“With another dragon baby?” Auric gasped.
Elowen laughed. “Yes.”
There was silence for a moment. The boys looked at each other, then back at their parents. And then—excitement.
Kalen sat up straighter. “Can I teach them how to make fire?”
“I get to name them!” the other shouted.
“No way, I get first pick!”
The morning passed softly after that.
Elowen satin the grass just beyond the cave, her dress gathered around her knees, a bundle of herbs in her lap waiting to be cleaned of dirt. The boys were nearby, lying flat on their bellies in the sun, drawing on the stone walls with charred rock.
They’d been quieter since the news, though not in a concerning way. It was more like they were trying to understand how their family would change with another member.
Kalen was the first to break the silence. “Where do babies come from?”
Elowen blinked, startled.
He turned to look at her, propping his chin in his hands. “Like…inside you? Like in the stories you tell? Is that real?”
His brother chimed in immediately. “Yeah. You said the baby might be in your belly, but how does it get there?”
Elowen smiled softly. She set the herbs aside and leaned back on her elbows, the sun warming her through the fabric of her dress.
“Well,” she began, “babies do grow inside me. They start very, very small. A piece of me and a piece of your father come together to form something new. And that something grows, a little more each day, until it’s ready to be born.”
The boys stared at her like she was telling the beginning of a fairy tale.
“But how does it grow?” Kalen asked. “Does it eat what you eat?”
“Yes,” she said. “It takes everything from me: food, water, sleep, warmth. It lives off what I give it. When I was pregnant with you both, I was always tired and my stomach never seemed to settle. But it’s all worth it, and your father will watch over me to make sure I have everything I might need.”
“Is it hard?” Auric asked, brows furrowing.
She nodded slowly. “Very hard. Carrying you two nearly broke my body. It hurt. A lot. But I would do it again a hundred times.”
The boys went quiet again. Kalen rolled onto his side, eyes on her belly. “Will they grow their fire inside you?”
Elowen blinked. “What do you mean?”
He rubbed his palms together inquisitively. “I just think if the baby is a dragon like us, then…maybe it has fire inside it, too. And you get tired because it’s learning to burn.”
Elowen smiled. “I think you might be right.”
“Is that why Papa got so mad when we were hurt?” Kalen’s brother asked suddenly. “Because he saw what we did to you as babies?”
Elowen exhaled slowly. Her gaze turned toward the distant sky.
“Yes, but I wouldn’t say it that way,” she said, thinking his explanation sounded too harsh. “He watched me struggle to bring you into this world. He saw me bleed, and shake, and scream. And when they hurt you, he knew exactly how much it cost to grow you. He couldn’t bear the thought of losing something that precious.”
The wind stirred the grass. A hawk cried out far above. Kalen sat up slowly and shuffled across the thin blanket under her until he could curl beside her. His brother followed. They pressed their small bodies against her side, each resting a hand gently over her middle.
Soon after Elowenfell pregnant with her third child, growling filled the cave.
It was low and imperceptible; barely more than a rumble in the chest. It was the sound Midas used to make in his sleep when he dreamt of danger, memories stirring too loud in his bones.
