"Sorry you had to go out of your way to help us like this, Claire-bear."
A bright red dragon, carrying a broken spaceship, smiled happily in it’s inhuman form.
"Oh, think nothing of it, mother-in-law. I’m just happy I can be of help."
Almost the entire family was riding on the back of the large, feathery dragon as she flew into Arica.
So as not to cause a panic, Claire had blocked perception of her figure to those down below, which Malachi learned was a real thing dragons could do and not a cutesy thing from a dragon maid ani.
Sei kneeled and patted the woman on top of her scales. The pace at which Claire’s tail wagged increased more than threefold.
"Daddy, can you put us down now..."
"Mommy, I wanna fly with Aunt Claire!"
Malachi and Aisha stood on opposite ends of Claire’s body, both of them had their arms filled with their children, and seed completely disinclined to let them go.
The sudden attack had given the kids a nasty scare. Cami had even hit her head against her dresser and suffered a small cut over her brow. (Though it already healed.)
Similarly, Reken had gotten pinned underneath that sa dresser and was too panicked to use his powers to get himself out.
Once Malachi and Aisha learned what happened, they refused to let their children out of their sight again.
Even after the children had gotten over everything that happened, their overprotective nature had yet to fade.
Malachi held Shiro under his right arm and Camille in his left. Janelle sat on top of his head and seed content to never move from her spot.
"I wanna get down." Shiro repeated for what felt like the twelfth ti in three minutes.
In response, Malachi nuzzled his face against hers and held her even closer.
"Sit still for just a bit longer. It’s dangerous."
Shiro’s prickly nature faded for another forty-five seconds, until she required another nuzzle to keep her docile.
Malachi glanced at his other daughter out of the corner of his eye.
Camille seed to preemptively know what he was looking at and covered her head with her hands.
"I am fine!"
Camille still had streaks on her face from where she had been crying earlier. She was decidedly not fine. She just picked odd tis to pretend to be a big girl.
"Is this the place?"
Claire hovered over a lone mountain in the southern United States.
Joanne peered over Claire’s wing towards the mountain below. A wellspring of old mories bubbled to the surface of er mind.
"...This is it. Could you take us down, please?"
"Sure thing!"
Claire descended from the sky and placed the broken ship on top of a very spacious clearing.
At the sa ti, she diminished her own size so that the passengers atop her body could disembark more easily.
As Malachi floated off her back with his children in tow, Shiro frowned cutely at the sight of the familiar location.
"We’re not moving here again, are we?"
"No, baby." Joanne chuckled. "Since this place is sitting here decommissioned, I figured it would be the perfect place for our current ho to absorb materials from. That way, we can tell the ship to do lots of cool stuff. Like build houses for your grandpa and his people."
Sei was helping her father and brother get down from Claire’s back. Both were shaking like strippers and were, in no uncertain terms, stunned beyond belief.
"We rode a dragon... after a vampire from outer space ca and tried to kill us because she thought we were aliens..."
"Keep it together, father, they’re acting like this is normal, we can’t seem out of place..."
Sei was glad at least that her family mbers weren’t the only ones who were having difficulty. Loki had fainted as soon as the ship got hit, and Eva had been unsuccessful in waking him thus far.
"Do you think it’ll still work with the ship busted up like it is, ma?" Anna asked. "The place seed pretty down for the count a second ago..."
Before Joanne could answer, the spaceship whirred to life and caught everyone’s attention.
Large tal tendrils unfolded from the belly of the ship and barreled into the rocky ground like drills.
Everyone in the clearing heard the sound of the tendrils striking tal, followed by a disastrously loud buzz-saw-like noise.
"...How long do you think this is going to take!?" Celeste yelled with her ears covered.
Joanne smiled wryly. "Wouldn’t count on it being quick! It’ll probably take so ti to completely absorb everything since it’s drilling through a literal mountain... We should wait inside the ship in the anti."
Suddenly, Askari raised his hand. "Auny Jo! Auny Jo! If I destroy the mountain will that make things easier?!"
Joanne was understandably caught off guard by such a small child offering to destabilize a natural habitat without the slightest bit of hesitation.
"Ah... that’s nice of you, kiddo, but I don’t think all the animals here would like that. We’re already gonna have our work cut out for us making sure that the mountain doesn’t collapse in on itself when the base is gone."
"How exactly are we going to do that?" Malachi raised his brow.
Joanne smiled as she patted him on the cheek.
"I’m so glad you asked, handso."
"...I’ve noticed that you only call handso whenever you’re about to ask to do sothing I don’t want to do."
"That’s just your imagination."
"Are you sure?"
"Are you going to love regardless of which answer you get?"
"Probably."
"Then yes, it’s your imagination."
Joanne kissed Malchi on the cheek and wrested a giggle from the other wives at the sight of his dry, unamused gaze.
"Hey, honey!"
Everyone turned towards the top of the ship where Nadine was waving Malachi down with a nervous smile.
"Could I borrow you for a mont...?"
All of Nadine’s partners could tell that sothing was wrong with her. The alarm bells in their heads rang furiously.
Malachi put Camille and Shiro down for the first ti in over thirty minutes and ushered them towards his sister.
His feet began to hover off the ground and carried him towards Nadine. The worry in his eyes was palpable.
"Are you alright..?"
"Why would you ask that, of course I’m fine..." Nadine lied. "My grandmother just wants to et you."
"Just him?"
The rest of the wives floated toward Nadine when they realized she was in distress.
Bianca folded her arms stubbornly. "Shouldn’t we all go? He’s not the only one who gave you a wedding ring."
"I know, I know, it’s just... she’s kinda old-fashioned and stuff, so-"
"We’re all coming." Malachi said firmly.
Gently, he took Nadine by the hands and gave them a gentle squeeze.
"We’re a unit, right? We’re not changing anything about us for anyone."
Nadine found herself feeling a bit more courageous. "Yeah... we are. Together forever."
-
*Clink!*
Rani threw a heavy bag filled with many hard objects at the feet of Malachi.
"This should compensate you for your ti, demon. But my granddaughter is returning ho with today."
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