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Posted by Jonah on May 23, 2009, 12:37 am, in reply to "Dragon Holiday"
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“Only that every single dragon holiday seems to revolve around eating,” Val continued. “Your ‘connection with each other as predators’,” she said, using air quotes, “I think really translates to ‘any convenient excuse to stuff our maws.’”
Seth continued to look annoyed, and the two females exchanged cagey glances. But then the big male broke out into a small laugh. “We dragons do love to eat. But it’s really no different than human holidays, is it? They’re all centered on food as well.”
Susan shook her head. “Not all of them. How about Halloween?”
“Your young spend the night threatening neighbors for candy.”
“The Fourth of July.” Valerie suggested.
“Picnics and cook-outs,” Seth countered.
“Columbus Day.”
Seth shook his scaly head. “No longer an official holiday. They switched it for Halloween in 2050, remember?”
Susan’s brown eyes sparkled. “Heh, Halloween is another holiday dragons seem to get into. Did you guys have something like that back on your homeworld?”
The dragon nodded. “We called it the Feast of Masks.”
“Another feast!” Val teased.
Seth ignored her and went on. “It was a mid-winter celebration on the homeworld, when hunting was hard and we needed a distraction. Many older dragons still practice it, but too many younger dragons have let it slip in favor of Halloween. I did it every year while I lived with my family. Unlike Halloween, during the Feast of Masks we use no costumes, or masks. We picked someone in our community and switched roles with them for the day. We often mocked them, and they us. It was all in fun.” A big toothy grin spread over his maw.
“I know that look!” Val said with a sly grin of her own. “There was more to the Feast of Masks than eating and making fun of each other — wasn’t there?”
“For adults, there was. If the person you imitate is mated or had a mate, you often ended up mating with the one pretending to be their mate as well. That was fun, and at times led to some … unusual couplings.”
“Like what?”
Seth tapped his chin idly with a finger. “Well, one year, I pretended to be my father, and my older sister pretended to be my mother. We don’t announce who we’re swapping with until the day of the Feast, so that turned out to be a fun surprise. We made the best of it, still.” Again, his sly toothy grin.
Both human woman shrieked and giggled like schoolgirls. “Oh my god!” Susan exclaimed. “You mean you did your sister?”
“Well, technically, at the time I was my father, and she was my mother, so it was perfectly acceptable. It’s why matings on the Feast of Masks aren’t considered …”
Susan and Val laughed hysterically, asked for lurid details of what ‘momma dragon’ was like. He tried to remain deadpan, but began chuckling a bit until even he was hiss-grunting out loud in laughter, his chest rising and falling like an expanding barrel. “I’m glad to see you’re in good spirits,” he told them. “Because I have a friend coming over, and they will enjoy such talk about dragon holidays, I’m sure.”
“We have people coming over?” Val asked, straight-faced, suddenly frowning at the messy state of affairs the house was in. Seth could never understand the human female nesting instincts to have everything tidy in one’s house. As long as the structure held together and the food didn’t spoil too badly, what was there to worry about?
“Are they dragons?” Susan asked. “D-Do you want me to leave?”
Seth shook his head. “I told them that you both are here, and that you both are my pets now. They will respect that. There will be no trouble.”
“Who is it?” Val asked. “Is she that female dragon you’ve been trying to court? Komodo, is that her name?”
Seth narrowed his eyes in thought, shaked his head.
“No, Val,” Susan interrupted, “it’s a name we’d given her. She’s got a face of a Komodo Dragon. But that’s probably not her name.”
His eyes remained narrowed as in a state of thought.
“Jeez, Seth, do you know her name even?”
Val laughed. “Well, hon, I know you’ve been anxious to mate a dragon female proper for a while now....” She rubbed his knee affectionately.
Seth churred pleasantly, nodding. “Pets are very good most of the time,” he said, knowing Val well enough now that she would need some reassurance. ”But pets do not give offspring, and I’ve as much a need to reproduce as anyone. But no, that is not who is coming over.”
Val knitted her brows. “Then who...?”
The front door suddenly swung open, revealing a dark silhouette against the bright afternoon sunlight. It stepped into the interior light, and all three recognized the newcomer immediately. Dax!
Both women instinctively shrieked in fear. Susan dived for her purse by the couch. Val scrambled toward Seth for protection. The women crashed into each other half way to their goals, Val tripping over the dark skinned woman as she lay just short of the couch. Valerie fell headlong into Seth’s broad lap, while Susan could only sprawl helplessly across the floor. She looked up to see Dax rushing right forward, and all she could do was yelp and curl into a ball. After a moment of uncomfortable silence, Susan suddenly screamed at the top of her lungs as she felt heavy scaly hands on her shoulders.
When she looked up, she saw both dragons laughing with their species’ peculiar hissing guffaws. Val looked confused and red-faced, but unharmed. “What’s going on?” she huffed as if she’d just run a mile in under a minute.
“We were playing a joke,” Seth explained, helping her carefully to her feet. “You females laugh at my expense, so I thought it would be fun to do the same to you.”
“Are you ####ing insane!” Susan yelled at him. “A joke? Does your murdering friend here have any idea what would’ve happened to him if I’d reached my purse?”
Seth walked over and produced a human-sized pistol from the folds of his large chair. “I took precautions, while you two women were giggling about the dumb dragons at the mall.”
Susan grumped and snatched her gun back from his broad scaly paw. “And what about my other ‘precaution?’”
Seth opened his maw, then quickly shut it again. “I … had forgotten about that.”
Dax spoke up for the first time. “What is this human talking about? And was it really wise to give her back her weapon?”
Susan flicked a switch on the weapon and everyone in the room could hear the low whine of the firearm’s electronic primer charging. “What’s the matter, Dax,” she said coolly, leveling the weapon at the large dragon. “Afraid I’ll blow your head off? And yeah, Dax, you can bet your scaly ass I have dragon-grade ammo…”
Dax tensed, as if he was about to charge the woman, but also looking around nervously. One thing predators never seemed to really be prepared for was for their potential prey to turn on them.
“Susan,” Seth said cooly. “There is no need for that. Dax will not harm you or Val. Neither will the dragons coming over. I made sure of that. They know you are my pet now, and they’ll have to deal with me if they do.”
“He’s a murderer!” Susan gave Seth a quick glance, afraid to take her sight off Dax. “He’s a ####ing murderer!”
Seth put one hand gently on her shoulder, then two. He made no move to disarm her, just let his scaly paws rest there. “So am I. So is Val. You knew that when you became my pet. If you accept that, then you must accept others we associate with. That includes Dax. Now put the gun away.”
Susan’s arm didn’t move. If anything, her scowl deepened and her finger tensed even more on the trigger.
“Susan,” Seth said more forcefully. “He won’t hurt you. Our bargain still stands. Now, obey.”
The human woman heaved a heavy sigh, then nodded and tucked her pistol into the back waistband of her jeans.
Everyone seemed to untense. This time, however, Val began yelling at Seth, calling him every name she could think of, batting him across the arm forcefully. He barely felt the impact. “That was all your fault, you know! What were you thinking! Someone could have gotten hurt!”
Dax crossed his arms. It was his turn to speak. “I am more concerned, Seth, with you allowing one of your ‘pets’ to carry a gun in your own lair.”
“She’s allowed to defend herself. Now that she has given herself over to me, I prefer things that way.”
“You prefer your pets to be armed...?”
Seth laughed. “Have you learned nothing from the humans and their own pets?” He glanced at Val. “There are pets you have for amusement and companionship.” Then he canted his chin at Susan. “And then there are pets who can do that, but can also serve a further purpose. Such as guarding your property.”
Dax raised a heavy brow. “So she’s your pit bull?”
“Hey!” Susan said.
Seth thought about it then canted his head dismissively. “Close enough. You have only yourself to blame for that. After you and the others made such a mess of things last time you were here....”
“We were doing that to help you,” Dax observed dryly.
“And I just saved you from having your head blown off, so I’d say we’re even now.” He smirked even as Dax frowned. “But after that incident, Susan realized, perhaps intelligently, that the best way to protect herself from one dragon is with another. So she and I struck a bargain. She became my pet, and I protect her.”
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