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Monsieur Neuvillette was known to be a renowned gentleman.
But there were rumors….
This was expected in a place such as Fontaine.
Rumors of a bride,
a secret marriage,
and a son.
Also of him being a dragon of all things.
All were just speculation of course.
There was never any proof.
And if there ever was proof it would have washed away in the sea of time.
So dear readers of this paper,
I would like to inform that your requests of a story exposing Monsieur Neuvillette by digging up proof or evidence of such claims are understandable but unfortunately declined.
Thank you for your continued support and purchase of this paper.
Sincerely yours,
The Fontaine Steambird.
~🐉⚖️~
“Human legs and arms were never made to swim for as long as we usually do, So today we will be working on shapeshifting.” I said to my grandson.
In response he had just nodded
A grandson, it was still hard to comprehend.
My precious daughter’s child.
The child she had left behind when she left this world.
When her mother had died she had pushed me away.
She knew that I couldn’t do anything but she still somehow decided to blame me.
190 years without contact from my daughter.
Only to find that she had passed.
And her son was left to the care of the House of the Hearth.
In the past few weeks, I had asked him if he wanted to leave and move in with me.
Unfortunately he said he had an obligation to the hearth and couldn’t just walk away.
I understood.
If he had asked me if I was to leave the Court,
I would have given a similar answer.
Freminet was a quiet and reserved child.
He was good at diving and working with mechanics.
And was completely caught unaware that he was part dragon.
Ever since I had found him, I had gotten him to agree to lessons.
Shapeshifting into and out of a dragon form was today’s.
Freminet and I have gotten up and stayed out late the last two days to prepare him for today.
I showed him how to do it but it took him several tries to get in the form.
But he was completely unsuccessful in turning back.
“I’m sorry, I can’t….” Freminet said after failing several times.
“It’s ok, shapeshifting isn’t an easy task. We can move on for now, but we must come back to it at some point today. After all, you can’t go home as a dragon.” I said as a form of comfort, but also not leaving out the reality of the situation.
Freminet nodded then said. “No, I should try again, isn’t it dangerous to be..,”
Before he could finish, a net came down and grabbed Freminet.
I swam closer to save him, but he shook his head, “if you get closer they will try to catch you too. Go!”
He was right,
If I was caught, then no one would be able to save Freminet or himself.
So with great reluctance hee we watched his only family be taken away.
~✨🎩~
When Freminet heard about this, I will never hear the end of it. If freminet was found.
He vanished two days ago.
But unfortunately they couldn’t look for him.
‘Father’ had given Lynette and myself a mission.
Find the hydro dragon and bring him in for questioning.
I was confused at first, had even assumed it was a joke or a punishment.
But low and behold we caught it.
It was smaller than I thought it would be.
Sure it was big, but I had thought the small boat we took out would not have been big enough for him to fit.
But fortunately it was.
We had to use a sleeping tonic on him because he kept trying to swim away.
Not that I would blame him of course, if a dragon had dragged me underwater I would try to get to the surface.
Once we got the dragon to the meeting place, it seemed like I wasn’t the only one who was surprised at the size.
There was a huge cage. Clearly this dragon wasn’t seen for very long.
Once the dragon was in, ‘father’ showed up.
“One hydro dragon as requested, father.” Lynette said.
Father walked up to the dragon and inspected it.
The tonic seemed to wear off while father was doing that.
The dragon opened its eyes and started to look around, clearly confused at where it was.
Then it locked eyes with father.
It glared at her. But father didn’t mind.
“You’re smaller than I thought you’d be.” Father said.
It just blinked at her.
“Not in a speaking mood?” Father taunted.
If it had been anyone other than father, I would have told them not to mess with a dragon.
Fortunately the dragon didn’t seem to understand father.
She looked at the dragon with her glare and surprisingly the dragon backed up and cowered.
“This is the wrong dragon.” Father stated.
Well crap!
“If you want we could go back out.” I suggested.
“Unnecessary, this one is young. The older one will come for it.” Father said as she walked away.
As she was leaving, she said. “Watch that beast!”
Then father was gone.
~❄️🤿~
When I woke, someone was staring at me from behind bars.
I half closed my eyes to focus them.
I was warned about my senses being different when a dragon. I didn’t expect my eyesight to be different.
I realized that father was there.
She had said something but once again I failed a simple task. Understanding English.
Father glared at me. She must be mad at me for being so useless.
I backed up and waited for the blow.
But it didn’t come.
Father just left. But she did yell something but once again I couldn’t understand what she said.
I looked down at my paws in shame.
Wait, paws?
Oh no.
He was a dragon,
father wasn’t mad at him.
She was upset because she got the wrong one.
And the right one was Monsieur Neuvillette.
I was glad I told him to leave me behind.
But he will still come to rescue me.
I had to get out of here.
But how?
I started trying to squeeze through the bars.
But I only got an arm out.
My head didn’t fit through the bars either.
So I tried ramming into the bars.
Then a voice yelled at me.
I looked over to see Lyney.
I put my head down so he could look at him better.
Lyney slowly put his hand on my snout.
I tried to let him know that it was me but it sounded like a purr.
Apparently relaxing a little helped with the language barrier because I heard Lyney say “Hey Lynette did you know that dragons can purr?”
~🐈⬛🎩~
I rolled my eyes.
“You were supposed to stop it from banging its head. Not pet it!” I stated.
“I Can multitask.” Lyney said. Then proceeded to stick his tongue out.
The dragon seemed to be enjoying the petting.
But this was a mission not the time to be petting a prisoner.
“Do you think father would let us keep him?” Lyney asked.
“ Absolutely not! This is serious!” I said.
“So am I, father let you have that litter of kittens. Why can’t I have a pet dragon?” Lyney asked.
He’s messing with me on purpose and I know it!
But I like this type of game.
“My kittens fit through the door, this thing is huge! He is bigger than the first floor.” I said
The dragon flinched when I said ‘thing’
Apparently the dragon didn’t like being called that.
“Besides, you don’t even know what to call her! Let alone what to feed her!” I stated.
The dragon rolled his eyes.
“See what you did! You offended him!” Lyney said.
“What makes you think the dragon is a guy?” I asked.
“What makes you think he’s a girl?” Lyney asked.
“Here let’s ask the dragon, O hydro dragon, are you a girl?” I said Sarcastically.
To my surprise the dragon shook its head,
“Ha, you see that? I knew you were a guy!” Lyney said as he stuck his tongue out at me.
The dragon responded with a laugh.
“So Monsieur dragon, would you like to come home with us?” Lyney asked.
I slapped my head.
This wasn’t going to end well.
~🤿❄️~
Home,
Everything has been so crazy recently he has hardly been home.
I hadn’t even seen Pers today. I rushed out the door this morning and didn’t say goodbye.
I know it’s stupid to say goodbye to a child’s toy but Pers is the only thing I have from my old life with my mom. The mom I thought I knew.
Except I didn’t really know her.
She was a dragon.
Like Monsieur Neuvillette.
And like me!
I felt the tears stream down.
Crap,
I’m usually much better at this.
I guess with the changes and the bottling everything up my emotions finally decided it was time to rebel
“Do you see what you did Lyney? You made him cry.” Lynette said accusations clear in her voice.
“I didn’t mean to.” Lyney stated.
I tried to stop.
I really did.
But I guess I’m just useless.
I can’t even stop them from fighting.
“You stop him from crying, I’ll watch for father’s return.” Lynette said.
Lyney sighed then looked back at me.
~✨🎩~
After standing there silently, I came up with an idea.
“Do you want to see a magic trick?”
The dragon nodded while trying to stop the tears.
So I started a basic trick.
“Here, you see it’s an ordinary hat.” I said while showing the dragon the inside of my hat.
The dragon nodded.
“Wait a minute, there’s something inside? Rosseland you aren’t supposed to be in this hat.” I said, faking shock.
The dragon just stared, not impressed.
“Oh dear, this is my dove hat! Rosseland what did you do with the dove?” I asked my cat.
Rosseland just meowed on cue.
“What’s this? It’s in my assistance hat?” I asked as if that's what Rosseland said.
The dragon rolled his eyes
And then surprisingly spoke,
“You can’t do that trick without Lynette.”
I blinked.
“Did you just…?” I asked the dragon.
The dragon blinked and then covered his mouth.
“You can talk?” I asked the dragon, hoping to sound less idiotic.
Before the dragon could answer, another cage was brought in.
The older hydro dragon.
I could see why father had been surprised.
The older dragon looked straight out of Freminet's fairy tale books.
It was ancient, powerful, and could easily down entire fleets of ships.
“YOU LET HIM GO!” The older dragon yelled.
“Not until you tell me what you have done to what is mine.” Father said.
I had no clue what was going on.
The younger dragon seemed just as confused.
~⚖️🐉~
“What are referring to?” I asked.
I have no clue who these people are.
But I let them capture me.
I needed to make sure my only family left was alright.
“One of my children is a diver. He had vanished 48 hours ago.” The women said.
My grandson looked surprised.
Which lends me to the conclusion that this was the ‘father’ my grandson had referred to.
Which means they already have what they are looking for.
Freminet started to try again to turn back into a human.
It was clear to anyone who knew what he was trying to do that he was completely clueless about it.
I wish I had taught him that before today.
“There are several divers that enter my waters, you are going to have to be more specific.” I said, trying to give freminet more time.
“He looks no older than 16, he is blond, has purplish blue eyes, and is very pale.” She said.
“Umm father, the younger dragon is acting up.” One of Freminet's siblings said.
She looked over at Freminet.
Freminet was looking at me.
Looking for direction.
I sighed and spoke in the language of the dragons “are you sure you want to do this?”
Freminet nodded.
I gave him instructions on how to transform.
While his adopted father was telling us to stop.
She had gotten tired of it, so she turned to me and aimed her gun at my head.
“Father, are you sure that this is the right course of action?” Freminet’s sibling asked.
“Look around Lyney, Freminet is missing and these beasts may be the only chance to find him.” She said.
I closed my eyes, knowing just what kind of gun she had.
It wasn’t going to kill me, it was laced with a truth serum.
I waited for the blow.
But instead of a gunshot, I heard a yell. “FATHER DON’T”
I opened my eyes to see freminet, human once again.
~🐈⬛🎩~
I saw it happen.
I was standing in the shadows when father pulled her gun out.
Then the younger dragon flashed.
Where the dragon once stood, freminet was there.
It wasn’t possible.
Freminet? A dragon? Or was the dragon pretending to be my younger brother?
“Freminet?” I heard father say.
It was so quiet, not usual for father.
Freminet nodded then apologized.
The cage was opened in a moment, Lyney looked out right surprised.
But he clearly believed that the dragon was Freminet.
Freminet, once he was free, ran and hugged father, who was shocked but didn’t push him away.
“Father, I'm so sorry. I should have told you! But please don’t kill him.” Freminet pleaded.
“Freminet this is a dart gun.” Father said.
Freminet released father from the hug and stepped away in embarrassment.
“Lynette, release the dragon.” Father said.
So I did.
Once I did, the dragon walked out of the cell like a lawyer exited the courthouse after winning a case.
“I hope there’s no hard feelings about this Monsieur dragon.” Lyney said.
“Think nothing of it, I know how much I myself would go through if my family was missing.” The dragon said.
Then he started to leave.
Freminet ran up to the dragon and they had a conversation that I couldn’t understand.
But after they were done, Freminet walked back to us.
Lyney and I ran up to him.
Wrapping him in a hug.
Dragon or not.
He was our brother.
And we weren’t letting him slip away again.