16. Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Sixteen
Mattias
It was too early for pranks. Grumbling, I rolled, pulled the blanket up to my chin, and threatened to beat Odem with whatever he kept brushing over my nose.
It was too early, dammit, especially when we were expected in town later for a meeting with Noir.
Emerson was going to bring maps, and the young shadow dragon was going to attempt to retrace their steps to give Baird and his warriors a better chance of finding and helping the rest of the shadow dragons.
Something brushed my nose again. Damnit all, if Odem woke my mates.
I cracked one eye open, with the intent of encasing him in a bubble filled with water and leaving him there until it was time to bounce him to the pitch. Maybe even after. Give the rest of our brothers a chance to get a few bounces in too and perhaps a couple dropkicks.
Instead of Odem, I saw only a gentle snowfall.
Another flake fell on my cheek. Followed by one that landed on my nose, immediately taking me back to the conversation in the playroom, when Luna had expressed her hopes that the dragonets Kes carried weren’t going to be like her brothers and burn her tutus.
At this point, it was a safe bet that they wouldn’t though she might walk around with icicles hanging off them and snow drifts around her ankles.
“Are you little ones making it snow on Papa,” I murmured as I rested my hand on Kes’ belly, already beginning to grow softer and rounder as the double egg inside of him grew.
What followed was the last thing I expected and the first thing I should have, as the snow turned into a light rain gently falling on my head.
“That answers that, doesn’t it?” I murmured, caressing his midsection in the hopes of lulling them back to sleep before the blankets grew too wet. “Were you trying to get Papa’s attention this morning?”
Soft giggles, then the rain turned to snow again, just as light and fluffy as before.
I didn’t recall any instances of Alex accidentally burning anything while he was pregnant, but his dragon…oh shit.
Alex’s dragon wasn’t freed until after he’d birthed the eggs because it had been dormant and trapped inside of him.
Emerson hadn’t believed he had a dragon form until Caro was able to show him, after his egg had come.
Ronan’s lava bombs, however, had resulted in the loss of a pillow and the charring of one of our enemies.
There had been a few other instances too, before he’d accepted that he was a dragon.
Now I was left to wonder how much of it had been the dragon hiding inside of him and how much had been helped along by Ruby’s desire to protect herself, him and Opal?
I recalled the way Kes ice had filled the room when he’d rushed to Caspian’s aid.
Donovan had already fixed the doorway and the walls along the stairway that Kes had dented in his haste to reach our mate. With the bond between him and his dragon stronger now it was his own magic fueling our dragonets’ as they developed.
Snow and rain.
The twins had just displayed that they’d be able to wield both.
If this was what they could do while they were still in egg, they’d be freezing the stairs just to slide down them once they discovered how much fun it could be. Note to self, ask Donovan if he had any tips to keep wood from warping.
Only the occasional flake fell now, so I closed my eyes but kept my hand splayed across his belly, right over the egg as our dragonets fell back to sleep.
Bro! Bro! We’re all waiting on you and man is Ionus grumpy this morning. He said get dressed and get over here, no need to shift this morning.
Tell him to get laid.
Isn’t that supposed to be my line? Odem thought back. Get your ass to the pitch!
Fine, fine. Tell Ionus I’m coming. I’m shocked he isn’t the one bellowing at me.
He thought it would be more fun if I did it. You really should thank me. I could have been way more obnoxious about it when you didn’t wake up the first time I called out to you.
No shit.
Just get here. We get it. Leaving our mates in the morning sucks. Now you know what we’ve all been grumbling about.
Save it. I’m on my way.
When I landed beside them a full five minutes later, after taking time to kiss both of my mates and their bellies, as well as tuck the blankets back around them, Ionus just narrowed his eyes, huffed, and started pacing as he addressed us.
“We’re not engaging in training battles this morning,” he announced.
“Then why did you drag us out of bed?” Caro groaned. “It was so comfy and Emerson was telling stories in his sleep. I could have just laid there and listened to him all morning.”
“Because I wanted us to strategize and come up with ways that we could tailor some of our own offense to mimic that of the shadow dragons,” Ionus announced.
That grabbed my attention. Until now, we’d faced our opponents head on, only beginning to learn of ways that we could comingle our abilities when we’d needed to rescue Emerson from his non-kidnapping-kidnapping.
I swear, that dragon was way too happy for one held in such a precarious predicament so far beneath the sea.
Now he visited as often as we could arrange it, so he could learn more from our sea dragon brethren and visit his childhood friend.
Shit, better pay attention. Ionus kept eyeing me like he knew my mind was wandering, but it really was focused on what he was trying to explain to us.
“Had they been fully grown, the dragon they formed with their shadow would have been bigger than any one or even two of us,” Ionus announced. “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about what a marvelous technique it was.”
“That was pretty cool,” Odem said. “Especially when Noir told you to…”
He cut Odem off with a look and our brother began whistling as he looked everywhere but at Ionus.
“If we could be serious for once,” Ionus groaned.
“We are at a distinct disadvantage and we shouldn’t be.
Despite our training, we’ve lived here in peace for so long that we are not as battle tested as the dragons we will have to reckon with if we are going to put a stop to this war.
We need to get our asses in gear and figure out how the hell we can make our abilities work in a similar fashion.
Having the element of surprise could help shorten the battles and save every precious life we have on our side. ”
“What were you thinking?” Caro asked.
“That a mudslide would be a beautiful diversion and make flying difficult for some of our adversaries, especially if we were able to disorient them by changing the landscape.”
“That would work great once we had them grounded, but more often than not, we’re stuck in the air with them,” Caro pointed out.
“And?” Ionus replied as he paced in front of us. “It’s time we start thinking outside of the box. You blast them with earth and Mattias….”
“Right there with you, brother,” I said. “I’ll soak them and the mud will make flying difficult.”
“Exactly,” Ionus said, expression morphing from irritated to pleased.
“What if I add fire and bake the mud?” Odem asked. “That would buy extra time to ground more of them before Mattias and Caro unleased the mudslide.”
“Perfect. Now imagine their surprise if instead of lightning bolts hurling out of the sky at them, it started raining fireballs and water spears?” Ionus asked.
“Or giant stalactites,” Caro added.
“Now you’re thinking,” Ionus said. “This is what I brought us here to discuss this morning. It would be easy to hide the four of you behind a massive storm and force our enemies to try to fight their way through it if they wish to do battle with us. You all need to work with your mates too. Caro, would you like to explain what Emerson discovered?”
“Yes,” Caro replied. “Since my brilliant mate has been hard at work researching the theories that have been presented regarding the Gorynych and why they are attempting to gain control over Dragonkind. We all know that a thirst for power and control is behind it all and always has been, but Emerson believes it goes deeper than that. Look at the way they’ve targeted the young.
Capturing them, controlling them, attempting to make the strongest a part of their colonies while casting out or killing the weakest amongst them, including their own. ”
“Especially their own,” Ionus grumbled.
“The whole thing is fucked,” Odem grumbled.
“This is one of those times when your crass words are fitting,” Ionus replied.
“Emerson’s theory, and I happen to agree with him on this,” Caro said, “is that the Gorynych line is dying out and more than anything, they are desperate to save it. They know they cannot produce offspring with the mates they steal, but they hold them anyway as a means of controlling the children so that they can raise them to adulthood as one of them.”
“And indoctrinate them in the process,” Quint deduced, “in the hopes that they will find mates among the Gorynych and return the power they believe they’ve lost. Emerson has spoken at length with Torin on several occasions, he keeps coming up with more questions for him and my mate had jumped at the opportunity to provide him with all the answers he can to help fill in the gaps in the history records. ”
“They’ve grown desperate as more dragons attempt to hide from them and conceal their young,” Ionus said.
“I believe that our talk with Noir this afternoon is going to shed even more light on what the Gorynych have been up to. That’s why we need to continue to brainstorm and look for ways that we can start taking them out once and for all.
It isn’t enough to protect our own lands any longer.
They have gone unchecked for too long. I believe this is why the Goddess has finally sent our mates to us.
She knew we’d need them if we were to restore the freedom of all dragons before other lines were wiped out. ”
“I’ve been thinking of ways to use Quint’s venom in a more targeted assault,” I said. “When we were beneath the ocean, I was able to direct it at the lampreys so no other creatures were harmed. What if we were to encase it in the same bubbles I use for my water bombs?”
“Demonstrate?” Ionus demanded, stepping well out of the way as Quint and I moved forward.
The bubble I made for Quint was solid water he held carefully in his hands, until he realized that it would not break merely from his touch, even when he poked it with a claw.
The water dented and bulged, but did not pop like the soap bubbles the dragonets blew.
I watched the water grow darker as Quint sent his elemental venom into the shimmering blue orb, then clear again as he drew it back out.
“May I see that bubble?” Ionus asked.
When I handed it to him, Ionus studied it for almost a minute before a mischievous look crossed my stoically cynical older brother’s face. Before any of us could blink, he threw it at Odem’s feet, water and electricity exploding everywhere when it struck the ground in front of him.
“Now we have two ways to use it,” Ionus declared as Odem squawked, sputtered, then laughed, because he knew that was some shit he’d have done had the opportunity arose.
“Nicely done,” Odem said, clapping as he bent to brush water off his jeans.
“What made you think to encase my venom in a bubble?” Quint asked, a brilliant grin on his face as well.
For years, my brother had been searching for a way to harness his element. It pleased me to have found a way to help him. I hoped he felt the same way once I shared with him where I’d gotten the inspiration from.
“There’s a cartoon my mates love, about a sponge who wears pants,” Mattias explained.
“SpongeBob! I love watching that!” Odem yelped.
“Of course you do,” Ionus said, pinching the bridge of his nose.
Firebug dragonets would never test his patience as much as our brother had while we’d been growing up.
“Yes, well, then you know how many things get suck in SpongeBob’s bubbles,” I pointed out.
“Even Squidward’s house,” Odem said, doubling over with laughter. “The way SpongeBob and Patrick stood there calling his name before it floated away was classic. It falling to the ocean floor in pieces was the last thing they expected.”
“I don’t understand what the two of you are going on about,” Ionus declared, “aside from that last part, which is exactly what we want to have happen.”
“Do you think I could combine my element with your storm to produce our own lethal form of acid rain?” Quint mused.
Now that the door had been opened, I could see the wheels turning.
“At this point, I believe that anything we do to combine our elements will be possible as long as we focus our efforts,” Ionus said. “Raven tried to show us before but I think we were too focused on the elemental portions as opposed to specialty traits such as Quint’s venom.”
“I just had a killer idea,” Odem said. “As in mega lethal, but it’s a tool we could potentially store and have at the ready for all of us to carry, even our allies. Kinda plays off the whole baking the mud to turn it into clay thing we talked about earlier.”
“The floor is yours,” Ionus replied, gesturing for him to come forward.
“Clay venom balls,” Odem said. “We craft them to a size and thickness that would allow them to be hurled by dragon claws and arm as many dragons as we can with them. In a way, it would allow you to be everywhere at once, Quint, as you’re the one who would have to fill them.”
“One errant strike and they would shatter and potentially kill the dragon who carried them,” Quint pointed out.
“I’ve been thinking about that too and had Ronan start drawing up the kind of carrier we’d need to use in order to protect them with our bodies while still being able to hurl them at a rapid rate,” Caro declared.
“Have him continue to work on it while you guys craft a few test bombs,” Ionus said. “The idea has a great deal of merit and would allow us another option for distance warfare, especially if we were to craft some sort of catapult to hurl them from.”
“Well, the other idea I had wasn’t a catapult, but close,” Odem said, “and like Mattias’ it was inspired by something I saw on television, though in this case it was a movie and it was an actual dragon they were attempting to bring down.
What are your thoughts on a heavy ballista with venom tipped arrows? ”
“I think bringing back medieval weapons of warfare is an excellent idea,” Ionus declared.
“We have more than enough ore for Kaelith and the rest of the Blackburn’s to forge bolts strong enough to pierce a dragons hide.
We will need to set up a range and see who our most accurate archers are.
It will be safer for all of us that way. ”
Caro clapped, looking extremely excited for a dragon who’d been groaning earlier about us being out here this morning if we weren’t going to fight. This strategy session was just what we’d needed to truly forge us into the team we were meant to be.
And to think that one of our newest weapons had been inspired by a cartoon sponge.