SDS Holiday Fic Exchange (omg I committed fic!): Sleeping Dragons
Title: Sleeping Dragons
Author: amkave
SoDamnSkippy Mid-Winter-Holiday-of-Choice Exchange gift for: chalcopyrite
Original Prompt:Any combination of: unlikely happenings, fluff and/or angst, self-doubt, love being easy, love being hard, cuddling, endings that are happy or at least getting there. I love very-close-to-canon fics, totally out-there AUs (see also: unlikely happenings), and all the shades in between. My dream fic is something the author was happy to write!
Author’s Notes: This is probably closest to the "unlikely happenings" request... There is a larger story that frames this, but I trimmed most of it away as "boring" and "trite" and "tl;dr." So what I ended up with was the prologue in the form of a summary, and the most interesting bit of the fic (in my opinion) - the stuff in the middle. Technically pre-slash. Many thanks to gliese581 for the speedy and thorough beta.
Word Count: ~1500
Summary: If this was a fairytale, there would be a Prince and a, well, perhaps not a Princess, knowing the proclivities of the main characters, but maybe another Prince or noble, or some kind of commoner with a heart of gold. There would be a quest to undertake, a dragon to slay, and an evil queen to thwart. After overcoming seemingly insurmountable obstacles, there would be a single perfect kiss, and a happily ever after.
This isn’t that kind of fairytale. There are no evil queens. There may or may not be a quest, but not a “seemingly insurmountable” one. There is a dragon, however, but not one to be slain. In fact, our heroes would likely object, possibly violently, if anyone tried slaying him.
And neither of our plucky heroes have Royal blood. One might have a heart of gold, but that is really neither here nor there. So if you, dear reader, were expecting that kind of fairytale, I am afraid you will be sadly disappointed.
~***~
"Are you going to drop me into the Western Wastes?" Kevin asked the shiny bronze Dragon tremulously. He’d finally made it to the top of the path he’d set out on and come face to… well, not face precisely, the Dragon was far too large for that.
"Do you want me to drop you into the Western Wastes?" now the Dragon seemed interested as it peered at Kevin from its great height.
"um... no?" Kevin’s eyes darted around the outside of the cave, trying to find a better hiding place should the Dragon attack, other than throwing himself off the side of a mountain.
"Hmmmm..." a curl of smoke escaped its left nostril with the considering sound. "You don’t sound too sure of that."
Kevin un-hunched his shoulders and stood straighter. His brothers were counting on him. Each of the mages he’d sought out told him the same. Carden was the Mage he wanted. "No." he sounded stronger, more sure of himself for a moment. "I have come to seek an audience with Mage Carden." He winced as his voice went up at the end - thin-sounding and wobbly.
"Have you?" The dragon seemed amused.
Kevin took a deep breath and continued the speech he'd prepared all the way up the mountain. "My younger brother has fallen ill so I have traveled far, and sought the wisdom of the Guardian Mages of the Realm. Siska of the Center, Beckett of the South, Butcher of the West, and Chiz of the East have sent me here to consult with Carden of the North. I beseech..."
"You really don’t have to do that." If a Dragon could be said to have winced, this one did.
Kevin took a deep breath. "I beseech thee..."
"Really." The dragon breathed a little more smoke as if to punctuate its point. "No beseeching necessary."
Kevin stopped, his speech completely derailed. "Its not? I don't?"
"Nope. I really prefer it when people talk to me instead of at me. It’s more civilized." The Dragon had hunkered down so its head was closer to Kevin’s. "Here's a thought. Why don't you sit down."
"Really?" Kevin squeaked.
"Sit." It breathed. Kevin sat. Right where he stood on the dirt path. A small dust cloud enveloped him and he sneezed. The Dragon huffed, and Kevin got the uncomfortable idea the Dragon was laughing at him. Kevin was beginning to think the Dragon wasn’t going to eat him after all. He'd start his speech over, except the Dragon did not want "beseeching." This left him without a single thing to say. So he sat on the ground and he stared at the Dragon. It was a very pretty dragon, as dragons go. Large and bronze with razor sharp onyx talons. And smoke was still curling from its teeth-encrusted mouth.
Perhaps the Dragon wouldn’t eat him because it wasn't hungry. Maybe it had already feasted on the Mage Carden, Kevin thought. "You didn’t already feast on the Mage Carden, did you?" Mentally Kevin smacked himself. Not the way to endear yourself to the very large, very dangerous DRAGON.
"What? No!" The Dragon seemed startled. He'd been admiring the boy who'd sought him out. And he wondered what his friends and fellow Mages had told the boy about him. Obviously, they'd left out the pertinent fact that the Mage Carden was a Dragon-Mage. "What gave you that ridiculous notion?"
~***~
"um. i don’t know?" The boy had very large eyes, and very fluffy hair. Carden kind of wanted to pet it.
"Hmph." A tiny lick of flame flickered at his snout in a fit of pique. "The idea. It is rude to eat creatures you can converse with. Besides I could not consume the Mage Carden. I AM the Mage Carden." He pulled himself up to his full height and shook out his wings as if to emphasize the point.
"oh. um... good?" The boy seemed bewildered. He'd never heard of a Dragon that was also a Mage before.
Carden sighed. "Why don’t you just tell me why you've sought me out to "beseech" at?" Humans were so tiresome. At least this one was pretty to look at, although Carden wasn't too sure how bright he was. "And maybe you could start with your name, kid."
"Oh!" The boy flushed a very pretty rose color. "I am named Kevin. My younger brother is ill, and well, Mage Siska mentioned the possibility of one of his brethren possibly knowing how to help him. Possibly."
Sisky. Well, Carden thought, at least I know who to flambé. "Mage Siska, hmmmm?"
"Yes. He sent me to Mage Chiz, who sent me to Mage Butcher. Mage Butcher sent me to-"
"Beckett." It figured that meddlesome Beckett had his spidery fingers all over this boy searching him out.
"Yes. Mage Beckett mentioned that Carden - that you - knew more about healing than any of them."
"I bet he did." Carden muttered to himself. Technically Beckett was correct. Dragon-Mages were usually quite skilled in the healing arts. Beckett's skills leant more toward weather-witching, which was why he took up the Guardian position at the border of the South Sea. But any of the Realm Guardians could do some healing. "They sent you on a regular quest, they did." Carden mused.
"Mage Beckett sent you a note." The boy - Kevin ventured softly. He had pulled out of his traveling bag a parchment sealed with wax. It was a bit grimy from the journey, and one corner had been crumpled. Kevin saw this and hurriedly tried to straighten it out.
"Very well." Carden replied and his form shimmered and shrank until a man not too much older than Kevin stood where the dragon had been. A very naked man.
Kevin "eeped" and swiftly scrambled to his feet and turned around blushing violently, but not before he noticed the faint shimmer of bronze scales spread across the man’s shoulders and chest and arrowing down his body. Mage Carden was as attractive in his human form as he was in his dragon.
Carden smirked as he slowly meandered over to his workbench to pull on a robe. "So. Kid. Tell me about your brother."
"What?" Kevin turned back to Carden before he'd fully covered up. Kevin caught a glimpse of a soft bronze shimmer down Carden’s spine ending at the swell of his ass.
"When you were babbling earlier you said your brother was ill. What are his symptoms?" Now fully covered by a conveniently placed robe, Carden lifted the note that Kevin still clutched, forgotten, in his hand. Carden noticed the slight glaze to Kevin's eyes, and his focus was somewhat lower than he expected. Huh. Interesting. He quickly read the contents of the letter.
Beckett was all flowery language, as usual. Never using three words when he could use fifty. Beckett was worried that Carden had hidden himself away, and what he needed was to get out of his cave and live a little. The very fluffy and adorable Kevin needed his help. He snorted and tuned back into what Kevin was saying about his brother's mysterious malady.
As Kevin spoke about his younger brother becoming more listless instead of truly ill as time went on. It had started in the winter, but wasn't truly worrisome until midsummer. The lack of proper attention to his chores ending in small accidents and injuries that took forever to heal. The ever-present nausea and lack of appetite. Of the brothers watching, helpless as one of them seemed to waste away before their eyes. The decision that sent Kevin, the eldest, on this quest.
Carden hmmed quietly as Kevin spoke. He started filling a satchel with jars and vials as he listened. As the litany of symptoms and observances came to a stuttering halt, Carden packed well-worn sturdy clothing at the top of the bag.
"Okay. Hold this." He handed Kevin the packed bag and stripped off the robe. Kevin "eeped" again, his eyes widened almost comically, as Carden shifted back to his dragon form. "I'll need directions when we get close. Climb up."
"What?" Kevin clutched the bag Carden had given him.
"C'mon kid. Climb up. In order to treat your brother I have to see him. So we've got to go there. I sure ain't walkin' and you're little enough I can carry you."
Kevin was hesitant when he reached out to touch Carden. Carden noticed his hand shaking a little as he looked for handholds. He crouched down to give Kevin an easier time climbing onto his back. He tested the rotation of his wings as Kevin lay on his belly between them.
"Don't grab my wings - my back spines are sturdy enough to grab hold of. Ready?" Carden glanced over his shoulder at Kevin.
Kevin swallowed hard and nodded. His grip firmed and he settled the bags away from Carden's wings. Carden took a few experimental dancing steps out of the cave keeping an eye on how Kevin moved with him. His great wings snapped open as he reached the edge of the path and he leapt, the thermals sweeping up the mountain lifting them higher into the sky, taking Kevin home.
Author: amkave
SoDamnSkippy Mid-Winter-Holiday-of-Choice Exchange gift for: chalcopyrite
Original Prompt:Any combination of: unlikely happenings, fluff and/or angst, self-doubt, love being easy, love being hard, cuddling, endings that are happy or at least getting there. I love very-close-to-canon fics, totally out-there AUs (see also: unlikely happenings), and all the shades in between. My dream fic is something the author was happy to write!
Author’s Notes: This is probably closest to the "unlikely happenings" request... There is a larger story that frames this, but I trimmed most of it away as "boring" and "trite" and "tl;dr." So what I ended up with was the prologue in the form of a summary, and the most interesting bit of the fic (in my opinion) - the stuff in the middle. Technically pre-slash. Many thanks to gliese581 for the speedy and thorough beta.
Word Count: ~1500
Summary: If this was a fairytale, there would be a Prince and a, well, perhaps not a Princess, knowing the proclivities of the main characters, but maybe another Prince or noble, or some kind of commoner with a heart of gold. There would be a quest to undertake, a dragon to slay, and an evil queen to thwart. After overcoming seemingly insurmountable obstacles, there would be a single perfect kiss, and a happily ever after.
This isn’t that kind of fairytale. There are no evil queens. There may or may not be a quest, but not a “seemingly insurmountable” one. There is a dragon, however, but not one to be slain. In fact, our heroes would likely object, possibly violently, if anyone tried slaying him.
And neither of our plucky heroes have Royal blood. One might have a heart of gold, but that is really neither here nor there. So if you, dear reader, were expecting that kind of fairytale, I am afraid you will be sadly disappointed.
~***~
"Are you going to drop me into the Western Wastes?" Kevin asked the shiny bronze Dragon tremulously. He’d finally made it to the top of the path he’d set out on and come face to… well, not face precisely, the Dragon was far too large for that.
"Do you want me to drop you into the Western Wastes?" now the Dragon seemed interested as it peered at Kevin from its great height.
"um... no?" Kevin’s eyes darted around the outside of the cave, trying to find a better hiding place should the Dragon attack, other than throwing himself off the side of a mountain.
"Hmmmm..." a curl of smoke escaped its left nostril with the considering sound. "You don’t sound too sure of that."
Kevin un-hunched his shoulders and stood straighter. His brothers were counting on him. Each of the mages he’d sought out told him the same. Carden was the Mage he wanted. "No." he sounded stronger, more sure of himself for a moment. "I have come to seek an audience with Mage Carden." He winced as his voice went up at the end - thin-sounding and wobbly.
"Have you?" The dragon seemed amused.
Kevin took a deep breath and continued the speech he'd prepared all the way up the mountain. "My younger brother has fallen ill so I have traveled far, and sought the wisdom of the Guardian Mages of the Realm. Siska of the Center, Beckett of the South, Butcher of the West, and Chiz of the East have sent me here to consult with Carden of the North. I beseech..."
"You really don’t have to do that." If a Dragon could be said to have winced, this one did.
Kevin took a deep breath. "I beseech thee..."
"Really." The dragon breathed a little more smoke as if to punctuate its point. "No beseeching necessary."
Kevin stopped, his speech completely derailed. "Its not? I don't?"
"Nope. I really prefer it when people talk to me instead of at me. It’s more civilized." The Dragon had hunkered down so its head was closer to Kevin’s. "Here's a thought. Why don't you sit down."
"Really?" Kevin squeaked.
"Sit." It breathed. Kevin sat. Right where he stood on the dirt path. A small dust cloud enveloped him and he sneezed. The Dragon huffed, and Kevin got the uncomfortable idea the Dragon was laughing at him. Kevin was beginning to think the Dragon wasn’t going to eat him after all. He'd start his speech over, except the Dragon did not want "beseeching." This left him without a single thing to say. So he sat on the ground and he stared at the Dragon. It was a very pretty dragon, as dragons go. Large and bronze with razor sharp onyx talons. And smoke was still curling from its teeth-encrusted mouth.
Perhaps the Dragon wouldn’t eat him because it wasn't hungry. Maybe it had already feasted on the Mage Carden, Kevin thought. "You didn’t already feast on the Mage Carden, did you?" Mentally Kevin smacked himself. Not the way to endear yourself to the very large, very dangerous DRAGON.
"What? No!" The Dragon seemed startled. He'd been admiring the boy who'd sought him out. And he wondered what his friends and fellow Mages had told the boy about him. Obviously, they'd left out the pertinent fact that the Mage Carden was a Dragon-Mage. "What gave you that ridiculous notion?"
~***~
"um. i don’t know?" The boy had very large eyes, and very fluffy hair. Carden kind of wanted to pet it.
"Hmph." A tiny lick of flame flickered at his snout in a fit of pique. "The idea. It is rude to eat creatures you can converse with. Besides I could not consume the Mage Carden. I AM the Mage Carden." He pulled himself up to his full height and shook out his wings as if to emphasize the point.
"oh. um... good?" The boy seemed bewildered. He'd never heard of a Dragon that was also a Mage before.
Carden sighed. "Why don’t you just tell me why you've sought me out to "beseech" at?" Humans were so tiresome. At least this one was pretty to look at, although Carden wasn't too sure how bright he was. "And maybe you could start with your name, kid."
"Oh!" The boy flushed a very pretty rose color. "I am named Kevin. My younger brother is ill, and well, Mage Siska mentioned the possibility of one of his brethren possibly knowing how to help him. Possibly."
Sisky. Well, Carden thought, at least I know who to flambé. "Mage Siska, hmmmm?"
"Yes. He sent me to Mage Chiz, who sent me to Mage Butcher. Mage Butcher sent me to-"
"Beckett." It figured that meddlesome Beckett had his spidery fingers all over this boy searching him out.
"Yes. Mage Beckett mentioned that Carden - that you - knew more about healing than any of them."
"I bet he did." Carden muttered to himself. Technically Beckett was correct. Dragon-Mages were usually quite skilled in the healing arts. Beckett's skills leant more toward weather-witching, which was why he took up the Guardian position at the border of the South Sea. But any of the Realm Guardians could do some healing. "They sent you on a regular quest, they did." Carden mused.
"Mage Beckett sent you a note." The boy - Kevin ventured softly. He had pulled out of his traveling bag a parchment sealed with wax. It was a bit grimy from the journey, and one corner had been crumpled. Kevin saw this and hurriedly tried to straighten it out.
"Very well." Carden replied and his form shimmered and shrank until a man not too much older than Kevin stood where the dragon had been. A very naked man.
Kevin "eeped" and swiftly scrambled to his feet and turned around blushing violently, but not before he noticed the faint shimmer of bronze scales spread across the man’s shoulders and chest and arrowing down his body. Mage Carden was as attractive in his human form as he was in his dragon.
Carden smirked as he slowly meandered over to his workbench to pull on a robe. "So. Kid. Tell me about your brother."
"What?" Kevin turned back to Carden before he'd fully covered up. Kevin caught a glimpse of a soft bronze shimmer down Carden’s spine ending at the swell of his ass.
"When you were babbling earlier you said your brother was ill. What are his symptoms?" Now fully covered by a conveniently placed robe, Carden lifted the note that Kevin still clutched, forgotten, in his hand. Carden noticed the slight glaze to Kevin's eyes, and his focus was somewhat lower than he expected. Huh. Interesting. He quickly read the contents of the letter.
Beckett was all flowery language, as usual. Never using three words when he could use fifty. Beckett was worried that Carden had hidden himself away, and what he needed was to get out of his cave and live a little. The very fluffy and adorable Kevin needed his help. He snorted and tuned back into what Kevin was saying about his brother's mysterious malady.
As Kevin spoke about his younger brother becoming more listless instead of truly ill as time went on. It had started in the winter, but wasn't truly worrisome until midsummer. The lack of proper attention to his chores ending in small accidents and injuries that took forever to heal. The ever-present nausea and lack of appetite. Of the brothers watching, helpless as one of them seemed to waste away before their eyes. The decision that sent Kevin, the eldest, on this quest.
Carden hmmed quietly as Kevin spoke. He started filling a satchel with jars and vials as he listened. As the litany of symptoms and observances came to a stuttering halt, Carden packed well-worn sturdy clothing at the top of the bag.
"Okay. Hold this." He handed Kevin the packed bag and stripped off the robe. Kevin "eeped" again, his eyes widened almost comically, as Carden shifted back to his dragon form. "I'll need directions when we get close. Climb up."
"What?" Kevin clutched the bag Carden had given him.
"C'mon kid. Climb up. In order to treat your brother I have to see him. So we've got to go there. I sure ain't walkin' and you're little enough I can carry you."
Kevin was hesitant when he reached out to touch Carden. Carden noticed his hand shaking a little as he looked for handholds. He crouched down to give Kevin an easier time climbing onto his back. He tested the rotation of his wings as Kevin lay on his belly between them.
"Don't grab my wings - my back spines are sturdy enough to grab hold of. Ready?" Carden glanced over his shoulder at Kevin.
Kevin swallowed hard and nodded. His grip firmed and he settled the bags away from Carden's wings. Carden took a few experimental dancing steps out of the cave keeping an eye on how Kevin moved with him. His great wings snapped open as he reached the edge of the path and he leapt, the thermals sweeping up the mountain lifting them higher into the sky, taking Kevin home.