Page 49 of Dragon Keeper
“Tyr! Tyr! Did you bring honey? I drew you a picture.” Poe’s daughter Tanya came running up with a bunch of her friends, all of them dressed in sparkling costumes. Someone had gone above and beyond.
“Look at all of you. Are you pixies?” It was a bit hard to tell what they were beyond some sort of nature spirit.
“We’re naiads. Orion told us all about them. The boys are dressed like unicorns.”
“Oh my goodness.” Tyr chuckled. “Unicorns.”
“Yes, Sherlock, Mycroft, and Watson all dressed like unicorns. So cute with their teeny tiny horns. Now trading.” Tanya could be all business.
“Of course. Yes, trading, very important.” He chuckled and pulled out some tiny jars of honey hard candy. “For you, my loves.”
He got a hand-drawn picture. A flower. And a handful of seeds for his candy. And that was a lovely trade. He carefully put them in the cart, laughing softly as Sloan stared.
“So it doesn’t matter what the trade is for?”
“No not at all. The children just want a sweetie. And the adults? Will trade us other things for their honey. We’ll get flour, spices, and cloth. From what I understand, even the Rocky Mountain clutch is here.” And it was a good thing because they had to trade for quite a bit of their necessities. And Tyr was fascinated with things that they brought from the other realm. Wildly interesting toys and books that told of fantastical worlds within, where there were things he could barely even imagine.
Sloan wrapped one arm around him and began to trade as well, greeting each and every child as they came up, laughing and playing with them. It was perfect.
Though it made him ache inside, because he wanted a child of his own. He wanted to see Sloan play withtheirchild. He wanted to dress his baby up as a larparca and bring them to the festival to be admired.
Cade came up to him, two of the three triplets in his arms, bumping their shoulders together. You want Watson or Sherlock? Harden has Mycroft.”
Tyr held out his hands, and whichever baby came, he took, snuggling them in. Cade looked at him, kind of sniffed him a little bit. “Are you well?”
“I’m wonderful. Very happy. This is my first holiday with my mate.”
“Well, congratulations.”
He peered down at the child dragon he held, who looked amazing with a tiny little horn covered in glitter. He also wore a little cloak, the thing made of wool, trailing behind. “This is adorable.”
“Poe couldn’t resist.”
And Sloan? Came over and chucked little Sherlock under the chin. A cutie. Watson struggled to get to Sloan, who took him easily.
“Now you’re stuck here,” Tyr murmured.
Cade blinked, eyes going wide. “What?”
“Oh, please, now that you don’t have any babies in your hands, we know where those hands are going to be going. Poor Poe.”
They cracked up, all three of them, and the babies laughed too, having no idea what was funny, but it didn’t matter. Happiness was happiness.
“My mother has agreed to take all four children to her home for the evening, so I have plenty of time to be with my mate at the dance.”
“I have to admit I’m a little excited for this dance now. It sounds almost wicked.” Sloan winked at him.
“No, no. Perhaps naughty is the word that you’re looking for. Not wicked.”
“My friend is concerned about the idea of wickedness,” Tyr teased, feeling wildly daring. “He doesn’t understand how sometimes it’s fun to be wicked.”
Cade leveled a glance at him. “Are you serious? You, my dear friend, are the sweetest of all of us. There is literally not an ounce of wickedness in your entire soul. We could boil you down to nothing, and there would be no such thing.”
Harden strolled up, his arms also full. “That’s because all of the wickedness was in his brother’s soul.”
“Hello, Harden, how are you?”
I am doing well. Were you serious about a baby larparca?” He glanced at Sloan.
