A Big Shiny Blue Marble Ch. 37

"You have a family?" Rachel asked, and then she sighed with a smile, "A family of dragons. I like the sound of that."

"You are being a little hasty," Yuan smiled, "it is not so much of a family of dragons as it is the hopeful beginning of one. For now, it might be better to call it a dragon's family. Only two of us are dragons."

"How many are there and what are they?" Rachel asked.

Yuan shrugged, deciding to speak of it, "There is one half-human, half dwarf. That is Copper. She lives there with Simmit, who is a demon -- a full demon. They are pair who love each other very much. Also, there is Sheth, my male, a dragon from another place, just as Simmit is."

"Do you love him?"

Yuan turned to Rachel and nodded, "Yes, very much. We have not been together long, but we know our hearts." She counted on her fingers for a moment, "and there is Luddy. She is a troll."

"I think I met her today," the demon said, "I think it must have been her; there can't be too many Luddys around. She was with a pair of little demons and they called her by that name."

"Ah," Yuan smiled, "the little ones, Amon and Neeth. They are Simmit's young."

"I met them too," Rachel smiled as bravely as she could, "They're very sweet. I was a little interested in the name of their father."

Yuan knew where this was headed. "I do not know who the father was. They are over a year old. We began only a month or so ago, only Sheth and I. We will want to have our young one day. The others well, ..."

She looked over at Rachel, "I don't know what you know of dragons, Rachel. As far as I know, there are only three and I am one of them. Sheth and a female named Drene are the others. Drene does not live with us. Sheth and I are a pair. I am the head of the family, and the others are pets who we love and care for. The little ones are not pets, they are just parts of the family, my family."

Rachel stared, "Pets?"

Yuan shrugged, "Yes, though they are not kept as one might keep a dog or a cat. Luddy is a troll and trolls and dragons are attracted to each other. Simmit and Copper are a pair who need each other and we give them a warm home. I did not ask them to be my pets -- they asked me and they are insistent on it. Luddy is Sheth's pet."

"I liked Luddy," Rachel smiled a little at the fire, "I've seen trolls now and then, but I've never seen one like Luddy. She's really nice and she's really quite pretty in a very different way." Rachel smiled, thinking back, "I think it's because she's a troll, but she's NOT at troll at the same time. She doesn't act like one at all. I've never had a chance to talk with a troll before. All I've ever gotten from them is stupid garbage about crushing my bones and nonsense like that, so I never stuck around. But she's different."

"Luddy likes to meet people," Yuan said, "She is usually a little sad because she seldom can. Everyone runs from her. She's much happier now with us, and we are happy to have her."

Rachel nodded, "She told me a lot about how, ... Simmit got pregnant and the name of the male. She also told me how she got pregnant and the name of that male. That's one of the things that are on my mind. I don't know either of the names that I was given."

She looked over, "Those little boys have a rather striking feature about them," she smiled sadly as she lifted a little of her hair to wave at Yuan, "They have hair like mine."

"It's stupid," she said a little sadly, "I've been around. I've seen busloads of demons and half-demons. Out of them all, there are only three that I know of who have hair this color. I'm one of them, but I don't count, obviously. My son is another, but he's just a boy. That leaves one."

"That you are aware of," Yuan said a little cautiously, "The fact that you have the same hair as the last one means little. There must obviously be more than him and you. You met him, so that proves that -- "

"Not necessarily," Rachel smiled bitterly, "I guess you might have the way to get people to tell their secrets to you after all, Yuan. This one is mine. We made a mistake over ten years ago, that male and I. It turned out well, since our mistake is a bright and handsome young boy who learns everything that he can about anything. He's well-mannered and he makes me so proud every day. But that doesn't change what was done. Sariel's father is my twin brother.

I can accept the blame for what happened up to a point. We were young and I pestered my brother because he was the male that I wanted more than anything. But I didn't force him to stick it in and wiggle it around a bunch of times. He stopped wanting to do that and I left, but I was already pregnant with Sariel. We didn't see each other for years, but when we did, my brother had changed his mind and wanted to be a father and my male -- well, that's what he said and I agreed, thinking that it was fate or something just as stupid.

Now you know why I don't want to go home."

She sighed, "He probably won't be there anyway, but if he is, I don't think that our relations will be all that friendly tonight. I've got questions to ask, and the way that I just know that he'll bellow and yell at me for asking them will just boil my blood."

"I am not sure that I understand," the dragon said.

Rachel's reply was barely a whisper. "Yuan, I'm his sister. His twin sister. Don't you think that I'd know it better than anyone on the planet when he lies? I don't even want to mention it, but I have to. I'm not afraid of him. I'm a little scared to death that he'll lie -- and I'll know as soon as it's out of his mouth."

She sat for a time, looking into the flames of the fire, saying nothing, only sniffling occasionally and wiping her tears.

Yuan put one wing around her and sat looking into the flames as well. She said nothing. There wasn't anything that she could think of to say.

She felt everything, and wished that there was something that she could do.

After a while, Rachel stood up, "I'd better go, all the same, though I think I'd rather go to your home to talk to Simmit. You said that she's not from here. Can she speak English? I never learned any demonic speech, My father left my mom just after we were born. I think that I'd really like to meet her sometime -- not just for this."

Yuan nodded, "She speaks English well now, but never mind that, Rachel. How will you go home? I will go with you. I want to."

Rachel smiled a little and it was plain to see that she was holding back a crumbling dam, "I guess I'll fly."

"May I come?" Yuan asked. She was feeling terrible about this now and planned to talk Copper out of this hunt of hers, now that she knew there was a female and a child. She was growing feelings for Rachel as well, because she could feel the other's pain quite clearly. It enabled her to know beyond much of any doubt that what Rachel didn't want to know, but had to ask, was very likely a correct surmisal.

They buried the last of the fire under a heap of snow and walked to the dock. "I don't think that you ought to fly and it is too far a walk in the dark of the night."

"Well how am I going to -- "

Rachel looked at the dragon as it leaned forward, "Climb up on my back. I will not go quickly or high, Rachel. Only hold on tightly when I spring up to take off."

As bad as she felt, Rachel had to smile a little. A ride on a dragon. How many people could say that they'd done that?

"Alright," she said softly, "I can fly anyway, so it's not the bitter end if I fall off, is it?"

Yuan found that she could admire Rachel for her way of looking at things and she did her best to take off gently. Even so, Rachel found the take-off to be a little violent for the first few seconds. She heard Yuan suggest that she try to move to sit if she could, but Rachel said no. Yuan's interpretation was that Rachel was fearful somehow.

But the demon liked lying on the dragon's back much better. It wasn't hard to hang on with her arms around the neck of a dragon when she thought of it like that. She found it pleasant and very soothing in a way.

The trip was rather short anyway and before long, they were descending. Yuan found shooting her approach very easy in the darkness -- because Copper's Bradley sat facing the entrance of the North Portal with all of its lights trained on the entranceway.

Yuan landed and lowered herself to allow Rachel to get off before she changed and asked Copper what she was doing here.

"I've found him," Copper grinned from the open driver's hatch, "This is where the bastard lives."

Before Yuan could think of an answer, Rachel walked over, "You -- you're Copper?"

"Yup," the tanker grinned from underneath her helmet, "that's me, Copper Kettlebottom. What's on yer mind, toots?"

In spite of everything, Rachel grinned, liking Copper instantly. "What are you doing here?"

"Well I'm just about to knock on the door with this here doorknocker," the dwarf smiled as she pointed to the gun above her head, "We've been here for a time, and yelling sure ain't workin'."

"Nobody can hear you," Rachel said, "There's a long tunnel behind these doors. Some distance farther in there is another set of doors like these ones. After that, there are huge and heavy doors. You've only got one thing that'll open those last doors."

Copper looked over, "I got TOW missiles for the launch tubes up there on the turret, but they're back in the barn. I don't usually carry them. They'll kill a main battle tank though, no sweat."

Rachel shook her head, "The last doors are blast doors. They're more than three feet thick."

"That means they're even thicker than your head," Luddy chuckled as she came from around the back of the vehicle. "Hi Rachel."

"Hey, Luddy," Rachel smiled.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean, Luddy?" Copper asked, a little angrily.

"It means that you've got the volume too loud inside that pot on your head and your eyeshades are dirty. This is Rachel. She lives here."

Copper looked at Rachel as though she was seeing her for the first time. "Where'dja get hair like that?"

"It came with the package," Rachel smiled, "Why do you want to get inside?"

"There's a demon in there who --"

"Which demon?" Rachel asked, "You're not thinking. There are seven demons living here. I'm one of them. Three of them -- including me - are adult females. There are two adult males. The other two are children. One is my son. There are two Drow living here and two Xer. They look like supercharged werewolves. Oh yeah, and there's a tiefling warlock here too, and one human male --and sometimes one baby elf. We're all friends, so before you do something that might easily get you killed, I'd like to know what you want, Copper."

"There's a demon male here who likes to roam around and romance any female he can get to hold still. It's affecting the birth rate in this mountain range, ok? I'm a mite pissed with him, since he's knocked up a couple of people who are important to me, never mind made quite a few girls around here feel foolish for listening to his shit, like Luddy here, like Simmit --"

"Like Copper."

Rachel looked beside her and saw a smallish demon female holding her little boys as she stood beside Yuan, "I am Simmit."

Rachel smiled and found Simmit to be charming in a slightly mysterious way. Aside from that, she thought that Simmit looked a little trusting, but she didn't see any of the sort of scheming look that the thought that she'd see -- as she'd imagined her to look. Luddy didn't look like that either and Copper looked to be about as hard as nails, but she also looked as though she was pumped up on her anger.

Rachel thought about it for a second, "What is the name of this demon?"

She heard three different names at the same time, but it was in there, coming from Copper. Rachel felt as though she'd been shot through the chest. She held up her hand and turned, "What was that name, Copper?"

"Azrael," she glared, "but it's the same guy. Ask them to describe him to you."

Rachel ignored that and pressed on, "He gave that name to you?"

"Hell no," the dwarf growled, "He ain't got the balls for that. He told me his name was Earle. Who the fuck would buy that?"

"That would be ah, ... you, Copper." Luddy said in a helpful tone, "You only learned his real name today when we saw him and the other one of those Drow people spoke to him as they went inside."

Copper pulled off her helmet, "What did you mean that I had one thing that would open the big doors?"

Rachel looked around at them all, "I'm Rachel Wannamaker. I'm Azrael's wife. I'm your ticket inside. You want to talk to him, well let's go. This big-assed soup can stays out here. It might get stuck. Luddy, watch your head near the lights. Simmit, please bring your little sweethearts along, if you wouldn't mind."

She turned to Yuan, "You're welcome to come along, Yuan."

Yuan grinned. She'd never seen anything like this woman, "Thank you, Rachel. I think I'd like that -- not for the reason that the others would, I would just like to see the inside of this."

Rachel had the outer doors open in no time. As they walked, she turned and looked at Copper, "Why did you bring that tank with you? Were you thinking of killing Azrael?"

The dwarf nodded grimly but spoke a little quietly, "It ain't right what he does, Rachel. I haven't told Yuan because I don't know if it's important to her, but there's another dragon out there and he was banging her this afternoon."

"Thanks," Rachel said, rolling her eyes, "I needed to hear that."

Copper's mouth fell open. "Cheeses, I'm sorry, Rachel. I shouldn't have said that. I forgot who I was talkin' to." She reached into her coveralls and pulled out a thin sheaf of paper. "I've got pictures of him if it's important."

Rachel stopped and took the pictures to step under one of the lights for a minute. "How did you get these?"

"I took them through the targeting optics in my Bradley and ran 'em out through the printer. See the reticules? The little lines? Those are range marks."

Rachel looked up, "You were -- aiming at him? Could you have killed him?"

Copper nodded, "I didn't shoot each time because he was with somebody."

"I don't think you're seeing this the right way," Rachel said, "I'm his wife. Azrael has a son."

"I'm not arguing with you," Copper said, "but he's got two more sons right here and these are the only ones that I know about."

Rachel was about to answer, but she stared at one picture, "This -- this is a guy. He was getting blown by another guy."

Yuan nodded, looking over her shoulder, "That is Sheth before we met. Sheth broke it off."

Rachel stared, "He's really good-looking. Too bad he didn't really break it off. I think I'd rather hear that he'd bitten it off."

She turned to Copper, "I've got something to say to him when I get in there. After that, he's all yours, but use your head, ok? I doubt that he'll just sit there quietly after I'm done talking and yes, he's an asshole for what he's done. That doesn't mean that you can kill him for it."

She put her hand on Copper's shoulder. "I know that you hate him for all this, but if there's anybody who has a right to have the thought of killing him -- well look at me, Copper. How do you think I feel to hear all of this? What do you think it feels like to see these? You think you've got a right to feel used? I'm his wife."

Copper looked down for a moment and then she looked up, "I'm very sorry, Rachel."

"It's ok," Rachel smiled down, "I'm gonna say what I have to. Then I'm probably going to hit him, and then I'll leave. After that, if you see him outside and you think you can find it in you, you can blow his ass off, just don't ever tell me. I don't want to know."

She started walking again still looking at one photo, "Damn, your guy looks good, Yuan. Are you sure he hasn't got a brother or anything?"

She was trying to say something to cover how foolish she felt. Yuan didn't reply, other than to offer a sympathetic smile.

----------------------

The locking bars of the blast doors shifted and slid to their stops with metallic-sounding clacking noises. The doors began to slowly open and the group of females stepped inside.

Everyone in Yuan's group looked around in a bit of wonder. The place seemed to go on for miles. It was always a little dark, even during the daytime when it was lit to a degree by the lights powered by the generator. But at night, few lights were on with wide gaps of darkness between then. It had a hushing effect on them -- all of them but one half-dwarf.

"Hmmph," Copper snorted quietly as she looked around, "I didn't think this place existed."

"What do you mean?" Rachel asked.

"Well where I grew up," Copper said, "I was always finding stuff left behind by the humans who lived there long ago. I'd find these thin paper books sometimes, made of really cheap paper with pictures and stuff -- stories about super-people and their adventures. They were fun to read, but they'd fall apart pretty quick for how old the paper was. I thought it was all a bunch of hokey stuff, written for kids -- which I was then."

She looked around again, "I guess they weren't all wild fantasy." She laughed a little.

"Ok, this just HAS to be the Batcave."

"There are no bats in here," Rachel said, "We keep all of the doors closed as much as possible. They don't get much of a chance to get in. I'd guess there were none to begin with when it was built. There was no cave here. This was a solid rock mountain before it was hollowed out."

They walked on in silence for a minute before Copper spoke to Rachel again. "Where would everyone go at this time of day if they had some ale to try?"

"They'd be at the bar," Rachel said, "That's pretty much where we all go for at least a little time every evening, most of us to shoot the breeze and such. But we're always pretty low on ale. Why?"

Copper spoke about meeting Barrett and Cha'Khah and giving them the small keg, "I did that because I figured that Barrett is the nearest person who lives close by. I always brew up a small keg of bock for him early on and I was hoping that he'd be home so I could ask if he knew of any demons around here. I met his wife and their little girl and they said they'd take my keg for everybody to taste and they'd probably want me to brew a big keg for them now and then."

"Did you mean that, or were you just fishing for information," Rachel asked.

"I was fishing, but hell yeah, I meant it. It's a way for me to earn a little gold. I was only after one demon, Rachel. Unless you're all like Azrael, I don't have any issue with anybody."

"Fish-ing," Amon said.

They heard the buzz of some conversation some distance off and then they heard a bit of laughter. "I guess I was right," Rachel smirked. "Watch your head, Luddy."

As she led them into the bar, dinner was still in progress and they were met with a lot of dropping jaws and stares.

"I've brought some guests," Rachel smiled as she saw Azrael's eyes widen in a bit of horror.

That look said everything to her. Everyone's face expressed surprise and maybe a bit of wonder but Azrael's. Sariel and Nahl'een blinked at them, especially the twins, who hung in their mother's arms with their eyes wide. Everyone wore at least a slight look of interest in their expressions and most showed far more interest than that. Only one face showed something far different.

Rachel began the introductions quickly, pointing individuals out on both sides. "... and a few of you already know Copper Kettlebottom," she smiled, "You're drinking her ale tonight, I see. This is Lyudmila Potter, and this is Simmit."

She looked at Azrael, "Simmit's pretty special to me because I've just discovered a new branch of our family, honey. These are Amon and Neeth. They're your brothers, Sariel, half-brothers. Aren't they sweet?"