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It was an uneventful flight, although it did feel weird to be holding a couple of my friends in my feet as I flapped through the sky hundreds of meters above the ground. Once in a while I could feel them shift to look at something, or I supposed that's what they were doing anyway. Even through the rushing tumult of my flight, I could also hear them try to say something to me once in a while. None of it gave me the impression that they were in any danger of falling, and not that I was being a bitch and ignoring them, but it would be a much smoother experience for them if I just kept going until we reached my home. If I stopped and hovered to hear what they had to say I was worried that the stomach churning lurches would make them puke all over me. At one point however, it made me curious to feel one of the sisters press themselves closely against me. Taking it as a sign that they might be cold I pulled my legs tighter against my warm scales and held them there out of the slipstream for the remainder of the flight.

A few minutes later my home came into view, along with the six tents that comprised the homes of my babysitters. No one else had returned, but I could see that Prometheus had finally dragged himself out of the shelter and was laying atop my house with his wings spread wide. Sunning himself apparently. He heard me on my approach and raised his head to watch as I came in to land.

I made one circle of the clearing to give the sisters in my talons an aerial look at what I had been dealing with for the past few months. In my low orbit I let my tail droop downward and bellowed laughter when I knocked the dry erase board next to another glum looking private on to the ground. Even from aloft I could hear his sigh of soul rending despair.

Landing on hind legs, I balanced on my tail long enough to set the sisters down and then thumped to all fours beside them. Bending my neck I brought my head around until I was coiled around the two.

"So... what did you think? Fucking awesome right?"

Athena looked around at the soldiers looking back at her, then turned her face up to my eager one and smiled.

"Kim, that was a-mazing!"

"What do you think Carla?"

The wind and the chill of the flight must have killed her buzz because the older sister was back to being the nearly mute woman that I was used to.

"It was interesting." she grunted, and followed it up with another lengthy observation. "You're pregnant."

So she must have been the one that I felt pushing themselves up against me. The hearts of my little ones were strong indeed. I swelled with pride as I thought about them. Athena was already beaming happily at me while also sneaking glances at my belly, which certainly did not look like that of a pregnant female.

I unabashedly glowed with happiness, my wings and fins extending as I fidgeted from paw to paw. Once more I made the two of them smell my emotions when my scales opened and my elation soared. They looked at each other, stunned at hearing the thunderous beat of my heart, and then upwards at me towering over them as I danced joyously.

"Yes I am. Why don't you two grab some wine and glasses for yourself out of my house? I'd love to shoot the shit with you on my patio for a while."

Carla went inside as Athena walked along me trailing a hand down my flank as my head followed her to look at my body near my hips. A startled shout drew our heads back to Carla to see that Prometheus had lowered his to block her way and to peer closely at her. After her initial surprise, she returned to staring back at him inquisitively.

"I know you... There was a serious consideration to welcoming you as a child of the egg. You have much to contribute to this world Carla Reed, but we determined that it would be better if you willingly underwent this change. Likely results from a forced shift lead to a substantial number of deaths personally attributable to you."

I was floored, yet again, at the casual arrogance of these god damned aliens. But even before my anger could rise, I was cut short.

Alarmed by the quick calculating look in her sister's eyes as they glanced from, what was to her a completely unknown creature, to me, Athena interjected.

"Carla! No! Why would you ever think of considering this? Haven't you learned anything from what happened to Kim?"

I was quick to agree. "This is not something that you want Carla. It is no small thing to become something that you were not born to be, and other humans do not take it well. I have been fired at fourteen times just because of what I am now. My mate is off helping another mother deal with the fact that we just learned today that her six-year-old dragon daughter was shot trying to help a stranger. This is not something any sane person would choose."

I thought of Bryan, and was about to apologize to him mentally, but stopped when I thought that he was a fifty something year old whose only companions were monitor lizards. His insanity might have been cured by being turned into something that was the closest thing that he knew how to relate to. Poor lonely bastard.

"Please Carla!" Athena cried, as the stronger younger sister wrapped her elder into a crushing bear hug. "Not you!"

Carla reached up to pat Athena on the back, and then broke their embrace to hold her at arm's length and wiped her sister's tears away with her thumb. "I will stay with you for now." Athena looked relieved, but I was wary of the hard look that had entered her eyes.

When she had gone into my home after the barrier of Prometheus' enormous head had been removed I nudged Athena to the side and tried to murmur to her as quietly as I could.

"Tell Harry about this, keep reminding her how much she means to both of you. Remind her that you don't want to have to watch her go through what I and others had no choice in. I saw the look in her eyes."

"I saw it too. She is weighing the pros and cons in her head right now. I don't want to lose my sister! Kim, talk to her! Tell her every last thing that has gone wrong with your life! Tell her nothing feels right about the way you are!"

She stopped when she saw me begin to fidget and look away at the mention of nothing about me feeling right. Just... being able to fly... I always wanted...maybe...

"Please Kim! Lie to her if you have to!"

She froze at my response. "Thena, if she does accept, you must know just by the fact that you are still talking to me, that your sister will not truly be 'gone'. Just her body will not be the one you'd known all your lives. Is she unhappy as she is? If she is, why? That is how to keep your sister as the woman you know. Not by any lies I can tell. You and Harry are going to be the ones to convince her to remain human. Does she still have that boyfriend? Call him in on this. Hell, remind her that if she goes through with it that she'll be too large to work in a normal lab. Maybe that'll work for someone who thinks so dispassionately."

"I'll do what I can for the both of you." I sighed, this was going to be painful. "Go in there after her, and get three bottles of wine, there is some white in a rack next to the stove. I will tell you both how everything has gone to hell. Perhaps that will stop her."

For the next four hours I recounted every last insult, disaster, and uncomfortable truth about my new nature that I had had to undergo or realize since zero day. By the time I had rolled through what had happened to (comparatively) tiny Angie this morning two bottles of wine were gone. When I had finished the unceasing rumbles of my narrative, tears ran steadily down Athena's face, and Carla's had grown pallid with horror as she stared at her empty wine glass.

Horror that came, I'm sure, from how casually it was brought to her attention that she could have shared that fate with no warning whatsoever. A horror that I hoped made her reevaluate her future decisions on the matter.

It was a lot to take in all at once, and it hadn't been all that healthy for me to relive it all either. It was fair to say that I was in a state of either rage or tearful sorrow almost the whole time.

Carla roused from her stupor and opened the third bottle to refill her glass as her sister lurched woozily to her feet and jumped at my shoulder to cry into it sympathetically. I held her close with the back of my wing arm as she sobbed against me and bitter tears wandered aimlessly from my eyes.

"Kim...Kim...how...how? How can you bear it? Everything that has been done to you! To your family! To others! How can you live like this?"

"I can bear it, because I have others to bear it with me. If I had been by myself, I would not be sane. I would not be reasoning. Without my family to be there with me, and I for them, none of us would be anything more than wild animals. A fate that many others have fallen into. They need help, and we are dedicated to giving them that help."

Carla downed half her glass, and then got to her unsteady feet as well. Reaching out to her younger sister, she pulled her away from me and gathered her into her arms to hold her close. With a hand on the back of her head she rocked her slightly back and forth while she whispered calming words to her younger sibling. Athena cried into her shoulder about how that was almost what had happened to her big sis.

"Promise me Carla, promise me that that won't be you."

"It's okay little goddess. It's okay. Nothing is going to happen to big sis. I promise."

I watched the family comfort each other, more than a little wistful at the fact that I had never had a sister to look to growing up. Someone that could hold me in her arms and tell me it was alright when something went wrong. Or throw things at me and call me spiteful names. I would have borne the latter just for a few instances of the former. As an only child I could assure you of that much. Instead, I had been raised by my father all his own. Without the rough fighting spirit I had developed I would have never been in the military and in the unit that had allowed me to meet Tom, and with him created three (and counting!) beautiful children. C'est la vie.

As their familial bonds strengthened before me, I looked up at Prometheus as he watched silently from his perch on my roof.

You are a fucking asshole.

What I had said is the truth, and what I offered had been truthful as well, albeit unnecessary. You have just increased the bonds between those two, and when they return to their father at the end of the day, the bond between them and him as well. It is true that only within the context of the change we inflicted do they know what they may have lost. But look at the beauty of their family that would never have been realized unless we had made these changes. Beauty that I must add, that you helped them to understand as well. We have high hopes for you Kim. This is a taste of what we wish to achieve on this world.

It was at that point that I finally started to see the value of what this nameless alien race was trying to force us to do. I didn't like it, but human beings were ultimately just petulant children. And like any child that kicks and scream when they are made to eat their vegetables, sometimes a larger understanding is needed to teach them what is best for themselves. I still didn't like it though. I didn't want to eat my fucking broccoli.

You are still an asshole.

I am glad that you begin to understand Kim. It is important that you do.

More of his fucking 'you are the future leader of the world John Connor' bullshit. I didn't like his continued vague hints at what he was setting me up to do in the future. I don't read tea leaves, horoscopes, shake magic eight balls, or open fortune cookies. This was pissing me off, and there was no way I could get him to tell me everything that I wanted. Asshole.

The smell of my two friends grew stronger in my nose and then I felt their hands pat the front of my chest. I cocked my head to look down on them.

"You...you were talking weren't you? Was it about us?"

"It was. The one on the roof remarked at how beautiful it thought your bond to each other was. I agreed. Why don't you finish the rest of that bottle to celebrate what you have?"

Athena perked up. "But how can we celebrate when you can't share with us? After your story I don't want you to have any alcohol either. How about some of that ginger root? Do you think that will help you share our celebration of family?"

"I don't know what it will do really. But I don't think I have..."

There was a popping noise of displaced air and laying between the bottles of wine on the table a gnarled piece of ginger root appeared. I sniffed at it suspiciously and looked up at Prometheus.

"Hold it under your tongue for as long as you wish to feel its effects, just do not swallow it. They will be similar to the herb that Carla Reed had been partaking of earlier. In fact, if you wished, you could consume that plant as well. That one will generate a mild hallucinatory effect in your present biology that is much more noticeable than on humans."

Maybe I'd try pot out some day. Far, far, far, fucking far, from any structures or humans.

Carla was agitated at the sudden appearance of the herb. "That...that...what is this! Magic isn't real! Things don't just fucking appear! I need more information!"

Out of everything that's happened in the world this is what she gets twisted about? A fucking plant root? Just a few hours ago the fucking alien on my roof asked if she'd like to become a dragon!

She glared at Prometheus in a nonverbal demand for more. She'd have about as much success bailing out the ocean with a sand bucket as getting answers on how the obviously watching Thumper was able to do anything.

"It is not magic. It's an advanced application of scientific principles that are beyond your knowledge."

"That's even more bizarre!" Carla began pulling at her hair. "How were you able to connect here to there? If only...." Her mouth kept moving but no more sound came from her as she wandered off with her eyes lost in thought. Same old Carla.

I helped her by putting the ginger out of sight, and temporarily out of mind, in my mouth. Athena giggled drunkenly as my long narrow tongue ran out to nudge wine bottles out of its way and coil around the root before withdrawing into its home.

"You must have an easy time wrapping Tom around your finger with a tongue like that."

"Oh yeah... You have no idea. Well actually, you might... Did you hear any roaring last night?"

"Yeah... wait do you mean?" She curled her fingers into a circle and began running a finger on her other hand in and out of the hole.

She laughed, when I winked and bobbed my head.

"Was anything I heard last night you?"

"You mean this?" I made a much quieter copy of one of my screams last night. Which sounded like the call of a gigantic red tailed hawk.

She blushed and nodded with a giggle.

I shivered, a motion that began all the way at the end of my tail until my head bucked and I snorted. Just remembering Tom riding me was enough to make the area smell as good as I felt.

"It's unlike anything I had ever felt as a woman." I promised her. Her blush darkened to a whole new level.

The sexually vanilla woman tapped her fingers together nervously. "That... that sounds hot. Is that smell..."

Thinking of literally, just how hot we were, I couldn't agree more. "You have no idea, and no, that is the smell of love."

Athena giggled again shyly. I always had a hard time figuring her out when it came to fucking around. Completely secure about her body, and no sense of shame whatsoever walking around naked or nearly so. But every time, the more she talked about sex the more shy and withdrawn she became. A real puzzle. I had asked, of course, but she hadn't talked again the rest of that night. The next day she acted like it had never happened, so I let her keep her secret. Whatever it may have been.

Her eyes grew large and glossy as she held her hands to her heart. "That's so sweet! You can actually sense each other's love? Aaaah." She swooned.

Carla returned, with her hair even more disheveled than when she'd left, evidently by being tugged at, and flopped into her chair.

"Figure it out yet?" Her sister asked her. She grunted something under her breath and reached for her glass of wine.

"That creature pisses me off. Is it possible to kill it for what it almost did to me and my family?"

I invited her to try. I had made a point of mentioning earlier that even if we did manage to kill it, it would be returned in some new form to continue its 'punishment'. With my luck my fucking spirit animal would return as Cthulhu or something equally unpleasant to look at.

That creature interjected itself into our conversation by reminding me of the latest impending development.

"Kim, your guests approach. You have ten minutes."

"Guests! What guests?" Athena exclaimed.

I sighed. Yes... the guests...

"Does the way I look intimidate you two very much right now? Because if it does, I have some bad news for you..."

"Well not really, as long as you don't make any sudden... What?"

"I was told this morning a family of five children of the egg will be visiting me today. Today apparently meaning in 10 minutes. I'm going to meet them in the air, you two should wait in the house until I give you the all clear. I understand that three of them are children, they may be a tad energetic and several times your size. I need to go warn the commander of the nitwits down there. While I do that can you do me a favor by grabbing my dogs and taking them in there with you?"

I yelled for the Colonel, who emerged scowling after a moment. His scowl deepened when I started to tear into him (verbally) for the several failed attempts to communicate with me. He didn't like the surprise of more dragons showing up here. But I was able to use it as an example to beat him over the head with to display what happens when I am not contactable. After my point had been made and I could hear him giving new orders to his commo guys (who intercepted all phone calls to my house) I was satisfied.

Once happy that I could warn as many as I could I kicked into the air and began to make slow orbits of the clearing my house sat in. Eventually, I saw three black specks approaching from the east. Judging by the enormous wing spans, I guessed they were a flock of sparrows.

Circling a little bit higher, I blasted an enormously loud greeting.

Hello strangers!

The roar made everyone look up despite being warned. It was pretty loud. I could see the distant specks suddenly grow in size for a moment, as if pulling up to hover in place. Then when they resumed their forward flight I was surprised by what happened next. The two larger shapes suddenly grew a second pair of wings before smaller forms dropped from them. When the falling bodies snapped their wings open again I realized that it must have been the parents carrying their youngest children. Prometheus hadn't actually told me how old any of the family was yet.

I now knew that two of them had to be even younger than Angie. She had no problem flying any distance that I'd noticed. At this point after everything else I knew that they'd done, I couldn't even bring myself to anger. I wanted to be angry at what had been done to preschool aged children. But there was this sense of serenity blocking me from that familiar feeling. I dismissed it for later, it was time to greet a whole new family of others. I was actually pretty curious to see how a whole new family was dealing with...this.

Just as my young friend was able to demonstrate when I flew with her. The smallest two rocketed towards me far outstripping their motherships (haha). The third smallest seemed to be attempting to chase after them and was slowly gaining on them when they reached me in a flurry of scale and wing.

Are you Kim?

You are Kim!

What is this?

Who are they?

Eggs?

Oh, that thing moved!

We are far! Where is home?

Look!

Just as suddenly as they had started speaking they stopped, and tumbled over each other towards the ground. Hitting at a run, they darted towards my house. Standing up on their tails they looked at Prometheus curiously, with their nostrils flaring widely. When they had their fill of him they raced for the back door and nosed and batted at it until it slid open. I winced as the sounds of their eager exploration came to me in English accompanied by several crashing noises, the barking of my dogs, and the startled shouts of the two women inside attempting to answer their questions.

Judging by their size, they couldn't be more than two years old... I think. They would have come up just past my waist when I was human, and were about three meters long. In other words, small enough to fit into my home, and large enough to cause wholesale destruction in it as well.

One of them reemerged (she I amended when I caught the smell of her), and followed her nose towards the grille, pushing it open with her head her eagerly flared wings drooped at not finding the food she smelled. A Guardsman out in the yard caught the little one's attention with loud appreciation for how cute the she was. Turning, the little dragon's eyes opened wide in curiosity and she cocked her head.

"Cute? What word? I learn! Cute, cute, cute, cute. I learn new! You new! That new! That new too! I learn, I learn! Yes, yes, yes!"

She scurried towards the doe eyed private and making a running jump she bowled the girl over and landed with her legs on each side of her chest. Which was the only thing that kept the soldier on the ground from being crushed, as small as the dragon was she probably still weighed a few hundred kilos. The child of the egg began pointing her snout at each item on the soldier's uniform. Her tail curling around to begin rifling through each pocket, agilely pulling anything and everything out of the many hiding places on the speechless trooper beneath her

"What this? And this? Ooooh, what this? You tell! I learn! Maybe I keep! Maybe?" She clutched a black carabiner in her claws and turned it over a few times before opening and closing the gate and mimicking the clicking noise it made. "I like!"

Oh my god, I couldn't wait to have my own. She was fucking adorable! Where they all this curious? I thudded to the ground and watched with glittering eyes as the tiny female got her answers. Sitting back on her tail with her fore legs raised she raptly listened as the girl in front of her explained what was in her pockets.

The other child came running through the open sliding door followed by Carla and Athena who looked just as smitten as I was.

"Oh my! It's so cute! It's so curious, and smart! It was fascinated by your dogs, it wanted to know why they looked different from each other. I had to explain to it the difference in colors and it got it right away! Oh! So precious!" Athena cooed.

"Its comprehension rate and manner of communication are atypical." Was Carla's clinical assessment.

Sniffing at the other youngling as it sprinted past me to tackle its sibling before they both ran off to investigate my shelter I corrected them both.

"It is not an it. It is a female."

The third dragon noted earlier had finally caught up and landed with its (his) tongue hanging out and taking great breaths through his snout.

"Not just any females, they are my younger sisters. My apologies." The golden eyed male sat back on his haunches and bowed to us formally with his wings extended to balance him. A clumsy move not really suited to a quadruped. "My name is Hayate, and they are Sora." He pointed at the female with grey eyes. "And Kazane." His wing shifted to point at the other with one eye red and the other blue. He yelled something at them in Japanese. "Y?koso atarash? tomodachi!" And they raced over to sit on their tails and bow to my friends and I in greeting.

"Welcome to my home, Hayate, Sora, and Kazane. I am Kim, and these two next to me are Carla, and Athena. Please, feel free to scare the living daylights out of anyone wearing a uniform."

"Welcome!"

"Hello!"

"We greet!"

"Now we learn!"

"Yes, learn! We make noise with you later!"

They took off and landed on Prometheus who didn't even flinch from watching us as they bounced up and down on his back, trying to learn who knows what. At this point I didn't know how my roof wasn't just collapsing in on itself. Maybe Thumper had reinforced it at some point and not mentioned it to us. Which would be right in character for the diminutive rider of the pale horse.

"I am happy to meet you all. It is good to meet another family that have suffered the same fate as us."

"And I am glad to meet you as well, as will be my parents when they arrive. We are somewhat faster than them. Although if I may correct you, we do not view what happened to us as a cause of sorrow. By taking to the skies we have been blessed."

I went silent, turning that over in my head. Blessed huh? Maybe my perception was skewed on the matter due to the number of times I'd been fucking shot! But it seemed like a stretch to look at our bodies as a godsend to me.

"How old are you if you do not mind telling? You are very well mannered." Athena asked.

He smelled pleased and his ears spread widely. "It brings joy to my heart to hear you say so, I am thirteen years of age."

"Are you Japanese?" Carla asked bluntly.

The gentle sway of his tail ceased as it stiffened and his wings tightened against his back. His response was neutral, but his body language and scent couldn't lie. The question and the way it was asked had obviously wound him up.

"My family are citizens of Japan as well the United States."

Lowering my head I tried to murmur out of one side of my snout, while Hayate had the grace to pretend he hadn't heard everything I said.

"Take it easy Carla, since you can't smell it you kinda ticked him off. He might not be as big as me, but he's still a meter taller than you."

My remarks about the threat he posed to her went completely over her head, of course. "Oh. Is that what his posture and smell mean? I will begin to catalog those expressions." She pulled a notebook out of her jacket to jot something down before she turned to him and apologized. Carla the scientist, obliviously pissing people off since 1978.

Thankfully, Hayate and co's parents arrived. Unlike Tom and I there was a marked size difference between the two of them. The wife being notably smaller and slimmer than the husband. But what really got my attention was the panoply of tattoos I could see covering her back, legs, and wrapping around to her undercarriage. Even her husband had a few coiling around one of his front legs all the way up to where it joined his shoulder.

Just as I opened my jaws to greet them and to compliment them on the body art, I clacked them shut as my scales bristled at the sight of what was on the husband's back. A fucking Thumper clone.

Which apparently had a radically different personality than the two I had known.

"Hiya Kim!" It shouted before jumping off (goddammit I need his name)'s back and tucking its tail to do a neat little flip to land before me. With wings extended behind it, it lowered its nose to the ground in the same manner that Jesse continued to exhibit and bounced back up to look at me.

"I have waited for this day for so long and I am super excited at finally getting to meet you and your family! Thumper and Prometheus have so many awesome things to say about you! May I please give you a muzzle nuzzle to show my appreciation for how well you've been doing? Oh my, I am so happy! What an auspicious day! C'mon Kim! Don't be angry with me! There should be happy thoughts all around at meeting each other!"

My brain froze at the sight and sound of the bizarrely chipper attitude of the new clone. Like a fucking slack jawed moron I stood there and dumbly nodded while bringing my head down. It approached me, and like it had asked, rubbed its nose along both sides of mine while I inhaled the smell of its glee. Then with a leap backwards the golden eyed creature began its introductions.

Sitting up on its tail it bowed again.

"It makes me so excited to introduce myself and the family that I guide! This is Asuka the bird that flies!" She bowed gracefully. "And this is Haruto who soars in clear skies!" He bowed just as lithely as his wife. "They have given me the honor of the name Tomoko, the wise child!" The three finished with a formal hello

"Konnichiwa!"

I gave my name (that they already knew) and introduced Carla and Athena before returning the greeting and bowing my nose to the ground in turn.

Tomoko prodded us to break the ice. "Now we will be best friends! Friends always help each other! So let's turn those frowns upside down and make some pleasant memories!"

It wasn't hard to see that this one had an agenda just as layered as the rest of the alien computer clones. It just dressed it up with a sunny personality and several coatings of frosting. It was certainly disarming though, so I guess it worked.

The tiny fountain of cheer and saccharine words finally moved from between to let us get to know each other. With an odd four legged skipping motion Tomoko made its way over to the watching Prometheus. Just as I swung my head back to the waiting family, a shrill burst of static erupted from all the speakers in my house followed by another series of rapid blasts of sound in an oscillating pattern. I had long since learned that this meant there was lengthy conversation going on between the two aliens.

"What were your tattoos of? I can see shapes but all details have been lost." I asked Asuka.

"Oh dear, I have so many! If I may be so bold as to say that they were once very beautiful with many exquisite sakura petals and koi fish swimming amongst them. Haruto even told me when I moved du..." she ended with a flustered coughing noise and the smell of embarrassment.

It didn't take much imagination to come up with what she almost said.

"The koi can appear to be swimming." She resumed after a moment. "But I am afraid that when we ascended we lost the beauty of art in order to achieve the beauty of form. We are most honored to pay the cost of losing our superficial adornments in order to receive this blessing. How can the picture drawn in ink of the koi as it swims gracefully through the currents in which it lives ever compare to the joy that we feel for the freedom we have been given to swim through currents of our own?"

I continued to look over her tattoos, and Haruto's as well, when I spotted a familiar shape. A very large one starting on her leg and wrapping around her torso, and on her husband it coiled around part of his arm. Pointing at both shapes with my top wing claw I asked them the obvious.

"Are those..."

Making a tiny chuffing giggle she acknowledged what I suspected.

"Dragons are seen as protectors, and after we were given our son we both sought their protection for our family. Who was to know that one day we would become them? Now, we feel duty bound to protect not just our family but others as well. Which is the reason why we have sought your wisdom out, Kim the warrior."

Haruto spoke for the first time, which I judged was a rarity.

"You would honor us greatly in providing us guidance. We are ashamed to admit that our attempts to extend protection to others have been misunderstood."

"Tomoko would not provide this instruction?"

Asuka resumed explaining for the both of them. "We are happy to have the wisdom and counsel of the golden eyed child to guide us and to bring her into our family. She was the one to direct us to seek out your advice. She is adamant that the best way for us to find resolution for our present misfortunes is to establish relationships amongst ourselves as well as with those we seek to protect."

So they felt attached enough to their 'Guide' to give it a sex and welcome it into their family? Great, good, awesome. So what was wrong with Thumper and Prometheus when others of their ilk can be so helpful and supportive?

"You do not blame 'her' for what happened to you?"

They looked aghast, with their heads recoiling and their fins flattened they stared at each other in mute horror at the suggestion before recovering.

"Oh no! How could we blame the gods for bestowing such an honor upon us! She has been with us from the very beginning to ensure a most peaceful and wonderful ascension! We could never fault her for bringing such joy to us! When our wings had grown and we joined our beautiful, beautiful children in the sky she was with us. Laughing alongside us in joy as she taught us how to swim through the air! No! No, we could never!"

Haruto bobbed his head quickly to confirm his feelings mirrored his wife's. I was stunned, and my head spun in confusion. Is this... Is this what the relationship between us and our 'guide' was supposed to look like? I couldn't imagine how much better off we would have been if it was. Was Thumper's glitch when it all came undone?

Then the first part of their startled denial registered in my mind, and even through the fuzzy dimming of my thoughts, rage began to darken my sight. Again with this fuzziness? Why was it so hard for me to feel emotions? Why was I constantly confused? And then I remembered, and was pissed all over again at being manipulated once more. I spit out the ginger root angrily and screamed for an answer from Prometheus.

Spooking my new guests, the three children coalesced by their mother's side and with their parents on each side of them they hunkered down to watch my anger warily.

Prometheus was not the one to answer me however. Tomoko appeared in front of my weaving head alongside Thumper causing my scales and fins to bristle in rage. This was not how today was supposed to go!

Thumper remained silent as Tomoko spoke, which was really for the best. She bowed to me, and remained there as she began.

"Please do not be angry Kim! I was the one that supplied the ginger root. I knew your interactions with Thumper and Prometheus have not always been the happiest, but I wanted us to get started with the right paw placed forward, and to give myself a chance..."

I quickly reevaluated the new guide's actions and then made a chopping motion with my wing to cut it off. "Not that! I'm actually glad that you did! You!" I snarled, and darted my head at Thumper, before swinging it towards Prometheus. "I watched my daughter scream!" SHE SCREAMED IN AGONY FOR HOURS! FOR HOURS! "And you could have fucking stopped it!" WHY DIDN'T YOU?

Nothing was said, but my rage vanished as quickly as it came when I heard the faint peeping of Sora and Kazane's distress from their hiding place beneath the cover of their parent's wings.

Danger! Danger! Help!

Scared! Danger! Scared!

Calm! Calm!

Scary! Need calm!

Want calm!

I tried to breathe, to calm my raised membranes, but the constant plea from the young drove me desperately to remove the source of their fear. Me, and my anger. Bending my neck I licked the ginger root off the ground and held it beneath my tongue until the gentle breeze flowing through the backyard swept my anger away.

To make my apologies, I crept slowly towards the family and when I had gotten close enough that the panicked cries of their children made their hackles begin to raise. I bared my vulnerable nape and the membrane there to whatever punishment they deemed necessary for alarming their defenseless young. They did not respond, it was the children that I frightened that did, as they came rushing out over the protective wall of their older brother's body.

I did not move a muscle as Sora launched herself to bite the tip of my snout and in a frenzied whipping of her tiny body tore my nostril open. At the same time Kazane ripped into my delicate spinal fin causing blood to flow from the torn capillaries. Stoically I bore my penance for what I had caused until they were satisfied.

You scary!

No like!

Make you hurt!

Yes!

No more scary!

You stop!

Yes!

We forgive!

Honestly all this was a shock to me. I don't think any of us here, besides the watching aliens, knew what was normal in this situation. Their admonishment of me complete, I felt the tongues of the younglings lap up the blood that they had caused. Then the stinging sensation of them licking my wounds came before they fluttered to the ground in front of me and stood waiting for me to do something apparently. They grew exasperated after a few minutes and began making demands that I didn't understand at first.

We forgive!

Yes! Now remove scary!

Remove scary!

Yes! Yes!

I just kept staring at them and, as soon as they could smell my confusion, they demonstrated what they meant by "Remove scary". Sora turned and began to groom Kazane before licking the grass in displeasure with whatever she had just tasted.

Remove scary!

I looked up at their mother and father to see what they thought about a stranger licking their children clean. After looking at each other for a moment they bobbed their heads. I don't know if I could be that trusting, but this was about to be as weird as it sounded.

I began to give them what they apparently wanted. A tongue bath. With the rest of their family watching me anxiously like a bunch of possessive...dragons. I began and immediately could understand why they wanted this. The taste of their fear was revolting. It smelled like fear, but it tasted like stomach bile. It was no wonder that they wanted it off and I wondered if this was another defense mechanism of the very young. What kind of fucking world did the aliens we now were evolve on exactly?

"It was super not friendly!" Was Tomoko's helpful description of my unvoiced thought. Holy shit, that never ceased to be one bit less creepy.

"Oh, it was so mean! Before they became civilized only one in twenty of these adorable little hatchlings made it to adulthood! Can you imagine? So scary! So dangerous! But it all worked out in the end. Their whole civilization revolved around the young. So much love. It was beautiful! Everything they did, they did for their children. And if adults were ever mean to other's children they were punished! Out into the dangerous wild they went, with no laughter in their heart! No child's happiness ever came at the cost of another's! It was a rule that didn't need to be said! Every adult was a parent for all children. If a child needed fed, it was fed! If it needed help, it was helped! It did not matter if you had hatched them or not, every child had their needs taken care of! Love and laughter reigned!"

"This world will be so much better with children of the egg! You will see! It is time for humans to be reminded what truly matters! Yep, yep! You have so much to teach the humans that you once were. Oh, I am so excited! In three thousand years everyone is going to be so happy! I just want to burst thinking about how many smiles there will be!"

It was jumping up and down in (alarmingly misleading) mindless glee before sinking to its belly as its elation died in its throat. "But I am so sad as well. The journey to happiness will be long and full of tears. There will be so much loss and so many unhappy faces. So much pain is to come that I cannot bear to see it more than I absolutely have to."

Then it brightened once more, almost glowing with enthusiasm. "But I think you can do it! I am rooting for you! There is an 83% chance of a golden future for you! Yay!"

I didn't know what to think of this one anymore. Finished with cleaning the last of Sora's underside I switched to Kazane and began at her nose. Tomoko was almost worse than Thumper and Prometheus. It was very encouraging don't get me wrong, but the way that it described what had happened and what was to come was... It just didn't feel right to have something so cheerful be attached to the pestilence, war, famine, and death that I knew was coming.

I almost preferred the glum attempts at sympathy from Prometheus and the hostile antagonisms of Thumper. No, who was I kidding? Fuck them both, at least this one was optimistic. This world was going to need a great deal of it to make it through the hellscape Earth was about to become for humans because of this 'test'.

"That's the spirit Kim! Don't give up! Humanity was doomed in only a few decades! Now we have given you a way out! It will be hard, but you can do it! We will help you as you help yourselves! Everyone wins! Now smile, your family is home!"

My head shot into the air, and only reluctantly I brought it down again to finish what I had started with Kazane when she began protesting loudly. But my glance had been enough to confirm the sight of my mate returning without Angie. I hurriedly finished my task, and the second of the youngest squirmed from beneath me to shoot into the air with her sibling.

As the youngest two flew into the air from between us I made an effort to patch things up with my new guests.

"I apologize, I am an angry being at the best of times, and my relationship with Thumper and Prometheus before it has never been nearly as positive as yours with Tomoko." I promised myself that I would finish my conversation with those two later, with this twig still in my mouth to keep me from killing either of them.

Attempting the formal bow they had given me earlier, I instead made an ass of myself when I tipped over and landed on my side with a loud grunt.

Hayate began to laugh at me, but was quickly silenced when his father snapped at him in Japanese. Asuka was more helpful as her head nudged beneath my shoulder and then rolled me on to my belly where I could stand again.

"Please Kim, do not harm yourself trying satisfy our humble customs. If I may ask, are you pregnant? I think... I mean... I apologize for being intrusive and rude for sniffing you, but I can't help but feel that you are. Your scent... It makes me think of when I was... I think of... I remember how good I felt when I carried..." Her scales rattled and she backed away shyly. As one mother speaking to another, I knew exactly what she was trying to say. Just how special it had felt to have life grow within you.

My scales opened and the snouts of all three of the family before me twitched curiously at the mingled smell of my pride, love, and joy. The scent of my emotions told them all that they needed to know. Asuka and Haruto sighed and leaned against each other in response while Hayate acted like the teenager that he was. Looking like he had just bitten into rotten food he backed out from between his larger parents and looked at us from a distance with simmering disgust.

Tom swept in to land beside me and bumped my hips with his in a quick greeting. With one eye I could see Alex on his back, as well as Luke and Lucy who were both being pumped for information by Kazane and Sora. Unlocking their carabiners they slid to the ground with the young females scampering after them. Athena and Carla were making introductions for my husband so I had an opportunity to ask them how their day went.

As I bent to talk to my little ones and Alex I saw Tom eye the cuts on me before turning to our guests.

"I would really like to know why my wife is bleeding."

I tuned his conversation out for my own.

"We had an assembly today Mom. Everyone was talking about Angie!"

"They said some things that weren't true." Lucy added. "So we stood up to make it right! The principal invited us up to explain because we are Angie's friends. And because of you and dad. We told the truth! Angie is only six! She doesn't want to hurt anyone and when people are mean to her she cries and flies away to hide. She is hard to find in the trees!"

Luke followed. "There were parents in the room that didn't like that! They yelled that they would sue! I don't know why Sue has anything to do with this, and she doesn't either. But I told those parents they are mean for letting their kid's treat her that way. Only me and Lucy can talk her back."

"That's right! I told them again that Angie is only six no matter how big she is! She just wants to help and to paint pictures. I told those parents that the paintings in the front hall were made by Angie. They stopped arguing when I told them that!"

"They asked us if any kids were being mean to Angie and we pointed out three girls and two boys that we knew were being mean to her. The parents of two of the girls began yelling the words that you don't want us to say at us and the principal. They called us trash, and a bunch of things that I don't understand. But then they said they'd hurt Angie just for being Angie! And then there were police! Four of them! They took them away and their daughters cried!"

This...this was the powder keg that I was worried about. They could shoot at me all fucking day long, being bitten by mosquitoes would be annoying but not deadly. But my children were unprotected when Tom and I were not around them.

"Luke, Lucy... What would you think if I pulled you two out of school to have you taught at home?"

They opened their mouths to answer, but Alex broke in by putting his hand on my leg.

"Hey you two, why don't you run up to the house and pick out something to eat for tonight? I'll even buy pizza for you. My treat! What do you say?"

"Can we get it with pineapples?"

My scales bristled. That's fucking sacrilegious! Alex laughed and pat my leg.

"Make sure you do your chores while you place the order for you and Alex. Order a couple pounds of chicken wings for your new friends and ask Carla and Athena along with Hayate over there if they'd like something as well." I pointed at the sulky teenager that looked like he had fallen asleep. "And think about what I had asked you while you do your chores!"

"Aaaah..." they sighed despondently.

"Chores? What chores? Are food? We learn!"

At least they had those two to keep them company since Angie wasn't here. They took orders from the humans around me and then followed behind the two young females that ran full speed into their older brother to wake him up. When they had gone, I looked at Alex with curiosity.

"It's bad, and it's getting worse. What you had done is all over the news, and it's splitting the town right down the middle. That kid has become a martyr to those that already hate you. With the other side accusing them of inciting violence just to provoke more. Worse yet, that guy that shot Angie, Robert Paulson, is a brain dead vegetable from his impact with that brick wall she pushed him into. His family wants Angie's blood, and she still doesn't understand why everyone is so angry with her.

At the time, Alex had held back something that he knew would have sent me into a blind rage. I found out later that Angie was at home in her room being held by her parents and sobbing in confusion at why people were screaming so many hateful things at her.

"The cops won't... they can't... arrest or charge a six year old girl for attempted murder after she defended herself. No judge, no prosecutor would ever allow it."

"This is a ticking time bomb Kim. I heard some of them yelling for justice no matter how they get it. They're going to form a lynch mob to come after a girl that still can't sleep at night without her fucking teddy bear!"

"I don't think Luke and Lucy should leave this property until this is resolved, one way or the other. Normally I'd say that you or Tom would be more than capable of protecting them... But now..."

I finished for him. "...Now they are innocents just begging to become collateral damage." He nodded and put his hand on my leg again in sympathy.

"After everything you've been through you are the last ones that deserve this."

I tried to look at the bright side. "Well, at least these assholes don't have any MANPADS. What does George and Helen think about all this?"

"They wanted me to ask you if they could come live here for the time being. Kim, they're fucking terrified, and I don't blame them one bit. Tom already gave his agreement and we wanted your input."

"If you didn't know what my answer was going to be you're a fucking dumbass. Why aren't they here with you right now?"

He smirked. "They wanted to get everything that they thought they'd need from their home. As soon as they have Angie loaded up, they'll be here."

I wasn't entirely happy with that either and said so. "Put that order in for the food and call Helen with where you placed the order. I'm going to escort Angie. I don't like the smell of this."

I swung my head to my mate to tell him, but of course he already knew. I wasn't exactly as quiet as a mouse.

I got it. I know how much you mean to her. Go, and be safe.

I was surprised by what was said next however.

If you are willing Kim, I would like to join you. I hope to be a guardian for all from the ills of those that do not see the path before them, and this will be the first step on my own if you will have me.

I mulled over the request of the slim Asuka before bobbing my head. Smaller than me, still twice as long as a sperm whale and with twice as many teeth, she'd be fine and this would be a good experience for her. I think... Still didn't really know a damn thing about her.

Alex spoke up again. "I'm going to let the guardsmen kno..."

"We already do. Whatever else you child of the egg are, it is not discreet. I've been told by the Chief to relay to you that he can no longer guarantee your family's safety. So the ball is in my court now. We are FPCON Charlie. Kim, get that family here safely. And since I won't waste my time ordering you all to do anything. I'm going to ask, please stay here for the time being. I'm not worried about you, I'm worried about all the innocents that will get killed while bands of vigilantes run around with the thought that might be able to harm you. I want all of you to remember, there are much larger weapons than AR15 platforms available for civilian purchase."

I agreed and turned to my wingmate. "Asuka, we fly."

I didn't even wait for her response before tearing into the sky like a bullet.

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