. Do you hear me? You have no purpose here." He spit on my paw. "You have no purpose anywhere. You creatures are an affront to god and my country. Clear a path for the medics and then get the fuck out of my sight, all of you, before I fire some canisters straight down your fucking throats. And when you get back to the hospital, you tell that abomination posing as our mayor that she should have done us all a favor and died at the hands of that patriot!"

I picked him up as easily as he would an ant and used him like a rag to wipe his miniscule glob of saliva from the scales covering my other hand. Dropping him to the ground like the used dish towel that he was, I blasted him with my disappointment in his words. Folding my legs beneath me to sit on my thighs, I watched him scathingly as he struggled to scrape together his pathetic willpower to glare at me despite his swelling shame. Another officer was yelling at me to demand my name so that he could charge me for assaulting a police officer.

I ignored her. A heavy sense of opprobrium rolled in from a mind older than my own and I felt my ears wilt at the gathering storm.

"I am disappointed by your actions young Tom. We are better than the humans and must let our actions..." I felt Virginia's dismay at what she was saying overlay the audible shocked gasp that announced her realization at what she was thinking. "I...I did not mean...I do not mean to say..." Whining sadly, I tried to reach out to comfort her while her jaws worked silently. To tell her that it was just a slip of the tongue. That she didn't mean what she'd said. But the lies that stood ready on the tip of my pointed tongue never left my mouth. Instead turning to ash and further poisoning the acrid bite of the air already laced with the pervasive CS gas continuing to be launched by the cops.

With an anguished wail and a blast of her confusion, she knocked hundreds of people to the ground with the gale from her wings in her leap to the sky. All the Children left whimpering by the chaos they felt coming from her mind. Leaving us clumped together to take what comfort we could from the feeling of our bodies pressed together. Alone, I did what I could to soothe myself alongside the others and the small ones who use the clearing of the riot control agents to inflict fresh vengeance upon their own city. Inside, I was a snarled ball of emotion.

How can I lead like this? I don't...I don't know what I'm doing...What kind of foolish creature am I to think others would even listen to me? What made me think that I deserved to be a leader of Children and humans?

I wished Kim were with me. Half of me was dead. How could I shake my delirium when I wasn't even whole?

A pair of younger Children high overhead tore off at my request to use the great speed of their oversized wings to chase down the mammoth elderly female for comfort. Shoving my woes aside to be swept away in a secondary train of thought, I switched my primary attention to the police yelling at me that I was under arrest for using an officer of the law as a hand towel.

"You can bring charges against me, but you can't arrest me. You literally don't have the means to take me into custody. Now do you want help calming this situation or not?"

"No! Now Get the fuck out of here! We didn't ask for your help, and we don't want it!"

"You didn't look like you were in control when I arrived. Or do you just enjoy being about to open fire on heavily armed civilians looking for an excuse to return fire on you?"

To accentuate how badly the situation had become, bursts of gunfire came in increasing frequency. The sharp snaps of bullets flying by drawing the attention of the police in their tightly grouped cordon beyond the veils of smoke and gas.

"It's no more than they deserve!" A Lieutenant shouted. "Return fire! If a dragon moves to interfere, aim for their heads and put them down!"

My mental abilities shriveled into uselessness in the face of the self-sustaining cycle of violence growing in the city streets. The chaos of the scene keeping me from bringing the kind of focus needed to influence the thoughts of the individual small ones either fleeing or fighting. Human minds were just too small for me to track accurately. It was like staring at a ball of ants as they crawled over each other in a squirming indistinct mass.

Small stinging impacts struck my head and neck. Forcing me hurriedly down on to my belly before the whizzing bullets struck something more vital, and vulnerable, than scale. Children's cries of pain pierced my mind like icicles when explosions overwhelmed the already stentorian noise. A pained yowl erupted from my throat at the feeling of scales cracking and being blown from shredded skin on my tail. The intensity of the pain briefly overtaking my ability to assuage it despite it not even being my tail but another's My startled exclamation joined by the other Children and even a few gasps from the small ones closest to me when they turned their heads to look for the cause of pain in a limb they didn't even possess.

A female leaped from the ground to a building's face and then down again to keep one step ahead of those firing at her. Belying her size with the speed of her acrobatic maneuvers, she kept several gunmen occupied and I could feel their rage build into incandescence that whited out rational thought. Perversely, so much anger erupted in their minds that I was able to exert the influence that normally took calmer to allow. Making them feel the pain of Maria and Samuel thrashing at the feeling of her shrapnel studded tail and the TBI he had suffered when the explosion that had toppled the armored car had thrown him into another parked vehicle. He had cracked his skull, I realized as he vomited all over the front of his police uniform. Maria nearly missing him while she stumbled in circles, keening in agony.

A chuffing noise from a tower further down the road led to a roar of shock and panic. _Playful Friend_screamed as the net fired from above fouled her wings when she dove to stop a shoot out between two warring groups a block away from me. I was busy grabbing cars and setting up an impromptu fortification that dozens of terrified protestors huddled behind as soon as I nudged them to safety from where they had fallen.

Not that it was much good for myself or any of the other Children. Like dogs hiding their heads behind curtains while their bodies remained exposed, so were we similarly left open to ineffectual gunfire and explosives.

The worst was that only hours after the violence in front of the hospital, I watched through a Child's eyes as a federal judge declared that Children of the Egg, no longer being human, were not entitled to any legal rights to include ownership of any material or intellectual property. An hour later, an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court had frozen that judgement. Everything I and countless others had worked their whole lives to achieve was now in the hands of nine to determine. Panic set in among Children of the Egg across the nation. I begged for a lawyer to immediately place all of Kim and I's assets into a trust under Alex's care. Many children took more direct action, and when thousands of creatures, some longer than a football field descend to protest at courthouses and legislatures across a country. Well, they can no more be ignored than an F5 tornado howling outside your living room window.

Which the supreme court justices neither discouraged nor encouraged. "We will not be intimidated into deciding these judgements on anything but their Constitutional merits. However, we understand the unprecedented gravity of the situation and will precede with all appropriate caution while the status quo is maintained. These individuals are to continue to be treated to all rights and privileges they would enjoy applicable to their citizenship status until such time as we make a determination otherwise."

The first hints of what was about to happen came from Boyd's back in the command shelter located there. Just as his head twisted about to follow up with the officer who emerged from it, a high-pitched whine drilled through the bones of my elongated skull. Cries of alarm from aerial Children and their sight alerted us all to what was happening far only a scant few hundred meters overhead as long necks craned to raise searching snouts towards the sullen heavens.

There were a pair of distant pops breaking up the monotony of jet engines before a plummeting rectangular piece of metal. What I could tell was a cabin door preceded the commercial airliner it came from breaking through the bottoms of the clouds. A surge of gleeful anticipation came from a few members of the crowd watching the jet airliner through binoculars. I curled my head around to stare at them with narrowed, suspicious, eyes. My ears and fins flared warily and then I felt another surge coming from above me. A feeling of content of the execution of a successful plan and a disturbing hunger that made my scales bristle in alarm.

By the time I figured out what was going on, Boyd was already on his paws warbling his alarm and trilling incomprehensible orders to his subordinates.

"No, no, no! Bring it down! Bring it down! Do not let it reach the airport! Major! Fire on that aircraft! Do not let it reach the airport! Revered one, help us! Someone open fire! Children, destroy its wings! Protect! Protect!"

A pair of ram-air parachutes spiraled down out of the cloud the airliner had emerged from as the General's panicked appeals for action pushed me to take actions I wouldn't have if I hadn't seen what was at the airport.

"I have heard much wondering from you philosophers about why, if there is other intelligent life, humanity has not been contacted. Let me put your curiosity to rest for you. It is because they have no interest in your pathetic internecine squabbles over illusionary differences."

Elation made my nerves tingle and my scales lift as I danced and sang in tones that had no meaning beyond wanting to encourage the others to continue to share. The fading day whirled in my sight as I bounced from paw to paw. My tail swooshing through the air with delightful breezes tickling my membranes. An expression of both remembrance of the lost ones of that day and earnest commitment to continue when they could not. To cherish and mourn and heal.

I continued to weave my dance as I built and strengthened the connections that were being forged further and further from the myself. A surgeon, battling fatigue, felt her hands steady as she treated a gunshot victim. A family laughed as they felt the heartfelt gratitude of the Children who they had taken in after finding the pair of babies broken and crying in their garage. Across the street, a reporter broke into tears on the air at a reminder of the love that waited for her at home as she tried to explain to her viewers the wonder of what she felt.

Big Bang joined me in crooning our hope and energy. Taking over as my still sorely abused throat began to fail. Helping to banish dark thoughts for the brighter spirits that came with realizing that one was not alone. That help could be found all around. Solutions did not have to come from afar and strife did not have to be inevitable. We would meet this challenge, I promised them all in words that slipped into their thoughts without a sound.

The affirmation of life continued without my direct involvement. Unengaged Small Ones and Children broke into smaller groups that continued to trade stories. Verbally this time while I was still careful to mind them and grant their requests to share their feelings with each other. It was a wild success given the heartbreak of watching their city tear itself apart. I didn't know how long it could last, but then I had them believing that something good would come from so much change. I still hoped that it will till the day that I recorded these events, years later.

Every inhalation brought the bite of the burning hangar and aircraft into my nose while I took in the conflagration that had made me pause mid-air with my wings beating back and forth in a hover. Leaning forward with a wing adjustment, my tail whipped as my husband and General Boyd caught up to me and I resumed forward flight. Commanding chirps from my wing leader assigned each of us to a hangar on each side of the burning one which he was diving towards himself. My target held emergency food rations, General Boyd's held sundry building and construction supplies, and my dearest one's was packed with medical equipment.

Oh, I wish we still had that communications web that Master Sergeant Schwarzkopf had built back at the hospital. This would be so much easier with that kind of instant feedback!

My frills pinned back and I couldn't help the whimpers coming from my mouth when an inhuman scream erupted from my right just as I touched down. Not knowing who that was, I cried out for them to be strong while shouldering the doors of the hangar open to reveal the pallets and pallets of MREs within. Already, smoke was drifting in from the windows facing the burning structure next door and the wall ticked and hissed as it grew hotter. Lethally hot.

Swinging my head back and forth, I called for anyone within the vast building to run towards my voice. A door opened in the back, and a dozen airmen ran towards me as they scrambled to put their uniforms back on after their disrupted sleep. Dancing impatiently from paw to paw, I yelled at them to forget their damn head gear and instead grab as many fire extinguishers as they could on their way outside.

Turning, I put my head against the other door and pushed it all the way back on its tracks and ignored the squalling of the gears and motors that would normally move it themselves. The building wasn't burning yet, but I wanted to get these supplies out of here. All the hunger I had felt in the city. All the sunken cheeks I had seen on the tiny humans haunting my vision. I couldn't even dare risk this food.

Sparks shot from the screeching aluminum pallets as I sent one after the other spinning out through the open door. Roaring to one of the sets of wings I saw darkening the windows as they flew overhead to organize the pallets so they weren't in the way of the firefighters whose sirens I could hear blaring to life.

An eddy of heated air swirled against my nose and I gagged at the smell of burning scale and flesh. The unearthly howling continued without pause. Sympathetic tears flooding my eyes when I couldn't help imagining the pain that she must be in. I wished that the Master Sergeant was here. I wished that I could have helped her with her agony just as he could. The first row of pallets was cleared and I was just starting on the second one when a new set of explosions made the dire situation even worse.

A keening wail came from outside just before a body fell through the roof of the hangar I was in. Gasping in shock, I screamed the male's name when his scent registered and pushed off the cargo pallet I had my foot on to charge towards Charley, who'd we found a week before we'd come to Boise. After one uncoiling bound of my noodly body, I was halfway to him when a flash of light came from outside that blew the front wall inwards.

When I came to, I lunged to my feet and swayed woozily on four legs until I braced myself by deploying my wings and tail against the ground. I could feel the thick sluggish warmth of my black blood oozing down my head from my ears in the nearly silent world. Fear poked at my mind, fear radiating from within my uterus.

Closing my eyes, I bit back my own fear to reassure the most precious thing that I would ever carry that they were safe and sound. Picturing myself as a woman, singing a lullaby to a baby nephew that I hadn't seen in over a year, I projected all the calm reassurance that I could muster until my six children calmed within the warm cavern of my belly.

With their safety assured for the moment, I stumbled to the collapsed hanger front. A terrible cry of longing coming from me for my unseen husband that matched the anxious burning within my heart. Stopping to nose the sheets of metal covering Charley's frame, I saw a terrible fracturing of the scales along the side of his head and neck. He was breathing but did not respond when I rubbed his chin with my snout.

_ New fear surged up my throat into a trumpeting call for my love. Waiting for his response, I also called for help for Charley, laying at me feet and scenting of pain. To my eternal relief, my hearing came back in fits and starts with the first coherent thing I heard being Conrad calling out for me after hearing my own call. It was then I began to hear the humans that I had been sniffing for, and who lay strewn about the tarmac, groan as some awoke from their trauma. Many did not though, and I broke down into sobs at the loss of life._

_ None of this made any sense to me! All of these supplies had been meant for other humans! What was the meaning of this attack! Why would anyone do this? This was... this was... I raised my head and screamed my pain and frustration upwards._

"For security concerns, only those here at this time can go. This is strictly voluntary," he stressed when I drew his attention to what one of the council was thinking. "There will be no forced relocations of any kind using the resources I command here. Is that understood?"

We go now to Blake in Atlanta. Blake, what is the feel on the ground in Georgia?" The photogenic news reporter that appeared was wearing body armor and a ballistic helmet with 'PRESS' in bold letters across the plate carrier. appeared to be in an alleyway

"Sandra, the mood is..." he began before being drowned out by a wordless roar of rage as a Child flew overhead. There was a crash from offscreen and then the sound of breaking glass. The camera whipped towards the sound at the same time Blake narrated what just happened. "...as you can see, fighting is still ongoing between these dragons and small groups of uniformed men with military style equipment deployed throughout the city. What happened just before you cut in was a burst of automatic gunfire from a squad of these militants into the sky at another of these dragons circling overhead. The crash you heard was the dragon that had just passed over me throwing a trash dumpster into the entranceway of the store that the gunfire came from when it came to the defense of the larger one far above.

"At this time, we don't know why these individuals are attacking the dragons or the local law enforcement. However, we do know that the dragons and the police of Atlanta are not alone in fighting back against these individuals. Local citizens have been spotted engaging these attackers, and I have been told their have that gun battles have erupted across the city.

"Local officials are pleading with citizens to remain indoors and not to engage these hostiles as they work to control the situation. A situation that seems to be spiraling downwards as both United States Senators representing Georgia have made public statements extolling the patriotism of these rogue military gunmen in their fight for the soul of the country."

I heard a scream of loss from a Child come distantly over the live news feed that made Blake stopped to listen. Crooning from several voices in the sing song lilt of our language came from above the reporter and passed by. It was a song of pleading and peace. Telling any who would listen that the Children would stop fighting if their tormentors would lay down their weapons. Trying to explain that they have nothing to do with the plans that had cast the world into turmoil.

"What are we hearing right now, Blake? Those sounds almost sound as if the creatures are singing. Is that a fair description?"

"Sandra, I don't know what those noises mean. Several times since the fighting started yesterday teams of these dragons would sweep across the city in unison making what sounds like coordinated efforts to communication something. Unfortunately, as has been shown since Zero Day, when stressed these dragons often lapse into this other language that cannot be understood by human ears. I can tell you that I, along with many others, are often overcome by a feeling of inexplicable sadness when these dragons pass by overhead. Some of the city's residents have even described to me a sensation as if they had suffered a personal tragedy. The city health planners have been indicated that their call centers have been overwhelmed with reports of citizens feeling unexplained mood swings, tremendous anxiety, and crippling senses of dread and mourning. At this time we don't know if there is some relation between these emotional phenomenon and the actions of the dragons, but the coincidences are eerie at best."

I heard gunfire come from somewhere nearby, and the reporter hastily signed off as the video blurred with motion. So, now I knew for certain that there were others out there like Kim and I. Was that the effect I was having on people? Instead of the uplifting reinforcement I thought I was projecting, were others being overcome instead by fear and anxiety? Was I missing something? It couldn't be... Angelica herself had told me that the patients in her hospital were requesting relief and reporting depression at levels far below the rates before my arrival.

"Blake, please be safe there!" Sandra said before switching gears to another correspondent. "Jeremy in Oklahoma City, what is the situation there?"

"Far safer than it is for Blake, thankfully." Jeremy said, standing in front of what looked like a gazebo in a park. "This city is undergoing a very different reaction to the violence that is plaguing the country. There were instances of reported coordinated attacks yesterday, but that seems to have ceased once the demonstration behind me began in Earlywine Park earlier today."

The camera panned to show a flat open field with trees sprouting in ones or twos throughout it. The trees were bare, and the ground had a light dusting of snow on it. But it was hard to see either of those features through the teeming mass of Small Ones and Children occupying the park. If I had to guess, there were probably better than a few tens of thousands there in the gathering. Sitting, or walking gingerly among all those humans, the towering forms of hundreds of Children provided sharp contrast with their dark scales reflecting the soft lights of thousands of handheld candles. White tents glowed from within in neat rows in the middle of the park, with a ring of watchful males and females sitting up on their haunches with relaxed but alert postures. Another ring was formed around the park, spaced out in even intervals were groups of Children at each point along with police officers facing outwards with a far more tense alertness.

I could hear music playing from the tents, and laughter. Laughter everywhere from within the park. Those exiting one tent all held bags full of what seemed to be food. While outside another tent, in neat orderly rows, men and women stood waiting with document folders in their hands.

"Can you describe to us what we're seeing here, Jeremy?"

"Let me start with what you can't see from my vantage point, and one of the major reasons for the tranquility of the setting. This footage was taken from a drone that we launched earlier today just north of the city."

A new screen appeared showing what looked like an interstate heading away from the downtown area. Several miles outside of town, a traffic control point had been set up with semi-trucks blocking all but one lane in a natural choke point in the approaches to the city center. From the overpass just behind the TCP, streams of gunfire were coming were coming down on a pair of Bradley Fighting Vehicles that were working their way towards the security perimeter. Next to and behind them, were hundreds of dismounted soldiers leaping off armored trucks and scattering from the highway in all directions. Uniformed troops, wearing the Oklahoma National Guard unit patch and police officers moved in skirmish lines to confront the dismount soldiers.

"With the same violence facing other major cities playing out far beyond the limits of the downtown, residents here have been largely free to enjoy a peace that others cannot. While critics of the security here point out that the city and state have severely crippled the right of these people to travel freely, no one can argue with the fact that rates of violent crimes here are a fraction of the national average. Those entering the city for the first-time report that they can't help but experience a sense of uplifting hope. This reporter can tell you back at the studio, that being here does help give a sense that just maybe things will take a turn for the better. This is Jeremy Florez, reporting live from Oklahoma City."

"What are your thoughts on what is happening in those two cities, Master Sergeant?"

"I think a matriarch or a patriarch could be influencing each city. But that does not explain why there is still so much violence in one, but not the other. There are factors that we are not seeing through the television. Was there really no forewarning about any of these attacks?"

He hesitated, and then waved his head. There was something he didn't way to say however it wasn't my place to pry. I know Kim wouldn't agree with me, but there was a reason why there was a classification system. Even though I was at war with my own instincts, telling me that there was nothing that I shouldn't know, I let it go. I was still human enough to do that.

For now...

****

"Uncle Alex, what do you mean he's been struggling with who he is?" I said, freaking out while making sure to keep one eye on my Dad matching the speed of the truck I was on. As if I needed one more thing crazy thing in my life, now my uncle was telling me that my dad might be a few drinks short of a good time. I felt something a presence touch me, as if someone was right behind me. Bending my neck upwards to look back over my dead sexy scales, I only saw my own wiggling tail. You stay still you! The presence remained, just beyond my ability to put a name to it. It glowed with love though, and made me want to snuggle with it in the shelter.

"He's...don't you remember what he told you a few days ago?"

Remember? How could I forget? How could I forget anything? I couldn't wait to get back to school. I was going to destroy anything that required memorization!

"Honey, it's beyond anything that I can describe to you. Seeing their..."

"Okay. Okay. I get it." He broke in to stop me from playing back what my Dad had said in his own voice (as if he could tell the difference between a dragon and a dragoness or one of us for another). He swayed on his feet as the truck we were on slid a little before getting traction again. Maybe it wasn't the best idea for my only Uncle to be where he was talking to me. I would say that Uncle Alex was smart enough to know to be more careful but leaning against my Mom his eyes were distant as he looked skyward. Looking like he was hearing something. I turned my head to check to make sure he didn't have an earpiece in but I didn't see any. His mouth moved as if he was talking to someone and his gaze grew sad and teary. "Oh Tom... I'm sorry. We pushed you too hard. I'm so sorry. Please forgive me. God, please help him find his way back. For his children, and his family. They deserve to be happy."

Blinking, he wiped his eyes on his coat sleeve and looked back at me. Looked at me like I should know what the hell was going on! I mean, what?! My mind spun like a crazy loading symbol to figure this out and my heart felt like it exploded when I did.

"Uncle, are you telling me dad is lost?"

"I think... I think so."

Uncle Alex stumbled backwards when I screeched at him with shock and disbelief. No! No he couldn't! We just got back together! Mom. Mom needed him more than anything! We needed him! This was supposed to be happy!

"Nooooo!" I shrieked again, all melodramatically and everything. Wind tickled my scales as my irresponsible tail lashed behind me wildly. Throwing my head up, I yelled denial along with my Dad's name. He didn't respond. Real panic dug its icy claws into my skull. Jesse, the knight in shining armor would be welcome right about now for some advice. Oh right, he hadn't come to meet my family because he was still scared of my Dad. Fuck it, I was Kim's daughter anyway. I could figure something out.

"Irma! Irma!" Luke and Lucy called for me. Hearing my roar easily enough in the funny looking Frankenstein tent they were in. Uncle Alex gave me a loaded glance. As if to say we need to do this later can you please read too much into my one look at you and act accordingly please? It would be super helpful if you just acted like everything was normal and not like your dad just went off the deep end after you reminded him that he is a dragon just trying to do the right not human thing! Or that you were standing on your three and a half legged mother with your wings flapping while howling like a dying stray cat!

Of course I knew all that from the one nanosecond his eyes met mine! I mean, why wouldn't I? Apparently, I'm the only here who couldn't read minds and had to guess what they were thinking! This was so crazy! I needed a minute. I needed to think. Okay, done thinking. Yes. Do what I had been doing. In the absence of parents, do what I must to keep family together. Okay. Right. Happy face. Panic attack over.

"It's okay you two! I promise." I reassured them and backed it up with a happy trill and happy scents.

"Hey, Serena? Is my Mom going to give birth before we get to our home?"

"What? Mom's going to give birth right now? To eggs? Cool! Can we watch? The TV said it's the miracle of life!"

Yeah. I don't remember thinking that while watching that gooey screaming miracle when I was your age, Lucy. Although, I thought warmly, wanting to feel life developing within yourself does become much more appealing as you get older.

"Uh... are you asking me how sure I am that that won't happen on a scale of 1-10? Uh... maybe 2? 2.6?" Serena poked her head out of the tent to answer and then extended a few fingers as she thought over additional facts. "Make that 2.85 on a logarithmic scale."

Ugh, this wasn't surprising at all. "Uncle?"

"She and your siblings will be fine, Irma."

"Good. I'm going to pick you up for a flight then. Are you warm? I need to know everything, and we're going to check on Dad."

I was an emotional roller coaster wreck by the time my Uncle was done telling me about what my father had accomplished since I'd last got to video chat with him. From Uncle Alex's retelling, it sounded like he'd been holding half of the city together!

My Uncle was beating himself up pretty bad about how much he'd allowed Dad to push past his limits. But I knew that my pops wouldn't really let himself by shoved into doing something that he didn't want to do. He was just too good for his own nature. Right now, Lucy, Luke, and I didn't have a father when we might have needed him most. Now my Mom was in the middle of delivery labor and still unconscious!