“Yes, mommies and daddies. They get married and make babies.”
“By lying on the floor together?”
Arach chuckled. “Usually it's in a bed, sweetheart. But Mommy didn't want to wake up Dexter and Deirdre.”
“Wake them up how?”
“Too much,” I said as I shook my head.
“You'll learn more later, little one,” Arach said. “Just know for now that we are different so we can have babies like you.”
“I was made because you and Mommy laid down in a bed together?”
“Yes, in a way.” Arach grinned at me.
“Okay,” she said.
I breathed a sigh of relief.
“Who will I lie in a bed with?”
There went my relief.
“You won't know that until you get much older. Then you will know instinctively.” He leaned in to whisper, “You will know. I promise.”
“Okay, Daddy.” She kissed his cheek. Then her belly rumbled.
“Go on.” He pushed her toward the door. “Go join your brothers and break your fast. Your mother and I need to get dressed.”
“You have to cover your penis?”
“Yes.” Arach's lips twitched.
“And Mommy has to cover her . . .”
“Vulva,” Arach supplied the word.
“You can call them boy and girl parts,” I said.
“Oh, okay. Hurry and cover your parts so we can eat!”
Then my little girl shifted into a little golden dragon and flew away.
Chapter Seventeen
Arach and I gaped at the empty doorway for a second, then scrambled to our feet and raced after Samara. Naked. Because we were that shocked. Not by her declaration but by her transformation. Samara flew to the central spiral stairwell, leaving a pile of shredded clothes behind, and shrieked as she dove down the column of space between the stairs.
“Samara!” I cried, but she was gone.
“Well done, my sweet girl!” Arach shouted.
“Arach!”
“What?” He looked back at me. “You should be happy. We've been arguing over her first flight for months now. It should have happened already, but you were too frightened that she might fail. Now, you don't have to worry. She just had her first flight, and she was amazing!”
“But wasn't that strange? She just shifted on her own and flew away. No instructions.”
“That's how it goes, A Thaisce. I would have tossed her from the tower, and she would have figured it out on her way down. That's what Dragon-Sidhe do. But we waited too long so her dragon took over. It was probably anxious to fly.”
