Iris must be having an interesting day.

Story by TheNovelist on SoFurry

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#71 of Exploration


I remember the day well, it was a Sunday just over four months from the last Central New Year. None of the gang had been assigned to planet scouting, I have a sneaking suspicion a certain Lupogriff was responsible for this, making sure we were all here. But I was in the food store, speaking with Valmeero about Kodey's poisoning, the wolf/ dragon hybrid had been planet roving with Grant and a few others, so they were all clustered around me as I went into detail.

Silverine had recorded the moment, he had left his thing on record all that time, and turned, seeing Kodey blasting away at the smaller snakes. The giant serpent lunged at Blake, but the tiger/dragon hybrid was far too nimble, and the serpent changed target, biting at Takori, directly behind Kodey. The reindeer was too busy taking on about fifteen or so snakes that were going for him.

Takori dived sideways, and the snake turned, and went for Kodey. Kodey must have future sight, because he seemed to sense the danger, shifting sideways as he began to turn.But it wasn't enough, and the inside fang pierced his shoulder. Kodey instantly became hypnotised, completely dumb struck, looking at the fang through his arm as though not seeing it. There were winces from those watching.

"Ow, that hurt." Valmeero looked slightly unwell, seeing the blood streaking the reindeer's arm. Kodey was watching this replay.

"I don't remember much, just that my arm had stop working, and I looked to see why. My mind was just on pause or something." the reindeer explained."I didn't feel it until I got tossed."

Silverine went absolutely berserk, charging across the clearing scattering friend and foe aside as the serpent swallowed the reindeer whole.

I changed the clips, and everyone was treated to how I saw Kodey arrive. The knife throw was greeted with applause.

"So that's how you did it." Devlin said, looking at the projection."I just thought the voltages had finally over come it."

"Come on, Alduin, what were you going to say?" Draco asked.

There was no escaping this one."If you must know, I was going to say something along the lines of "Here comes a heart attack." or something equally lame."

"Just as well then, saying it with an unconscious reindeer in one arm is just too corny." Simba replied.

"Agreed." I commented."Ignoring my awful sense of humour, what's the plan for this afternoon?"

"Well," Devlin began.

"Ignoring possibilities of having sex." I added.

"That's going to make things slightly difficult." Draco replied. There was a chuckle from the assembled ranks.

"What about a game of BF2, the glowers say they've hooked up computers just down the path."

"I'd prefer Midnight Club, I don't die so often then." Valmeero replied flatly.

"Yes," Draco added, looking nastily at me," someone keeps firing his blasted M95 at me."

Unfortunately for the opposite team, I had what's called a steady hand, and everyone kept being sniped whenever we played.

"What about testing some of our surface vehicles on Bonneville?" Time suggested," My bike's been fitted with a few special modifications."

Oh, yes, I forgot, we all had special vehicles, for driving long distance. I harboured a secret wish to drive around the world doing a documentary, and with the careful expenditure of a couple of thousand dollars, bought myself an Ariel Atom, which the techs had set to, fitting the car with incredibly high tech.

They had removed the engine, and given it an ion drive, beefed up all the suspension, tyres, etc to make it cope with the extra power.I also wanted to test the Atom, none of us had done so with the mods the techs had added. Salbar had an SLR, or correction a replica SLR, they had apparently snuck into Mclaren Mercedes and copied the blueprints for it. Ryan had the same car he had in miniature, the CCXR Swedish Konigsegg, Draco had a fiery Ferrari 430.The only people who didn't have road cars were Time, who had her superbike, Silverine had a hover vehicle, and Valmeero, who, like Salbar, had managed to 'obtain' a copy of an F1 race car.

Simba had an old school Charger, in black, and a Furai had been borrowed for copying for Grant, his black panther body going well with the sleek Japanese prototype. We did have a Veyron, it belonged to Landon, and an Enzo, Blake, and a Ford GT, which was Devlin's. We had yet to hold a race, but I had a friend who would drive my Ariel while I set to with my Raptor.Billy Carlson looked set to sweep everyone else with his Ascari A-10, but we would see.

Noticed something about all these? Yes, all high powered supercars, which was why there was always one. Alecto had a hugely boosted Dakart off roader, and my Ariel was actually set up to be four wheel drive and off road. Still, a race would be epic, and I had a date marked in my diary, when Bonneville would be crowded with racers, and then we'd all get involved. Chaos would unfold with our hypers.

By now many people would be wanting to know where we keep all our stuff, and indeed it was a good question. The term Central applies to this maze of boring corridors, but what everyone in the Scouts knew was that the techs actually worked on another planet on large projects. The planet was uninhabited, and we had sort of claimed it for our own.So all of our vehicles were in a gigantic hangar. But our tech was also taking a huge amount of space. We had our own test track, and a lake to test our water gear. We had a powerboat based on Wave piercing technology, and several two man submarines, for reconnaisance and search.

Not only that, we had several air vehicles. Now these things were cool, and I was not stupid enough to try and pilot them. One of them was a full sized version of my VTO Raptor, and capable of Mach 9 with the super ion drive that had been fitted to it. We had a pair of stealth helicopters, two stealth planes, and a multi person passenger jet. We also had several space vehicles, Central was close enough to this planet a Super Light Speed craft like Ryan's would take a matter of days to arrive at Central.

Sure, Central had it's own labs, but this planet was cool.I had visited it once, and had a go as my old Reventon form on the test track. Furthermore, although I had no driver's license, I drove my Atom on that track to, although not fast enough to ignite the high powered ion core.

But this is all by the by, and I smiled to Time.

"I'm not keen right now, for two reasons. Firstly, I want a crowd when all twenty of us race, and the second, it's pitch black."

"Racing at night is cool." Time admitted.But I would hear none of it, and neither would Valmeero, he didn't want to accidentally brush another car with his F1.His car had likewise been modified to the extremes, but because his was a kitted out race car, that thing was very, very fast.My bets were on his F1 on land, but in the skies, there was naught that could match the Aurora model Ryan now looked like, capable of Mach four without the ion jets that got me that fast.

God it was a sleek looking aircraft. It took off normally, but it had such a swept back look, and two mighty rocket engines, it had taken the Blackbird's record, and smashed it, the only reason the general public didn't know was because the US was still using it in their military.

They should have heard about Central's airforce.

So with all of us being bored out of our skulls, we were particularly surprised when Alecto came hurtling down the corridor and burst into the food store with all the subtleness of a tank. He slammed the door open, and completely wild eyed, stood in the door. We all looked at him while he collected enough breath.

"Iris is having her child!" he gasped.

Everyone jumped to their feet, making for the door. The Raptor got there first, and I was flying low and fast towards Arachno's office. Behind me was Draco in his Light Armoured Vehicle, Simba and Ryan in their tank forms could go faster than the runners, and it was a scrum as everyone ran to see the spectacle.

Abigail, on the other hand, arrived at the door to the medical theatre first, having teleported with her special gizmos. Abigail could teleport into a moving car, her own teleporter being so advanced. She could never stop perfecting it.I came to a smooth halt beside her as I landed, and she entered the room, me in tow.

Iris was lying on the surgical bed, a sheet wrapped around her chest, but her legs and intimate areas were open for the all the world to see. Iris was shrieking in agony, and Arachno had hooked up an future tech IV. Arachno turned, and saw us. He seemed to be in a slight panic, I guess he had never dealt with a child birth before, or this one was being difficult.

"Alduin, Abby, can you please keep her down, the child's causing her a large amount of pain!" he clicked urgently. I ran over, as did the lioness and Dev who came through the door at this point. Draco entered, and then slammed the door on Arachno's request.

"No more!" he shouted, yes, Arachno shouted."And while I am gratified everyone wants to know how she is, this is not tonight's entertainment!" he sounded annoyed at this point. Devlin and Abby took one of Iris' legs each, and I took her left arm.

"Iris!"I said urgently,"I'm here, don't worry, calm down." the elf grabbed me with her left arm, feeling my warm skin on hers.

"It hurts." she moaned in a moment of lull.

"What did you expect, you're giving birth!" I replied, tactfully,"Now, I'll sing something comforting, my mother said that always helps."

Iris managed a weak smile."I'm heard rumours about your singing talent."

I leaned down."It's all lies, I can't sing at all." the elf managed a small chuckle, and then her face contorted in pain as the child continues to thrash.

"What is he or she doing?"

"Sinking it's claws into me." she gasped, arching in protest. I winced inwardly, that would really be painful.So I sang, a lilting song from Sting and the police.

"You'll remember me, as the west wind moves,

Upon the fields of barley

We'll forget the sun, in his jealous sky,

Among the fields of gold."

I got no further, because at that moment Iris let out a terrible screech, ear splittingly loud, and a burst of flame erupted from her nether regions.

"We've got a dragon here." Devlin said, surprisingly calm.

"You don't think!" the lioness beside him said sarcastically. I winced again at the unpleasant thought.

"I didn't think my singing voice was that bad, Iris. A baby dragon though, well done."

"Now I'm only wondering who's the faAAAAHHH!" she shrieked again.

"For Christ's sake, the child's going to kill her!" Abigail said, straining to keep Iris' leg down. The poor elf was under going so much pain, she was slipping into unconsciousness.

"What's the scanner saying?" I shouted at Arachno, who had such a device in his hand.

"The dragon's head is almost through, one more push, Iris." the spider said, keeping her IV steady and checking through the device at the same time.

"Is there anything she can do?" Devlin asked.

"Channel...the ...pain." she moaned,"someone needs to take it away."

"Draco, get over here!" Devlin shouted, moving around the bed, and taking the slim elf's other hand.

"You do know that's going to hurt." Draco looked at his cousin.

"On the other hand, I've either got a son or a baby nephew in there." Devlin said shortly, as he took her firmly around the wrist.

Iris concentrated, and it was like electricity, the pain materialised into tiny lightning bolts of agony that travelled up the elf's arm, and coursed into the Hell Fire dragon. He jerked his head up, and a huge streak of fire erupted from the agonised Hell Fire.The roof was scorched, and Devlin fell back, landing hard on his posterior, and holding his wrists in pain. Iris seemed much more calmed.

"Thank you, Devlin." she whispered.

The procedure took another two minutes, but Iris' cries could probably be heard through most of Central. Then she heaved, screwing her eyes in concentration, and Arachno was there, and gently took the baby red dragon as it came out. It was no more than fifty centimetres long, and it was wailing it's lungs out, the poor thing.It flailed widly in Arachno's safe arms, while Draco went about seperating the baby dragon from it's elf mother, the doctor telling him where to cut the umbilical cord.

Once this was done, and Iris seemed much more relaxed and together, although she was still crying in exhaustion, finally got the moment to take her child in her arms. With infinite care Arachno walked around to her, and lowered the baby reptile into Iris' arms.She took her child gently, and we all stepped back, smiling. I helped Devlin to his feet. Arachno was using his scanner to run a DNA test and work out the father. After a few minutes, he turned to us.

"Draco, congratulations, that's your daughter." he said, smiling. Devlin and Draco turned to one another, and embraced. Draco was crying, Dev was smiling for his cousin, and I sat down, exhaling a long breath. Abigail collapsed into a chair too.Iris smiled.

"I thought you fucked me a couple of times." she smiled through her tears to the adult dragon.

"I did, and I'm so thankful that I did." he replied, overjoyed. I made the sign of the cross that all was well, it was a comfort thing.

The baby dragon weighed a very healthy nine pounds, and it stretched in her mother's grasp, her wings unfolding for the first time, and then curling back in as the yawn finished. Iris lowered the sheet down her stomach, and began coaxing the baby dragon to breast feed. The small dragon had no teeth, and it suckled on Iris' milk happily, it's claws trying to grasp and keep hold. Meanwhile Arachno was busy applying burn ointments to the elf's intimates, she had recieved a battering from her experience.

This finished, Draco sat down beside the elf, and ran a clawed finger delicately over the spines on the young daughter's back, who shifted in protest at this intruding finger, no matter how carefully he touched her. I stood up, and went over to the door. I opened it up, and saw half of the scouts standing there.

"I am pleased to announce the baby daughter of Iris and Draco is safe and well." I smiled widely.Jubilation. I stepped aside as people flocked in to see the baby dragon. A couple of the glowers were there too, standing behind everyone else, although everyone kept their distance. Devlin shuffled over to me.

"I feel good about today." he smiled widely.

"No surprises there, Uncle Devlin." I replied,smiling," Good to see you were there to take the shock."

"Yeah, that hurt, but Iris was in so much pain, I was quite happy to bear some of it."

"So was I, you just volunteered too fast." I nodded, the elf's cries had been heart rendering. Arachno was drinking a glass of medonas in almost victory, aside from the well wishers.Funny that, tough as old boots, most of them, and yet introduce a kid into the mix, and they all react the same, keen and curious about the dear thing.Even Silverine was looking doe eyed at the baby girl.

"What are you going to call her?" Winslo asked.

"I didn't know what species I was going to give birth to," Iris replied reproachfully.

"As the father, I have a suggestion for a name. Khamsina." Draco said quietly, yet with a strength that made him heard over the clamour.Everyone quietened down, running the name through their mind. Iris thought on it too, and smiled.

"Not bad, I shall consider it."

Right, I decided that now would be a good time to leave father, mother and daughter alone, and gently side stepped out.I decided Time's idea to test our stuff would be good, so I decided to take a trip to the tech part of Central, and went to Abby's office.

She was taking a drink after the birth, and was certainly happy to kick back and relax on the shores of the lake, and then Time turned up, and wanted to test her motorbike. Then Abigail announced she would test her LP-560 (with tiger stripes), and this had all the makings of a race.

We went to the back of her office, and went through the door there. We went through a dark corridor, and then opened the door on the other side. Now we were standing in a gigantic hangar, or garage. It was a good one hundred metres long, and twenty wide. Along both walls were the cars and other vehicles that Central had. I stepped around Salbar's sleek Merc, and one of the elves hover vehicles, before coming to my Ariel Atom 2. It looked perfectly normal, which was the point of the whole thing. No one could tell this thing was lightened, boosted, strengthened, and generally fiddled around with.

Now the Ariel Atom had a 0-60 time of 2.3 seconds, a top speed of over two hundred and seventy miles with the ion drive, and brakes that stopped the car like it had run into a wall. As I put my helmet on, I saw Time wheeling her motorbike towards me. She had dressed in leathers, and a full faced helmet designed for her. Her bike was sleek and fast, low built and almost completely jet black. She stopped beside me as I got into my overalls.

"Don't make any bets, you'll lose this one." she said. She might have smiled, but the tinted visor blocked me.

"We shall see." I said calmly, putting on my racing gloves and doing the straps. Another car started up, and the sleek Lambo detached from the line down the far end of the hangar, and rolled towards us. Abigail leaned out the window. She had no helmet, and she was grinning.

"Victor fucks the losers!" she called.

"You're on." Time replied defiantly.

I said nothing, but just put on my helmet and stepped into my Atom. Time ignited her bike, and after revving it a few times, rode out of the garage.

I started my Atom up, and calmly followed after her. The hangar was backed onto the pit lane of the test track. Eight miles of winding roads, not quite a Nurburgring, but it climbed up the side of the mountain, and at the top before the ride down, there was a fabulous view of the lake and also our little airport. The airport was actually on the other side of the mountain to the right, there was only a service road from the pit lane, that went around the mountain. The hangar backed onto the water facility, but I wasn't caring about them.

I drove around the pit lane, and onto the start finish line. Abigail was doing donuts, and Time was revving impatiently. I drove past them, and back around, til I lined up between the canine and the lioness.

"Lights." Abigail hollered, and a single pair of lights came down about a hundred yards ahead. One was red, and it was on.

"When it goes green, you're going to watch me win." Abigail said,"two laps."

Time hunkered down on her bike. I lowered the visor, and my foot trembled over the accelerator of the Ariel Atom. One hand was by the F1 style gear change, this thing went up the gears so fast you needed to be awake to be competitive. I actually preferred automatic to drive, but this Atom was 'flappy panel' as some people refer to it. Abigail's window buzzed up for streamlining, and the lioness' determined face vanished behind the black out windows.

The green light changed, and I implanted my foot in the floor. The car was fired forwards like a stone from a catapult, but it was Time Dancer who got the best start, her bike surging forward on one wheel. The Lambo wasn't as fast as the Atom off the line, and she pulled behind me as I changed up the gears on the short main straight. Immediately we began winding up a series of bends, as we rapidly headed up the hill.

Time Dancer was fast through the corners, but a bike cannot handle corners like a car. After a mile of steady gains through the corners, I simply drove around the outside of her through a left hand hairpin. Abigail was right behind me, but Time was fast enough to keep the Lambo behind at that corner. I drove hard and fast up the hill, and saw the bike slowly vanish behind me. The Lambo couldn't get past like I could, my acceleration was better, and I lost sight of the pair of them as I zig zagged through the hairpins up the mountain.

After two minutes of drifting frantically through the corners, I reached the crest of the hill, but no stopping to admire the view, it was down the other side, which had less corners and was more steep. This tested the braking on each car incredibly, and even the special carbon fibre blend were getting very hot. This was good, though, because the hotter they were, the more they were cooked, the more they compacted together, and worked better.

I was completely silent, although my camera glasses were recording everything, including Time and Abigail.

"Time, face it, I'm going to get past some how." the lioness sounded annoyed.

"Not without me crashing." the canine replied.

"Where's Alduin?" Abigail asked.

I had got to the corner known as the Aurora hairpin. It was practically 180 degrees, and ran dead straight past the hill at a certain angle. It was also right next to the airport, except a force field was between the track and the hangar in which the full sized Aurora lay, hence the name of the hairpin.

"He's, Abigail, we're going to get fucked!He's already through the Aurora hairpin." Time said in horror. I had switched off my head set, but my recorder was going, so I would be able to listen to it later.

"What, does that thing have wings?" Abigail replied,"We're about forty seconds from it still. Alduin, what has that thing got?" she asked to an empty set. I was already powering down the very long stretch. It was several kilometres, and perfect to test the ion drive second stage. After getting to one hundred and eighty, the booster kicked in, forcing extra power into the engine, much like a turbo. The car left black tracks in the road as the needle shot forward into two forty realm, two fifty, two sixty.The techs had helpfully left a pair of large signs proclaiming it was time to break down the track some where, because a second late at this speed, and you were in the gravel trap.

But I wasn't there yet, I was still two thirds of the way down it, and the needle went past three hundred. Then I saw the signs, and hit the brakes. The resultant force pulled me forwards by the head, and the car shivered as it came to a speed underneath the boost level where I could take the corner. After this corner, there were only two more corners before the start finish straight. I crossed the line, and started my second lap.

Then Devlin spoke loudly in the head set to get my attention. With one hand, I hadn't got to the first corner,I clicked it in.

"Hey Devlin, how's things?"

"Very good Alduin. Iris' child is now called Khamsina, Draco won that argument, and everyone's sort of left the three to themselves.What about you?"

"Not bad, I'm racing Time Dancer and Abigail for two laps, they're behind me somewhere."

"I know, I'm standing on the pit wall." the dragon replied, as I entered a tricky complex, "They're coming onto the straight now."

I decided to ignore that last comment, I didn't need to know where they were, just concentrate on where I was. The winding road up the hill was tackled with my usual aptitude, my altitude rising as well, and I got to the top of the hill before I heard Time speak again.

"Devlin, are you getting these readings on his car? I haven't seen Valmeero's F1 car at full tilt, but nothing corners like that Atom."

"The F1 does." Devlin replied,"I know this.But the Atom is a single seater, designed for speed and agility. A two seater coupe and a motorbike don't really have a chance."

I phased this out, heading back down the hill. I got onto the long straight for the last time as the girls were coming up to the crest. Abigail now led Time, something Time was very annoyed about, but both of them could see me from their lofty position.

"For god's sake, we have to get down a hill before we catch up with him." Abby said.

"I like a dominating male." Time admitted.

"That's more than domination." Abby replied, looking out her side window at me as the car hit the second boost phase on the straight.

"Did you ladies hold a bet with him?"

"Well, Alduin said nothing, but we were all holding the usual stakes.I only presumed he was in, because he was joining us."

"Well,"Valmeero replied,"I would like to add my car to this race."

"Dear God."I said for the first time in almost two laps, braking for the corner at the end of the straight,"I hope you're giving us two minutes head start per lap."

Valmeero chuckled."You don't need that much."

"Val, that thing is primal.This is just nice."I replied, coming towards the penultimate corner.

"Alduin, they haven't even got to Aurora yet." Devlin replied."Your car is primal, Val's is just another step."

"Another couple of steps." I replied, going through the last corner onto the straight.I streaked across the line, and braked hard, coming to a complete halt.

"Two laps, sixteen miles, under sixteen minutes, nice run Alduin.They are only arriving at Aurora now." Devlin vaulted the pit wall, and sat down on the side beams of my car. I took my helmet off.

"This car is quick." I said frankly, looking up at Devlin.The Hell fire chuckled.

"What did you expect, a Vespa?" he smiled.

"It's a super light speed cruiser to their freighters, admittedly.But I know Valmeero's crate is the Heart of Gold to a pushchair with mine."

"Half way down the straight, Abigail ahead of Time, slightly." Valmeero reported. "You two had better move."

I gently moved forwards, the Hell fire sitting on the side of the car. I went to the end of the pit lane, two hundred metres, and then stopped again. Abby was now through the heavy braking corner, we had nicknamed it the Brake Tester for obvious reasons, and Time was a bit behind her. The tiger striped Lambo appeared sideways around the final corner, and sprinted for the line. The bike finished three seconds behind the car, and Abigail came to a sudden halt beside my low slung single seater. Time breaked into a big endo.

"Full marks for style, but you still lost." Abigail said, looking at the canine as she lowered her windows, and then turned to me as I removed my helmet, although still in the car,"How did you do it?"

"It's an Atom, not a car, nor a motorbike.Think of it as the best of both." I replied."Although I agree, that looked absolutely cool, Time Dancer."

"Style points don't get me positions, Alduin.Worse still, my dear bike was completely outclassed by your, cross breed."She took off her helmet as she spoke.

"Not on the straights, you can rest assured there. But it's quick round the corners, a bike has to be more careful. I two wheeled it a couple of times, you can't do that." I replied, turning my head to shake the creaks out of it.

"Damn, do we have to be fucked by you?" Abigail looked dejected."I want to, but you made our efforts look like, well, you've barely raised a sweat."

Devlin laughed at the lioness. Time Dancer smiled."I could have been going backwards for all the difference it made up that hill."

"The traction control on mine was having a heart attack, and the Satnav was glitching everytime we came to a right hand hairpin."

"Shows just how hard you were giving it." Time shrugged.

"Yeah, and look at Alduin, he looks like he's been driving a car, and we've been on bicycles." Abigail let her head fall on the steering wheel, and her horn went up, a harsh blaring noise. I felt sympathetic.

"Don't worry Abby."

"Yeah, but my Lambo got, well, put in it's place." Abby rose off the horn.

"Just let's see what the others can do, before judging your car." I said severely.

Valmeero came out with his Formula 1. He came to the end of the pit lane with his limitor humming, and came to a halt beside us as he put his helmet on. His wings had special parts behind him they could slot into.

"Seeing as we're all doing laps, I'm going to do mine. See you." He put it up to 21,000 rpm, and then let go the clutch, and flooring it. I held my ears as he rocketed forwards.

Now when I said the Atom could go from 0-60 in 2.3, that's a perfect start, with the ion drive. Point six of a second shaved off. That F1, which was already at the first corner, could do it in 1.4 seconds, on a dry track.Just as well that thing had a head rest, Valmeero would crack his skull everytime he put the accelerator on.

Skipping the sex after the race, I decided that as everyone was busy admiring young Khamsina, I could employ my time better at home, and teleported after parking my car back in the garage. While I had a soft spot for young children, by the sounds of things, Iris was surrounded by visitors and well wishers, and I had already done that.