Chapter Text
Damian quickly slipped through the damp, cool hallways of his family home, careful to stick to the shadows. Four claws padded along the stone of the floor, tail tip grasped in his jaws. There was shouting--somewhere up ahead--but he did not let himself be deterred.
Steps came towards him, and so Damian paused. But when the figure of his mother came around the corner, perked up again and trotted toward her. Mother's lips flickered for just a moment into the faintest of smiles as she picked him up, making a soft coo as her soft hands ran over his scales. Softly, she murmured, "It is time, my darling."
"Talia," a voice came from the darkness. Damian dropped his tail as he turned towards the form of his grandfather.
"Father," his mother spoke calmly, a touch of ice in her tone.
"It seems there has been quite an uproar," Grandfather mused, piercing gaze seeming to bore into Damian's hide.
"So it seems," Talia agreed, voice even. "I suppose you should look in on that."
Grandfather was quite for a moment before his head tilted towards her. "So I should."
The air was tense, and Damian dared not twitch claw nor tail.
Finally, Ra's al Ghul left, without aknowledgement or spoken warning. The warning was implied in any case.
Mother's lips pursed, and she turned to quickly glide down the hallways in the opposite direction. Damian looked up, catching movement. The fabric around his mother's shoulders rippled before a pale snout poked out, blue eyes meeting Damian's own green.
A wave of relief spread from Damian's chest, and he reached out with his onyx snout to gently nudge against his twin.
Mother hummed gently to them both, pausing for a moment to look around a corner before darting into her own private rooms. She put Damian down on the daybed first, before maneuvering his twin to sit next to him.
The two curled up together, scale glinting and melding together in the low lights of the room. They waited for their mother to disrobe, to shift and change until an elegant copper serpentine form much bigger than they stood beside them.
Talia's emerald eyes peered down at her hatchlings before her great head bent down to scoop them up with her maw. Damian's twin chirruped at her, as Damian's own limbs gave an instinctual twitch. He noted that his brother had gained a new scar, a pale gash of a thing along his abdomen that broke through the soft hatchling scales. And along his leg was a wound still red and raw and new.
The great Eastern dragon carried her clutch out of the compound, ducking and squeezing through the tunnels and crevices hidden to those who lacked her slim and graceful form.
She emerged out in the sands, the new moon making the cool of the desert seem sinister. Even the flecks of platinum that hid amongst Damian's dark scales, and the rose gold amongst his twin's were invisible, usually shining even under the faintest of moonbeams. But it seemed the few stars that were out on this new moon night were unable to catch them.
The cold winds racing across the sands made Damian shiver, and his eyelids grow heavy. A familiar tail curled around his own, and he took comfort in it.
Mother moved still, but Damian could not tell where as some deep-ingrained hatchling instinct overtook him, and he went to sleep.