37. Auslin

Chapter 37

Auslin

A uslin and Kitsuki were lazing in bed when there was a sudden knock on the bedroom door. "I do not wish to be disturbed," Kitsuki called out as he held Auslin closer.

"Um, I'm really sorry, but it's an emergency," Sephen replied through the door.

Auslin hurried over to open the door for his brother. Whatever Auslin had been worried might have happened, he never would have imagined it would be his brother entering with a terrified baby dragon trying desperately to shrink back from everyone.

"I don't know what happened!"

Kitsuki came over for a closer look. He summoned a servant. "Bring my sister here at once."

The servant turned and almost ran into Kizoshi. "My apologies, Your Highness!"

"All is forgiven." She entered her brother's bedroom, the door sliding shut behind her. Her sudden arrival made Auslin suspect she knew more than she led them to believe. She didn't bother trying to hide her amusement. "You two certainly keep things interesting in this household."

"I'm sorry." Sephen hung his head. "I didn't mean to?—"

Kizoshi shushed his fears, then held her hands out in a silent request for him to give her Kisano. Sephen hesitantly complied. She accepted her brother's tiny shifter form with gentle hands as she petted him. "I told you this would happen one day, yet no one believed me."

"Why would we expect this to happen?" Kitsuki asked. "It is unheard of at his age. What could have possibly caused him to shift now?"

"Something drew Kisano's dragon out at long last," Kizoshi answered with a pointed look at Sephen, who blushed deeply in embarrassment.

"His eyes started glowing orange, then he was suddenly like this," Sephen explained.

Her smirk made Auslin wonder what wasn't being mentioned. "You seem to be leaving out a very important detail."

"Indeed," Kitsuki added, mystifying Auslin.

Sephen was beet red as he mumbled an apology.

Rather than teasing Sephen any further, Kizoshi refocused on the dragon in her hands. She softly sang in the Divine language to calm her brother as she affectionately stroked the underside of his chin.

It surprised Auslin when she gestured for him to join her. "I need you to help me find Kisano's consciousness he's desperately trying to hide from me."

The request mystified Auslin. "But how am I supposed to do that?"

"The same way that you found Kitsuki's essence to help regrow his arm," Kizoshi explained. She sat down on the floor, gesturing for Auslin to do the same.

"I'll do my best," Auslin promised as he accepted Kisano into his arms. It was weird to pet his good friend, but Auslin wanted to reassure him in whatever way was possible in his current form.

He stretched out his senses, hoping to find Kisano. Auslin could easily feel Kitsuki, Kizoshi, and Sephen surrounding him, but Kisano was absent despite being in his arms.

When he couldn't immediately sense Kisano, Auslin called out to the shifter in his mind. He wasn't sure how long he waited before something nudged his aura to get his attention. Auslin heard the faintest whisper, leading him to find a glowing orb of orange energy. It felt like the Kisano Auslin knew and loved. He encouraged it to come closer, but it shied away from him.

After several attempts, Auslin finally drew the orange essence to him. He gathered it in his hand before petting Kisano's head with it. In the blink of an eye, Kisano reverted to his normal self.

Kisano scrambled away from Auslin, looking as terrified as he had been in his dragon form. Orange shifter markings glowed prominently on Kisano's skin. One of his eyes was amber like normal, but the other was swirling a glowing orange.

Kizoshi reached out to hold her brother's face in her hands. "Kisano, be calm. Focus yourself."

Orange bled into the yellow eye, but Kizoshi sharply corrected him. "You, not your dragon."

"You would lock us up after we have spent millennia trapped inside his cowardice?" Kisano's dragon hissed, glaring at Kizoshi with a startling ferociousness. It was so unlike his normally gentle demeanor.

Kizoshi didn't seem the least bit intimidated. "Yes, until you learn how to behave yourself. Return him to me now."

Despite the dragon's complaints, the orange slowly faded away until only amber remained in both eyes. Kisano wavered before passing out from the exhaustion.

Kizoshi gently guided him to lie down on the floor. She stroked his hair lovingly as she looked at him with a smile. "Rest easy, dear brother."

"Will he be okay?" Sephen fearfully asked.

"Shifting takes an extreme amount of energy, especially your first time," Kizoshi explained as she stood up and looked at Kitsuki. "You and Jaega will have to work with him on control before there are dire consequences."

When Kizoshi's gaze drifted over to Sephen, the human swallowed hard. "Am I in trouble?"

"That depends on how you feel about Kisano." Kizoshi failed to elaborate any further as she gestured for Kitsuki to pick up their brother.

Kitsuki gathered Kisano in his arms, then left with her to take him back to his own room to rest.

When the brothers were left alone, Sephen rushed over to Auslin. "Are you okay?" Sephen asked in a worried tone. "You're so pale."

"I'll be fine," Auslin reassured him, knowing it would take a little while before he recovered his energy. "I'm more concerned about Kisano right now. What did they mean when they said you left out a very important detail about what happened?"

Sephen blushed a deep scarlet as he looked away in embarrassment. "I sucked him off while we were in the library. When he came, his eyes were suddenly glowing orange. He started to undo my breeches, then all of a sudden, I had a tiny, terrified dragon on me."

"It was probably Kisano's only way of stopping his dragon from going that far," Auslin realized.

Sephen looked so lost, Auslin couldn't help but feel bad for him. "I don't understand. Why wouldn't he want to continue? I wanted it so much."

Auslin tried to find a delicate way to explain the situation. "Sometimes a shifter's inner dragon can get a little too carried away, so they have to fight back against it." It was the bane of Auslin's existence at the moment since Kitsuki refused to let him do anything for that very reason.

"But I was excited about what we were about to do," Sephen admitted as he bashfully looked away from his brother. "I didn't want him to stop."

"My suspicion is Kisano wanted it as much as his dragon, which is why he got scared."

"But what if Kisano doesn't want to go that far with me because I'm human?" Sephen fearfully asked.

"I think that's a conversation you need to have with Kisano once he recovers." Auslin was about to say something else when his vision blackened around the edges. He swayed for a moment before steadying himself.

"I'm sorry, I should let you rest." Sephen held his hand out to help his older brother off the floor before following him over to the bed.

"Kisano will probably be deeply embarrassed about what happened tonight," Auslin predicted as he lay down in bed with a sigh. "If Kisano is anything like Kitsuki, don't let him try to push you away because of that."

Sephen squeezed his brother's hand. "I won't. Thank you for helping him come back."