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I stared at the retreating convoy while the two suspicious male twins circled above it making strident demands that Me Too tell them that she is 'Safe, safe!'. The only reason my own apprehensions faded were because she was likely going to be safer wherever the Governor went than she would be here. Jerry and Laurence approached us, but Tom cut them off with his wing and spoke to me.

What do you think?

I took in a deep breath and looked into his eyes.

There are too many things happening that have not been addressed, with more piling up by the minute. We need to slow down before this train gets away from us.

He bobbed in agreement. Lowering his wing, the first of many, many conversations for that day began. The first of which, was every adult in the clearing bringing my daughter and her mate up to speed on the last few days. By the end of that conversation she was crying inconsolably while Jesse smelled like he was going to be sick. At least it finally got Tom to settle down when he saw that the point of them not being here to help had been made to his satisfaction. I released him from the loops of my body while Irma crept towards me sobbing and apologizing incomprehensibly. At least I knew what she was trying to convey by her smell.

"Enough." I told her coldly to cut off her caterwauling. "Instead of doing what you had told me you were doing you were wasting time fucking in the wilderness. After what happened to me, our friends, and George, Helen, and Angie you may have been in grave danger without us knowing of it. You knew before you had even left that tensions were high, that other children of the egg were dying, that every moment you were cut off was another chance for contact, that we would be unable to reach each other. When your father and I let you go we did so under the impression that you were aware of all these things."

The glacial anger in my voice and my eyes directed at her cowering form faded as I picked her head up from pointing at the ground with my wing hand. Once her blood red eyes met my emerald ones I continued in warmer tones. "I love you Irma, and I never want to see anything happen to you. I didn't know where the fuck you were in the wilds or if you were in any danger. I was scared because I might not have been there to defend you." I moved my hand from beneath her jaw to wrap my wings around her and draw her into my embrace.

"Mom...Mom I'm sorry."

I sighed, my hot breath flowing down the length of her neck. "Irma... I don't want you to be sorry. You must be smarter than this honey, some mistakes cannot be made even once. I want you to think, not be sorry. Okay?"

"Okay." She said miserably.

"Now say the prayer!"

Unseen, I could still feel her eyes roll in exasperation.

"I was stupid. But I was also lucky, and no one got hurt. I pray for the day that I will be half as smart as my mother, half as wise as my father, and they no longer must beat into my head that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. May Loki have mercy upon my soul. Amen."

"Good." I released her from my hug and stepped back. "And don't think that this is all for you trying to or getting yourself pregnant. Your father and I have words for you and your fuck bud... mate... later."

Like before, she wouldn't meet my eyes. Instead lowering her head until her snout pointed at her front feet as they tore at the ground restlessly while Jesse hid behind her looking like a beaten puppy with his tail literally between his legs. Tom and I bobbed our heads firmly at their sullen glances. By the time we were done with them tonight, those two would be digging holes to stuff themselves into in embarrassment. Maybe we'll ask the reporters here to record it as well. That'll teach them a lesson that they'll never live down.

One conversation half-way done for now we pivoted to the Suzukis.

"We wish to stay. Our family has been contacted by a most helpful Alex. They have warned us that it is no longer safe for them in the city. They have fled and beg us to remain away. We will honor their wishes." Haruto bobbed his agreement with his svelte wife speaking for him while tucked under his protective wing. From underneath his other wing, Hayate spoke with Kazane and Sora upon his own back.

"For the safety of my friends I will remain until we can live together without fear."

Alex asked the million-dollar question for us.

"You said before you met with all the dragons from the Spokane area... How the hell is this safer than dozens of flying highly bullet resistant aliens guarding a quarry with who knows how many defensible positions?"

Haruto began to smell irritated and snapped his jaws in frustration. "Many of those in that meeting were not fighters. Finding themselves changed has not made them so either. I am afraid that even given the numbers that were there any fight would have been catastrophic. We have chosen a location from which we can protect others. The rest have chosen safety in the vast forests of Canada."

"Once we are certain of having somewhere well protected for our family, we will return for them. We disagree with the others in seeking exile to the wilds. We must fight for our futures. For all our futures."

Made sense to me.

"Great. The more the merrier. Now we need to start listing out what we are going to need here. Governor Little's heart is in the right place, but as I'm sure you've noticed, his time is very limited." His senior aide, a fifty something woman with graying red hair named Audrey Hepburn, added to move the conversation forward.

"How much do..." She moved her finger until it was pointing at me, the largest child of the egg there at the time. "Yes, you... how much do you eat and drink per day?" She pantomimed eating and drinking with ostentatious hand motions and then gestured for an amount by holding them at heights that I suppose were meant to mean a lot to very little.

I was starting to understand that people could just not accept that we were still as intelligent as the human beings that we were. Some basic changes in psychology were going to be needed going forward in a species that had been running roughshod over the world a year ago it would seem. Hopefully some psychiatrists had been changed to help with these things. Or... I could wing it based on what I had last seen on tv.

My head lifted from the ground and hovered over her with my nose pointing down at her. Tilting it to the side I looked at her and then tilted it to the other side to look again with my other eye. I kept doing this over and over again until she began tapping her foot impatiently.

"What are you doing, and for that matter, who are you?"

"Oh! Me? I am the one wondering why you think I am a fucking meerkat that doesn't know what different amounts of food or water are. So, I was checking to see if there was any damage to your braincase that would make you act that way. I do not see or smell any, so that must mean you can stop talking to me like I'm a shit eating animal. Do you know the metric system, or will I need to give numbers to you in ass backwards Imperial?"

"I guess you are Kim then. Can you please just not be a bitch? This will go so much smoother if you don't try to goad me into losing my own very short temper. Once I start getting angry and yelling at you, you'll probably eat me. So, in the interest of skipping all that and getting more people killed than needed, let's just get started. How much water do you drink per day in litres, L.I.T.R.E.S!"

"200 litres. LITRES! O.K.A.Y?" My roared response made her flip backwards as the hurricane force winds flowed over her. She came to a stop against the side of my home where she wheezed breathlessly.

"You scaly bitch." She flopped onto her side and dragged her notebook towards her. "How much food?"

"I am pregnant, so I eat every day to the tune of one to four hundred kilos until my children are born. Everyone else eats the same quantity once per week."

"Pregnant? You could have fooled me." She stood shakily and tried tugging at her skirt to undo the wrinkles in it but gave up when she spied a large grass stain down the side. "Look what you did to my clothes! What do you eat?"

I relaxed the muscles in my jaw allowing my tongue to slither out. "Whatever my tongue decides is tasty. Let me help you with that."

It was funny watching her try to fend me off by slapping my tongue with a leather notepad that could have fit in my nostril.

Jerry coughed into his hand meaningfully. "Are you done? Because the mayor is here."

A police SUV bounced into my backyard and a frazzled looking woman with blood shot eyes, an unevenly buttoned top, and an air of fatigued incapacitation was let out of the back along with two others before approaching us.

"Uh..." Her eyes slowly blinked closed as she started to fall over before the cop standing next to her caught her. "Oh, oh right. Yes... I was here to do something... The... governor! The governor was here... Yes, that's right.... He wanted to declare that he wanted..." Her eyes closed again, and she slumped to the ground and only re-awoke when the cop reached down to haul the woman to her feet. "Oh dear! I'm...sorry! The governor was going to declare this area safe for children! I wanted to come but I have 94 people in my town dead and many on fire!"

I sniffed, and when I didn't smell any alcohol on her I looked at the cop holding her up. "What the fuck is wrong with her?"

"She hasn't slept in three days." The officer replied, not looking like he'd had a full night's sleep lately either. He moved himself between her and the reporters who were busily trying to videotape her at her worst.

"I don't need sleep! I need my people to stop killing each other! Aren't there s'possed to be some soldiers around here? I could use some soldiers..." She murmured to herself mindlessly. Her hands came up to wearily grind into her eyes in an attempt at some temporary lucidity before continuing. "All dragons holding an egg have fled the area except for you here. That has not stopped thugs from attempting to murder anyone associated with them. I am going to start bringing people here. We need food, water, sanitation, shelter, security."

She stopped to tick those needs off on her fingers and then stared dumbly at her hand for a moment before looking up again. "Security first. Jerry, what have we got?" She stumbled again before Alex, being the doctor that he is, lost his patience.

"You." He pointed at the cop as he took his place holding her. "Go get one of the chairs off the patio. She shouldn't even be standing like this." When he had her slumped into the seat he began to admonish her. "And you, need to sleep. What good are you to your citizens if you can't even hold yourself upright?"

"Sleep is a luxury I don't have at the moment. Jerry." She snapped her fingers at him and pointed at her head as he glowered at the hand motion.

"I had planned on allocating a dozen per shift here."

"Can they be trusted though?" Tom asked.

He didn't look thrilled to be asked that question and traded a glance with Laurence next to him.

"At this time, I have no reason to believe that any that I intend to assign here wish you or any other dragons harm."

"But you don't know for certain."

He reluctantly nodded. "But I don't know for certain. A handful of them have attachments to dragons themselves. Those, and a few that I have known for years, are the only ones I know for certain I can trust. What do you think ma'am?"

His words, however, were wasted. She had fallen asleep. He glared at her drooping head before addressing her aides. Who, we were quick to find out, were the ones that would have actually coordinated this anyways. What followed was a long drawn out meeting between state, city, and county bureaucrats that bored me to death, but I had to participate in. So, I will spare you the details. In the end, we had a promise that the Idaho National Guard would be there within a month for construction. Two dozen sheriff, police, and state troopers along with two children of the egg per shift of eight hours.

Habitation? GI tents. For sanitation, modular trailers with baths and toilets. For water, another well. Food would be coordinated with local foodbanks and state emergency services. All tidily wrapped up for your reading pleasure. And to pay for all this? The state government with federal emergency funds. The small beautiful ranch that Tom and I had bled for had just become a fucking refugee camp. Conversation two, check! Time for conversation three.

"Jerry, are we." I gestured at myself and then flung a wing out to encompass the others. "the only ones being targeted by violence lately?"

He pulled out a logbook and looked at it briefly before replying. "No... Hell no. Apparently it is open season. Which is why it is so important to get you all somewhere safely. You are just the focus of the more organized elements. I've got dozens of interracial attacks ongoing daily. The reason why they are not being assigned special attention is because they are not being threatened by organized militias. Guess you are just lucky like that huh?"

Tom glanced at Prometheus before replying for me. "It's just like we've been told. These people have always existed, now the hate is in the open. It's going to get worse before it gets better."

"With you helping to provide your own security it is doubtful that you will be attacked."

"Kim, Tom Schwarzkopf! How do you feel about your home being used to..."

"Stop!" I roared at the ignorant bitch, coating her in saliva. "You have been warned! No names, no locations!"

Jerry and Alex stepped in front of my flaring nostrils to block the cowering, screaming woman from my widely set eyes. With the help of her cameraman they gently coaxed her once more to her feet and calmly reminded her that the towering dragon behind them (me) only wanted to stress how important the safety of everyone here was. I was glad that I had people here to interpret my gentle reminders into a form that didn't make others piss themselves. Or stop pissing themselves in this case when that stench reached my quivering nose. Jerry also had words for me, however.

Directing a cutting motion with his hand at the cameraman he waited before they lowered their lenses to yell at me. "You know that it is already public knowledge who you are and where you live right? The very campaign you've been running for months guarantees that!"

I wasn't giving an inch. "That is true, but no one needs these things spelled out for them in one tidy sound bite."

"The types of people that are going to come for you aren't stupid Kim! They don't need it laid out for them in an interview!"

"I can't control that, but I'll be damned if I let go of what I can control. No names, no locations!" I yelled obstinately, feeling the cool air rush over my body when my tail lashed sharply with a snap at my agitation. I saw the reporter's mouths begin to open and I opened mine wider before they could get started. Cracking my jaws open as wide as they were tall, I reminded them of their places as my own nose blocked my view of them. "And if you are going to give me any shit about journalistic freedom when it comes at the cost of my family's safety, the express route to hell is right in front of you. Go ahead and walk right into my mouth now and save me the trouble of finding you later." Alex laid his hand on my snout just in front of my eye, and Tom shut it by stepping on it.

"What my sister-in-law means to say is..." He glared at me out of the corner of his eye as I tried to yank my nose out from beneath my mate's paw. "...Is that she would be glad to answer your questions as long as they did not pertain to this location or her full identity. Yes." He snapped. "I already know that you know who we are and where we are at."

"Let me add." Jerry interrupted. "You will not live transmit, and if anything is recorded to compromise this location in the interview." He pointed at my paw. "As a commander of local law enforcement in a time of crisis I will be forced to allow the destruction of private property in the interest of public safety." He pointed at my front foot again, the cameras, and then clapped his hands and ground them together. "Understand?" I grinned at them as they looked up at me. Wanton destruction was my higher calling after all.

"Now erase that footage, remove your transmitters, and start again!"

Grumbling, the cameramen disconnected the transmitters on their cameras and that aide from earlier, Audrey, led the crying newswoman away to find somewhere to clean her up and get her some fresh clothes from an SUV.

Dumbass wasn't getting any of mine! I had Lucy to think of!

Waiting for them I amused myself by watching the sleeping Mayor slumped in my patio chair wake herself up periodically whenever she began to snore. My attention was pulled away however, when Haruto asked Jerry how they were going to be spreading the invitation.

"I'm glad you asked. Because right now we don't have a good idea as yet. This is all being done on the fly if you hadn't noticed."

Haruto bobbed his head. "Yes. I did not want to speak out of turn, but it appeared so."

The police chief rubbed his head and looked up to the black scaled one towering over him. "Well getting input from you certainly won't be making this shit show any worse. Do you have any suggestions?"

"May I suggest, to prevent these undesirable elements from finding our location any sooner than they inevitably will, use recordings of our new language alone. It may stand to reason that any humans that will need to reach this area will already be in close contact with other children of the egg. Unless they have one of us on their side, they will not be able to translate our language."

"Don't you use scent to communicate?"

"I'm afraid we will have to make some allowances."

"Some of these dragons that we're trying to reach will be... what do you call the insane ones... feral? How can you talk some sense into them?"

The spinal scales of everyone listening in opened at this blithely unfeeling comment making him look around at all the heads looming over him. "What's that smell? That means your angry doesn't it? What did I say?"

"They are not insane!" Jesse snarled as he reared up and stomped his front feet. "It is wrong to think that way! We use the word feral to describe those that are lost within their changes! Not insane! They are lost and we will find them!" He thrust his head down and glared at the Chief with one gleaming eye. "Understand?"

Jerry, to give him credit, made nice and slow movements to placate the outraged Jesse without backing away. I didn't think my son-in-law had that kind of aggression in him. But I suppose it was only natural for him to feel so impassioned about it after he had spent half a day as one of those that were lost. I was hard pressed to imagine just how confused he must have been. Waving his hands soothingly at Jesse like he was a spooked horse, Jerry made his apologies.

"Okay, okay. I'm sorry. Just don't eat me! Christ... Then 'lost' if that is the word that you want to use."

Mollified, Jesse raised his head and hummed in thought for a moment before replying. "Angie along with Sora and Kazane will be best to record the message."

"We speak!"

"We say!"

"Others come!"

"Yes! Friends come!"

"We smile!"

"Many smiles!"

"Fun!"

"Fun!"

"I will help! I was lost and scared for so long. I remember just what I wanted, maybe I can help others find it too! I wanted to be warm! Like when my parents hold me! That kind of warm! When I feel warm I draw!"

All the adults were nodding or bobbing their heads in agreement with warm smiles and pleasant smells. With the children on board we would be able to craft a message simple enough to appeal to the lost ones. Irma, Asuka, and I put our heads together to craft one for those with all their faculties to follow and to relay to others. We couldn't figure out how to get the feral to come to a location coming from who knows where. But we could get them to congregate to where they felt safe. Angie and all the other little ones agreed emphatically on that point.

"I was always looking for water and food. But I wanted to be warm more than anything! If they are fuzzy like I was they just want someone to hug! I was so cold! I was lonely!" Angie said with a shivering clatter of scales accompanied by the smell of anxiety. She swung her head to her mom for reassurance and buried her nose against her with a high-pitched whine while Helen rubbed the back of Angie's neck soothingly. We all cooed to her encouragingly until the tremors running down her tail ceased.

"Food, water, and the promise of companionship might lure them to a safe location. But they won't stay there long without a child of the egg to keep them company. We will need to receive word whenever one shows up to retrieve them." I said with my tail tip twitching thoughtfully.

"Telling them to find light patterns at night is a good idea to attract them." Audrey said, referring to our signal. "But we'll have to contact you here or set up another group elsewhere to collect them. It won't be possible to have these lost ones isolated for very long. The odds of them being attacked go up precipitously every moment they are not well protected."

"She's right. I can't speak for other jurisdictions, but we just can't stretch ourselves that thinly. There..." Jerry stopped to listen as there was a distant explosion followed by the chatter of gunfire. Kicked up burning material could be seen arcing into the air followed by another burst of small arms fire. "Fuck..." He walked away from our meeting with him and one of his officers already on their phones. The mayor fell out of her chair with a scream before shooting to her feet and running blindly after with demands for what just happened.

The other adults and I began to grumble to each other worriedly as the children around us, human and dragon, gathered closely to whomever they could feel comfortable with. Mine hid beneath my wing where I could drag my tail forward to shield them. Three of the parentless waifs scrambled over my limb to hide peeping in distress with my human children. Calming hums raced through my body to ease their anxiety as well as those of my unborn. Looking over, I saw Angie whimpering in fear and shrinking from the noise of the nearby gun battle while her parents tried to soothe her. Even as she was being soothed another pair of the orphans stood on hind legs between her and her parents crying in broken English to all three of them for "safe safe".

Asuka had drawn her son close to her protectively, and between them their overlapping wings hid a squirming ball of scared witless younglings. Haruto stood next to them, tripoding on legs and tail and raising his head above the tree line to see what was going on. Tom, Jesse, and Irma joined him in watching whatever clusterfuck was ongoing. I had to bite back a laugh at the sight of their cocked heads lifting clear above the tree line, the swelling of their chests making their tucked forelegs shift slightly. Their heads moving restlessly atop extended necks as they switched watching first with one eye, then another. All while their noses twitched and nostrils flared in unconscious attempts to smell the situation out. Unknown to them as I watched, periodically a tongue would flash outwards to moisten a nose. The sight, before I could stop my own tongue, encouraging me to repeat the action. The smells swirling around me sharpened immediately before slowly fading back to normal once more. So that's what that was!

I tried to stop myself from giggling once more but found little success. A series of choked huffs began to force its ways between my clamped jaws which ended when I opened my mouth to bite down on my tongue to silence the humor I had found at just how fucking strange we looked. Now was not the time for me to chortle about being lizard beasts. Irma and Tom turned irritated eyes at me while I smelled their incredulous disbelief. Not the right time Kim. Focus.

Jerry came back with some urgency after getting the information he needed.

"It's the Governor! Two dozen dismounts, one technical with heavy weapon! Can you help? Will you help? I don't have the men! It was an ambush! Someone told them they were going to be here!"

My blood began to boil as I heaved myself to my paws with my fangs bared to the cool air. In a break in the gunfire the piercing screech of a juvenile child of the egg could be heard freezing everydragon where they stood.

Danger! Danger! Me Too hurt! Help! Help!

The feral twins were the first to react, unencumbered by our hesitation, they flung themselves into the air towards the sound of gunfire with fierce roars.

We safe lie! No safe! Angry! We bite! We bite all! We bite you!

The supposition of everyone before we arrived. That everyone was going to have suffered some kind of bite. Was prevalent... Call it a hunch... After what we had promised them, I would have let them bite me as often as they wished. Me Too. God damn myself! I let her go! I was supposed to protect her! I let her go! My roar deafened everyone around me as I leapt into the air.

No longer concerned with who I left on the ground. The children. My all-important children. They remained crouched upon the ground and looked up at me with anxious requests for guidance.

Children...

I felt the squirming within my belly.

My children...

As powerful as Me Two's call for help was, the sight and smell of children within my own clearing and the lost looks upon them proved to be stronger. The realization that I had no reason to go blindly into danger, very pregnant, when I did not absolutely have to. It wasn't fair for the others to go into danger, but it wasn't fair to my unlaid children either. Tilting my body until I was vertical, the feeling of air slipping from my wings grew until I settled once more to the ground. The clarion call from Me Too had everyone else still circling above me, ready to go. But why hadn't they? I couldn't go unthinking into combat anymore, there was just too much at stake. We needed to organize.

Irma, Jesse, and Hayate stay here. "Jerry" I looked over at him and beckoned with one of my paws.

"What..."

"You're the chief of police don't you think you should be overseeing a gun battle in your territory? Don't worry." I said, fending off Tom's impending protests. "I will circle high above to watch from safety. I can't stay." He bobbed his head at this axiom, and after giving one more instruction to the officers on site Jerry did as well, told me first responders were already on the way, and that we were wasting time.

"Let's go!" My hand closed around Jerry and yanked him from the ground as I sprang into the sky with the sharp snap of my wings opening. Asuka, Haruto, and Tom followed with me. Just as we levelled off, not too far ahead of us I could see the forms of the unnamed twins spiral upwards before plummeting towards the base of the dissipating cloud of dust from the explosion. In between their roars and bursts of gunfire mortal screams of terror began to reach our fins. Some of the smaller caliber fire we heard stopped, but then we could hear the heavier thuds of a large caliber weapon firing semi-automatically.

By this time, we were right over head in a prime spot to see one of the SUVs burning, and the other with its doors flung wide open. The frame of the second SUV was badly twisted with a large indentation in the floor pan beneath the front seats. There was a jagged gash in the middle of the dent with another on the roof and next to that side of the vehicle a woman's dead body on the ground with most of her head missing. Between the two SUVs, the van empty and riddled with bullet holes. All occupants that we could see that were still alive were huddled behind the two unburned vehicles. Arrayed opposite them firing from a city park, were at least a dozen gunmen and a white pickup with some kind of semi-automatic rifle mounted to the roof. None of the attackers were interested in firing at their initial targets any longer from where I could see due to the still unknown feral twins weaving in between the trees further from the street. The armed sheriff's deputies still alive were using this distraction to evacuate everyone around a nearby home to safety. Reluctant to hit what may be their saviors however, they had ceased returning fire.

The other children of the egg turned their attentions to the increasingly panicked gunmen who seemed unable to make any substantive hits on the feral teenagers. I saw Haruto diving towards the biggest threat, the technical, while everyone else fanned out at his direction. Briefly losing sight of them I hovered directly down in front of the escaping victims, momentarily cutting off their retreat. Setting down Jerry he immediately began corralling while yelling into his radio. He pointed two guards facing the way they had come and joined two more deputies in rapidly assessing the survivors with them for wounds.

Looking, and sniffing, amongst them I could not see Governor Little. Nor, I realized with increasing panic, little Me Two. Following my nose to a woman sobbing in her hands I demanded to know where she last saw the one that left her scent upon her jacket.

Pulling her head from her hands to look at the tip of my mouth just a meter from her she began to scream uncontrollably until she fainted. Which was not helpful.

"Where is Me Two! Tell me where the little one is! Tell me where the Governor is!" I roared with increasing desperation until finally one of the fucking armed guards was able to give me what I wanted to know.

"He was unconscious in the second SUV! I don't know if he's alive or not, but that lizard wouldn't leave him!"

I was gone the next moment, flapping away from the primitive CCP to return to the battle. It wasn't a battle anymore though. The fight had been over the moment we had arrived. The pickup truck was screaming up the road sans roof and rifle, it did have five gunmen firing blindly back at us to discourage pursuit but none of us were going to endanger any civilians by giving chase. I saw that the rest of the gunmen, the ones left alive anyway, were being held pinned to the ground by paws all through the area. It looked like three were dead however, as no one seemed to be paying any attention to them.

I had other things to mind however, lowering my head until I could peer into the blown up SUV I saw Little slumped in the back seat with his eyes closed. Partially cradled in his arms, was Me Two. Sniffing at the door opening didn't really do me any good (maybe a feral would know?) in checking their states. Next I tried shifting until I had an eye and ear on them, and I was able to see and hear respiration from both of them.

Relieved? Not really, not until the burning desire I felt driving me onward to have the little one held close against me, safe from harm, could be fulfilled.

"Jerry! Scene secured! Eight gunmen prisoner, seven fleeing in a white pickup with no roof east on 17th Ave! Get fucking medical out here now!" Lowering my head after I roared the situation back to the police commander I couldn't help myself as I moaned and whined anxiously and began to hesitantly probe at the abandoned vehicle with a talon. I heard three more voices echo back my plaintive mewling at the nauseating thought that the little one might be dying right in front of us. I couldn't get at them without making it worse...

Little one? Can you hear me?

Me Two? Me Two! ME TWO! The two bloodied teenagers thudded to the ground next to my head and began trying to force their way past me to the SUV and causing it to rock turbulently. Governor Little moaned senselessly while a tiny stream of blood began to roll down Me Two's snout as they were buffeted by this motion. That was on top of the black blood I could see oozing from a wound on her side. Doing the first thing I could think of to get the twins out of the way and worsening a possible spinal injury, I bit them one by one on the back of their necks and twisted mine away until they were lifted clear from the wreckage. Moving to dart past me once more, I batted each of them on the nose with the back of my wing hand.

You safe, she safe. Stay!

You say safe, she no safe! Hurt! Me Two hurt! ME TWO! They finished chirping at me by shrilly calling out her name twice more when she didn't respond and then collapsing into a heap. The slightly smaller one of the two whipped his head towards me once more. We say no hurt! Now hurt! Now hurt! We lie! We bad! Now hurt! What would our fath...

The twin staring at me with bright orange/yellow eyes choked on his next words with a hiss even as I drew a startled one in myself. He lurched upwards on to his hind feet with a sharp thrust against the ground from his four-legged stance and began panting raggedly as his eyes opened wide with shock and understanding. Tottering on rear legs he lifted his front paws and bent his neck to look down at them and his brother both with a growing look of panic in his eyes before he suffered his last straw, the feeling of his tail sweeping forward along the ground. Tilting his head upwards I saw his eyes slide close before taking one step backward and toppling to the ground unconscious with legs and wings splayed. To add to the increasing noise as sirens began to grow closer and the captives began to yell and scream ever louder, the other half of the twins started to shriek in confusion and horror at seeing his brother suddenly lose consciousness and collapse next to him.

EGG MATE?

EGG MATE! EGG MATE! EGG MATE! EGG MATE!

ME TWO HURT! EGG MATE HURT! HELP! HELP!

ME TWO HURT! EGG MATE HURT! HELP! HELP!

The feral twin stared at his brother's head with unheeded tears rolling down his jaws when he didn't respond as he apparently had hoped. Pushing his head beneath his brother's he encircled them both with his wings while he cried for his twin and for help.

Fuck!

"Jerry!"

"I'm coming!" I heard the slapping of shoes running down the pavement behind me before he came into my field of view with three of the remaining deputies. "Who keeps yelling for me?"

"I did! Secure these mother fuckers! Do you want any of us to go for that pickup truck?"

"NO! Absolutely not! There are civilians everywhere! Let the eye in the sky follow them!"

"Then someone come disarm these pricks. Where are the medics? We've got wounded here and in the SUVs! The little one! Jerry! Jerry the little one! Bring her to me! Now!"

"Just hold..." He started to temporize before my furiously writhing tail callously flipped a parked car behind me into the park.

BRING ME THE FUCKING CHILD! I roared into his face with the reflected image of my slitted eyes, bared teeth, and flared fins showing in his sunglasses. He froze, and then with slow careful movements he began backing away from me towards the wrecked Suburban. Even while in the throes of terror he continued to issue orders to the officers behind me to begin zip-tying the suspects. My looming head followed him step for step until he bumped into the vehicle and reluctantly turned his back to me to assess the situation.

"I'm sorry, Jerry, just bring the child to me. I am really trying hard to hold myself back here, but the child. Jerry, the child. Please! I must have the child!" It was the truth too. Parental instincts were all but whiting out any higher thought. It was getting harder and harder to think of Jerry and the vehicle as something not to be attacked to reach the little one. The child. I must have the child. I must have the child. I must have the child.

Tom and Asuka were the first to be relieved of their charges and approached my sides to watch Jerry delicately trying to unwind Me Two from around Little with as little movement as possible. Their anxiety was just as terrible as my own but the close proximity of all three of our heavily breathing snouts were not doing Jerry's shaking hands any favors. It took me a moment, but I was able to rally myself back to some kind of lucidity.

Tom, Asuka. Please go see to the twin. I think his brother fainted because his memories returned.

They turned to reassure the male twin that it would be alright. That his 'egg mate' is just fine. Beside those huddled forms I could see Haruto towering over the disarmed shit sticks and murmuring something to a deputy that I couldn't hear among all the nasty garbage being spouted by those that were no longer in a position to harm us. Haruto picked something up off the ground and stretched his paw out to hand it over to the deputy in front of him. It looked to be the rifle that was mounted to the roof of the truck, and I wondered briefly what was so special about it. I had no idea what it was to be honest, weapons had never been my specialty.

"Kim."

My eyes shifted and focused on to the limp form he was struggling to hold with all his strength.

"Kim, let me put her down, I can barely hold her. She is bleeding from her side, but she is still breathing, and I can feel her heartbeat. Kim, I don't know what you hope to do but she needs medical attention."

Thinking rapidly, I thought of a solution that wasn't going to be good but might save her life.

"Not just any medic is going to know how to help her. I need to get back to my home. Alex is there! We have a video link to Brian and Serena they can tell us what to do!"

Without a thought on my part my tongue flashed out to lick the little one clean. She stirred briefly before falling still once more. She wouldn't open her eyes though. My body rebelled against me once more as a long despairing whine came flowing from between my parted lips before I closed them.

"Put her in my mouth. I'm taking her to get help."

Opening my jaws wide I looked at the police chief impatiently. He didn't move towards what I wanted him to do, just looking between the limp child in his arms and the moist cavern of my mouth as saliva dripped from my top fangs.

"Now, Jerry."

Moving forward after swallowing the bulge in his throat I felt his weight on my tongue as he stepped inside the bear cage. Trying not to gag at the taste of the who fuck knows what on the bottom of his shoe I waited for him to place the little one upon my heavy pointed tongue. My breath rushed around him as I spoke to him while he was in my mouth.

"Curl her up and keep her from between my teeth. Good, that's right. Now go, unless you want to join her in the flight back to my house."

As soon as I could feel (and taste!) that he was safely away I closed my jaws slowly, so very slowly, feeling for the slightest amount of pressure that could be the little one's body. I felt none of that pressure. But long after my jaws had clicked shut, I began to feel her blood on my tongue. Time was running out...

I carefully twisted my neck until I could see my Tom to make sure he was ready to escort me. As soon as my eye found his he nodded and jumped aloft to lead the way. I mentally apologized to the little one in my mouth for the lurch she was about to feel and made my own jump into the sky while snapping my wings open wide. With that, we were off, leaving Asuka and Haruto to guard the survivors and the crime scene. As the wind whipped past me, I could see a helicopter following something in the distance. It had to be following the attackers from earlier and, judging by the way it kept flying erratically, was being shot at even as I watched. The iron heavy taste of blood snapped me from my observing and I resumed my frantic pace homeward.

As soon as I saw the overgrown fields of my home appear before me I plummeted to the ground. Levelling out my descent, I reached for the ground with my forefeet and, as soon as I felt the grass brush my claws, dumped the lift from my wings and landed with a smooth transition to a gallop. Turning towards my house, I saw Alex waving me over from the back patio with a soldier next to him fiddling with a large monitor screen along with a visibly distressed mayor. Before she could blast me with questions however, my circling mate dropped from above her to land with a heavy thud. As his wings folded closed, and the mayor cut off her scream, she whirled on him to start asking questions and Hayate galloped towards him with his sisters on his back to learn where his parents were.

"How many are dead? Did they get away? How many need medical aid? Is the governor alive? What happened?" The Mayor wailed.

"Kim!" Alex shouted over her. "The child, where is she?" He asked while snapping on latex gloves. Behind him, Luke and Lucy were both trying to shove the cart full of medical supplies out onto the patio where two of the tables had been pushed together and covered in bed sheets. Without answering him, I rested the tip of my lower jaw on the edge of the table and opened my mouth to reveal the little one. He beckoned two nearby police officers forward to help him, and after pulling on gloves of their own the three of them carefully reached into my mouth and muscled her onto the ersatz operating table. Wanting nothing more than to get the taste of little Marissa off my tongue I lifted my head clear of the nearby media recording all this and turned away. Brushing past the sitting form of Hayate, who watched with a stunned odor, I made my way to my water trough and shoved my jaws into it to fill my mouth. Scrubbing my tongue against the roof of my mouth for a moment I then lifted my lips and let the water drain from between my teeth to the ground. (We couldn't spit, our lips were too rigid.)

While I watched Alex tend to Me Two for a moment in an attempt to immobilize her lengthy form Jesse and Irma appeared in the peripheral of both of my eyes as they approached to observe silently on both sides of me.

Jesse, Irma, I know that you are driven to watch over the little one just as I am. But right now, I need the two of you to continue to patrol the tree line. There is nothing you can do for her.

They both reluctantly bobbed their heads without taking their eyes off the puddle of blood collecting on the tale beneath Me Two. The two of them began making unconscious whines of distress until I nudged them gently on their way with my nose and they stumbled off distractedly. They wouldn't do much good as guards with this clouding their minds, but I hoped that they're presence would scare off any would be Rambos. I shuffled my front paws until I lay my belly on the cool ground and sent a series of calming reassurances to the baffled life that I felt within me before turning my attention to the soldier staring at the monitor.

"Are you trying to contact Brian?" He jumped and whirled towards me at the sound of my gravelly voice.

"What? Me? Oh! Yes ma'am! As soon as Alex heard the baby... uh dragon was wounded and being brought here he ordered me to make contact. I've already spoken to a uh Serena Willow and she told me that she would be turning on her and Brian Cyan's video terminal any moment now."

On cue, the screen showed a symbol indicating a connection before the image of a large brightly lit room appeared. Just as the image began to rotate voices could be heard over the connection.

"What this? It moves? Curious!"

"Jacob, no sweetie!" was exclaimed by another, more human, voice before the scaly nose of a child of the egg appeared at the bottom of the screen sniffing at the camera. The side of the little dragon's nose crept by the camera lens until its glowing red eye appeared with its oval iris opened wide in fascination.

"Curious!" He enthused once more before shifting as talons appeared in the video frame to clutch the camera and everything shook violently before going dark as the connection was cut.

If the situation wasn't so urgently weighing my mind down, I would have been honking laughter but instead I just lay there trying to remain optimistic about Me Two. After a moment I realized my tail was twitching to betray my nervousness and with a brief struggle to find the right muscle groups I forced my undulating spine to hold still. My body, not happy that its attempt to burn off its anxiety had been thwarted, began to flick my wings open and closed instead. My tongue flashed outward to lick my nose and I hissed resignedly. Who was in charge here exactly? My brain or my fucking gallbladder?

When the connection resumed, a flustered looking Serena appeared with a child of the egg perched on her back with a red scarf tied around its neck while another sat serenely behind her warbling what sounded like a nursery rhyme with its headed pointed down at its front paws. It looked to be only a little bigger than Jesse and Irma and I was startled to notice one more pair of red eyes were peeking out shyly from between its two front legs. The apparent parent lowered her head and began snuffling at the child who looked back up at its mother (I think, could be the father for all I knew. I couldn't smell her and couldn't see between her hind legs.) and made a painful whine of longing that made my heart ache. In response the mother began gently licking the child's nose making it close its eyes and lean against its mother's legs. In the distant background I saw another child of the egg about twice the size of Angie stride through talking to a man walking alongside it. In the beams of the far overhead ceiling I could see three sets of wings extend and flap briefly as they shot from one brace to the next. Another child of the egg flapped into and out of view dragging a dazed looking student by her shoulders in its hind paws while mimicking the sound of what seemed to be a helicopter. A male voice from the side called out to the little dragon.

"Honey, please put Casey down. She doesn't want to play whirlybird right now."

Serena ignored these antics and held up a remote with a joystick on it and pointed it at the screen and the camera on my end began to swivel around taking everything in. I noticed that it pointed at my eye for a second before shifting to look at my shoulder and then back to my head again where it remained.

"Kim! Sorry about that, never know just who I'm talking to when it comes to dragons. How bad is the baby hurt? Where is she hurt? What happened? Wheel me over to her. Brian! Stop staring at that test slide we need your help!"

"I was just making sure that Sample C was not reacting to the donated material the same way 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 Brian's head snaked into view.

"Kim and Tom, friends!" Brian bellowed warmly as the rest of his body twisted into view behind him before settling down and crossing his legs. Bobbing his head, his tongue flashed outwards to lick his nose several times before he continued with more trepidation.

"Is the immature preadolescent okay? Should I come? I can be there by tomorrow if I start off right now! Please tell me the little one is okay!" He begged with his scales and tail quivering with anxiety. I couldn't smell him (obviously), but the two there could, and both worked to calm the overwrought no longer human scientist.

He began making the same earnest whining noises that I had noticed me and my family making earlier. As soon as he started that racket, the three children of the egg still in camera frame perked their heads up alertly and began making urgent calls of their own. Even more astonishingly, eight more heads began to peak into the image from all over the giant room they were obviously in. Judging by the size of some of the snouts I saw sniffing at the TV monitor their ages looked to be all over the map. One may have even been my age. All of those mouths opened, and the dismal cries of concern quickly became overwhelming.

How many fucking children have they found? I wondered, while listening to the constant stream of questions and objections being voiced or chirped in the audio feed.

Ah! He said, after collecting himself from his mournful crooning, swinging his head back and forth, to nudge the lost ones back from view. These children of the egg have been found in vast stretches of Wyoming and Colorado. I think that there may be as many as three dozen others in my vicinity! Not to mention all the ones I hear of in Denver!" He bobbed his head again before I snapped at him with a sharp snarl.

"Focus god damnit! A child is bleeding out behind me! Pull your snout out of your asshole and pay attention!"

"Oh my! The young one! Let me see an image of her side! What are the circumstances of her injury?" I picked the kiosk up in one paw and hobbled closer to the impromptu operating table to set it down with a clear view of Me Two and Alex, the latter of which began to rattle off his diagnosis.

"She has a puncture wound 15 cm behind the back of her ribcage 37 cm down radially from her spine along her left flank. It is about 28 cm long and 2 wide. I can see lacerations within the wound on unknown organs and the cavity is flooded with blood from an unknown source."

I added: "I found her wound around Governor Little half a meter from where what looked like an IED had penetrated the vehicle she was in. I don't know if that was where she was when the blast occurred, but she was conscious long enough to scream for help before we got there. I think she has lost at least two to three liters of blood.

"What are her respiration and heart rates? Oh, also, how long is she?" Serena asked and wrote that information down on a tablet she held. After a moment of finger tapping, she looked up again. "Her breathing is depressed, is only half of what it should be based on her length. Which is the only way we know how to guess a child of the egg's age."

"Serena can you point the camera at the wound please? No, unless you need to zoom it in for yourself this is fine."

Bringing my head around to see what was on the view screen I saw that Brian's slitted eye was filling the entire screen from edge to edge as it twitched in minute increments.

"Alex? I'm going to need you to flip the scales surrounding the wound back and spread it open so I can see better, please."

"This will wake her up won't it? What can I use to anesthetize her?" my brother-in-law asked with the sound of ripping duct tape. Very hygienic Alex, using rigging tape to hold a fucking shrapnel wound open.

A loud thoughtful rumble came from the monitor. "I don't... I don't know... Serena?" His eye drew back and turned away to reveal her right next to his head as she shrugged. "Can you think of anything to block the nerve impulses..."

"Alcohol!" I blared, causing them both to jerk back with surprise and look into the camera once more.

"Alcohol? Well, I suppose we could use ether like in the old days, but I don't know if..."

"We can't just saw into her and hope she stays unconscious!"

"We could ask..." Tom began.

"Yes." Came a lethargic voice from my roof. Prometheus.

"Nice of you to speak up! You fucking twat!" I roared at him. "How many died today that didn't have to?"

"Soak a towel using a solution greater than 45% alcohol and place it beneath her tongue. She will remain unconscious for the procedure that may save her life. Use aloe vera cream to numb the wound. Whether she lives or dies will be based on your skill and resourcefulness." He ignored me, as he typically did whenever I accused him of not doing enough to prevent more tragedy. Even for the little ones that I would rip the world apart to protect. I could feel my pupils constrict as my breaths began hissing through my narrowed throat threateningly.

"May save her life?" I snarled as Alex sent an officer to soak a towel in alcohol. "It fucking better, or I will start browsing through your fucking organs to find what we need to keep her alive! Why didn't you fucking warn us what was going to happen to her before she left in that convoy? What happened to the effects of alcohol being unpredictable?"

He sighed and lay his head down without responding. His obstinate refusal to address what he could have done or explain what he told me made my spine ache from my tail's crushing impacts with the ground. There was a twinge in my womb as my children shifted hard enough to make their eggs move forcing me to abandon my rage and contract my body to soothe them. Besides, that anger was also making all the lost children watching from the roof of my home and shelter peep even louder with distress. Backing several paces from the patio where I could still crane my neck to see what was going on, but those smaller than me could not, I did my best to ease as many minds as I could.

Laying on the ground on my side in a crescent shape blocking the view of what was to come, I first called to my human children. They came running into my welcoming embrace and I folded my legs to keep them close against my chest where they belonged. Once they settled, I made another call in a much newer language. Hopefully with a message that would appeal to the horde of crying dragons roosting on my roof.

Scared? To me! Come! I safe!

All the tiny lost ones from across my yard and home came pelting towards me to cluster beneath the arms and membranes growing from my back. Bending my head to my side I tried to project as much warmth as I could into my green eyes and rippled my scales to soothe the scared younglings. Brave and curious voices reached my ear fins as I gently cooed to them and curled my wings around the life gathered to my flanks, wrap ping them all in shadow and security. I heard barking in front of me, and faintly the feeling of tiny claws scratching at my forelegs. Looking down I saw our Shepherds pawing at my paws to get at my twins and I gently opened my encircling legs to let them in. Settled, I began the long wait as Alex, assisted by two soldiers and Brian and Serena began to operate on the child of the egg.

After a few minutes Alex looked up and said some quick words with Serena and approached me with blood dripping from his gloves onto the grass. The children against my stomach hid further beneath my wing at his approach and the sight of his gore covered clothing. I heard the whole conversation already. He needed blood and, without giving reasons as to why, Prometheus had told him that I would be the best source.

"Kim, I hate to ask because you are pregnant, but it will be such a small amount..."

"Do it."

"Kim? Is that you? Stop a moment and wait for the camera to rotate." A few seconds later the camera finished its slow transition to face back towards me and Serena continued. "Open your right wing forward if you can towards Me Two. Alex see along each of her fingers? There is a vein that you can pierce with a standard 18 gauge catheter. Kim, you'll just have to prop your wing arm up to elevate. Can you do that? Brian is able to." There was a crash and then an avalanche of piercing cries of alarm from the unseen monitor screen. "Well... for a little bit anyway. Brian stop struggling! You'll make the tangle worse!"

Thinking about the fifth and sixth limbs growing from my shoulders I envisioned stretching my right arm forward and the appendage rose from covering the children and moved forward past the base of my neck. Once the wing was on the ground, and inconveniently fully spread, I waited for Alex to find and prep a vein. He checked for flow, and I could not help but chuff a laugh at the unexpected force of my blood pressure when a rainbow of blood splashed across his previously pristine button-down. Spreading out her wing slightly he picked a similar site on it and, once I was given the go ahead, I flexed my wing arm at the elbow raising my forearm and hand high into the air. Alex fiddled with the drip for a moment, almost completely shutting the valve to keep the flow manageable. Luckily for me, and the children, this was the last of my involvement in the surgery. Bending my head to look at Luke, I asked him if he wanted to hear one of my stories. His and his sister's face immediately lit up as they both nodded. Laying my head down I shut all the others out as I began spinning the tale of my awkward first date with Tom, drawing the attention of both species huddled against me.

I had just finished my story when I felt the cool feeling of a hand against my neck and I uncurled it to bring my head up to look down on Alex. Sitting behind him, Tom and Hayate looked down at my patio table with their wings drawn tightly against themselves and their fins flat against their scales.

I didn't want to see the way that their bodies listlessly rocked nor hear the low pitiful moaning noise they both made. I didn't want to see that 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 keening 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 eyes. Angie emerged from my shelter with her parents hugging the base of her neck to raise her head and give a piercing wail causing Irma and Jesse to gallop thunderously towards her only to slide to a stop at the sight of the blood-soaked sheets on the table. Alex looked me straight in the eye and my mind was blanketed by the slate gray heavens above. I threw my head back to scream at the sky as he told me.

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

...