Ch 23- Arrival

Mac carried a small silver dragon who was in a daze away. Once Casey snapped back to his senses he looked up and stared at Mac's chin for a moment. He then reached his head up and gently rubbed against Mac's face.

"It's a bit scary". Mac looked down hearing Casey's words. "What is?".

"Instinct". Casey gave a soft sigh. "I feel drawn to Alec, his looks are very much in line with dragons likes and desires. It easy to get caught up in, so it feels scary getting caught up in those instincts". Mac nodded in understanding.

"Casey maybe you need to learn to accept your instincts and desires first and then work on suppressing them. That should help you in accepting your identity".

"Mmm". Casey murmured in understanding before silence fell upon the two. "Hey let's go to the third floor! I'll see if we can go to the control room and look around".

Casey didn't mention his earlier conflict with Sara and just went off to try to force his way in with Mac. Mac's eyes brightened when he heard Casey's words and he looked a bit giddy. Casey stared at his face; he had never seen Mac look so excited and thought it was a bit cute. 'Cute?' Casey was startled by his thoughts and quickly wiped them away and directed Mac toward their destination.

Meanwhile, a certain gold dragon had been staring at the empty room in a daze, wondering why his wife suddenly left him behind. He stomped his stubby legs on the ground and blew out a haze of blue flames in aggravation. The little dragon transformed back into a handsome young man and went to find his future in-laws. He didn't understand why his little wife who was obviously smitten with his appearance suddenly fled with another man. He wondered if his approach was wrong so he went to ask the experienced adults for guidance.

Mac and Casey soon reached the hallway leading to the control room and Casey spotted Sara next to the door looking at them anxiously. As Sara opened her mouth to speak Casey already knew the words wouldn't be good so he spoke first. 'Why are they so against Mac? He's more like my family than everyone here. The more Casey thought the more upset he was, he didn't mind being insulted or rejected but Mac was different. Mac was his brightest light and he didn't want anyone to look down or disrespect him; Casey turned livid as his thoughts turned".

"We're going in". Casey spoke harshly. Sara originally wanted to say something but unbeknownst to Mac and Casey; Casey had unknowingly released his aura and suppressed Sara into submission. Casey's red eyes were glowing with a ring of gold in the midst of the dark red and he spoke commandingly to Sara. "Move. I'm bringing Mac in". Sara's body trembled faintly and she stepped aside Casey and Mac walked right into the control room. The engineers in the control looked over and felt the oppression coming from the small dragon and several started trembling. Aki was the first to spot Mac and Casey and originally planned to coax Casey to send Mac out but when he felt an oppressing aura and saw Casey's eyes he froze.

Aki quickly ran over and pulled the two out of the room. "What's wrong father?". It was at this moment that Mac realized something wasn't right with Casey. He lifted the dragon and looked at him and saw the gold and red glowing eyes.

'How beautiful' Mac thought blankly, he felt as if his soul was being drawn into those eyes.

Aki hurriedly covered Casey's eyes and took him from Mac. He looked at Mac "head back to your room first". Aki ran toward Sitka at his fastest speed, he entered their room and locked the door. Aki yelled for Sitka as he sat Casey on the bed.

"What are you yelling for?". Sitka lightly walked over and felt the change in the room's atmosphere. He whipped his head around and his sight landed directly on Casey. He saw the glowing eyes and felt a bit surprised, he walked in front of Casey and squatted down.

Lightly touching his head Sitka commanded, "turn back to your human form". Casey stared at him blankly for a moment and slowly changed his appearance. The youth on the bed looked at his parents blankly, not speaking a single word. His eyes kept changing colors becoming more gold and less red. After around ten minutes his eyes had completely turned into a glowing gold, in which a wisp of red would pass through occasionally. Sitka sighed and touched Casey's face gently "how do you feel". Casey looked blankly and spoke slowly "I feel… out of control".

Sitka and Aki both sighed "although we haven't experienced this we know a bit about what's happening. You're awakening your divine power, the power only the king has. After the first growth phase the power starts to develop and manifest within the young monarch". Sitka grabbed a mirror and placed it in front of Casey. Casey was startled upon seeing his glowing eyes, he looked up at his parents. "Try to draw in your presence; it's too heavy. We can somewhat manage because we're your family but if you go out right now you'd oppress every dragon on this ship".

"Umm, how do I do that?".

Aki stared at his son who was obviously tense and on edge "first you need to adjust your mood, think of something pleasant that makes you happy. Then close your eyes and feel the aura around your body and try to imagine making it smaller". Casey listened to his father's directions and after a while could lightly perceive his aura and slowly reigned it back into his body. Sitka and Aki both breathed a sigh of relief; the next moment Casey collapsed on the bed seemingly exhausted.

Sitka looked at Aki, "find out what Casey's been up to, something must have triggered him to use his aura like this". Aki nodded and soon left, Sitka stayed by Casey's side and heaved a heavy sigh as he slowly ran his hand through Casey's hair. 'Here I was hoping the oracle was wrong. It's going to be a difficult life for you cub'. Sitka thought to himself quietly as he looked at Casey with a sad expression.

After a while, Aki came back with an unsightly expression trailing behind him was a nervous Alec. The two of them together recounted Casey's movement with Mac. After hearing everything Sitka knitted his brows.

"He's been on an emotional roller coaster lately, we need to try to stabilize his emotions as much as possible until he can control his aura. When he wakes up maybe we should leave him in Mac's care for a while since that's what he's most used to". Hearing those words Alec wanted to refute but he saw Sitkas serious face and refrained from speaking. They settled the matter like this; when Casey awoke he saw Mac and his parents by his side. His eyes had already turned back to their normal ruby red and he looked around in a bit of a daze.

"What happened? Why am I lying here?".

"You awakened your noble blood for the first time, it's normal to lose control and not remember. But now that you've awakened it'll be easy for you to subconsciously use your aura and bloodline to hurt or suppress others". Aki spoke to Casey in a heavy tone. "until you learn the feeling and can control your actions and aura we think you need a stable environment. For now, we want you to stay by Mac and us, not interacting with others unless we're around for now". Casey was stunned. "I didn't hurt anyone did I?".

Mac hastily replied, "no no, you just frightened a few dragons". Casey nodded and lowered his head; feeling guilty. Aki lightly smacked Mac speaking with his eyes 'don't upset him with these things'.

Mac understood and stopped talking, for the rest of the three-day voyage Casey only interacted with Mac, Aki, Sitka, Alec, and Sara on occasion. Casey felt especially guilty and apologized profusely to Sara; who repeatedly told him it was fine.

During this time Mac was always by his side as Casey learned the feeling of expressing his aura. Since wasn't a dragon the aura and suppression didn't affect him as heavily as it would a dragon. After two arduous days, Casey finally felt like he could somewhat control the release of his aura. He slowly turned to his previous chipper self and started babbling endlessly to Mac about his excitement and expectation about the Homestar. As always Mac gently responded and held the small dragon and replied to him when necessary.

"I think it'd be okay to have dinner with the crew tonight!". Mac froze and looked down at Casey "you'd have to ask your parents". Casey nodded and called his parents on the new communicator that they gave him. Sitka and Aki soon came to his room and sat down "we arrive tomorrow right? I feel like I'm stable enough. I wanna have dinner with everyone and meet them before we land!".

Sitka and Aki had seen their son's hard work these past couple of days and when they looked at his expectant gaze they found it hard to refuse him. Aki looked at his spouse and son before sighing. "Alright you win, but if your goes out of control at all your going back to your room. No ifs, ands, or buts. Casey nodded his head vigorously "can I leave the room now then? I want to go to the observation deck". Aki pondered for a moment "sure but you must take Alec and Mac with you". Aki obviously hadn't forgotten about the marriage covenant and wanted the children to have more time to bond. So he sent both Mac and Alec to keep Casey company.

Casey always felt a bit uncomfortable when Alec was around, it wasn't that he didn't like Alec. In fact, Alec treated him so well that he liked his personality quite a bit. However, Casey always felt like he'd get lost in the other appearance so he felt on edge around him. He didn't want to unknowingly give himself away to the other, so he was always guarded when interacting with Alec. Alec himself could tell Casey was wary of him so he was very careful in his way of approaching Casey trying to boil the frog in warm water.

On the observation deck, the lights were out and the space outside looked dazzling and beautiful. Casey, Mac, and Alec stood side by side and watched the view. Alec felt bored as he'd seen it all and had even flown through space many times already. Mac and Casey on the other hand found the sight novel and couldn't take their eyes away. Alec thought of how to get closer and suddenly had an idea and turned into his small dragon form. "You haven't flown in space yet right Casey? Wanna take a flight with me? We're close to our destination and our speed has slowed down, now is the perfect time to take a space flight!". Casey was very tempted by Alec's proposal and he looked over and saw the beautiful gold dragon he transformed himself and flew over.

Casey looked back at Mac "we'll go out for a bit, watch us okay?". With that, the two left to the hatch that leads outside. When the hatch opened Alec flew out and suddenly transformed into his actual dragon shape, Casey sucked in a breath looking at the giant golden dragon before him, and soon followed suit. The silver dragon was a good size smaller than the gold one but he chased after the dragon further into the empty space around them. Then around the two of these many small blue flames danced around the dragons 'so beautiful'. Casey felt dazzled and looked at Alec "did you make these?" Alec looked back and saw Caseys admiring eyes, his face heated up a bit "yes, my flame is blue. I thought you might like it".

"I love it! It's very beautiful". Alec smirked, "that's good then". The two flew around the ship for a little while and chatted leisurely before returning. This flight lesson almost completely erased the wariness Casey had toward Alec. They exited the hatch and standing in front of it was Aki with his arms crossed in front of his chest. He smacked Alec on the head and started to reprimand the two young dragons. "Casey's barely stable and you take him out to space". The two dragons hung down their heads as they listened to Aki's reprimand and once it was finished Aki sent them back to their rooms and said they weren't allowed out again until the ship arrived at the Homestar. Like this Casey and Mac stayed in their room playing together until the ship arrived at the port the following day.