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The Arrival3,586 words
The Tour2,631 words
The Farm1,909 words
The Innocent 1,671 words
The Reunion 1,454 words
The Friend629 words
The Girl1,156 words

The Reunion

Stitch peered through the barn door, watching the hatchling and her bird, side by side as they lay in the straw. The hatchling's small snores made it even more adorable, despite her position next to the metal bird. Turning, she sighed to herself as she walked towards the picket fence surrounding the farmland, the open gate, specifically. Her wings flared out on instinct as a red flash before her cropped up, startling her. The feathered appendages then closed as the apparition spoke.

"Looky what the manticore dragged in" she half-joked, smirking as she rested her elbow on thin air.
"Shift, what have we told you about surprising either of us like that?"
"Take a pill," the dragon said, rolling her eyes "can't I just drop by to talk?"
"And you're sure you don't want anything?"

"What could I possibly-"

"The bird and its hatchling?" she suggested.

"Bird? What bird?" the she-dragon asked quizzically, an scaled-brow cocking.
"The same one that wandered into town earlier?"

Shift shrugged.

"You know I don't come into town that often"
"Well, just a heads up- the Guard'll be tight around here for a little while, at least until things die down"
"Why would you tell me that?"
"Because...I'm trying to be a good friend?"
"Well know you've gone and taken the fun out of discovering it for myself!"

Stitch pinched the bridge of her beak.

"Shift...sometimes I question which of us is saner..."

"Keep trying," the dragon stated, idly filing her claws "I'm sure you'll figure it out one of these days"

"Uh-huh..." she replied, rubbing her eyes.

"So, what's you're brute of a mate gotten up to?"

"My husband," she emphasized "is putting Danny down for a nap, after that, it's back to life as usual"
"You do realize there's a couple of aliens in your barn, correct?"
"Why'd you call them aliens?"
"Did I? Or did you just imagine it?"
"Shift, I really don't have time for-"
"Time? There's always time! It's all around us! Forwards and backwards and sideways and every which way you can-"

Stitch held up a hand, motioning for the dragon to stop her rambling.

"Will I ever understand you?"
"Depends, what're you doing for the next decade?"

Sighing, Stitch turned, back-tracking to the farmhouse.

"See you around!" Shift called sarcastically "Rude..."

'Same to you, too...' Stitch thought half-heartedly.

Not that she hated the she-dragon, no that wasn't it at all- sometimes...Shift just acted...immature...for her age. Sometimes that was a good thing, most of the time. She lived a good distance from town, even further than the farm. She could only assume the dragon liked her privacy, why else would she isolate herself from everyone else? To confound them even further, she frequently dropped in, uninvited, and other times downright harassed the townsfolk. But, that was only on occasion, and during heat season, and that one time during the winter...

She shook her head, attempting to wash it of the she-dragon's image as she entered the farmhouse, the screen door behind her clacking shut as it met the doorframe.

"The Nuisance back again?" Heavy asked, gently closing the door to Danny's room, his claw wrapped around the brass doorknob.
"How could you tell?" she replied, genuinely curious.
"Your eye is twitching- you look like you could throttle a manticore"
"Something like that..." she murmured.
"Poor baby..." Heavy said sarcastically, embracing her.
"Oh don't start that, you're worse than she is" she replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Am not"
"Are too"
"Am n-"

She planted a kiss on his beak, forcing his face to turn from white to red in under a minute.

"Seven years, and I can still make you blush like a school-girl"
"That's not fair...you know my weakness"
"Damn straight"

"Can it hear us?"

"It should, it became fully operational just a second ago"

The click of a button being pressed.

"Attempt #785, subject is avian in design, fitted with custom weapons suited for its body mass and shape"

His skeletal head lifted from the table for the first time, blurry and fading figures swimming in his vision. Circles and a number of other shapes he couldn't identify entered his line of vision, dominating his attention as his head smacked against the metal table beneath him.

What was a circle? On that note, what was a shape? How did he know what a note was?

"Unlike other subjects, 785 has passed the three-minute mark with aid of the respirator"

"Shut it down, that's enough for today"

*Click*

Songbird's eyes shot open, a red glow quickly encasing himself and the sleeping form of Elizabeth beside him. His metaphorical heart warmed itself upon spying the small girl next to him, watching over his previously-hibernating body. He'd smile if he could. The red glow surrounding them quickly changed itself to yellow, a great thunking sound emanating from inside his head. Flexing his wings, he attempted to stand- he quickly found he could only sit up at the moment, his body still recuperating from loss of oxygen. A feeling ran down his entire frame, filling him with a mix of uncertainty and apprehension. What was going to happen? Was something even going to happen? What was this feeling inside of him?

His head began to ache, and he sluggishly held a hand to it, massaging it as he lay back down, mindful of the five-year-old lying beside him.

'Sometimes I wonder what I did to deserve her...' he wondered.

Elizabeth unconsciously curled into his wing, hugging the canvas-like material as best as she could.

A green flash flitted in the corner of his eye. Turning his great head, he spied nothing, beside the mostly-barren walls of the dark barn- the wooden planks glowing a dim green, somewhat reflecting the golden light of his eyes as it rebounded off of them.

He searched a bit, finding nothing interesting in the straw littering the ground beneath them. His head struck the floor, not perturbing the sleeping girl beside him in the slightest.

A black figure darted through the trees, its gossamer wings glowing in the purplish haze of the setting twilight. It stopped, then glanced around its surroundings, its fluorescent blue eyes scanning the forest as it reached down, opening a cleverly-hidden passageway into an underground tunnel.

It passed into the tunnel, closing the entrance behind it as it did so.

The dank and dark tunnel glowed darkly through its night-vision-like sight, traversing the winding passage as it opened up into an arena-like space. Before it, sat an ornate throne carved from rock and other odds and ends. On said throne, there sat a beautiful, carapace-skinned creature, much like itself, though not comparable in the slightest to itself. Its draconic, white pupils opened, briefly startling the drone.

"What news have you brought from the surface?" it asked, the two-toned voice buzzing inside his skull.
"New visitors have arrived," the drone replied, its muzzle to the ground "a- an iron bird, and- and a human"

A lock of ivory hair fell before the beautiful creatures face. A black, hole-filled, slender hand pushed away the lock, both white eyes staring down at the underling.

"This joviality does not please me in the slightest" the crowned-creature said, its voice borderline menacing.

"I kid you not," the drone said, fat drops of sweat running down his shelled-hide "I speak the truth, Lady Aphid"

"Rise" the queen stated.

The drone obeyed, its gaze still not meeting that of its superior's.

"You do speak the truth" the queen said breathlessly, taken by surprise.

The drone feared for his life.

"You are rewarded, leave me"

It disappeared from the room, all-too-happily.

"Is it possible? A human? After all these years?" she asked herself, the quiet buzzing filling the spacious room "Is it just as The Ancients predicted?"

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