Page 2 of Savage

Before leaving the office, Mayor David Glenning not only told them of land that was for sale but also hooked them up with his wife, who was the only realtor in town, more like the county as sheseemed to be when they looked around.

“We’ll have a nice relationship. And so long as you boys don’t cause us any trouble, I see no reason whatsoever that there will be any trouble with us either.” That was yet to be seen, but so far, he wasn’t getting any vibes from the office workers or the Mayor and that was fine by him and the others.

They shook hands on the deal and were invited to his birthday party at the local gym to ‘meet and greet’ the people that they’d be neighbors with. Sally, the mayor’s wife, would have some listings for them to go over as well. The four of them agreed that they’d be better off meeting the towns people as well. It would be very telling, Savage thought, to see what others thought of them being around.

~*~

Two of them found a house that they could live in, which surprised Kingston. One of them, the one that Brenin decided on, was a great antebellum of a place, and he fell in love with it as soon as he saw the wrap-around porch and empty hanging baskets around it. It had a charm to it that his cousin dearly loved, and he could see him there if he got the house. He liked things warm with faded colors in a place.

While it hadn’t been lived in for some time, he could see the potential from the car and knew too that it was going to need a great deal of work to bring it up too livable standards. So long as Brenin was happy with it, so was he. The home that he picked out was one that had been considered the mayor’s home at one time.

It was large and had lots of room for entertaining. Whether it be indoors or out. There was a nice inground pool that would also need work, but he was fine with it all. It was going to need a staff about as large as his cousins, but they’d get that going when it was time. They were all very good at taking care of themselves as they had been most to all of their lives.

Cassian and Savage were planning to build. The two of them each had thought about buying a condo they could work from until their homes were built and that was fine with them. But in the end, they stayed with their family so that they could be comfortable when they were lonely.

Cassian wanted modern, something that would be a great deal of glass and chrome. While Savage decided that he just wanted a house he could live in. Unsure as to what he meant, they all seemed to be happy at their choices so long as they had plenty of ground of their own as well as a large enough for family—there was very little of them left nowadays—if they wished to visit. There would be a pool for each of them. A good place to cool down at when they were finished flying around. It took a great deal of water to cool off a dragon and an oversized pool was it. Something else that the others had to learn on their own.

He was the only one with their parents still alive. Savage’s parents had died so long ago that the memories of them were colored by his parents, who never cared for Savage or his parents. The two of them were best friends and his mom hated that. But it mattered little to him. They were good for each other and knew enough about the other not to cause any trouble. They all four seemed to just fit.

Cassian and Brenin, brothers had a sister that neither got along with. Kingston didn’t care for her either but kept that to himself. Margo wasn’t just a bitch, she did that very well, but she was very opinionated as well as thinking very highly of herself. She also thought that since she was decades older than them, they had to listen to her woes. And she had plenty of those as well, thanks to her own stupidity and ways.

Kingston had no one left. Like Savage, the two of them sort of raised themselves. They had hatched at the same time, but there was no one around to show them how to shift, much less get along in the world. Kingston decided that was what made Savage so bitter. He’d had parents, but they wanted nothing to do with him.

Savage’s parent hadn’t died until much later after the brothers had. He’d been put into a room as an egg and left there until he had hatched alone and ready to be taught the ways of their kind. But since he wasn’t the girl that they wanted, he’d been left to his own devises and that of the staff to help him live a life as a dragon.

Savage had never forgiven them for that, and as soon as he could get out of the house to make his own way forward, he did so. They had, as far as any of them knew, never contacted Savage at allin his long life. If not for feeling the moment that they were killed, he might well have gone his entire life without them around.

His sister, Lillith, was named in the will, but the poison that had killed their parents had murdered her as well. After a decade of back and forth, he was able to get their wealth, a great deal of it as it turned out, given to him as well as the other lands, buildings, as well as jewels, and gems to be turned over to him. Of the four of them, he was the richest, but you’d never know it to know him. He was as tight-fisted by half again as the others were.

The party had turned out just as they had hoped. They were able to mingle around with the other residents as well as get to know the feel of the town. For the most part, everyone knew what they were and didn’t seem to mind—it was Savage who was forever looking for a harsh word from someone who didn’t get too comfy around them, and that was all right as well. Whatever he needed, they’d be there for him. Just as they knew he’d be there for them.

They were all cousins, but for Cassian and Brenin, who were brothers with a single sister. They’d been hatched around the same time, all four of them, and had, for the most part, been best of friends since. Savage was the youngest of them all, at least they thought so—no one was around any longer to tell him when he’d been born. If not for the reading of the will, he might not have ever known he had a sister.

He didn’t have anyone, either. Before he’d been hatched so long ago now, he couldn’t remember much in the details, but he’d been raised by another elderly couple of dragons that faded away not long after he was at the age of maturity. He knew how lucky he’d been in that but there were times when he realized that he was nothing more than Savage was. A bitter old dragon that disliked humans for all they were worth. Perhaps a little less than his cousin, as he could talk to them without snarling at them. However, neither cared for them and would walk away rather than talk to one for very long.

Savage was going to stay with him while the building was going on for his home. He didn’t foresee any issues with them under the same roof as they rarely went out with someone, nor did they socialize all that much. Like him, Savage would prefer reading a good—sometimes a bad book when he wanted things to be quiet. He’d not been lying when he told the Mayor that was all they wanted. Peace and quiet.

Plus, Savage was a good person to have around when he wanted someone to eat with. Being single was the hardest when you had a lonely plate and fork in the sink when you finished eating. Also, Savage for as mean as he could be. He was a killer at puzzles and games of memory and chance. He often thought that he could remember everything that he’d read but never asked him. He wasn’t one to brag about himself any more than he was, and that was just fine with him.

There were plenty of things that he had to fix before the house could become a home. Mostly, it was cosmetics that would be needed—a paint brush here. Some new windows in most of the rooms. But Kingston found out that Savage was good at replacing windows as well as caulking and painting a room.

He seemed to enjoy the method behind the job and would do two rooms a week. It was then that Kingston enjoyed his company best when they were working together on the house. He found that he was a good man to have around and thought he’d miss him when he moved out.

Meals were fun, too. They both knew the basis of cooking a good meal but nothing too complicated. Kingston found that he could also bake a nice cake that the two of them would share. There were other things that he discovered about his cousin, and he was glad for the time together.

By the second year of having their homes worked upon, Kingston knew there were going to be issues with the town. He didn’t talk about them, but if asked, he would have said that they were a lazy lot and that the only way to get them to work was to stand behind them and make them move.

The high school was nearly finished, and even the middle school was coming along. But they had no teachers lined up to work any more than they did the other batch of people coming around to be a part of the town. And to him, that’s what it seemed like, they were batches of people that all did the same work—or, in this case, didn’t work the same way. It was frustrating, to say the least. More sosince the old buildings were torn down and there were empty buildings around the town that no one could use.

The second most frustrating thing was the mayor. He seemed to have been under the impression that they were going to be the ones who worked the jobs of getting anything done. The painting in the old county office was still waiting for men or women to come in and paint the walls after gutting everything. The paint, in the preferred color, had been sitting for nearly eighteen months when it was discovered, quite by accident, that no one had gotten the cans open, and the painting began. Like everything else, it was all half finished and waiting for someone to get the project going. Stupid, lazy people.

Also, David had not hired anyone to do the sidewalks either. The bids were still in sealed envelopes on his desk without anyone knowing who had won the contract. Christ, the walks were getting worse rather than better, Savage pointed out just before opening the bids, declaring the winner, and getting the job started.

Savage had had to hire the survey for the land that he was planning to purchase. Once it was done, no one could decide on a price for it until he put the mayor’s wife in charge of it. She would have made a better mayor than her husband by far. And they each encouraged her to move her husband along so that there would be more money coming in. Without getting things done, no one would move here because it seemed like a half-assed town. Good to a point, then petered out at the end. Christ, it was a nightmare.

When his home was finished and livable, Savage did buy himself a condo. In fact, he purchased the entire development. Once he had them overhauled, he did take two for himself and sold the others for a nice profit. They’d been for sale longer than they’d lived in the town, and it was nice that he got them for the price they’d been appraised at several years ago. They were in good shape just needed some new carpets and lawn work to make them look good. It amazed him with a good coat of paint, and a freshly mowed yard could do for a place. However, he loved his home and did miss his cousin living there with him.

Things were moving along nicely once the mayor was voted out and his wife took over. It was good for the town to have someone who was social, too. She would find things in the town that no one would have thought of, and it was good for them as well.

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