2.2

In some ways having a little sister changed much. In others it was hardly notable at all.

It monopolized Mother’s time, and it meant that one of the villagers had been taken on as wet nurse. Work was also being done to seek out a promising governess already.

Muriel had accepted Jewel’s offer to join as captain of the guard for the manor of Valasect now that her obligation to Father as Alexander and Jewel’s tutor had been finished.

One somewhat familiar face seen more often in the household, a bundle at mother’s side and an extra layer of shit, piss and sick mingling with the sweet tang of mother’s milk on the air was the sum of most of the changes to Jewel’s life in Rochford due to her sister.

Meanwhile, her demesne of Valasect duly moved from summer harvest to autumn labors.

And as had been the case for the last few years, she needed to survey, tally and report the harvest of Valasect herself and present it to her father, rather than him surveying from the air and comparing that to reports made by Adorján’s predecessor.

In many regards life was little changed.

In others everything was entirely different.

When she first hatched Jewel did not appreciate how mobile and capable she had been.

With this second hatching she found she could barely even keep her eyes open. Everything came in a rush, and she was constantly hungry.

Jewel was already moving about by the time she was four seasons old.

But her sister and whatever the thing that was Jewel but also not was still hardly able to move!

Was this another manner in which she as a wyrm differed so much from men and women?

And if it was because she was a wyrm, then what was this strange miniature otherself?

Jewel’s sister was so fragile and delicate, not even to be named until she passed the harshness of winter and reached summer again.

The hatched immaculate child was to be treated much the same, although Jewel struggled to believe that this was the same as what her mother was experiencing.

Wasn't it?

She’d not even been able to find the words to explain this to anyone.

The simple utterance of “that’s me, that’s mine, she’s me” did not convey the magnitude of it and seemed to just distract and delight her parents.

Jewel returned to her chambers, foregoing a bath today. It was still early autumn. No one but her cared about the smell of dragon exertions.

Several staff had even complimented it without realizing it was Jewel.

And as she crossed the familiar threshold it all came rushing back into her.

Jewel’s daughter that was not a daughter.

Her lairspawn.

It was thankfully not much that had occurred today.

She’d been fed and cleaned by the Rochford manor staff. The wet nurse and Jewel had agreed that the usual feeding of infants was inappropriate the very first day. Much to the young woman’s relief.

Jewel’s younger, stranger self had hatched like her wyrm self with a full snout of teeth.

Pottage and milk had been far less pleasant for the little mouth than the eventual strips of meat Father had suggested they use. It was much as Alexander would be feeding his bond in the eyrie, and easily enough to obtain as scraps off of Zephyrvam’s daily pig.

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For all the unendingly nagging hunger that filled the tiny belly nestled in a bundle in Jewel’s room, the belly was quite tiny.

Beyond eating, there was fussing, and what had been the astoundingly unpleasant surprise of what happened to food if anyone but a wyrm ate it.

Jewel had been horrified the first time it happened while she was there.

Sudden movement inside yourself, wet, sticky and awful sensations on her scales and a terrible mess and smell that Jewel could now not deny was coming from herself.

Well, one of herselves.

She’d been glad for the staff to tend to it, but Mother had insisted Jewel learn to tend her ‘child’ and its needs in this as much as she learned weaving.

Even if they were expected to always have staff, a Mother and a wife should know how it is done right in the first place so she could spot caretakers failing in their duties.

Thankfully the changing had already been taken care of today.

But even so Jewel could feel the memory flowing through her as soon as she entered the room.

And with it the cold and terrifying feeling of the absence of her own Wyrmflame for hours on end.

A sucking void which she was already acting to remove. Curling around her smaller, tiny self. Filling her diminutive body with the soft soothing touch of her fire.

Was this what motherhood was?

Feeling and recalling all that happened to your child in your absence?

Being so much a part of it in its presence that you could not distinguish your child from yourself?

Being overwhelmed with your child’s feelings of cold, of heat, of helplessness?

Mother spoke of loving her children, Jewel, Alexander and their yet to be named sister.

Of them being a part of her.

Was this simply normal?

Jewel looked down at herself.

And she looked up at herself.

In one set of eyes she was tiny, small enough to with effort fit in Jewel’s own mouth.

In another set of eyes she was blurry, indistinct, vast. But the assurance of this larger self, of knowing where she was?

It was comforting somehow.

As was the rushing return of her wyrmflame.

Something that she had felt the biting absence of for most of the day amid constant bouts of sleep and confusion.

Something that had also been just as present as the first day she hatched.

Jewel huffed and stared down at her daughter, or spawn or whatever it was.

Whatever she was?

No one seemed to understand or know what to expect of this.

Feral Wyrm had great packs of lair spawn some times. Others had little to none.

Sometimes they would join one in battle, other times they fled and hid away.

No one knew much about this. Despite them being slain in droves little was understood.

Jewel sighed with two sets of lungs, the larger able to continue the exasperation long after the smaller needed to refill and empty several more times.

Jewel greatly wished that the world would stop revealing more about herself she did not know.

What even was Jewel?

What even was a Wyrm?

What was all of this?!