24. Adventures in Dragonsitting

Butchering a deer was a messy business. Thousands of years of field-dressing beasts didn't account for a hungry dragon gnawing on a kill while one was trying to butcher it as safely and as cleanly as possible.

Cian ended up with his arms covered in blood up to his shoulders, and some nicked offal nearby stinking up the area. Thankfully, he kept the local predators at bay with his presence—the scent of gore was strong and attracting beasties he felt no desire to tangle with while babysitting two egglings.

Leandro was sitting quietly on a nearby tree stump, back to the carcass; he found the boy's limit for gore when he slit the deer from throat to tail, evacuating the abdomen and torso of its organs.

He was keeping the heart, kidneys, and liver, and leaving the rest of the entrails for the predators to enjoy once they left. There was no time to hang and drain the corpse before they had to go, so he would hang it closer to the temple in a cold room and portion it out to the dragon as needed. The stag was large enough that there would be food for a week for the wee beastie.

"Your brood-father will need to arrange for a local butcher to get us some alternatives to deer," Cian told Eroch in English for Leandro's sake. "I'm not sure about the herd numbers—there might not be enough deer in this forest to keep a growing dragon fed."

Eroch was chewing on the lower rear leg of the deer that Cian lopped off for him as a distraction. The young dragon was charring the fur and skin before tearing off strips of flesh, teeth gnashing against sinew and bone, exactly as he needed. "Make sure to crack the bone to suck out the marrow, Little Trouble," Cian instructed. "I'm saving the bones so you can eat them later."

Eroch chirped in agreement and went back to his snack.

"How do you know all of this stuff?" Leandro asked over his shoulder, sounding as suspicious as only a child could.

"I've been alive for a very long time, and I've learned a lot of things," Cian answered readily enough. "I lived before there were grocery stores and corner markets. Before there were farms and people to tend them, before livestock was domesticated and before people rode horses. I'm older than people, actually."

"You can't be older than people!" Leandro declared with absolute authority in his young voice.

"And why not?" Cian replied, standing up and looking around for what he needed.

He found a small thicket of tall saplings, and flicked a wrist for one of his daggers. He cut three of the straightest into the appropriate lengths and returned to the kill, where Leandro was muttering to himself on the stump about nothing being older than people.

"Do you have an answer, little Salvatore?" Cian called, hiding his grin as the boy sent him a glare over his shoulder before hurriedly looking away from the carcass.

"You're being confusing on purpose," Leandro said, and Cian snorted out a laugh.

"I do that often, but never to children." Cian replied. "It's vastly unfair and there's no honor in it."

Leandro was silent for a long moment. Cian took the time to arrange the long sticks and make a simple travois he could pull by himself. He had rope in the ether waiting for just this task, and he pulled it out of thin air and under the wide eyes of the young boy. He had no need for a net, so he used the third piece to secure the two poles with rope across their lengths to hold the carcass's weight.

"What do you mean by honor?"

Cian eyed the boy, who had twisted around on the stump and was taking quick glances as Cian constructed the travois and got the carcass situated.

"What makes you ask?"

"I read about it in my school books, and Da once called Papá honorable. And he is. I wanna know what you mean by it."

"What do I mean by honor?" Cian clarified, holding back a smile.

"Yes, please." The boy had manners when he remembered to use them.

"Since you read about it, and your Papá is honorable, then you must know the following: Honor is made of many things, like culture, morals, personal conscience, personal beliefs, all combined to make the inner core of a person, and how they interact with the world. For my definition of honor, an honorable person is usually trustworthy, brave, kind, generous, and steadfast, and acts on those traits. The more honorable a person is, the more reliable they are—yet sometimes honor can get in the way of things. If it is placed above the greater good, and becomes harmful to the many, serving only the few or the one, then honor is selfish and reductive. Dishonor is the opposite of honor, or rather, its absence."

Cian paused, and then met Leandro's curious gaze. "That is what I mean by honor."

Leandro appeared to be digesting his words, tiny brows furrowed, staring at the ground.

"You need not grasp it immediately, tiny human. It is a concept that escapes even grown adults, and creatures hundreds, if not thousands of years old. It does you credit that you're trying now at such a tender age. Keep thinking about it, and you'll come to understand honor in a way that few people do, even after lifetimes of trying."

Leandro nodded, still silent, but the frustration on his face eased up and he relaxed, more pensive now than upset.

Birds sang in the trees around them, some of them long extinct in the outer world, their songs telling of magic growing in the distance. Many someones were using the portals to travel.

Cian checked in with Rory, pausing as he worked when the conflict with the federal agent and Angel filled his mind. "Time to return to the outer world, my younglings. There's trouble afoot."

Cian checked the knots on the travois and the stag, and put away his weapons and tools into the ether, the boy blinking in astonishment as items disappeared right in front of him. Eroch chirped in question, wondering why the rush.

"Angel is well, Little Trouble, but he needed to defend himself. We must return so as not to worry anyone."

"My fathers?" Leandro asked, jumping to his feet, fear on his expressive face.

"Your fathers are safe," Cian assured him. "They were not involved. But they will have heard of the ruckus with Angel, and will be wondering where you are."

They were going to take a shortcut back to the temple. It would take too long on foot and he was not interested in dragging a buffet behind him with two children. Some temptations overrode a predator's caution.

The archway rose to existence from the ground, moss and lichen-covered stones grumbling and grinding as they flowed over each other like water. Having formed the arch, the stones settled with a puff of black dirt, moss hanging, swaying in the gentle breeze within the forest.

Leandro stumbled back and nearly fell but Cian caught him by the shoulder and put him back on his feet. "Easy, tiny human. It's merely sidhe magic. As natural as flowers blooming or the sun rising."

"Oh," Leandro gasped out, eyes wide. "Wow."

Cian chuckled. "Yes, very wow."

The temple was visible through the arch, and it was wide enough that Cian was able to shepherd through a growing dragon and his deer-leg snack, and a curious baby necromancer, while pulling the travois and the cargo behind him.

"Leo!"

Leandro jumped at the sound of his name being cried by a worried father as Ashwin ran through the library arch into the temple. He snatched up his son in a big hug, the boy's feet clear off the ground. "Where were you? What were you doing? I smell blood!"

Ashwin snarled that last bit and flashed fangs at Cian, who only rolled his eyes and gestured with one hand to the travois and the deer carcass. Eroch chirped loudly, bouncing around in front of Ashwin and Leandro, recounting the exciting tale of his hunt and successful kill to the vampire. Who of course understood none of it, but he gradually calmed, red eyes and fangs receding.

Leandro was gently put down and Ashwin gave Cian an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, how rude of me. Thank you for watching after Leo. May I ask what you were doing? You smell like trees and earth, and well, you've a dead deer…."

"I followed him, Da, don't be mad. Mr. Cian didn't invite me. I wanted to see what they were doing. He was teaching Eroch all about tracking and honor and how to butcher a kill!" Leandro exclaimed this with babbling enthusiasm and no context. "But then he found me following them and I got to see a dead deer! There was lots of blood so I didn't watch that part."

"My eleven-year-old son went hunting?" Ashwin asked calmly.

Cian put the travois down and dismissed the portal back to the underhill forest. "A bit old for his first time but he did splendidly not throwing up. Vomit is quite odorous."

"Oh, well, that's alright then," Ashwin replied, making Cian smile at the snark.

"Any news from the outer world? Rory says there was a kerfuffle with Angel and the federal agent."

"Dame Fontaine has been filling us in and everyone is fine, even Angel. The human was cursed. Iggy is with the young wolves and Dame Fontaine, helping to train Rael. He is a phenomenal student, according to Iggy."

Ashwin smiled down at Leandro. "And speaking of students, now that we're settled, it's time to start up your studies again. Come along, mijo. Time to learn."

"But, Da….." Leandro complained in a drawn-out whine.

"You can play with Mr. Cian and Eroch later if they say it's okay."

Cian gave the boy a small smile when he looked at him with wide-eyed hope. "I'll show him how to animate a skeleton once I've butchered the rest of it."

"Oh," Ashwin blinked at him, then seemed to recall that his son was a budding necromancer. "That sounds lovely."

Hours later, Angel carried himself over the threshold of the arch and let Simeon carry their bags to the Mansion, too tired to care all that much about anything except bed.

All Angel knew was that it was dark out still and he was going to bed. "No one wake me up for at least twelve hours."

Isaac gave his shoulder a squeeze. "Constans and I are going back to the Tower. Have a good night, and call me if something else happens."

"Same for you, kiddo. Sleep tight."

Isaac gave him a smile and left with Constans through the archway once Simeon exited and got out of the way.

Milly was waiting for them in the foyer, dressed in a matching track suit and fuzzy slippers, all in a dark blue that accented her silver hair. She gave him a thorough glance from head to toe, grimacing at the blood on his clothing from his conflict with Kenzie. Heedless of the stains, she gave him a bone-rattling hug. "Darling, you look horrible."

"I feel horrible." He hugged her back just as hard, and she squeaked at him about breathing, and he eased up enough for her to talk.

"Oh, well then. Time for a shower and bed," she ordered him kindly. "But quickly before you go, Rael and Jameson are in one of the guest suites on the third floor. I did manage to give Rael an introduction to the basics, if you want to take that over tomorrow. Ignacio offered to help me, and I did take him up on it, mostly out of curiosity. His approach to teaching magic is obviously from the 19th century, and I wanted to see how things had changed or not since then."

"Oh, does he…"

"He won't intrude on Rael's lessons unless you invite him, dear, this was merely mutual curiosity. Rael was most pleased to be taught by another Salvatore, but did ask when you were going to join us, so don't worry about your student preferring Ignacio over yourself."

"I wasn't…"

"Of course you weren't!" Milly smiled and winked. "Bedtime, my dear."

"Alright, alright."