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  [colpse]Chapter One Hundred aeen - Breaking Fast

  The thing I was hugging shifted, and that was enough to tear me out of a pleasant dream that was instantly fotten.

  Blinking grubby eyes open, I found myself staring at a dimly lit green... thing. It was big, that was obvious. I had one leg over its side and both arms ed around it in a hug.

  It took stretg my neck up and following the green thing up to a big green rump for me to put two and two together. I was hugging Choloail.

  That robably rather rude. But the dragoness didn’t seem to mind. She was slumped over on her side, the mountain of pillows she was on bending her back awkwardly. Her forearms were up in the air and her mouth was wide open. She looked a bit like a sleepy puppy.

  I pulled bad rolled over, pillows squishing under me until I was turned around. My other friends were all id out across the floor. Awen nearby, with her nightgown pulled up a sdalous amount, Amaryllis was a little ways away, head tucked into her armpit and legs spyed out above her, and Booksie was sleeping oummy, bum in the air so that her little tail stuck way out.

  Smiling, I wobbled up to my feet, then rubbed at the side of my face. There was no way to tell the time, but I had the impression it was m. That, and my back was a bit sore. Hopping out of the pillow-pile, I nded some ways away, then stretched up and down a little bit.

  It was a good thing I wasn’t old, or else my back would be all painful.

  Cholondee was the o wake up. She snorted, blinked a few times, then shifted her head around until it right, even though the rest of her wasn’t. Further proof that dragons were cool.

  “Oh, is it m already?” she asked.

  The dragoness didn’t do much to keep her voice down, which meant that all the others woke up o a time.

  “Yup!” I said. “At least, I think so. It’s time to get up and face the day! Oh, and breakfast.”

  The dragon murmured something that sounded approving and twisted until she started to roll.

  Awen squeaked a out of her path, crashing onto some pillows lower down while Cholo to all fours. “Breakfast!” she said.

  “Do you have anything we eat?” I asked. “And a washroom?”

  “Hrm? Nope. I don’t think we have either of those,” the dragoness said. “We could go down to the city. I haven’t actually set cw there in... ah, must be years now.”

  “We o get dressed first!” I said.

  “Ah, yeah, you do that. I’ll be at the cave entrahe dragoness yawned and stomped her way out of the room, only pausing to rub the side of a ext to her eye to remove the sleep gunk.

  I moved over to the dressers, found my things, and started dressing. The others soon joined me, and I got to watch Amaryllis gh the delicate process of stuffing her wings through the arms of her jacket.

  When we were all more or less dressed, I eyed the mess we’d made of the room, then fired a heavy burst of ing magic which... did nothing for the torn pillows. But it did freshen things up, so I called it a win. “Ready to go?” I asked.

  “You are too cheerful,” Amaryllis said. “Please to down to about... half.”

  “Never!” I said beflomping her. “I just o rub some of my good mood onto you.” I rubbed my cheek against hers until she shoved me off.

  “Idiot.”

  “Awa, Broccoli isn’t an idiot.”

  Amaryllis stared at Awen. “Have you seen the way she acts?”

  “I, I like the way she acts,” Awen said. That earned her a hug.

  “That’s because you’re an idiot too,” Amaryllis said. She did seem to be in a better mood though, so I ted that as a point for Broccoli.

  We arrived at the front of the cavern hall iime to find that there was not one, but twons waiting for us. Rhawrexdee was gring at his sister who wore a proud grin right back. “You finally got here,” Cholondee said. “Just in time to see this big lug embarrass himself.”

  “What are you saying?” Rhawrexdee asked. “Are you talking poorly about me? I know that look in your eyes. I swear if you ruin this for me, I’m telling mom.”

  Cholouro her brother and scoffed. “What are you, a hatg? Do you need mom for everything?”

  “I don’t need her to beat the idiocy out of you,” Rhawrexdee said. The air around him crackled and snapped.

  “Hey! Hey! Wait!” I called out, arms waving around for attention as I bounced betweewons. “There’s no need for a spat. Cholondee, don’t be too mean. And Rhawrexdee, she was just greeting us.”

  Rhawrexdee huffed. “Fine. I swear I’m going to spend the decade learning on so that you ’t py any trie.”

  “Oh? You’re not going to learn it so that you whisper sweet nothings to yirlfriend?” Cholondee asked.

  “She’s not my girlfriend,” Rhawrexdee said.

  “She might never be once she hears that,” Cholondee said.

  Rhawrexdee set his legs. “Are you determio test me?”

  “Yup!” Cholondee said.

  I fired off two balls of ing magic that booped each dragon in the chest. They flinched bad turo stare at me. “’t we all just be o each other?” I asked. “We should get breakfast. After we’ve eaten I’m sure we’ll all feel a lot nicer.”

  Cholondee rubbed at her chest with a cw. “Was that ing magic?” she asked.

  “Uh. Yes?”

  “Do it again.”

  I blihen with a shrug fired another little ball of it towards her. It smacked her d did a lot of nothing. “Oh, you see this sheen? It looks like it olished.” Cholondee held up her cw to the sun and tur this way and that. “You ride ooday. You o cover me in that magic. I’m going to shine like freshly minted gold. But green, which is the best colour.”

  “Sure!” I said. “I’d love to ride you. Will my friends go with Rhawrexdee?”

  “I suppose I allow the others to e with me,” Rhawrexdee said magnanimously.

  “I could carry two more...” Cholondee said. “Maybe... I could carry that other bun?”

  “Try me,” Rhawrexdee growled.

  I left the two to their teasing for a bit as I gathered my friends and our things. e was napping in Amaryllis’ jacket and Awen was holding onto my pae while Booksie was shifting from foot to foot. I told them what was going on, and soon we were all climbing into a dragon’s big forecws. Awen and I got to ride pressed up against Cholondee while the others went with Rhawrexdee.

  Being held by a dragon wasn’t nearly as awesome as riding on a dragon’s back, but it also felt a whole heck of a lot safer.

  Lawlyhoumad’s ir was only a hop and a skip away from Port Royal, so within only a few minutes we--or rather, our dragon friends--were cirg above the city and watg the homes and panicked people fsh past below.

  I caught sight of Booksie pointing towards part of the city a moment before Rhawrexdee angled his wings and came gliding to a graceful stop in a big square. Sure, he tore the head off a statue with his tail, but none of the people screaming for dear life and hopping away seemed to mind that.

  Cholondee came for a much more hover-y nding behind her brother, then lowered her cws. “Hop off, we’re not made to stand on our rear like this,” she said.

  Grinning, I jumped off the dragon and then helped Awen down.

  The square was rather nice, with some shops lining every side and a couple of cozy cafes o old stone buildings with red roofs. The smell was... Port Royal’s, with a mix of sulphur and poop that had my nose wrinkling, but there were some faint traces of baked goods and cooked meats in the air.

  Blue-roofed shops with big awnings hid trembling ers, most of them grenoil, but there were a few humans and harpies mixed in food measure. I waved to one such group but that just had them c even more.

  “So, where do we go for breakfast?” I wondered aloud.

  “Ah, I knoce just down that street,” Booksie said as she pointed down one of the--fortunately--wider roads. “It’s a little family-owned pce. I know the owners, I’m sure they’d let us all eat outside, and there’s a butcher’s shop not too far away.”

  “A butcher’s shop?” I asked.

  “For Rhawr and Cholondee,” Booksie expined.

  “Ohh, usi names already,” Cholondee asked.

  Booksie turo face the other dire to hide her flush, but it didn’t work so well when her ears were ramrod straight and glowing uheir fluff. “Follow me!”

  We walked, and stomped, as a group dowhhfare meeting very little by way of traffic. I had to hold back giggles at the wide-eyed looks we were getting from the locals as they saw twons walking down the middle of the street.

  The pce Booksie brought us to was a tle restaurant, tucked iween two bigger residential buildings. Its little wooden sign, the Rustless Spoon, dangled above a cheery blue door that hid a small room with four little tables and a dozes.

  An older, matronly grenoil woman was behind the ter, setting things up for the m when all the smaller members of our party stepped in. “Hello, wele to ze... Booksie?”

  “Hello,” Booksie said. “It’s been a bit.”

  “Oh, sweetie, I zought ze Morepoles had run you out of town. It’s so good to see you!” She stepped out from behind the ter and raised her arms for a hug. She was a bit short, so Booksie had to bend down for it.

  “I brought some friends I found,” Booksie said. “Um, we’re all kind of hungry, but we ’t eat in here. Would it be a bother if we brought some chairs out?”

  “Outside? Ah, but ze stink will ruin ze meal,” the old grenoil said.

  “Some of my friends won’t fit in your shop,” Booksie said.

  Cholondee chose that moment to peek through the window, her eye taking up most of the frame. “Do they make dragon-sized portions here?” she asked.

  “Ah,” the grenoil matron said. She stood rooted on the spot for a long time.

  “It’s okay,” I said. “They’re friendly... ish. We decided to all e and help Booksie with her Port Royal problems.”

  “Yht a dragon to take care of street ruffians?” the grenoil asked. “Ah, I would not want to be one of zose Morepoles today. Take any chair you want dearie. I’m going to e out once my heart remembers zat it’s too old to be beating zis fast.”

  “Thank you,” Booksie said with a bow of her head.

  Soon we were outside, setting four chairs along one side of a table that Amaryllis and I lugged out. Our dragon panioled on the road across from us, effectively blog the eh. I felt a bit bad, but not bad enough to do anything about it. There were hardly any dragon-appropriate aodations around, what were they supposed to do?

  “There’s a butcher’s shop just around the er,” Booksie said. “Does one of you want to help me?”

  “Awen, you go,” Amaryllis said. “Broccoli will deal with the guards. And I’ll chaperone Rhawrexdee here.”

  “The guards?” I asked.

  “Those guards.”

  I followed where Amaryllis long talon ointing tathering of pte-mailed grenoils with feathered helmets.

  “Oh,” I said. “I hope this doesn’t take too long. I’m really getting hungry.”

  “We could always eat the guards,” Cholondee suggested.

  I was beginning to think that maybe bringing the dragons to Port Royal was a bad idea.