Page 3 of Sapphire Seas

“It’s the way of dragons,” I replied. “What were you going to share before I rudely interrupted?”

“Oh, um, it wasn’t important.”

“Why don’t you let me be the judge of that?”

“It was just that, well, one night I watched a dragon rise out of the moon’s reflection on the water,” Kes muttered. “You’ve probably seen that happen a thousand times, but it was a first for me. Upalo, and Canyon and I were in Norway. I swear, everything there tasted like ice in the morning.”

“Are you sure it isn’t because you are an ice dragon?” I pointed out.

“Maybe,” he replied, shrugging.

Seated across the room from me was entirely too far away for my way of thinking, but that was where he’d dragged the chair when he brought it in. The middle of a crisis was no time to press him on his choice of chair positioning.

“I couldn’t take my eyes off the dragon though,” he said, setting his plate aside on the end table beside him.

I’d noticed that he liked to have his hands empty so he could run his fingertips along the seams of whatever clothes he had on. I believed the humans called it stemming. Dragons were naturally tactile beings, so many of us had adapted a self-soothing mechanism that involved touch.

“None of the other dragons I've seen before looked like a Seadragon with wings,” he said. “I only remembered when the light hit his arm and it shimmered blue from all the tiny scales running over his skin. Like the mist around the moon. I have the strangest feeling that it was him that night. After he flew away, I got this weird sensation in my belly, and I spent the next couple hours fighting back the urge to follow him. I got the same feeling when I was in the kitchen making the sandwiches. Like I needed to hurry up and get back to him immediately.”

“What held you back that night?” I asked.

“The beach was the post I was assigned to patrol, and he wasn’t the dragon I was keeping an eye out for. I asked for that assignment for the rest of our time there, but I never saw him again, and we left the region a few weeks later when our assignment was complete.

“You guys weren’t just looking for answers and gathering information about dragon lore, were you?” I asked. “You were mercenaries too.”

Kes didn’t flinch nor did he squirm, he just met my gaze head on.

“Not in the traditional sense,” Kes said. “But we traded favors for information, since we didn’t have anything else to barter with. If that meant getting bloody from time to time, we were okay with it as long as we were fighting on the right side of whatever conflict we’d wandered into. Otherwise, we spent time imprisoned on occasion, until we figured out how to escape or were rescued, which usually cost us a favor or two. We took part in a few Robin Hood moments when we accidentally liberated the coffers of assholes who were breaking the backs of their workers just for more profit, but we never kept much, since there were others who needed it more. Our hunting and survival skills improved every year, so we got by okay.”

“If by getting by you mean being decidedly undersized and a tad fragile in appearance, then I suppose the three of you did okay, but I am pleased to see you raiding the kitchen whenever the mood hits you. There’s always plenty.”

“I noticed you guys have made an art form of throwing feasts,” Kes replied.

“Heh, so far, all you’ve seen is a normal family supper,” I said. “We haven’t thrown a proper feast in years, though it might be something to consider this holiday season, with all the newcomers to Dragon City.”

“Do you celebrate the solstice?” He asked.

“We hadn’t for a long time,” I explained. “Then the dragonets came along, and we decorated for the first time in centuries. This year will be an even bigger celebration, with Cade, Opal, and Ruby joining their cousins in the fun.”

“We always watched the celebrations from a distance,” Kes explained. “Even when we were invited, it just didn’t feel right to join in, so we found a spot off on our own, sang songs around a fire, and cooked our meal, maybe fancier than what we had on a regular night, but not by much. One year we tried eggnog. No one warned us that it could get you drunk if you drank too much. Needless to say, we all drank too much. It was so smooth going down that we didn’t taste the alcohol in it. Who knew an egg could give you a hangover?"

He was adorable sitting there in one of my t-shirts, baggy and hanging off his shoulders, making him look like a precocious imp with the mischievous look on his face as he told the story.

“What sent you in this direction?” I asked. “When it sounds like you’ve spent a good deal of time clear on the other side of the world.”

“Ronan,” Kes explained. “Upalo kept reaching out to the contacts we’d made to see if they could help locate him, and time after time they came up empty-handed. One of the dragons he’d spoken to passed through Dragon City not too long ago and said he danced with a guy at a club who said his name was Ronan and that he had the same hair and eye color Upalo described. It was the first semi-solid lead we had to go on, since the guy couldn’t tell him anything else about Ronan aside from his name. He said that three songs in, a huge guy strode onto the dance floor and slipped right between them, started dancing with Ronan like he was invisible, and he let him, since Ronan didn’t protest and the guy was built like a tank. After meeting your brother, I’m sure he’s the armored vehicle in question.”

I didn't see the need to tell him that three dances was two more than I would have waited to claim him on the dance floor. I had a possessive streak that could fill the Marianas Trench… or rival my brothers. Who had already done grave injury to our enemies in the name of love and protecting our family.

He’d learn soon enough. At times that side of me ran far too deep. I was still ashamed to admit that I was overly harsh with Caro about his undersea adventures, especially after truly taking the time to examine the creatures he’d rescued and rehabilitated.

Despite my refusal to see it then, the removal of the artifacts from the sand beneath the ocean fell into both of our purviews, since his domain was earth, and thus what was in the sand belonged to him as much as it did to me. The part I’d struggled to make clear to him was that my anger hadn’t stemmed from him invading my territory but because he’d never given me the opportunity to share in those undersea adventures with him.

Which still smarted when I was being honest with myself. There were so many things I needed to work on.

Provided my mates and I survived long enough to get the chance.

Chapter Two