Baby From Frost by Ashe Moon
9
Delos
The entire flightjoined us at the Librarium that day. Altair found a selection of illustrated animal books for Dalia to look at, and Grayson went off to look around the place with Thomas while Rainor, Shen, and I continued our translation work. Raka showed up a couple of hours after we’d gotten started with a box of fresh pastries and a pot of tea.
“Oli in class?” I asked as he sat next to me at the table.
“Very reluctantly,” he said, and he kissed me. “How’s it going?”
“Can we talk outside?” I asked.
He cocked his head to the side, his eyes searching mine. “Okay,” he said and followed me into the hall. Before I could speak, Raka put his hand on my chest. “You’re leaving soon, right?”
I took his hand into mine. “Yes.”
He nodded, smiled, and tried not to look upset, and I wanted nothing more than to tell him I was going to stay here. But I couldn’t do that.
“We’ve gotten quite a bit of this translated already,” I said. “I think we know all the broad strokes.”
“What does it say?” he asked.
“Shen was right. They’ll have eggs, which we’ll need to take care of until they’re ready to hatch. But the eggs are going to come soon, and we know how to make the birth safe. We know the ritual, now we just need the potions required.”
“So, how much longer?”
“I think it’ll be done today.”
“Today,” he said, sounding like he was speaking from very far away.
“The reason why Grayson and Thomas suddenly went so stir crazy is they need to finish nesting,” I said. “It was a good thing they came. Probably delayed their labor. They need to go back as soon as we’re done. And I need to go with them.”
“I know,” he said. “I just wasn’t expecting it to be so soon.”
“I wasn’t either,” I said.
We held each other silently, his ear pressed to mine. Both of us were deep in our thoughts, and I wished we had more time, wished I could’ve been more prepared. I knew that we would reach this moment eventually, and I’d hoped to be strong, but now that I was faced with the end—another ending—I felt my resolve crumbling.
“I’ll come back,” I said. “Once I’m able, I’ll come back here.”
“You can’t,” he said. “You have a flight to look after. And a whole town is depending on you.”
“And there’s a boy here who needs a father,” I said. “It was foolish of me to think I could just leave Oli and not look back.”
Raka looked at me for a long time. There was fear in his eyes, but then it shifted into a look of that sharp determination I loved so much about him. He took my hands, held them against his chest, and said, “I need you to do something for me.”
“What is it?”
“Help me to fly.”
I could see that he was serious, but I didn’t understand. “Right now?” I asked.
“Yes. Right now. Will you?”
Then, suddenly everything became clear to me. For his whole life, Raka had been struggling against a wall of fear put up to cage him, to stop him from living free. That fear held him hostage here, unable to fly, unable to leave. Now, he was trying to break loose. He had to take that leap of faith.
We went for the roof, walking at first, and then our pace lifted to a run. I had him by the hand, leading him through the corridors and up the stairs, dodging the scholars shambling around lethargically with their piles of books.
I stepped out on the platform. Raka hesitated and then took a careful step towards the edge, and a flock of pigeons went fluttering out from a windowsill below us. A cool morning wind tugged at our clothes. Finally, I was able to coax him to join me at the end of the platform.
“What if my wings don’t work?” he said.
“They will.”
“You’ve never seen me shift. It’s not even a full dragon form. It’s stunted.”
“That’s only what your brothers wanted you to believe. It’s not true. And I’ll be right there with you. You’re not alone.”
Raka’s hand was trembling. He took several deep breaths and kept his eyes fixed on the horizon, where the sun gleamed behind Stonvale’s ramparts and the aerial traffic that was beginning to crowd the sky above the city. Then, after one more deep breath, he squeezed his eyes shut and bowed his head. Raka’s body transformed slowly, his muscles rippling beneath his skin like the surface of a lake after being touched by a stone, and blueish gray scales pushed out, covering him from head to toe. His head squeezed to become narrow, his snout pushing out, his teeth growing to points. Then a pair of wings unfolded from his back as a tail stretched from his spine. He’d grown in size, but more to the proportion of a juvenile dragon, and his form hung somewhere in between human and drake, relying on two legs to stand rather than four.
“Here it is,” he said. “Not much to look at.”
“Wrong. What I see is something to be proud of. An ancient power, a bridge.” I pointed at the city. “We’ve all forgotten about what humans and dragons used to share, but not anymore. When we go back and Thomas and Grayson have their babies, everything is going to be different. They’re going to look up to you, and you’ll be able to show them things that none of us can.”
“For me to do that, I need to know what it means to be a dragon,” Raka said, and he looked down at his scaled palms, his obsidian claws glinting in the light. “Can you show me?”
“The first thing to know is how to fly,” I said. “Are you ready to take the jump?”
“Yes.”
I shifted into my dragon form and spread my wings wide to test the breeze that flowed over my scales. Standing beneath my cover, Raka took another step forward. His claws made marks on the edge of the platform, and he opened his wings to their full length.
“Remember what I told Oli,” I said. “Use the wind.”
“Delos,” he said. “What if half-dragons can’t fly?”
“Don’t think about that,” I said. “You doubt and you fall.”
“I’m trying,” he said, and he peeked over the edge. “Yeah. That’s very high.”
“I’ll keep you safe,” I told him. “You trust me?”
He looked at me, his eyes shining clear and strong. “I do.”
“Three…two…one…”
Raka sucked in one more breath through gritted teeth and jumped. I went right after him, ready to pin my wings into a dive and catch him, but unlike Oli, he didn’t need any reminders of what to do. His wings caught the air, and he zipped up as fast as a kite, tail straight like an arrow. And he was fast. He let out a whoop that sounded both startled and thrilled, and I had to work to keep up with him as he shot through the air.
“Okay, I think I’m getting this!” he called to me.
“Maybe slow it down?” I yelled back.
Something about his form made him far more agile, and it wasn’t just because he was smaller. Even Oli couldn’t fly this fast. Raka’s half-dragon form was tighter, leaner, and straighter. His wings had a different shape than a full dragon’s. But I still knew the wind better and caught a draft that allowed me to pull past him, and I beckoned for him to follow me beyond the air around the Librarium.
“Delos!” His voice was panicked. “Where are we going?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “But don’t stop!”
“This is the furthest I’ve ever gone from the Librarium,” he said.
“Good!”
Then he laughed—a laugh of unbelievable relief. “I can’t believe I’m doing this. I don’t even know where we are.”
We flew over a stretch of green in the middle of the city, a colorful garden with a sparkling pond in the center the shape of a half-moon. We passed neighborhoods with children playing along flights of stone steps up to small, orange-roofed shrines, and little dragons frolicking in a public fountain where some women were washing clothes. There was an amphitheater filled with people watching dragons racing around a track with colored flags streaming from their necks.
We went around the whole city, nearly getting caught up in the sky traffic and pulling up high to avoid it. Then we went again, circling back and starting from the beginning. Raka was eager just to look at everything, and so was I. Since I arrived in Old Shore Port seven years ago, I’d kept myself in a self-imposed exile and had never allowed myself time to explore, to be free, and to experience things. It felt like I was flying for the first time.
It’d been an hour since we’d stepped off the platform and I knew the others were wondering where we were, but Raka and I weren’t ready to stop yet. We kept flying and might’ve kept flying right past the walls if it weren’t for Stonvale’s annoying security.
We stretched our sore shoulders and walked back downstairs to the study room. Everyone was there, and Rainor applauded when we walked inside.
“Horray, they make their entrance. Banging somewhere in the hallway, I assume?” he said.
“No,” I said.
“Then why is your face all red? Why are you sweating so much?”
“Shut up, Rainor,” I said, laughing.
“We were flying,” said Raka.
“Flying?” said Shen, surprised. “You went flying? You shifted and flew?”
Raka grinned at him as if to say, “Guilty.”
Shen ran over and hugged him. “Well, that means you’ve made a decision. Right? You’re going to go?”
“I didn’t just jump off a building to stay locked up inside,” said Raka, and everyone erupted into excited chatter.
“Do…do we have a consensus on bringing Raka and Oli home with us?” I asked, suddenly shy. “And, uh, bringing him into the flight as my mate?”
Rainor slapped me on my aching shoulder. “I think we have a fucking consensus, buddy.”
“Of course,” said Altair, smiling.
“Consensus on my part,” Thomas said, nodding.
“I’m excited to have you with us,” said Grayson.
“Another ice dragon in our ranks will be good,” said Rainor.
“I’m not really an ice dragon,” Raka said. “I hardly know how to use my powers.”
“Nonsense,” Rainor grunted. “You’re as frosty as they come. Delos will teach you.”
“If you want to learn,” I said to Raka.
“I do.”
“Then, it’s settled,” said Altair. “We have a new flight mate. And a new flight son.”
“Oli is going to lose his mind when he learns he no longer has to go to class,” Shen said, laughing.
“I’m going to teach him everything he needs to know,” I said. “That boy is going to be an amazing firefighter when he gets older, I have no doubt of that.”
“Oh, Shen,” Raka said mournfully. “I hate the idea that I won’t see you every day.”
Shen smiled guiltily. “Actually…I’ve decided to come, too.”
“What?!” Raka and I said in unison.
“Thomas and Grayson need someone who knows something about what they’re doing. No offense,” he said, turning to Altair and Rainor.
Rainor smirked. “None taken, Sparks. I know you’ve gotten attached to us.”
“I looked into it and I could transfer to the librarium at Old Shore Port,” Shen said. “They’re in need of an archivist, and I have my qualifications. I’m bored of this place. Could use a change of scenery. And I know how much you’ll miss not having me around.”
Raka hugged Shen so tight the poor omega’s eyes looked like they were about to bulge out of his head.
Dalia had been playing by herself at the side of the room during the excitement, and she came over and tugged on my pant leg. “Uncle Delos, can we play ice slides?”
“Uncle Delos has work to do,” Rainor said, and she giggled as he picked her up, tossed her into the air, and caught her.
“Do that again!”
“No, no, no,” he said. “You’re not tricking me into playtime.”
“Come on, Dalia,” Grayson said. “Let’s leave everyone be. Soot needs to be fed.”
“Sooty Soot,” she sang to herself as Grayson led her out of the room.
“I’m going to go, too,” said Altair. “Start getting our things packed.”
“Altair, do you have a moment?” I said.
I was on my way into the hallway with him when Rainor said, “Are you two gonna bang in the hallway now?”
“You’re more than welcome to join, Rainor,” I said.
He snorted. “Come on, hurry up. I’ve been waiting on you to figure out this alchemy shit.”
When Altair and I were alone in the hallway, I told him, “Thank you for putting me on this mission. I mean, I knew I had to be the one to do it, but you know how I am.”
“I was hoping this trip would help you out of your shell. All of this, though, I certainly didn’t expect.”
“Me neither. Not at all.”
He patted my shoulder. “You’ve changed, though. I can see that, just from these past couple of days. You’re smiling more.”
“I know,” I said. “I feel different. I feel like things are going to be alright.”
With all of us working together, we finished the rest of the translations by the end of the afternoon. The table was completely covered in a layer of scattered pages of our notes combining the resources on human-dragon birth, as well as all the supplementary lore we’d pulled from dozens of other reference books and scrolls. Then, Shen and Raka took all the papers, organized them, and bound them in a protective oilskin cover.
Rainor flipped the pages with his thumb. “There must be others out there who need this. Others like us. This is a handbook for change. This won’t be locked up in the dark.”
He took the book back with him to the tavern apartment where the others were waiting, while I went with Shen and Raka to their dormitory.
“I’m going to need a few days to get everything ready,” said Raka. “Even though we don’t have much.”
“I understand,” I said. “I just wish I could stay to help you. I know how fast this is all happening.”
“I’ll take care of him,” Shen said. “Don’t worry, Delos. I’ll make sure he sticks to his guns.”
“Oh, I'm sticking,” Raka said. “Once I’ve settled on something, I won’t give it up.”
“Right,” said Shen. “You sank a ship once, I should remember that.”
Shen went to his quarters, and Raka and I sat in the living room. Everything had so suddenly gone into high speed that sitting around sipping iced tea felt strange, like we were wasting time. I just wanted him to pack all of his things and come with us when we left the next day, though I knew that was impossible. I couldn’t help but be a little apprehensive—it felt like I could lose him again. I knew that the time we’d have to be apart was going to be torture.
Raka sat next to me and pushed his hand into mine. “I know what you’re thinking. I promise you it won’t happen. You trust me, right?”
I looked at him and realized that I had to let go of those fears, just like he’d had to let go of his. I had to leave the past behind entirely. If I didn’t, if I allowed just one memory to linger, I would never be able to step into the present with Raka. We would always be haunted by the things we couldn’t change.
“I trust you,” I told him. “I’m leaving behind all of the things that happened back then. We start fresh.” Then I smiled. “Let’s sink this ship.”
Raka laughed. Then, we closed our eyes and touched our foreheads together, just breathing slowly, deeply. I felt my shoulders drop as I relaxed, all the tension left my body, and the remaining frost that clung in my heart fell away.
The door opened, and Oli came in, back from his lessons. He came over to us, happy as ever, and Raka kissed him on the forehead.
“Hi, Dad,” he said and then turned to me.
“Hey, Oli,” I said to him. “You have a good lesson today?”
“Yeah, Papa,” he said, with a grin.
My jaw hung open, and I was in the sky with happiness. “Did you tell him…?” I asked Raka, and Oli said, “I already knew!”
Laughing, I opened my arms, and Oli jumped over and hugged me. I realized tears were running down my cheeks. I’d never felt so full of love, and so complete, as I did at that moment.
Three days later, I was flying through the ocean-kissed air of Old Shore Port. The marine layer rolled over the cliffs and dissipated to reveal the town below, small, peaceful, and everything I wanted. Now, the station’s watchtower seemed quaint compared to the Librarium and all the other buildings of Stonvale. The flight touched down on the street level with our baggage, Rainor opened up the front doors, I let a very anxious Soot out from his carrier, and he disappeared inside.
“There you go,” Thomas said to Rainor. “The town is still standing. You owe me money.”
“I wasn’t seriously betting,” he protested.
“That’s not what I heard you say,” I said.
I went inside and took a moment to breathe the familiar air of home. I went upstairs and opened the atrium shutters, bathing the living area in sunlight. I imagined Raka and Oli down there, Oli and Dalia playing together, and wished that they were here with us already. Then, I went to my room. Apprehensively, I unlatched and pulled the door open and was greeted by a blast of deliciously cold air. Right on cue, Soot raced out from wherever he’d been waiting, flew between my legs, and curled up on my bed with a satisfied yawn. On the desk, my plants were all as healthy and happy as I’d left them. Thomas had asked Castelle to come and take care of them for me, and she’d done a wonderful job.
I heard a clattering from downstairs and went out to the balcony. Both Grayson and Thomas were rushing around the place like mad, and Altair came up the stairs and as he passed me said, “They’re back at it.”
I learned just how intense their nesting had been. That day, they proceeded to rearrange everything downstairs and then rearrange it again, and then they came for the upstairs rooms.
“Not mine,” I said, holding my arms up in front of my door. I froze the lock closed, and they both bore down on me like I was hiding a horde of treasure from them.
“I saw some dirt downstairs,” Rainor announced, peeking his head out from around a corner, and the two omegas scampered off.
“By the Gods,” I muttered.
“You have me to thank for keeping them out of your room while you were gone,” said Rainor.
After a few days, they seemed to have things in a way they liked, and somehow, I managed to protect my room from being pillaged. Everyone else’s rooms, though, had been ransacked and completely moved around. The living area had been turned into some kind of super bedroom with all of their beds moved in the middle of the floor, surrounded by a moat of pillows and furs. They’d locked the shutters and demanded no one turn on more than a few gas lamps, so the entire place was drenched in a dim glow.
“Somehow, the station has gone back to how it was before Grayson came here,” said Altair. “A dingy, cave-like…”
Rainor shushed him. “Quiet. You might make them decide they want it another way.”
I spent the time in my room at my desk, assembling and synthesizing the list of potions and salves from the book. There were a lot I’d never worked with before, and using those old dragon alchemy techniques felt like touching a conduit to the past. There was power and pride, and I read history in the recipes and was moved by what I learned. We were so much better together, humans and dragons.
A little over a week after we’d returned, Raka, Oli, and Shen flew into Old Shore Port. That moment waiting for them on the watchtower, seeing them appear in the sky, might’ve been better than everything else I’d experienced prior. It was the true start of our story together, and it wasn’t until then that it felt truly real. Oli and Raka both flew expertly and confidently, and Shen’s dragon form was impressive—golden scales, long horns, and a whip-like tail that split into barbs crackling with energy.
“Hey, Sparks,” Rainor said. “We’ve got a spare room for you while you get things settled with the Librarium.”
Raka shifted to human form and dove into my waiting arms, and I held him there and took in the reality that he was here. We were together.
“Have a good flight, Oli?” I asked, touching his shoulder.
“It was awesome,” he said. “I did so many barrel rolls and backflips, and I almost made it the entire way on my own two wings!”
“Impressive,” I said. “Come on, I think Dalia wants to give you a tour. We’ve got a room ready just for you.”
“When can we go fight a fire?” he asked as we walked down the stairs.
It was almost as if Grayson and Thomas had unconsciously been waiting for Raka and Shen to arrive, because their labor started that same night. Raka and Shen prepared the area and made the two of them comfortable, while Rainor and I laid out our materials. I could see he was nervous—he wasn’t wisecracking like he normally would, and he checked and double-checked the book and his notes, muttering to himself as he examined the potions and salves. Altair sat nearby—we would need both his and Rainor’s dragon energy to help the omegas deliver. Castelle had also arrived to take the kids to the Watch headquarters.
Everything happened at nearly the same time with both of them, with Grayson leading by about a minute, and it was all just as it was described in the book. But as ready as we’d tried to be, there was no way to anticipate how much they would struggle.
“Do I do it now?” Altair asked, his face dotted with sweat.
“Wait,” I said. “The notes say not until the egg is showing…”
Thomas and Grayson strained and cried, and the amount of pain they were experiencing was evident on every inch of their bodies. We were all frightened but trying to keep calm.
Altair whispered encouragement to both of them, though I knew he was speaking to all of us. “You can do this, you’re ready. Keep going.”
“Okay,” said Shen. “Okay, I see it! It’s coming!”
“Altair, your hand on Grayson’s stomach,” I said. “Raka, the red potion.”
“Drink this,” Raka said, tipping the vial to Grayson’s lips. “Careful…”
Altair rested his palm on Grayson’s stomach, allowing a slow trickle of his dragon heat to move into Grayson’s body. Grayson cried out and Altair looked at me for instruction, and I nodded at him to keep doing what he was doing. Then, like clockwork, Shen announced he could see Thomas’s egg. Raka hurried with the potion and Rainor gently pressed his palm to Thomas’s stomach.
Shen was waiting with hot towels. As they made their final push, he collected the two dragon eggs, washed them, and then immediately submerged them into two tubs of steaming hot water.
Altair and Rainor helped Grayson and Thomas with special healing ointments and potions that would settle their body temperatures. Grayson reached over and took Thomas’s hand.
“Let’s never do that again,” Thomas said, laughing with relief.
We then helped them into the tubs of water so that they could be with the eggs, and they gently picked them up and held them against their chests just below the surface of the water. About the size of a baby, their smooth shells gleamed with warm opalescent colors, like polished stones. I carefully placed special fire stones into the water, which would keep it at the right temperature for fire dragons.
“I can feel them moving,” said Grayson, and he rested his cheek on the egg.
“Join them,” Shen said to Altair and Rainor, and we cleared away the empty bottles and everything else. Altair and Rainor started to undress, and Raka, Shen, and I left them alone.
We went to our rooms, but despite being exhausted, none of us seemed like we were going to get any sleep yet. After a short time restlessly moving around in bed, Raka and I wordlessly decided to get up, and found Shen sitting in the upstairs common area, looking at a book. He smiled at us and then followed us up to the watchtower, where we sat on the ledge and stared at the dark void that was the ocean. Raka rested his head against mine, and I kissed his cheek and wrapped him up with my arms.
I closed my eyes and listened to the distant crash of the waves on the shore, and I no longer saw the same memories that had always been associated with the sea. Instead, I saw us—all of us—running out onto a white sand beach to enjoy the blue water. Raka sprinting ahead of me, diving into the foam. Oli’s hand in mine, laughing as I picked him up and jumped into the spray together. Behind me, Thomas and Grayson stood at the water’s edge with two new babies in their arms, while Altair and Rainor held Dalia’s hands and carried her, shrieking with laughter, to the waves.
“What are you smiling about?” Raka asked me, bringing me back to the present.
“Everything,” I said.
The sun peeked its crown over the horizon, bringing a spectacular dawn to Old Shore Port and the world.
