FIRST DEMONIC DRAGON

Lailah looked up at the balcony doors and smiled as bright as a star.

She waved her hand open and Tatiana could be seen standing next to a duo of guards.

When her golden eyes settled on Lailah, she crossed the distance between them at once.

She ran her thumbs along the corners of Lailah’s mouth as she wiped away the remnants of some whipped cream. “You would think after all this time you spent chastising Bekka that you would have learned to keep your face clean.”

Lailah was finding it hard not to smile as Tatiana went to wipe off her nose. “Do as I say, not as I do.”

“That only works on the kids, honey.”

Lailah didn’t really understand why that had to be the case, but she was too glad to see Tatiana to bolster much of an argument in response.

“What are you doing here, Mom?” Nubia was trying to make sure both of her mothers remembered that she was here before they started doing weird things and they reached a point of no return.

“I can’t just come to get you because I want to? You girls were supposed to come home yesterday.” Tatiana sat down in between the girls and manifested her own mug of warm liquid.

Lailah pushed her tray of pastries just out of reach in the hopes that her love would not reach for them. She forgot that she was not the only one at the table who boasted an affinity for telekinetic powers.

As Tatiana pilfered a pastry, Lailah plucked it out of the air and bit it before it could reach her.

“We thought it might’ve been better to stick around for a little while and make sure things were going along smoothly. After all, this is the first time our people have had extended interaction with outsiders.”

“Worried they’d be xenophobic?”

“N-No..”

Tatiana stared at Lailah without blinking. The bronze-skinned goddess just lowered her head into her mug.

“…Maybe a little bit.”

“Mhm.”

Tatiana could hardly even blame her for harboring the thought.

Abaddon and Ayaana had worked tirelessly to build a society that they deemed to be as close to perfect as humanely possible.

But that was kind of easy when dragons generally have a larger capacity for empathy when it comes to different species.

However, gods and the majority of humanity have a terrible reputation within the eyes of dragonkind with very few exceptions.

Gods are jealous, pompous, lazy, and more often than not, incredibly fucked up and selfish.

Humans are… humans.

Could you truly blame Lailah for feeling worried that things would not go over particularly well?

“I’m surprised that you were worried about something like that, Ma.” Nubia muttered offhandedly.

“About what, dear?” Lailah tilted her head.

Nubia bit her lip uncomfortably as she sank back into her chair.

“Nothing, mother. It’s stupid.”

Lailah and Tatiana’s concerned looks weren’t going away. Nubia finally seemed to get that her continued silence would only further fuel the issue.

She finally placed her cup back down and sighed as she looked at her mother.

“It’s just.. Do you not believe that you might’ve been too cruel at the meeting yesterday?”

Tatiana stared at Lailah again. Unsurprisingly finding her with a terribly confused expression on her face.

“I don’t know what you mean..?” Lailah said honestly.

Hearing her mother’s genuine obliviousness might’ve only made Nubia feel even worse.

“W-Well, ma, I don’t know if you’ve noticed but you can be a little mea-“

“She means bitchy.” Tatiana corrected.

“-When it comes to other people outside of home. And I guess I never really noticed before yesterday…”

Lailah seemed particularly taken aback. “W-Well I can’t just treat everyone the same as I do at home, sweetheart. I have an image to uphold, and you forget our family’s role in the lives of these gods. If they stray too far from their paths then we may very well have to kill them.”

“I-I know about all that, Mom, I just… I don’t know.” Nubia sighed in defeat.

Before yesterday, Nubia had mostly lived with only the perception of her parents that she saw every day. The loving, loud, unserious bunch who had an unsightly issue with PDA.

She knew that everyone was scared of her dad, but she figured that was just a by-product of him being the personification of conquest and the fact that he was a ten-headed monster whose true size was immeasurable.

Y’know, normal scary dad stuff.

But as Nubia sat amongst te crowd yesterday, she realized for the first time that as many people feared her father, there was an equal amount who feared or disliked her mother.

And she couldn’t say she didn’t see why…

Lailah was cold. Her sharp tongue was only matched by the claws on her fingers, and no one around her wanted to get a taste of either one of them.

“I’ve just… never really heard you talk to anyone like that before.” Nubia finished.

Lailah felt as if she had been unknowingly cornered.

She could tell that Nubia was largely done with the conversation, but she could also feel Tatiana’s golden eyes on her, urging her to say something.

But Lailah, for all of the boundless knowledge within her mind, had no idea what she was supposed to say.

“This is just… the way I am, darling. I don’t have the luxury of sharing my kindness with everyone because they may try to take advantage of it. My nature is simply one of defense more than anything.”

Lailah felt the look Tatiana was giving her change. She remained unaware if that was because she had made a mistake or slipped up and said something that would prompt introspection.

“Defense for what?” Nubia questioned. “You are one of the most powerful deities in creation, you rule over a land of infinite wealth and resources and you married not one, but three deities of sex! You have everything, so what reason could you possibly have to not be kind to everyone?”

Tatiana could have asked her the very same thing. But unlike their daughter, she already knew the answer.

“Have we come at a bad time..?” A new voice asked.

The three women looked up at the doorway and found that the guards had returned with two more guests.

This time, when Lailah saw them her pupils shook like leaves in a storm.

Two deities appeared before her, both clad in the traditional Egyptian garments for their sex.

They were a pairing like night and day. The woman had dark blue skin laden with sparkly flecks, while the man had deep green skin matching vibrantly dressed forests.

“It’s been so long that we just decided to pay you a visit, but perhaps we should have just come a little earlier…” Geb scratched his cheek.

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