Chapter 28

Zara purred in DeClan's ear, DeClan smiled "purr for me again, little one" Zara purred into his ear "Mal and Tabby are at Montcliff with Mar" DeClan's eyes gleamed "hmmmmmmm we should take advantage of a little time to ourselves" Zara flicked her tongue along the edge of his ear "that's what I thought" DeClan cradled his tiny dragoness against his chest carrying her from his workroom, Zara frowned slightly "why did you just seal the door and window?" DeClan ran a tender finger down her neck "I'll tell you later, for right now all I want to do is hear you purring for me" Zara purred against his chest, her small talons slipping inside his shirt.

Lexi lay in the grass under the tree, her cheek resting on her arm, her eyes half closed listening to the birds in the tree's, the squirrels chattering as they scampered up and down the tree's, her hand gently stroking one of the little bunnies that had come to wiggle their pink little noses at her and say hi. The rebuilding of Montcliff had turned into a picnic, Billy was off in a tree pouting because Cat had not arrived yet, plus she was huffing since Hellhound had slobbered on her clean fur, Hellhound his head resting on her hip leaned over and licked the bunnies, then closed his eyes taking a nap. Mar looked around for Tabby, he smiled and nudged Kat nodding towards the tree's, Kat smiled softly, there under one of the tree's all snuggled up against Lexi's chest lay Tabby along with the bunnies, Billy and Hellhound, they were all fast asleep. Con, Crispin and Mal were playing with a ball, Con rolling it to Crispin and Mal who were laughing and giggling as they tried to kick it, pounce on it or just lay on it giggling wildly. Mal's eyes lit up "ohhh go swim, Rav tossing" Crispin nodded giggling, Con ummm'd not sure what Rav tossing was, Virlane grinned at Con and picking up his Great Grandson Crispin tossed him through the air to Rav, Raimi rolled her eyes at Natalie but couldn't help laughing as she watched Revanche tuck Crispin under his arm and all the males with much grinning head to the bathing pool. Bitsy looked at Mar "you're not going to go play?" Mar shook his head "I'm content to lay here in the sun" Bitsy smiled and gave him a snuggle knowing he was missing Marti'en who was off on some sort of Ancient One business.

The woman all winked at each other with knowing smiles as DeClan and Zara showed up, Zara with a grin asked how the house building was going, they all went in the house to show Zara with much whispering as they told Zara about Gideon. DeClan went over and sat down next to Mar, who looked around then quietly said "have you figured out who it is?" DeClan nodded watching Cat go over and stretch out a few feet away from the sleeping group. "It's Finbar" Mar frowned "does Zachary know" DeClan sat thoughtfully for a moment "no, I don't believe so, I was going to discuss it with him this morning but we got interrupted by the arrival of that eagle, which was a bit of a surprise since I've never seen eagles around Salvation, I don't want Tabby and Mal tangling with a bird that size, even though I have no doubt the bird would come out on the losing end." Mar grinned widely "that eagles name is Gideon, he's a friend of Nedra's so I doubt you need to worry, at least not for a few years then keep an eye on Tabby" DeClan frowned "Tabby?" Mar chuckled "he had quite an impact on the females, you might say the way males respond to Nedra" DeClan laughed "well I have a few year's to prepare then." Billy woke up and stretched with a yawn then froze as she found herself staring into the golden eyes of Cat. Lexi woke up with an ow and a grimace as she felt Billy's claws dig into her arm "Cat's here" hissed Billy, Lexi hid her grin "so go say hi, don't play coy I don't think Cat would like that" Billy got up with another long stretch "ohhh for heaven sakes let me hold your ermine" Lexi giggled quietly taking the ermine and sticking it in her pocket, Billy frowned for a second but didn't object, she turned and sauntered over to Cat with a purr. Lexi turned her face so Billy wouldn't see her and grinned widely, her eyes met Tabby's, the two giggled grinning at each other, Lexi sent the bunnies off to their mama and stood up asking Tabby if she wanted to see her new room. Hellhound with a sigh after getting a roar from Cat went over to lay down by Mar, DeClan smiled watching Tabby flying along side Lexi go inside the house "I think Tabby has found a friendship that will last a life time" Mar laughed "two gentle quiet females with tempers that could raise the hair on the back of your neck and we were worried about Mal getting into trouble" DeClan started to laugh "as Alex keeps reminding me, life is never dull with children."

Tabby and Lexi sat on the floor of her empty room looking at several of the books Natalie had brought over with her, Lexi pointed to a drawing of a lovely canopied four poster bed, the posts twining scroll work, the canopy was lace. "That's the one I want, when Natalie gets a chance" Tabby smiled and patted Lexi's cheek "you make it" Lexi shook her head "ohhh I can't do that, I'll have to wait for Natalie to finish downstairs" Tabby grinned "uh huh you can too, try" Lexi shook her head again, Tabby put Lexi's finger on the drawing and pointed Lexi's other finger to the spot she thought the bed should go "think bed, try hard, you can do it" Lexi giggled and scrunched her eyes closed and concentrated on the bed in the drawing, opening her eyes she blinked, her mouth dropping open to see the bed sitting there. The two laughed and giggled "make bed covers green like Lexi" Lexi giggled "I'm not green but I love the color" Tabby's tiny talon touched the spot over Lexi's heart "dragoness is emerald green, special sparkle" Lexi hugged Tabby "maybe" then with a giggle the two started picking out the rest of the furniture. Allora and Riley both hearing a horrendous crash went sprinting up the stairs, Allora threw open the door to Lexi's room to find the girls sitting on a canopy bed looking very surprised at the huge dresser that had crushed the wash stand and fallen over "I would say there has been a slight miss calculation on location Miss Tabby" Riley said with a slightly raised eyebrow, Lexi and Tabby looked at each other with a secret smile, Tabby just nodded grinning at Riley. "What was that?" Lexi asked Tabby who was at the window, Tabby turned with an eager smile "thunder, storms coming" Lexi got up off the bed and looked out the window, "I don't see anything, not that I'm sure what thunder or a storm is" Tabby smiled "lots of fun" then she looked at Lexi her head tilted slightly "to much noise, Lexi not like thunder." Soon everyone was on their way home with much laughter and hugging, when Natalie told Tabby she had done a wonderful job with Lexi's room, Lexi gave Tabby a small wink, Tabby giggled and winked back. Lexi woke up with a startled scream, her whole body vibrated with the booming sound, her hands over her ears Lexi's eyes wide with terror she watched the flashes of lightening through the closed curtains. Allora and Connor leapt out of bed hearing Lexi's scream, they found Con standing out in the hall his eyes wildly looking around "what is it? is the house falling apart? did you hear that crash? why is Lexi screaming?" Allora grabbed Connor's arm "you take Con, I'll take Lexi, they've never been in a thunderstorm before" Connor nodded calmly going over to Con with a deep soothing purr "it's just a storm, son, the crash you heard was thunder" Con his eyes still wide as saucers grinned at his father "oh wow, I never really understood then what it meant "oh for a voice like thunder" and those flashes? those are lightening?" Connor nodded "if you want a better look we can go down to the solarium" as another clap of thunder rippled through the night sky Con headed for the solarium. Lexi her hands over her ears screamed at her Mother "make it stop, make it stop" Allora wrapped her arms around Lexi "it's just a summer storm, kiddo, it will be over soon, the sounds you're hearing are thunder and lightening" Lexi snuggled close to her Mother "it makes me hurt inside, Mother, my heart almost leaps out of my chest each time the noise crashes." Allora picked up a large pillow and wrapped it around Lexi's head, holding her hands tightly over her ears "does that help? sweetie" Lexi her whole body shaking uncontrollable, tried to get closer to her Mother as another clap of thunder shook the room. Connor walked and frowned "Al why don't you go sit on Con to keep him from going out in the storm, he's down in the solarium, I'll stay with Lexi" seeing that she was about to argue he nodded at the door "what she needs right at the moment Al, is the deep soothing purr of a dragon to replace the thunder that's vibrating through her body" Allora nodded "I'll be with Con sweetie, listen to your father, he can help you." The dragon Connor picked up his daughter wrapping her in the blankets from her bed he sat her on the floor then curled around her tightly and started to purr a deep soothing rumbling purr "let your dragoness listen baby, you can purr like this, let your body vibrate with your own purrs, soon you won't even notice the thunder." With each flash of lightening and clap of thunder Connor's purr deepened, before long Lexi started to calm down and her body hum with her father's purr's, Al looked in a short time later to see Lexi the dragoness curled up against her father, his wing laid over her, the soft purring of dragons filled the room.

Al sat on the back steps watching the sun come up, a mug of coffee in her hand, the air was filled with the smell of lingering rain, crisp and cool. She glanced up as Connor came out of the large glass doors and walked over to sit down next to her "your deep in thought for such an early hour" he commented taking a sip of his coffee, Allora nodded watching the first rays of the sun coming through the few remaining clouds "I was thinking of what sort of mural I wanted to paint in the breakfast room, I also need to fix the one's in the foyer." Connor nodded, Al waited for him to say something but he just sat watching Billy stalking a bug, "spit it out Breeton before it chokes you" Connor chuckled slightly then with a frown he looked at her "We never talked about living arrangements, I just seemed to have moved in on you, is that what you want Al? do you want me here?" Al cupped her mug of coffee in her hands tightly "you want out? Breeton, I don't want you to feel that your obligated to live here with us" Connor sighed "that's not what I said, Al, you're getting your sails in an uproar for no reason, what I want to know is if you want me here, things have been rather hectic since you got back, we've never had a chance to really sit down and talk about our relationship." Al set down her coffee and stood up, her hands on her hips "of course I want you here Breeton, damnit I love you, your children love you, you think I could have done what you did last night for Lexi, hell no, it's a dragon thing that I don't understand. But if you want to hit the high sea's again, I'll understand, I figure you must be missing your Sea Dragon a lot by now." Connor laughed, reaching out he grabbed her hand and pulled her down onto his lap "I love it when you get your hackles up, at least you put the coffee down first, that had me worried for a minute. That's the first time you've said you loved me, I've been waiting to hear that, it's all I need to know. Your right I do miss the Sea Dragon, I don't know what I'm going to do about that yet other then take my time and make some clear decisions, Tommy has proved himself an able first mate and is doing an excellent job at Captaining her, Mercer keeps me updated regularly." Riley hummed a little tune and turned to go tell Liz that breakfast should be delayed, after seeing Captain Connor carrying Miss Al up the staircase.

Lexi sat out in the garden at Salvation with Tabby, they were laughing and giggling at Mal and Mar. Mal held a little tiny wood sword, he was dressed in his pirate outfit and was arrrggghhhing at Mar, Tabby was having a tea party, Lexi saw Alana standing by the rose bushes watching, with a smile Lexi went over and took her hand "come play with Tabby and I" she said kindly, soon Alana was sitting and giggling with Tabby and Lexi as they drank apple juice from little tiny Tabby size cups and ate tea cakes that Lynn had made for them. Lexi felt someone watching and looked up at the window of DeClan's workroom to see Zachary standing there, she smiled and waved and saw him nod then leave the window. Lexi had asked Zara once why Zachary seemed to avoid her each time she came over, Zara had given her a hug saying that perhaps he still felt responsible for what had happened so it was easier that way for him, Lexi had nodded with a sigh and let the subject drop, they had been back for three months now, she would have enjoyed talking to Zachary again.