In New Tehom, things were relatively peaceful and quiet. One could even say they were about as close to ordinary as it could get.
Barring the state of the world and dragons openly flying around in the sky, it was fairly easy to forget that the actual apocalypse had unfolded.
The streets were peaceful, clean, and plenty walkable. Even those who had requested residences instead of apartnts lived no more than two minutes away from a park, pool, grocery store, or even a simple movie theatre.
Restaurants were very popular for their variety of choices and focus on catering to everyone’s needs. It transford dining out into an even more morable experience than one would ordinarily have.
At a restaurant roughly thirty minutes away from the Tathat ho, four human males were sitting at a table munching on so trays of fried catfish.
The conversation was mostly light and uninteresting. They were too busy stuffing their face with the freshest, most delicious seafood they had ever had.
There was a jingle at the front door as three more individuals entered the already busy restaurant. One woman, with two n walking on either side of her.
All three were holding hands. They giggled together in a rather intimate manner as they made their way over to the hostess to be seated.
One of the n looked toward the throuple and shook his head.
He turned to the rest of his table, silently directing them toward the door with a nod. As soon as they looked, they all let out their own dry little chuckles.
That was all it took.
"Sothing funny over here?"
A dragon appeared standing over the table without so much as a sound.
He was lean and chiseled, with bright green scales running along skin of a deep mahogany. His horns were as white as bleached bone, his eyes as golden as the midday sun.
"Go on. Tell what’s so funny. I like to laugh too, you know."
Two of the n at the table coughed and pulled their baseball caps down over their heads.
"Hey, buddy.. We’re just trying to eat here."
"Yeah? Well so was I. But as I’m walking in with my wife and my husband, I hear so very un-neighborly like things from over here. I don’t usually find such things funny, and I don’t know anyone who does either, so I was really hoping you could enlighten on the joke."
One of the n abruptly stood up. "Hey, we didn’t say anything, buddy!"
"I didn’t say that you did. But I heard it all the sa."
The humans lost all color in their faces. Sothing the dragon seed to find funny.
"There is one... very basic principle that you should be aware of in Nevi’im society. Your thoughts are your own. But your thoughts of soone else, well... I guess you can say our species prefers confronting issues head-on. No one likes passive aggressive worms."
O of the humans seemingly beca angrier than all of the others.
"We have no issues here, buddy. Now fuck off back to your ssed-up little cuck situation and leave us the hell alone."
At that mont, the dragon’s husband and wife ca over to him and tried to pull them away.
"Let’s go, don’t waste your ti with them..."
"Co on, Kaiser... This is-"
The dragon slamd his hand on the table, and all of the plates on it began to defy gravity.
"...Y’see, we dragons live by simple codes. If you’re going to be weak, then you should always be polite. If you can’t be polite, then you had better damn well hope that you aren’t weak."
Quicker than the human eye could see, the dragon snatched one of the n out of his chair and held his body in the air. When he spoke again, his voice was an ominous, deathly whisper.
"But if you can’t achieve either of those things... Then the very best thing for you to do is to mind. your. business."
All four n were sent crashing into the nearest wall without even being touched. The festive mood of the entire restaurant was dispersed instantly.
Kaiser the soldier, erased the table from existence as he stepped toward the terrified humans.
"Go on... It seed like you roaches had sothing of an issue. I want to hear you say it with your chest. That way it will be all the more satisfying when I punch a hole in it."
"Kaiser, wait!"
"Honey, I need you to listen to and-"
’W-Wait..!’
At the back of the restaurant, a young girl stood up from her table without even bothering to wipe her mouth. The buffalo sauce that slicked her cheeks and lips was almost the sa color as her hair.
She ran toward the source of the incident, uncaring of her own appearance.
’What’s going on!? Why are you guys fighting??’
Once again, the mood in the restaurant saw a complete shift.
There wasn’t a soldier who didn’t bow when they realized Odessa was inside. Kaiser and his family were no exception.
"Princess Odessa... I-It is an honor to et you on this day."
Odessa nodded nervously. ’Y-Yeah, nice to et you too... Would you mind putting these people down now..?"
The soldier seed as though there was nothing else in the world that he wanted to do less than that.
Nonetheless, he ended up dropping the males on the floor. They trembled like fallen leaves caught in windstorms.
The entire restaurant was deathly silent as they waited to see what would happen next...
-
K’ael barely made it through the door before a familiar chest was obscuring any chance he had to see his sofa.
A soft, but monstrously firm grip held him in place as dozens of kisses were dropped on top of his head in only a few short seconds.
"Oh, my sweet angel..! Are you okay?? Are you hurting anywhere?? Don’t worry, mommy’s here!" Ayaana was doing her very best not to cry.
"Mmph mmrph mm-mm."
"What??"
Abaddon sighed as he entered the door with his two sleeping grandchildren still in his arms. Agheel sat on top of his head, holding onto him by the horns.
"For Yesh’s sake, babe, he can’t talk if you’re suffocating him with your chest."
"O-Oh, right..."
Ayaana released her son to allow him the privilege of breathing air.
"I said that I was fine." He said with a droll look. "I don’t even rember what happened."
Ayaana cupped her son’s face in her hand. "That’s what your sister said, honey, but it’s alright... We’ll help you rember and then we can figure all this out. As a family."
K’ael grimaced. "I would honestly prefer not to rember such an embarrassing defeat. The humiliation would finish off in ways that creature could not."
Ayaana’s face contorted in confusion. She looked toward her husband, and Abaddon used that mont to step in between them.
"Ah, son, go in the kitchen with your nephews and make sure they don’t eat all the cake before anyone else can get a piece."
Askari and Reken popped their heads up like groundhogs.
""CAKE!""
Both boys lunged out of Abaddon’s grasp. They raced down the hallway so quickly that their footsteps produced smoke.
*Sigh* "I suppose this is a fitting punishnt for ..."
K’ael began to float off his feet and followed his nephews toward the kitchen. Leaving his father and mother alone to talk.
"...I didn’t tell him about what he really did in the forest." Abaddon admitted as he pulled Agheel down from his head.
"And why not??"
"You know how our son is. If he thought there was sothing wrong with him he would only beco more reclusive and harder to reach. I want to discover the reason behind this just as badly as you, but we have to be careful about how we do it."
Ayaana knew that her husband was right. The very last thing she wanted was for her son to start distrusting himself and believing that he was dangerous.
He would begin to see staying alone as the ’noble’ thing to do.
"So... How should we-"
Suddenly, a vibrating noise occurred between the two dragons.
Sighing, Ayaana fished her phone out of her bra and checked the Ho Screen.
After reading, she turned her phone toward her husband to read.
"You want to deal with your son or your daughter?"
Abaddon shrugged as he passed Agheel to his mother. "It’s always nice to spend so ti with Odie. Besides, I can grab a beer or sothing while I’m out."
He started to move toward the door, but Ayaana grabbed him and kissed him before he could leave.
She looked into his eyes with the seriousness of a heart attack.
"Don’t kill anyone. Also, if you love , you’ll bring back so mozzarella sticks and onion rings."
"Consider them brought." Abaddon kissed Ayaana once again and gave her a firm smack on her butt before stepping outside.
But finally, he rembered sothing just as he was about to close the door.
"Oh, right. Bashenga said he wants to move out."
Abaddon closed the door behind him, only to have to open it again not even four seconds later.
Ayaana lay on the floor, unconscious.
Their son sat atop her stomach without any real clue that anything was wrong.
Agheel saw his father return and showed him a gummy smile as he held out his arms.
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