Page 56

“It is so stinking cute,” Sebastian said. “And sweet as can be.”

“She is also very smart,” Harden put in. “We are already having to be careful with her because she wants to fly.”

“So are we trying to not let her fly?” Samuel asked. “I mean, is that even a possibility?”

Harden shook his head immediately. “No, she will do what she will do, but her dam can’t fly. The worst-case scenario there is that she flies up, and then crashes down and breaks something.”

Sebby’s eyes went wide. “Oh no.”

Samuel, though, didn’t seemed too terribly worried, “So, if should she fly, we’ll make a plan. We keep her in the barns when we’re not awake. If she’s out in the pasture, and we see her flying, one of us will shift and work from the sky, and the other one will work from the bottom and assure that she doesn’t hurt herself.”

“I think that’s more than reasonable,” Harden agreed, and Seb broke in.

“If we both shift, Papa, the dragon at the bottom could catch her without worrying about her breaking them.”

Brayden grinned at Samuel. “You have a smart son.”

“And besides he went to school to study this, didn’t he, the animal husbandry.” Samuel puffed up, looking so proud.

“I think that’s a sound plan.” Harden said, “Absolutely. I think we should allow her to do what she does.”

“Not today. Today we’ll finish all of this work and then we’ll go back up and have lasagna.” Sebby had a plan, and Brayden was in.

He wanted to introduce Harden to the entirety of the Rocky Moutain clutch.

It was time.

Chapter

Thirteen

The bocapol cart was loaded up to the very maximum, tarped in case of a sudden late summer rain.

Right now it was beautiful weather, and Harden was excited to head out with his mate to see his family.

They’d left out early, only stopping on their way through town to pick up some amazing pastries to eat on the way.

Brayden was excited, jabbering and chatting away, sometimes riding on the cart, sometimes walking ahead to bring back this flower or a bit of this fruit, asking questions.

They stopped whenever they wanted, explored or rested. It was going to be a two-day drive up and a two-day drive back, so when it got close to dark they’d have to begin searching for a place to camp.

But right now they could have fun.

He loved watching the bright smile on Brayden’s face, and the way he was so curious about everything. Brayden made him see his home, his village and the surrounding areas, the way to his parents’ home, in a whole new light. Considering how old he was, that was pretty amazing.

“Okay, so tell me what this is.” Brayden came and handed him a piece of purple fruit that had green leaves still attached to the stem, curling around it. “I didn’t pick it. It was deadfall.”

“Ooh, those are purple solace. We should gather up all the deadfall, and we’ll bring it back to the village. There’s a woman there that makes them into medicine.” He hopped down and ground tied the bocapol. “This is good for rubbing on sores and muscles. It tingles. Also, omega parents put it on when their baby dragons start to teethe. They rub it on their gums. It doesn’t taste like anything; it just tingles.”

“What happens if you eat it?”

Harden grinned at Brayden. “Well, I think your mouth would foam a lot, but no one’s ever said it’s poisonous. They put it in babies’ mouths. I think, though, that it probably would make your stomach very, very burpy.”

“We wouldn’t want that.” Brayden put the fruit and the basket in the cart that they had just for such things. Then he joined Harden in the hunt for more.

They laughed together and gathered fruit and he told birds mini-stories about how medicinal fruits were not always good for the insides.

They’d had very much fun, but by the time that it was getting dark, Harden admitted that they had gone nowhere near as far as he had hoped to.