Page 21 of Accounting for Drakes

Nanny looked to Yorath. “I believe your mate would like to do that, but if you still don’t know how to make your own clothing in six months, I will show you.”

Yorath nodded. “Thank you. For now, we have created a wonderful array of clothing for you. If Lady Nanitha is willing, I would appreciate her assisting you when I can’t be at your side.”

Nanitha smiled. “I would be delighted to be there for her.”

Abil nodded. “Again.”

Yorath passed around the teacups, and they all sat and sipped. “So, Nanitha the Devourer, how did you happen to find young Abil?”

Nanny rubbed her brows. “I was... travelling. Going from world to world and eating volcanoes because my beast thinks they are a spicy treat. I was between worlds when I saw the asteroids shedding all kinds of rock, the small ship was in the path, and I tried to get in between. It worked for a while but destroyed my wings, but I was able to protect the rear of the shuttle as it dropped to the surface.”

She sighed and looked at the tea. “The adults were dead on impact, but I could smell a tiny one in the vessel. I couldn’t shift, and my drake is better at healing than I am, so I carefully pried open the loading hatch and found this little one in a small padded enclosure, wailing for her parents. I chuffed to her, and she stood up, taking my claws in her little hands. And from there, we created shelter, and I scavenged rations from the shuttle as needed. When she was stable and feeding herself, I was able to hunt. It got easier from there. By the time she was four, she was hunting with me, and when she was six, she had her first kill.”

Abil smiled. “It was a fish.”

“It was still a kill, precious.”

Abil said, “Why did you have that strange walk when I was little?”

Nanny paused. “Oh, I was definitely injured when the ship came down. Spinal injuries. They took a long time to heal.”

Yorath blinked. “You could have called him.”

“He wanted a stationary mate. I wanted to see the stars before he locked me up. Three hundred years didn’t seem like much in the grand scheme of things.”

Abil caught on. “Yorath knows you.”

“Oh, yes. Well, he knows my would-be mate. I am content to fly from world to world.” Nanny smiled. “There are many blended-blood mates that would have suited him as well. I wasn’t exactly the most desirable of mates, as he pointed out frequently.”

Yorath blinked. “What?”

“Oh, yes, Zenim said he could do better but was stuck with a backwater drake with no sense of the worlds.”

“Zenim? I thought your mate was Arken.”

Nanny took in a deep breath. “Arken was always very kind to me, but he wasn’t the one who claimed me.”

“Shit. I need to make a call.”

Nanny smiled. “If you called Zenim, I can rip his throat out now. I am quite a large drake. I can fly without wings now. Zenim used to catch them and hold me by them to keep me from going faster than he was. I needed to create a form with no wings with enough surface area to catch sufficient light and propel me through the stars.”

Yorath nodded, got to his feet, kissed Abil’s cheek, and walked toward the com station in the corner of the room.

He spoke rapidly, and Abil asked, “What is he saying?”

“He is telling Arken to get his ass here and not care what Zenim says.”

Abil asked, “Are they related?”

“Arken is Zenim’s older brother. Zenim wanted a mate, and Arken was content with offerings, so when I arrived with my parents, he was kind to me. And then I shifted, and he was still kind to me. Zenim got possessive and mean, so I left.”

Abil looked at the tense marks around her mouth. “He got more than mean.”

“He was violent. He held me down and tried to force a bond. It didn’t take, and as soon as he was off me, I ran. And then, I took to the sky and didn’t come down until I found that storm.”

Abil saw flickers of the pain her guardian had felt. “Oh, no, Nanny.”

“Yes, well, you were a welcome distraction through a horrible circumstance. I am sorry that your education suffered.”

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