Chapter Text
Honest to gods, dragons. Mother fucking dragons.
It was the sole thought twisting through Riley’s head. This was his sisters’ big solution to their money problems? Granted Riley knew that even dragon dung was quite pricey at the right markets, but fostering dragons? Taking dragons to high school?! The whole situation was ridiculous and asking for trouble.
“Ah, Mister and Misses Riordan, let me just say again, how impressed I am with your decision to take these noble creatures into your home” said a man that Riley had never seen before. And when compared to the massive creatures behind him he was not particularly noteworthy.
“Oh, well, of course, we’re happy to help. But just checking; we do get paid for this right?” Wren was quick to respond. Riley looked at his sister, and did nothing to hide his little grin. Tactful, his sister was not.
The man snorted and nodded “Yes you will be getting $500 a week per tenant. I believe you said that you could house five?”
“Yes, that’s what I said on the phone, our house has been in the family for generations and is practically a mini mansion. It will be nice to have it full again” Wren replied. Riley could imagine the calculations forming already in Wren’s mind, they’d be able to pay all current bills this week, and would be able to pay all outstanding debts within a few months, so the only drama should come from feeding and clothing five soon-to-be-human-in-appearance dragons.
Meanwhile, Riley hadn’t taken his eyes off the two red beasts. From what Riley recalled from some of his dads’ books, he was looking at two European Reds. The larger of the two was a deep burgundy, with bronze spikes running down its spine. The other had a shorter snout and a slim build which was covered with bright red scales that shone with copper tones in the light and spikes that were a red so deep they almost appeared black. Both had black membranes covering their wings and sharp gold eyes.
“This is Taminofynn” the man gestured to large brutish dragon, “and his kin, Sierrafynn” he nodded towards the slenderer dragon. “They were sun baking and therefore quick to find, the others should be along shortly and then we can get started with the ritual and signing the last of the forms to get you on your way. If you’ll just excuse me” The man left with little fanfare.
Wren eyed the dragons warily before turning to Riley. “So, you’re definitely okay with this yeah?”
“You mean; am I okay with taking in a few endangered creatures that in the last few months have been getting mysteriously slaughtered? Protecting them by hiding them in plain sight? Protecting them by taking them with me to the hell known as high school five days a week? Essentially babysitting them until the culprits are found? Yeah I’m okay with that.” Riley shrugs. “How hard can it be?”
That was essentially the gist of it to Riley’s knowledge. In the last six months twenty dragons had been killed, which is a feat as dragons are notoriously hard to kill despite their endangered status. The magical community had tried various schemes to prevent the apparent culling but it had all been for naught. Whoever was doing this was a powerful magic user. A few weeks ago, the call had come out looking for ‘foster’ homes as it were. It was more like witness protection though.
“Wren! Riley!” a familiar voice called out. Turning around, the Riordan siblings grinned as Tony, a family friend entered the warehouse. “I heard that you two were taking in a few of my friends.” Tony had worked with their father at a few dragon reserves.
“Yeah, well the cash moneys were a big incentive” Wren grimaced. The mood suddenly plummeted.
“Right.” Tony mumbled. “I heard you guys were having some trouble since your mum went missing.” Eight months ago, their mum had simply vanished, leaving Wren to handle the house and bills and taking care of Riley, all without access to any of their parents’ money. Riley felt immense guilt at the burden that his sister had had to take on.
Their vastly depressing conversation was interrupted as the large double doors to the warehouse opened and in walked more of the massive animals. The two red dragons were bigger, standing at twice the height of a large horse, but the two dragons that entered were just as grand. One was an Asiatic breed, with a long serpentine body with four bird-like legs covered in shimmering golden scales with a mane of gold feathers and no wings. Its large mouth appeared to be smiling. It stood only a head or two higher then Riley. The other dragon was only a few feet taller again, with wings that attached to its front limbs. The icy blue of its eyes seemed almost white while the rest of its colouring was a deep black with a few silvery spines. Peeking out behind them was an animal about the size of a large dog, with bottle green shimmering fish-like scales. It had spines on the back of its legs and large webbed feet, though it seemed to be perched on its toes. It had a tangled black and green mane, though it was impossible to tell whether it was hair or feathers or sea weed. Its eyes were large, taking up most of its face and yet it was impossible to distinguish the colour as they seemed to constantly shift between yellow and green and blue as they caught the light.
“Hey boys!” Tony says, suddenly cheerful again. The black and gold dragons seem to bow in recognition while the small green one tilts its head and makes a cooing noise in the back of its throat. “Wren, Riley, let me introduce Mao Long and Loreli” Tony gestured to the gold dragon and then the black. “Oh and the little one in the back is Bronte.”
“Bronte?” Wren raises an eyebrow.
“Yeah, he communicates with weird clicking and purring sounds so we don’t know his actual name. So, he got named Bronte by one of the staff at the Rookwood reserve. He seems to like it well enough.”
“Cool, so even more boys in the house?” Riley smiles.
“Dear gods.” Wren groans.
“It’s okay Wren, you’ve got Sierra to back you up. Trust me that is all you’ll need.” Tony grinned. The slender red dragon, which Riley had somehow forgotten was in the room, swished her tail suddenly and puffed up her chest, clearly happy with the praise. “Ah, Mr Daniels is heading over, it’s about time to get this show on the road!” the man from earlier was heading over to their small group with three women behind him, all wearing the official robes of the magic council. “Riley, kiddo, you should probably wait outside while this happens.”
“What? Why?” Riley frowned.
“Well there’s about to be an R rating on this room, what with the five naked not-quite-people about to appear.” Tony said as he gestured to the waiting dragons.
“Oh.” Was all Riley managed to get out before whirling on his heel and making his way to the door, a blush staining his cheeks. Standing in the small lounge area they had been waiting in earlier that day, Riley’s shoulders slumped. He knew they needed to do this for the money, not to mention that it was for a good cause, but to suddenly have all these new faces in their lives, around their house when Wren and Riley had barely had time to deal with the fact that their lives had gone to shit, was just absurd. He still couldn’t believe this was happening, couldn’t believe that their mother had put them in this situation, couldn’t believe she was selfish enough to run away from her family before her children had even had time to process the fact that their father had just died. Hadn’t had time to deal with their dad leaving one morning for work, never to be seen alive again. That in one afternoon while they were none the wiser, their lives were ruined. That their dad was killed by one of the creatures he loved and took care of.
That their father was killed by a dragon.