Page 127 of Phoenix's Fire

"It's a pleasure to meet you," I told her, "but I'm afraid I don't know what to call you, ma'am."

"Ma'am?" the woman gasped, turning to grin at Rymar. "Oh, she's precious, sweetie."

"Mom..." Rymar groaned.

Behind me, Zasen just chuckled. "Let's make our way off the stage, shall we? Emerton, it's good to see you again."

"And you, Zasen," said the yellow-headed man with the blue-green body and tail.

I couldn't help myself. I looked from him to Rymar, trying to see if the yellow was the same. Thankfully, Zasen wrapped an arm around my shoulders to guide me off the stage with him. Rymar walked with the tailless woman - his mother.

"I'm so sorry about her," the yellow-headed man, Emerton, told Zasen. "Cailyon is just very proud of her son."

"Where do you think he gets it?" Zasen joked, turning us all to the side. "And Emerton, this is Ayla, our refugee who is now our roommate."

"Oh, aroommate?" Cailyon asked her son.

"Mom..." Rymar groaned. "It's not like that. Ayla's a friend, she has been helping Zasen, and Kanik is the one who's been teaching her about Dragon stuff, but she's still learning - and she's probably confused right now."

"By what?" Cailyon asked.

Rymar was right; I was confused. This was his mother, but Emerton washis father? So what did papa mean to him? I was pretty sure he'd also said something about a dad. Were those words used for different family members?

"Ayla - " Rymar tried, but his mother waved him off.

"Let me get your papa and dad," she said. "Levin! Ahmik!" Lifting her arm as high as she could, Cailyon waved for someone else to join us.

Emerton just pinched the bridge of his wide nose. "It's nice to meet you, Ayla," he said. "I'm Rymar's father..." Then he pointed. "The pale man is his dad, and the tailless one is his papa."

"And the olive woman is my step-mother," Rymar added.

Because with those two men was a tailed woman who was a pale-greenish color. Olive wasn't the word I'd pick to describe her, but it worked as well as anything else. The pale man? He also had a tail, and while his chest was blindingly white, his back was a faint shade of grey with orange markings all over it that reminded me of Rymar's. The tailless man? He had brown skin - I knew the term for that now - but his hair was the blackest I'd seen yet.

"You won't remember their names," Rymar assured me, "and you've met my mother and father, but that is Levin with the orange markings, and Ahmik is the tailless man. The woman is Farina, my step-mother."

"I don't know what that means," I whispered.

"Cailyon is the woman who gave birth to him," Emerton said, moving to my side. "Back then, Levin, Ahmik, and I were all partners with her. Ahmik separated from us and is now with Farina, so while he's no longer our partner, he's still one of Rymar's fathers."

"How can he have more than one father?" I asked, looking from Rymar to Zasen in the hopes someone would explain. "Is that a bad question?"

"No, you're fine, sweetie," Emerton assured me, gesturing to the guys to show he had this. "You see, sometimes it's easy to tell who is biologically responsible for a child. But our son?" He smiled, looking rather proud. "He has my yellow, Levin's orange, and Cailyon's red."

"And Ahmik?" I asked, trying to understand how Dragon pregnancies could be so different.

"Ahmik raised me," Rymar hurried to explain. "He's my papa because of that. Either Levin or Emerton created me, but they both try to take credit. We only know I'm not Ahmik's because I have a tail."

I just nodded. "That's confusing."

"One sperm," Zasen said. "Many lovers."

"We had a big family," Emerton said. "Just one child, but I promise Rymar made up for it. Oh, he was a handful!"

Which made me giggle. "He still is."

That was when the rest reached us. The tailless man caught Rymar up in a hug. Most of these people made some comment about being proud of him, but I was still very confused. Taking a step back, I made sure I wasn't in the way, but that seemed to make Rymar's mother notice me even more.

"Oh, I wasn't trying to chase you off, Ayla," Cailyon said. "And with him, you need to do more pushing and less running away. He really doesn't take a hint well."

---