Just as Karyu and Vrack were breaking a kiss, Vrack chuckled softly at something. “Don’t look now,” he murmered, “but we appear to have a fan-club.” At this, Karyu blushed hotly and ducked his head in embarrassment.
Astrid chuckled jovially. “Oh, you boys can keep kissing if you want to. We are happy to watch!”
Hilda bent down next to Karyu, though, and traced her claw over his gear, from the crupper that held his saddle to his tail to his breastplate, and she cooed, “I have been admiring your tack: the leather from your country is so soft; no wonder you stay in even your crupper all day. It must be like a second skin!”
Hilda gestured at herself and Astrid. “As you can see, we can’t wait to get out of our tack as soon as we get in from a flight. Cruppers are particularly aggravating if the leather gets stiff.” She turned her head to Astrid and asked, “How long again were you licking the abrasions from our last lengthy tour, Astrid?”
Astrid rolled her eyes, and she flopped her mottled green-and-brown bronze form carelessly into the curve of Vrack’s body, which the steel-white drake was glad to welcome by draping a wing over her body. “She had really healed up in days,” Astrid advised Vrack wryly. “She just liked getting attention there—which she would welcome either of you handsome drakes taking into account—and it kept her entertained for a while. She’s the horniest hen I have ever met.”
The wheat-colored Hilda had quit tugging on Karyu’s tack, much to the vermilion-scaled dragon’s relief, and Karyu finally relented and let her nestle up against him, putting a wing over the hen like a good sport. Karyu’s feelings toward hens were like Vrack’s feelings toward drakes: while not inherently repulsed by them, it took him a long time to warm up, and Hilda’s brash familiarity with him had made him a little anxious.
“I think that Karyu just likes having things under his tail,” Vrack noted with amusement, enjoying seeing Karyu getting a taste of his own medicine. The vermilion-scaled dragon was really the first drake that had ever appealed to Vrack even a little, which had surprised Vrack: the steel-white veteran was not sure whether he had just learned something new about himself, or Karyu was just especially desirable. Even so, he had flinched a little, at first, from the hot, young drake’s attentions, so watching Karyu making the same face for a moment was priceless.
As the females joined the two drakes, Oliver and and Ethel came to join the drakes’ riders, Luke and Avelia. During the exchange, the dragons Hadad and Annie had wandered over to where Elisa and Anija were to check on their hatchlings, which drew over Anija’s and Annie’s Riders, Vaestro and Whiskers.
As everyone converged into two large groups, Queen Elisa called out to those that were with Luke, “While you are all getting to know each other a little better over there, I am going to take the children, Annie, and Whiskers up to my private chambers where my grandchildren’s parents are staying, so the children can get some rest and receive their meals and baths. I will be taking Anija to show her my study, and her Rider and my Leviathan, Hadad, will be joining me there.”
“Will you want me and Ethel to join you, Your Majesty?” asked Oliver.
The queen declined. “Our guests require your services more than I do, being outsiders. Based on what I have seen brewing among them, I suggest that you get out such things as oils, scented candles, the finer meads, and extra bedding. By the end of the evening, I want at least one of your hens ready to bear eggs by that vermilion one, since he seems to be of exceptional stock, and you may join them if you wish, as long as you remain sober and alert.”
“Yes, Your Majesty!” Oliver and Ethel said together.
(Unimportant note on Hadad/Leviathan, I had, pre-edit, assigned Leviathan the name Hadad because of assuming “leviathan” was what his type of crossbreed was called, rather than his name, which I realized belatedly was in error, so handle that as you prefer. I have just reverted here back to Hadad.)
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