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Alex's scent woke me the next morning followed shortly afterward by the feeling of him poking my snout. My eyes snapped open and looked at him in irritation as he continued to finger fuck my goddamn nostril and leaving the smell of syrup and pancakes coating the sensitive opening. I swear, one of these days I'm going to sneeze point blank into his face and rip his skin clean off if he keeps doing that. He wasn't looking at me however, instead his gaze was directed off to the tree line behind the playground on the far end of the parking lot. Raising my head, I blearily noticed that Tom's was raised and pointed in that direction too. Shaking mine to remove its coating of snow I looked and froze in surprise. The heads of two children of the egg extended from the forest and were staring curiously. A third, much, much larger, child of the egg paced back and forth in front of them glaring at us with hostility and the occasional snap of its jaws.

"Ho..." I stopped to make a talon curling, tail whipping yawn. "...How long have they been there?"

"I don't know. I was inside watching the road in front and eating breakfast with James for about forty-five minutes. When I came back out, they were there watching you."

"Well..." Tom started to add, as Alex put his hand on his brother's neck. '...isn't this what we've been on the lookout for? Let's go greet them." Tom wrapped a paw around his brother and softly nosed at him before letting go and rising from his crouch. Both of them looked at each other and then away before Alex reached out to Tom once more as his larger brother glanced down at him. "Please wait here Alex. We don't know what they'll do, and you are somewhat easier to harm than us."

Alex rubbed his throat, likely recalling just how true that was. Tom had almost killed him last night with the same effortless ease that most humans kill insects under their boots without ever realizing as much.

I rose from the pool, snow and slush cascading off my back and sides to fall to the ground with soft plopping noises while I stretched myself out. Touching the minds within my body I took a moment to see how they felt after the long cold night in their heated bath. Sleepy, but when they sensed my curiosity at what I saw peeking from the forest edge they roused to tumble restlessly with their own. Inquisitive little things, just like all the other young ones I had seen so far.

We left Alex behind to go relay this new development to James. He also told us he would help James close up the hotel as the owner worked to carefully tell his guests that they were in danger if they did not leave. Later we learned that he had to refund three guests' charges. Which almost made me feel bad that we were the reason that that was his last night of profit. At least until I remembered that he was in danger, because others hated us, for a situation that we had not asked for. James told us later that he couldn't even really bring himself to blame Prometheus and Thumper for it. As ultimately humans were just going to be assholes in search of a reason to attack others regardless of what aliens did. Which was generous of him I suppose.

Tom and I approached the three watching us alone. Prometheus, the lazy slug, slid like an alligator into the pool I had vacated and sighed wistfully as the steam melted the frost still clinging to his scales. Just like us, I guess. Just because we could survive sub-freezing temperatures and eleven centimeters of snow, doesn't mean that it was an experience that we enjoyed.

Hello!Tom began, while his scales lifted to add the underlying expression of excitement and welcome. I joined him, and then fanned my wings to blow the aroma of our hello towards them.

Hello!The two being protected by their much larger (He was bigger than even Brian! How old was he?) guardian echoed. The aforementioned guardian pacing and back before us sniffed at the greeting we had sent but did not respond verbally and snorted rudely instead. So, I, naturally, made the assumption that we were facing one lost, two whole, children of the egg. I was wrong, it was the other way around.

The two who had returned our greeting started forward to talk with us at a more civil distance. But their large guardian planted his rump and tail right in their way and flung his wings out to block them from view. His wingspan was...impressive.

My children do not remember themselves. If you want to speak to anyone, you speak to me. Why are you drawing attention to yourselves? Why were you so loud last night? You are bringing danger here. Danger for my girls. What are you doing here?

My name is Kim, this is my husband Tom. We are headed to Boise with two passengers to find a mother and her son that are like your daughters. I lowered my head and pointed my snout at the ground to expose my neck in apology. We did not learn until we arrived the danger that you and others are under. I apologize. My right wing flared to remind Tom that he should be doing something.

"Oh, right!" He bent into his own repentant posture and echoed my apology. Our unnamed challenger folded his wings and his daughters raced around him. Each of them brushed their teeth against our necks and then withdrew as Tom and I shivered at the bizarre and incredibly vulnerable feeling of making an apology as a child of the egg.

We safe! I, First Light. I forgive.

We safe! I, Night Star. I forgive.

They both turned their heads to stare at their father. When he didn't move, I could smell their mingled anger and encouragement as their scales raised. The older man looked at them, and then his inky black eyes softened, and he turned back to us. He bobbed his head to acknowledge us.

I only want to keep my daughters safe and if they feel comfortable speaking to you, then so do I. My name was Dan Robertson or, as my daughters call me now, Big Wing Father. These are my two little ones, and, although they do not respond to the names they were born with, theirs are Sarah, or First Light, and Becky, or Night Star.

Tom looked up at him as he drew nearer during his introduction. Big Wing Father indeed. He was at least two meters taller than me, and likely two and a half meters bigger than my husband. Who knows how much longer than us he was, but his wings were fucking huge! I realized he might have even been able to keep up with Angie as I looked at the multitudes of folded skin heaped upon his back. Unlike Tom and I, or anyone else I had seen for that matter, his wings were so long that the tiny talons on the end of each of his wing fingers dragged on the ground next to his tail. As he walked towards us they left an array of parallel furrows in the new snow that made it appear as if he was raking the ground behind him.

Tom turned back, to say something to Prometheus. But stopped when he saw the fucker sitting right behind us with his tail partially shielding Alex during our meet and greet. Overcoming his confusion in finding what he was looking for right behind himself, he rocked his head in an invitation and curled his half open wing around Alex while he stood next to Tom's foreleg with his hand resting on it. Personally, I was heartened that they were much more willing to physically interact with each other. The reassuring touch of the siblings must be a great source of comfort for the two after last night's Charlie Foxtrot. Not that I would know, as the only siblings I get to have are either imaginary, or from the future and possibly imaginary.

"This is my brother Alex. One of our passengers. The other is Greta, the grandmother who we are on our way to reunite with her family. Can you speak English still?"

"Nnnnnnnntttttttrrrrrrreeeeeeely."

I winced. He sounded even fucking worse than we did! Didn't he ever have anyone to...practice...with. I stopped as I answered my own question. No, of course he didn't. If I had to guess, it's just been himself and his two lost daughters.

"Well, we speak in English for my brother's sake. You just do you, and we'll translate. Good?"

Why are you here?

"We're heading towards Boise, like I said, to find a mother and her son to reunite them with the son of the grandmother who is with us. Who, despite us telling her not to, is paying us in gold and silver. Which is fortuitous because the United States seems to be in the process of tearing itself apart."

Why bother finding them? Will they not be safer in the forest? He asked as he watched his daughters circle me with their noses hovering centimeters from my scales. Which was distracting as I twisted my head one way and then the other to see what the fuck it was they were doing. I could even feel their fucking breaths pulling on my scales. Fucking weird. The larger of the two sisters, Sarah, had gray eyes and a tattooed band around one of her hind ankles. Becky, on the other hand, had the same black eyes as her father. Dan's distinguishing characteristic of course was his oversized wings. Something that I hadn't noticed earlier when he turned to his side and I saw a shoulder that had been hidden from me was a white mosaic of scale that looked suspiciously like the Globe and Anchor.

You are with egg. Sarah said to me.

You have four! Becky added her own naively cheerful opinion.

Wait! What the fuck? I swore to myself. Dan looked sternly at me in reproach as his daughters cooed and brushed up against my sides. What the fuck does he want? "What?"

I have the feeling that you knew that you might encounter trouble out here. Yet you set out regardless knowing you were pregnant. Yes?

Yes, I did. Because I know I can trust my mate with my life. We can defend ourselves against anything. I am far from helpless myself. I am bigger!

Is that so? Let me ask you about what else I heard last night. James certainly seemed very disturbed by being seen with you. Would you change your plans if I told you that I and my daughters have been shot at several times?

He turned to the side and raised his right wing up, and up, and up. In regular intervals up between the widespread fingers several small holes let the rising sun through. Beneath, where the wing normally rested, I could see four or five scuff marks on his scales.

"Come with us."

Why should we?

My head recoiled in surprise. Why should you? What the fuck is wrong with you? You just showed me that you've been shot! What other reason do you fucking need? If you have been shot at in the forest, then why would you suggest such a dumb fucking plan of action as leaving others in the forest as well?

First off girl, do not speak to me in this way. I will give respect, but I expect it in turn. I do not appreciate your crass language and view it as disrespectful. I was sputtering madly to myself as Tom watched me for a moment in amusement before taking lead in the discussion.

Please forgive my mate. She is... he twisted his head to smirk at me. ...She is suffering from vapors.

Tom you fucking ass! I screamed in my head. I tripped his legs to knock him on his side. Retaliating, he swept my hind legs with his tail. As I fell on my belly unbalanced, Tom rolled through his fall and regained his paws far faster than I myself did and pinned me to the ground with his wings spread wide to cover me.

"The thing is." Tom continued as he lay on top of me while I bucked and writhed in an attempt to get him the fuck off of me.

Vapors? Vapors! I'll show Tom fucking vapors!

"We are on our way to bring the two lost ones in Boise to our home up by Coeur D'Alene. The federal and state governments, at our approval, are turning our home into the center of a regional safe zone. A safe zone for those like us, and our families, where we can protect ourselves. What do you think of that?"

The two daughters threw their wings over theirs and their father's heads and had a lengthy conversation that was muffled enough that we could not make out what was said. It amused me to see them peek their heads out once in a while to look at us, however.

It is time for us to come in from the wild. My daughters are very worried about you, Kim. They both want to stay with you to ensure the safety of your eggs. I do not want them to, but I cannot stop them. I...I cannot fly.

You cannot fly? That is...that is what these bodies are all about! Have you not tried?

Of course I have! But I can't change the fact I was human! What do I know about such things? My daughters know how, and it seems to have cost them their identities. They do not remember almost anything from their previous lives.

Not true! You Big Wing Father! Sarah exclaimed.

Yes! Remember you! You father!

Big Wing Father? Where Egg Mother?

A loud trembling whine came from Dan's throat. The smell of sadness grew heavy in the air and his head drooped, not able to meet the curious eyes of his younger (smaller) daughter. It didn't seem like the first time he had gone through this routine. Had she suffered memory damage?

Your mother, Jessica, is gone Night Star. She is gone.

Not here? Where?

First Light came up to her sister's side and pushed her flank against her sister's in comfort.

Night Star not know death. She woke many sun and moon later, not know Egg Mother. Not see Egg Mother fall from sky. Not see moving cage crush Egg Mother.

With Sarah consoling Becky, Dan explained to us what happened to his wife and their mother.

When our old lives ended, we were together on a family trip. My wife was driving when her body began to change. She lost control, and we crashed into a tree. The time between when I had died and was reborn was three days. I found her body behind the wheel, crushed. I used the strength and claws I had gained in my new life to rip our car apart and bury her. I do not know if anyone has ever even noticed what has happened to us. The ones that shoot at us do not ask questions. They just open fire. Neither I, nor my daughters, know what we have done to be exposed to such violence.

I could understand now what had happened to their family, and the unhappy end for his unnamed wife. But I was a little confused by this death and rebirth idea.

"It is somewhat of a long story for what and why people are shooting at you. Here is not the place for that story either. We don't know what's headed our way. We should go.

But, I cannot fly!

"Prometheus!" I roared.

"Yes, Kim?"

"How long will it take you to teach Dan here to fly?"

"Simple straight-line flight, takeoff, and landing can be managed in one to two hours. Big Wing Father has had the better part of a year to inure himself to his new form. The reflexes will be there, he just needs to let go of his lingering human limitations and embrace the sky children of the egg were born for."

Alex knew what he had to do and ran to inform James and his family of the new additions to our party and to relay the update to our departure time. Tom and I wandered into the woods to dig our morning shit pits. I was annoyed to find, when I had finished, that Sarah and Becky had tailed my tail to guard me, I guess.

I rejoined Tom and, accompanied by the sisters, passed by Prometheus nosing at different points on Dan's extended wings and explaining to him what each movement controlled. As our little patrol paced around the hotel, I could smell breakfast being brought to us. There was a couple of large pots of oatmeal on the cart that Patricia pushed out.

"Oh, thank you!" "I hope it's enough for..." she stopped as I scooped the stainless-steel pot up and dumped the whole thing into my open mouth. There were apples in it!

I thanked her, and James, for the meal as my tongue explored the pot to remove every last bit of oatmeal. By the time I let the metal container fall from my mouth onto the cart with a clang it was as clean as it was before it was used. Clean, but coated in saliva. Can't help that. Lifting my head, I braced my claws into the frozen ground to take in a deep breath, before ripping loose an enormous burp over Patricia's head.

Tom hid his head beneath his wing in embarrassment as I thanked the flustered woman one more time. "That hit the spot! Thanks again. Tom, do you want the rest?" I tried to give the impression that the oatmeal had been enough to fill me as I didn't want the hotel owners to try to make more and delay our departure. But, honestly, that tiny pot did about jack and shit to curb my enormous appetite. My husband declined and the contents of the other steel container vanished into my mouth as well.

"Are you ready to go?" Tom asked Patricia, as I made love to the pot with my tongue. "We're very sorry to put your family in this much..."

She waved his apologies away as she watched me deposit the pot gently stacked in the other one by wedging the very tip of my tongue into the handle. "I'm actually glad that you are here. I've been trying to tell James it's too dangerous out here by ourselves ever since the sheriff and his deputies disappeared." She pointed at their truck and shook her head sadly. "Our monthly ration of gas is not available for two more weeks. You are the only way that we'll be able to make it to Boise safely."

A thought occurred to me. "Have you ever heard of a family that goes by the name of Robertson disappearing since zero day?"

"Hm... maybe... we had some people stop in from McCall not too long ago who said a family by that name had gone missing. Why do you ask?"

She was floored when I introduced her to the two next to me.

"These are two of the dragons you met this morning? There a total of three more? You said...they are feral? Are...are they going to eat us?"

Again with the fucking eating people thing!

"No god damnit!" I bellowed, making Patricia squeak in alarm and back away from me. "We are still...well not human anymore...but we are still intelligent! Even these two are not going to attack a living being that can talk to them! And they are not feral! They are lost! There is a difference!"

I twisted my head away from the woman who continued to edge closer to the presumed safety that she thought the glass door behind her would provide and addressed the sisters. The larger of the two responded, I presumed by her sizable edge in stature over her sister that she at least a few years the elder. Sarah, First Light. Becky, Night Star. Got it.

Do you know McCall?

First Light know name! McCall! Egg Father and Egg Mother nest! Maybe home nest? No...my nest far! First Light's away nest. I learn there! Yes, yes. I learn. Many like I was there. Many like this one. She looked at Patricia, who looked alarmed at being observed while we screeched and chirped around her. I know before me not like me now! Small, weak, no fly. But smart! Want know secrets! Now, I big, strong, fly. Fly to find secrets! They hide, sneaky, but First Light find!

"Can you please tell me what's going on?" Patricia asked in a small voice. "I mean, I'm sure whatever you are talking about is perfectly normal. But...it does really sound like you are about to either attack each other, or me."

"Uh..." I started, showcasing my jaw dropping level of intelligence and verbal acumen. "She says she remembers her parent's house at McCall. But that she was only visiting from college when this happened to them. She also wants to keep learning, somehow."

"Is that really what she said? You got all that from one burst of chittering sound?"

I felt the heavy weight of my wings lift and then settle as I shrugged noncommittally. "More or less. When we speak to each other, it's not really in words per se. It's more like a combination of the tone of expression, type of sound made, intention, scent, body posture, and context. Watch and listen."

"Tom, say what."

What?

"Did you notice how the whistle he made fell before rising at the end? Tom, now ask 'What time are we leaving?'"

What time are we leaving?

"Now did you notice that after saying 'What' he snorted the word 'time' and you could hear his desire to know how long from now until then, lastly when he coughed and then hissed the word 'leaving' his tone changed to one of agitation? A more literal translation of 'What time are we leaving?' into our own language is more along the lines of 'How far from stay now to go then?' Understand?"

I could see in her eyes that she didn't. "I...I think so..."

I rolled mine as my I felt my tail swat at the ground in annoyance. "If you don't, then you don't. Just please don't lie to me. I don't fucking like it."

She wrung her hands as she admitted that it was all Greek to her. I thanked her for telling the truth when she was obviously afraid of me. The important thing for her to remember was that the words themselves weren't what we were conveying to each other. They were ideas. And it takes too fucking long to render every idea conveyed during a conversation so every time I recount us talking to each other I use English. So, the next time I hear someone complain that: "Oh! There is no way that there is a word for xyz in an alien language!" I am going to use their bleached femur as a toothpick and their skull and spine as a soup ladle.

"So..." Tom reiterated what he had already said. "...what time are we leaving?"

An hour later, I was laying on the ground and looking over my own backbone while Tom carefully handed pieces of luggage to Alex and James walking around on my back. Sarah and Be... I mean First Light and Night Star were seated on their tails and watching with a vaguely bored smell coming from their scales. Patricia was seated on Night Star's left rear leg with her tail loosely coiled around the woman and the baby in her arms as they watched the battle elephant (me) get strapped up and boarded like a damn commuter jet. In the yard behind the hotel I could hear Dan crash at regular intervals as Prometheus tried to force a week's worth of lessons into less than two hours.

Once I was done being loaded up like a fucking pack mule, and the last of the luggage was lashed into place with rope, I told the two clambering all over me to hold on to the harness and rose to trot back and forth across the parking lot. Extending my wings, I flapped them a couple of times to see if anything needed to be moved. Once they had shifted two bags that I didn't like the placement nor balance of, I told them I was good to go. Alex gave up his harness to give to Patricia and checked to make sure that their little boy was securely bungee corded to my carry straps.

Using some tarps from a small shed the shelter resting between my wings was extended to cover the open side. It looked like a turtle shell mounted right over my spine if it looked like anything. It was hugely annoying to have the constant feeling of a part of me being squished when it, and the people in it, were squarely on top of my spinal fin. But, having seen the thick pile of blankets that the humans had dived into, I knew that they'd be warm and secure enough. Thankfully the soft heap of material helped cushion the feeling on my nerve rich dorsal membrane. The real problem was going to be Dan. 80 minutes worth of elementary flight lessons does not a pilot make. It was his daughters that had come to the rescue after his sixth earlier crash. Landing and takeoff was still his own affair. But once airborne, his children lined up on each side of him wing tip to wing tip and used their own flapping arms to stabilize and guide him in the air. He would be our limit as we travelled. He didn't know how far he could go. But Tom and I, thinking back to our own conditioning drills, told him we'd stop to let him rest every half hour or so.

"Are we all finally ready?" I asked, looking back at the habitat that was now growing from my back like a giant cyst. "Your aircraft wants to open her wings and fly already." I felt them shuffle around, unseen, beneath the canvas structure before all fell still and Alex reported through the radio in my ear.

"We're good Kim. And just so you know, your body is really, really hot. We're breaking a sweat in here."

"Yeah well. We'll see how you feel at a thousand meters where ambient air temperatures become fatal. I'm launching in 3" I sat back on my tail. "2" My legs and my tail tensed as their giant muscles quivered in anticipation, making me feel giddy. God, I love flying. "1" Air danced across my wings as they unfurled finger by finger into the light breeze. "Don't Puke!" Pushing through the ground with my strong tail and haunches I leapt twelve meters into the air and shivered as my wings made a quarter, half, and finally a full flap while I circled up and up. My scales bristled to signal my happiness at being in the air once again, and I had to fight the urge to start spinning gleefully.

I felt two pairs of boots plant themselves against my back, and then the feeling of the currents flowing down my spine changed causing me to look back. James and Patricia had parted the shelter just enough for them to look back along the undulating length of my tail to their home, their livelihood. Turning my head forwards, I beat my wings to move us on our way, and after a long moment, I felt them sit down once more as the shelter was resealed. I felt bad for them. But compared to what a lot of other people were going through, they had gotten off easy.

Our flight was uneventful. Except for having to land every half hour for Dan to rest, Greta to puke, or James and Patricia to do pagan rituals involving an imaginary cat. Or whatever, I don't know. I stopped paying attention to what everyone else was doing every thirty minutes. In any event, the lights of Boise grew closer and closer until I decided, arbitrarily, that the restaurant beneath me was now the official city limit. I looked back and forth for a city park or something that we could land in and spotted one off to my right. We landed in a blizzard of snow blown up by our wings and had to wait for it to settle before I dismounted my passengers.

Sarah and Becky were so afraid to be out in the open and under observation, as people walked by us on a regular basis, that I was surprised that they stayed by us. Their father did his best to calm them down, but after I had seen the bullet holes in their own wings, I knew that it would eventually be a losing battle. So, Tom stuck his nose into the shelter where Greta remained and asked her for final directions to her son's house. Alex punched the address into his cell phone. And off we went again, leaving nothing behind but a large area swept clear of snow. A short twenty-minute flight at long last had us at our destination. As all five of us touched down, we announced that we were here and Dan collapsed in slow motion onto his side with a groan the shook the ground. He spread his wings wide to cool the aching tendons along their lengths in the snow coating the ground and, by the time I had Greta off my back, he was asleep. Which, as much as he deserved his rest, wouldn't work for long as he had inconveniently sprawled across four lanes of the road that ran perpendicular to the one that we were on.

First Light and Night Star on the other foot, had gotten it into their heads that no one would notice their huge bodies (I pinned their ages as being about Irma's. Which would be good for her to make more friends.) once they had taken refuge in some poor soul's fenced in backyard. Lowering their heads until they were hidden behind the 2.5-meter-tall fence, I didn't really have it in me at the moment to mention to them that you could still see their backs and wings. Which towered at least twice as high as the fence. If they wanted to act like my dogs back at home who thought they were invisible by sticking their head behind a window curtain, then I wouldn't stop them until things got dangerous. It had taken me some time to adjust to the mismatch between what I thought my body looked like and what it actually did. I'd just have to help them with that later, after all, I was the only other female there at the time. I mean, female child of the egg. Not that Patricia or Greta weren't female, I just don't know if they could appreciate certain absurdities that came with being four legged.

Greta, Alex, and the Simpsons (James, Patricia, and Robert) went to the front door. But before they got there it burst open and at long last, I got to see who exactly we were trying to help. A short, wide, man came bustling out of the nondescript two story home and ran to throw his arms around Greta.

"Mom! I can't believe that you flew down here! On those things! Are you alright? Are you cold? Come inside, come inside. I'll get a fire started and then we can do introductions, it's so cold out here!" He ushered the five humans that I had carried inside and slammed the door.

"WHAT THE FUCK!" I roared at the closed door. "Things? Things! What the fuck do you think your family is? What kind of fucking welcome was that? Not one thanks for carrying your fucking mother across the entire state?"

"Hey, shut up over there!" A voice yelled from a neighboring home. I threw my head into the air and thundered my frustrated indignation into the darkening sky. The voice called out again, much more timidly this time. "Never mind!"

"Kim, I'm sure he didn't mean..." I brushed past my husband as he tried to make excuses for the fat ingrate. Stomping up to the front door, I started to tap on it with a claw. Setting my foot down, I waited patiently. For at least five minutes. Or maybe three minutes. Well, it was at least ten seconds anyway. My fuze reached its end and I raised my paw to tap again. This time, in my agitation, my claw pierced clean through the door and ripped the latch from the frame. Ooops, fuck you. I thought, unashamedly. Pulling my claw back through the wooden door, it slammed against the frame and almost completely split in half. I finally got a response.

"My door!"

"Yeah, oh no, your door. Is this how you greet all your guests?" My paw withdrew, only to be replaced by my head as I lowered it to completely fill his entryway and glare at him with one glittering emerald eye.

"I was coming to open it!" He said in his defense, as he pressed himself against the wall beside him and turned his head away from my hostile eye. "I didn't know that you could talk until you started yelling at me! I thought you were...you know...mindless."

"Mindless! Do you not know fucking anything? There are others like us all over the news talking just as well as I am! If we were mindless why would we come all this way? We're here to help you find your wife and your son! If we were mindless, how the fuck did you think we were going to find them?"

"Like, you know, a bloodhound or something!"

I fucking growled like a bloodhound. A seven tonne one.

"Well, you are really hard to understand. Everything you say sounds like you are growling it at me. It's like two boulders ran into each other and tried to have a conversation!"

"Is this all you expect of your family as well? When we get them back are you going to put your son in a room with newspapers covering the floor in case he isn't housebroken? Are you going to chain your wife to a block of concrete buried in the backyard? Are you going to ignore them when we bring them back to your front door?"

Judging by the increasingly harried look on the portly man's face, I don't think he had thought anything through. I was about to castigate him for his stupidity and lack of forethought, but Tom, ever the people person, dragged me out of the way and worked to keep the man from having a stroke or something.

"We are just frustrated that you would welcome those that we have carried all this way..."

I shoulder checked Tom aside. Fuck that! This motherfucker doesn't deserve the kid gloves!

"We humped your screeching harpy of a mother all the way down here to help prevent more from fucking dying! How about that? Are you going to change your fucking attitude now? Are you going to fucking introduce yourself to us so that we can respond in turn like fucking mature fucking adults you fucking impish little man?" That'll show him! What does he think we are? Unsociable savages?

I was surprised, when Tom shoved his snout under my foreleg and tipped me over until I was laying, writhing wildly, on my back. I started to shout in rage. But, as Tom addressed whoever the fuck we were here to help, the two sisters that had accompanied us left their badly conceptualized 'fort' and were on each of my flanks after I had rolled over. Pinned between them as they pushed against my sides and blanketed me with their warm wings, they began to bombard me with their bullshit therapy.

You with eggs!

Anger is bad for you!

Sing with us!

Yes, sing! Make calm!

Calm!

Both of them began to hum a song that made a feeling of contentment radiate outwards from where my babies grew. Not that I didn't appreciate it, but I wanted to be pissed right now! We flew all the way across the state, imperiling a family by our very presence, for this welcome?

"No!" I screeched in outrage. "I will not..." My children began to sing from within their shells. "I...I..." their hummed tune resonated through my chest and belly. Making me warm. "I...I...feel warm." Sarah nuzzled her head up alongside mine, and the next thing I knew, Becky had joined her on the opposing side. The smell of the other females made my thoughts fuzzy. "...my babies...my eggs..." The world darkened as my eyes slid shut and I wrapped myself in the sound of my children. Slowly at first, but with rising zeal, I began to sing back. I sang in words that cannot be translated, but in feelings that any expectant mother would know. Any woman that had ever felt touched by nurturing a life within would have known what I sang.

Maybe, I thought to myself in a daze as the feeling of six heartbeats resonated through my entire self, being a child of the egg isn't so bad...

The introductions went much more smoothly with me incapacitated in the middle of the street nestled between the two sisters. My head rocked back and forth as a constant rumble ran through my long body accentuated by the sisters. But I wasn't so far gone that I wasn't listening in on the conversation.

Tom placed his paw on the front of his chest and introduced himself. "I am Tom. The large child of the egg between the two smaller ones is my wife Kim. The next biggest one on her right is Sarah and the smallest is Becky. The giant sleeping on the road over there is Dan, Sarah and Becky's father. They are the Robertsons. We ran into them outside of Riggins and, while none of the younger ones can speak English, they can understand you...for the most part in the female's case." Proving his point, the young females each chirped in greeting at hearing their names. Dan introduced himself by snorting in his sleep and shifting his head until it lay on a snow-covered lawn. Far beyond where his head lay, traffic had begun to accumulate on each side of his body. I brought my head around on the ground to look at Becky, the one closest to her father.

Can you go wake your father? Please get him off the road. We do not want any angry locals.

Okay! But what is road? Local what?

After I finally explained enough to send her on her task, I continued to listen as our contact finally introduced himself as Jack. I asked him if his wife's name was Jill. He made a weak laugh, mostly like he didn't want to offend me for my no doubt well played out joke. (When I found out that his wife's name was, in fact, Jill, I was told to go away because I couldn't stop laughing and smacking things with my tail.)

Honking horns stopped our conversation for the moment and we all looked to see that the impatient log jam surround Dan's lengthy body had grown noisy. Becky, instead of waking her father as I'd asked, had gotten distracted by one of the trucks nearby and was nosing all over it. She scared the driver clean out of his truck when she stuck her head as far into the cab as she could. Chasing after him, she barraged the driver with warbled questions that he had no way of understanding. He, in turn, shouted at her to go away while hiding behind the trailer of another truck.

I looked at Tom and he bobbed his head and then continued talking to Jack while I pushed myself on to my feet along with Sarah. She went to wake her father, thankfully, as I would've kicked him or bitten his tail or something, while I managed her sister. It took some work to get Becky away from poking her tail at the hood latches on the semi. I only managed it after I gave her some explanation for what was making the racket underneath the fiberglass cover she was fucking with. Dan got to his own paws and dragged himself somewhat out of the way, as now he only blocked the street that Jack lived on instead of the state route behind his tail tip. The last of his sleepy inertia was shaken off when one of the semis idling next to where he had been laying swerved out of its way to run over the end of his tail.

All the humans ceased talking and froze in alarm as Dan roared in pain. The semi-tractor rocked on its wheels as he yanked his tail from beneath its steering axle, and then a thousand plus kilograms of muscle and bone were slammed into the side of the semi-trailer in retribution. The side caved in as every ninety-degree angle and straight line in the metal box went awry. Corners of the container split, and gun racks containing dozens of assault rifles and machine guns, along with hundreds of ammo crates, spilled on the road. Much to our surprise, to say the least. The tractor made two jerky attempts to drive away, but still attached at the fifth wheel to the wrecked trailer it only spun its wheels. The semi stalled, and the driver emerged aiming, what looked like a big shotgun to me, and began firing at Dan immediately. Judging by the way that the driver was bracing himself against his cab and still being knocked back, I'd guess that he was firing slugs.

He had fired three times before Dan's tail tip flashed past the driver and revealed that the weapon had been snatched from his hands so quickly that his trigger finger had been ripped clean off. The driver stared stupidly at his bloody four fingered hand before drawing in a breath to scream. That breath was squeezed from his chest as Dan's tail returned and wrapped around the man before slamming him into the ground where he lay pinned and gaping breathlessly like a fish.

Dan whimpered in pain while his two daughters were near the end of his tail hopping up and down in rage and snarling angry death threats as their fury continued to build. Greta was yelling from the house, demanding to know what was going on and Jack was pale with horror at watching all this play out in rapid fire fashion until Alex nudged him into calling 911 on his house phone. My brother-in-law came forward and motioned me along to help the injured child of the egg. Talking to Dan, I worked through a quick transfer with him and, once the driver was in my tail coils, he was able to painfully straighten his tail out for Alex to get a look at it. Sarah and Becky kept snapping their jaws near the asshole driver's head while continuing to bellow their anger at the gasping man. I felt something warm and liquid run across my tail and was disgusted to realize he had pissed himself. He was pissing on me! The fucking cur! First, he runs someone over, then shoots them, then the fucker has the temerity to be so fucking scared that he pisses on me? What the fuck did he think was going to happen? Maybe I should let him go and let the sisters do to him what they were promising they would.

Tom had stacked all the weapon lockers into a pile, including the shotgun that he had trotted off to retrieve from a neighboring home's roof, and was circled around them to keep wandering hands away. There was no shortage of those loitering around after the tremendous amount of noise that the whole interaction had produced. All around us vehicles had stopped, and people had emerged from their homes until a god damned constellation of lights dotted the area as images were taken and video was recorded with cell phones. Soon police had arrived, and they were obviously dealing with several local issues of their own as every single one of them was wearing a plate carrier, a leg holster, and carrying their own carbines.

As usual, the first thing they all aimed their weapons at were us. Biggest threat I guess, although why people still fucking assumed that we were at all times a mortal threat just due to our fucking presence was another example of how long it would take for humans and used-to-be-humans to interact casually in everyday life once more. Once they had calmed down, and we could explain to them what happened, they held the driver at gunpoint while I unraveled my tail to allow them to make their arrest. Until the ambulance got there one cop was kneeling on the guy's back, while another held his sidearm pointed at the man from a meter away. Two ambulances arrived, and as soon as he could be strapped to a gurney and accompanied by one of the police officers one of them departed. The other stayed to treat Dan. Or tried to anyway. When Alex got tired of them fumbling around, he told them what supplies he needed instead and to get out of the way. These requests they granted him and left in a hurry to another call as soon as it was established no other injuries were present.

The cops watched as Alex showed them where Dan's tail had been run over. They looked dubious as there were no strong indications that it had been there. At least until Alex pushed down on the tail near where his spinal fin was torn and bleeding. Dan roared in pain and told Alex to knock it off. The officers were spooked by his loud protest and I tried to assure them that he was merely speaking and not threatening any violence. Only after some amount of coercion, were they enticed to come close enough to take pictures of the injury. They finally believed us when they saw fucking tread marks scuffed into the scales of Dan's tail.

I was more than a little take-a-back by the investigation that followed. One detective showed up in a marked SUV. Took pictures, collected the driver's pointer finger and bagged the weapon it was attached to, documented the slug marks on Dan's scales and his possibly broken tail (I'm sure using it to crush the cargo container had done nothing but fuck it up further), and asked Tom to help him sort the weapons and scattered ammo crates. Another crime scene processer arrived to launch a drone and get aerial shots of what happened before helping her fellow investigator document all the weapon's serial numbers and the lot numbers on the ammo.

Less than an hour later they loaded up all the weapons, told us they had time for nothing else, and asked us our names and addresses to be in contact to give interviews.

"Wait!" I tried to slow them down, what was the fucking rush? "Where are you going? Is that really all you're going to do? We were all witnesses! That asshole tried to murder Dan!"

"Who's Dan? I can't, department orders. No one patrols at night. It's too dangerous. We gotta go..." Him and his colleague loaded everything after that jumbled response, slammed their doors, and took off just as the sun slipped below the horizon. The tactical super cops followed soon after. In their haste, leaving the wrecked tractor-trailer blocking the state highway. What the fuck was that? I pulled open the container's doors and more ammo fell out. Looking inside I could see a few more weapons racks. The long barrels of the weapons still easily seen.

I lifted my head and turned to Jack. "Call 911 again, tell those dumbasses they left weapons and ammunition here."

Jack came out of his house just two minutes after he went inside. "They asked if you would be willing to guard them for the night."

I twisted to look at my husband with incredulity poring off my scales. "Are you hearing the same shit I am?"

Alex was on the satellite phone with Stout and reported everything that just happened. The answer confirmed some of my worst fears.

"He says that in the past eight hours things have taken a real turn for the worst in Boise. The police are being ambushed by teams of gunmen and executed, and as you have just discovered, stolen weapons are being moved through the area."

I looked at the container again, half fallen off the trailer it was sitting on and badly damaged.

"Kim I've gotta tell you, the pucker factor on this is at about 13 for me. Maybe we should go somewhere else..." Alex said after we had milked all the information out of Stout that we could for the time being.

"Um..." Jack began to add. "I think, I think I've been hearing gunfire all day. It doesn't sound like it does in the movies so I'm not sure... Do you think my wife and my son are safe?"

"I'm sure she's fine. But we shouldn't stay here. Do you have enough money to pay for a hotel room somewhere else?"

"Figure it out soon. Remember, we got a baby with us too." I reminded Alex and Jack. "All of us on four legs can deal with a sub-zero night. I can't guarantee that the rest of you won't die from exposure."

The humans worked together to figure out somewhere else to stay that would be a little better than staying the night next to the crash site of an unsecured gun smuggling operation. But neither were we going to leave this shit out for their owners to come find. Or whatever the fuck the cops thought they were doing by leaving military grade weapons up for grabs on a city street.

We could bury them. Suggested Dan, as his daughters leaned against him to offer comfort for the pain he was probably experiencing because of his crutch splinted tail.

I had a better idea though. We will bury the ammunition. But we are going to destroy the weapons.

We set Jack to record our operation after he narrated the fact that the police had left the site unguarded. I started by ripping the doors completely off the end of the container and then Tom lifted the opposite end off its mounts until everything slid out with a crash onto the road. We were blocking the highway again but at this point we didn't care and ignored the irate horns blaring at our immense asses. We were having fun bending the barrels of every weapon in the shipment and tossing them into a heap of twisted metal in the median of the thoroughfare. Sarah and Becky worked together to claw through the frozen ground until they had a pit deep enough for one of them to climb into. Dan explained to them what to do, and Becky then began pawing crates of ammo to Sarah in the hole where she carefully stacked them in neat rows while they chirped back and forth to each in a rhythm that synchronized their movements.

Once all the crates were in the seven-meter deep hole we nudged the pile of destroyed weapons on top and then buried it all. Dan, who it turns out had some working knowledge of semis, reached under the front of the trailer and was able to hook the release with a claw and then raked the supply lines to cut them. Dan relayed through us to Alex to push the big yellow diamond shaped button in the cab and we shoved the tractor and trailer into the median to cover the goods. Afterwards, we cleaned ourselves off in the snow nearby. By the time we were done doing law enforcement's job for them, the rest of our travelling circus had made arrangements for the night.

Alex looked like he was excitedly patting himself on the back in his head. "Good news. I've got rooms at a convention center by the airport. Which has garage doors opening into it. You get to sleep indoors!"

I was pleased. That meant we could finally set up plans for our search.

"How much money do we have left Alex? How much is this going to cost us?" Tom asked his brother. Fiscally responsible, I'm glad someone in our marriage was. We'd probably be soldiers of fortune in Mexico to make ends meet for our family if he wasn't.

Alex shrugged and slung his rifle and go-bag. "You and Kim still have a very large cash reserve. Low six figures from the accounts you gave me identification for. While I'm on assignment and racking up per diem and lodging expenses on top of my salary. We don't have to worry about it as long as I keep sending in my reports. I'm going to claim all this as a work-related expense." He paused, and the glowing satisfaction on his face increased until I could barely look at him. "In fact, I am making money off you. Hahaha"

"What the fuck ever. As long as I get to lie somewhere that I'm not getting snowed on, you incandescent light bulb."

Jack kept bleating about his home, and only stopped once his mother reminded him that we had all come here to help him find his family and possibly rescue them from impending danger. That it was only fair that he accompany us to the hotel to brainstorm our search. We ran into one problem relatively quickly, Dan. Before we had even started to load all the humans onto me, the long absent Prometheus (The fucker had been in the backyard of one of the neighbors watching our struggles with not the slightest indication of helping.) was kind enough to let us know that with Dan's tail injury he would not be able to fly.

"Are you sure Prometheus? This is life or death here. We'll have to walk to the hotel."

Our ersatz 'guide' looked at Dan's tail again, telling me everything I needed to know about the fucking ex-computer program being sure. After sniffing at it for a few minutes, with Alex watching and scratching his head at the diagnostic validity of sniffing a possible broken bone, Prometheus sat back on his haunches with the smell of certitude.

"Not broken, just bruised. He'll be fine in a couple of days as long as he doesn't move too much. Once we reach this hotel, I recommend that he remain there while the search is underway. He will not be able to fly with his tail being dead weight."

My daughters are to stay with me as well. I thought you were bringing us to safety, but instead we seem to have been placed squarely in harm's way.He told us, with his scales bristling in agitation to match the smell of his anxiousness.

Big Egg Father hurt? We stay! No go!

No go without egg father! Yes, yes!

So at least we didn't have to worry about them while Tom and I went on our search. But we still had the matter of getting to the hotel. Which, according to Jack, was ten miles away.

I snapped out instruction to speed things along. The image of the weapons clouding my mind and making me on edge. "Alright, enough talk! Jack, grab all the maps and documentation you have showing where the search has occurred for your wife and son. Grab something of theirs that will have their scent on it as well as their pictures. One other thing that will come in handy is something that you can carry that has a special significance to both of your family members. I'll explain later, now snap to it! And while you're at it, start talking with your mother about whether you're going to stay here or come with us to the safe zone that my house has become.

Alex, Greta, on my back. Tom, please go get James and Patricia, I'm getting some seriously bad vibes being here right now after seeing what was in that truck. I don't want to be anywhere near here when those gunmen return." Dan and his daughters turned around to stand guard while everyone else worked together to load me down once more.

Soon enough, we were ready to go. Jack, James, Patricia, and Greta were on my back huddled beneath the shelter for concealment as well as warmth. Alex put on another layer of cold weather gear and climbed up his brother's neck to sit on the spine growing from his vertebrae so he could speak to his sibling without shouting. I still had the radio clipped to my ear as well for more discreet conversations. Or, at least until I or one of the other children of the egg responded, our default speech volume was not what anyone could reasonably consider as being as quiet as a mouse fart.

Tom took point with Alex relaying directions for him from his phone. I was in the middle with Sarah and Becky on either side of me. And bringing up the rear was the side by side tag team of the hulking Dan and the smaller Prometheus. We constituted quite the fucking parade I should say so. At least it was night and, if nothing else, black dragons excelled at slipping unnoticed into the night.

And so could other children of the egg for that matter.

We were about a third of the way there and passing through a vast unlit (energy conservation had become endemic across the world since zero day) mall parking lot when Tom stopped with his tail held stiffly straight upwards as a sign. I froze at the gesture, and the rest took their cues from me and halted as well. Although the effect was lost entirely when the sister on each side of me began to pepper me with questions about why Tom did what he did, why we had stopped, and why the moon was the color that it was.

"Standby, Tom smells four others." Alex's whispered voice came to my ear. Which annoyed me very much because I know Tom could give a better SPOT report than that. What the fuck does he mean by 'others'? The humans on my back were clamoring quietly to find out what was going on in the darkness that was only broken up by the waning crescent moon and the stars as I crouched low and slithered forward. I froze once more at the sound of a new voice coming from off to my left and slightly elevated above me. The mall roof, the 'others' were children of the egg.

"Ssssstop! Don't come any closer!" Was shouted to us in the hoarse tones of our new vocal cords. It was a female calling out to us, I realized as I raised my head next to Tom's and opened my nostrils wide to sniff her character out. I think she was no older than my twins. Another reminder of what I had been noticing more and more. The majority of changed were young, very young.

"I bite! I won't let you take them from me!"

This declaration was followed by the snicking sound of teeth being gnashed several times. We remained motionless and did not respond at first as Tom glanced at me through the dim gray gloom that our eyes rendered the dark into now. There was a commotion, and then a new, older, male voice came from the same direction as the first.

You do not smell familiar! Identify yourself! Strangers around here mean danger. And all of you smell like danger follows you close behind. Why are humans with you? Who are they to you?

My husband put himself between me and the unseen speakers and replied as my head slid up his neck past Alex to come alongside his own. "I am Tom Schwarzkopf with my wife Kim from Coeur D'Alene. We are here to find a lost mother and her son. Who are you? And why are you hiding from us?"

I...I do not know my name anymore. My...my daughter tells me that my name is John.

"It is John, Dad! I am Jessica! Remember?"

...of course I do, dear.

Sure sounded by the tone of his voice that he didn't. I wonder what happened to him.

Who else is with you? You only told us of two of you. Who are the rest?

I am Dan Robertson, and these two are my daughters. Sarah, and Becky.Dan identified his family by pointing out his children with his snout. They chirped their greetings in turn.

Hello! I, First Light. What this place? In danger?

Hello! I, Night Star. You four not only four! Who else? Friends?

Who is the last one with you? Who are these humans? Can they be trusted? Very, very few people know about us...

I glanced back at Prometheus, and the humans riding my back. They had all exited the shelter and stood at various points on my body looking futilely into the dark pressing in from all sides.

The last child of the egg can introduce himself. He is no relation of mine, that I swear. The humans can speak for themselves as well. Once they give you their names, how about you start answering some of our questions? How many of you are there? Where are they? Are you in danger?

Alex identified himself from his place on Tom's neck once his brother had prodded him to give his name. Greta called out her name and what she and her son Jack were doing with us out into the dark in the wrong direction. Which James and Patricia copied, and led to our unseen interrogator to chuff laughter that spooked the blind humans even more thoroughly.

From the roof of the mall I saw a shape rise and approach the edge before leaping to the ground. A second, larger shape followed the first and the two immense, poorly defined, shadows approached us cautiously. Behind them on the roof I could see the outlines of two more lifted heads watching us with light reflecting from their eyes. Faintly, I could hear a hissed threat in the same feminine voice we'd heard earlier from one of those heads.

"You hurt my mom or dad then I bite! Candy Crush will too!"

Jesus Christ...was there an arcade in that mall? What's next for a name? Dig Dug?

Patricia screamed as the ferocious looking heads of our questioners came close enough for the weak moonlight to reveal them to my passengers. I guess it was unsettling to see a pair of wary looking heads with turkey platter sized eyes and jaws large enough to eat a horse appear out of a nearly pitch-black night. Unsettling enough it seemed, to cause the four adults on my back to shriek in terror.

The smaller, bronze eyed, male was the one who had been talking with us. The larger female (she was about Tom's size), said nothing. Instead her suspicious scent, narrowed rust colored eyes, and the angry furrows creasing her snout and brow did all her talking for her.

This is my wife I think... John explained. She does not speak, although she will be able to understand you. This building behind me...

"It is a mall, dad!" Came the voice of the watching female from the roof. John raised his wing in acknowledgement.

This mall then... It closed six months ago and has been our home ever since.

Who is we?

From what my daughter tells me, we are all from the surrounding area. There are forty-seven of us. I think we are called...children of the egg?

My jaw dropped open in disbelief as the number he said floored me. Forty-seven? Fuck!

We have taken over this...mall and made it our home. Besides the humans with us, only a few important others know of where we are. Everywhere we go, we are attacked. Shot at by...by...noisy sticks.

"Guns, dad! They're called guns!"

Yes, guns. He bobbed his head. Because of this, we only come out at night to find food. Our humans have turned on the water, and to make things light and working we also have a...wiring man? A string runner?

"Energy! Electricity!"

Energy! Yes, the wiring man has made energy available.

Why are you out here?

Tonight it is my family's turn to guard. Five are out hunting, fourteen above us flying, the rest are inside.

Can we come inside?

"No dad! No strangers!" John's daughter shouted from her perch. His wife beside him opened her mouth and made a reverberating growl of defiance.

No, I am afraid not it seems. We do not like bringing in humans that are unknown to us.

Another task we perform as we meet other children of the egg is to tell them of the safe zone that is being set up in the North. Have you heard of this?

We have. There is some interest in going there.

There is? Can we speak to those who wish to go?

No.

But...

A flapping of wings broke Tom off, and with a thump the young female that had been shouting corrections this whole time landed before her parents. Sitting on her hind legs the little firecracker stretched her neck upwards and told us off with her yellow eyes glittering challengingly.

"My dad said no! No means no! If any of us want to go with you away from here, then they will find you. Suspicious! Noisy! Not like! Go, before others come!

To say that I was bemused would have been understating the point. Was this little female in charge? She leapt back to her lookout perch where I could see her glare down at us. This seemed to mark the end of our interaction. Which was frustrating as hell. Right in front of us we had a perfect example of how a large group of children of the egg and humans could remain safe. And we were being denied a chance to learn from it by a little female that looked like she had just learned how to add fractions before the wings growing out of her back tore her from school and the human race.

Tom asked his brother where we were staying the night at and called out to John and his wife as their tails disappeared back towards the mall.

While we are here we are staying at the Marriott Center. We will stop here before we leave again and any that would like to join us where their safety can be assured they may accompany us.

Leaving the family to their lookout from the top of the mall anchor store we continued on our way. Now, hopelessly distracted by the fact that we had found another large group of children of the egg and were turned away without learning a thing about them. I had almost bitten my tongue clean in half keeping quiet out of concern for their security. I didn't know how many humans knew of them being there, it being implied that some number did already, but I didn't want to add to that tally and compromise their security. Whatever the case may have been, they seemed to be safe where they were inside the derelict retail center for the moment.

It was a damn miracle that we made it the rest of the way to the hotel without coming under the fire that we heard erupting more and more often in the night. An explosion somewhere in the direction of downtown rattled the windows nearby. Our pace picked up as the chatter of gunfire was joined by the wailing of multiple sirens. The maelstrom came closer, close enough for Sarah and Becky to launch aloft to find where the fire was coming from. The description of what they saw made no sense to me, but they did not seem bent out of shape about it. So, we just kept on with the easy trot we adopted on our way to our lodging.

Once we arrived into the mostly empty parking lot, Alex jumped into his brother's waiting paw and was lowered to the ground in front of the hotel's main entrance. I lay on my belly and crept beneath the awning covering the check-in area accompanied by the feeling of my wings hitting the roof and the scales on my underside and tail dragging across the asphalt and concrete with a satisfying scratching sensation. Rolling on to my side, Alex helped unload me and then he and the others gathered their luggage and entered the lobby.

Sarah and Becky leapt into the air and circled the hotel from above looking down and around at the surrounding area. Tom rumbled something to Dan and the father called out to his children to stay low to avoid the airplanes that could be heard even then landing at BOI nearby.

"So, where is this place that is big enough for all of us to sleep indoors?"

"You mean to tell me you didn't see the damn convention center that you are sitting right in front of?"

"...yes?"

Tom buried his snout into his front paws in disbelief. Always good to keep him guessing.

What door is that thing going to have that is big enough for us to fit through? Dan asked.

It will have to be an overhead door. That is the only thing we are going to fit through.

Alex came back out twenty minutes later with James and Patricia who was also holding her son in her arms. They were accompanied by a young college age boy that for once didn't look at us like we were chomping at the bit to rip him limb from limb.

"I spoke to the hotel manager, and the only reason why she is allowing this is because we have not had a single event in the center since zero day. There are a pair of roll-up doors with a loading dock around back that I have given Mr. Schwarzkopf here the key for. If you are going to eat or drink, I ask you to please do so outside. Any questions?"

I stretched my neck out and then twisted my head to look at the skinny kid with one eye. His name tag said Tyler.

"Tyler, are the lights on inside? The heat? Is there a tv we can use to watch the news? Is the floor carpeted?"

He shrank away from my eye, which was larger than his head, before replying.

"Lights are on, and I turned the heat back on as soon as your reservation was made. I'll have maintenance come by and hook a satellite box up to a projector. And yes, the floor is carpeted."

My scales lifted as I expressed how irrationally happy the carpeting made me. Tyler sneezed at the smell of my glee. Diffidently, he began to wring his hands while looking at me.

"Um...I have, I mean can I ask something of you?" He looked behind himself as if checking to see if he was being watched. I twirled my tail to indicate for him to go on with his request once his attention returned. But after he stared at me for a few more minutes I remembered that he probably had no idea what flailing my fifth appendage around meant.

"Yes?"

"Uh...Can you take me flying around the hotel real quick?" He blushed as he looked down at his feet. "I've always wondered what it would be like if dragons were real...What it would be like to be one..."

I shrugged. "Sure, kid. But I'll have you know that it is not anything that you would ever want after everything that has happened to us since we became children of the egg. Not to mention the change was the only thing I've ever experienced that I thought felt worse than being shot or popping my twins out. You could go try to beg that child of the egg lolling against the wall behind me with the crazy lightning eyes to become one if that's what gets your rocks off."

Tyler looked over at Prometheus, but before he had opened his mouth to ask, the fallen alien shot his hopes down. "No."

The kid looked like someone had just cut his sails apart, so I told the others to meet me around back. Tyler's back was still to me, which led him to scream when I bound towards him, grabbed him in one paw, and jumped into the air with a snap of my wings.

I circled around the hotel until I rose to the level that Night Star and First Light were dancing around at it and then joined them. I opened my hand a little bit and told Tyler to get comfortable and not to fucking puke on me before engaging in low level aerobatics with the two sisters. His initial screams of fear quickly became those of unbridled joy as the bitterly cold air whipped past us. We spun around the hotel, startling a good many people that I could see with their blinds open, as we twirled and looped around the structure. I was having fun playing tag with Becky a mere five minutes later when I noticed the feeling of Tyler shivering in my hand and had to call it a night for the eager but unprepared kid. To be fair, I hadn't given him a chance to go find a coat or given him a warning I was about to snatch him off the ground like a hawk taking a rabbit.

"So, what do you think?" I asked him as I thumped to the ground next to the rest of my party waiting near a loading dock for the doors to be opened. Opening my paw, I held it near the ground for Tyler to hop down. The poor kid was shivering too violently to answer, instead his shit eating grin and eagerly nodding head had to answer for him. Alex came over and threw his jacket around the kid's shoulders. "Sorry for not taking into account that you would get cold." I felt bad for him to be honest. This was almost literally living out a personal dream, and I had to make it miserable for him.

Reaching a shaking hand into a pocket of his uniform, the kid produced a garage door opener and handed it to Alex. Pressing the large button opened the rattling loading bay door as we looked inside the brightly lit open space behind it. Dan wanted to go first, as being the largest of us he would certainly be the litmus test as to whether we'd all fit. In the end, he only lost a few dozen scales scraping through the concrete framed opening. Tyler rushed forward to collect the loose scales but was checked by Becky when her tail thumped down into his way and she snarled at him that those were not for him to have. Sarah was nudging them into a pile for some reason I couldn't fathom when Dan's head reappeared from inside.

Sarah and Becky, let him have them if he wants them. He is being very kind to us by working with his manager to allow us somewhere warm to spend the night. I think you will enjoy being in here. You do not remember sleeping indoors do you?

No.

Not like! No sky!

But it will be warm inside. Is that something you would like to feel?

I warm now!

Curious! Becky squeaked, and the two of them abandoned the pile of scales, and their reservations, to shoot into the interior where I could see, and hear, them trilling questions about the room and the equipment in it. Tyler ran the rest of the way to the scales and scooped them eagerly into his pockets. He held one up to a light and turned it over and over in his hands. The look of awe on his face was unmistakable, it seemed he always had been fascinated by the idea of dragons after all. Tom brought him back to reality by giving him a stern warning.

"For your own safety, I would not tell anyone about those or having met us. I don't want us to have to hide our interactions or relationships with others. But already this family here." He flared his wing out to hover over Patricia and her family. "Have left their home and their livelihood just because they were seen with us. The danger right now is simply too great to be associated with us."

"You mean you don't want me posting on facegramtwitchat about how awesome it was to get to fly with you? That I have proof I met you with the scales? My friends would love to have one too!"

"This is serious." I barked at the kid, who squeaked and froze at my growled reminder. "People are dying."

"Haven't you been watching the news?" Tom added.

All the excitement bled from Tyler's face and he nodded morosely. "The local news says that there is a large group of dragons somewhere near the city. I've seen that some group has been posting flyers everywhere for information on their location. The police are afraid and will not respond to any calls by themselves and the mayor has imposed a ten 'o'clock curfew. Every night there is gunfire all over the city. Sometimes I can hear something roaring in pain. I don't know what you sound like if you yell or shout, but I'm guessing that there is only one living thing on this world that can make that sound."

Disappointing, but not unexpected. Even if the kid seemed overjoyed by being taken for a flight, I think I had gone too far in endangering him just to fulfill his fantasies. He needed to get inside, out of sight.

"Let's get inside kid. You're still shivering."

James and Patricia had already gone inside to let Robert toddle around aimlessly off to the side. They watched apprehensively, as they should have, when we walked by. Being aware of things as small as they and their child were was distracting work after all. Each of my four feet were larger and certainly heavier than they were. Once we were all inside, Alex shut the door and then hung the opener where we could poke it with a talon or the tip of a tongue. Which, as gross as it sounded, was the best way for us to manipulate small, easily damaged, electronic gadgets. Another consideration being that touch sensitive screens did not react to our talons.

Tyler still had questions written all over his face as we moved tables and chairs against the walls in (somewhat) neat stacks to accommodate our large frames. But before he could ask them a loud and pissed voice came from the radio clipped to his belt and he shuffled reluctantly away.

"Come back when you get off shift if you wish to speak with us more. Remember, do not tell anyone that you met us here. Please." He perked up before he entered a small hallway that led back to the hotel proper. Just out of sight, we heard a new conversation between him, and what sounded like the maintenance guy that was here to rig up television for us. The grizzled maintenance worker came in, and as soon as I saw his eyes narrow at us with hostility, I knew that we had a problem.

He was polite enough, and swiftly had us fitted out so that we could watch the news. But the tension in his posture, and the angry look in his eyes, never abated the entire time he was in our sight. Handing the remote for the projector to Alex, he left us with ominous words that made my...my...hackles (I guess) raise and bristle in alarm.

"It is very good to know that you have joined us. All appropriate measures will be taken."

Before anyone could ask him just what he meant. He left. In a hurry.

"Did anyone see his nametag?" I asked.

Henry Dan reported, from where he was watching his daughter Becky stick her head up into the rafters to look closely at a bank of lights. Sarah, next to her, lifted her wing and began poking at something with her thumb claw and the lights flared to life, thrilling the two sisters into head bobbing excitement with their discovery.

"I don't think we found a friend in Henry." I observed.

"I don't think so either." Tom seconded me.

Alex nodded while he was turning the tv to a local news station. "Probably not. But we haven't reached the point yet where you five can attack people just because they look sideways at you. Here's the news for you."

"You've said almost that exact same thing before."

"It's still true. Should I go get Greta and Jack to plan our search?"

"No. I'm tired. Some of us have been flying for the past two days. What the fuck have you been doing? Worrying about how cold it is?"

"Fair enough." Alex acknowledged while dragging a chair and a table between his brother's forelegs. Tom flipped them both over and chortled with amusement when his older sibling gave him the bird.

We fell into silence for awhile as Dan and I watched the news while Tom's amusement grew as he kept his attention on the sisters as they crept around the room (ceiling wasn't high enough for us to stand) in their giddy explorations.

Several hundred believers in the religious sect are believed dead in the execution of the suicide pact.

_ Breaking news out of Seattle is up next._

_ _ A new voice chimed in as the image of a ship sinking into the water was replaced by an aerial view of Seattle. It was hard to see what was actually happening on the streets as they were blanketed by clouds of black smoke and white tear gas.

Hundreds of thousands took to the streets of Seattle, Washington today to demand that dragons be removed from the state after reports of a security zone being established in the Cascade Mountains. The location of this area is shrouded in secrecy as is the number of 'children of the egg' present at the site. It is estimated that between 1000 to 2000 exist in Western Washington state although the number is highly speculative given the circumstances of zero day and how many may have been driven into the wilderness.

_ While large portions of the protest are peaceful, fringe groups on both ends of the ideological spectrum have been using the rallies as cover. Widespread instances of arson and coordinated attacks on riot police have been reported with casualties on both sides running into the thousands. It is unknown how many fatalities have been reported as state authorities have sealed the city and shut off cellular and internet access to contain the situation._

_ In local news._ The image shifted to the two men leading the evening newscast. _ _

_ A secretive organization has continued to post notices across the city demanding information for the whereabouts of a large number of dragons that are reportedly somewhere in or in the vicinity of downtown Boise. There have only been scattered sightings of these onetime humans during the day. However, at night they can be frequently heard as they call out to each other in a language that has so far resisted direct translation to English or any other known human language. The mystery organization has also posted a video to our website that is chilling in nature. I warn you, the footage that we are about to present is graphic in nature._

_ _ The video began to play, starting with a jostling handheld camera of some kind the scenery changed to show a dozen masked men carrying what looked to me like M240s.

"Your loved ones are dead. Replaced by these creatures. The invasion has started, and the resistance has begun. Are you on the side of making America pure again? Or do you decide to throw in your lot with invaders from other countries, and other worlds? You must choose between freedom and death. There is no middle ground in the war that is long overdue."

The leader, reading from a script that he held, put his fingers in his mouth and whistled. Off screen, an engine started and faded away. Behind the dozen men a large tarp was dragged off something previously hidden. It was an unconscious child of the egg bound with heavy chains around her legs and running to her neck and tail. I could tell that she was still alive by the fact that she was breathing, and I could also tell that she was pregnant by the thickness of her body. My stomach lurched as the floor dropped away from me. No.

"This creature behind me is a pregnant female that has been sent here to squeeze us from our rightful homes with its unnatural children."

_ _ A bound human was shoved into view and kicked to his knees. The hood over his head was removed to reveal the panicked black man beneath it.

"This man has soiled our nation with his presence. This creature has soiled our world with its. It is time to reclaim our purity." The armed men all walked off screen as the cameraman backed up several meters. The bound man raised his hands in the direction the men had gone and began screaming against the cloth gag in his mouth while shaking his head wildly in denial.

"Ready...Aim...Fire!"

The video footage blacked out, but the sound continued to play. The child of the egg awoke as the first barrage struck her scales and roared in pain and, most alarmingly, in words.

_ "STOP! MY CHILDREN! MY CHILDREN! STOP! SOMEONE HELP ME! MY CHI..." _

Her words trailed off in a wordless roar of pain followed by a wet gurgle that made my heart stop as the gunfire continued for another minute. Next to me and behind me, Dan moaned in horror even as the smell of it drifted to intermingle with my own. Tom's tail found mine and wrapped it while one of our hind paws grasped the other's tightly in alarm. Sarah and Becky behind me screamed in terror. The sound of weapons fire ended, and the video resumed with the dozen men standing in front of a pair of large digitally blurred patches. The speaker turned and spit in the direction of the larger blurred patch before finishing his address.

"Any that give aid to these creatures or to humans that have no place in the future will be attacked. We know of these so-called safe areas and we swear to you with god on our side and as our witness that these areas will not stand. Join us in our fight for the future of the pure human race. Or be slaughtered with the vile creatures that you have chosen to ally yourselves with. To contact us dial..."

_ _ The video ended before he could finish his recruitment speech. The newscasters came back on with shocked looks of their own. The man on the left covered his face with both hands before running off screen sobbing, while his partner held a hand up to his mouth. He lowered it to reveal his mouth working wordlessly before he began to try to make amends.

"Viewers...if any of you are still with us...That video was meant to end at..."

I stopped paying attention. After seeing and hearing that there was only one action I could take at the moment, and it was not listening to excuses. I closed my eyes and dived my mind deep to reassure my little ones, and myself, that everything was going to be alright. Even if I knew there was a distinct possibility it wouldn't be. Tom held me and hummed deep in his chest reassuringly, as I curled around my precious cargo and nosed at my stomach, whimpering at the thought that something like that could happen to my children. Hot tears ran down my cheeks. How...how could those monsters do that to a mother?

"My god..." James said breathlessly. Not breaking my tightly wound protective curl, I lifted my head to rest it on my own flank. I saw him holding Patricia, who herself looked as pale as a corpse and had her hands clamped over her young son's ears. My own all-important children's heartbeats fluttered through the contact with my lower jaw as I watched the family come face to face with the horror that they had been spared. Unashamedly, I cried for the lives I had just heard ending. Not just for the mother, but for the man who screamed his pleas for life next to her. And most importantly of all, for the children in their mother's womb. The cries for a deliverance from their fate, that only their mother would have ever known. Before all fell silent, in the awful clatter of machine gun fire.

"Yes, this is what we face because of what was done to us. What he..." I smacked Prometheus with my wing while he steadily held my fiery tearful gaze. "...has done to us. Why don't you tell them Prometheus? Why don't you tell them that this is for the best?"

He looked away and rubbed his eyes against his side. I didn't want to see the glimmer of tears in those eyes. He has no fucking right to be sorry for the bloodshed that he has brought about.

"There is so much reckless hate in your species. We want to help you. But we cannot help you as you are. The change that you need to undergo must, it must, come from within. I am sorry, but this was going to be the fate of human beings whether or not we intruded into your affairs. War was approaching your planet and we had to act to save it. By removing the most destabilizing technology that you had and introducing a factor that will ultimately save this world and the human race. You, Kim, Tom, Dan, First Light, and Night Star. Although you will suffer at the hands of your former species, you are needed, your experiences are needed, for a brighter future. In time the human and children of the egg races will coalesce. In time you will be ready to fight those that create darkness."

"Why is it, that every time we ask you to explain yourself, your rationale for what you've done changes?" Tom wanted to know. I didn't. Not right now. Not after listening to that mother scream for the lives that she held. Before they were all snuffed out by 7.62x51. But I had to fucking listen to it anyway.

"You know what you need to. Nothing we tell you is necessarily wrong. Neither is it ever the entirety of the truth. Actions still need to be taken that..."

I tuned him out to listen to something more important at the moment. Tom noticed my attention shifting inwards and cut off Prometheus' shifting bullshit with a sharp slash of his wing. My children's hearts thrummed with distress, and I tried to soothe them alongside my own anguished thoughts. The monsters... I had four legs, two wings, and a tail. But there was not a shadow of doubt in my mind who the true brutes, ogres, fucking senseless monstrosities here were. They were the ones who could hear a mother plead for her children, and then execute her without a pang of trouble, without a thought as to who she was. The seismic rhythm of my husband's life-giving organ thundered against my side. Calming me. Steadying me.

From the corner of my eye, I saw more forms approach me. Sarah, and Becky, surrounded Tom and myself protectively. Their bright, inquisitive eyes filled with tears. Dan, not far behind them, would not let them escape his reach. Laying down between them and the only portal between us and the hostile world beyond, he faced away from us. But that could not hide the shock of what had been hidden from him and his daughters. The realization of how much animus, how much vitriol there was in the world for what his daughters had become had shaken him to his core. He looked away from the four of us and his titanic body shook, as he admitted his helplessness.

All I want to do is to keep my daughters safe. I do not know if I can anymore... If your home is as safe as you say it is. We need to find this mother and her son and return there as soon as we can.

He took the grunts and whistles right out of my mouth.

...