First Demonic Dragon

It would be nice to say that after the examinations got underway, the judging followed swiftly afterwards.

However, that simply wasn't the case.

Instead of the exam, everyone was much too focused on the small human girl who was darting from dragon to dragon in the room.

As always, she was a never-ending flurry of questions and observations.

*To Darius* "Why are you so short compared to all the other dragons I've seen?"

*To Jasmine* "How long have you and big sister Thea been married?"

*To Belphegor* "Do you have a caffeine addiction?"

*To Darius* "Why do you have gold teeth?"

*To Asmodeus* "What was my dad like as a baby?"

*To Kirina* "Why do my siblings say you can't cook?"

*To Absalom* "How many weights did you have to lift to get that big?"

*To Darius* "Are you an alcoholic??"

Sitting on a sofa towards the back of the room, Abaddon smiled softly to himself as sipped his own coffee.

As one might've expected, Courtney was a bit different from all of Abaddon's children.

Where most of them had a tendency to be a little reserved, his youngest wasn't anything like that.

She was polite, cheerful, and so overtly friendly it was like she'd never heard the words 'stranger danger' in her entire life.

Abaddon would have been more concerned about her if he didn't trust everyone here with his life.

Sitting on opposite sides of him, Thea and Mira were smiling at their new sister fondly.

"She's very cute, father. I think the boys will be jealous that I got to meet her before them." Thea smiled.

"Tell them to come home sometimes." Abaddon shrugged. "They shouldn't be so focused on women that they forget about their parents."

"I'll tell them, but I don't know how much they'll really listen. This is their first opportunity to make friends, you know?"

A glint of intrigue shone in Abaddon's eyes.

"So they get along well with Nyx's son then?"

"Uhh, yea! They're all becoming fast friends."

"I see… I suppose I will have to do without them for the time being then." He nodded.

He didn't want to be a bad father and ruin his children's chances to form friendships after all.

Thea watched Courtney literally crawl into the lap of one of the Euphrate shoulders so that she could ask him about his face tattoos.

"I never thought I would see the day you would adopt another human child."

"You aren't jealous, are you?" He asked warily.

"Of course not… I'm just feeling a lot of different things right now, but I promise none of them are negative."

It was then that Abaddon realized that Courtney's introduction might have opened up a new avenue with Thea.

He knew full well that she felt a bit isolated being the only human in a world full of dragons, but now that Sif was here and Courtney was apart of the family, he hoped she would feel less like such an outlier.

But he quickly remembered the reason why that plan wouldn't work.

Not two seconds after he remembered, Courtney came rushing back over like a speeding bullet and launched herself into his lap.

"Daddy, I just realized that everybody has horns but me! I want to be something with horns!"

Abaddon chuckled as he combed his fingers through her hair. "We talked about this already, you little hooligan. I'll turn you into whatever you want when you turn sixteen and not a day before."

"But why do I have to wait so longgg??"

"What exactly would you have me turn you into?"

"Oh, a dragon!… Wait wait, a werewolf! Ooh-ooh-ooh, a wight! O-Or maybe a-"

Abaddon flicked his daughter on the nose. "This is why we're waiting until you're bigger. Having my eyes will have to do for now."

"Awwh…"

Truthfully, Abaddon could alter the genetic makeup of a person almost as many times as he wanted.

BUT!

It wasn't a good idea.

DNA, human or otherwise, was not meant to repeatedly change and alter itself over and over again from one extreme to the other.

The first couple of times would naturally be fine, but around the 50th time or so there would start to be side effects.

Deteriotion of muscle mass, development of intellectual disabilities, loss of magical power and growth potential, etc.

It just wasn't something he wanted to see happen to his indecisive daughter.

Besides… Abaddon hardly ever got to have normal children around!

Nevi'im babies grow quickly because they share the memories of their predecessors and kin, so their intelligence skyrockets rapidly.

This combined with their natural ability to polymorph makes them 'age' themselves up faster.

Although they are still counted as children within dragon society until they reach a hundred full years of age.

"Cheer up." Abaddon smiled. "Let your sister take you to get some breakfast so you can gain a little weight."

Abaddon placed Courtney in Mira's lap and the two of them smiled cutely, looking like peas in a pod.

"Don't let her just eat junk, Mira. Make sure she has plenty of fruit too."

"I got it, I got it!"

Mira got up and carried her sister to the buffet table on the other side of the room.

Not a second after she left, Abaddon realized the error of his ways and nudged Thea.

"You want me to make sure they don't both just eat pastries, huh?"

"…If you don't mind." He admitted.

Thea laughed to herself and kissed her father on the cheek before getting up to follow them.

With them gone, he turned to his only remaining child sitting in this section.

Straga was normally pretty talkative too, but as of right now he hadn't opened his mouth to say a peep.

His arms were folded across his chest and there was a rather serious look on his face as he stared at a specific magical monitor.

Abaddon could feel his son's discontent with him, and he would be lying if he said that he didn't know what it was about.

Or that it didn't bother him.

'Straga… she knows the risks and willingly agreed to this.' He said telepathically.

The dragon prince's eyes burned orange as he scooted even further away from his father.

'She didn't know what the test would be beforehand! You've made this too hard for her, father, she could get really hurt! Monica is only a fire spirit!'

Abaddon rubbed his temples to the point that a layer of skin almost came off with it.

At times like this, he envied Lisa and Eris.

Since they were basically deities of warmth and motherhood, any child no matter the variety who was considered an adolescent or younger would listen to them without a fight and it tended to make parenting a real breeze.

It also helped that they were genuinely compassionate and caring mothers.

But for Abaddon and the rest of his wives, the best he could do was follow the example they set.

…And he was on his own anyway since they were both still asleep.

'You could have atleast aided her by having her start in a better area!' Straga continued. 'She's at a near total disadvantage in-'

'Son. I thought you loved Monica.'

'W-What? Of course I do, but-'

'It doesn't sound like it right now. Seems as if you have no sort of faith or confidence in her whatsoever.

Saying that she needs someone to bend the rules for her? That she is 'just a fire spirit'. Can you even hear yourself?'

'I-I didn't mean-'

'How do you think she would feel if she heard those things? To know that you held no belief in her abilities?'

Straga hung his head low as he tried to resist the urge to lose his composure.

'I just… want her to be safe.'

Abaddon felt his headache lessen to a nonexistent degree and he realized that his son was simply dealing with a lot of new emotions he didn't know how to process.

And as his father, he felt it was his duty to help him sort them out.

'…Before you were born, your mother lost her eye in a battle. I was away at the time seeking mastery of spiritual magic and the spirit domain as a whole and I was moments too late to intervene.

I vanquished our enemy of course. But in the aftermath of the struggle I had a hard time looking at your mother.

Not because I found her to be any less beautiful, but because I saw her wound as a symbol of my failure. Of my inability to protect her.

But Bekka helped to remind me that she had her own identity outside of being my wife and an empress.

She is now, and always has been, a warrior. And sometimes, warriors and wounds must go hand in hand. It is the life we choose, and it is a decision everyone is entitled to.

I'm not saying that you cannot fear for her or harbor your own worries internally; as it would be hypocritical of me to do so.

But you cannot let your own fears cast aspersions on their ability.

If you love her like you say you do, and if you think she is worthy of bearing the Tathamet name, then all that you can do is believe in her and watch her grow.

Leave the rest in her hands and those of the fates. Whatever path she walks is one she has already built herself up for.'

At that moment, Mira and Courtney returned with individual plates.

…There wasn't a single lick of fruit on either of them.

Abaddon looked around for Thea who was supposed to be playing the role of sugary gate keeper, but he found her on the other side of the room.

She was sitting in Jasmine's lap, and the two of them were watching the examinations together and jotting down the occasional note or two.

The dragon felt a massive migraine forming again.

He looked towards Straga, who he considered his final hope and found that he was in a slightly better mood than before.

…But only slightly.

He had heard ever syllable of his father's message, but like the teenager that he was, he hadn't quite internalized it all yet.

'…If she gets hurt, I'm going to shave your head in your sleep, old man.'

Finally, Abaddon sighed and poured out a silver flask that Darius had given him so that he could make his coffee Irish.

He wasn't usually a day drinker; actually never in fact.

But there were sometimes where it was just called for.

'Kids…'

-

In the middle of a hellish artic blizzard, Monica trecked across the frozen tundra with no real end in sight or way to tell where she was going.

To conceal herself to the best of her ability, the flames of her hair had gone out, and were replaced with a short blonde colored fade similar to Abaddon and Apophis'.

The surrounding cold permeated every inch of her body even with the thick leather armor she wore and her natural incredibly high body temperature.

But even though the conditions were less than preferable, her equipment was negligible, and she had no idea what she was doing, this was the most exciting thing she had ever done in her life!

'Just you wait guys… I'm gonna show you all what I can do on my own and then.. I'll finally become a Nevi'im with you!'

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