Bluewater (Talise)

The following fictitious events take place in Reality D-2 (Blue)

Blue. Just blue.

That’s what the test had shown: blue water. Two boys. She was pregnant.

Talise nestled into Loji’s white, scaled, paws. Together, they cuddled the two eggs.

She was supposed to be playing fireball, a training game where her family flew their dragons around the palace grounds and schrimished with magic: fireballs, waterballs, mini tornadoes, all clashed into one another. 

Instead, she was staring at Loji’s shimmering blue eggs. One was dark blue, the color of midnight. The other, the color of the ocean from the surface: still dark blue, but with greys and greens and the illusion of sunlight caressing it.

Regn preened in front of them. His snout nudged the egg closer to Talise. It was an offering, a statement. Be with him. 

She shook her head. He doesn’t want me.

Despite forming a bond, despite the intense chemistry, Niels had left.

She couldn’t blame him: Talise was a stranger to him; Hattie was his girlfriend. He’d chosen something that made a lot more sense than magic.

She hated the undine bond. She hated being cursed to love Niels so much, to know he was perfect for her, except on the one count: she wasn’t perfect for him. 

Loji blew hot snotty air at her. Love.

Talise shook her head. “No. Just friends.”

She pulled out the notebook she used to talk to Niels: texting by dragon. With her sparkly purple pen she wrote Hi.

The dragons could communicate with images, so she had Loji send the image of the page to Niels.

She ran her hand across the eggs until Niels’ reply filled her mind. Hej. How’s dragonville?

She was about to ruin his day, she suspected.

Exciting, Talise wrote back. What are you doing?

I took my favorite guitar apart. Now I’m unaparting it.

Talise laughed. At least it wouldn’t get destroyed in response to what she was about to tell him. She tried to write it. Her hand shook and tapped the edge of the paper instead. Not yet.

Can you talk?

What do you need?

To talk. Talise blushed. She was glad he couldn’t see her.

Talk.

Loji blew more hot air on her. Tell.

“I’m getting there,” she promised.

She took a deep breath and sent an image of the two eggs. 

Nice, Niels wrote back. Like dinosaurs.

Talise leaned her face into the notebook. Not like dinosaurs.

She drew a facepalm and sent it to him.

Not like dinosaurs? Niels asked.

She was getting hot, hotter by the second. She needed to tell him.

Regn huffed and ran the soft edge of his jaw against her. She ran her hand along the flexible spikes that lined his cheeks and the top of his head. They bounced against her hand, softer than they looked. Everything about Regn was softer than it looked, except that he was the color of pastel rainbow. That, more than any of the spikes and ridges, was Regn. Was Niels.

Loji nudged her notebook. Write.

She pushed Loji’s head off. “I’m working on it.”

She set the pen to paper. Kind of, I guess.

Loji huffed, impatient.

Can Hattie have one?

Talise’s fire flared off her in ribbons of heat.

No. They belong to someone. Two someones.

Regn almost laughed, if a dragon could laugh.

“It’s not funny.” She turned back to the notebook. I’m pregnant.

Niels didn’t reply right away. She was glad his guitar was in pieces, even if he wasn’t the type to destroy something because of emotions. He was more the type to implode. She waited, curled with her dragons. She ran her hand across the eggs, one at a time. “They are stunning eggs.” They indicated water magic, a heavy preference toward it. Maybe, because of how dark they were, wicca too. Wicca usually came out black.

Finally, a message came. Regn is not big enough to do the act required to make those eggs.

Talise laughed. Regn is talented.

Regn breathed warmth on her, and nuzzled her again. As he pulled away, Loji nipped at him. He nuzzled her too.

It was disgustingly romantic. As not in love as she and Niels were, Loji and Regn made up for it.

So, are you okay? Niels wrote.

Yeah. Panicked maybe? Panicked a lot. Talise was pregnant and the dad couldn’t even be in the same room as her. If he was, the bond would reform. Somehow, they were supposed to raise their sons and never see each other.

I’m sorry.

Me too.

She hated her bond. He’d broken it with the promise of a love like no other, because it was a promise his head didn’t agree to.

Loji preened, taking her thoughts in. Her body ruffled with the movement, and sent an echo down to her tail, which flicked with energy against the wood stall walls.

“Careful,” Talise said.

Loji flicked her tail again, this time she cracked the wood.

“You’re so dramatic,” Talise informed her.

Are you okay? Talise asked Niels. Glad your guitar was already in pieces?

He sent her a picture of a guy, staring up at a wall. On the other side was a girl, with two babies in her arms.

I know. Normal strangers wouldn’t have had this issue. Even a one night stand shouldn’t have ended like this. It was her fault too, her magic’s fault. They’d both apologized. It didn’t change anything.

They’re boys, she wrote.

Can I get you anything? Clothes or annoying noise toys or anything?

Regn vanished, on some mission (likely to do with Niels’ message).

I’m okay. Just pregnant. Pukey. She had never puked, with Spence’s kids. Puking is new this time. 

My kids are jerks. I’m a little pukey too.

Talise laughed again. But, she felt warm too. They were his kids. Her bond ached, tugged at her to let it exist. It wanted her to go see him right now, to rebond and just be together. A family.

She knew she couldn’t do that. He wanted someone else. He wanted Hattie. Even though dating Hattie was going to kill her, according to every future-seer and good-guesser ever.

It was done. They needed to figure out what happened next.

Can I get you anything? Talise asked. An O2 machine so you don’t die? Not that he could die; he was Dragon. 

Incoming, Niels replied.

Regn landed next to her with an eye mask that was purple and jelly and some watermelon soda.

She thought of him hyperventilating next to the pieces of his favorite guitar.

Thank you. She rubbed Regn’s head, the bristley spines. Do you want to see the eggs in person?

I’ll come during training.

Training?

That was a question for Nell and Konrad, not for Niels.

I’ll leave pictures if I can find someone to do an ultrasound. Talise would have used Zero, and get ultrasounds any day she wanted, but he was still missing.

We can do them here. If you said when and where, I could stay away, Niels suggested.

He was taking this too well. She wished she could see him, see how he was reacting to everything. Not just what he wrote.

Niels sent another message: I could set up the first appointment for you.

There was no sign that Zero was coming home soon. She needed to find another solution.

Okay, Talise agreed.

“Ready yet?” a voice said. Talise looked up to her uncle Nell. His arms were draped over the edge, like he was a monkey enjoying a vine to swing on. Konrad was beside him, long curly hair, leather everywhere. Nell’s wings were still, watching and thinking.

Talise’s body flamed. They were watching her cuddle Niels’ egg. She stood and dusted the hay off her. “Yup. We’re ready.”

“They’re all targeting you tonight,” Konrad stated. “Except one.” He held the stall open. “Your job is to stay on your dragon and figure out who is missing on purpose,” Konrad informed her.

“Oh,” this was crown princess training, not just family fun night. “Lovely. Okay.”

Everyone was silent. Konrad and Nell shared a look. What had she said? She wasn’t mad, it was just a surprise. She tried to look excited.

“Fly Loji tonight,” Konrad informed her. He walked down the barn, toward the opening where everyone was already playing. They’d been out there, waiting on her.

“She just delivered,” Talise pointed out. “She might burn you for that idea.”

Loji gurgled heat, but stood and brushed straw over her egg.

Like it was no big deal, Talise’s familiar, an orange and white fox she called Julius, crawled over to the egg and nestled on top of it, in the most uncomfortable looking way possible.

“Alright?” Konrad tapped Loji’s nose. “Good luck.

Loji nuzzled Konrad’s hand, like she approved of all of this, and  strutted out of the barn, toward a place Talise could mount her.

Then, Niels sent a message, an appointment time and address.

She rested the notebook against Loji. “Will people know they’re yours?”

He was famous in New York. Really famous.

We have to figure that out.

Later? I have training.

She climbed onto Loji.

I’m sorry I did this to you, he repeated.

She’d done it too. She rushed into things.

It’s more my fault, she argued. I bonded. I died. I messed this up. If she had just told Niels she had bonded, during the battle in the streets of Sylem, then he wouldn’t have killed her and she wouldn’t have a frustrating golden bond of permanence.

I left you, Niels countered.

They hadn’t had this argument, since he left. Pregnancy changed everything. 

You couldn’t control your bond, Niels added. There’s no excuse for me.

It’s okay, Talise assured him. It was a lie, it wasn’t okay, but it was what she had in front of her. It was reality. She would survive it.

I’m here if you need anything.

He was, too. Despite picking Hattie, he talked to her every day. Annoyance that he had left made room for hope, that maybe he just needed both of them.

You’re the best, she scribbled. She held onto Loji and massaged her. “Ready to get Regn?” she prodded.

She urged Loji forward, and she took to the sky. First, she launched a massive fireball back at Regn. Loji used her tail so then wind would change its course. Regn’s initial duck put him right in its path. It collided with him into smoke and sparks.

Regn roared a burst of flame that engulfed her and Loji. She shielded them, but it wasn’t that hot. Like Niels, Regn ran cold.

She turned forward, blocked a half dozen fire balls, filled a tornado with so much rain is slowed down and started spitting on everyone, and climbed higher. She climbed a thousand feet up, and circled the field.

A fireball hit her from behind, and she turned just in time to block it.

Spence raised his eyebrows at her. “Having fun?”

She grinned. “I’m just getting started.” She pushed Loji higher

Game on.