Chapter Twenty-Six

Elio

In the days following my ultrasound, everyone was obsessed with my egg photo. Some of the guides said that there were mention of such machines in the older parts of history, but they figured it was something lore added in. The ship was inundated with requests from pregnant carriers. They all wanted Izora to take photos of their eggs too. None of them got an appointment right away, because we were busy moving house. Well, moving ship.

Marsin was Marsin and that meant he didn't mind us landing the ship on the estate, but he traced out roughly in chalk where he thought we should put it. I gave him that much, because he grew some food in the garden every summer. It'd be a shame to gain a whole family only to lose that home grown food.

Castor wasn't only an expert engineer, but he was also an expert navigator and landed the Medwin 2 perfectly without the dusty chalk lines that my brother drew on the grass. With the ship in a more permanent home, we set about preparing it to function as a house instead of a ship. Castor locked up all the magical and flight control rooms. Only he and his giant cousin, Casimir, had keys to those rooms. He opened up windows that I hadn't spotted and lowered the shields from the top deck of the ship. He'd probably get in some good sunbathing up there.

After the Medwin 2 and crew were settled in Fred carried his meager belongings into my house. His eyes lit up as we stepped inside the air-conditioning.

"You guys build high like we do," Fred commented.

"We have to. We're dragons and we need to make the best use of our space so we're not all crowded in together. You can put your stuff anywhere. There's plenty of space. I'm the only one who lived here up until now and mostly I was over at Marsin's. Marsin might come over here a lot now or who knows, maybe we'll be over there a lot. It's easier to cook for two or three dragons than one anyway."

Fred sat his stuff down on my black cowhide sofa and pulled me in for a kiss. That was the first of many kisses to unfold under our roof. Over the course of our first few days of living together we claimed and marked every room as our own. We barely left the house. It was as if we slipped right back into our matingmoon. We romped in every room, exhausting ourselves to the point of drinking straight from the faucet as not to get dehydrated. Once our home smelled like us and only us, it was time to start thinking about our future. Once upon a time that would've meant brainstorming out ideas of how to connect the Starscale worlds to the Other World gateways. Now, it meant requesting a nest pack and examining the house's towers.

"Even my house back home only had one nesting tower," Fred said, and I flinched.

"Sorry, mate. It's hard not to think of it that way, but once we get the gateways, I'll be able to take you to visit."

I bit my lip. I'd sorta like that. Sorta couldn't think about leaving home while an egg was growing inside me. I needed to stick close to the safe spaces. Sure, all three worlds were more or less safe, but my dragon insisted upon his way.

"Well, after the baby hatches, of course," Fred clarified, and my inner beast relaxed a little bit. "It'll probably take a while to get a way over there that isn't a year long nap on a spaceship."

"How could you sleep during that? I would've gone mad staying awake so that I didn't miss anything," I grinned. "They'd have to peel my eyeballs off the portholes."

"Eh," Fred shrugged. "If I told you the only reason I came is because Teddy wanted to go to outer space would you be mad at me?"

"No," I grinned. "I don't care what made you show up, but that does make me feel all warm and fuzzy because one day it'll be our egg brat running around wanting huge favors like going to outer space."

"I hope not. Not that one anyway. Outer space is boring," Fred laughed.

"Boring?" I laughed. "Maybe because you slept the whole time. Now, you've seen all the nesting towers. Which one do you think would be best?"

"The south facing tower. It gets the most sun."

"South it is," I nodded. "Now we just gotta wait until the pack gets here."

"We can start without it," Fred offered up. "Well, maybe. Depending on how many household items made of fabric you're willing to give up."

"What do you mean? That's just padding. We at least have to wait on the frame."

"Nope. We can do that with that stuff too. Maybe some branches if you want to do it the easy way," Fred said.

"You're teasing me," I crossed my arms and looked up at him.

I had to squint and then borrow my dragon's eyes because the high noon sun was raining down on us. A purple haze danced across Fred's face.

"I am not," Fred crossed his arms, mimicking me.

"Why would you do all that work? Doesn't anyone have an official job of making them?" I asked, leaning in because I was curious on how society functioned without safe nests for babies.

"Umm… I'm sure some dragons buy premade nests or frames, but I've never dealt with them or knew anyone who has."

"You know what. I still think you're teasing me, but I'm gonna play along with this. Give me an hour to gather up fabric and I'll meet you in the south nesting tower. You can put your eggs where your mouth it."

"And I will," Fred smirked.