by Logan Jacobs
Lizzie reached a small hand up toward my face then, and her blue eyes were soft, as if she’d already figured out her own name.
Gods, my heart was full to bursting.
“It is time to feed them,” Talise announced.
The healer helped Sela settle a baby in each arm and got them to latch. A few moments later, the girls were happily suckling at their mom’s boobs, and they drank in the milk like they’d never had a meal in their life.
Which, come to think of it, they actually hadn’t.
I waited with Sela until both girls were satisfied and had fallen asleep in the double wide bassinet I’d built a few days before. Sela wasn’t too far behind, since she was exhausted from the intense labor that came from having twin babies, and I left the three to their slumber.
Congratulations, dear one. George grinned as I left the room.
“Thanks,” I replied and patted him on the snout. “They’re healthy and happy, just as they should be.”
I wandered out into the courtyard where the rest of my family was. Careen and Nerissa were seated at a table, while Mira sat with Nixie and watched Arrick and Marella play with the baby dragons.
The dragons had grown so fast already. It had barely been two days since they’d hatched, and they’d already doubled in size. They were like small dogs now instead of rabbits.
“Daddy!” Marella called out as soon as she saw me walk into the courtyard.
Instantly, every head turned to look at me, with bright smiles on all of their faces.
“How is Sela?” Nerissa asked immediately.
“Sleeping,” I replied as I bent down and placed a kiss on each woman’s forehead. “The babies are healthy. Two girls. Lizzie and Amaria.”
“Lizzie?” Mira quirked a brow at me. “That is a strange name, Ben. Strange indeed.”
“It was my sister’s name.” I shrugged.
Silence fell at my admission, and the three women looked at me like they thought I was about to burst into tears.
“You must miss her terribly,” Careen murmured.
I thought about it for a split moment, but I knew the truth.
“I do,” I admitted, “but she’d want me to be here. I’ve got a new family now.”
I smiled at them and sat down, but there was still a heaviness in the air.
“Jonas told us he brought you here,” Nerissa finally said, and I understood why the silence had felt so all-consuming.
“Yeah?” I asked cautiously, not sure what was about to come next.
“We’re sorry,” Mira piped up. “We did not want you to be taken from your world so you could help us. We feel … ”
She bit her full bottom lip in a move that would have been adorably sexy if it weren’t so sad.
“We hope you don’t feel any differently about us because of it,” Careen added as she furrowed her brow.
Mira shot Careen a glare that told me the healer wasn’t supposed to say anything just yet. Nerissa, on the other hand, simply reached out and laid her palm on my arm.
“Listen,” I said seriously, and I waited until each of them looked up at me before I continued. “I’m damn thankful Jonas did what he did. Hell, I would have fucking died otherwise. But I didn’t die. Instead, I got to come to another world and start my life over. I got to do it right this time. If you ladies think I would give that up, well, I hate to break it to you, but you’re absolutely nutso.”
“Not as nutso as you,” Mira shot back with a quirky smile of her own.
Nerissa and Careen chuckled, but it seemed I had relieved them of their worries, because they both leaned back in their chairs and tilted their faces up to the sun.
We sat in silence for just a few moments before a dry, hacking cough filled the air.
“Dada!” Arrick screeched.
I whipped around to see the little copper dragon my son had been playing with hack and choke, and his small head was aimed at the ground.
I knew that sound. When George had made it, I’d been absolutely terrified, and when Nixie made it, I’d been curious.
This time, though, I was elated.
Another dragon bond. I was about to witness the third dragon bond in years.
“Oh, my gods,” Nerissa gasped. She clutched a hand to her heart and watched on in amazement as the dragon coughed and sputtered until finally, he hacked up a piece of shining cobalt sea-glass.
Right on the ground in front of my baby son.
Of all the things in the world to have happened today, I had expected this one the least.
Arrick, though, didn’t seem too alarmed. He just stared down in awe at the stone next to his tiny, bare feet before one chubby hand reached down to pick it up. This was all instinct for him, and I’d never been so amazed in my life. Then, the moment he picked up the shimmery stone, he shoved it into his mouth.
“Arrick, don’t!” Nerissa scolded.
“It’s alright,” I said quickly, before she could get up and take the stone from his mouth. “It’s supposed to happen this way.”
As if to confirm what I’d just said, Arrick’s eyes went wide, presumably as the stone melted inside his mouth, and then he shrieked with joy.
“Malkey!” he cried out, and then he toddled toward the copper dragon with his arms outstretched.
Awwick! a tiny, childlike voice said in my mind.
You are talking to us all, my son, George chuckled in response.
Sowwy, Malkey replied as he bowed his copper head sheepishly. I work on dat.
Before I could even process the fact that my tiny little son had just bonded with a water dragon, the little purple dragon started to make the exact same hacking sound.
The women, at this point, knew what to expect, and we all watched on in astounded breathlessness as the dragon worked.
“Sela is asleep,” a tired Talise announced as she stepped out into the courtyard.
“Shh!” Nerissa instantly hissed, too enraptured by the scene before her to say anything more.
“What is going … Oh, my gods!” Talise exclaimed as a piece of glittering silver sea-glass sprang forth from the dragon’s mouth and landed right in Marella’s hands.
“It’s what I saw!” the little girl shrieked, before she popped the stone in her mouth and let it melt away.
A few seconds later, she stepped forward and nuzzled the little dragon. A high-pitched dragon hum escaped the purple creature, and she closed her pink eyes in satisfaction.
“Family, meet Cerin,” Marella announced as she turned to us and presented the dragon in a very Simba-like fashion.
“Cerin,” Mira repeated slowly, and she frowned in thought. “That is the name of one of the first bonded dragons.”
Marella said nothing, but she smiled proudly at Mira in confirmation.
My kid was a genius like no other, that was for sure.
I glanced over to Talise and Nerissa as they clung to each other with tears in their eyes, and they watched their two little children play with their newly bonded dragon friends. Then the women looked over at me with pride in their eyes, and we shared a parent moment as we silently acknowledged just how amazing this was.
Four dragons, and four dragon bonds, after so many hard years without any. After the creatures had been believed to be extinct. It was nothing short of miraculous.
“We go swim now,” Marella announced, and then she started to march off in the direction of the beach like she was a full-grown woman and not a child.
“Hold on a moment, Marella,” Talise said firmly. “You cannot go into the ocean unaccompanied. It’s dangerous.”
Marella sighed and then turned to George and me.
We already knew exactly what she wanted, and I couldn’t deny it, since swimming was the way I’d truly bonded with George in the first place.
“I’ll watch them,” I told Talise. “I have to try and finish the raft, anyhow.”
I will swim with them, George announced in all of our heads. They will be safe, rest assured.
So, the six of us plodded down to the beach, where the three dragons all got in the water with the kids. I knew that nothing bad would happen with George right there, so I turned my attention back to my wonderful, majestic raft.
As nice as it looked, I still needed to figure out what kind of material I could use to make it sturdier.
Just as I flipped it back over in the sand, Marella ran up behind me and clapped her hands excitedly.
“What is this?” she asked.
“It’s the raft for Daddy to sail to the other islands in,” I informed her proudly. “It still needs a little work, though.”
Instead of the excited smile I figured I’d get, Marella just tilted her head curiously. Then she stared at the raft for a long moment.
“This isn’t the ship, Daddy,” Marella suddenly said as she crawled up into my lap.
Arrick toddled up beside me and plopped down in the sand, too, with Malkey at his side.
“Huh?” I asked.
“This isn’t the ship.” Marella shrugged. “You don’t find the other islands in this ship. It looks different.”
“What do you mean, different?” I inquired. “Different how, sweetie?”
“I don’t know.” My daughter frowned. “Just different.”
I knew if Marella could give me more information, she would have. So, I just looked back at the raft that had taken me an entire day to build and tried to figure out what else I could do to help strengthen the bamboo.
After a long moment, Arrick gave out a cranky little cry that usually signaled he was hungry, and I decided to table my confusion for a few hours. Hopefully, if I slept on it, I’d manage to come up with a solution to my problem.
The only thing I knew for sure was I couldn’t sail an ocean I didn’t know on a boat that could break apart so easily. I may have survived one shipwreck, but I sure as hell didn’t think I could survive a second one.
We all trotted back to the castle, where Hali had prepared a delicious dinner of roasted boar, served with vegetables on pieces of coconut bread. I devoured the mouth-watering food, and excitement was in the air as we all talked about the twins.
The first twins born in such a long time.
When dinner was over, I headed straight to Sela’s room to visit her and my daughters.
“Here’s Daddy!” Sela exclaimed softly to the babies the moment I walked in.
They were both tucked into the bassinet next to the bed, and they blew happy spit bubbles when I came in.
“How are you all feeling?” I asked as I sat on the edge of the warrior’s bed.
“Sore, a bit tired, but happy,” Sela replied with a wide smile.
“I’m glad,” I murmured.
I sat on the bed with her, and the two of us talked and played with the babies until the three of them started to drift off to sleep. They’d all had such a long day.
One of the younger women scuttled in to change Lizzie and Amaria before bed, and I took that as my cue to leave. Then I kissed Sela’s sleeping form one last time before I headed out to Talise’s room.
I nearly ran right into Nerissa in the hallway, though, and she held Arrick on her hip as she headed to her own bedroom.
“Ben!” The queen grinned. “I hoped I would see you before bed. May I speak with you for a moment?”
“Of course.” I nodded.
Nerissa directed us into an alcove so we could speak without the interruption of any passersby. I could tell she was excited by the way her eyes glittered when she looked at me, so I just waited for her to speak.
“I would like you to impregnate the twins,” she finally said. “Darya and Zarya. I think they would make fine mothers.”
The request caught me off guard, and I had to take a moment to process it. I knew I would be asked to make a baby with a woman soon again, and I had absolutely no issues with that, but I hadn’t expected Nerissa to choose two of her best warriors.
An image of a naked Darya flashed in my head, though, followed by one of Zarya, and I had to admit, the thought turned me on. I wanted to make love to both of them, there was absolutely no doubt about that.
But the island needed warriors.
“Nerissa, I can’t,” I told her. “Sela just had our daughters, and she won’t be able to fight for a while. And Darya and Zarya are the best warriors you have, next to Mira. It would be too dangerous for them to be pregnant right now.”
“But they are strong,” Nerissa insisted with a frown. “Their children would be good for the population.”
“You are absolutely right,” I nodded and reached a hand out to stroke her cheek, “but if I am leaving you, I need to know that everyone will be safe. And I just can’t know that if both of them are pregnant. Either one, actually.”
For a split second, Nerissa looked like she might argue, but then the light of logic entered her eyes again.
“You are right,” she sighed. “My apologies, Ben. I suppose I just got carried away when I saw the babies today. You are doing so much for us, and it has caught me up in a wave of excitement.”
“I understand,” I chuckled, “and I promise you, once the pirates are destroyed, I will make as many babies as I possibly can.”
A small smile spread across Nerissa’s face. “I very much look forward to that day.”
“Me, too.” I grinned as I envisioned a whole island, a whole dynasty, full of my children.
It was good to be the Dragon King.
Chapter Fifteen
The next morning, I left my lover’s bed, repeated my breakfast of coconut bread and fruit as George ate some fresh fish, and then we wandered on down to the beach, ready to try and figure out how to reinforce the bamboo raft so it was stronger.
We found the raft had been flipped over in the middle of the night, though, and I let out a long sigh as we approached.
The winds were strong last night, dear one, George mused as I flipped the raft back over with my dragon-man strength, but we don’t know what winds we may encounter on these other islands.
As usual, he was right, and I was so damn grateful I had my water dragon companion. Sometimes, it seemed like he just articulated the thoughts in my head before I even had a chance to notice them.
“We definitely need something stronger than bamboo,” I confirmed. “It’s too easily torn up or moved. Plus, if we have to get into some sort of Pirates of the Caribbean level boat fight with our enemy, I don’t want to be all Johnny Depping into the harbor by the top of the mast.”
I do not know who this Caribbean Pirate Johnny you’re referring to is, but I believe I understand your point, George chuckled.
Alas, I’d given up on the hope that any of my family would ever understand my amazing pop culture references. Most of them were just for me, at this point.
Regardless of whether or not George knew what I was talking about, we were both in agreement. A sea battle in a bamboo boat was sure as hell not the way I wanted to die.
So, I walked around the raft for a few minutes and just assessed it so I could take note of what I did and did not like about my lovely little creation.
Admittedly, I loved the flexibility of the material, the way it took on the waves and almost swayed with them, like the wood was an ocean of its own. The bamboo was easy to build with, too, and I could definitely take extra material with me in case I needed to fix minor things during our journey.
However, flexibility and ease also meant the bamboo was too easily broken, mostly due to the shape and thickness of the bamboo shoots.
I needed to find a material that could marry flexibility and lightness with durability. Back home, this type of thing had been perfected by high end, complex fiberglass technology, but I had none of that here. I only had the crude tools that had been here before me, and whatever I could
come up with myself.
And as smart as I was, I couldn’t exactly excavate a ton of metal and build giant robots to piece everything together when all I had at my disposal was sea-glass and bamboo.
“What kind of wood do the orc pirates use?” I wondered aloud.
George gave me a clueless shrug, so we went over to the washed-up boats to take a look.
I dragged one rowboat a little further up on the golden sand so I didn’t have to deal with the incoming waves and took a closer look at the wood. It reminded me of the bark of a redwood tree, almost as if the orcs had felled an entire tree made of this particular bark.
As I suspected, the wood was sturdier, thicker, but still porous enough to float and move easily, and the oar attached to it was carved of the same material.
While I studied the crude yet superior boat, I realized there was another improvement I wanted to make, but this upgrade was a little more complicated than better material.
The orc pirates might be willing to row their boats all over the damn ocean, but it would sure as hell be helpful to have a sail in the middle and make use of the soft breeze that blew out over the warm, blue sea.
That was a problem for later, though. For right now, I needed to focus on one thing at a time.
“First things first,” I said as I rounded on my dragon companion. “We need to augment the design with stronger wood, and there’s only one place on this entire island where something other than bamboo grows.”
George looked at me for a long, heavy moment before he nodded his massive dragon head.
The jungle, he sighed, where many beasts of unknown power reside.
I could tell we both inwardly grimaced at his words, but there was nothing to be done about it. There was no sense in being afraid. We had no other choice. A boat that could travel to these other islands was far more important than the unknown dangers of the jungle.
Besides, a little adventure would be fun.
I didn’t used to be the kind of guy who craved an adrenaline rush, but ever since I’d gotten to the island, it seemed to be far more important to me. There was just nothing like the excited warmth that spread through me whenever I was doing something a little bit dangerous. It was probably the new dragon blood in me.