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Colorful fabrics and stones; warm and cool places; a nest the size of the room with a huge window and full of pillows. To Cale's eyes, it didn't look like anything was missing, it had a little bit of all the kids' favorite things about other dragon nests and all of it at home.
The only thing that could be said to be missing, perhaps, was a responsible adult dragon. But Cale was there and as a parent that was his place to fill.
Later, he thought, they would have time to personalize it a little more.
Now he just had to bring the babies, his babies.
...
It seemed he needed to get away from the dragons for a bit, their mannerisms were already rubbing off on him.
He sighed and hoped, inwardly, that it would be nice enough that the kids wouldn't miss the other nests too much.
Luckily for him, they were all ecstatic and with bright happy faces that warmed his heart enough to allow himself to smile freely.
He looked at Basen then, who was still at his side even though his eyes screamed that he wanted to join the rest of the babies in their little game of making mini nests around the center of the nest. “Aren't you going to join them?”
“Ah- I don't- I mean, can I?”
The older one just looked at him quizzically, as if he had said some nonsense in another language, “I didn't bring you along to guard the nest, go make one too before they take all the pillows or whatever”
In effect, he had brought his siblings to have the pleasant experience of resting in a nest where they didn't have to worry about anything, especially after seeing how hard they were working for the duchy.
Basen did not make a nest; Hong and Raon in the end preferred to share one; On, as had become her habit, stole the purple blankets and moved away from the rest to have a considerably cooler place than the rest; Lily was considerably near the center but not in it. No, that was still Cale's place, now not because he was weaker but because it made it easier to protect all the babies by being able to completely surround them, and then they could settle in. Hopefully, that wouldn't be necessary.
And it wasn't, they were all able to take a nice long nap while Cale stood guard and read a novel, humming happily at the sight.