“You really need to make some space,” Zag implored them. “Remember when the growling girl over there punched me? It’s going to be like that except he won't stop and will be in a pureblood state!”

“You know who it is?” Thea asked.

Foro ordered everyone to get out of the way and was trying to drag Ketai off with them.

“I’ll explain later, grab those eggs and move!” Zag almost roared at her as he started to shift.

Thea grabbed the eggs and legged it over to where Foro was pulling Ketai.

Zag turned his attention to the dot in the sky that was rapidly approaching. He felt his blood boil as it had never done before. He had never in his life met with another male dragon and even though he realized who this one was the desire to fight, to establish his superiority, was taken to new heights.

He spread his wings and lifted his head up to the sky and roared. Thea, Foro and the phoenix legionaries had their hands full with Ketai trying to run out and challenge the oncoming dragon as well and it didn't help when they all instinctively tried to cover their ears.

The answering roar came from the distance and the oncoming dragon sped up its flight towards him.

In no time at all, they were facing off with each other on the ground. They postured, posed and growled and Zag grinned knowing how him being the bigger of the two must irritate the other party.

“Boy, I can barely understand you,” he growled out at the other dragon. “If you really want to do this you should let your girl get down first.”

“Bronntanistine, I would like to live...long enough to throw up from the motion sickness,” Aisling groaned from his back.

Bron snorted, smoke blowing from his nostrils, and then he let loose a heavy sigh of resignation before he started to shift. Aisling was naturally able to step off to the ground as Bron shrank down to his human size. Bron steadied her shoulders as she wobbled on unsteady feet.

Zag shifted and walked over to them. His expression shifted back and forth between a proud grin and a smirk.

“Does that mean I win, Boy?” he asked when he reached them.

Bron turned from Aisling and slugged Zag as hard as he’d ever slugged someone in his life. For her part, Aisling leaned away from them, her face turned a sickly green, and she vomited what little material was in her stomach onto the ground.

Zag fell onto his butt and laughed while he tried to straighten out his nose.

“I keep getting punched in the face by other dragons recently,” he complained between fits of laughter.

“That says a lot about your personality,” Bron told him from where he was taking care of Aisling. “Who’s the girl over there? I can sense her, this is like I was completely blind and deaf before.”

“I think she’s a cousin of yours, she punched me in the face too so definitely the same bloodline.”

“You seem to be enjoying yourself,” Bron stated to Zag and looked at the phoenixes and Ketai as they approached.

“You both have wounds and by the fact that yours hasn’t regenerated yet, I’d say you met our shadow using friends,” Zag observed. “Although it looks like the reason the little witch over there is moving very gingerly is from something else.”

“Do you want to get punched again?” Bron growled at him.

“Here’s your clothes,” Foro handed Zag his clothing while Aisling did the same for Bron. “How is he a pure-blood now? He was only a half-blood during the battle from what I recall.”

“Indeed he was,” Zag responded before turning to Thea. “Lady Phoenix, would you be willing to heal them?”

“Does it even work on a human?” Thea asked in response, she didn't look too thrilled at the prospect of needing to put down the eggs.

“Why wouldn't it?”

“Because they don't share a creator with the rest of the beings?”

“She is the exact same as your human form,” Zag explained and pointed at Aisling. “Regardless of what Agios Ba might claim. Besides, she’s reached the point where the spirits would proactively work to keep her from harm.”

“What?” Aisling was startled. “How can you even tell? Beings aren't supposed to be able to sense them.

“Oh, so that’s what that is,” Bron chimed in.

“We can, more or less, feel the other reality. I guess that works as an explanation,” Zag didn't look interested in elaborating further. “Hurry and heal them up, please.”

Thea handed the eggs over to Foro and healed Bron’s wounds and Aisling’s hand without any incidents.

“What is…?” Bron started to ask.

“Oh right,” Thea had forgotten the bonus effect her flames had when used on another flame-touched.

Bron promptly tried to use it and had it blow up in his face which set Zag’s laughter off once again. Thea took the opportunity to shove a ball of flame in his face to heal his nose.

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“Damn woman, my nose was fine!” Zag yelled after he choked back a sneeze.

“Thank you very much,” Aisling was the only one who remembered courtesy in all of this mess.

“Yes, thank you,” Bron added.

Zag gave a non-communicative grunt as she turned back to collect the eggs from Foro.

“I’ve already had my life saved at least twice now, it is the least I can do,” She acknowledged.

“By the way, Boy, I’m pretty sure that girl over there is a cousin of sorts to you,” Zag changed the subject. “Her name is Ketai, the bird she’s clinging to is Foro, Thea’s second in command. Everyone else hasn't told me their names.”

“I think that might be the first time I’ve heard you use so many,” Bron gave a snarky remark.

“So many what?”

“Names, you didn't even use Lady Thea’s name when you requested her to heal us.”

I didn't?” Zag looked genuinely surprised. “Anyway, this is Brontannistine and Aisling. My son and soon to be daughter-in-law judging by the…”

“Old Man!” Bron scolded him before he could finish the sentence. “Don’t be so crass right now.”

Zag snorted in amusement as Bron walked over to Ketai.

“Greetings cousin,” Bron said to her. “I hope we can be on good terms.”

Ketai huffed and went back to clinging to Foro. Bron looked irritated, so he turned his attention back to Zag.

“Well, Boy, do you feel in top condition?” Zag asked with a smile that sent shivers down the spine of everyone present who wasn't a dragon.

“Quite,” Bron replied with a grin just as scary. Everyone couldn't help but note how similar they looked to each other.

Aisling promptly stepped out of the way as the two of them tumbled into a ball of fist throwing.

Thea almost dropped the eggs from shock, which sent her into a rage. The only thing that kept her from blasting the two of them with her on flames was the very eggs she almost dropped since Foro was in no condition to take them at the moment.

Foro was trying his level best to keep Ketai from running over and joining in. He really missed the quiet reserved girl who used to follow him around when he visited the orphans.

Ketai eventually lost interest and turned her nose up at the oblivious father and son before she latched back onto Foro’s arm. For his part, he was nearly crying from frustration and exhaustion. He decided that dragons were too much trouble, allies or not.

“Ketai, pat Foro on the back or something before he has a complete breakdown,” Thea told the girl and sighed. She went closer to Aisling and got her attention. “Is this normal?”

“I don’t know what normal is with these two.”

The legionaries, for their part, after the initial shock was over, started betting on the outcome.

**

Zag and Bron sat side by side, bruised and battered from their brawl. They were in good spirits and were almost jovial in the face of the interrogation Thea and Aisling were subjecting them to.

“It isn't that big of a deal, dragons simply need to establish who is stronger to be able to function around each other normally. Suppressing that is rather uncomfortable,” Zag explained.

“Why did it happen now? Because Bron changed?” Aisling asked.

“Yeah, anytime a dragon has grown in strength like that they’ll challenge the status quo. You should have seen him as a teenager.”

“That was fun, I thought I’d win this time though,” Bron laughed.

“You thought you’d win all the other times too, Boy,” Zag grinned. “I guess I should congratulate you even if it is belated at this point.”

Bron beamed as Zag patted him on the shoulder.

“How hard was it to keep the girl out of it?” Zag asked Thea when she looked like she had calmed down.

“She seemed to think both of you were being stupid,” Thea replied with forced calm. “How did this happen anyway, him being a pure-blood?”

“Ah right,” Zag clapped his hands together. “All of you should be aware of the reason the Covenant was founded. Agios saw the existence of the human-forms as a curse on the beings for locking up the old gods. His theory was that eventually there would be nothing left but humans and the various bloodlines would die out since it allows the different races to procreate with each other.

However, what you may not know is the exact reason my mother refused to join and by extension my sister and myself.”

“I have always been curious about that,” Foro chimed in. Ketai was still hovering near him, but she did not seem interested in the least.

“I don’t know if my sister told anyone or not but as for me only my mates and children knew the reason since they always would have a target placed on them by certain Covenant heavyweights. It did indeed lead to them and an entire empire of humans being wiped out.

Bron is the only being remaining alive who I have told.”

“He used your name,” Aisling muttered to Bron, and they both snickered quietly.

“Anyway, my mother, upon consulting with Ifrit about the so-called curse, came to the conclusion that it actually is nothing of the sort. If the offspring are treated well and allowed to learn what it means to be whatever their progenitors may be the blood will flourish and strengthen. Eventually, it should lead to what happened with the Boy here.”

“You're back to ‘Boy’ again,” Aisling teased.

“Even Ketai could theoretically do it with as distant as her draconic progenitor is in her family tree,” Zag finished off.

“Why haven't any of the half-blood phoenixes done it?” Foro asked.

“They aren't really allowed to flourish as he put it, really we do them a disservice,” Thea answered before Zag had the chance. “They really are only second class citizens.”

“Well, to be fair to your family, those half-bloods would be exterminated by the Covenant if they weren't suppressed,” Zag added. “Agios is terrified of the entire concept.”

“Hey, Old Man,” Bron spoke up. “When should we summon your little girlfriend from Tiantang?”

“Now there’s a thought that would really horrify Agios,” Zag laughed. “We should do it here, there was a lot of worry in that letter.”

“What’s this?” Thea became concerned.

Bron rummaged around in his and Aisling’s tattered pack and handed Thea the letter Zag had gotten when they were staying in Tiantang.

“Isn't that the name of the Promagistrate’s sister?” Thea’s concern turned to worry. “This letter is written in a very casual and intimate way, as well.”

Zag started to answer but thinking of it caused him to snort out a laugh. Bron and Aisling sighed but had trouble restraining their own laughter.

“So the story goes, he kidnapped her for the majority of a day,” Foro chimed in again. “All things considered, since our source for that is the serpents, I’d imagine there was more to it.”

“We’re quite good friends you know?” Zag managed to say. “After we finish this some of us will be going to meet with my mother. I’d suggest leaving your legionaries here to clean up any remaining shadow users and talk you up or something so if you decide to come back people might not try to kill you.”

“I’ll stay, Ketai can apparently sense them even over quite a distance,” Foro volunteered.

“Good, we’ll be able to get those eggs purified in the location my mother lives,” Zag said. “Boy, you’re coming too I want to show you off to my mother.”

“For some reason that scares me,” Bron muttered.

“Well, at least she won't have any reason to be mad at you, I apparently haven’t visited for ten thousand years or something like that,” Zag tried to hide his own trepidation.

**

“We’ll need to go to the edge of the clearing, if she’s in her pure-blood state she’ll need room,” Aisling directed traffic. “That Qilin is also going to be coming through.”

“Are you well enough to handle this?” Bron asked her as he sat out the material they had carried back from Tiantang.

“I should be fine when she healed my hand it also healed...the other thing,” Aisling blushed.

“Ah, right. I’m sorry about…” Bron started apologizing while looking sheepish.

“Don't keep apologizing,” Aisling snapped at him. “Finish laying the stuff out, I’ll have to double check everything since you’ve never done this type of thing before.”

After getting everything set up and double checking it, Aisling walked over to where her audience was watching expectantly.

“Alright, here we go!”