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“What will you have after five hundred years!” Nolan to Mark ~Invincible
Winter groaned when the sunlight shone over his closed eyes, as if the sun’s rays were protesting his sleep. He didn’t want to get up, but he had chores that needed to be done today.
He slowly got up, trying his hardest to not wake up the sleeping dragoness that was snoring right next to him. It took a bit of effort as well to not groan at feeling the old joints groan and testify at their sudden movement.
He could mentally hear the joints in his shoulders squeak as the joints shifted with his body as he slowly turned out of bed.
Winter turned around and smiled when he saw Moon was still quietly asleep, snoring softly in her sleep.
The floor lightly squeaked as he made his way out of the bedroom and down the hall towards the kitchen. He smiled as he heard the birds chirping outside the cracked window in the kitchen, giving a peaceful feeling.
Winter hummed a quiet tune as he opened up the cabinets, taking out a talon full of spices for the deer he wanted to prepare for breakfast. He opened the icebox that he chilled every other day and took out a couple deer legs, already having an idea what he wanted.
As he started seasoning the meat, he heard a yawn behind him and the sound of talons clicking against the oak floor boards.
“Good morning,” Winter said as he used his serrated talons to cut off some of the silver tendons off the leg, knowing that Moon didn’t like it when it got stuck in her teeth.
Moon gave a sigh as she sat down at the kitchen table, putting on her glasses, she mumbled a “Good morning” back.
Winter put the pieces of the deer leg onto a plate and handed it to Moon, “Think you could…?” he asked as he motioned to the leg.
She lightly nodded, still moving around groggily. She grabbed a couple of the pieces of the meat off the plate and used a bit of her fire breath to flash cook the meat. The smell of cooked meat suddenly filled the room and Winter couldn’t help it as he felt his stomach growl in hunger.
He hadn’t eaten at all last night from how busy he was at organizing the event for today. Speaking of-
“Are you ready for today?” Moon asked with a careful tone to her voice. “I know that you have been worrying about it all month.”
Winter was about to take a bite out of the deer meat, but he put it down with a sigh, “I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit stressed out about it…” He leaned back in the chair, “Do you even think Arctic would want to take my role as the sole owner of the research team?”
Moon didn’t even have to think about it. She nodded her head, “You know just as well as I do that he loves scavengers even more than you do.”
Winter nodded his head, “I know that but what if-” he stopped when Moon wove her tail around his.
“It will be fine.”
He finally leaned back and just took a deep breath, calming down at her touch. He was about to continue the conversation but he was cut off with a knock at the door.
Winter slowly got up and made his way to the door, he opened it up and he smiled as he saw it was Polaris.
His second oldest son now stood a head taller than him. The black scales that climbed up his chest were gleaming in the morning sunlight, his black ice spines rattled as he stood a bit straighter when Winter opened the door.
“Polaris, how are you doing?” Winter asked cheerily.
Polaris rubbed the back of his neck, right under his spines, “Pretty good all things considered, Rime got done getting everything for the dinner last night, speaking of which, I told everyone in the family about tonight.”
Winter nodded, “That’s good, I was actually going to find you if you hadn’t showed up just now to make sure everything was ready.”
Polaris nodded, his black messy spines once again rattling on his neck, “It actually seemed like a lot of the family got quite excited about a gathering since we have never really done it in so long.”
Moon walked up to the door, now standing next to Winter, “That is part of the reason why I asked Winter to invite everyone,” She said while starting to frown, “We haven’t had the whole family together in years.”
Polaris shook his, “It got kind of hard after Pythia’s dragonets started having dragonets.”
Moon couldn’t help but let out a chuckle, I guess you could easily say our family is quite large… would you like to come in for a bit?”
Polaris now had an upset look on his face but still held a smile, “I’m sorry Mom, but I have to go help Sherbert get the dinner ready at the community building.”
Winter nodded, “I have some things I need to do as well anyways, I’m probably going to be busy most of the day before the dinner.”
Polaris cocked his head, “What are you going to be doing, besides the dinner obviously?”
A list played through Winter’s mind, “I need to go pick up something from town, I need to make sure the area around the community building is cleared out for the family to be able to easily land there,
Polaris with curiosity in his voice, “What are you picking up?”
Winter smirked, “It’s a surprise.”
Moon groaned as she turned around and went back to the kitchen table, “It’s his scroll, and he hasn’t let me read it since the day we became mates.”
Polaris rolled his eyes and just nodded, “I remember now, you got so upset when I tried to read that when I was four…”
Winter grimaced at that, I really was that protective over it, wasn’t I?
Moon nodded as she took a bite out of the deer, “You were,” She said after she swallowed.
Polaris shook his head, “Well, I need to go,” he spread his wings and jumped into the air, “I’ll see you guys later.”
Winter waved to him as his son left, “I’ll see you later.”
He turned around and closed the door with his tail, sighing as he sat back down at the table.
“So you think Arctic will take the job then?” Winter asked his mate.
She nodded, “Me and you both know that he loves scavengers probably even more than you do,” She took a bite out of the deer leg, “That is how he found his mate after all,” She said in between chews.
Winter snorted lightly, “How could I forget, it was practically love at first sight.”
They were on the way to Peril and Clay’s wedding and they had decided to make a little detour to visit one of the local scavenger dens and check it out. Arctic was making his way around the den and accidentally stepped on his future mate’s tale.
At first they got into a fight, thinking each other were trying to eat the scavengers, but when both Arctic and Luna figured out what they were both actually doing… Winter almost worried about being late because they wouldn’t stop talking about scavengers.
It wouldn’t even take them a year later for them to declare to him that they had become mates.
He came back to the real world when Moon continued, “I don’t really know why you're so worried about it, he will be doing practically nothing different than what he does already, It’s not like the job makes much coin.”
Winter nodded to that. While they did have income coming in through King Cliff, the income was still pretty much only enough to pay for supplies…
He leaned back in his chair, “You're right, I shouldn’t worry.”
Moon gave him a confused look, “Then why are you worried?”
Winter has a sad look on his face, “Lets face it Moon, we are in the last half of our life…” He shook his head, “It’s getting harder and harder for me to run around like I used to when we were younger.”
He stood up, trying to not wince at the pangs in his back, he walked over to her and wrapped his tail with hers, “I want to spend this last bit with you while I can still move around properly.”
She leaned into him, “I know what you mean, I can’t even read anymore without using those glasses I had made,” She shook her head, “Even with glasses it’s hard for me.”
Winter nodded, “That is why you only work part time at the school library now.”
Moon chuckled, giving Winter the happy warm feeling he has always gotten since he first met her, “I don’t know how Starflight did it blind, I could hardly even do it when I couldn’t see good anymore.”
She was about to continue the conversation but then she noticed the time when she looked out the window, “Enough about the gloomy talk, I am going to go visit Plum and his eggs, Hmong has been busy again and hasn’t been able to watch enough to give him a good break.”
Winter let go of her, “I don’t know how she is so busy all the time with the mail company… must be a SkyWing thing I guess?”
Moon could only nod, “My wings would have fallen off if I flew even half as much as she did,” She said as she brought the last piece of the deer leg up to her mouth and ate it.
“Picking up the scroll shouldn’t take me too long, so I’ll probably meet you at their house then,” Winter said as he finally got to take a bite out of his breakfast.
Moon nodded as she got up and made her way to the door, “Will I finally get to read the scroll?”
Winter laughed after he swallowed, “I think you would kill me if I didn’t let you.”
The scroll was a birthday gift from her. It was an animus touched scroll she had given him for their first year together when they had started courting. She had used a favor from Turtle and he enchanted it with a couple enchantments. Such as the ability to never run out of room on the scroll, to be able to categorize everything by date and time automatically, and to give descriptive images at the user's request. Winter had written in it almost every day after he got it, mainly having used it for studying scavengers. He hadn’t let her look in it since the day he got it, even hiding its contents from the open mind he let her read.
Moon laughed as well and turned around, “I’ll see you later.”
Winter nodded to her and continued eating. He wanted to eat it all before it got too cold. He could eat it cold perfectly fine, but the spices didn’t quite taste right if it was cold.
It got hard sometimes to protect the scroll's contents from her when it came to her powers. He had to get lessons from Foeslayer to help protect his mind when it came to small secrets.
It really came in handy after they had their daughter Pythia. Go figure she got the same powers as Moon. She would always try to read his mind when it came time for her Birthday or other such events, trying to figure out early on what she got.
He heard the door shut behind him and suddenly the house was quiet…
Too quiet.
The moment she left, Winter felt the same pang of worry he always felt when she left him alone in the house. After being mates for almost a hundred years, you would have thought he would have embraced it or accepted it by now, but he feared what was eventually going to happen.
He hoped and prayed to the Moons above that when it came time, he would be taken first. Winter didn’t think he could handle losing Moon.
Winter took a deep breath and ate the last piece of his breakfast, he got back up and was about to start working on cleaning up the plates in the kitchen. He stopped when he heard laughing outside their home.
A smile grew on his face as he recognized the voices. He walked over to the door, and when he opened it, he was greeted by his granddragonets, who were flying around as if they were playing a game of tag.
He took a step outside and watched them fly above. The moment he came into their view, he heard one of them squeal “Granpa!”
Winter laughed as they dove out of the air and tackled him to the ground, ignoring the pain he felt in his back as they ran into him for a hug. He quickly got up and lifted two of them into the air, putting one of them on his back and the other on his head, “What are you guys doing?”
“Tag,” The dragonet said that was still on the ground. Winter recognized him as one of Arctic’s grand dragonets since they were still the only NightWing and IceWing famil… Winter had always wondered if that was a genetic thing, liking NightWing’s and all that. He hated that he didn’t know all of his great granddragonet’s names. It got hard when the family started pushing into the hundreds.
“Do you want to play with us grandpa?” the dragonet asked.
Winter finally remembered his name, “Sorry Frost, but I got a lot of things I need to do today.”
“Aww, you're always so busy grandpa,” Frost whined.
Winter chuckled, “Well that’s what happens when you get old.”
He felt the dragonet currently on his neck jump up and down, “Does it have to do what’s happening this evening?”
Winter nodded, “That’s correct, I have to go make sure that everything is set up and pick up a couple things.”
“Granpa Winter, what’s happening?” Frost asked him.
“We are having a family dinner tonight Frost, so don’t go and spoil your appetite tonight,” Winter said with a joking tone.
“I won’t!” Frost said cheerily, he looked back up to the dragonets on Winter’s neck and head, “Let’s go guys, Grandma Luna said she would show us some of the scavengers before the dinner tonight!”
The dragonets squealed as they jumped off of him and flew into the air, diving down the hill and towards the small town below.
Winter could only shake his head and smile, he stretched his wings and he could have sworn he heard them squeak as they opened up. He leapt into the air, working his way up into the sky, flapping his wings. The moment he made it up to an appropriate altitude, he looked down at his home.
Huts and caves dotted the whole mountain and hillsides that made up the area around his home, each one housing a family member of some kind. It was almost impossible now for him to think of how large his family actually was until you got up here, being able to see all of it.
Originally, Moon and he moved out onto the far corner of the area from Sanctuary. Having picked this place right after Winter had proposed to Moon, wanting peace and quiet from the populace but still close enough to everything to live an easy life. But now it looked like his home was the dead center of their own town. It really helped that almost their whole family lived here, only a talon full of dragons moved from the area, a couple choosing to live where their mate lived.
He could feel the smile grow on his face as he banked through the air, enjoying the sight and the cool air that brushed his scales. Sanctuary was only a couple minutes flight away, so it didn’t take him long to see the outskirts of the town pop up, the outline of dragons flying above it came into view.
The plaza same came into view so he folded his wings slightly as he slowly dove down, making sure to look out for anyone else landing. He would rather not run into a dragon as he landed.
He was actually a part of applying rules to the town that helped avoid accidents such as that. After a couple bad landing accidents, they made plazas such as this specifically for landing and taking off. Doing so in the streets was actually prohibited after a dragonet got maimed as he was flying through the streets, a RainWing who was delivering fruit tried to land in the streets and the two collided.
He landed with a gentle flap, and was immediately met with waves and greetings from the dragons that walked around the plaza. He politely waved back as he straightened himself up, making sure the pack he brought with him was still firmly on his chest.
It had a way of getting flung to the other side of his body when he was flying. The pack was hard to untangle from his ice mane.
Winter walked through the streets of Sanctuary, making his way towards his destination, more and more dragons greeting him as he walked by. He greeted every dragon back with a smile and wave.
Sandstone was the local scroll printer and shop. At first, Winter was scared to death of giving the SandWing his enchanted scroll, he originally checked in every day on the scroll to… well, make sure the SandWing didn’t run off with his scroll. But then he slowly started to trust him.
He didn’t know why he was even scared. He knew the SandWing for years even before then, having him print off his research scrolls to send off.
Winter had delivered the scroll months ago now, having delivered it way earlier than all the others he has sent Sandstone. There were over 80 years of writing to do, so he knew it would take a long time.
The shop finally came around the corner, a small sign hanging over the door that was in the shape of a scroll.
Winter knocked on the door.
“Come in.”
He opened the door and saw Sandstone standing over a large table with what had to be almost a hundred scrolls sprawled out on it.
Winter gave him an amused smirk, “Busy much?”
Sandstone groaned, looking as if he was about to melt, “You have no idea… I am one of the only printers in the whole region.”
The SandWing pulled out a chair from the table and sat down in it, “Think you could send one of your granddragonets to help?” he joked.
Winter chuckled as well, “Which one?”
Sandstone chuckled now as well, “Either way, it’s finished,” he said as he pulled out two different scrolls. One much larger than the other.
“You weren’t kidding on how large that scroll was… It was quite interesting to work with an enchanted scroll such as that.”
Winter nodded as he grabbed ahold of them, putting the much larger one into the sack tied to his chest. He inspected the smaller one, opening it up and immediately recognizing it as the enchanted one when the opening came up.
He looked back up to Sandstone, “How long do you think it will take to make a talon-full of others?”
Sandstone shrugged, “Not too long since I have all the dyes set up for it, the hardest part were the pictures in the scroll,” He shook his head and slumped over even more, “I had to order an artist and a carver for that.”
Winter smiled and nodded, “Thank you for everything, what do I owe you?”
Sandstone smiled kindly, “Just keep the discount on the pine parchment from the Ice Kingdom and I’ll see it paid off.”
Winter shook his head, “No no, this took a long time to do… how about I actually recommend one of my granddragonets to help you?”
Now Sandstone looked embarrassed, “Winter, I was joking…” he shook his head, “While help would be nice, it’s not necessary.”
Winter shook his head, “I can see if anyone is up for it, you never know.”
He put the enchanted scroll into the sack, on top of the larger scroll. He tied the scroll closed with a rope and secured it back onto his chest.
“Thank’s again Sandstone, We will likely have more work for you soon enough,” Sandstone smiled and nodded, giving him a wave as he walked back out the door.
As he walked out the door, he was greeted by the bright noon sun that shown overhead, making him have to squint his eyes at first. Was I in there for that long… it didn’t feel like it?
Winter couldn’t help himself as he shook his head at the thought. Time always seemed as if it was passing by quicker and quicker every day. But, he still had a bit of time to burn today, so he had an idea.
He continued back down the roads, keeping an eye out for any food carts or vendors on the street. Looking for a very specific type.
It took him a hair bit, even having to cross over to the other area of town, but he found one. A younger RainWing was casually sitting in the sun with a couple tables of treats sitting on it. She had a smile on her face as she basked in the sun.
Winter walked up to her and politely cleared his throat. She suddenly woke up with a jerk, “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you walk up.”
Winter waved her off, “Don’t worry about it, do you have any mango flavored sugar cubes or cinnamon?”
The RainWing smiled and nodded, ”How many would you like?”
Winter looked at the sizes that she offered, with a small display of talon full sized bags.
“Large bag of mango, and a small bag of cinnamon please,” Winter asked as a smile grew on his face slightly. Moon loved mango flavored sugar cubes, and a certain dragonet loved his sweets as well.
The RainWing nodded and slowly scooped up the cubes and deposited them into the bags, “That will be seven coins please,” She said as she handed him the bags.
Winter nodded and pulled out a small talon full of coins from the sack he carried.
He may, or may not have thought about coming here earlier. Before he left, he may or may not have already eaten one of the mango cubes.
With another look to the skies, he decided it might have been a good time to go pick up his Mate from Plum’s place. He knew he wouldn’t be able to leave quickly with his Granddragonets and likely great granddragonet wanting to talk to him.
He made his way back to the plaza and noticed some of his family flying around, making their way to the community building. The heavy feeling came back to him and he had to take another deep breath.
Moon’s voice played back in his head, “Everything will be fine.”
He shook his head and forced himself to smile, with a flap of his wings, he made his way back towards his home community.
Plum’s house was on the Eastern most edge of his home, being the closest to the RainKingdom and the SkyWing mountains. Their home looked like its own little area that didn’t belong on this part of the continent.
Multiple small fruit trees grew around the house, but the strangest part was how the house was designed.
Plum was arguably one of his most inventive granddragonets, having designed his own house with a pulley system that let the roof unfold so he and his family could get sun time. And that wasn’t all, multiple things such as that lined the area.
Figure’s that someone so smart would come from his daughter, she had a knack for studying science and engineering as well. She still worked as an architect, getting hired out by the royals themselves. She was actually on her way back from helping Queen Glory make the first real permanent structure in the RainKingdom, making the RainWing’s first palace in history.
Glory was hoping to have it ready for Firefly’s coronation in a couple years.
Winter shook his head as he made his way up to the door, hearing his mate talking inside. With a polite knock, the door opened to reveal Plum’s wife, a smaller female SkyWing named Hmong opened the door. The moment she saw him, a smile grew on her face, “Winter!” She greeted, opening her wings.
Winter smiled back and hugged her, “It’s good to see you Mong, how are you doing?”
“Good, especially now that I got the weekend off,” She moved out of the door, letting him, “Hopefully the egg hatches this weekend and I don’t miss it.”
Winter nodded as he walked in, agreeing with his granddaughter in law, “And where is-” he was answered before he could even ask it.
“In here Winter,” Moon said, having heard his mind before he even asked it.
You always do that… Winter tsked in his mind, jokingly scolding her.
He walked through the hallway just in time to see Moon rolling her eyes at him. He was about to crack a joke at her when he saw that she had Plum’s egg sheltered in her wrapped up tail, but was cut off when he heard a squeal from down the hallway in the other room.
“Grandpa Winter!”
Winter turned just in time to catch Plum’s dragonet, “Hi Obsidian, you almost got me that time!” Winter said as he lifted his great granddragonet off the ground.
Obsidian was a strange one, his grandma’s genes got him instead of his parents. He looked almost completely nightwing, which sometimes confused the people in the community when he claimed his mostly RainWing looking father and SkyWing mother were his parents.
“Grandpa Winter, what are you doing here?” Obsidian asked after he crawled onto Winter’s back.
“Oh, I thought I should pick Moon up before the dinner here in just a while,” He joked.
“You're going to leave?” Obsidian asked, sounding upset.
Before Obsidian could cry, Plum cut in from down the hall in his bedroom, “You are going to the same place as grandpa Obsidian.”
Suddenly Obsidian’s mood flipped, “Oh.”
Winter couldn’t help the laugh, “I got you a gift from town,” He said while pulling out the bag of small cinnamon sugar cubes.
Obsidian suddenly squealed again and grabbed it, “Thank you grandpa!”
Winter nodded and took him off his back, “Just don’t let your mom eat too many of them,” he joked while looking at the now slightly glaring mother.
Moon chuckled, “Acting your age much, handing out hard candies?”
Winter walked over to her and gave her the other bag of candies, making her gasp in joy, “I am old, so you are right.”
She quickly opened the bag and popped one into her mouth, “I like it when you do old dragon things.”
Winter laid down next to his mate, Plum and Hmong now sitting across from them in the room, “How are the eggs doing?”
Plum sighed as he then rubbed his eyes, looking completely worn out, “Hopefully they hatch any day now, worrying over inanimate objects worry me to death.”
Moon nodded, “Tell me about it. I can't even tell you how worried about Arctic’s egg we were, it’s hard to tell what an egg wants since they can’t speak or tell you anything.”
Plum groaned, “I just want him or her to hatch already.”
The family continued talking quietly among each other, giving small talk through the middle of the day. Obsidian coming into the room every now and then but then getting bored, going back to his room.
Hmong hummed to herself in thought, “I’m interested in seeing the whole family together.”
Plum nodded, “The last time we did that was when I was still a young dragonet, it was for Aunt Pythia’s wedding.”
Winter smiled at the memory, “You know how it is, it’s quite hard when the whole family is always so busy and there are so many of us.”
The couple nodded, both mumbling in agreement.
“How many of us are there?” Hmong asked.
Winter and Moon both could only answer with a look of embarrassment, “Over eighty I think…” Moon mumbled.
“We might be pushing over a hundred now,” Winter mumbled as well.
“Arctic’s family kind of exploded after they had their own great grand dragonets,” Winter explained, “It got hard to keep track after his first daughter Mist moved to the NighKingdom.”
They were quiet for a hair bit after that till Plum broke the silence, “I wish we got the family together more often.”
Winter nodded, “If this goes well, who knows… might make yearly events.”
Plum smiled, perking up a bit, “I would like that, you should probably bring it up with the rest of the family though.”
Winter nodded again, he was about to continue the conversation till he took another look outside. The sun was now hanging over the edge of the mountains.
The smile on his face suddenly fell, he turned back to the family who were still quietly talking, “Well…” he groaned as he stood up, “It’s about time to go… are you coming Moon?”
She turned to look at the egg, looking at them with a sad face, “Oh, I guess I can leave the egg,” she half joked.
Winter felt a pang in his heart at that. She had always wanted more dragonets when they were younger. But she couldn’t after the… incident.
He forced himself to think of something else as she stood up, “Oh, I didn’t realize how late it was,” She said with an embarrassed tone to her voice.
“Time flies when you're having fun,” Winter joked as he made his way to the door, he looked back to Plum and Hmong, “Are you guys coming?”
Plum nodded, “We will be there in just a bit, we didn’t want to at first but we will bring the egg with us… who knows, it might hatch at the dinner,” Plum joked.
Winter smiled and nodded, “Then I’ll see you in a little bit then.”
The two walked out the door and into the evening sunlight, Winter watched as a talon-full of dragons were already flying away from their home.
With Moon following him, they leapt into the air and started turning towards Sanctuary, Winter couldn’t help himself as he let Moon take the lead into the flight. He loved watching the evening sun shine off her scales.
“You do know that you have seen this a hundred times right?” Moon said with a flattered tone to her voice.
With a fake offended tone back, Winter tisked, “And I have seen the stars a hundred times as well, and yet I still enjoy them.”
Moon just shook her head and smiled.
The same plaza that Winter hand landed at earlier came into view, so they both started diving down, the evening sun now completely behind the SkyKingdom mountains, leaving a cool chill in the air that calmed Winter.
With long sweeping circles, the duo slowly made their way down towards the center of the plaza, it was a completely different scene this time when they landed though. Instead of being greeted by smiles and waves, he was greeted with the sound of music and laughter from the restaurants and bands playing in the area.
Winter smiled with war memories of years past where Moon and him would enjoy their time together at those places.
With slow talon steps ahead, they enjoyed their walk towards the town community building. Winter would have originally liked to host the event in their own home’s area, but that would have been a… mess. There was no one good area to house that many dragons, let alone serve food to all of them.
Just like earlier, the duo was greeted by quite a few dragons as they passed by with a happy tone to their voice. They finally came up to the Community building door and saw a couple of their family members walking in, Winter recognized Pythia the moment he saw her.
“Pythia,” Winter said, walking up to her with a smile. It’s been well over a month since the last time he saw her.
Pythia turned around and smiled, walking up to him and hugging him, “Dad, there you are. Arctic was about to send me out to go look for you.”
Winter was about to ask her how she was doing but he was cut off when she opened the door to the building, “Come in, almost everyone is here and they have been waiting for you,” She said as she waved him through the door, Moon following along with an amused smile.
The moment they went through the door, they were hit with the smell of cooking food and the sound of a happy chattering crowd. The community building was a large longhouse that was constructed of boulders that made up the foundation, and large pine trees that supported the rafters that held up the roof. It was lit up by multiple fire places that were held in the center of the hall.
It was strange to think about… over half of the dragons in the hall were a direct product of him and Moon being mates.
A poke to his shoulder and Arctic was there right next to him, “Dad,” he greeted simply.
Arctic, the only one of his dragonets that got mostly his looks. The only thing that showed what species his mother was were his chest scales. They were a creme grey color now, with shiny sparkly white spots here and there. Originally, his chest was jet black, but they had faded to a creme color as he grew older.
“Arctic,” Winter greeted back with a smile.
Luna, Arctic’s mate, walked up to him with an amused look on her face, “So when do we finally get to learn about why we are here?”
Winter gave her a joking smirk, “When I announce it.”
Luna rolled her eyes, “Figured as much, on a different note, I finished the report on the Scavenger den we found on the edge of the Ice Kingdom.”
Winter nodded, “That’s good to hear, I’ll have to read it later.”
As I don’t miss writing notes on it preferably, Winter joked to himself.
He was about to comment on the Scavengers he saw in the same area but he caught the deadpanned look Pythia was giving him.
“What?” Winter asked, feeling as if he had gotten caught with his talon in the cookie jar.
Pythia could only roll her eyes at him, likely already having figured out what was going on with how she thought.
“Pythia, is your mate here?” Winter asked, not immediately spotting him amongst the crowd.
She just pointed into the crowd and finally Winter was able to spot the RainWing amongst the crowd of scales. Canopy had a pile of young dragonets crawling around him as if he was some climbing toy, and all he could do was force himself to freeze there with a smile on his face as he made sure the dragonets didn’t fall off.
Winter couldn’t help himself from laughing, recognizing many of those dragonets as Pythia’s granddragonets, “It looks like he is enjoying himself.”
Pythia just shook her head, “He is still getting used to being a grandpa.”
Winter nodded, “Oh, he’ll get used to it eventually, wait till his back starts to ache.”
Pythia shook her head, just watching her mate alongside her father.
Winter once again felt someone poke him, but this time it was a talon pressing his tail into the ground. He rolled his eyes, already knowing very well who it was.
“Polaris, get off my tail,” Winter complained as he turned around to stare at his second son.
“Oh, you're one to talk,” Polaris said while shaking his head, “You have been on my tail all week having you help get the food and invitations ready,” Polaris joked.
“Was everyone able to make it?” Winter asked him, hoping everyone got to make it.
Polaris nodded, “The only one that is running late right now is Plum,” Polaris explained, “But I would say he has a pretty good excuse though,” Polaris said with a smile and a joking tone.
Winter nodded, having to agree with his son.
“Dad, when are we going to start?” Arctic asked him, “Almost all the animals we brought in for meat are finished cooking and are now sitting out.”
Winter didn’t have to think about it, “Plum and Hmong were right behind us, so after they get here we will start.
Arctic nodded and made his way back over to the table that housed most of his part of the family, immediately getting swarmed by dragonets.
Arctic was quite a bit like him at his age, not the most excitable or emotional dragon, but he definitely had a soft spot for his grandkids. It was one of the only times Winter watched his eldest son’s smile grow that big, that and the time he became mates with Luna.
Winter spotted a cleared table at the back of the hall that had only two chairs, obviously being there for him and Moon.
He made his way through the crowd of dragons making his way towards the chair with Moon following him. He was forced to stop multiple times on his way there though. Many members of the family wanted to have small talk with him, and Winter didn’t have the heart to ignore their wanting for conversation.
The moment he was finally able to sit down, he sighed as he finally got a real good look at the family. Dragons of all colors, but mostly white and black.
Hybrids… all of them in some way, shape, or form. He spotted Plum and Hmong walk through the doors and take their own spot among their family. Speaking of Hybrids, Obsidian was obviously a hybrid, having his great grandma and grandma’s scale color. Even though he had the body of a SkyWing, he had the scale colors of a NightWing.
He had actually gotten a talon full of complaints about it, dragons not being used to a dragon that looks like a completely different species but being able to do something that was totally not a part of their nature. Plum could actually breath fire, yet he looked like a RainWing and still had the venom they could spit. He was just incapable of changing his scale color completely throughout his body.
Pythia and Moon were also not the only dragons who could read minds or see the future. There were multiple different dragons who could do both and didn’t look anything like a NightWing.
He actually worried one day that a royal would start to worry about his family becoming their own thing at one point.
Winter was brought back to the real world when Moon wrapped her tail around his, “I hope we get to do something like this again,” She whispered.
Winter nodded, smiling as he watched his family banter and talk amongst each other, “I would like to as well… could you imagine trying to fit in the whole group’s families?”
Moon now openly laughed, “Me and you both know that would almost be impossible,” She suddenly winced, especially now that one of us is gone.
Winter winced at that as well, forcing himself to look down at the floor to not show his emotion to the family.
A couple years ago, Peril passed away without warning. Nobody knew what happened, Clay woke up one morning and Peril looked as if she was still asleep, but her scales weren’t glowing the familiar orange. They were a dull color that looked more grey than orange.
Doctors thought it may have been due to her firescalles “Burning out” or something of the sorts, but they had no real answer towards it. The family was devastated with the loss of the SkyWing.
“We should also probably invite them over more, shouldn’t we?” Moon asked, now with a more somber tone.
Winter didn’t say anything, he only nodded.
With that moment over, he finally took a deep breath and stood up, Moon’s tail still entwined with his, giving him more comfort than what she probably realized.
He hated speaking to large crowds…
Winter cleared his throat and gave a loud roar, getting everyone’s attention instantly and the room went dead silent.
Winter smiled to all the faces that looked at him, “It’s great to see everyone here, It’s so nice to finally have the whole family back together for once.”
Multiple dragons amongst the crown nodded, agreeing with him.
“Now I’m going to cut to the chase, because I have been getting asked all week over what this dinner was for,” Winter said as he pulled out the sack still tied to his chest, he pulled out both scrolls and laid them on the table.
“I have a couple announcements to make, but first… Arctic, get up here please,” Winter said as he mentioned over to his eldest son.
Arctic walked up with an uncomfortable look on his face, likely hating the large crowds just as much as he did. When he finally stood at his father’s side, he tried his best to not look over the crowd.
With that, Winter nodded his head, “As many of you know, I have been studying scavengers and formed the scavenger discovery group way before many of you were born, and Arctic has been a part of it since the day of its creation, so that’s why…” He took a deep breath.
“I am handing it over to you Arctic, you are now the sole owner of the group.”
Arctic’s eyes grew double their normal size, “Wait, what?”
Winter now felt the sense of panic overtaking him, “You do want it, right?”
Arctic nodded, “Well of course, it’s just that I didn’t think you were ready to retire yet?”
Winter smiled and put a talon on his son’s shoulder, “I’ll tell you about it later but for now, I have a couple more things to announce.”
Multiple dragons were applauding and cheering for Arctic, Winter spotted Luna trying her best to not show her tears.
“One last thing before we all eat, I know many of you know of my enchanted scroll that your great grandma gifted me for my first birthday with her, since I am retiring as a researcher, I am also leaving this scroll with Arctic, I would like it if it got to be a family heirloom," Winter said as he handed Arctic the scroll.
Now Arctic really had a panicked look on his face, likely not being mentally ready for this at all. He almost felt bad for his son, but he knew everything would be fine.
“Dad, wait,” Arctic protested with a whisper, “That is your gift from Mom, I could never take something like this!”
Winter just gave him a smile, firming up the grip on Arctic’s shoulder, “Arctic, don’t worry about it,” He pointed at the copy of the scroll on the table, “I have my own copy, but this one,” Winter explained as he pointed at the scroll that was now in Arctic’s talons, “Is yours now… Arctic, please write your story in the scroll now, because the next chapter of the family is about you.”
Arctic just looked more and more confused, so he went to open the scroll but was stopped by his father, “Not here… do it with your family, you'll know what to do with it after you read it.”
Moon only watched with mixed feelings, first happy and sad for Winter as he announced his retirement, joy for Arctic accepting the roll and now the scroll that she had given to Winter, but now excitement realizing that she would soon get to read that Moons forbidden scroll she had wanted to read since the moment she first saw Winter writing in it.
Winter looked back out to the crowd, “I would love to be able to do this more often, it makes me and Moon so happy to be able to see everyone here… I would love to talk with you all more, but I think it’s about time to eat.”
Everyone in the hall cheered and started getting their food to eat, but Arctic stayed up there for a couple more moments.
Winter felt like he deserved a small explanation, so he walked back up to him. Arctic, that scroll has a lot more than just some of my research… it holds the family story, and that’s why I’m giving it to you,” Winter whispered into his ear. He backed away when Arctic finally nodded, seeming to return back to the real world, “Now go back to your mate, I think your family wants to celebrate with you,” Winter joked at the end.
Arctic couldn’t say anything, still shocked, he slowly walked back towards his table but was tackled to the ground by a large group of dragonets.
Winter and Moon both laughed at their son.
Eventually, Pythia brought them both a plate of food, and Winter and Moon both sat down with smiles on their faces as they just watched their family together.
After hours of conversation, eating, laughter, and just the enjoyment of family company, Winter and Moon were the only two left in the hall. They both left with smiles painted on their faces. They had left the hall together, only untangling their tails after they went to leave.
Winter could have sworn Moon was flying as fast as she could trying to get home, and Winter had a good idea why.
The moment they landed on the cliff overlooking their home, Moon turned to look at him, “Now please finally let me read the scroll,” She said in an almost pleading tone.
Winter almost laughed at how desperate she sounded, but he held his tongue and just handed her the scroll.
Two of the three moons were on full display tonight, easily giving her enough light to be able to read the scroll. Before she even opened it, Winter went to stand next to her, wanting to see what she was reading.
The moment she opened the scroll, she gasped. The very first thing she saw was a highly detailed image of her younger self, likely at the owner’s request, using the power of the scroll, under it the image had a title.
“Thank you Moon, for everything you have done for me.”
With that, she started skimming through the scroll slowly, remembering small moments here and there from what Winter wrote about that day. She got more and more confused though when the further she read, the less it was about scavengers, and more about the family.
The first thing was an image of the two of them overlooking the same cliff as now when Winter first asked her to be his mate. Next, it was their wedding, then Arctic’s egg. More and more images and descriptions about what had happened during those days filled the pages.
Moon couldn’t stop herself as a couple tears escaped her eyes the more she read. Especially when detailed images of their children hatching, and growing up. It was like watching her children growing up all over again.
There was Arctic and Polaris meeting their first scavenger. There was Pythia’s hatching under the moons.
She had to stop reading it so she didn’t start bawling. The moment she closed the scroll, she looked back up into Winter’s eyes, with him just smiling down at her.
“Thank you Moon… for everything.”
Moon couldn’t say anything, she didn’t want to start crying, she could only hug him tightly under the stars as she now held onto the scroll tightly with her talons, realizing what the scroll was now, and why he kept it such a secret from her.
It wasn’t a gift for him anymore…
It was a gift for her.
I hear her voice in the mornin' hour, she calls me
The radio reminds me of my home far away
Drivin' down the road, I get a feelin'
That I should've been home yesterday, yesterday
Country roads, take me home
“Take me Home, Country Roads” ~John Denver