Too Many New Things

"Hey so I will not end up alive if he sees that I plotted a surprise for him. So I am going to see the dragons. Caio!" Will said as he ran to hide in my house.

"Traitor!" I yelled as I waved my fist in the air. Jasper jumped out of the truck excited at the sight of the new house and he immediately ran inside. Bill however was not nearly as excited. He stomped to me, his face still beet red, plastered on it was a look that could kill.

"What the hell is this?!" He yelled gesturing at the new house behind him. "Do you think I had money problems, or that I can't take care of my family!" he yelled not really asking. I saw Mrs.Horn unloading the lighter items from the truck and trailer into the new house; avoiding the conflict that would inevitably come to her. "I am sure this is just pity! You know I live in that trailer, because I want to and it is convenient." He had stopped yelling but he was obviously still very unhappy. Tears were welling in my eyes. This was not a pity home or an insult to his parenting, it was to help repay him for all of his help and kindness. He noticed my unshed tears and immediately calmed down. "Listen I don't need that big fancy house, I have lived in that camper since Will was a toddler." he said softly this time. I held my tears back still

"The only thing personal about this new house is about me." I said. Bill looked at me curiously. "Your family has been more like family to me than my actual flesh and blood. You also work above and beyond for me and the dragons. I have gotten to become friends with you, and gotten to learn about and love you guys. This house is my thanks to you. I see how big you and Will are, and Jasper will grow soon enough. I just thought you might fit better in a house. One with a shower as big as mine, plumbing you don't have to dump and refill, and a kitchen that you can actually cook in." He gave me a soft smile, and my tears were gone.

"Then why the secrecy?" he asked.

"Well one reason is you would react like you just did and forbid me from letting someone else work, and also that would ruin the point of a surprise." I said with a smile. "Also all that furniture that I bought through Mrs.Horn is for your family. You can officially watch more than Magnum PI and the Brady Bunch." I said, because those were the only shows that I knew the titles of, in my VHS hand me downs.

The bed of his trunk had been emptied already by Mrs.Horn, who had been silently working this whole time. Bill got in the truck and pulled the furniture filled trailer closer to the new house. He unhitched the trailer from his truck, and parked in the gravel driveway in front of my house. Will came half walking half running out of my house to me.

"So umm, not to worry." he said. I looked down and immediately noticed his dark blue hand. "What happened?!" I yelled in concern. Mrs.Horn and Bill walked over to see Will and his hand. "So uhh Somnolent bit me and..." Will started, but didn't finish. Mrs.Horn and I were both shocked and immediately started pushing him into the truck.

"Bill get in and drive to the nearest hospital as fast as you possibly can!" I yelled.

Mrs.Horn followed me and my frantic worry, "Tell the nurse it was a black recluse spider. The anti-venom for that should work!" We got a very confused Will and Bill into the truck. "Somnolent's bite can be deadly. Go Drive Hurry!" I yelled.

At that Bill white knuckled the steering wheel and spun out of the gravel driveway at full speed.

I paced back and forth in absolute horror at the thought of losing Will, he was my new family. Mrs.Horn put her hand on my shoulder.

"We need to put on a brave face for the boy." she said "Just unload the trailer, and act as though his brother's condition is nothing to worry about. At most the boy will lose an arm anyways." she said oddly calm. I nodded put on a mask of my regular expression and started unloading the trailer.

For the most part we had to take different things apart so we could actually lift the furniture upstairs. That included removing items from boxes and carrying the pieces separately. It was late into the night when we finally finished assembling and arranging all of the new furniture and putting away all of the new small things. We also took things from their camper trailer, and put them in the house. It was about 2:00am, and Jasper was still awake playing on his new Xbox, which Mrs.Horn had bought instead of a DVD player. Jasper said that he wanted to stay awake until Will came home. Mrs.Horn and I both knew that Will would most likely spend the night there. So we were just waiting for Jasper to fall asleep on the couch. He had had a long day, and it was inevitable that he would fall asleep. Which he did about twenty minutes later. Mrs.Horn turned off the TV and covered a sleeping Jasper with a blanket.

The two of us would stay awake until we at least got word of Will's condition. It was six hours to the nearest hospital, and that was a long time to have venom in your system.

"Did you call the DDP about Will's condition?" Mrs.Horn asked.

"Yes, they are going to cover all of the medical bills, because it was one of the dragons who hurt him." I said. After that we both went silent again. We cooked all sorts of meals to last the boys for at least a week. We baked muffins and made an apple pie.

By 4:00am though we couldn't stay awake, and we both fell asleep at the dining room table.

Before Jasper had woken up in the morning. We finally got a call, surprisingly it was Will's voice at the other end.

"Hey guys, I am fine dad forgot to call you, so I figured you might be worried." he said as if all he had done was get a paper cut.

"Of course we were worried. You got bit by a deadly dragon. You have a house full of new beds and we slept at a table, and Jasper is still asleep on the couch." I said into the phone. Mrs.Horn got up and started a pot of coffee. "Shit!" I yelled and handed the phone to Mrs.Horn. I ran out the door and into my house. I ran to the elavator, and went down. I was late for dragon breakfast. All of the hatchlings had formed a team trying to open the fridge for food. "I am sorry guys, ask Somnolent why I wasn't here last night or this morning. All of the dragons looked at Somnolent. He shrunk down knowing that what he did was wrong. "What did he even do to warrant a bite? I asked. Coruscant rolled her eyes. She walked over to Somnolent and stroked his back. "Seriously? You bit him because he petted you awake?" Then I heard a voice in my mind

"But I don't like that brute, he shouldn't pet me. His hands are rough." My eyes grew wide.

"Did you just talk to me?" I looked at Somnolent with a feeling that I was growing insane. He looked directly into my eyes,

"Oh hey looks like I can talk to you now." I didn't respond to the voice in my head. In fact I turned rigid terrified I was going insane. Other than having to pick up a now three foot long Callalilly to put her into a cricket box, I stopped moving entirely. After I finished their routine silently; quietly and quickly I left. I ran to Mrs.Horn who I thought for once would have all of the answers.

"Mrs.Horn Mrs.Horn Mrs.Horn!" I yelled running into the boys new home. "Somnolent just talked to me! In my mind! He literally explained why he bit Will!" I yelled at her still in shock after the experience.

"Hmm, that hasn't happened in quite some time." she she said, not seeming concerned.

"But...but how? Why?" I barely managed the questions.

"Well it is very rare, but some dragons are able to speak to their family and clan through telepathy. It is amazing that one of your dragons can speak to you. That hasn't happened in about eighty years." She said this calmly in between sips of coffee.

"Why are you not freaking out about this?" I said. Jasper walked behind me rubbing the sleep dust out of his eyes.

"Because it is natural, but just uncommon." he said following with a yawn.

"What do you mean natural? Since when is telepathy natural? It is already weird that I have dragons." I stopped mid sentence to a voice in my head.

"Mama, do you think we are weird?" I was shocked I couldn't even see a dragon, so how were they still hearing me?

"No no Mama loves you with all her heart. Which dragon just asked that? I don't know your voices yet." My mouth moved to speak, but the only voice that came out was in my head.

"I am Coruscant." the voice said softly.

"Okay honey just give me some time to talk to the other humans. I promise I love you and the others with all of my heart." I said telepathically to Coruscant. "Okay Mrs.Horn and Jasper, tell me how natural that was." I said in a demanding tone.

"Okay it is extremely rare that you can speak to a dragon from long distances too." Mrs.Horn said.

"It isn't just Somnolent now, Coruscant was the one talking to me just now." I said.

"Two dragons can speak to you long distance?" Jasper asked excitedly. Then I heard several different voices.

"All of us Mama.", "All of us can talk to our Mama.", "Are you proud Mama?" The dragons all spoke on top of eachother. I was brought out of my telepathic trans by Mrs.Horn holding open my eyelid, that I hadn't noticed was shut.

"Well look at that. Jasper did you see that?" Mrs.Horn asked the boy still touching my eyelid. I slapped her hand off gently. I looked to Jasper who had a pale face and was slowly nodding. "What?" I asked.

"Well dear when you are talking to your dragons your pupils retract into slits and turned yellow, also your mouth moves, but the words only dont seem to come out" she said. My mind was twisted, this wasn't possible. I had adjusted to a life where dragons existed, but a world where I lived with and raised telepathic dragons was a bit much. I sat down on the couch where Jasper had slept.

"How?" I asked to no one in particular.

"Well honey sometimes when a caretaker is extremely close to one of her dragons; they share a close range telepathic bond. Having a long distance telepathic bond with eight dragons is unheard of though." Mrs.Horn explained trying to speak gently. I was in a fragile state with this new information, and everyone already knew that I had fainted when I discovered the dragons.

I sat on that couch staring at my lap for hours. Jasper left to feed the dragons lunch.

"Mama why is the boy feeding us?" I heard a small voice say. I could tell it was Reticent simply by how shy he sounded.

"Mama is a little bit busy, so he is helping her right now. I will be back to feed you dinner." I said to Reticent. Will and Bill came through the door, and I left quietly, my face still as white as a sheet. I couldn't talk to them I didn't have it in me to explain what was happening so I just passed by them and their curious stares. I went back to my house where Jasper was just walking out of. "Your family is home." I said to Jasper, and he ran to his new house not even responding to me. I went to the kitchen, drank a glass of water, and splashed some water on my face. It was time to see my now officially sentient dragons.

I got in the elevator, and entered the den. All eight dragons ran to me.

"Mama I missed you." one said quietly. I breathed in and mentally prepared myself to be rational.

"Okay everybody line up, I need to learn your individual voices." I said out loud. Apparently I could talk to them normally if I could see them.

"Pretend I am a stranger and introduce yourself to me, step forward and say: Hello my name is...then say your name. Okay?" they all nodded.

Reticent was first in line

"H..Hello, my name is Reticent." I heard his voice it was light and soft, exactly as I would imagine he would sound like. Next was Callalilly

"Hello my name is Callalilly!" she half yelled half sung her name. Okay next in line is Vainglorious "Hello, my name is Vainglorious." he said, somehow sounding pompous as ever. Next was Valorous

"Hello I am Valorous." compared to the voices of the others, Valorous had a shockingly deep voice. Next was Coruscant.

"Hello my name is Coruscant." she said. It was the same soft yet slightly deep voice that I had heard earlier. Next is Blithesome. She hopped rather than stepping forward

"Hello I am Blithesome!" she said loudly in a fairly high voice. I knew that she would be quite the talker.

"Hello I am Somnolent." Somnolent said in a husky voice. I had heard his voice very first, so I knew I would remember his voice. Last in line was Switch.

"Hello I am Switch!" Switch yelled, spinning her tail whilst she spoke.

"Okay I can tell your voices now, try not to speak over eachother in my head. It gets confusing." I said

"Makes sense." said Somnolent. Now that we can talk, we have a few things to talk about." I said firmly. "Somnolent," I started, he tried to slink back to avoid his lecture. "Never bite someone unless they are obviously trying to hurt you or your family; and that includes Jasper, Will, and Bill, and sometimes Mrs.Horn." I said. The dragons looked confused. I had never spoke to them directly about who those names belonged to

"That tall man you see sometimes is Will, he is the one who brings snacks for Reticent. The small human is Jasper, he loves everything about you guys. The rounder man is named Bill, he is Will and Jasper's father, and he works very very hard so you guys will have a happy future. The other boys work hard for you too, but Bill is proud of his work. I said. Mrs.Horn is that scary lady who grabbed Coruscant. I am not fond of her, but she does help me sometimes, so try not to hurt her."

I was beginning to ease into this telepathic bond I had with the dragons. It would let me sleep easily after they were out of the den.

"Also, if you see any strangers, that I haven't told you would be here, take them captive, don't kill them. Your skills, and future size are for protection and hunting, not to hurt others."

I could see the boredom in their eyes. "Reticent, you don't need to be scared of anyone in the family, I will protect all of you to my last breath. Also, Will really really wants to be your friend. The little dragon perked his head up, seemingly happier. "Now I will ask you. Are you ready to leave the den today?" I asked them. They hopped and flapped their wings in excitement, though there wasn't really room for it. One by one I took the dog sized dragons through the elevator. With me. After I had brought the final dragon through the floor of the living room; I showed them to the door; which Valorous and Coruscant already knew the way to. I led them outside and they saw sunlight for the first time in their young lives. They ran around rolling in the grass and flapping their wings in the wind. Switch and Somnolent actually held in the air a few seconds before falling the five inch drop. Callalilly was striking a flower pose waiting for a bee. "Okay, all of you Bill made some special places for all of you." I said. "Let me show you your kind of new homes." None of them seemed excited like I thought they'd be.

"I don't want to leave Mama." I heard Vainglorious say. I went over to my small hoard of dragons. I petted down Vainglorious' feathers.

"You guys aren't moving away, you just have your own private areas outside is all. You won't fit in the house soon." I reassured. I stood up again. "Alright Coruscant your new place is first." I said. We walked up to the barn, and I slid open the large barn door to reveal a large icy building complete a snowy ledge. "Coruscant ran into it and plowed into a pile of snow, then popped her head out of the white fluff. She hopped around, she tried to get to the ledge, but couldn't quite reach. "Grow or learn to fly, that is how you get up there." I said. "Now each of you have a special place, but you are free to go anywhere." I said. "No picking fights with eachother I don't want any of that territorial crap." I said sternly. Okay Vainglorious you see that small building,, it is for you to hunt practice prey.. learn to camouflage with those birds,, they have no defenses, when you are skilled enough you may hunt wild birds." I said, making sure it sounded like a challenge of pride. "Alright, next is Switch's training area. We walked a ways until we got to the training area for Switch. I pointed to the smaller posts. until you can break those in two with one swing, you won't be ready for the big part.

"Fine", I heard Switch's voice in my head. She was growling in frustration. We walked further down until we got to the large plant filled forrest.

"For those of you who hunt prey on land, this is the place to hunt. For the next three months I will be giving you one daily meal. After that, you start hunting on your own." They all looked utterly shocked. "You have always fed us."

"Why must we get our own food?"

"Haha I am ready you aren't."

"Be quiet Callalilly, all you have to do is stand there and look like a plant." I heard fighting and begging all at once and I couldn't think straight. "Be quiet!" I yelled, instantly shushing all of the dragons. "You are dragons, you are supposed to be majestic creatures, not lizards that beg their mama for food every day. You are dragons now, not hatchlings, so you must act like it." I said.

I had never sounded more like my mother in my life.

They put their heads down in shame. "I will be feeding you one meal a day. If you are hungry after that, you must hunt on your own. I am doing this for three months so you don't starve while you are growing and learning how to hunt." I said.

We walked into the woods, and we got on the trail so I could walk more easily. As we walked further in I could see that all of the dragons around me were doing the best to take in their new surroundings. We got onto the ATV sized bridge where I pointed to the babbling stream underneath. Valorous you can stay in this creek eating small fish as they pass by, and when you get bigger, then you can swim in the river. I walked a little before I remembered Somnolent. Somnolent I know your species likes to rest a lot, and pick out their own spots, so I couldn't make a special place for you, sorry." I heard his voice in my head.

"Mama was right." I smiled at him and we continued. I pointed through the trees where you could see the flower patch, it was only a sea of green seedlings now, but soon it would be a garden full of flowers.

"Callalilly in the future that field will be filled with flowers so the smell of flowers will attract bees, and you can use that to your advantage. Then the trail ended at the lake. Coruscant, Blithesome, and Reticent were all amazed. "Those of you who enjoy fish will hunt here." I said. I could hear Blithesome shouting

"That is us! That is us! That is us!" I smiled at her excitement. Coruscant Ran to the cliff and jumped off. I ran to the edge with a scream. She was gliding. "You scared the Hell out of me young miss. How do you think you will get back up huh? You can't fly." I yelled at Coruscant. "I can fly." she replied. "see." she said. I smacked my face.

"Coruscant you are gliding, not flying. In order to be flying you need to be able to climb upward." I said, being entirely too calm.

"No watch." I opened my eyes to look off the cliff side, and Coruscant was nowhere to be seen. "Look up." I heard. I looked up and saw Coruscant flying above my head.

"H..How did you?" I studdered. "Dragons know when ready." she said. I turned to the others who were nodding. Coruscant landed next to me. I breathed a sigh of relief. I turned to my Gull Wings. I am sorry you can't fly for another five months. I said. You can hunt in the creek and river, with Valorous, until you can fly over the lake" I said. Okay I am going to go visit the others in the new house, and you guys can explore, nap, hunt, try and fly, or whatever dragons do outside.

I walked to the new house without any dragons following me. How on mother freaking Earth am I okay with this. I thought of it happening in front of Mrs.Horn. I stopped in my tracks, wait did she say my eyes turned to slits? Why didn't I think to be concerned about that as well. I had to figure out why I wasn't freaking out. I couldn't brush this off as dragon lady motherly instincts. This wasn't human. It wasn't humanly possible for a person's eyes to turn to slits, nor to have telepathic tendencies. I realized that my walk to the house began to be a run. I slammed open the door.

"Something is wrong." I said almost sounding possessed the way my breaths were heaving from running. Mrs.Horn grabbed my shoulders and guided my to the couch. Bill wrapped a blanket around me, and All of the Schmit boys and Mrs.Horn sat around me quietly.

"All right you can talk now." Bill said softly.

"Something is happening to me. I thought it was instinct when I so quickly adopted the idea that the dragons were my own, but that doesn't explain today's events. Did she fill you in?" I asked the boys. They all nodded their heads yes.

"I have a theory." said Mrs.Horn, "I think you may be part dragon yourself." she said. Despite my current predicament all I could picture were a woman and a giant winged lizard going at it. I scrunched my face in disgust.

"Honey it used to happen a lot in the eighteenth century, not much now because they are so rare." she tried to explain calmly. "Have you heard of Shadow Shifters?"