(Chrystal)
"What time is it?" I murmured to the solid body laying stoic next to mine, only stirring at the sound of my voice.
"Five-fifty" replied a deep rumbling that belonged to my husband who was beginning to stir himself.
After a moment's pause, he suddenly sat up like someone who had misplaced something, startling anyone who didn't know that this was routine. He leaned over and offered me a kiss on the lips and planted one on my forehead before sliding out of bed and standing at attention, serving attention to the wall in front of him in his boxers. My eyes glazed over my husband's scarred, yet dangerously toned back and I smiled almost sensually, rolling over and coming to stand behind him I wrapped my significantly thinner, yet still toned arms around his hardened abdominal area. He temporarily rested his rough hand over my own, offering me a quick, gentle assurance before moving to the bathroom to shower. I followed him in and took care of my own needs that involved cleaning my teeth and face and dragging a detangling brush through the hair I previously dampened until I was able to muscle it into a bun. As my arms fell to my sides I turned to see that the shower water had cut off and Timothy emerged soon after. I undressed and hopped into the shower as Tim took care of his own hygienic needs and exited the room. I quickly showered and scurried out of the restroom to find Timothy almost completely dressed in his uniform.
"Looks like we slow today, huh?" he chuckled amusedly and I shook my head, giggling slightly.
"Mind ya business." I joked and he smiled and shook his head all while buttoning up his snow-white undershirt.
I gathered my own uniform and slithered into the silken, yet firm fabric until I was fully suited in the material that signified my husband and I's rank as army general. My legs fit snug into slim-fitting pants decorated with a gold stripe down the side, twinning with the blood-red stripe mirroring its actions directly beside it. These twins snaked up the trail of buttons and split into quadruplets and they danced in a sea of navy along the path of the suit collar before finally meeting again at the back of my neck. My patch bearing a crown laying gracefully atop the intertwining of a wand, an ax and adorned at the top with a pair of wings rested right on my breast, mirroring my husband's. A collection of metals adorned both our jackets, glittering like stars and blinding those around us with our accomplishments.
"Six thirty-six were gonna be late." Tim suddenly broke the comfortable silence, grabbing his com and heading for the door, I hurriedly mirrored his actions and dashed outside behind him.
Tim gunned it down down the roads until we reached the guarded fortress that was our beloved King's military base. Towering black walls concealed a massive amount of buildings made of a dreary gray material topped with a midnight black roofing; the walls concealing land covered in weapons, soldiers, and the like. Tim drove up to the gate and upon rolling down his window, he was immediately recognized and ushered in with a bow. After parking in our typical spot, before us appeared two men geared in all-black attire, wearing a slim-fitting layer of solid mesh underneath geometrical pads guarding their shins, knees, calves, chest, back, elbows, and forearms, all topped with a slick-looking helmet whose darkened facial covering glistened as the rising sun took a stab at it. The cherry on top would be the palm-padded gloves that protected their hands accompanied by bulky, yet not impossible to move in knee-high combat boots. They rushed up to us and greeted their generals with a deep bow. Right behind the two, heavy with their 6ft shadow was a pale, thin, and surprisingly short woman sporting stark white-blonde hair and blue-grey eyes, wearing the same uniform, void of the helmet.
"Lady General Chrystal, General Timothy, it's a pleasure to see you two again." the woman bowed and I couldn't help but smile.
"Specialist Kora, how are you this morning?"
The small, yet sturdy, woman's eyes lit up as she folded herself into her own bow of greeting, rising after a second and accepting the wordless offering of a paper stacked clipboard gifted to her by one of the towering golems behind her.
"Fantastic, I hope the two of you are just as well, now please follow me while I lay out the agenda for the day."
Kora then gently flicked her head in the direction of the capital building of the base where all special forces, generals, and high ranking specialists reside and go about their business. On the walk towards the building, Kora led the way as my husband and I were sandwiched between our tour guide and the two specialists behind us that served no other purpose but to alert us of anything that may be awry. In the case of our leader at the moment, Kora has been head of the Specialist Private Forces for as long as my partner and I have held the title of Army Head General. She's been an excellent leader to the privates in our ranks and though she doesn't radiate the same intimidation as those equal of her rank or higher, she has managed to farm the most respect in the least amount of time in comparison to the rest of our leaders. That reason being that she's such an impressive specimen possessing a way of piecing together words that could convince a bear that it was a fish. She's nothing short of a genius and It shocks both my husband and me that she hasn't managed to talk herself into a higher rank yet.
The five of us walked past groups of specialist puppies, or trainees, shaping up in organized packs, racing past us in appropriate cadence, exercising to the rhythm of their handler's yelling and cleaning the vehicles. A group of four full-grown dogs rode past us in one of the trucks, heading towards the vehicle bay. The five of us made our way past one and two-story buildings, each decorated with a bland sign that indicated exactly what that place contained, finally making our way to the big, bad demon whose proper name would be the command center placed smack dab in the middle of all this organized chaos. It's a dark three-story building that, despite it's depressing atmosphere, radiates enough intimidation to make any fresh puppy wet their pants, yet we glided towards the building, bathed in the same distinct atmosphere as our destination,
The two monstrous dogs behind us swiftly moved to open the doors for their three superiors. Upon entering, Kora allowed her clipboard to slide to her side and as quietly as it was handed to her, it was removed and replaced with a dangerously private stack of papers.
"That seems to be all we have for today, General Timothy, I know you're not a fan of the pups but I forgot to mention that you should pay them a visit, especially pack 6, they seem to have quite a few runts in the litter." Kora finished as she straightened the already quite uniform stack of papers in her practiced hands.
I glanced to the side and watched my husband nod as a fresh set of twin dogs, these much smaller, yet much more trained, joined him at his side and he slipped out of the building just as quickly as he was ushered in. Kora then turned to me as she waved for our own set of dogs that quickly slipped into their place at our side.
"I've never been happier that I don't have to deal with those incompetent puppies." I muttered to my underling and she matched my humor with a dry chuckle.
"They're getting more ambitious, haven't you heard? They think disobeying their handler'll make 'em stand out."
"Sure it will, but not in a good way, you gotta be a puppy before you become a wolf." I remarked earning a sly nod for the woman next to me.
Before anything else could be said, our attention was drawn to the commotion erupting outside of the door that we hadn't yet parted from. After sharing a glance, the two of us made our way out the doors held open to us by our assigned dogs, and the both of us dropped to a knee, wearing the same hand sign across our chest.
"My King." We praised in unison and the god of a man in front of us smiled serenely at his pets.
"My wolves, you may rise." A sincere smile decorated his hairy face and upon rising, we caught the eyes of the four guards behind the holy man and offered them a respectful half-bow that was returned with a nod of mutual respect. All of our attention was brought back to our god as he began to speak.
"Please gather the rest of my wolves, I would like to hold an impromptu meeting."
"Right away your highness." Kora and I mimicked each other before rushing back into the building we had just exited to gather our leaders.
I ripped my com from my pocket and switched to the channel created only for ears that had earned the right to the words spoken on this here.
"All wolves please report to the grand meeting room, the King is here and he wishes to hold a meeting immediately, Commander Jem, please teleport the King to the meeting room."
"Roger that, General." The raven-haired man responded as Kora and I raced up to the third floor where all important gatherings, meetings, and trades were held.
I waltzed into the grand and dimly lit room that seemed to span for ages, large sets of candles rested in their places high up on the never-ending walls, portraits of all the Kings in history adorned the room as a massive dark oak table took center stage, decorated with distressingly comfortable, yet still grand, sets of chairs. At the top of this theater of a table arrangement rested a miniature throne, reserved for our King's visits, and today he was resting comfortably in it, looking around the room as his wolves took their places around the table. It is always customary to save the two seats closest to the throne for the two dragons the King appoints. Dragons, better known as the King's personal guards are the highest rank one can reach without being of the royal family, and for the past 10 years, those two seats have sat idle, collecting dust since the forced suicide of the last two dragons. They had betrayed the King and attempted to assassinate him, grossly underestimating the power of our god.
I took my seat across from my husband who was drenched in sweat, the thought of him sparring with the puppies bubbled up a giggle in me that I had to immediately stuff back down my throat for the sake of my own image. Kora sat four seats to my left on the same side of the table, a look to my right brought me almost face to face with god himself, the only thing keeping my husband and me from him was the presence of a single chair.
I glanced across the table and frowned as I took notice of the fact that all of us had taken our seats except for Lieutenant Cryo, the only reason I took notice of his absence was the obvious grimace of his twin sister, who would typically reside in the seat to his right. Lieutenant Reyna met my eyes after my studying of his empty seat and she simply shook her head and averted her eyes. I glanced then at my husband who happened to sit on the same side as the twins, and raised an eyebrow, he responded to my silent inquiry with a subtle rise and fall of his left shoulder as his face rested in his right hand. I pried my eyes from Tim as the King stood. The rest of his pets following and bowing until directed otherwise. He quickly gave us the order to relax and sit as he, himself, was guided back into his previous sitting position by two of his Alphas, who quickly slipped back into their place behind his throne, standing at constant attention.
"My pets! It is a pleasure to see all of you, well…" he trailed off, eyes glittering with humor as they pointed to the question of the hour. "Almost all of you." he chuckled and a nervous and forced chuckle rippled around the table only to be hushed by the silence of our leader.
As if on cue the man of the hour burst through the door, frantic as if something had been chasing him, the alarming nature of his entrance threw the King's guards into action. Two took their place at our god's side whilst the other two held Cryo at attack point, one guard extended a bat-like wing towards the boy's throat while the other held a thin yet sturdy sword at his exposed stomach. He flinched and grimaced, searching for the reassuring gaze of his only family in the room that was promptly refused.
"Please, be at ease my Alphas." The two at Cryo's neck immediately slithered back to their posts and left the fresh Lieutenant panicking and gasping for air. His panicked ocean eyes once again searched the room as if he had never stepped foot into the space in his life.
"What seems to be the matter, my wolf?" the King spoke, voice full of grace and indiscriminate kindness.
It seemed to click in the curly brunette's head exactly who was addressing him and he dropped into an immediate and almost awkward bow.
"Please, be at ease, pet, tell me what seems to be troubling you?"
"N-nothing, I-I apologize my savior." He sputtered and everyone in the room had to stifle a chuckle, all except his sister who sat with her head turned away from the scene before all of us, light brown face hot with embarrassment.
Cryo quickly fumbled to his seat and uncomfortably slid into the chair next to his sibling, he looked to his side attempting to once again meet her eyes and she simply turned the other way until her gaze was forced back in that direction by our King's voice.
"Alright my pets, now that everyone has finally arrived, I believe we can begin this meeting. For the first order of business, how is the pup training coming along?"
Commander Reily spoke up at this, a sturdy, tall, and muscular woman that many joke has a penis swinging between her legs, much larger than the men she trains and answers to. With her dark hair pushed back in a face-pulling bun coupled with her scarred, much too tan skin, she almost resembled a man if you squint and tilt your head a touch to the left.
"All the puppies are coming along well, they will all soon grow into proper dogs to serve you best, my King." She seemed almost pleased with her statement.
"What about pack 6?" I spoke, unable to hold back my grin at the murderous glance shot in my direction. "I heard there were quite a few runts in the pack."
"I know how to handle my packs, general." She snapped and that only widened my smile.
"Well obviously not all of them, yeah?" another poisonous look blasted my way.
"Miss general, I don't think-"
"Cryo I don't think you have much say in this, considering you were the only one late today, hm?" I shot at the boy who had so rudely interjected into my fun.
"Well he's here now, isn't he? Don't take your prissiness out on him." Reily shot towards me.
"Here we go again with you worrying about everything but your own business." I snapped back and I could almost feel the heat rising off of her.
"Now you watch your tone, you-"
"That's enough, my pets." Our savior interjected and I plastered on my best, good general face and met his eyes.
"Of course my savior, I apologize, I only wish to look out for the betterment of all our packs." My words were met with a fantastic smile.
"That is why I appointed you to this position, my pet, you've always been so caring. Now, please my wolf, take a seat." he spoke towards Reily this time who reluctantly sat down, muttering 'fucking suck-up' loud enough for me to hear, yet much too quiet to be noticed by the King, himself. I offered her a pleasant smile before turning back to our leader.
"Alright, next order of business, have we come to a decision on the funding needed for the next year? It's coming up quite soon."
Colonial Drax stood as the topic indicated his turn to speak. He presented all the pricing, gear, and funds used from this year and the last allowing me to gently tune out whilst still keeping an open ear for anything that may happen to catch my interest. Nothing was found as we breezed through the bland topics of budgeting, the training regimen, where we needed more packs stationed, where we could pull packs from, relations with other communities, and all other things of that nature.
"Now, to proceed with the last order of business, I must announce something important." At this, I sat up all the way from my slowly procured slouched listening position and met the eyes of the god speaking before us.
"There are some promotions that I believe are in order." His eyes glistened as he stood from his seat, the chair he had previously been resting in quickly moved out of his way, and he gazed down upon all of us in childlike glee.
An air of confusion and curiosity rumbled about the group, there hadn't been any promotions since the twin Lieutenants and that took place almost 4 years ago.
"First of all, I would like to mention that only three of you will be moving up in the ranks," he began and the shift of atmosphere to a suffocating unease settled just as quickly as it came. "The first person that will be promoted to none other than Army General is….Specialist Kora." he chuckled and a rumble of surprising agreement erupted throughout the group, no one seemed to put up a fight over this, a few sparse claps could even be heard from different areas of the table.
"Now the next two being brought up have been a pair since the beginning, and a pair they shall stay." He smiled wide at the looks of confusion and daggered glances at the twins and four husband and wife pairs present, Timothy and I included.
"As you know, since Kora has been promoted to Army general, the current Army generals no longer hold their position." I almost grimaced at the thought, the fact of the matter slipping my mind almost completely and as I looked around at the few bridges I had singed, I took quick notice of their satisfied grins.
"I would rather suffocate than throw away two of my most prized pets, so, I have decided to keep them at my side," he began and I frowned at his words until realization simultaneously hit my husband and me like a truck, we immediately met each other's eyes with the exact same expression before turning back to the king.
"Therefore I have chosen to make Chrystal Penmark and Timothy Penmark….My precious dragons."
This, people had a problem with.
"You've got to be kidding me!" Cryo screamed, this time his sister was too distracted staring at my husband and me with her mouth open to stop him in his outburst.
"Are you joking, my King?" Commander Reily echoed, yet with only a hint more respect towards who she was addressing.
"No way…" Kora muttered and she met the eyes of Colonial Drax and his wife Maria in a triangle of confused gazes.
"My King, I don't think-" Specialist Crona began, a timid yet muscular man sporting salt and pepper hair and faded blue eyes that disclosed his age. He rarely speaks during these gatherings unless called upon so it was quite out of character to hear him speak out of turn, yet he was promptly cut off by Reily's second-hand woman Second Commander Carla, just as boisterous as her superior, yet not quite as outspoken.
"You can't be serious, can't you see how damn manipulative those two are?! Especially that woman!" her outcry was agreed upon by Reily with a firm nod and a tightened fist striking the table.
The King's smile loosened and upon noticing I slammed my hands on the table, standing and glaring down at all those now below me.
"You all dare question the King?! You all dare disagree with what our god decided was right?!" I narrowed my eyes and met the glare of Carla
"Oh don't give me that shi-"
"Silence! I only follow the will of the god whom I have been chosen to serve with my life. I would never argue with our gracious god's holy decisions. How dare you all disgrace his holy words like that." I glared down at the woman who had since removed her fist from the table and her subordinate whose mouth had taken the form of a tight line, but no further arguments escaped. I then turned to the King whose eyes had taken on a pleased glint and dropped to a knee. "No words could ever express how thankful and grateful my husband and I are to be given this opportunity, we will continue to serve you with our lives." I glanced to the side to find that Tim had mirrored my actions.
"Ah my beautiful beautiful pets, Yet, I can no longer call you my pets, you are both now my beautiful and powerful dragons. Please move up to your seats and remain after this meeting has been adjourned, and one of my Alphas will give you your new responsibilities and locations on paper."
I gazed at the empty seat I had drooled over since I entered this military, I could almost smell the dust as I stood and moved to the seat just as my husband did. We seemed to take our new seats whilst moving in the same harmony, sitting and meeting each other's eyes simultaneously. I glanced to my left to find that Kora had taken my previous seat, she nodded at me respectfully and I couldn't help but smile back. I turned back to the King to find that he was much closer to me than he had ever been, I could reach out and touch him if I so chose, that made me almost giddy.
The King then stood and spread his holy arms, "Thank you my pets for joining me here, you may now all return to your precious tasks, Lez Lapiz." he blessed as all those at the table stood and bowed before him, my husband and I included.
"Lez Lapiz." We echoed before everyone at the table, void of me, my husband and Commander Jem, stood up straight and filed out of the room. Jem politely approached the King and three of his Alphas and teleported them back to where they had come from.
One of the Alphas approached the two of us and introduced themselves as J, they handed me a stack of papers and told me and Tim that the contents of the packet would give us the location of where we were to now be stationed and gave us the address to a new house located right next to the castle, a massive and vast mansion that had been empty for a century since there have been no dragons recently until now. J assured us that the place was regularly kept clean and all of our needs would be met by the staff hired to care for the building.
After the brief synopsis, J bowed to the both of us and muttered a curt, "Congratulations, my dragons." before disappearing out the door.
"Come, my love," Tim began as he stood and walked over to my side of the table, where I had gotten up a long time ago. "Let us celebrate at home." he smiled down at me as he placed a gentle hand around my shoulder, squeezing a bit before letting go and making his way to the door. As we exited the room all I could feel were the stares of either fear or discontent.
News spreads fast around here after all.
Tim and I turned a corner and found a sight to behold, Reyna slapped her twin across the face quite hard before gripping his shirt in a balled fist.
"What the fuck is wrong with you, you idiot?!" she reprimanded the boy in a hushed yell.
"I-I'm sorry, I didn't think I'd be late!" he whimpered and his sister's grip on his clothing only tightened.
"You could've fucked this whole thing up for us, did you even fucking find anything?" she snapped, and that piqued my interest.
"Y-Yeah, I-I did-"
"Find what, if I may ask?" I smirked, sauntering up to the two, and fear and anger dashed through the twin's eyes as Reyna released her sibling from his makeshift prison.
"Nothing, my dragon." she dropped into a bow while her brother remained standing, struck with fear and staring at my husband and me with a peculiar expression. He opened his mouth but before he could sputter anything, Reyna grabbed him by the back of the head and yanked him into an uncomfortable bow. "We apologize if we gave you the impression of anything else, my dragon."
I almost giggled like a child at the nature of the way she was addressing me, I settled on a peaceful smile and shook my head.
"Please, don't worry about it, let us know if you need anything." I began walking past them again, trailed by my partner, and before I reached the end of the hallway I tossed over my shoulder, "Anything at all." Before disappearing around the corner and out of the twin's sight, who still happened to be locked into that harsh bow.
"Tim," I began and nothing else needed to be said as he nodded and took my hand as we made our way back downstairs.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Upon reaching home I swung open the door and simply screamed, I jumped up and down and my husband smiled wider than he had in years, allowing me to bounce around with his hands in mine.
"Oh my god, can you believe this?!" I giggled and Tim chuckled, shaking his head.
"I gotta admit, I wasn't expecting that at all." he grinned, his arms flapping around like a flag while I bounced from side to side, wiggling his limbs like reigns on a horse.
"Ugh! Did you see their faces?! How delicious!!" I squirmed and cackled and danced like I had when I was two years old. "Oh my god and we get that mansion!!!! Tell that rat to go pack, we're finally moving!!" I tossed his arms into the air like confetti and they cascaded to his sides with a chuckle.
"Roger that, dragon." he joked and headed upstairs.
I got about a minute of further celebration before Tim stormed down the stairs, glaring like if he tried hard enough, his eyes alone could cause anyone in his way to drop dead.
"What's wrong, sugar?" I cocked my head to the side like a puppy, the joy of the news from earlier still glimmering in my eyes.
"Where the hell is that bitch?" I frowned, brow creasing confusion.
"What are you talking about?"
"She's not fucking up there." Tim spat, none of the excitement from earlier swimming through his orbs, replaced with only betrayed rage that was beginning to seep into my own.
"You're joking." I stomped up the stairs and glared into the empty room, being there no need to slam open the door since Tim had taken care of that part for the both of us. "You've gotta be fucking kidding me." I slammed the door shut and marched down the stairs, rage filling now glintless eyes and the dark pit of my stomach.
"How the fuck does that rat manage to ruin everything?! Ungrateful bitch!!" I screeched balling my fists.
"Where the fuck is she?!"