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 Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 4:28 pm
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Sasha walked into the front room with her hand on Cedric's arm and paused near the fireplace as she looked around the room, "Well, everyone seems to be keeping the place clean, at least," she said to herself before she turned to Cedric, "What I would teach you would basic good manners more than etiquette. Things like landing in human form in a living area such as the courtyard so that your claws do not tear up the grounds or accidentally tear down a wall with your tail. Manners like that go a long way towards keeping people like Sebastet agreeable to having you around as well as keeping the populace from thinking about slaying a dragon again," she told him in her soft voice then moved a bit closer to the fireplace, her hair flowing behind her along the way.
Desha had taken one look at the two of them and had left them alone to follow Andy. He was more tired than he was letting on, but not exhausted, thankfully. It was more that he'd made himself tired through all the crying he'd done than anything else. So he simply headed upstairs and went to his room to join Andy for some sleep.
Sasha gave a soft sigh as she moved her brown eyes from the fire to the rest of the room, "I know what it is to be separated from your kind by others. I didn't know I was a dragon until I met another one and it pulled my dragon form from me. So I had to learn a great many things the hard way. If I can save another from those pitfalls, I will. You seem intelligent enough to learn, after all," she finished on a slightly tart note to distract herself from the memories talking of her past had brought up.
She really didn't want to think about her past right now. Especially not Raid and his loss.
As she'd turned, the light from the fire had glinted a bit on the silvered tattoo of Raid's Mark at her shoulder, showing yet again that she was an unattached female again and that it had been a long time since she'd lost her mate. That she'd been alone all this time would have been confusing to a great many, but her sweeter nature and position as a healer had put off a great many other dragons from even attempting a mating flight with her. |
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Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 9:18 pm
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She raised one hand to the tattoo at her shoulder but continued with the rest of what he spoke of first, "Most dragons tend to remain hidden from the rest of the world. Too many centuries of idiots with St. George complexes. They've only recently been coming out of hiding to come to the Isles of Draconia to live, finding more protection in greater numbers as well as varied skills," she told him with a small shrug over it all.
Her fingers lightly traced over the silvered mark as she considered the best way to explain it then hesitated but finally approached him so he could see it better, "It was the mark of my mate. It's faded since he was killed. A few more years and it will fade completely. Thankfully, mating is instinctive among dragons. When a male meets a female he's interested in, he puts on a display of some kind in an effort to entice her. To test the male, the female takes off in the air. If he can catch her, he is strong enough and fast enough to defend her and any hatchlings they may have, so she allows him to... join... with her. In the process, he bites her here, at the spot where the shoulder meets the neck and adds a bit of power to it. That forms the first part of the bond. If the female marks him as well, then the rest of the bond is formed. The bond is at a soul-level, ensuring that neither can lie to the other, never betray each other, always know what the other is feeling or needing," she moved a bit so that the light of the fire showed the mark better for him and pulled her hair to the side so he could see it all as she continued to explain it all to him.
"The tradition goes back a long way, to a time when the dragons were a more primitive race. It enabled other dragons to know when another had been claimed, to give a certain female a wide berth so as not to enrage her mate. Mating flights at one point would fill the skies with males all trying to catch a single female, to prove their worth to her. The flight allows only the strongest genes to carry through, the strongest abilities and so on. It's all carried through in instinct in all of us now and has allowed more variety in our genetics and abilities. Some things are still carried through the primal brain, though; displaying and posturing, the flight, the actual mating and Marking, knowing to use caution around a Marked male or female, nesting, caring for young, things like that," she swallowed a bit nervously but knew she had to continue.
After all, he needed to know these things since he'd never been taught, "If a dragon chooses another race as their mate, some of the instincts still carry through. Marking, protecting, caring for young, etcetera. All done in human form, though. We are still creatures of our instincts, even when diluted by other bloodlines. The other bloodlines make us stronger as a race and bring in new abilities and genetics, allowing us to be stronger as individuals as well as adding to the protection and survival of the race as a whole," she licked her lips a bit nervously and glanced up at him before looking to the side again.
"You can touch it, if you like," she offered, knowing she had to help him in some way, if only with the information she had to give. Still, it meant alot that she was allowing him to touch her at all aside from taking his arm earlier. She hadn't allowed another male to touch her since Lao had helped her when she'd been injured, before that it had only been Raid. So she was understandably nervous about it. |
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Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 9:51 pm
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Sasha shivered a bit when he ran his fingers over the mark but shook her head slightly, "You didn't upset me and no, I wasn't trying to... when we flew here... I just," she had to stop and take in a deep breath as she actually blushed. She didn't move away from his hand either, not entirely certain why though.
She finally looked back up at him and met his eyes, reminding herself that he didn't mean anything... Not like that. No male had in a very long time, after all.
"I knew I had to get to Dancer to heal him. I wasn't trying to entice you. And you didn't upset me at all. It's just that when the bond between mates is severed, especially as mine was, it takes a long time to heal from it, to come back to sanity as it were. At first, other males tried..." she shook her head slightly not wanting to talk about that time right now.
"Well, now I don't think any male has tried to entice me in about eighty years. They simply come for healing, thank me, then leave the island. This is probably the longest I've been around a male in all that time," she admitted to him, giving him the real source of her nervousness.
"Besides, if I don't tell you about these things you'll likely do something rude and find yourself being flamed or something like that," she added with a shrug of her other shoulder, only now realizing how much taller and bigger he was than her. As a dragon, he'd been larger than her, but she was used to that. In human form, it was another matter entirely. |
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