Once again, . I made you wait for it X3 Busy RL life and all. ^^

I hope you like this last chapter, they'll be back in a final project which will take a long time to make^^ Will make another season, maybe, but for now, it's a goodbye to this happy family^^

A big thanks to my friend Chrysaor who made the icon once again, I think that's his best one =3

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“Oh, maybe I’m too early…”
“Why do you think so?”
“Your hair are still wet, you just got out of the shower, didn’t you?”
It was a keen observation. It was hard to hide something from Nina.
The young woman, owner of a modest shop in the city center that was specialized in dragons, had been the first to notice and make Nick realize Lyn’s love for him. Until then, he just thought his dragoness was an over affectionate creature. How blind he had been…
He had called Nina the previous day to check Trinara’s wings; the poor hatchling had been bullied by some disgusting men who had intentionally pulled on them. He hoped the baby dragon was fine, and she seemed to be. But since he knew Nina, the best dragon specialist he could ever wish for, he would have been irresponsible to not ask her for this little service.
“Yeah, I got caught by time this morning, and I didn’t want to show up… in the state I was…”
She giggled as she entered his house.
“Let me guess… Lyn felt in romantic mood and wanted a special breakfast?”
This wasn’t a judgment; Nina knew enough on the dragons’ ways to show affection to judge him. This was just a little mockery from a friend who knew about the kind of relationship he had with his dragoness. Still, he hoped she didn’t suspect every detail of it…
“Actually, she went for the diner.” He replied with an embarrassed smile as he led her to the living room. “But that’s a long story…”
“The entire night?” She instantly reacted as they sat on the couch.
Dragons performed a strange ritual when they were in love, involving the female swallowing the male alive to get… inner favors. With time, Lyn seemed to have adapted it to a softer form for him, by simply performing the first act. To a human, getting eaten alive by a carnivorous predator wasn’t that easy to accept, but he had adapted to her with time too. And the previous night, Lyn had kept him in for a bit longer than he usually experienced. However, loyal to her sweet nature, she had still released him in the morning, safe and sound.
Of course, Nina knew better than anyone how dragons considered romances. That was probably why she seemed to be a bit impressed with what he told her; she knew he had to deeply love Lyn to accept to go through this for her.
“Yeah I know…” he sighed. “I was a bit scared at the idea, but when she says I’ll be fine, I can’t help but trusting her… I’m probably weird.”
Nina offered him an understanding smile. She looked way more heart warmed by his words than disturbed.
“Well, I can tell that when a dragon gives its words, you can always trust them. And I can also tell that Lyn would never harm you. So, I only find it brave and cute, not weird.” She giggled. “Speaking about her, where is she?”
“Oh, she’s probably in her room with Trinara.”
“Trinara?”
“Her hatchling”
“Wait, there’s a dragon hatchling in this house?” She exclaimed, suddenly looking a bit uncomfortable. Nick immediately got that there had to be some sort of misunderstanding.
“It… It was her wing I wanted you to check… remember?”
“You said, and I quote, that she had a problem with her wings. So I assumed you were talking about Lyn. You never mentioned a hatchling before.”
This time, the young woman looked really nervous. She glanced around, like she was expecting to spot something in a corner. Was she… afraid of a hatchling?
“Is there a problem, Nina?” Nick asked with concern.
“I shouldn’t be there.”
“Why? Don’t tell me hatchlings scare you.”
“You don’t understand, I have to go before…”
But she never finished her sentence as a little nervous voice was heard in the room.
“Nick? Who is this?”
That was Trinara. The little dragoness had appeared at the entrance of the living room, and was looking at Nina with hesitation. Of course, her instinctive fear of humans didn’t allow her to trust the young woman at first sight. Nina looked at least as nervous as the hatchling, and she didn’t speak a word. Actually, it was like she was even afraid to move. To break ice, Nick decided to reassure the baby.
“It’s okay Trinara. She’s a friend, her name is Nina. She is a doctor, and I called her to have a look on your wings to make sure they aren’t hurt. Come here. There’s nothing to be scared of.”
The hatchling hesitated, staring at the human seated next to her owner, the only one she really trusted. But she still stepped forward, and even jumped on Nick’s laps. The young man put his hand on her back to comfort her, and she didn’t resisted. On the contrary, the hatchling lay down and relaxed. He was amazed how fast she came to fully trust him, considering how she used to fear him only one day ago.
“How… How old is she?” Nina asked timidly.
“Actually, one day and a half. Lyn produced her egg on Friday morning, and Trinara hatched on the evening”
“A less than two days old baby dragon accepted to trust you? Nick, normally it takes weeks, and even months! That’s why I was afraid; I thought my presence would traumatize her. I never accepted to get nearby a hatchling before, because of this precise reason. What I’m currently seeing, I considered it as impossible.”
He couldn’t help but feeling a bit proud of it, yet the memory of what it got to achieve it stopped him from being flattered. He would have preferred months of slow acceptance rather than having Trinara endangered. He was simply glad that the poor dragoness’ troubles ended up as a benefit for their relationship. At least, her suffering hadn’t been in vain; it had freed her from her fears of him.
“Well, she and I have already been through a lot. But I think she knows now that I’ll never be a danger for her…” He simply replied with a caress on the hatchling’s back. “I’ll really be relieved once you see the state of her wings.”
“At first look, they seem fine. Their structure shows no disruption, only a bit swollen at their base.” Nina professionally inspected from a reasonable distance. “Do you think I could…?”
She obviously wanted to have a touch on the wings to be sure of her diagnosis. And Trinara seemed to get it. The baby dragoness looked up at Nick with worried eyes, but the young man smiled to her.
“Is that okay with you, Trinara?” He asked. “This way we can be sure you’re fine, it won’t be long, I promise.”
Trinara looked at Nina, then slowly nodded. The dragon specialist seemed impressed once more, but didn’t wait to get closer.
“Alright, Trinara. I’m going to touch your wings, and you tell me if there are spots that hurt.”
“There!” the hatchling squeaked as soon as Nina put a careful finger on her wing base.
“I see… and here?” Nina asked while going up a bit.
“I’m fine here.”
“and here?”
Nina kept palpating different spots to check up the overall state of the little wings. But except for the first spot, Trinara didn’t pretend suffering from anywhere. The young woman didn’t take long to complete her diagnosis and leave the hatchling to Nick’s laps. She leaned on her hand bag, and got out a tube and some strange, brown and long things.
“It’s a little inflammation, nothing to be worried about.” She declared, showing him the tube and the brown sticks. “Apply this and rub gently to make it go through the skin and scales. And give her this each time she eats for eight days. This is a dose for an adult dragon, so only a quarter of it per meal. She should completely recover and suffer no consequences.”
“It looks like a meat stick” Nick couldn’t help but point out.
“My patients are dragons. I need to have medicines that suit them so they aren’t reluctant to take them. You can barely force a dragon to swallow something they don’t want to, like you throw a pill into a cat’s throat, you know…”
“That’s really clever. Thanks, Nina.” He spoke, before lowering his gaze on the baby dragon. “You can go if you want, Trinara, she’s done. I will come to give you these so you can be fixed soon.”
“Thank you Nick.” The hatchling said, licking his fingers.
She jumped off of him, and walked out of the room. It seemed like nothing, but it warmed the young man’s heart: a day ago, she would have been running away from him. Nick turned to face Nina and smiled.
“I realized I’ve been impolite, would you like something to drink?” He offered.
“Thanks, but… It’s okay, I have to go already.”
She seemed disturbed, thoughtful. They both got up, and Nick accompanied the young lady to the door, wondering what she had in mind. Though, when she was about to go, she made a sign that meant she wanted to talk in private, outside of the house.
“Is there something wrong?” he asked, closing the door behind him.
“On the contrary, it’s so right I struggle to believe it… I’ve just touched the wings of a hatchling… Even adult dragons are reluctant to it. You’ve done what no one had ever done before you, getting the full trust of a hatchling… How did you do this?”
Nick put a hand on the back of his head and scratched. Nina made a big deal of it, but it really wasn’t…
“She was deeply afraid of me, and because I did the mistake of letting a window open, she ran away. She was caught by three men who didn’t mean anything good toward her. This is one of them who pulled on her wings. That’s why I was so scared about their state. I rescued her, and… I think she was touched by the gesture, that’s all.”
“That’s all?! You have probably saved her life against three guys, you, the man she was frightened of. You have endangered your life for her, and done something extremely selfless. I can’t tell if you’re the dumbest or bravest man I’ve ever met, but you seem to not understand what it looked like to her. You proved you were the exact opposite of all she assumed of you. Dragons might seem simple minded at first, like children. But if you know a bit about psychology, you know that those who don’t think too much learn more easily. Like children, dragons don’t assume they know anything, so they observe, listen, and learn. They are always ready to put their assumptions aside when truth shines bright in front of them. We humans have a lot to learn from such state of mind.”
“So you mean that all I had to do was saving her life without asking for something in return? That seemed quite natural to not abandon a baby to its fate…”
“Natural to you, maybe!” she exclaimed. “Have you thought of it? How many grown men would have sincerely tried to run after her when she was a trouble to them? And how many of them would have rescued her? How many to dash and fight three unpredictable guys just to help her? And among the few of these men, how many would have taken it for a reward in itself, not expecting anything? I think you terribly underestimate yourself, Nick. You are NOT like most of the humans. You truly are a good man, and that’s rarer than you think. Do you know why dragons are so terrible at distinguishing humans?”
“Well, since us humans struggle to distinguish people from remote countries or ethnicities, I assumed this was normal for a dragon to struggle with humans in general.”
“Maybe a bit, but mostly because they see over appearances. They see a being from what they know of him. To them, all humans look alike until they do something that makes them show a bit of their true self. For Trinara, I think you’ve become something different than any other human. She saw who you really are, instead of who you look like.”
Nina’s words reached him to heart. He had never thought about it before, and he didn’t exactly know how he was supposed to take it. He had never seen himself like someone special, and he still didn’t think he was that special. He was just... being himself.
“Thank you, but honestly, I don’t think I would have been like this without Lyn. I don’t know, I feel like her joyful and loving nature just changed me. Congratulate her for that, not me.”
Without any warning, she put a hand on his shoulder, and gave him a hard look.
“You terribly lack of self confidence, Nick. But I can tell that if the world was a bit more like you, this would be a beautiful place to live in. I’m really proud of counting you among my friends.”
She kissed him on the cheek as a goodbye, and walked away, leaving him to his thoughts. A good guy? Him? Maybe… but after all, who cared? It wasn’t like he was going to change the world with that. He turned to go back inside of the house, but stepped back in surprise.
Between him and the door, a familiar white shape was standing. That illusion… again… staring at him like it was judging him.
“She’s right, you know.” The ghost of light told him. “I think the world will look at you a bit more seriously than you think.”
“You…” Nick said, suddenly realizing he had missed a few things. “You helped me… and more than I thought at first… I thought you were testing me, but what you told me inspired me to talk to Trinara once home… You made me think, so I could find the right words… Why did you do this?”
“As I told you, one day the world will have a look at your story, and raise you as an example to follow… I just pushed you to create the little crackle that will end up breaking the wall of this world’s false assumptions. You are an important piece of the puzzle, Nick. And your courageous actions, however meaningless they seem, were a decisive point in history.”
This was… unexpected… If it was a hallucination like he thought, he would have expected a speech about himself. But a story of world saving? Maybe he was schizophrenic… with an oversized ego…
“Who… are you?”
“They called me the white shadow. And I haven’t used my real name in such a long time that I’ve even forgotten it. Just know that my goal is to make this world go in the right path.”
“What is… the right path then?”
“It’s too soon to tell, but you will know one day.”
“When?”
“At the end of the world as we know it. At the darkest hour of time itself. But with a bit of luck, you will help making this world brighter than ever. Until then, live the happy life you deserve. Never stop loving your family. Be what you’ve always been: one of the best men who ever lived. Goodbye, Nick…. Until the next time…”
A thousand more questions burnt in his head, but before he could open the mouth, the strange shape had disappeared. He stayed in front of his door for a bit, hesitating. Was he insane? The life he had chosen to live didn’t seem to tell the opposite; no ordinary man would have chosen to have dragons for family…
He opened the door, full of doubts, and closed it behind him. Was he that weird?
“She was a nice human too!” A little squeak made him look down.
On the ground, Trinara was staring at him with a big smile, tail wagging. Tenderized, He kneeled to pick her up gently. She didn’t resist and licked his chin when he got up, making him smile as well.
“She wouldn’t be my friend if she wasn’t.” He spoke softly. “I wouldn’t let anyone touch you before I trust the person completely.”
The little licks she took on his face left no doubt that the days of her fears were gone for good. It looked like she was finally felt safe in this house. And to him, it was probably the best achievement of his life.
“What are you two up to?” another voice asked with a yawn. Apparently, Lyn was done napping. Having a belly full of a load that her body hadn’t proceeded had probably exhausted her, especially after regurgitating the so-called load. But she wasn’t the kind to regret such a night with her beloved one.
The mother dragon seemed pleased to see Nick holding her hatchling, which didn’t look the slightest scared.
“Nina checked her wings, they will be alright. You just missed her.” Nick explained.
“That’s a shame, I would have loved to say hello, and ask her a little thing.” Lyn dropped, looking a bit disappointed.
Nick was about to ask what she had in mind, but he was interrupted by a boisterous little voice.
“Daddy, can we play with mommy?” Trinara asked, tail wagging faster and an excited expression appearing on her face.
“I need to give you your medicine, Trinara, maybe we’ll play afterward. Your mommy just woke up too, let her some time for that.”
“Actually, Nick, you know I’m always hungry when I wake up…” Lyn said with a playful grin, looking at them with predatory eyes and licking her lips. “And I see two scrumptious treats right here…”
Trinara squeaked happily and struggled in his arms. To not drop her from such height, Nick leaned and released her.
“Quick, daddy, quick! Or she will eat us!” The hatchling squeaked amusedly.
She tried to run away between the front legs of her mother, but Lyn caught her tail with her forepaw, and raised her in front of her muzzle.
“Yum-yum… here come the appetizer!”
“Aaaaah daddy, she caught me! Run!” She squeaked, more in fun than in actual fear.
Nick stood there and smiled. It was heartwarming to see them playing together, mother and daughter. If he didn’t know this was a regular dragon way to play, he would have been shocked to see Lyn opening her jaws wide and closing them around her hatchling. Dragons were weird… and maybe he was weird as well to love them and to enjoy their games.
But maybe he simply liked being weird with them.
Only the hind paws and tail of the hatchling were still out of the mother dragon’s maw, her lips sealed around the little ankles. With a claw, she pushed the little paws through her lips, and she slowly slurped the tail in while giving Nick a seducing stare.
She then walked to him, her cheeks occasionally bulging from the squirming of the hatchling trapped in her maw. When she was in front of him, she closed her eyes and her cheek bulges became curvier as she sloshed Trinara around, an expression of pleasure appearing on her face like she was enjoying the taste.
Her forepaw rose to gently grab his hand, and she made him apply it on her throat. Then, she raised her head toward the ceiling, and the bulge of the baby dragoness started to descend slowly in a gulping noise. He could feel Trinara’s shape through the flesh and scales of her mother’s throat, traveling along the graceful neck.
From what he heard, the hatchling sounded like she took it as a funny game. He could still hear the muffled squeaks and giggles as the bulge disappeared past the collarbone. Only then Lyn would lower her gaze to face him again, and she teased him by licking her lips like she had just swallowed the best dish ever.
Weird dragons…
“Mmmmh that hits the spot” She moaned, staring at him right in the eyes. “But I have plenty of room for more…”
He couldn’t help but laugh to that, not in nervousness, but in actual amusement. He knew what she meant, and actually, he didn’t mind being the main course.
Weird human…
“Tell me, Lyn… What did you want to ask to Nina?” he wondered.
“Oh, that was a little idea that crossed my mind. I wanted her opinion. You like her, right?”
“Of course I like her, she’s a good friend and a nice person. Why?”
“Because I thought that… I’d like to try taking care of a little human.”
He thought of her words for a few seconds, trying to figure out their meaning… then burst in laughter. He didn’t doubt a second that Lyn was seriously thinking of the subject, but that was what made it so naïve and cute of from her.
It reminded him of the time he tried to make her mate with male dragons, thinking she had to experience it to be happy. That was, of course, before he realized that Lyn wouldn’t prefer a dragon over him. Today, it seemed like she was considering making her human breed. The concept was odd, but fair enough.
Though he also doubted he would prefer someone else to her, even for this.
“Tell me, my sweet, are you sure you regret nothing?” She asked sincerely once he stopped laughing. “I was wondering if you were really happy… with us… with the troubles we are for you…”
He smiled widely. Yes, weird dragons for a weird human. What could be a more perfect family? He leaned on her lips and gave her the tenderest kiss he could.
“I regret absolutely nothing, my beloved dragoness. I have the most wonderful family on earth, nothing could make me happier.”
“In that case, my love… you better listen to the advice of our hatchling and start running, I’m still hungry for the tastiest main course.”
“What if I don’t run? You already got me.” He chuckled as a little provocation.
She came to his ear and took a slow lick with the tip of her tongue.
“Run for me, my human… Catching my prey is better, and you’ll taste better too…” She whispered in a seducing voice. “I give you three seconds.”
And he started running in the house, not in hope he would get away, but only to make it all thrilling to her. Nina was right. This strange hallucination was right. He wasn’t like everyone else, and he did think he was a good man for taking happiness in making these dragons happy.
He was definitely happy…
… with his troubles of a dragon owner.