Chapter 39
Thirty-Nine
Ayla
M other. I caught that word, and the woman standing before me was both everything I would expect from Rymar's mother, and yet nothing at all. For some reason, that she was tailless surprised me, even though I knew that was how it worked. Her hair, however, was exactly right.
"It's a pleasure to meet you," I told her, "but I'm afraid I don't know what to call you, ma'am."
"Ma'am?" the woman gasped, turning to grin at Rymar. "Oh, she's precious, sweetie."
"Mom..." Rymar groaned.
Behind me, Zasen just chuckled. "Let's make our way off the stage, shall we? Emerton, it's good to see you again."
"And you, Zasen," said the yellow-headed man with the blue-green body and tail.
I couldn't help myself. I looked from him to Rymar, trying to see if the yellow was the same. Thankfully, Zasen wrapped an arm around my shoulders to guide me off the stage with him. Rymar walked with the tailless woman - his mother.
"I'm so sorry about her," the yellow-headed man, Emerton, told Zasen. "Cailyon is just very proud of her son."
"Where do you think he gets it?" Zasen joked, turning us all to the side. "And Emerton, this is Ayla, our refugee who is now our roommate."
"Oh, a roommate ?" Cailyon asked her son.
"Mom..." Rymar groaned. "It's not like that. Ayla's a friend, she has been helping Zasen, and Kanik is the one who's been teaching her about Dragon stuff, but she's still learning - and she's probably confused right now."
"By what?" Cailyon asked.
Rymar was right; I was confused. This was his mother, but Emerton was his father? So what did papa mean to him? I was pretty sure he'd also said something about a dad. Were those words used for different family members?
"Ayla - " Rymar tried, but his mother waved him off.
"Let me get your papa and dad," she said. "Levin! Ahmik!" Lifting her arm as high as she could, Cailyon waved for someone else to join us.
Emerton just pinched the bridge of his wide nose. "It's nice to meet you, Ayla," he said. "I'm Rymar's father..." Then he pointed. "The pale man is his dad, and the tailless one is his papa."
"And the olive woman is my step-mother," Rymar added.
Because with those two men was a tailed woman who was a pale-greenish color. Olive wasn't the word I'd pick to describe her, but it worked as well as anything else. The pale man? He also had a tail, and while his chest was blindingly white, his back was a faint shade of grey with orange markings all over it that reminded me of Rymar's. The tailless man? He had brown skin - I knew the term for that now - but his hair was the blackest I'd seen yet.
"You won't remember their names," Rymar assured me, "and you've met my mother and father, but that is Levin with the orange markings, and Ahmik is the tailless man. The woman is Farina, my step-mother."
"I don't know what that means," I whispered.
"Cailyon is the woman who gave birth to him," Emerton said, moving to my side. "Back then, Levin, Ahmik, and I were all partners with her. Ahmik separated from us and is now with Farina, so while he's no longer our partner, he's still one of Rymar's fathers."
"How can he have more than one father?" I asked, looking from Rymar to Zasen in the hopes someone would explain. "Is that a bad question?"
"No, you're fine, sweetie," Emerton assured me, gesturing to the guys to show he had this. "You see, sometimes it's easy to tell who is biologically responsible for a child. But our son?" He smiled, looking rather proud. "He has my yellow, Levin's orange, and Cailyon's red."
"And Ahmik?" I asked, trying to understand how Dragon pregnancies could be so different.
"Ahmik raised me," Rymar hurried to explain. "He's my papa because of that. Either Levin or Emerton created me, but they both try to take credit. We only know I'm not Ahmik's because I have a tail."
I just nodded. "That's confusing."
"One sperm," Zasen said. "Many lovers."
"We had a big family," Emerton said. "Just one child, but I promise Rymar made up for it. Oh, he was a handful!"
Which made me giggle. "He still is."
That was when the rest reached us. The tailless man caught Rymar up in a hug. Most of these people made some comment about being proud of him, but I was still very confused. Taking a step back, I made sure I wasn't in the way, but that seemed to make Rymar's mother notice me even more .
"Oh, I wasn't trying to chase you off, Ayla," Cailyon said. "And with him, you need to do more pushing and less running away. He really doesn't take a hint well."
"Nor do you, Mom!" Rymar snapped. "She is not my girlfriend, okay? Ayla is not interested in that, and if you make her feel pressured, Zasen will take her home."
"Well, I just..." Cailyon tried.
The pale man gestured to be let through so he could make his way over. "Ayla, it's a pleasure," he said, offering me his hand. "I'm Levin. Ignore Cailyon. She's just hoping for grandchildren sooner rather than later, and any woman who doesn't run away from her son seems like a good prospect in her mind."
"Levin!" Cailyon gasped.
"You do, Cai," Levin said with a laugh. "And you'd probably have more luck if you waited for him to find a woman before making things awkward. Besides, this one looks like she's strong enough to beat our boy back with those krael she's wearing."
"They were a present," I said. "Rymar helped get them for me."
"Okay, enough!" Rymar finally yelled. "Mom, Dad, Father, Papa!" He sighed. "Ayla is not used to being crowded. For most of her life, men were not very nice to her. She didn't have a relationship with her parents the way we take for granted - and she certainly did not have three fathers and two mothers." He glanced over at the woman standing quietly beside the tailless man. "And Farina, you're the only one of my parents who isn't trying to embarrass me."
Which was when Zasen leaned into my ear. "They are loud. They are kind. They also love him very much, and while it's confusing, they only want to make sure he's going to be okay with what's coming tomorrow."
"But he's staying here," I said, looking back so I could keep my voice down.
"And we're not," Zasen said. "Losing a friend hurts, Ayla. That's what they're worried about, and trying to make sure he knows they're willing to help if the worst happens. It's what Dragon families do - usually loudly and without the manners you're used to."
"But I'm not his - " I tried.
Zasen shook his head, cutting me off. "They don't care. What they're trying to say is that they approve of you if you are. If you aren't, then they approve of you as a friend. That's all."
I nodded. "Okay."
"So meet them. Talk to them," Zasen said.
"Will you make sure Meri's okay?" I asked.
Which made him smile proudly. "I will." Then he grabbed the shoulder of the yellow-headed man. "And Emerton's the calm one of the bunch. If they get to be too much, you let him know and he'll get you some space, okay?"
"Promise," Emerton said, gesturing for me to come closer. "Oh, you're a tiny thing, aren't you?"
"She's actually packing on the muscles," Rymar said, pausing in the middle of what he'd been saying to someone else .
So the tailless man made his way closer. "So you'll be with the militia tomorrow?" he asked me.
I nodded. "I'm helping Zasen."
"You are braver than me," Farina, the tailed woman said. "Just take care of our boy, okay?" My brow creased at that, so she pointed at Rymar. "I meant this one, but all of them work."
"All?"
"Kanik and Zasen too," Ahmik explained. "I was with Cailyon when we moved beside Zasen's family. Those two boys were instantly friends, and they spent days at a time at our house."
"And then would disappear for days at Naomi's," Emerton chuckled. "But you missed Kanik."
"I got to know him when the boys got their first place," Ahmik assured him. "Always felt bad for him with Tasult, Zasen, and Rymar getting him into shit."
"But he loved it," Emerton said, giving me a little nudge. "I have a feeling you don't mind those boys - "
"Men," Farina corrected. "They're grown up now, Emmy."
"Yes, they are," Emerton agreed. "And Ayla? If they make problems for you, then you can tell us. I promise having three fathers chew a man out - no matter his age - solves things pretty quickly."
"Or his mother," Farina said.
"No, he's nice," I assured them, feeling overly self-conscious. "And he's very patient. I was so confused when I first got here, but he's helped."
"And now you're helping," Emerton told me. "Just be careful tomorrow, okay? Our family has been lucky when it comes to the Moles, and we'd like to keep it that way."
"And any friend of our boy's is part of the family," Ahmik said.
Farina reached over to lightly touch my arm. "And when Cailyon starts talking about grandchildren?" She made a face and shook her head. "Just tell her no, because she would love to have a dozen to spoil."
"My friend is going to have a baby soon," I told her. "Meri. She was a Mole, but now she's a refugee, and Naomi said it's going to be soon."
"How soon?" Ahmik asked.
I shrugged. "Our calendars aren't the same, and Naomi said it could come early because she's too thin and weak."
Farina caught Emerton's eyes. "I'll talk to Naomi this evening. You can handle Cailyon."
"Or at least try," Emerton said. "It's part of her charm, though - and her son is just like her."
"It's part of his charm too," I said.
Which made the three around me laugh. Cailyon noticed.
"Are you hoarding that girl all to yourselves?" she asked. "Come here, Ayla. Let me see you?"
"Mother!" Rymar warned .
"Well, she's cute, sweetie."
Rymar shifted over, placing himself between me and his mom. "Mom, Mole women were abused . Please have some sensitivity, okay? Ayla's my friend, and she knows I'm not going to hurt her, right?"
"I do," I promised as I made my way to him. Then I looked at his mother. "I also don't want children."
"But you're tailless!" she said.
"And I'm a Dragon," I told her. "That means I'm allowed to make my own decisions, I'm equal, and I don't have to do things I don't want to, right?"
"It does," Rymar agreed.
"And I don't want to have children. I don't want to get married." Then I looked up at him. "But I do like having real friends, and Rymar is one of those."
"Yeah, I am," he agreed, dropping his arm over my shoulder. "Mom, if you wanted more kids, you should've had them. I'm not in a rush, and right now, this one is keeping me busy. She's going to stop the Moles, you know."
"I'm trying," I said.
He rubbed my shoulder. "And you look tough today, Ayla. I bet those men won't even recognize you."
Which made me smile. "If they do, they won't be alive long enough for it to matter, right?"
"Exactly," he agreed, lifting his head to look at his entire mess of a family. "She's just one of the guys. We lost Tasult, but we got Ayla." He paused, then laughed once. "And that works better than I realized, because she's actually Saveah's sister."
"What?" Cailyon asked, sounding shocked.
"My mother was taken," I explained. "She had four children in the compound. I didn't know she was a Dragon. I didn't even know Dragons were people!"
"Tiesha?" Cailyon breathed, lifting a hand to cover her mouth.
I nodded. "She was my mother too."
"And my friend back when I was a girl," she said, looking at Rymar, then back at me. "Ayla, did you know you have a grandfather?"
I looked at Rymar. "What?"
"Tiesha's father," Cailyon explained. "Rymar, why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you tell her?!"
"I... But..." he stuttered. "Mom, I didn't know!"
"Oh, I'm going to tell him," Cailyon said. "Why didn't Saveah say anything?"
"Probably because of me," I realized. "My mother didn't get married by choice. She was locked in a hall they call quarantine, kept in a room all alone, and my father came to visit so he could make another child." I licked my lips, aware they were too dry. "He raped her. We weren't supposed to know that word, but I do now, and it's not an easy thing to think about. She's gone and I'm here, and I'm not supposed to be."
"But you're here," Cailyon said, stepping in to wrap me up in a hug. "Oh, child. That does make sense. But when you're ready, you let me know, and I'll make sure you get to meet all of your family, okay? "
"Thank you," I breathed, hugging her back.
"But no crushing, Mom," Rymar said. "Ayla's tough, remember? And you? Mom, you're still a lot, so let my friend breathe. We can't suffocate her before she kicks some Mole ass."
Cailyon eased me back, then tilted her head to look me right in the eyes. "Your mother was a spitfire, Ayla. Tiesha was scared of nothing, and she made all the boys work for it. So you remember that tomorrow - and come home safe, okay?"
I nodded. "I will. I have to." And I looked back at Rymar. "My friends still need me."
He just nodded. "We do."