Chapter 19
Chapter
Nineteen
Tyr smiled as his sister led little Fredda into the area with the pool. They were water dragons, really, even though Aleana had not been born that way, and he wanted them to have access to the warm, steamy goodness while they visited him and Sloan.
“Mama! It’s so pretty! Look at how the rocks shine!” Fredda spun around, looking at the way the crystals lit the area.
“It’s amazing, isn’t it? Ewyrmli Tyr and Sloan are so good to us.”
Fredda snuggled right into him, face against his belly. “He is! Hello, baby! When are you going to get fat?”
“Soon. Soon the baby will grow.” He hugged her gently. “Right now, our baby is so tiny. Just a spark.”
“I want to see baby though!”
“Not for a long while, sweeting. It will be after another bee season.”
She pouted. “That is a long time.”
“It is! You’re going to be able to teach them so many things. To swim, to dance, to sing.” And right now, he was ready to get in the water and swim.
“Can we swims now?” She bounced and twirled. So much energy.
“Yes, we may.” He glanced at Aleana who nodded. “Come in and we’ll relax. Sloan is going to be home soon with picnic foods.”
He slipped out of his robe and slid into the warm water.
Before he could even blink, his niece flung herself into the pool, her clothes flying. Aleana laughed, then followed more sedately, slipping into the water, her loose dress left on the side of the pool on some rocks.
“Oh, this is lovely. Sloan did a grand job.” She smiled at him, but there was worry in her eyes. Is she in danger?
Not with us here. And now you know.
I need to make sure Mari knows. Aleana loved her mate so much, and he was fearsome. He would protect Fredda.
He will. We all will. She is part of a family that adores her.
And he could be dangerous.
Yes. But we’ll hope nothing is going to happen. And be prepared if it did.
“But now we’ll focus on the Giving Feast and preparing for the winter festival.”
She nodded, treading water. “This pool is amazing, brother. Sloan is worth his weight in honey.”
“More than.” Sloan was his everything, his heartbeat, his soul.
“I am so glad you have him.” She frowned at Fredda. “Fredda! Do not dive so much.”
“But, Mama! I like it!”
Tyr ducked down to hide his smile.
“Yes, but you are splashing with your feet when you do, and I want to enjoy the quiet.”
“Yes, Mama.” Fredda swam across the pool, careful not to splash.
“She’s so sweet.”
“And she would be splashing away, but she knows I’m very tired.” Aleana floated on her back.
Are you well? He didn’t like that at all, the idea that something was wrong with his sister.
She shrugged, the motion careful. “I’m well, just very tired.”
He frowned. Mate, Aleana says she feels perfectly well, but she’s very tired.
Sloan responded immediately. We should get her to a healer. That’s distressing.
Yes. We’re in the pool for now though, and floating seems to help.
I’ll be down shortly with some snacks, maybe. Don’t worry, love. Perhaps… Could she be pregnant? Sloan asked him.
His eyes went wide. You think everybody’s pregnant now.
Only you, and possibly your sister, but definitely you.
Surely her Mari would not have left her if she was with child and in need of him.
Maybe she didn’t know. Maybe she didn’t tell him. Maybe she’s not, though. Maybe she’s just tired from flying here. She doesn’t travel with Fredda often, does she?
No. No, she usually has Mari to take her.
All right then. That seems more reasonable, then, but if she’s exhausted and should need a healer, then we will find her one. Fair?
More than, thank you.
Sloan was wonderful because he knew Tyr worried. Of course, he worried. She was his only sister. Not his only sibling, of course, but sisters were special.
Stop worrying. I’m fine, I’m just a little worn down.
Do you think so? He watched little Fredda splash to the other side of the pool, singing and just as happy as a lark. “Do you think you might be pregnant?”
“It’s possible. Unlikely, I think, but always a possibility.” She shrugged, expression unhappy, lips downturned at the corners. Mari and I had a fight before he left to go fishing.
You and Mari, you never fight.
She snorted at him and rolled her eyes. “Of course we fight. We’re mates; mates fight sometimes.
But the timing of this one was poor. I was so worried about Fredda after what you told us.
And he has to go on these excursions; it’s part of his duty to the clutch.
And he’s an exceptional fisherman, and he loves it so.
But I accused him of not caring about her safety, and that was unfair of me. ”
Oh, ow. He winced. “It was. But you’re scared and unhappy.” And Tyr knew she didn’t mean it. Mari loved his daughter with the fiery burning passion of a thousand suns. “Well, perhaps he’ll have good news when he returns home.”
She rolled her eyes and smiled at him. “So which part will the good news be?”
“What if we have babies together near the same time?”
“Then the world would thank the goddess herself that we didn’t live in the same place. And that we couldn’t spend the last heavy bits of our pregnancy not snarling at one another.”
He noted that his sister was nowhere near as excited about the possibility of being pregnant as he was since she had already done it before. Fredda was a bright light, which often meant more work for her parents. “Sloan is on his way with snacks.”
“Snacks are good, very good. Especially for pregnant omegas who exercise. Get over there and get your niece. Play with her a while. It’s good to stay toned and healthy for labor over many months.”
“You could just tell me that you need some time alone and to go play with Fredda.”
“I just did.”
“Right.” Tyr nodded, then waded over to the deeper part of the pool to play with his shining little dragon niece.
“Nyii Tyr. Will you throw me up in the air so I can dive?”
“As long as we don’t splash your mother, dear heart. She really wants to rest.”
“We’ll be careful,” she whispered.
He chuckled softly, so in love with her bright little face. “We will. All right. Come here.”
She swam to him so he could lift her high in the air. Then she leapt up and arched in the air, coming down to cut through the water like the mini mer-dragon she was.
“Ewyrml. Love you!” Her mind was like a bright little school of fish swimming along his nerve endings, and it was amazing to watch her grow like this. Energy poured off her, and she zipped through the pool as she was meant to do so.
“I get that from Papa.”
“You do, my minnow. Your papa is an amazing swimmer. I can’t swim like that.”
“No, you’re a bee dragon. But you like waters.” She splashed, making sure it only hit him.
“I do, I really do. Of our parents, my mother was an earth dragon, and my father was a mer-dragon like you.”
“Mrain comes to visit from the ocean. But not your mnain.”
“No, she got sick. It’s been a long time ago now.” But a wasting disease had hit the dragonlands, and it seemed like so many dragons had died. So many had escaped back to the human realm. Who knows where some of them were hiding?
“Is my momma sick? Mama!” Fredda looked at her mother, her gaze full of panic, fog pouring from her. “Mama!”
“What, Fredda? What’s wrong?”
“Are you sick? Are you sick like Uncle Tyr’s mama was? Are you going to die here?”
Aleana gave him an incredulous look. “What are you telling her?”
“She asked about Mother.”
“And you thought it was appropriate to explain wasting disease?”
“No, I didn’t say that!”
“Child, I’m not going to die. I think that we’re going to have another baby.”
Fredda stopped in the water, almost like she’d hit a wall. “Another baby? No. It’s Uncle Tyr’s turn.”
“We could both be pregnant at the same time. Don’t shake your head.”
“No! No now is for Uncle Tyr; you tell the baby not now. After then it can come, but not now.”
Aleana laughed, opening her arms. “Come here, you silly child. You get so upset.”
“I don’t like my mama to die.”
“No, I can tell you that’s very hard.”
“Where’s your mama?”
“Baby, Uncle Tyr and I have the same mama. That’s why he’s your ewyrm.” Aleana stroked Fredda’s hair.
“So your momma died a long time ago? I don’t like this.”
“Well, you don’t have to worry about it right now.” His sister glared at him over Fredda’s head. Seriously, I cannot believe that you discussed this with her.
I didn’t discuss it with her. I didn’t say wasting sickness, I just said that she passed away. What was I supposed to tell her? That Mother was hiding in a closet?
So snippy! Being pregnant makes you snarky, Aleana teased.
Don’t be mean. I didn’t say anything bad to her.
I didn’t mean to scare her. I was just telling the truth that our father, who she knows, was a water dragon and our mother was an earth dragon.
And she asked where she was. You’re lucky I didn’t tell her you had her head in a box under the bed or something.
Aleana chuckled softly. No, that would be braedor. That would totally be something he’d do, casting spells on it.
And you accuse me of being awful to your child.
I didn’t say it out loud. I have plausible deniability; only one person could possibly have heard me.
You know, I don’t even know why I brought you here. He winked at her and scooted closer. “I didn’t mean to scare you, little one. Mama’s perfectly well.”
“I told her she couldn’t have a baby. She has to wait until you’re done and then she can do it.”
He had no idea what to say to that, so he just smiled.
I can’t wait to hear what she’s going to say when you start showing.
I’ll just send her to stay with you, and then when your baby is born you can send her home. She’ll never know the difference.
Tyr thought that was a terrible idea. Mmm. You do know your child would be very unhappy here, away from the ocean and you and her father.
You’d have to worry most about her father. Mari would come and put you on a pike if you tried to take his little girl. He adores her.
So do I.
“It looks very serious in here. Why is it so foggy?” Sloan came into the cavern, laden with food.
“I was scared that my mama was going to die. Did you know that Tyr’s mama died?”
What do I say? What do I say? The trays teetered, Sloan panicking.
Just tell her you have snacks.
“I have snacks!”
“I love snacks!” Fredda paddled toward the cut rock edge of the pool.
“Oh, good.” Sloan’s two big platters of snacks held grapes and cheeses, and other fruits and ohhh pickles. Pickles and olives. He’d just discovered olives. Olives were magical.
He’d already talked to Myk about them. Olive trees needed to become a thing. He wasn’t sure how, because Myk said one couldn’t grow olives where they were. It had to be somewhere warmer. So he wasn’t sure how that was going to work, but olives were amazing.
All is well, love? Sloan asked him, meeting his gaze with a bit of worry of his own.
All is well. I made the mistake of mentioning to Fredda that my mother died of sickness, and she was worried about her mother because Aleana hasn’t been feeling well and it devolved from there.
Tyr held out his hand to Sloan, who set the trays of food aside on some built-in rock shelves that were strewn around the edges of the pool and came to join them in the water.
Sloan took his hand, pulling him close to kiss his cheek. She doesn’t seem terribly upset now.
Her biggest worry now is that her mother is pregnant. She does not want Aleana to have the baby at the same time as I have mine. It’s my turn, she says.
Sloan laughed softly. How very egalitarian of her.
Tyr turned and put his back to Sloan so that Sloan could pull him against that wide chest and let him lean. He kicked his feet up so they would float, the weightlessness feeling good even though he was not terribly heavy with a child yet.
“Uncle Sloan! I was diving!”
“Were you indeed, sweet girl? And are you very good at it?”
“I am. I’ll show you soon, but I can’t splash Mama. It makes her tired.”
“Well, we wouldn’t want that.” Sloan’s voice held amusement, but only of the gentle kind. “Maybe a snack will make her feel better.”
“I like snacks,” Fredda stated. “They always make me feel better.”
“Me too.” Sloan stroked his skin slowly, not to arouse, but just to comfort, he thought. “Aleana. Bright blessings. How are you feeling?”
“Better now. I think your pool has some lovely healing qualities to it.” She smiled over at them. “I was just telling Tyr that I had a few difficulties before we made our way here, but I’m feeling good now.”
“I’m glad. It wouldn’t do to start your visit on a bad note.”
Tyr saw his sister begin to frown a little bit, her eyes becoming damp, no doubt about Mari, so he quickly turned around to wade toward the edge of the pool. “Shall we see what there is to eat? Aleana, my sister, have you ever had olives?”
“I have not. Are these a food from the human realm?”
“They are. Sloan tells me they grow on trees.”
Taking his cue, Sloan agreed. “They do. They’re a fruit, but they taste like a vegetable. I think you’ll like them very much.”
Crisis averted once more, they climbed out of the pool, all of them pulling on some sort of clothing because it was chilly once they were out of the heated water. They settled in to have a snack.
Tyr loved his family, but he was afraid that it was going to become very complicated extremely quickly having all of them around, and Sloan seemed completely intent on that happening.
He laughed along with his sister and his mate when Fredda tried an olive, and her eyes crossed. She spit it back out right away.
Then again, having them here would be utterly worth it. He just knew it.