First Demonic Dragon

Courtney reappeared in the hall of her home, still half dragon’d out and panicking on the inside.

If there was anything that could have made the situation even worse, it was having to walk back to her room on awkward feet.

Walking with dragon toes was a bit more complex than the rest of her family made it look.

She was fumbling around awkwardly while trying to keep her posture upright. If you asked her, she was sure that she looked like a newborn fawn.

Or at least one with a horribly twisted equilibrium.

“Oh? What’s this?”

Courtney was surprised when a woman whom she didn’t recognize walked over to her in an overly familiar manner.

Her golden eyes sparkled as she looked Courtney up and down like a proud mother. “You look so cute! I’ve never seen your scales before now.”

Courtney raised her brow in suspicion. “Uh… Who’re you?”

Zahara blinked several times in confusion as she pointed to herself. “…Who am I…?”

“Are you like one of my Aunt Lusamine’s ‘special’ friends or something..?”

“Eww, no!” Zahara recoiled.

“Yeah, I guess she does usually prefer her women a bit softer, huh..?”

Zahara leaned in again so that her daughter could get a better look at her features. “Courtney, it’s mom. And stepmom.”

Courtney’s eyes widened. She had no idea how she hadn’t noticed it before.

“Woah… so this is another Saiyan fusion thing, huh..?”

“We have no idea what that reference means, sweetheart, but if it helps you wrap your little head around this, then sure.”

Courtney’s interest in Zahara and how they came to be like this was minor right now. More than anything, she just couldn’t take her mind off of how much she’d just embarrassed herself outside.

“Is there a reason why you’re carrying your sword around and your teeth are too big for your mouth?” Zahara suddenly asked.

“Wha- Ah!” Courtney mistakenly bit her tongue without even meaning to. Further adding the embarrassment of the day.

“Oof. Someone seems like they’re having a rough day.”

Courtney groaned as her mouth quickly filled with her own blood and then healed. “Yeah… something like that.”

“Well… Do you want to come with us?” Zahara suddenly offered.

“Where are you going?”

“Your stepmom’s new to being a dragon. I’m going to teach her how to fly.”

Internally, Izanami was so embarrassed that Sif put all of her business out that she could have died again.

Zahara looked her daughter up and down with a slight smirk of amusement. “Since you’re already half changed, I would say you’re more than ready for the experience.”

Courtney was a fair bit taller than Zahara, so she had to strain a bit to wrap her arm around her daughter’s neck- which was a new experience for the frost giant inside of her.

After everything that she had just been through, all Courtney wanted right now was to crawl into her bed and pretend to be dead to the world.

But maybe that wasn’t what she actually needed right now.

“Hey, Mom..?” Courtney suddenly asked. “Do you think you could…Umm..” she stumbled on her words awkwardly as if they were too embarrassing to get out.

Izanami felt Sif panic inside of them, for a moment, as she feared that Courtney was going to ask her to give her ‘the talk’.

Her parenting skills were too low leveled for something like that. She wouldn’t hesitate to call Abaddon if such a situation arose.

Courtney pushed her hair behind her ear awkwardly. Her features slowly reverted back to normal. “Can you… Maybe show me how to do the whole change thing..?”

Words could not describe the amount of relief that flooded Zahara’s mind at that moment.

She smiled warmly as she kissed her daughter’s cheek and started leading her down the hallway.

“I’m honored that you would even ask, my darling.”

–

Above the abyss, screams and cries of horrified panic could be heard through the depths of the darkness.

…And a little bit of idle conversation as well.

“You know, I didn’t really think she did all that bad.” Jazmine volunteered. The rainbow-colored flames around her burned away her enemies into charred masses.

Satan and Karliah were far less graceful figures. They bounded from enemy to enemy on all fours while they tore them apart with their claws, fists, or teeth. Whichever was more convenient.

“If she weren’t my Great Neice, I would have eaten her alive!” Satan rebutted. “She committed one of the cardinal sins of a warrior.”

“Never drop your sword.” Karliah agreed. She rarely agreed with Satan about anything, and looked as if doing so had nearly made her sick.

Iori sat atop a mountain of corpses with his own sword resting leisurely on his shoulder.

“Without her soul bonded weapon, she surely would have lost today. I’m not sure I can call that a complete victory.”

Absalom sounded like the voice of reason as he crushed skulls and pulled out spines through assholes.

“The Princess has lived like a human all her life. She’ll need more time to better adjust to her heritage now that she’s beginning to explore it.”

Hajun had a deep look of contemplation on his face as he held two men in a headlock under each arm.

“Perhaps you may be getting ahead of yourself. I saw hesitation on the child’s face today. It remains a possibility that this experience has turned her off to combat altogether.”

Helios and Abaddon were back to back, clearly thinking the hardest about Courtney and putting almost no thought into anything that came near them.

As soldiers rushed towards Abaddon, their armor, skin, flesh, and eventually bone was peeled away layer by layer until nothing remained of them but a soul. A soul that was inevitably sucked into the eye on the center of Abaddon’s chest.

“I see…” Was all he muttered. It was clear that this subject had given him a lot of complicated feelings too difficult to decipher.

Helios watched several bloody balloons pop right in front of his face. None of the enemies could dare get close to him, as his mere pressure was so heavy and domineering that it was the equivalent to physical weight.

Coming near him was nearly the same as having an entire planet press down onto your body. A force most fledglings could not contend with.

Every now and again, a soldier would survive and charge at Helios with dented armor and a bloody nose. For those, he would either lop off their head without even looking, or punch a hole through their chest. Whichever mood struck him first.

“Share your thoughts, grandson. There is hardly a better time than this.”

Abaddon smiled wryly. Over the years, his grandfather had become one of his closest confidants. It was the fact that they were so alike that made him easier to talk to.

“I just… wish I knew what this was all about. Courtney’s had an interest in getting a little stronger before, but I… I thought that would be as a last resort, you know? Self defense. I didn’t think she would start charging into battlefields.”

“You didn’t think, or you were hoping that she wouldn’t?” Helios asked.

Abaddon sighed.

His first three daughters were slightly rambunctious. They liked training, and they liked being powerful. They liked having control over themselves. With their divinities, control was a definite need.

However, starting with Gabbrielle, the girls became less interested in fighting and war. They learned only what was needed to keep themselves safe.

He hadnt seen Nubia pick up a weapon of any kind in over 3,000 years. And he was pretty sure the last time was just because she was sweeping.

“I was hoping she wouldn’t.” He admitted.

Helios already knew that was going to be his answer. “Are you going to stop treating her differently now?”

Abaddon didn’t understand. “Different how?”

Helios shrugged. “It’s just… I don’t know if I’ve ever heard you talk about dragon things with her. You changed a bit after you took in the little one.”

Abaddon knew that his grandfather was telling the truth. When his other kids were young, he would tell them stories of great dragons accomplishing great things. Inspiring them with tales of the long lineage that they had come from.

But when he took Courtney in… he stopped doing all of that.

It was an unconscious decision on he and Ayaana’s part. Both of them just didn’t want Courtney to feel out of place in the family.

Once she got older, and was given a latent heritage, it never occurred to her parents to revisit their stance on how they behaved around her.

They loved Courtney as she was. Whether she lived as a human or a dragon was never of any real significance to them.

But… maybe it was time to start teaching her some things after all.

She clearly wanted to be more involved in their world than she had been. And perhaps if they had this conversation earlier, today wouldn’t have happened- or it would have at least went differently.

“Parenting is… complicated.” Abaddon sighed.

Helios fought the urge to laugh. “And here I thought you’d be an expert on it by now. I guess having more kids than god doesn’t mean anything at all.”

Abaddon started to rebuttal, but he paused as he began counting on his fingers.

He looked displeased with the final result. He literally had more kids than god.

“Christ…”