Chapter 196: DEER PAPAAAA! DON’T LOTH MY TOOF!

Chapter 196: Chapter 196: DEER PAPAAAA! DON’T LOTH MY TOOF!

Swanly tore away.

Miko was staring at them.

His little gap was on full display.

Kairo was still in Kael’s arms, looking deeply betrayed.

Nilo had both hands over his eyes.

Unfortunately, his fingers were spread apart.

Swanly’s face caught fire.

"Miko!"

He pointed.

"Thnake Papa ith eating Mama!"

"He is not!"

Kairo looked at Soren suspiciously.

"You tell uth not to bite."

Soren did not even look embarrassed.

"I did not bite her."

Miko gasped.

"You put your mouf on her!"

Soren looked at Swanly.

Then back at Miko.

"Yes."

"THAT’TH WORSE!"

Kael finally stepped in.

His black tail had been lashing behind him for the last several breaths.

He pulled Swanly out of Soren’s arms.

Soren let her go.

Barely.

Kael settled Swanly against his side.

Swanly looked up.

"Jealous?"

"No."

His ears were flat.

His tail was twice its normal size.

Swanly stared.

Kael stared back.

"Not jealous."

Soren glanced at his tail.

"Clearly."

Kael’s golden eyes sharpened.

Soren looked away.

Miko whispered to Kairo:

"Papa ith jealous."

Kairo nodded.

"Very."

Nilo added quietly:

"He lookth angry."

Kael slowly turned.

Three cubs immediately found other things to look at.

Then Nilo suddenly poked his loose tooth.

His face changed.

"Papa."

Kael’s attention snapped back.

"What?"

"It moved again."

Kairo immediately forgot Soren.

"So did mine before it fell!"

Miko rushed over.

"Let me pull it!"

Nilo screamed.

"NO!"

He ran.

Miko chased him.

"I CAN HELP!"

"STAY AWAY!"

Kairo wriggled out of Kael’s arms.

"WAIT FOR ME!"

He joined the chase.

Swanly stared after them.

Three little black tails disappeared around the shelter.

Miko’s voice carried back:

"OPEN YOUR MOUF!"

Nilo screamed:

"MAMAAAA!"

Swanly closed her eyes.

"My children."

Kael rubbed her shoulder.

"Our children."

Soren calmly adjusted his sleeve.

"Kael’s children."

Kael turned.

"You were Snake Papa five breaths ago."

Soren’s face remained cool.

"I have reconsidered."

Swanly laughed again.

Then the western side of Ironwood erupted in shouting.

All three adults stopped.

Soren’s amusement vanished first.

Kael’s ears snapped upright.

Swanly’s head turned.

Wood slammed against stone.

Large wings beat beyond the walls.

Then Raku’s furious voice carried across the settlement.

"DO NOT PUT THAT THERE!"

Someone shouted back:

"We are outside your boundary!"

"THEN PUT YOUR UGLY SHELTER FARTHER OUTSIDE!"

"It is not ugly!"

"It has six holes!"

"They are ventilation!"

Swanly stared toward the wall.

"What now?"

Soren closed his eyes briefly.

Kael sighed.

"The Veskari."

Of course.

The cubs came racing back at the word.

Kairo first.

Obviously.

"What happened?"

"Nothing you are joining," Swanly said immediately.

Three faces fell.

Kairo pointed toward the noise.

"But..."

"No."

Miko tried:

"Mama..."

"No."

Nilo quietly asked:

"Can we just look?"

Swanly looked at him.

He closed his mouth.

"No."

Kairo lifted the tiny tooth he was still carrying.

"I need to thow people."

Swanly’s heart nearly betrayed her.

Nearly.

"You can show the whole settlement later."

"But..."

"Kairo."

His ears drooped.

Swanly crouched and kissed his forehead.

"My brave eldest cub will stay here with his brothers."

He immediately straightened.

"Protecting?"

"Yes."

That worked.

His chest puffed.

"I’ll protect them."

Miko gasped.

"I don’t need protecting."

Kairo looked at him.

"You were thtuck in a roof yesterday."

"That wath one time!"

Nilo whispered:

"It wath very high."

Miko pointed.

Swanly turned toward Tilla as she approached.

"Please keep them here."

Tilla looked at the three cubs.

Then at Swanly.

Her expression became exhausted before anything had even happened.

"I’ll try."

"Thank you."

Swanly pointed at Miko.

"No climbing."

"I know."

At Nilo.

"No disappearing."

"I know."

Then Kairo.

"And no deciding ’protecting’ means chasing after us."

Kairo immediately looked guilty.

He had absolutely been planning that.

"Yes, Mama."

Swanly narrowed her eyes.

"Promise."

"I promith."

Good enough.

She turned.

Miko suddenly gasped behind her.

"My toof!"

Swanly stopped.

"What?"

"It’th thtill with Deer Papa!"

Then he screamed toward the opposite side of Ironwood:

"DEER PAPAAAA! DON’T LOTH MY TOOF!"

And ran.

"Miko!"

Tilla ran after him.

Kairo immediately followed.

"I have to thtop him!"

Nilo sighed and went after both.

"I’ll bring them back."

Swanly stared.

Kael stared.

Soren stared.

A few seconds passed.

Soren said calmly:

"Excellent protection."

Swanly elbowed him.

Then another shout erupted from the western wall.

This time much louder.

They turned toward it.

The Veskari had decided that if Ironwood would not let them inside...

They would simply live outside it.

Their temporary camp stretched through the trees beyond Soren’s claimed boundary.

Large hides had been stretched between trunks.

Platforms rested high in branches for the winged warriors.

The Ground-Hoof Veskari had cleared flatter sections below.

Weapons.

Supplies.

Watch positions.

Enough people to make it very clear they had absolutely no intention of leaving.

Korran stood near the front directing warriors with increasingly angry gestures.

"This side!"

A Veskari moved a support pole.

"No, not there!"

He moved it back.

Korran’s eye twitched.

Swanly leaned toward Raku.

"How long has this been happening?"

"Too long."

Lyssara approached the boundary.

"We will not interfere with your settlement."

Soren stared at the camp.

"You are establishing an army outside my walls."

"A temporary camp."

"It has watch platforms."

"We have wings."

"It has weapons."

"We are not idiots."

Behind Lyssara, Azren’s voice came cheerfully from above.

"Some of us are."

Everyone looked up.

He was hanging upside down from a branch.

By his knees.

Again.

His long black hair hung toward the ground.

His six wings were folded awkwardly behind him.

One chain still circled his waist.

Another hung from one wrist.

Swanly stared.

"How did you get up there?"

Azren smiled upside down.

"Effort."

Lyssara slowly closed her eyes.

Veyra looked ready to jump into a river.

Korran pointed.

"GET DOWN."

"I am comfortable."

"You were chained to that stone!"

Azren looked toward a large boulder twenty steps away.

A length of empty chain remained wrapped around it.

"Yes."

"How did you..."

"Poorly."

"That does not answer anything!"

Azren swung slightly.

Then spotted Swanly.

His face brightened.

"Pretty female."

Swanly kept walking.

"Pretty female."

Nothing.

"Swanly."

Nothing.

"My future beloved."

Swanly stopped.

Turned.

"Do you want another chain?"

Azren grinned.

"She speaks to me."

Veyra’s claws flexed.

Swanly continued walking.

Azren called:

"You look beautiful today."

"You said that yesterday."

"You were beautiful yesterday too."

"Shameless."

"Consistent."

Kael’s tail lashed.

Soren looked ready to poison the tree.

Azren smiled at both of them.

Then returned his attention to Swanly.

He had made appearances like this all morning.

First sitting on the boulder outside the boundary with enough chains around his waist to trap a mammoth.

Then somehow on top of the boulder.

Then on a low tree limb.

Now upside down from a higher one.

Nobody knew how.

His people had stopped asking politely.

Veyra finally snapped:

"Why do you keep escaping?"

Azren thought.

"It gives everyone purpose."

Korran made a sound that barely qualified as language.

Then Azren’s antennae moved.

Only once.

His smile remained.

But Swanly noticed.

His pale-violet eyes shifted away from her.

Toward the northwestern side of Ironwood.

The playful look disappeared for half a heartbeat.

Then returned.

Interesting.

Swanly slowed.

Azren was still upside down.

Still smiling.

But one of his lower wings had gone completely still.

He looked toward the drainage trench beside Ironwood’s outer wall.

Then toward the trees.

Then at the sky.

"Swanly."

Something in his voice had changed.

She looked back.

"What?"

"Move the cubs away from your northwestern shelters tonight."

Soren’s face hardened.

Kael stepped closer to Swanly.

Raku immediately looked toward the trench.

"Why?"

Azren shrugged.

"Because I am handsome and mysterious."

Korran roared:

"AZREN."

Azren sighed.

His silliness dropped again.

"The wind changed."

Swanly frowned.

"So?"

"Not the air above."

One antenna twitched.

"The air below."

Everyone went still.

Nerin was not there.

The scouts had reported nothing.

Soren walked toward the boundary.

"Explain."

Azren unfolded one wing slightly.

"The small insects stopped nesting along that side this morning."

Raku’s eyes narrowed.

Azren continued.

"The ground scent is wet."

"It rained recently," Kael said.

"Not that wet."

Azren pointed toward the trench.

"And the cold air coming through those stones is stronger than yesterday."

Swanly looked.

She had noticed nothing.

Azren’s expression became unexpectedly sharp.

"Something beneath that side opened."

Silence.

Then:

CRACK.

A dull sound came from the northwestern ground.

Everyone turned.

One of the guards shouted from the wall.

"Raku!"

Another:

"THE DRAINAGE STONES MOVED!"

Soren’s head whipped toward Azren.

Azren was smiling again.

Upside down.

Insufferable.

"See?"

Raku was already running.

Kael followed.

Soren barked orders.

"Clear that section! Nobody enters the lower shelters!"

Warriors moved.

Swanly stayed where she was for one second.

Just one.

Looking at Azren.

He had noticed before the guards.

Before Ironwood’s scouts.

Before anyone sounded an alarm.

While hanging upside down from a tree and flirting like he had nothing more useful inside his skull than pretty words.

Azren met her eyes.

His smile softened.

"What?"

Swanly narrowed hers.

"You knew."

"I often do."

"You act stupid on purpose."

His antennae twitched.

For a tiny moment, something much older and smarter looked back at her from those glowing eyes.

Then he grinned.

"I have no idea what you mean."

There.

Gone again.

Swanly stared at him.

So that was his game.

Make everyone laugh.

Make everyone irritated.

Make everyone underestimate him.

Then quietly notice everything.

Behind him, Veyra had gone still.

She was not watching Azren.

She was watching Swanly.

Watching the exact moment Swanly stopped seeing the crown prince as merely an irritating flirt.

Veyra’s icy-blue eyes darkened.

Her hand curled slowly around the chain in her fist.

And this time...

Swanly noticed that too.

(Only one Chapter today🫩)