Authors: Sophie Duncan
"Don't defy me, Draco," the soldier warned.
"Go to hell," Drekken snarled back, or at least he tried to, but his teeth were gritted so hard that only a mass of sound came out and the world span as he expended energy.
Drekken blinked and steadied himself, but he knew his vitals were being monitored from within the Feras' helmet. However, their temporary stalemate was broken not by his failure, but by yells of anger and fear from their left and, recognising Yakov and Malachi's voices, Drekken glanced their way. Both empaths, in the grips of Feras soldiers, were marched towards him and Drekken sagged. As soon as he showed weakness, he found his hand kicked to the side and he was forced to the ground as the same boot came down heavily on his gauntleted wrist and the laser was pushed into his face.
D screamed as, for the first time, a stab of fear ran through Drekken and he realised he could not protect the little dragon. Fire rose in his belly, he could feel the dragon inside and he wanted to rip apart the monster who was terrifying his child. Yet rational thought had not escaped him completely and a weapon pointed between his eyes meant he stilled where he was held. He was then ignored for a moment as the Feras looked over to his compatriots and demanded, "Where are the other hatchlings?"
"Gavel and Raker are still looking, Sir," the report came back.
"They're worth 90 hegas a piece, kill those two and get out there looking."
"No!" Drekken reacted instantly, bringing his freehand up to swipe the gun away.
He ignored the ripping pain in his leg and kicked as well and his captor went sprawling. He rolled over, scrabbling towards where Yakov and Malachi were struggling with the lasers being lifted towards them. His damaged leg would not work properly, but he pushed up onto his knees and raised his arm, determined to stop such an atrocity. However, it was not his fireball that exploded on the ground between his friends' attackers, sending all four men sprawling, but one that came flying over his head.
'Stand!' the order sliced through his mind and he recognised Miri.
The presence of his dragon destroyed any stamina Drekken had left and, muscles turning to jelly, he collapsed round onto his back in time to see Miri descending onto the confrontation. She was not alone: his whole squadron were hovering above the clearing and relief flooded through Drekken. The pain was reaching his brain and he had to blink hard to stay focused on his Grey Wing, but he reached out instinctively as Miri landed beside him and dropped his hand onto her nearest foot.
'Hello, My Warrior,' Miri spoke only to him through their contact and he smiled, despite everything that was happening around him.
'Hello, My Dragon,' he replied, the warmth of the greeting pushing the burning away for a moment.
Then Miri's direct presence was gone and Drekken winced when her command, louder than any spoken word came, 'Drop your weapons, or die.'
Drekken was glad when he heard the thud of machinery hitting the grass and, as more of the team landed, fliers leapt off the back of their dragons and closed in on the Feras.
"Two more in the woods," Drekken managed, but he heard his own words slurring, and as he opened his mouth to call out for some of the squadron to go find them, Miri did it for him with, 'Jayce, Luke, go collect.'
He patted her foot in gratitude and then let his eyes slide shut. However, a snort right in his face made him start and he came nose to nose with his dragon.
'Stay with me, Drekken,' Miri ordered, this time for everyone to hear and a body slid down next to him almost immediately.
"We let you out of our sight for a few days, Boss, and you get yourself into shit," MK, their medic identified himself. "The techs are gonna be pissed if you've busted their implants."
Drekken would have grumbled at that, but then MK touched his leg and he flexed involuntarily and grunted as the agony piqued.
"Oh yeah, they're gonna be pissed," was MK's unsympathetic observation, but quickly after that, Drekken felt all sensation disappearing, moving out from the wound site, down to his knee and up to his hip. He sighed in relief and relaxed.
Only as the pain receded did his senses have any room for much else and then he felt Baby D's tiny presence in his mind. Instantly guilty that he had forgotten about his young charge, he reached down and cradled the sling that hid her. She whimpered and her delicate head appeared from under the cloth, eyes blinking with disquiet. Miri drew away a little, giving the infant a chance to lift her head and Drekken watched, suddenly nervous, as dragon met dragon. He completely ignored MK, who was working rapidly on his leg, and held his breath as D slowly looked up. Miri's snout was bigger than the hatchling, but she lowered it slowly back down until she was only a scales' breadth away from the egg-horn on D's nose. Then his dragon surprised Drekken by snorting quite violently at his charge.
D's front legs actually lifted off his chest and Drekken reached to catch her in case she fell onto MK, but he did not have to worry, the little creature flexed back into place and the collection of clicks and chatter she made sounded to him much like a child's chuckle. Bouncing off his chest under her own steam this time, D continued to chatter and bumped her horn with Miri's tough lips. The response from Miri was a mess of emotion that Drekken really didn't understand, it was so rapid, and it left his already addled mind somewhat confused.
'So,' Miri began, just for him once more, 'this is our child.'
Addled his brain might have been, but his thoughts came to a complete halt at that and Drekken stared at his dragon, not sure he had interpreted her thought correctly.
'You think I did not sense it when you bonded with her?' Miri replied to his stunned silence.
Drekken felt his heart speed up and ideas began to form then, none finishing before the next hit him as he tried to take in the implications of what Miri was saying. Miri had never minced her words and the possession in her message was more than clear, but what it meant exactly, Drekken did not know.
"I," he began in words, because his mind would not clear long enough to make sense.
"You need to get to the field hospital, A-SAP" MK interrupted the exchange, patting Drekken on the arm and then speaking into his helmet, "Medi-evac needed at these co-ordinates, three H3's and one D1."
"Six D1's," Drekken corrected MK's assessment and, as if to back him up, he heard Malachi and Yakov calling quietly behind him. "We need to find the other five."
Anxiously, Drekken pushed himself up onto his elbows, but then found a snout and a hand pushing him back into a recumbent position.
"Stay still," MK ordered and then looked up.
Miri's attention was also drawn to the location past the top of Drekken's head and he risked a scold by tipping his crown into the grass and viewing the scene upside down. His anxiety receded when cautiously, several heads appeared between the trees. Renar was, of course, first and it was he who stepped out into the open and began leading the small crocodile of hatchlings over to where Malachi and Yakov were both crouching, holding their arms out. Keril was last: she gave a suspicious sniff of the air and glanced at where the Feras were being held on their knees, helmetless and hands behind their heads. Then Drekken was surprised when, instead of following her brethren to their carers, the little creature stopped and looked at him.
Keril sniffed the air again and observed him with her usual care and then he saw her eyes open wider. The cry that came from her mouth was one of alarm and the hatchling bounded towards him. Similar cries then came from some of the other young ones and suddenly Drekken found his head and shoulders surrounded by small dragons nuzzling at him and mewing worriedly.
"I'm alright," Drekken did his best to reassure the distressed creatures, reaching over his head and stroking them in turn.
"Boss," MK knelt back, arms crossed and lips pursed.
'You are crawling with small fry,' Larak, MK's dragon finished for the pair with something between amusement and disdain.
"We really should never leave him on his own," MK observed to Larak, who was standing a little way off behind him and Drekken laughed as medic and dragon both shook their heads disapprovingly.
Keril was less amused, she let out a snort and stamped her foot, her yellow eyes glaring at the large human and the even larger dragon. No-one needed to be an empath to understand the telling off and MK raised his hands to her.
"Peace, little lady," he offered.
Renar stepped in then, nudged Keril and his shaky little mind-voice told them all, 'Peace.'
"Well done, Renar," Yakov scratched the hatchling leader behind his crest as he knelt down and then Drekken found a hand on his shoulder, squeezing. "Are you alright, Drekken?"
"He will be," MK responded confidently for him, so Drekken just covered the worried hand with his own.
'Been collecting more than just a baby then?' Miri asked and she chose not to direct her words just at him.
That caused a lot of laughter from most of the squadron, who, mortifyingly, were all present, since Jayce and Luke were returning with their final two prisoners. Yakov rapidly went a beautiful shade of pink and Drekken felt his own face heat up, but Malachi, who was standing behind Yakov, just smiled, apparently unabashed by what had been so obvious to Miri.
"Yeni Miri, it is an honour to finally meet you, Drekken has told us about you," Malachi greeted formally and bowed his head.
That really didn't help matters and there were wolf whistles from around the clearing, the loudest from Tarel, who had been trying to set him up with her many brothers since she had joined the squadron four years ago. However, Miri, from the way she raised her neck and offered a slight incline of her head in return, was impressed.
'Masters,' Miri paused and Malachi filled in, "Malachi and Yakov," and then Miri continued, 'the honour is mine.'
"Oo, is he going to propose?" Tarel teased, but Miri and Malachi ignored her and Drekken watched as man and dragon finished their exchange with a long look.
The fact that Miri approved made Drekken feel somewhat better about the truly whirlwind way he had become attached to the two empaths. He opened his mouth to try and express some of that sentiment, but he moved just a little too much as the words were forming and a shot of pain the dampener couldn't stop sliced up his leg and chased his thoughts away. He closed his eyes and tensed with a whine. MK's reaction was unsympathetic and he was reminded, "Stay still."
Drekken had to do as he was told, since all his energy was fast draining away and he relaxed under the watchful eye of a dozen dragons, his squadron and his new friends. His senses did not recover from the disorienting stab of pain and everything turned into a blur after that. He felt loss when the dragons were moved away so the medical team could close in and get him onto the transport, but he was comforted by the feel of Miri close by outside the armoured flier and he point blank refused to let the medics remove little D.
During the journey back to the field hospital, Malachi and Yakov were somewhere close by with the babies, but Drekken was surrounded by medics, so he caught only occasional, misty glimpses of their worried faces. When they landed, even those faces went away as he was whisked off to the treatment centre and then the worst happened, they took D away. Drekken complained as the tiny dragon wailed, but he was in no state to fight those who were trying to help him. He resisted with the last of his strength, but then Miri's voice slipped into him mind, 'I will look after her,' and his stamina ran out. Some people spoke to him, some over him, but Drekken lapsed into a half world, and, eventually, an outside influence encouraged him to sleep.
~*~
Waking should have been a slow process, his bones and his thoughts felt it, but it was a series of chirrups and annoyed whines that woke him and only then because he recognised their owner as Baby D. His body felt heavy and Drekken opened his eyes to vision that was just blobs of colour, but he recognised his Grey Wing and a small, moving, white bundle that had to be her tiny charge among a selection of other human-sized blobs. His tongue was sticking to the roof of a very dry mouth, so he did not try to speak, but he forced one arm to move with some difficulty and reached out towards his dragons with mind and body. D's response was a shrill whistle of delight and Drekken thought he smiled as Miri moved towards him.
D landed on his chest, placed there gently by Miri and he was then nuzzled under his chin by a tiny, spiny head and on his cheek by a large snout. D purred at him, even though he couldn't co-ordinate his arm to bring it up around her, and she settled quickly into the space just under his chin. Miri remained close and, with his reason for waking gone, Drekken felt the heaviness taking over.
'Sleep, My Human,' Miri whispered in his thoughts and Drekken obeyed.
~*~
Dragon snoring was more like the sound of a rasp being run over wood, and, living around many of the big reptiles, Drekken was familiar with the noise. However, a fast, high-pitched version was new and the rather cute sound accompanied him out of sleep for a second time. His senses were not so heavy this time, and, although tired, he opened his eyes without the exhausted repression of earlier to discover that D's delicate snout was actually resting on his chin and she was snoring because of the way it tipped her head backwards. The little dragon had slipped down into the cosy spot between his shoulder and neck on the pillows, but with the one resting point on his face, she had him pinned to the bed for fear of waking her.
His limbs were leaden and achy and Drekken wanted to stretch badly, but the somnolent contact welled up so much peace in his chest that his instincts were torn.
'She won't wake,' Miri read him perfectly as she shifted from where she had been sitting beside his bed. 'We have moved her twice for the doctors to monitor you and as long as she remains in contact with you, she remains sound asleep.'
As soon as he was given leave, Drekken stretched and then groaned as it felt like every muscle in his body let him know where it was.