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Tas was at work and Kobi had finally gone down for a nap. Olivia sighed, enjoying the quiet of the house. It had been rather crazy since the little koala boy had hatched from his egg. The poor vampire hardly slept anymore, not that she really needed it anyways. But she couldn't even shoo the boy outside unless Tas was at home as well. So she was stuck with a rather active toddler indoors all day. What fun.

The woman sank into an armchair in the darkened bedroom. Peace and quiet. Ahh.... Within moments, she'd dropped off to sleep.

A loud crash from the living room quickly woke Olivia up. Frowning, she realized she must've slept longer than Kobi and the boy was causing problems once again. With a sigh, she headed towards the front of the house, spotting an overturned bookcase. Great... how on-

Olivia stopped, staring at the odd creature standing in the middle of the living room. That.... was not her koala boy. What was standing before her was a monster! It was a living skeleton! Giving a little shriek, she ran for Kobi's room to make sure the boy was still okay.

----

A short time later, Tas was storming into the house. Olivia had called him, panicked about some monster in the house. When Tas'prin arrived, he spotted the 'monster' right away. Sure, the kid looked a bit odd, but Tas could recognize a dragon, even a creepy skeleton one. "Well, hello there hatchling. Where did you come from?"

The boy scowled. "I ain't no hatchling!" His bony tail swished, knocking a lamp off a sidetable.

"Hey, watch the tail!" Olivia yelled at him often enough that Tas knew that she didn't like him knocking stuff off with his unruly appendage.

"Oh yeah? Who's gonna make me?"

Tas growled and tackled the smartass child. While the kid weighed a lot due to the bony plates, Tas outweighed him by a lot more.

"Uncle, uncle!!!" The kid proclaimed, wiggling about under Tas' heavy form. "Get off!"

"Only when you answer my questions." Tas replied. "Who are you and how did you get here?"

"I dunno. I've never seen anywhere else."

Something caught Tas' eye and the half-dragon gave a cry. The dragon skull he'd gotten had changed. It looked so fragile! Gently, he picked it up.

"Hey! That's mine!" The kid proclaimed, getting up and checking himself over for any damage.

"Yours? This is mine."

"MINE!"

"MINE!!!"

"MINEMINEMINEMINEMINEMINE!!!!!!!" The child screeched.

All the noise had brought Olivia back to the living room, Kobi hiding behind her. She rolled her eyes as she saw her husband fighting with a young child over who owned the skull. "Well, what did you find out, Tas?"

Tas looked a bit guilty at being caught fighting with a kid. "Well... not much. But... 'Liv, I don't think he knows much either. He said he's never been anywhere else."

Olivia frowned. Was it possible that someone had summoned such a monster here? Or.... "Tas? That's a dragon skull right? And he's a skeleton dragon." She glared at her husband. "Where the hell did you get that?!"

Tas glanced from skull to child to his wife. Uh oh. "Well... uh.... I didn't know..."

"TAS'PRIN VARANUS! YOU NEED TO STOP TAKING IN YOUNG CHILDREN!!!"

Both boys gave a startled squeak, Kobi running back to his room while the bony boy slowly backed away from the angry woman.

"YOU ARE GOING TO TAKE THIS ONE BACK AND-"

"But.... 'Livvy...." Tas put on his sad face and when he saw Olivia sigh, he knew he'd won."

"Alright. BUT! I'm not staying home all day by myself to watch these two!" Olivia scowled and stormed off to their bedroom.

Tas winced. He was going to be sleeping on the couch tonight, but... He turned to the bony child. "Well, what's your name?"

"Fred." The boy proclaimed. "I'm hungry."

"Okay. Let's find you something to eat..." Tas headed towards the kitchen, little skeletal dragon following behind him.

Tas had taken some time off from work to get his family adjusted to life as four. The boys enjoyed their father being home as they were allowed outside all day and they took advantage of that as much as they could. The heat was enough to make Tas enjoy the outdoors, though Kobi, at least, needed cooling off times every now and then.

It was during one of these that Tas recalled a poem and started to recite it aloud, not realizing that Fred was nearby. The dragon boy paused, his head tilted to one side. "What is that?"

The half-dragon blinked. "Oh, a poem."

"No... what were you saying?"

"It's in Draconic." Tas paused, looking the boy over. "You didn't understand it?"

Fred shook his head. It had made no sense to him.

Tas was shocked. They must correct this immediately! "Draconic is the language of dragons! You're a dragon. You should learn it!! Let's start with some easy words... Hello. Ava'yorn."

The skeletal boy repeated it, stumbling over the pronunciation. Tas said it again and again, letting Fred repeat it until it was understandable.

"Good. Now.... Arominak ui Fred."

The boy attempted to repeat it and then glanced at the man. "What's that mean?"

"My name is Fred. Arominak ui Fred."

----

Some time later, Kobi ran outside, happily announcing that dinner was ready. The two dragons slowly got up and made their way inside, chattering away in Draconic. Fred had been rather quick to pick it up and Tas was thrilled. He must continue these lessons!

"Svabol ui mobi ekess sone, Dask? Si ni nugrivi!"

Olivia turned to glare at Tas. "No Draconic in the house!!!" She recognized enough to realize what language it was and scowled at her husband for teaching Fred something that she had no hope of ever understanding.

"Bivai.... er, uh, I mean, sorry, sweetie." Tas quickly hurried to the table to get away from the vampire's evil glare. "But.... he learns quickly!" Ouch, another glare. Looks like he'd be on the couch again tonight....

Tas had taken a liking to Fred moreso than Kobi. The little dragon boy was pretty much a constant shadow to the half-dragon. Currently, Fred was sitting outside of Tas'prin's office while the man held office hours for his students. School had started up once again and Tas was busy with students panicking already about their grades and if they should switch courses or not.

The skeletal dragon boy sighed as the line seemed to grow longer and not shorter. For once, his father was actually keeping conversations short, but it didn't seem to help as more and more students joined the queue outside his office door.

Fred slid off the bench he'd been sitting on and wandered down the hallway, away from the line of college students. He'd been getting weird looks for the past hour and frankly, he was tired of it. Though he was getting more and more used to the looks, usually he had something to help distract him from them. But there was nothing to distract him today. Nothing besides the posters on the wall that had already bored him to death five minutes into his wait.

Time to wander around and find something more interesting. His father would be busy for some time still and it was nice outside! The heatwave had broken and while the day was still warm, it was tolerable. Plus, there was a lot more stuff going on outside. He could see some from the windows as he headed towards the door. Groups of students playing frisbee or throwing a football around. Others sitting together and talking. Much more interesting stuff than sitting and being stared at!

Fred made his way outside and towards the open quad, where students were hanging out, most taking advantage of the shade the trees were providing along the edges. The boy watched for a few moments as the group of guys in the center continued their frisbee game. The guy nearest Fred jumped for a bad throw and missed. The bright red disc flew and landed just short of the Curio's feet. The boy stepped forward and picked it up, turning it over in his boned fingers.

"Hey kid! Toss it back?" The nearest of the older boys called, his hands held up to catch the disc when tossed.

"Shilta si lehhav?" Fred asked, speaking in Draconic without really thinking. He held the frisbee up, but didn't throw it. He wanted to play too.

"Huh?" One of the other boys asked. They had been moving in once Fred hadn't thrown the frisbee right back to them.

Fred blinked. Oh, yeah. His dad had said not many people knew Draconic. But he hated speaking in Common. It wasn't as pretty of a language. "C-can I play?" He finally managed to get out.

"Ha. Did you guys hear that? Little weirdo here wants to play with us big boys!" One of the boys announced, loudly and tauntingly. He closed the distance between himself and Fred quickly, grabbing the disc from the child's hands. "Buzz off, freak."

Fred stood where he was, a bit shocked. These boys weren't nice at all! They were now ignoring him as they went back to playing, moving further away from him this time. His bony tail lashed with his anger. He wanted to play!

"Wux baeshrai. Si tuor ekess lehhav kiri. Turalisj iwiek jatil jerks! Si geou visp sia opsola batobot wux re shio baeshrai vur jaci geou molik jiakali!! Vishen!" Fred ranted as he stormed towards the boys. He continued ranting on in Draconic, even if it didn't seem to be getting the point across. But his anger could be determined from his body language and how he was screaming at the group.

"Whoa, dudes. I think Freaky here is trying to cast a spell on us." He pretended to act scared, though several of the onlookers really were frightened by this point. Fred's appearance plus the fact that he was shouting in a weird language caused many to get away before something bad happened.

The boys, however, just laughed, their game forgotten now. They seemed to be enjoying the fact that Fred was practically out of control and didn't seem to think he was actually able to do much, if any, harm to them.

Fred's voice was starting to get strained from the effort of screaming for so long, so he gave a roar and charged forward, hitting the older kids with his bony limbs.

"Ouch! Hey man! Dude, that hurts!!" The older boys had stopped laughing now. This kid was causing some serious damage with his tough bony exterior. Several were caught on the legs with the bony tail. A few were poked by the wingspars. But only one was really the target of Fred's punches and kicks. The one who'd taken the frisbee from him.

Regardless of the fact that it was five-on-one, the little dragon boy seemed to be winning. The older boys had learned quickly that punches to the boy's body did more harm to their hands than to the boy. Several were now nursing bloody knuckles and all would sport some colorful bruises by tomorrow morning.

The sound of the fight had drawn the attention of several others, but it had been the sound of shouted Draconic that had really caught Tas' attention. He'd started running as soon as he realized what he was hearing. By the time he arrived, the fight was already started and a crowd had formed. Many were interested in watching, but they were careful to keep their distance and not get involved in the scuffle.

"Excuse me, excuse me, sorry." Tas shoved his way through the crowd, finally breaking through to see what was going on. "Fred! Pok! POK!"

The Draconic cut through the boy's anger and he stopped, turning to see who had shouted. He winced when he saw his father storming towards him. Uh oh.

Tas was not happy, but even in his anger he couldn't miss the other boys trying to get away. "I'd stop right there if I were you," he warned them. He glanced down at his boy for a moment. "Zexenuma," he commanded before turning back to the older boys. "Explain."

What came next was a rush of half-formed sentences, several shouts, and a general mash-up of five people speaking all at once. Tas sighed, waving a hand at them. "You," he pointed to the one Fred had targeted, "explain."

Fred listened to the somewhat familiar language as the boy explained how they'd been playing and were suddenly just attacked by this crazy freak and- "Batobot ui ti vis!!".

Tas turned to him. "English."

Fred scowled. His mother forced him to use Common, but he often didn't talk at home instead of having to force himself to use such a terrible language. "Not... true." The boy finally found the words he was looking for.

Tas said nothing, but his expression told Fred to continue. "I.... I want play. They... laugh and mean. Take disc and ignore... me." The boy made his way through the course language to try and explain.

"Did you ask if you could play?"

Fred nodded. "And in Common! They laugh!"

The half-dragon glanced back to the older boys, who scowled and muttered that yeah, he had asked if he could play. And yes, they'd laughed. But then he'd just attacked them.

Fred frowned, his tail lashing as he tried to figure out the words needed. "They laugh. I get mad. They laugh more. Call me names."

"Did you start the fight?" Tas asked, still watching his adopted son.

The boy kicked at the ground for a few moments. "Yes."

The man was silent for a few moments. "You boys can go." There was nothing he could really do to them anyways. If they'd started the fight, he could've gotten their names and turned them into the campus police. But they hadn't started it and they had definitely ended up worse for it than Fred had.

The older boys quickly took off. The crowd had dispersed once the fight had stopped and it was easy for them to get far away fast.

"Come." Tas stated and turned to head back towards his office. In his rush, he hadn't locked it or even done more than shut the door. Plus, he still had some students waiting on him there.

It only took a few moments for Tas to apologize and say that he'd have extended office hours tomorrow, but today he had to take care of some family stuff. He had the students still waiting put their names on a sheet of paper and promised them that they'd be the first ones in the next day. In silence, Tas gathered up what papers he needed and his keys. Locking the door, he started out of the building, still silent.

Fred wasn't sure what to expect. His dad was never like this. Silence wasn't something Tas was good at. His dad must be REALLY mad to be this quiet! Dreading what punishment was sure to come, the boy followed along as the two draconic males headed towards home. While Tas usually flew home, Fred was, as far as anyone knew, unable to fly and the house wasn't that far of a walk.

They were almost home before Tas broke the silence. "You will tell your mother what happened today. And you will stay home until you can master Common better. I've neglected in teaching it to you and that is my fault. But no more Draconic until you can speak Common just as well, if not better." The half-dragon made his point by giving the punishment in English. It was clear that Fred wasn't going to hear the beautiful Draconic again until he managed to learn that terrible language. And... what was his mom going to say!?

Tas seemed to be waiting for Fred to acknowledge his punishment as he stopped on the front walk and turned towards the boy. Sighing, the Curio nodded. "Yes, Father."