Page 66 of A Dragon's Miracle (Fires of Fate)
Ryan
Since Finn had yetto get the visa issued for Jin, we still had about a week before the bastard would come here. Finn spent a lot of that time talking to other dragons, hoping to get strategical advice, but as it turned out, most of the dragons on the island had never been in any real fights. Zed was right; they weren’t a barbaric race, and these days, most problems were solved with money. Rare was the dragon that would turn down a bag of gold.
That didn’t help us, though.
About three days in, I decided that I needed to take Finn’s mind off things for a bit, and, gathering my courage, showed him some drawings of Disney characters I had done in the sketchbook he’d given me.
“These are really good,” he said, smiling at an image of the cheshire cat.
“Your baby shower inspired me,” I informed him. The Lion King theme had indeed been the spark that gave me this idea. “Do you really think they’re good?”
“Are you kidding me? Of course they are!”
“Thank you.” I rubbed the back of my neck, looking at the sketches again. “I thought we could put some drawings on the walls of the nursery.”
Finn’s face lit up. He was probably already imagining grand murals. “That’s a great idea!” He leaved through the sketch book. “We’ve got to do Simba and Nala. The Dalmatians are cool too.”
“I’m glad you like it.” I hadn’t had much else to do these past few days, so I’d mainly been drawing to calm my nerves.
“It’s awesome! We should get started right away!”
“Right away?” It was already early afternoon, and we didn’t have any painting supplies in the house that I knew of.
“Yeah, I want us to do this together and who knows…” he trailed off. “Anyway, we should do this!”
As always, his enthusiasm was contagious, and so we ended up buying all the necessary supplies in town and setting up in one of the rooms on the ground floor that we’d designated as the nursery. It was a nice room. Light and spacious, with a view of the volcano in the distance. The walls had an off-white color that would provide the perfect canvas for my drawings. I started drawing the contours. It wasn’t easy work. The further this pregnancy progressed, the harder it was for me to stay up on my feet, but I liked doing this, and that made it bearable.
After a bit, though, with only two drawings done—one of Simba and one of Dumbo—I had to take a rest. Flopping down in a beanbag, I watched Finn give color to the little lion. I laughed a little because they wore matching smiles.
“Something funny?” Finn asked.
“Oh, no, nothing. Just having a good day.” And how couldn’t I? I was decorating a nursery with Finn. When I let myself be honest, having a child with him was all I’d ever wanted.
I kept thinking of his words, though.Who knows…He was right. Many things could go wrong, and we should get some things in order while we could. Like painting this room, and…
“Finn?”
“Yeah?” He stopped painting for a second to look at me.
“I think we should talk about names.”
“Ohhh… For the baby?” He put his brush down.
“Yeah. I think I’d feel better if we decided on something.”
“You should name it,” Finn said. “You’re going through all this trouble to carry it…”
“That’s sweet of you, but I want you to be happy with the name too. It’s your son. Or daughter. And you’re going to fight for them in a few days.”
“Well... you know, this would be easier if we knew the sex of the baby.”
I laughed, because his intentions were so obvious. “You're only saying that because you can't stand the mystery.”
He pouted. “I don't get how you don't want to know. I'mdyinghere.” He gestured dramatically.
“I guess I just don't want it to matter.”
“You don't want the baby's sex to matter?”
