Naked Mole-Rat
The day was getting long, but there were still a few hours of sunlight left when the Duke invited everyone into the mansion.
I expressed my concerns over the state of their floors if they came in contact with my claws but he merely laughed it off, saying they were sturdy enough to handle a dragon of my size.
Still, he offered for me to be lead to the Dragon Rest, if I would prefer to go there while the other's spoke in depth about the royals journey thus far.
I agreed to this quite readily, given the last thing I wanted to do was to be locked in some stone room listening to a report for the next two hours.
The Dragon's Rest turned out to be a sort of massive pavilion designed to house any visiting Dragoons.
It was around the back of the palace and out of sight at first, but as Duchess Gillian and her guardsmen lead me through a fragrant garden it came into view: A huge stone structure with a pointed roof held up by massive arches that would have admitted a dragon a dozen times larger than myself.
At the center of the structure was the single, largest, round shaped bed I had ever seen in my life.
Either life, as a matter of fact. It had a navy blue cushion or mattress and was set in a kind of indentation in the white stone floor.
Near by, along the only wall in the place, was a more human sized and shaped bed, but no less luxurious looking, and several other expensive looking furniture items, all of which appeared to have been crafted from the same white stone, with golden decals imbedded in them.
In all honesty, this 'Dragon's Rest' almost looked more lavash than the actual palace did.
"This is where all visiting Dragoons and their dragon partners reside when visiting us.
" Stated the duchess, her voice soft yet some how still commanding.
He children had accompanied the others into the mansion, and without them the lady looked even more formal and elegant.
"It is normally used by dragons older than yourself, but I am sure the grander size will not be too much of an inconvenience to you. "
"Not at all!" I said, eager to try out the bed.
When was the last time I had used a bed?
Much less one as fancy as the massive saucer shaped one before me.
I had actually thought that I would be sleeping in something like the stables due to my size.
I did not mention this, however, thinking that she might take some kind of offence at me even suggesting that her family would dare stick a dragon in a smelly barn.
"Allura, would it be alright if the children come visit before the night falls?" The duchess asked, looking a little nervous. "I fear that they will be a nightmare to put to bed due to their excitement at having you with us..."
I chuckled, not minding at all. "I don't mind. Though..." I added, looking around the space.
"What is it?" She asked.
"I am a horrid mess..." I stated, looking down at my dirt encrusted claws.
It had been a long time since I had walked rather than flew, so much and they were a complete mess.
The rest of my was quite dusty as well. "I would hate to get the bed filthy.
I don't suppose there is a place that I may wash up? "
I highly doubted there was a dragon bath.
Surly that would be a crazy ask, even for people as well off as these.
But a dip in the river would be great. I would have just flown off and done it on my own, but I didn't want to just disappear on Leon and the others, nor did I want to cause a panic amongst the towns people if they saw a dragon splashing about in their river.
"Oh!" Smiled Gillian, looking pleased that she had a solution for me.
"Just over there you will find a stairway that leads a ways down the hillock where a natural spring flows.
The dragons that visit it us it for drinking and bathing- those small enough that is.
You may even be able to do laps if you like. "
"I do like to swim." I said, with a smile.
Not a real one, dragons couldn't literally smile.
Not unless the baring of ones fangs counted as such, which I rather thought it didn't. "So long as they do not mind, the young Prince and Princess are free to join me if they like?
An afternoon swim may just be what they need to tire them out. "
Gillian beamed and clasped her slim, pale hands together happily. "Oh, yes, I am sure they would be delighted! I will fetch them immediately. I am sure that Prince Leon will be busy, but Princess Serenity would likely wish to join."
"Yes, that's fine."
Duchess Gillian wasted no time hurrying off to get the children ready for a swim, while I made my way in the direction that she had indicated the spring was.
Sure enough, just out of sight, I found the stairwell.
It was carved into the side of the hillock and clearly not made for dragons to use.
But that was fine, given I had a perfectly functioning pair of pink leathery wings that were itching to be used, and I could see the spring not far below.
I extended the appendages attached to my back and leapt into the air.
It felt good to be off the ground once again.
Enjoying the feeling so much, I actually took the opportunity to do a few laps above the spring.
The pool itself was rather large, and after landing in the water, I saw that- rather like a swimming pool back on Earth- there was a shallow end and a deep end.
Nearest the stairs was rather shallow, some parts barely deep enough to cover my paws.
Meanwhile, the father end of the spring where it stretched close to the stony hillock wall, it got deep enough that I could actually dive down into it and saw that there were even several fish living here.
By the time the young ones arrived (Accompanied by Duchess Gillian and several guardsmen of course) I had already spent a good twenty minutes just swimming around. I was basically clean now, but saw no need to ruin the fun of the children, who were fairly bouncing in excitement.
The three of them were dressed in wildly different cloths than they had been less than an hour ago.
The girls had traded in their fancy dresses and jewels for what looked like nightgowns, though made with a fabric less absorbent then wool or cotton.
Their hair had been pulled back into cute double buns- one golden set and one platinum- and on their feet were what looked like ballet slippers.
As for young Prince James the fifth, he wore what looked like a one piece swimsuit made of the same material as the girls, but had decided against the slippers.
We made sure to stay in the shallow end of the pool, especially since it was confirmed that none of the kids could swim.
It took a little while for them to warm up to it, but eventually I was swamped with small, blonde, children, climbing all over me and splashing about around my body.
Gillian had brought some kind of scented oil with her, and as she sat on a padded bench, watching, the kids took great pleasure using it and some provided cloths, to scrub me down and polish my scales.
By the time an hour had passed, and the sun was beginning to set, little Millenia was nodding off in her mother's arms, and I was the most fragrant and sparkly I had ever been.
"Amazing Allura!" Giggled Serenity as she and James stepped back to admire their handy work, the duchess standing next to them with Millenia in her arms, asleep. "You are so dazzling!"
True, I was pretty amazing.
I shook myself off, splattering the group with small specks of water. Thankfully scales did not retain water and I avoided getting the duchess too wet, as I had not intended to.
"Scales." Said James, bending down and picking up a rosy scale off the stone floor edging up to the spring.
there were a few of them there, but I wasn't worried.
Whenever I took the time to actually scrub my scales- usually they would get itchy as I grew and I needed to scrub them off on trees or the lake bed- there would be a handful of scales hanging about.
"So pretty..." Breathed Serenity, bending down to pick up a few more. They were of various sizes ranging from thumbnail to a finger joint in size.
"You can keep them if you like." I said, pleased that they liked them so much.
It seemed a little gross- like keeping dead skin- but I knew that dragon scales were a prized thing in this world.
Besides, they did look a little like semi-rare stones.
Maybe the girls could turn them into necklaces or something.
"Really?!" Exclaimed Serenity, holding the scale close to her chest.
"It is a grand gift." Breathed Gillian, accepting two scales from Serenity who had declared that they were for Millenia. "Are you certain? I don't know if you are aware, but dragon scales are highly prized. You could sell these for a good price, and they could be used in several ways."
"It's fine. I have plenty of them. And, other than as a charm, I don't think they can be used for much else at this size and quantity." I said, stretching out and enjoying the play of the setting sun on my scales, looking like I was also a sunset.
As I took the opportunity to spread my wings again, Duchess Gillian lead the children back up the stairs, little Millennia now in the arms of a guard who would not have as hard a time carrying her up the stairs.
Once they reached the top, they spent a moment to watch me do my very lack luster acrobatics in the fiery light of the setting sun, then waved before heading back to the palace.
I spent another fifteen minutes flapping about, just thinking about the path ahead of me.
It was nice to have company now, but my goal still felt long into the distance.
I wished to find my siblings as soon as possible, but I wasn't sure how realistic that dream was.
At this point, I could only hope that the babies in their shells stayed where they were till I could find them.
It would get even harder to find them if they hatched.
I wasn't sure why I thought that, but it felt right.
Maybe there was some dragon instinct that I couldn't quite understand. ..
Now sleepy myself, I glided into the Dragon's Rest, landing perfectly onto the soft cushion of the bed. It may very well have been my best landing yet. Though, I didn't let that get to my head, as I was just too tired.
I got comfortable in the center of the bed and curled into myself rather like a cat, tucking my nose under my forepaws and curling my tail around my shimmering pink body.
Tomorrow, Leon would come to check on me, and he had said that we would go have a look around town.
Then, the day after, once the guards had time to get some rest, we would continue our journey to the capital.
For now, I was going to enjoy this lovely bed and a good, long, rest.
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"No, No, No!" I snapped, heart racing and eyes fairly bugging out of my pretty head. "I refuse! I will not! Go away!" I snarled at the young man who stood rather helplessly several feat away.
"Allura, it isn't all that ba-" Hedged the prince, standing before me where I lay on the cold stone floor, hunched in a corner and a blanket barley hiding my quivering form from sight.
"It is that bad?!" I snarled, trying to make myself as small as possible so that the rather fine silken blanket I had ripped from the human sized bed could cover my body better.
Duke Orelious and several of his men- advisors rather than guards I thought, given they were in fine suits rather than guard uniforms- stood just outside Dragon's Rest, while Leon and Loric hovered nearer, both doing their level best to comfort me as I panicked.
"I'm hideous!" I wailed, feeling a little like a petulant fourteen year old and not caring one iota.
Why, someone might ask, was I in this state of disarray? Well, that would be due to the fact that, when young Prince Leon, accompanied by the duke, his advisors, and the guard captain, Loric, came to wake me up this morning I found myself in a state of absolute horror.
To his credit, the second Leon saw the state I was in, he had ordered all but Loric to evacuate the room, keeping the guard near by in case the worst should occur. And, sure enough, when I awoke and found that I was nestle in a pool of my own gorgeous rosy pink scales, I had a full blown meltdown.
I saw the scales, the horrified look on Leon's face, then the nearly naked and patchy skin on my paws, and flipped. I squealed like a little girl, dove for the human bed, and ripped the nice sheets off them, doing my level best to be sure every inch of exposed skin was covered.
"Allura, you could never be hideous." Cooed the prince, the only one I would let even slightly close.
the Duke had made a brief attempt to come near, provoking me to snap my jaws in his direction.
I was sure that I probably looked half crazed.
After that, no one else dared to approach, opting to hover just outside the building and talk amongst themselves in hushed voices.
"I look like a naked mole rat!" I sobbed, mortified and confused. How?! How had this happened? I looked just fine last night. More than fine, as a matter of fact! Was it the scented oil? Was I, perhaps, allergic to it?
Surly not. We had applied it to my scales, not bare skin.
It couldn't have been that. Besides, who ever heard of a dragon going bald from something so trivial.
If all it took was some scented oil to divest a dragon of her scales, I was sure dragon poachers the world over would know about it.
No doubt my mother would have left behind a bald and lovely scented corpse if that was the case!
Prince Leon hesitated, but then spoke to me in a deliberately calm and gentle voice. "I'm afraid that I don't know what that is, but I can say with great certainty that you look beautiful."
I snorted under the cover, now irritated as well as devastated. "Your baseless flattery will not do you any good." I snapped. "Half my scale are gone!"
It was the worst of feelings. Not just because I looked like a molted parrot, but also because my skin was exposed. The silky fabric of the sheet tickled me, and the cool morning breeze made me shiver. I felt exposed and vulnerable. It was scary as well as mortifying.
"I- I think this may just be a natural thing."
"How do you figure that?" I huffed, sticking my snout out far enough that I could expose one of my green eyes so I could glare at the young man standing before me. He looked anxious and worried, but not disgusted, at the very least.
"Well, we have already established that your growth rate has been sped up, correct?" He asked.
"Yes, what of it?"
"As a dragon grows, they natural shed their smaller scales in favor of larger ones-"
"All at once!" I snapped.
"No..." Said the prince, looking awkward. "But you did just bath down at the watering hole, did you not?"
"So?"
He sighed and ran a hand through his blonde locks, his crystal blue eyes looking down at my shivery and pathetic form with sympathy.
"No doubt the scrubbing hastened the shedding of your loose scales.
Due to your rapid growth, they probably would have shed out in a more extreme matter than most young dragons, but the scrubbing probably exasperated that. "
The explanation made about as much sense as any one I could come up with.
And he did have learning in the subject of dragons which I was sorely lacking in, despite being one.
On top of that, his words made me feel a little better, now that I didn't think I was rotting away or the victim of some horrid illness.
"I can not be seen like this..." I whined rather pathetically. "When will they grow back?"
Leon winced and I knew then that I would not like the answer he was going to give.
"Normally? Depending on how large the scale is that needs to grow back, anywhere from a week to a month.
.." I let out a groan of despair, but Leon was quick to speak up.
"But! But if you are growing fast right now, so too might your scales.
Right? Perhaps it might only take a few days. "
"But we are due to leave on the marrow." Sighed Loric, doing his best to be polite and not stare. "Should we send word to the king that we must delay?"
Leon and Loric spoke amongst them selves as I contemplated.
I didn't want to have to delay our departure.
Not only would that be unfair to them, but it would also mean that the bandits who had my siblings had that many more days of a head start.
Staying here, cowering in a corner under blanket did not sit right with me at all.
Not even a little bit. What kind of dragon cowers under the bed sheets like a frightened baby?
Still... I would not be caught dead in my current state. This palace had better be burning down and the little princesses in jeopardy of dying, before I ventured out in my current state. I looked like a disseized lizard!
I was contemplating getting a large wagon to drag my pathetic- not so scaly- hide around in, when a sudden thought hit me. I did have a way to get around, while still hiding my sorry state!
"I have an idea!" I said excitedly, interrupting the two men mid sentence.
Both looked at me quizzically before Loric said: "And what idea is that?"
"Wait."
Closing my eyes, I concentrated, and words appeared in my mind:
[Use the skill: Humanoid Shape?]
Yes, I thought, excitedly. I'd rather be in my dragon shape, and I hadn't wanted to show off my magic skills so blatantly before knowing just how common they may or may not have been.
.. but this was way better than running around the country side looking like the dragon version of a plague victim!
Both men took a jerking step back when I began to glow, Loric reaching for the sword at his hip. He didn't attack, but did watch warily, while Leon simply looked fascinated.
My body began to shrink in size, and, before I really even registered much else, I was seated on the cold stone floor in the form of a naked, pink haired woman.
Luckily the blanket was still wrapped around me, preventing the men from getting a free show, but they both stared, wide eyed, all the same.
I suppose I didn't really blame them, as I would have done the same.
Besides, I wasn't body shy... so long as that body wasn't that of a molted lizard at least.
I gazed down at myself, immediately noticing a difference from the last time I had tried this shape when I had first learnt this skill.
Mainly, I was no longer in the form of a small child.
If I had to place myself, it would have been around fifteen or sixteen.
Also, I noted that the patchy scales were not in the same place they had been before.
Curious, I reached a pale hand out of the blanket and fingered the horns on my head.
Yup, still there. though, now they were larger, and seemed to be in a slightly different shape.
My guess was that when I shifted forms, the look wasn't always the same.
Then again, I wasn't an expert in magic either, so what did I know?
"The gods have truly blessed you with some wonderous skills..." Breathed Leon, looking stunned. Then his ears went pink and he diverted his gaze. Clearly it finally sank in that he was gawking at a mostly naked woman.
"I don't mind being seen like this!" I said brightly, glad that I had found a solution to the problem at hand. Now we did not have to delay our departure time after all.
"Well..." Said Loric, also diverting his gaze and tugging at the collar of his uniform. "I think it best if we get you some clothing first, Allura..."
"Oh." I said, looking down at myself and nodding. I pulled the blanket tighter around my body, more for their benefit than my own. "Yes, I suppose that would be for the best."
"I agree." Leon chimed in before tuning toward the Duke and his men. "Uncle! Please send word to the palace to have some dresses and a seamstress sent down here!"
I almost laughed at the desperation in the young man's voice, my mood now greatly improved!