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It all started with a ritual.
Pyro had found the book not in the library, but in his own dorm. Despite that, he insisted that he had never seen it before.
Scott believed him because the academy had done weirder things than plop a book in someone’s room.
So they took the book to the ritual room, reading and re-reading the contents to try and figure out what it did.
Surprisingly, it was incredibly vague.
take four legs, and give them two
Right. Ominous.
a hand to hold and a mouth to speak
Huh? If Pyro was right, and this was pertaining to the dragons, Scott was kind of nervous about the implications.
But they did the ritual anyway, and Cindy and Aurora were gently placed in the center before they lit the quartz block and stepped out of the candles.
Scott glanced at Pyro, who had his eyes trained on Cindy, watching her carefully.
The ritual circle did as it always did, drawing in the candle smoke and making it sparkly. There were no signs of them getting duped by a corrupted ritual; the sparkles were the Academy purple and white, no dark purples or blues anywhere to be seen.
That was good, at least.
The smoke obscured their babies, coalescing in the middle. It made the shape of a dragon wing that folded into the shape of a hand.
Uh oh.
Scott figured out very quickly what this ritual was meant to do.
But it was too late, as the final sound went off and the smoke dissipated.
Two little girls sat where their dragons had been.
Where Aurora had been, a little girl with long curls, white with streaks of blue, sat obediently on the stone. She was dressed in a big light blue coat that looked like the ones used for adventuring in Tegrith, open in the front to show off a little knit sweater, white at the shoulders, faded to dark blue at the bottom, embroidered with little snowflakes around the hem. Her pants were brown and looked to be made of hide, with the actual fuzzy part turned in towards the leg to keep in warmth. And her shoes were black leather.
Her gaze turned up towards him as he approached, showing off light blue eyes with a snowflake design where her iris would be, and diamond-shaped pupils. They lit up as he hovered over her. “DAD!”
Despite himself, a tiny smile wormed its way onto his face. “Aurora?”
Her face fell into confusion, staring up at him. “Why do you wook so confoosed?”
Scott nearly melted from pure cuteness right there.
Instead, he said, “You’re not really a dragon anymore, sweetie.”
She looked down at herself, her mouth falling open as she lifted her hands to her face, opening and closing them like the most fascinating things on the planet.
This prompted Cindy, whose rider was still staring in shock, to look down at herself too. “WHAT?!”
Cindy had darker skin than Aurora or Scott, as if she'd spent most of her life in the sun. Her hair was bright red, streaked through with orange, and the underside was colored black. It was cropped to her chin and sported two tiny space buns. She wore a black top and red sailor pants that faded down to orange at the hems. Black Mary Janes over white socks covered her little feet, and her nails were painted black to match her rider.
“Pyro, come pick up your kid,” Scott called, leaning down to scoop Aurora into his arms and tuck the little girl against his chest.
As his hand landed on her back, she squeaked. When he moved it, he noticed two tiny wings poking through the coat. “Sorry, sweet pea,” he murmured. She wrapped her arms around his neck for balance.
“‘S okay, Dad,” she mumbled.
Finally, Pyro managed to spur himself into action, scampering up to Cindy and kneeling to look her in the eyes. “Can you walk?”
Cindy huffed, attempting to push herself onto her feet. Pyro held out his hands instinctively to balance her, helping her take a few steps.
The girls looked about six years old, so their motor skills were probably getting closer to alright. Enough to walk.
Gently, Scott placed Aurora on the ground as well, realizing she should also probably learn to walk on her two legs.
He guided her gently, giving soft encouragement as she took her steps first with him holding her up, then just holding hands, then no help at all.
She squealed as she ran in circles, and Scott smiled as Cindy joined her after a moment.
It was right then when a whole group of students came barreling into the ritual room.
Scott waved, not taking his eyes off the girls running laps.
“Uhm,” Legs said, jumping backwards as Cindy tackled Aurora into his legs. Scott watched as the two began rolling around on the ground, playfighting.
“Greetings,” Pyro said from beside him.
“Whose kids are these?” Juniper asked, poking their head around Legs to stare down at the girls, where Aurora was currently sitting on top of Cindy’s back, pinning her down.
Scott opened his mouth to answer, but was interrupted when Aurora screeched and catapulted herself away from Cindy, running right for Scott. “DAD! CINDY BIT ME!”
Scott scooped her up, even as the gathered student body made various sounds of shock. “Wait, Dad?! Aren’t you like, 23?!” Juniper yelped, eyes going wide.
“I’m Aurora’s dad in the same way you’re Pinecone’s parent,” Scott said evenly, examining Aurora’s arm where the bite mark was. “It didn’t break skin, sweetheart. You’re okay.” he pressed a kiss to her forehead.
“WAIT, THAT’S AURORA?!” Drift yelled, pointing at the little girl in his arms.
She turned around and giggled, waving in Drift’s direction. “Hewwo Fern!”
The dragon in question poked her head over Drift’s shoulder, cooing and purring at Aurora. The little girl giggled again.
“So, there was a ritual,” Pyro said, taking Cindy’s hand in his and leading her towards the group. “The wording was very vague, but it looked interesting enough, so we did it. It turned our dragons into humans.”
“...right.” Legs said, glancing between Pyro’s neutral face and Scott’s adoring one as he stared at Aurora. “Is there a way to reverse it, or do you just have two little girls forever now?”
Scott spoke up for that one. “It sounded like it was on a timer, so I guess we’ll see.”
A few hours later, Scott was returning from working on Thawdale, Aurora strapped to his back in a child carrier. He had picked up a few things from spending so much time around Igna as she grew, and one of those was how to make the wraps to hold the baby on your back. Aurora was playing with the snowflakes he was producing, so he wasn’t too worried about her back there.
He let her down once the recall finished, letting her run around the great hall as he talked to Legs, Graecie, and Micheala. Soon enough, they were joined by Pyro, who removed Cindy from where he was perched on his shoulders and let her play with Aurora, with a strict no-biting rule.
Their conversation was going well enough until a low, monotone voice from behind them said, “How did children get into the academy?”
Scott turned around, smiling as he saw Sir Osteon. “Hello, Osteon. Uh, those girls would be Aurora and Cindy. Pyro and I are working on it.”
Osteon raised an eyebrow. “I fear you will have to give me more context than that.”
“We found a ritual that was incredibly vague in its wording, but we did check to see that it wasn’t corrupted, and we figured it might be fun. It turned our baby dragons into baby humans.” Pyro explained, as Aurora disengaged from Cindy to run right for Scott, who readily scooped her into his arms and planted a kiss on her cheek. She turned around, waving at Osteon. “Hewwo, siw Os-ton!”
Osteon’s purple eyes turned to look at Aurora. “Hello, Aurora. How are you enjoying this new body?”
“Is fun! I can tak ta Dad, I can wun, I can go upstairs wifout hewp!” she said, clapping her little hands together.
“I can keep up with Dad better,” Cindy said, ending her trudge from where she and Aurora had been playing to stand next to Pyro, crossing her arms and leveling cold blue eyes at Osteon.
“I see,” Osteon responded, looking between the girls. “You seem to be more articulate than Aurora, Cindy.”
“‘M missin’ two teef!” Aurora said confidently, pointing at her two missing upper teeth.
“...that you are,” Osteon said, tilting her head at Aurora.
“Something tells me that you aren’t used to children,” Scott commented as he shifted Aurora to sit better in his grasp.
“I am not,” Osteon admitted, examining Aurora and Cindy. “But one of you seems to be a very good parent, and it is not Pyro.”
Despite himself, Scott snorted as Pyro stammered indignantly.
Cindy looked Osteon up and down before tilting her head. “I wonder if we did the ritual on Theodore, Winston, and Aaron, if it would turn him into three separate guys or one guy with three heads.”
“That is a good question, Cindy. I will have to try on my own time.”
Finally, Scott recovered enough to place Aurora back in the wrap. “I’m headed to the resource world. I need sand. Pyro can give you the ritual, if you want it.”
“Wait, Uncle Scott! Can I come with you?” Cindy called, ignoring Pyro’s indignant huff of her name.
Scott looked between her and Pyro, catching the tiny nod his best friend gave. “Sure, Cindy. Let’s go.”
He smiled as the little girl hopped after him, slipping her tiny hand into his larger one as she began to yammer about nothing in particular.
He could get used to this.