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Sundai, Aja, Sean and many others watched as copper Birth drew his wings wide and flew for the first time. He was powerful, but a bit wobbly in the air.

Birth settled on the ground, and Sapadt lept from his broad shoulders. "That was fantastic," he breathed.

"Great, great," Sean said, there was an odd look on her face just then, pained and concerned.

"Sean, are you -" Sapadt started to say, but one of the nearby healers rushed forward to help.

"She's in labor - we should go up to the infirmary," he said.

"What is labor?" Birth asked, tilting his head.

"It's... um," Sapadt said, not quite knowing what to do. He wanted to answer his dragon, but he also wanted to tend to his wife. His queen - Sean was going to be showing the world that they could in fact have human and kin children.

"I will wait until it's over," Birth said, "Ajan is going to tell me what is happening. Aren't you?"

Of course I am, Aja told him. She butted Sapadt's shoulder, Go on. Be with her. This is her first time, too you know. Go.

The copper was easily twice the size of any given rare dragon, and he was remarkably protective of Sean's baby in addition to his own rider and their other companions. Birth barely let anyone else near Sean when she had brought her baby out the first time.

"You've got to let her out sometimes," Sapadt grumbled. "And we've got to get flying. Now come on. The castle will be waiting."

"I am glad that you have a plan to keep them safe." Birth said. "Otherwise I would have to keep you both away from the masses."

"The masses will have to see the baby too, Birth," Sapadt told his dragon, sternly.

"But -" The dragon started to protest, but Sean herself strode up to the big copper.

"Look, Birth, I'm fine. The baby's fine. See?" She held up the little boy. He had a fine coat of her white fur, soft, with yellow markings in the same place as his mother - but in the blond-color that his father's hair gave him. At barely six months old, he still had bright blue eyes, but neither parent knew how long they would remain that way.

"We're going to the castle now," Sapadt announced to anyone who would listen, they had packed up already and half the Lantessama staff wondered why they were taking so long. Obviously, the protective dragon was part of the reason!

***

When the pair of oddly mismatched riders got home, it was barely a few weeks after they had left. They knew that leaving and coming back immediately would be confusing to people - so they claimed they were on a trip. That trip turned rather interesting.

When not just one white marked dragon came flying back - but three, people below in the city Gelgela almost panicked. But all the dragons - including the little red one which lept deftly from rooftop to rooftop - were eventually welcomed warmly.

First the castle buzzed. Was that a baby in Sean's arms? How in the world could that have happened with those ... creatures? The Usagi Shimai and humans could breed?

Sapadt announced their child had been born while on their trip, a triumph for everyone in the area. He truly wanted to have this event bring together the Usagi and human kind. But obviously there was still a bit of hesitation on everyone's part.

Sean wasn't 'really' one of the Sisterhood, was she? She looked it, but they hardly knew where she really came from. The younger of the Shimai thought the idea was great - they had lost almost all their men - those who were alive and in hiding had come back to the villages after Sapadt reclaimed his throne. But they were mostly middle aged, those who had been younger were uniformly killed or sold as slaves to far off lands. They would probably never be rescued.

So that left the human men. Sean promised the girls that in fact, some of the humans were quite good at being civil. And it would just depend on who they found.

"Besides, if they give you any trouble, you're battle mages. Just kick their butts!" She added.

"Saichu agrees," Sapadt said, as his pale-furred and chunky-eared son grasped on to his nose and pulled. "He wants his mother."

"He wants to learn how to summon the undead," Sean laughed.