Content
“It’s too bad for your lessons you just have to sit around in a room and listen for a long time. A few days ago, the elders were giving us another lesson about where we live, and we got to go out flying and see everything. It was-”
“Remember, Toby,” Aunt Thess interrupted, “you have to pretend you live with a human family.” His train of thought derailed, the eager little boy stumbled for a moment, his excited glow faltering.
“Oh- um, yeah…”
“What if I just say you got to go out exploring? Is that alright?”
“Um… yeah, I think that’s okay,” he nodded with a small frown. There was a brief silence as she drew her claw across the large, white sheet. “…Why do I have to pretend that, again?” he asked with hesitation. She’d explained it before, and he’d really tried to understand, but he just… couldn’t quite get it.
“Because,” the large dragoness replied, taking a patient breath, “other humans won’t understand.”
“But it doesn’t seem that hard…” he mumbled sheepishly. He wasn’t trying to be rude; it just didn’t make any sense to him. “Ambur can understand, I know she can. She takes lots of lessons and is really smart.”
“Maybe she could,” his aunt nodded in compromise. “But what about her mother and father? Or the rest of her family? Or the rest of her town?”
Another silence followed. Toby knew his next question, it was on the tip of his little tongue, but he also knew the answer. They’d had this conversation before, a few times now. Thess looked down at her little adoptive niece with sympathy in her enormous eyes, as the boy thought hard before finally asking:
“Do you really think they’ll try to fight and take me away if we tell them?”
She stared back at him for a long time. He really did have a knack for innocently asking simple questions with difficult answers.
“…I won’t give them that chance,” she finally replied. “Now, come, finish your letter. And…” she spoke the following words with genuine remorse, “I think it would be best if you tell her you won’t be sending any more.”
“What!?” the boy squeaked, his light flaring with concern. “N-no, Aunt Thess! Please, I’ll keep pretending! I promise!”
“Oh Toby…” she extended her tail to encircle him, trying to provide some measure of comfort. “It’s not that. The truth is, I can’t just keep dropping boulders, people will start getting suspicious.”
*sniffle* “Suspicious?”
“They’ll start wondering where they’re coming from. Big rocks don’t just fall from the sky. And if they see me doing it, they’ll especially wonder where I’m coming from. I’m sure we’ve already gotten people talking.”
He frowned and looked to the cold, stony ground as the warm scales pressed in supportively around him. Then, all of a sudden, he literally lit up like a lightbulb.
“Wait! I know what to do! Just let me give them the letters!”
Her sympathetic expression was overshadowed by confusion for a moment as she cocked her head.
“But Toby, dear, we can’t have them seeing you,” she reminded, somewhat dismissively.
“No no, I know! I can give it to them sneaky!” he explained, starting to get a bit of his excitement back. “I’ve been practicing in the woods with everyone! I’m really good at it now! All I have to do is sneak over to where they keep the other letters and put mine there too, right?”
“Toby, that… That’s just…”
“Please, Aunt Thess!? Please!?”
“I… I don’t think so, Toby, I’m sorry.”
His light dimmed again as his renewed hope faded and he broke off eye contact.
“…Was it not really the right thing for me?”
She cocked her head again, staring down with compassion and regret.
“When we sent the second letter, the one about the clouds… You said some of our family wouldn’t like me talking with Ambur, and that’s why I had to keep it a secret, but you would help me do it anyway because you thought it was the right thing for me.”
All his aunt could do was continue to stare, and wrestle with her own words and the meaning behind them. A massive dragoness, powerless at the sight of this small boy and his little, tearing eyes. The right thing for him…
“I really liked writing with Ambur, but… if you changed your mind and you think it’s not good, I’ll stop. *sniffle* I know you just want to keep me safe.” He pressed up against the scales of her tail for comfort and threw his arms around it in a hug.
Thess watched and thought, and thought some more. She let silence take the cave for a long, long moment. The right thing for Toby… The dragoness brought her head down low, right up to him, seeing in detail as he wiped the wetness from his eyes.
“Listen to me, Toby,” she said softly and caringly, but with a firm undertone; like the cozy but powerful bellies the little boy was so fond of visiting. “No one can see you. Do you understand?”
He sniffed and looked up at her, processing her words, then listening to them again in his mind to make double sure. Was she actually saying what he thought she was saying? Was she actually going to let him do it? He started glowing brighter again, frown curling upwards.
“Do you understand?” she repeated seriously.
The little boy nodded vigorously. The dragoness let out a long breath from her massive lungs, ruffling the large page before her.
“Okay.”
…
Toby shivered a bit from the cold as he determinedly clutched his oversized letter to his chest. Even having folded it up as best they could, the thing was still about a third his height, making it that much more awkward as he carefully tried to watch his steps.
With the sun having long set, the only light he had to see by was mainly his own personal glow, casting a small circle of visibility out into the relative blackness. Beyond that, the light of the moon cast what was barely a dim outline around the various trees and shrubs of this unfamiliar wood. And beyond that, there was nothing. Nothing except for the little glow he could just barely see poking through the forest up ahead.
He’d seen it from the sky, clinging to his aunt’s claws as she held him tight to her chest. She’d pointed it out and explained what he would have to do. She couldn’t get too close, not without possibly waking up the man inside and scaring him. But Toby could. He was sure of it.
The little boy shivered again, but he ignored it. The air wasn’t really terribly cold, but the long, windy flight had pressed the chill deep into him, and the few minutes he’d spent walking hadn’t warmed him up yet. He was much more used to riding inside his kin, but she’d insisted she needed him outside to help hold the letter. He wasn’t sure he believed her, though; she always seemed to have some excuse. Her and Uncle Rynn never let him go inside them. Ever.
But as much as he would love the warm, comforting embrace of a friendly belly, that wasn’t important at the moment. Right now, he had a job to do. A serious job. He had to get this letter to Ambur, so she could see the funny joke he’d made (with his aunt’s help).
Emerging from the tree line, Toby finally got his first good look at this ‘mail post’ he’d been told about. It seemed so… strange. And the closer he got, the stranger it looked. It was a big thing, maybe bigger than his dad, made out of pieces of trees. On the edges were bits of fire hanging in contraptions of some kind, casting light onto the walls and surrounding land.
To a normal human, it would have been nothing more than a fairly small cabin. But Toby had been raised in dragon caves for as far back as he could remember. He’d never seen a cabin. He’d never seen any kind of building. Under different circumstances, he might have marveled at it. But this night, he eyed it suspiciously.
Sneaky, he thought to himself. He had to be sneaky. He didn’t have time to look around. Aunt Thess had explained that this thing had an inside, like a stomach, or a cave. In there, there would probably be a sleeping person, and a bunch of other letters. Get inside, put his letter with the others, get out. That’s all he had to do.
…How was he supposed to get inside? The wall he could see from his angle looked pretty solid. No hole like the start of their caves, and no big jaws he could ask to open up either. He got closer, just to make sure, but still couldn’t find anything that looked like a way in.
Okay, maybe a little time looking around was necessary.
He started walking along the length of the wall until he reached his first corner, turning it cautiously, he-
*SNORT*
Toby flinched, almost dropping his oversized letter. The sudden noise was loud and sharp against the dull drone of the night, and a bit of movement quickly caught his attention. For a split second, he was scared he’d been found.
Nonono- wait… that’s not a human.
To be fair, he’d only ever seen one human face, and even then, only on the rare occasions when he’d found some calm water to look into, but even so, he was fairly sure that his face wasn’t nearly that long. A brief patting of his nose with his free hand confirmed this. Oh, and he also didn’t have fur. That was probably an important difference. No, whatever this thing was he was looking at, it was definitely some kind of animal.
He could only see its head, looking down at him from over a big piece of wood, but judging from that, the thing seemed around the size of one of his smaller cousins. Whatever it was, it wasn’t anything he’d ever seen up close before. Well, not alive at least. It did kinda look like some of the animals his big siblings brought back to eat. Maybe he’d eaten one once-
Focus, Toby! he reminded himself. He had sneaking to do! He couldn’t just stand there looking at animals! And what if this one tried to eat him like Melm? He couldn’t deliver his letter from inside an animal! Lucky for his potential safety, this one seemed to be closed up in its own little wooden cave. And while it seemed like he could probably get in there if he wanted to, it didn’t seem to be part of the bigger building, so he decided against it. He’d have to keep looking for his entrance.
With a cautious eye on this ‘cousin-sized animal’ (which one might commonly call a horse), he walked past the stable and continued his way around the cabin. Rounding another corner, he came upon something that looked a bit different from the rest of the wall. It was sort of… pushed in a bit, with a tall, rectangle shape, and a shiny metal piece on one side right around the height of his face.
Unfortunately, whether or not Aunt Thess had any idea what a door was, she’d certainly never explained the subject to Toby. He studied the strange area of wall for a moment, but even though it looked different, it still seemed as solid as any other part of the wooden structure, so before long, he simply moved on.
There’s gotta be some way in, he told himself. I’ve just gotta- Oh, what’s that?
Something on the wall was catching his light in a strange way. He walked closer and saw… himself?
Huh? He tilted his glowing head back and forth and watched the little boy head in front of him do the same. It’s a reflection, like in the water, but… on a wall? Is it ice or some-? Wait! I can see the inside! I can see the inside!
The more excited he got, the brighter his glow grew, and the more of the faint interior he could see past his own mirror image. It was only this little part of the building that was see-through, but through it he could make out the wooden walls and ceiling, tiny bits of glinting metal, and lots of strange shapes he didn’t recognize, again, mostly made from wood.
Do other humans just really like wood a lot? Toby shook the thought away. Not important. What was important was that he’d found his entrance. Reaching out with one hand, he cautiously pushed against his reflection. It was hard and smooth like ice, but not quite as cold, and there was a quiet squeak as it moved away under the pressure of his fingers. His glow brightened in excitement. Now to just… um…
Hm, this doesn’t seem like a very good place to put a way in, he thought. The timber walls of the cabin rose almost up to his neck, where the window (not door) began. Toby, realizing he’d need both his hands, reluctantly threw the letter inside first, before starting the work of pulling himself up through the opening.
I’m probably just too small, Toby reasoned. If dragons get really super bigger when they grow up, maybe humans do too? This must be a grown-up way in.
Though his logic wasn’t the strongest, to his credit, he did manage to keep the noise to a minimum as he pulled himself up over the windowsill and then down onto the- he looked at the smooth, brown planks under his feet.
More wood? Humans are silly.
But moving on, he set his eyes to scanning his new, ‘silly’ surroundings. The area wasn’t very large, in fact it seemed smaller than it had from the outside. He was pretty sure his dad’s stomach was bigger than this.
Maybe there are more inside places? Like how bellies have more gurgly spots after the stomach?
Luckily for Toby, he wouldn’t have to figure out how to get into those places, because after only a few moments of looking around, he noticed a few familiar bits of white catching his light. He grabbed his oversized letter and, as excited as he was, pattered over as quietly as he could.
Sitting on the floor, were several large bags, and each one had letters poking out the top that looked just like the ones he would get from Ambur- except not smeared with dirt from his aunt’s retrieval.
Yesyesyes! Now I just gotta…
Nudging the emptiest-looking bag, he noted the ruffling sound it made. While actually pretty quiet, it sounded shockingly loud in the muted night. So he moved as slowly as he could, pushing other letters out of the way to make room for his own, doing his best to be nice to them and not crush them- after all, other people were probably very excited about theirs too. It took him a minute, but eventually he managed to get his message to Ambur all safely tucked away with the rest of the paper.
Toby had done it! He’d snuck in like a ghost! Put away his letter right where it needed to go! Now all he had to do was leave the way he came and tell his aunt all about it. Catching his glow growing a bit too bright, he contained himself, took a giddy breath, and turned back to the ‘entrance’ he’d found.
Walking up to the wall with the reflection, he noticed that ice-ish stuff had moved back into place. In fact, the window had quietly blown shut from the draft while he’d been focused on the ruffling bag of mail. But no problem, all he had to do was reach out and…
He pushed his fingers against the glass, but it didn’t move. He pushed a bit harder. Nothing.
Toby started to get a bit nervous.
The little boy, raised by dragons, was in an entirely strange world. The very idea of a building was fairly foreign to him, let alone the concept of a hinge. And especially beyond his comprehension was a hinge that was only designed to open in one direction.
He glanced around for a moment, but didn’t see anything else that looked like a way out. So he turned his attention back, put both hands against the barrier, and pushed.
Come on… Come on! Let! Me! O-
*snap*
Somewhere just out of his focus, something gave way, as whatever had been holding the glass in place abruptly failed. For a brief moment, Toby saw the reflection of his shocked face go flying off into the night, before:
*SMASH*
The little boy’s eyes widened. That had been loud. Very loud. In his moment of frozen surprise, he heard fearful noises coming from that cousin-sized animal outside. And then he started to hear something else. Something that sounded like it was coming from somewhere inside.
In a rush, Toby frantically grabbed hold of the bare window frame and started pulling himself through. He landed back out in the world with a thud on the grassy ground, a short distance from where the wayward window had just shattered against a rock.
Scrambling back to his feet, he looked around to try and regain his bearings. That’s when he heard a voice.
“Who’s there!?”
Finally, he recognized the direction he’d come from. Or at least he thought he did; everything looked the same at night. But regardless, as soon as he heard a loud creaking sound coming from behind him, he started sprinting off toward the trees as fast as he could.
Don’t let them see you! Don’t let them see you! he told himself. But no matter how hard he tried to focus, he just couldn’t keep his light under control. He was a glowing little boy in the dead of night.
“What the- Hey! Stop! What are-? Where are you going!?”
Toby looked back. That, was a human. He didn’t know if they were full grown-up size or not, but they were definitely a lot bigger than him.
And they were running toward him.
“Stop! Stop!” came the messenger’s demands, but Toby didn’t listen. He just kept running, as fast as he could. But he kept looking back, and the other human was running faster.
His heart sank. Fear gripped him. They saw him. They were going to catch him. They were going to take him away. They were going to-
The loud thumping of wingbeats rapidly filled the air, followed by a mighty thud that little Toby could feel up through his legs. He looked back again. The other human was gone. In their place, he saw the shadowed form of his aunt Thess.
Raising her head to the sky.
*glrk*
Panting and breathless, Toby watched the bulge in the elder dragoness’ neck slowly sink in the moonlight, until it disappeared and merged into the bulk of her chest. He stared. His heart pounded in his ears. She lowered her head.
“It’s alright, Toby,” the dragoness said soothingly. “It’s alright.”
Feeling a wetness in his eyes, the little boy broke out into another sprint, this time back in the opposite direction, straight toward his aunt. He threw himself around her leg and began to ramble in a broken, sobbing voice.
“I’m sorry, Aunt Thess. I’m sorry. I was sneaky, I promise. I got inside and *sob* and I put the letter away but then I didn’t know how to get out. I couldn’t get out. It wouldn’t move. I tried to push it but then *sob* it was loud and it broke and *sob* and I…”
She brought her head down and pressed against him.
“It’s okay, Toby. It’s okay,” she reassured. “I know you did your best.”
“I didn’t know how to get out,” he repeated.
“I know. It’s my fault, I should have helped you more,” she replied, glancing at the broken window and scolding herself internally. How could she have forgotten to explain such a fundamental concept? He might be human, but he knew as little about houses as any of his adoptive siblings.
“…You had to eat them, right?” He knew the answer, but he felt sad and guilty and the words just came out.
“…He’d seen you… Even if I’d carried you away, he’d…” She trailed off, but Toby knew what she meant, even if he didn’t fully understand it. His breathing started to slow.
“…Now she’ll never get any more letters,” he whimpered.
“What?” she asked as gently as she could.
“Ambur won’t ever get any more letters because you had to eat the letter person.”
“She’ll get her letters just fine, even yours. Don’t worry.”
“S-she will?”
“Yes, dear. Because you did such a good job sneaking your letter in, the next messenger that comes will get it to her.”
Toby didn’t feel like he’d done a good job, but her encouraging words still helped.
“You sure?” he sniffled.
“Yes, Toby, I’m sure. Now come, let’s get you home.”
…
“Toby? …Toby? You okay in there?”
At the sound of a familiar voice, and the gentle squeeze of inquisitive stomach walls, the little boy began to open his eyes. His return to consciousness was slow and heavy, listening to the subtle chorus of crackles and gurgles as his glow gradually brought the usually invisible inner workings into view in all their squiggly, drippy detail.
“Toby?”
The stomach clenched lightly once more, pressing his bent knees in slightly closer before relaxing once again.
“Lorn?” he muttered sleepily. He’d been barely loud enough for her to hear through the layers of her own body. If she hadn’t been so familiar with his voice and her own name, she might have easily mistaken the sound for a particularly noisy stomach growl. He felt her squeeze again, this time feeling more affectionate than concerned. A subtle difference learned from his many hours being tucked away.
“Are you doing okay?” she asked, relief and worry mingling in her voice.
“Uh-huh,” he replied sluggishly. “Is something wrong?” He wasn’t sure why she was waking him up all worried in the middle of the night when he was still so tired.
“No, it’s okay. You’ve just been sleeping in there all morning, and after last night I just wanted to make sure.”
He could hear the usual cheer returning to her the more they spoke, which he processed a bit before her actual words. All morning? Was it already daytime? Last night?
“What happened last night?” he asked, head still quite foggy.
“You had a nightmare, remember? You went to sleep with Aunt Thess for the night, but she brought you back because you were scared.”
While the moment might have faded from Toby’s mind at present, it was something Lorn was still picturing vividly. The look on her little brother’s face. The dried tears. The way he’d clung to their aunt’s leg, then ran over and asked if he could please sleep inside her for the rest of the night, with his big, pleading eyes. And when she’d taken him in, that taste. She could taste the lingering terror on his skin.
Toby remembered… something. Something vague and far away. Something bad, but something that couldn’t reach him. Not there, curled up peacefully and comfortably amidst the soft folds of his sister’s warm belly. He subconsciously wiggled a bit, nestling deeper into the familiar embrace.
To Lorn, it was a subtle movement in her gut. One she’d only barely learned to distinguish after many hours of looking after her sweet little brother.
“It’s okay, Toby, you can stay in there as long as you want,” she soothed. She wasn’t sure exactly what had happened that night, and she had a few suspicions, but what she did know was that her brother needed her, and she would do everything she could to make him feel safe again.
“Thanks, Lorn,” he mumbled with a faint smile. His glow faded as he closed his eyes again.
She squeezed him carefully and rocked her belly slowly, back and forth. Back and forth.
*gurgle*