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 Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2009 8:37 pm
The moment they burst through the mall doors, Reyn stopped and stared. High overhead, lights twinkled around strands of garland. Green wreaths, huge ornaments and red bows adorned the walls. His mouth dropped open at the gleaming and glittering sight. Beneath the decorations hordes of shoppers dressed to match the ceiling flowed like a mini ocean, currents running through the halls and swirling around the store entrances. Reyn's mouth dropped open in an awed smile.
An angry hum of people stuck behind them began to grow as Reyn stood in the middle of the corridor staring. Lisa had already moved forward a few feet before noticing her ward's missing presence. Heading back with a frown, Lisa grabbed Reyn's shoulder. "Come on," Lisa said gruffly, tugging the floating boy all the way in from the doors. The bubble of angry mutterings popped as the backlog of people streamed through and around them.
"We've got a lot of shopping to do, so don't dawdle." the dragon grumbled, glaring at the crowds of shoppers. "Bedding, clothes of some sort, ...toys?" Lisa glanced down at the kid clinging to her. "Anything else you need?" she asked.
Reyn jerked his attention away from the Christmas decorations just long enough to shake his head.
"Right," the woman muttered, as Reyn's attention was once again commanded by the shiney decorations. Steering the distracted child, Lisa headed to her first destination. The mall map.
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Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2009 8:43 pm
There was a large man standing in front of the map. Perched on his shoulders was a barefoot little girl with small dragon wings wrapped around her torso. They both seemed intent on finding something, but while Marcus was looking at the map, Layla was looking at Marcus's hair.
"So do I go to a bed store or a pet store?" he asked, wondering if she would bother to answer. Instead of answering she pulled one long hair apart from the others.
"Wite," she said.
"That's nice, darlin," he muttered. "But you were in a tank--"
"B'ack."
"Mmhmm. Maybe one of those big tanks, like they raise sharks in..."
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Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2009 9:03 pm
Lisa slowed as she came up to the map, glaring at the huge man blocking it from view. For a moment she hesitated before trying to edge her way in from the side. Rude morons.
Reyn had finally gotten his fill of the decorations as he tagged behind the older woman. Completely disinterested in the map he peered around for a moment until he caught sight of the girl up high. Reyn stared enviously. Lisa wouldn't let him climb on her even if it was fun to be up high.
For a moment he pouted before waving to catch the girls attention. "Hi!" he chirped out.
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Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2009 9:08 pm
She jumped, startled out of her color study and looked down at the newcomer. "Ello," she said, waving, still holding a piece of hair in her hand. She almost lost her balance, but a large, square hand came up idly to keep her from falling off.
"Maybe we should start with clothes," Marcus said, seemingly oblivious to the newcomers. "Here," he added, jabbing a finger at a kid's store.
"There's pee'ple, Papa," Layla whispered loudly, tugging on his hair. "See?"
Marcus finally turned, looking at them. "You want the map, huh?"
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Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2009 9:20 pm
"Please." Lisa said politely, hiding her irritation. She promptly commenced to ignoring the other pair in favor of finding a decent all-purpose store that they could hit and hopefully get all the shopping done quickly. "C'mon..." she muttered. "One department store close by is all I'm asking for."
"You're tall," Reyn informed the man earnestly. "I like being high," he added in afterward. His tail twitched as the boy considered 'climbing' up to eye level, but he wasn't supposed to be flying high up in public. Lisa said it made people feel bad 'cause they couldn't do so as well.
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Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 6:07 am
Shining gold eyes examined the kid for a long moment before he chose to speak. "I couldn't be taller," he said. "I grew as big as I'm gonna get. So I guess I am tall." With that cryptic statement he started to turn.
"Papaaa," Layla said, bouncing on his shoulders and tugging his hair. Marcus winced, having never realized that the love of a daughter would be so painful. "He's like me!"
"No he ain't," Marcus said. "He's part Eastern... what do they call it down there? Asian Long, or somethin. I never liked those dragons, they were always so da--cryptic. Gimme a good Western any day. They'll try to barbecue you without the riddles. You, darlin, are part Western."
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Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 10:48 am
Lisa frowned, unable to really concentrate on the map with Reyn and the stranger conversing nearby. Shooting a glance at the tall man, Lisa frowned to herself. He had a kid so surely he wasn't that bad. This whole parenting stuff was making her paranoid. Lisa bit her lip, silently chiding herself to focus.
Reyn had no such qualms about if the man and the girl were dangerous or not. "Reaally?" Reyn asked, fascinated at the man's statement. "Why no taller?"
The dragon boy scooted closer to the pair as the tall man started to turn away. "What's Asian? Mo- Lisa said I'm part pixie, is that Asian?" He wriggled back and forth eagerly waiting for an answer.
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Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 11:34 am
"No, kid, the pixie's why you're blue," Marcus told him. "The Asian long's why you got a dragon tail. And the Western Dragon's why Layla here has horns and bat wings. They're like... cousins, I guess." Obviously he wasn't used to talking to kids. Simplifying things was taking him a bit of thinking. "And I'm not taller because I grew as tall as I'm gonna get about sixty five years ago, or so."
Layla realized one thing. She barely knew what sixty five was, since it was a bigger number than Sesame Street got to. But it meant-- "Papa's oooollllddd."
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Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 2:13 pm
Rather reluctantly Lisa turned towards the strangers that Reyn had determined to accost. Tas always said she should be more social and it seemed like the conversation was going to continue for longer than it was nice to ignore.
She turned just in time to catch Layla's prediction of age. A snort of laughter escaped from the young(ish) woman.
Reyn's mouth dropped open in surprise. It took a bit of quick thinking but, like Layla, he managed to get to the obvious conclusion. Far too excited to even consider his manners, Reyn climbed the air in circles until he was level with Layla. Quickly he threw his arms around her in an impulsive hug. "Hi Cousin! I'm Reyn! What's your name?"
A second thought occurred to him and he dropped his arms to stare at the man hopefully. "Does this mean you're my uncle?"
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Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 3:20 pm
That, ah, hadn't been what he planned. Not that he really planned anything. "Well, not exactly," he said.
"Cousin!" Layla repeated, hugging Reyn back happily, even though he had finished his half of the hug. "I'm Layla!"
And since almost everyone in the world had been a parent for longer than he had, he looked over to Lisa, hoping she would figure out how to deal with this new "family" problem. Then belatedly realized what she was.
Probably a dragon slayer wasn't going to get help from a dragon.
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Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 6:22 pm
Reyn carefully considered the response before nodding. "A not-daddy," he concluded. So it was a not-daddy like Lisa was his not-mommy even though K-lady said she was. For a moment Reyn digested this information before skipping down a bit to give the man a quick hug.
Clambering back up to Layla's height, the dragon boy flicked his tail back and forth excitedly. Reyn beamed happily at his new cousin.
"Are you going to see Santa?" he asked earnestly. "I wanna but Lisa said we have 'too much to do'." he intoned seriously mimicking Lisa.
"Reyn," Lisa started warningly before the man turned and stared at her. A strange expression flowed across the man face, distracting the woman from what she was about to say. Suspiciously Lisa studied him for a minute. "What?" she asked defensively.
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Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 6:29 pm
"If I told you my name you'd probably not give me a hand," Marcus said honestly. "And it's a not-uncle, if you're going to call me anything," he added to the kid.
"Santa?" Layla asked. "Santa's here? He's not in Norf pool?"
"North Pole, darlin," Marcus said, dreading what he was certain was going to happen next. She was going to hammer and hammer on him until-- He almost yelped as she tugged at his hair.
"Santa!!" she demanded. "I go see Santa!!"
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Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 9:19 pm
"Weirdo." Lisa muttered under her breath as she crossed her arms. Raising her voice back to normal levels she challenged the man, "What makes you think I'd help you regardless?"
Reyn shook his head at the not-uncle's pronouncement. "The TV said Santa was here."
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Posted: Thu Dec 24, 2009 7:02 am
"Cuz it's your kid with the family obsession," he muttered, figuring the kids were too busy obsessing over Santa to notice.
"He's here!" Layla proclaimed, believing her "cousin" with all of her heart and soul. "Papaaaa!!"
"Fine, we'll go see Santa, and you'll explain why you're wearing only a pair of jeans and your wings to him."
Layla made a face. "I gotta wear shirt?" she asked poutingly.
"Good girls wear shirts." Especially when it was snowing outside, he added silently. "And shoes."
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Posted: Thu Dec 24, 2009 7:51 pm
Lisa narrowed her eyes moving closer to match his tone. "And? What's wrong with family, even if they aren't related?"
Reyn listened to the conversation. Worriedly he looked at his own feet, "Do good boys wear shoes."
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