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Time, Time, Time
It was plop! plop! plop! down the stairs followed by a world-rocking SMASH! Sharona reeled as she felt the whole universe expand and flop out onto what she guessed was her back, a good deal of pressure being on her head. She blinked.
*Well, that worked,* she decided. She soon fell over and shook an extra piece of eggshell off her back spines. They felt... familiar, somehow. She wasn't sure what she was supposed to look like. She didn't have a bondmate to let her know what other bishel looked like. She just knew that the backspines she had -- long, black stake-like things -- were right and familiar to something else she knew.
She just didn't know what.
She looked over the eggshell she had burst forth from in awe. *It's so tiny,* she said, looking at it. She hit a piece of shell with her tail and broke it further with a crinkle and a snap.
*Oh well! Outside with me!*
Of course, she didn't have a clue just where 'outside with me' was supposed to be. She started slithering aimlessly through the corridors, since naturally whomever made this Tower didn't feel like connecting staircases like a normal, sane architect. Instead, they were scattered all over the place, along with various plants, books, windows, doors, and devices that somehow seemed magical. On many occasions, she found herself on porches to the outside. On the first time finding one of these, she made the mistake of going to the very edge and looking down. With a startled chirp, she slid backwards against the wall. It was far too far down for her liking. She shook herself out of the feeling and siddled back inside.
*Not going to make that mistake again.*
Of course, she did make that mistake again a couple of times. But that was always a compulsion saying 'it's not as high as you think' or 'you can do it! come on, Sharona!'
Stupid brain, Sharona thought to herself. Making me do silly things, like scare the living daylights out of me.
Gradually, she made herself down towards the ground level. There, she tried and failed to open the doors. They were huge, heavy doors, solid oak by the looks of them. Or something. She peeked under the crack and between the two of them. She realized the snow was too high. She'd have to find another way out.
She thought about this a moment and decided the only other way out was through a window or balcony higher up. She whimpered. *Stay in and be safe, or go out by falling from a window?* she thought, weighing the two options against each other. *I'd rather be outside. I've been itching to go out for too long to stay in here,* she decided matter-of-factly. So, she slithered and slid and flailed up the stairs to the second floor and willed herself not to look down from the promenade. Then, she went in a room.
It smelled, she realized almost instantly, of Tor. *This must be his room,* she thought to herself, as she caught faint wiffs of Ira and some heady aroma.
That was when she knocked into a dresser and a pouch of finely-ground green somethings fell on her head and exploded all around her. This was where the other smell was coming from, she realized, but uh... what was it?
She shook the bag loose and some of it flew up her nostrils. It hurt. With a great snort, she blew the things out. Her nose still hurt, and she decided that maybe Tor's room wasn't very safe for someone still earning her belly as it were. She followed a cold breeze behind a curtain and found herself on a second-floor balcony. She chanced a look up.
The Tower stretched into the grey-white limits of the sky. She let out a scared little squeal, but she forced herself to stand her ground. She slithered forwards. She looked down. It wasn't as far as before, but it was still pretty far.
And she tried not to, but she couldn't help psyching herself out a few times. The white snow all over the ground below the Tower made it difficult to judge distances. She leaned forwards, wrapping her tail around the banisters that held up the railings. She closed her eyes, and dropped off the balcony. And hung there, swaying in the breeze.
She took a deeeeeep breath and curled up into a ball of spikes and let her tail lose its hold around its safety.
She didn't fall.
She opened one eye tentatively and then the other. The snow was still as far away as ever. She squealed a little and curled up again.
*What were you doing, little one?* someone asked. It didn't smell like anyone she was too familiar with.
*Going outside,* Sharona replied with a terrified shiver.
*There's a door one floor down, you know.*
She felt herself be put down on the floor of the balcony again. Relieved to have her feet on the ground again, she looked around for her rescuer.
Before her in the air hovered a great .... well, a great something. It was the same color as she was, and it had the same looking body, except it had these two big flappy things coming out of its sides. *Err...* Sharona managed.
The bigger ... thing smiled down at Sharona. It was actually kinda scary, considering it had this big ugly scar over its one eye and a few nicks here and there.
*Who and what are you?* Sharona wanted to know.
The thing landed gracefully on the railing and smacked its forehead, which had two horns behind it, with a tail. A very spiney tail.
Sharona's eyes nearly popped out of her head. *You!* she said.
*I'm your grandmother, you great ninny,* the thing muttered. *You can call me Gunnhild. Otherwise you might make me sound old.*
*I look like you,* Sharona said, not really listening. She poked Gunnhild's back spines with her tail curiously. *See? They look alike!*
Gunnhild sighed. *Yeah, okay. Fine. We look alike. Can I go back to having your attention?*
Sharona was obviously not listening. She was slithering around in a very happy circle. *I look like Gran'ma! I look like Gran'ma!*
*Please don't call me that,* Gunnhild practically whined.
*But it's TRUUUEEE.*
*Ungh,* Gunnhild moaned and picked Sharona up with a dextrous tail.
*EEEP!* Sharona squealed in dismay as the ground dropped out from under her. She closed her eyes tightly and then felt the world get icy cold all around her. She dared to open an eye.
*What happened?* she asked, looking around.
*You're on the ground now.*
*Why?*
*That's where you wanted to be, isn't it?*
*What's all this white stuff?*
*Snow.*
*Wow. So this is the snow you guys are always talking about.*
*Not always,* Gunnhild corrected testily.
*Well, a lot, anyway.* Sharona stared at it for a while. *What is it?*
*It's snow, what do you care what it is? Go play! Sheesh!*
*Play?* Sharona asked.
*Yes!*
*How do you do that?*
*Gah! I don't need to take this,* Gunnhild muttered. *I'm going to visit Grandpa Devgan, and we're going to have a nice long talk about me ever wanting kids again.* And there was a big flash of light and a crack of thunder, and POOF! Gunnhild went bye-bye, leaving Sharona all alone.
*Well, thanks, Gran'ma,* Sharona muttered indignantly.
She looked around, but all she could see was this biiiiig white field. She sighed and shook her head. *I think I'm going to need more help than that to get me somewhere fun.* She shuddered a little. *AND warm.*
Still, there was something to be said of snow. The stuff had a nice, fluffy texture. And aside from that whole 'freezing your scales off' idea, it was pretty fun. She jumped and wriggled and giggled and laughed and chirpped happily in the snow for quite some time all by herself. She explored its baser properties and giggled as some of it stayed on her nose after burrowing in it. She flicked some of it up with her tail and giggled as it fell on her head with a THWUP.
Suddenly, she hopped one time too many, and she landed with a very painful THWUP of her own in a pile in what appeared to be a complete and total lack of snow. She whimpered slightly and found herself with tears in her eyes as she strained to move. Inaudibly, only in her mind, that is, she was in immense pain in some part of her tail, and she screamed in her mind unendingly.
All of a sudden, she felt herself lifted from the ground and she let out a shrill and prolonged scream audibly.
"Shhhhh..." she heard someone say.
Shh her bum. She was off the ground and with someone she didn't know the smell or mind-touch of. Hells no she wasn't going to 'shhhh.'
She screamed louder.
And then she remembered she was born armed... and dangerous. She forced her throbbing little body to contort and stabbed at the assailant with her backspines.
"GAAH!" the someone shouted and she was flung away into a snowdrift, where she burrowed and glared out of viciously.
*Try that again, I dare you,* she whispered, narrowing her eyes.
"Bloody hell," the someone said.
*YOU!* she suddenly heard with a low, deep growl.
*DADDY!* she crooned happily, purring almost from within the drift.
*Eh?* someone she recognized as her other!daddy answered.
"I didn't do anything, Kipfel," the someone who had tried to kidnap her answered. "She fell, she was screaming, I was going to bring her back inside."
*No!* Sharona shouted from inside her burrow, sneaking out a little.
"Honest!" the someone said, taking a step back from Daddy, who was making Sharona soooo proud, the way he was watching out for her while Daddy sneaked her out of the snow drift carefully.
*She just said 'no',* Daddy growled, glaring at the someone. Sharona clung close to her other daddy as he hovered a little above the ground, sensing her fear of the heights.
*Nooo, Daddy,* Sharona clarified, vaguely. *No going inside! I just got oooout.*
"Haah. See?" the someone asked, looking a little proud.
It didn't seem to make one whit of difference to Daddy, though, who was still advancing towards the someone. *You lay one hand on my daughter again without my express permission, I will maim you, rend you from your flesh, and make you suffer every inch of the way into oblivion,* he snarled. *Now. Heal her.*
"Yeah, that's a nice way to get someone to do what you want them to do. Just go on and--"
*DO IT!*
*There's no need to yell, Kip,* Daddy sighed, nuzzling Sharona gently.
Daddy turned to glare at Daddy icily.
*Fine,* Daddy sighed, beating his wings a little. *If you want to get an ulcer, it's your perrogative.*
*Pff.*
"Alright, then, Ira. Can you ... err... lie her down in the snow?" the someone asked.
*Certainly, Tren.*
Sharona made a mental note of the name, one to maim him if he fouled up his duty to heal her.
Daddy sighed at Daddy, who was glaring at Tren with great scrutiny. *I think she's your child,* Daddy said with a shake of his head.
*She looks like your mother,* Daddy said with a smirk.
*Oh glee,* Daddy replied.
Tren laid his hands carefully over Sharona's tail and a faint light glow eminated from his hands. "You know, Ira," he said as he worked, "a real blue would be able to fix this."
*Don't even start with me on that,* Daddy retorted haughtily.
Tren grinned, and Sharona imagined that perhaps that expression was ... "charming" to another of his species, but he just looked creepy to her.
Soon, she could feel her tail as before, and even wiggle it a little.
"There," Tren said. "Good as new."
*Wonderful.* Daddy skulked off.
*Where are you going?* Daddy asked with a concerned beat of his wings.
*I left something behind when I heard her screaming. I'm going to get it.*
*It wouldn't happen to be green and furry, would it?* Daddy asked.
*No. I left him in the Tower.*
*Uh...* Sharona interjected.
*What is it, lovely?* Ira asked tenderly.
*Löwen got out.*
Daddy facepawed. *Well, where is he?*
*It,* Daddy-with-wings corrected.
*HE,* Daddy-with-feet re-corrected.
*Whatever.*
*I dunno. Tor said he prolly went after you, Daddy.*
*Tor?* Daddy asked, dipping a few inches in surprise.
*What would he want with my sweet Löwenherzchen?* Daddy asked, cocking his black head to the side.
*Said he was looking for you,* Sharona supplied.
*Me?*
*Yep. Said it was important. Dunno what it was, though.*
Suddenly, a tall person with the same general shape as Tren but different skin, hair, and eyes, ran up, trailing a big blue coat in his wake as he lept the hole in the snow and landed with a THWUP!
*Don't break your leg, Salvatore,* Daddy chided, smiling at who Sharona felt almost immediately was his bondmate. *We already had one accident today.*
"I'm too late then," Tor said, looking crestfallen.
*For?* Daddy, the one who wasn't Tor's bondmate, and Sharona chorused.
"Well," Tor said, scratching the back of his neck, "I thought for certain it was going to be sometime well after today." He looked apologetically at Kip and Sharona. "And why is Gunnhild tiny?"
*I am not Gunnhild!* Sharona projected avidly. *I'm Sharona!*
*My Sharona,* Daddy purred and stepped lightly to nuzzle her.
*Daddy!* Sharona purred back, nuzzling both him and Daddy.
"... Well then," Tor said. "Who knew she'd look so much like Gunnhild."
Daddy groaned and ducked his head under his wings. *Mom's going to be so happy, and Clarinet's going to be so pissed.*
*Nah,* Kip said happily, *she's got Mom's eyes.*
*But Mom's eyes look like Clarinet's eyes. It's easy to get confused.*
*Alright. Here's the deal.* He turned to Sharona. *Sharona, never EVER lose an eye. Okay?*
*Uh. Okay, Daddy! Granma didn't look too pretty without it, anyway.*
*That's my girl,* both Daddy and Daddy purred. She snuggled them both.
And she yawned.
*Tired little one?* Daddy asked, wrapping his wings around her.
She nodded. *'nd cold.*
*Let's get you inside, then, with a nice warm fire.*
*You take care of that, I'. I'm going to track down Löwen and finish what I was doing. Deal?*
*You sure? This is the first time we get to tuck in our little pretty one.*
Daddy smiled and nodded. *Just ... don't let anyone near her for a while, okay?*
*Absolutely,* Daddy replied, and he took her in his tail and fluttered gently up into the Tower as Daddy scampered off to do whatever it is Daddies do when they start a project.
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