12. The Stairs
The rest of the day passed as embarrassingly and miserably as it started. Emren was waiting outside Arxet’s room when the blue dragon stumbled down the stairs and nearly went head over heels at the halfway point. Arxet raised her hackles to prepare herself for a scolding but only received concern and compassion, which only further antagonized her. She stormed back into the room and tucked herself back under the blanket for the night without saying a word to the worried lynx.
Her dreams were strange and uncomfortable once again. Her mind took her back to the halls of her childhood home where she wandered lost and confused in freezing cold empty hallways all night as she tossed and turned in the real world.
When she finally woke Arxet found that her claws and spines had dug into the blanket and torn numerous gashes into it through the night. Her back spines were so deeply stuck that it took a few minutes just to free herself from her textile cocoon, rips and tears ringing in her ears at every frantic thrash and spin.
As she emerged she found another boar had been left out for her, along with a note on a clay tablet. ‘Yell if you need it warmed up. -Amjazel.’ Cold would do, she decided without hesitation. Amjazel struck her as someone you couldn’t give an inch without a mile being stripped from you. “If I ask now I’ll end up with her chewing it up and feeding it to me like a baby bird.” She shivered at the imagery, however imaginary and unfounded it was.
With heaps more caution and care than her last meal she once again consumed each and every bite of the carcass. It took her nearly an hour this time, rather than the frenzied twenty minute feast prior. As she was finally licking the final few strands of sinew from one of the pig’s femurs the sound of a claw tapping on stone echoed through the doorway.
“Good morning, Arxet.” Amjazel’s presence boomed in her mind. Arxet could feel the trepidation and hesitation through the mental link and a small droplet of guilt rippled through her stomach. “Did you sleep well? We do have another- we wanted to- you don’t have to sleep in my room again tonight. There is another set up for you, and Emren moved your things inside. It’s important you have a space that is yours.”
Arxet poked her head out from under the curtain to stare up at the purple dragoness beyond. “I didn’t know I was sleeping in your room. I’ll clear out. I just- the blanket- ripped.” She didn’t want to admit blame. They should have known better to give something so delicate to someone unfamiliar with such a sharp body.
“Not to worry, I can mend it with a spell.” Amjazel’s gaze centered on her daughter and the titan’s nerves seemed to melt away. A strange pride glowed from the depths of her eyes which made Arxet shrink away. “I can lead you to the room to get settled in. We can start on training whenever-”
“Today.” Arxet interrupted. “I don’t want to just lay around all day. Let’s just get it over with and teach me, okay?”
“Absolutely! Let me show you to your room first.” A huff of satisfaction erupted from the dragon’s snout as she turned and lead Arxet down the hall. As she went the younger dragon noticed each other door had a gemstone set above it. Amjazel’s had an amethyst above it, another room, presumably Rubis, had a ruby, and the two others had a pink and light blue gem respectively. The one she was being lead to only had an empty slot where one could eventually be fitted. At least they hadn’t committed too hard to the family thing? She could only hope.
Amjazel followed Arxet’s gaze with a patient smile. She was more than happy to take her time and chat with her daughter. “Those are your older sib- my older children’s rooms.” She caught herself. She knew her daughter would argue their familial relationship. It was wiser to be patient with her. “The pink gem is for Morizio and the blue is for Aquixi’s room. Aquixi is my eldest, I had her when I was…” She stopped and made some obvious mental math. “I was only 140 at the time, so she’d be going on 800 now. I aught to do better at tracking time.”
“Tiamat’s tail you’re ancient… no wonder you don’t respect me.” She froze as the words slipped through the mental link. Maybe she should have practiced mental communication more. That should have stayed an inside thought.
“Arxet I-” She seemed at a loss for words. “Have I been disrespectful? I-”
Amjazel was not meant to hear that, but Arxet felt she might as well commit. “You laughed when I thought the family talk was metaphorical. You call me a newborn and treat me like I’m a delicate child. I’ve been through plenty. You don’t have to coddle me! You shouldn’t even- you- gah! I didn’t even mean for you to hear that in the first place!” She growled and fluttered her wings.
A moment passed as Amjazel seemed to process her daughter’s words. “You’re right. Laughing there was inappropriate. I was only caught off guard. I am sorry.” Amjazel lowered herself down to Arxet’s eye level. “But I don’t think you’re delicate. I know how capable you are, I know you’ve been through more than anyone should have to be at your age. Remember that is part of why I chose you. I only want you to be patient with yourself in your new body. Many a dragon, including me, have pushed themselves too hard after the change. I view you as my child, yes, but you are my adult child. I’ll endeavor to do better.”
“But I’m not your child!” Arxet was sick of people talking to her like she was family.
“You carry my blood, so-”
“BLOOD DOESN’T MEAN SHIT!” She finally snapped. “My blood fam- my birth family I mean, they abandoned me. They threw me to the wolves over my cold mark. They taught me at a young age that blood was worthless. It doesn’t make a family! I’ve met plenty of other urchins who’ve been treated the same! You can say as many times as you want that we’re related but why would someone like me think that blood has any value? You know who you’re talkin’ to, right?” Her chest heaved from anger. Her adrenaline was pumping after the tirade.
“I… I had no idea that you were hurting so deeply.” Amjazel seemed suddenly on the verge of tears. Whether it was because of the way Arxet spoke to her or the bit of her own history Arxet had revealed it was unclear to her. “You should know I would never do anything at all like that, Arxet. Even if you don’t see me the way that I see you, know that I am here to help.” She craned her neck down and touched her nose to Arxets. “I’ll earn the right, if I have to. You deserve a family. You deserve to be loved. I will try to give you more space, but I will never be far.”
Once she was finished she raised her head back up. She was radiating warmth and comfort across the connection to her daughter, trying to help her feel at ease. Arxet quivered at the sensation. It still felt dangerous and wrong to her. Tears began to sting the edges of her own eyes and she had no clue why.
“Get a look at your room. Emren left your belongings inside, including your sapphire, your sword, and your armor. Let me know if there’s any supplies you’ll need. When you are ready to train come and find me in the courtyard. Take all the time you need.” It was infuriating, but Arxet could tell that Amjazel had sensed her own emotions back through the link. The older dragoness had nearly a millennia more experience with psychic communication and Arxet knew it would be much harder to hide anything from her. She probably wouldn’t even having to dig deep, Arxet just wore everything on her mental shoulder and broadcast it for everyone, and she still had no clue how to suppress it. She missed being a good liar.
To top it all off her last ditch effort of a tirade against the dragon had accomplished little to convince her. If anything it had probably backfired. Amjazel saw the pain and anger as Arxet opened up and only found more reason never to let the fresh dragon go. Was this what it was like to be an abused stray animal adopted and forced into a loving home? She had literally torn up Amjazel’s blanket like a puppy that hadn’t been housebroken. Maybe if she pissed on something important she’d finally be allowed to leave.
“Let’s save that for a last ditch effort.” She snorted and stumbled her way into the room Amjazel had lead her to. Movement on four limbs was slowly coming easier and easier to her. It was like walking on her back toes, but her calves were far shorter. Moving diagonal opposite limbs at the same time seemed like the way to go, but getting it down to where she didn’t have to think about it might be a long way off. “It isn’t forever. Give me a month or two and I’ll be running laps around those smug…” She pushed her head past the curtain and gasped.
The walls of the interior were similar to Amjazel’s, only slightly smaller. A massive plush cushion sat atop a small stone platform in the corner, dyed in half a dozen bright stunning colors. Her armor sat upon a rack opposite, with a display stand for her dagger, and a table for the remainder of her gold and her grape sized sapphire. They’d prepared a small stand for the stone with a magical light beneath that amplified its sparkle so that its beauty could be seen even from the far side of the room. The walls were painted with dragons flying over mountains, deer standing in serene flowery fields, and a sunrise over an ocean with Tiamat coiled around the ceiling.
As she starts to step in past the curtain she nearly tripped over a heavy sack on the ground. Glancing down she found a heavy cloth bag with a note attached. She laid down by it and did her best to awkwardly position the bit of parchment to where she could read it.
‘Some other valuables to start a proper hoard, or use however you see fit. Welcome home. - Grandma’
The wheels in Arxet’s mind turned over the note for a moment. Who would be calling themselves her grandmother…? As things came together her mouth slowly gaped open. It was finally beginning to sink in that Amjazel, Rubis, and Emren were not the only ones claiming her as family. Tiamat, the last living deity, the caretaker of all peoples, embodiment of the ocean itself and all its fury, and the subject of worship across the entire continent, had claimed Arxet as her granddaughter.
And she had gone and spit in Tiamat’s daughter’s face. Metaphorically. Actually metaphorically this time, not misunderstood, thank Tiamat. Did she keep using those types of expressions now? Would it be weird to invoke her grandmother? Why was she so much more prepared to think of Tiamat as her grandmother? Was it because she had a feeling she would be royally fucked if Tiamat found out?
All in all, she was having more regrets by the second on how she had handled all of this. What if Amjazel went to Tiamat and told her what happened? Would her dragonhood be stripped from her? Would she be divinely punished? Did groundings last for decades when you live forever?
After a solid few minutes of panic at her epiphany she finally managed to shake herself free. Clearly she needed to begin going about this differently. Amjazel seemed a patient woman, perhaps too patient, but there were stories of Tiamat’s wrath that went back millennia. She could not risk the goddess’s anger, family or no.
She tried to steady herself after her moment of panic. She’d been taught long ago how to control one’s breathing in a stressful situation. It was, after all, easier to get pinched if the guards could hear your ragged breathing from your hiding spot. Once her heartbeat finally slowed back to normal and she had control of herself she hooked a claw in the drawstring for the bag and loosened the top to peek inside.
The interior was filled to the brim with more gems, golden cups, jewelry, chains, and more. It spilled out over the floor and made the most beautiful sound she’d ever heard as the gold and silver bounced and clinked and clattered across the stone and against one another. Tiamat had said that only some dragons kept hoards, but Arxet knew in a heartbeat that she was one of them. Her mouth watered at the sight, she had to remind herself that these valuables were not edible. Or were they? Did dragons eat gold? She would need to ask.
With both her claws and nose she began poking around in the pile for a better sense of what she’d been gifted. She didn’t know much about gems. Rubies were red, sapphires were blue, diamonds were hard. That was about it. The pink, purple, and yellow gems were a mystery to her. Maybe Tiamat would know? She didn’t like the idea of asking.
Sure, the goddess seemed plenty approachable on the ziggurat, but now there were other problems. Namely the fact that the goddess thought of her as her grandchild. Do dragons pinch the cheeks of their young ones? Comment on how much they’ve grown? Apparently most of them used to be regular people, so a fair amount of that must carry over, right?
Slowly but surely with her inexperienced and less than dexterous claws she got a decent count of what the bag held: fifty gold coins, ten sapphires of various sizes, three rubies, what she can only assume might be a diamond, two purple gems, a golden circlet with pink gems inlaid, three long golden chains (which were more tangled than she was prepared to tackle with these clumsy claws), a golden cup, a silver chalice, seventeen silver coins, a silver platter, a variety of rings of gold and silver, and a little golden statuette of a dragon which looked much like Amjazel.
She could buy an entire town with wealth like this. And granny had just dropped it into her lap as a ‘welcome to the family’ gift. Did this all come from donations and offerings to her and the ministry or had the goddess just collected these over the millennia? She couldn’t even conceive of what to spend all of this on. A quality ship would go for thirty gold. She could have her own private ship with this, and employ a crew for years. Or she could buy a home in the countryside with a staff to cater to her every need for decades. Not every dragon took a rider or worked with the ministry, did the rest just go out and live in luxury? Did every dragon get a welcome package was this or was she special, being only one step removed from the goddess in lineage?
These questions would have to wait, she realized. Amjazel was up top waiting for her and she’d just spent at least the last fifteen minutes sorting valuables and ogling at fancy rocks. She scrambled to try scooping them back up off the floor but found it awkward and difficult with these claws. Even though she was one of the lucky few dragons to have thumbs, the pads of her toes couldn’t quite angle themselves to grasp the stones and her claws just slid off the smooth surfaces of the stones. Even if she could get the coins and rings back in the stones just seemed beyond her. Exasperated she finally resorted to scooping up with her tongue and teeth to deposit them on the table with her prize sapphire. It was bigger than any of the ones Tiamat had supplied her with. She wondered if it was because she was cheap or because she didn’t want to outshine Arxet’s prize jewel. The ‘little’ dragoness was ecstatic to have the expanded collection regardless.
Once she was sure her new hoard was all accounted for and secure she finally exited her room and made her way to the stairs. Every step she took felt a smidge more confident than the last until she was clipping along at a respectable pace. Maybe it wouldn’t be quite so hard as she thought to become accustomed to being a quadruped. The stairs stopped her in her tracks when she finally reached their base. They would be different, she knew. She’d almost ate shit the day before trying to get down them by herself, but she’d done it. Going up shouldn’t’ be too different than walking, just diagonal. Right?
One step at a time she ascended the smaller set of steps in the middle. On her left were the giant steps for dragons the size of Amjazel, and on her right were the smallest of all, for riders and priests. Her back legs were already furious with her by the halfway point. She was in decent shape as a rat, she thought, not bulky but nimble with decent enough stamina. Why had that all gone away? She was gasping for air from a fucking stairway.
To make matters worse the trap door for the larger stairs lifted and Amjazel poked her head down to check on her. “Oh good, I was beginning to get worried. Are you okay, little one?”
Arxet grit her teeth, whether at being called ‘little one’ or the stairs not even should could tell you. “I’m fine. I’m at the halfway point. I’ll make it.”
“Your body is fresh, dear. It won’t be up for what you’re used to being able to push yourself to.” She slowly started to enter the stairway and angle herself to pick Arxet up with her jaws. “If you don’t mind I can-”
“DON’T TOUCH ME!” She recoiled and lost her progress by a few steps. “I can do it. I’ve felt worse.”
“The tunnel is four or five stories deep, dear.” Amjazel entered the passage fully and allowed the trap door to close behind her. “You’re going to hurt yourself if you push too hard, and that will only make your training harder. You’ve made it plenty far.”
“Did you make it to the top when you were new?” Arxet glared back at the dragon’s concerned gaze.
“Well- I did, but-”
“Then I’m not being out done. I’ll catch my breath and finish this.” She retook the steps she’d lost from her prior retreat.
Amjazel barely held back her instinct to roll her eyes. “We are not the same person. Just because I made it doesn’t mean you will, and that does not reflect poorly on you whatsoever. Every dragon is different, some even fly on their first day while I took nearly four months to get in the air. What will you gain from this? You certainly won’t be able to climb these stairs tomorrow if you destroy yourself today.”
Arxet firmly ignored her and picked up the pace before the argument could continue. She was almost there. Sure she was seeing spots and her breathing was ragged, but she couldn’t stop now after getting so far. She just had to cover ten more steps… nine more… eight… her knee buckled.
She scrambled with her claws to get a grip but her sore and uncoordinated new muscles did little to stop or even slow her descent, and after a few dozen painful bumps, flips head over tail, and quite a bit of frantic squealing and growling she arrived at the bottom. She was sore all over, her legs hurt more from the ascent than any of the bruises from the descent. Her legs aimlessly swiped at empty air for a moment or two before she finally managed to roll onto her stomach again. Various grunts and groans erupted from her as she attempted to stand until she collapsed down again. She felt ready to empty her guts all over the floor.
Once her pathetic little display was over Amjazel made her way down the rest of the steps to lay down beside her, mindful not to enter her personal space. “Is anything broken, dear?”
“Why didn’t you catch me?” Arxet grumbled. She didn’t feel betrayed exactly, just more surprised that the overly doting dragoness hadn’t stepped in.
“Because I love you. And tough love is just as important sometimes.” She touched a nose to her daughter to heal the bruises, but left the muscle pain behind. “You needed to learn an important lesson, and it wouldn’t stick as well if I caught you. Besides, you asked not to be coddled.”
“I thought parents were supposed to protect their kids.” She glared at the floor and whipped her tail in embarrassment.
“That is part of our job, yes, but young dragons are hardy, if not sometimes physically weak at first. I’m here to teach you life skills first and foremost.” Her gaze softened. “If you hadn’t learned this lesson now you could have hurt yourself far worse later. Say you’d pushed yourself like this during flight training? How much worse could this have been then?”
Ah. Once again Arxet had come face to face with her oldest and most hated enemy: a good point. “Fine. Carry me up and we can do our lessons.”
“No, I think this was a good enough lesson for today. But if you like I can take you up and we can enjoy the nice weather with Emren and Rubis. We have two and a half months until rider selection. There’s no need to rush.” She stood and stretched before glancing back down to check on her daughter again.
“Fine, but don’t pick me up in your mouth. Let me climb on your neck like Rubis let me yesterday.” She shakily pushed herself back to her feet. Her legs had turned to jelly in the few moments she had spent on the cold floor. Maybe that wouldn’t even work…
“Certainly. Stay still.” Amjazel brought her head down and hooked her snout under Arxet’s belly to lift her into the air before swinging around and depositing her onto her back, nestled between her wings. Arxet landed on top of the wavy membrane that ran along Amjazel’s spines. It was softer than she could have anticipated, like being wrapped in a warm fleshy blanket. She was fighting her instincts to curl up and take a nap with her burning muscles like this.
Amjazel seemed to sense the urge from their mental link. Arxet could sense the dragon’s delight in reaction back through the connection. Once again she cursed not practicing or paying enough attention in her dragonology class. She never anticipated it backfiring like this.
Once Amjazel was certain Arxet was secure on her back she slowly and steadily began ascending the steps, careful to use her wings to hold Arxet in place as her body tilted. At the top she nosed open the door and practically pranced out into her home’s courtyard. Emren was cooking dinner, Rubis had her head in the window to look into the kitchen and chat with her mother. Everything seemed right in the world now. Her new daughter seemed to finally be coming around, if slowly, her beautiful wife was making dinner, and her mother had even mentioned the possibility of choosing a new child herself this year. Amjazel had never been anything but an only child as a mortal and the youngest sibling as a dragon. It could be a fun new experience to have a new younger sibling to mentor. Rubis seemed similarly excited to help with Arxet. Perhaps Arxet and her new younger sibling could train together? Her heart fluttered at the very idea. How lucky could she be?
Meanwhile, inundated in positive fuzzy feelings from Amjazel, and surrounded in soft warmth Arxet fought to keep awake. Exhaustion had her in its stony firm grip and there was no escape. She was snoring into Amjazel’s back by the time the larger dragon settled in on her haunches and lowered a wing to let her down. Emren also seemed to notice what had happened from inside the kitchen as Amjazel settled in outside the kitchen window as well and beamed out at her wife. Yes, Amjazel felt like the luckiest dragon alive.