#rusty tpm

Percy is adamant. Rusty keeps Mira as far away from his, as Percy calls it, “dragon shit”. This last maybe 3-5 months at best. Rusty is a traveler at heart, a cowboy who always needs new roads under his feet and stars over head. Percy is used to this, the love of his life is a wandering man, but a child deserves some solid roots under foot of even for a little while.

So they compromise, staying within a small town for a year or two, for Rusty to do his research and by the time that year it’s done it’s time to move for Rusty but also for Percy as he knows to stay in a place too long is a death sentence for being found out.

Rusty honestly tried to keep to what Percy wanted and keep Mira as far away from the dragons as possible but life had other plans. Dragons, as anyone trained in the field can tell you, are fountains of magical energy that over flow from them to the world around them. Rusty is used to it, he’s been living and breathing in that magic since he can remember so he forgets that even towns miles out from a dragon still feel its effects. He also forgets that Percy warned him Mira is most likely more susceptible to magic, as she grew up in such a magically rich place and she’s already showing warning signs of potentially having magical capabilities. All of these factors culminate into a period of time Percy and rusty refer to as “the week”, the week where all these factors came together and create the perfect little magical storm.

They’re on a small “vacation” a period of weeks where they just travel wherever before finding a new place to settle down for a little while. Mira loves these trips, her wanderlust never left her, and as far as Percy can tell she just loves being out in nature with the flowers and the animal around her. Rusty insists on visiting a nearby town he knows, pearl peak, a small town nestled in the valley of two evergreen mountains. Near the peak of one of these mountains lives a moonstone dragon Rusty has known for many years, and who is kind and whose hoard is the town below his lair and the fairytales he collects. Rusty makes it a point to collect any all obscure fairytales he can find to add to the dragon hoard, and anything deemed unworth of the hoard is brought and passed out to the children in town. Adhara has been a constant in Percy’s life, as he is kind and playful with children they were Rusty’s first dragon and he intends for them to be Mira’s as well. Well the one thing Rusty doesn’t take into account, and really how was he to know, is how much fae magic Adharas lands exude and how much that would effect his little Wyrmling.

Upon reaching pearlpeak, a Mira who has been dozing against Percy as in the back of the small hay wagon they use to move between towns immediately stirs and runs the railing of the cart to look around. Pearl peak similar to its dragon guardian is unlike anywhere else on the material plane, it’s a place where the wilds and the ethereal bleed into the material. The colors are more saturated, the stars literally dance across the night sky, and the wind in the trees seems to make a music that lulls the willing into sleep. It’s beautiful and magical dream of a town, and Mira perking up like that should really have clued rusty into what was to come.

The first day they show Mira around the town and the edge of the woods, and rusty swears she hasn’t had this much energy in the last week but it brings him joy rather ringing the warning bells it should have. And when Mira almost walked into one the the dragons portals hidden in a small burrow, or when she walked right up to a tree and stared at the glass protection charms in it put there by Adhara, or Mira walking ahead of him and Percy with no fear as they head to the dragons lair should have all been give aways to Rusty but he over looked them as Mira has always had her quirks. The meeting goes quite well Adhara is enamored with Rusty’s small child and it helps that everyone can speak Sylvan so Rusty doesn’t have to play translator. Mira is gifted with a small necklace, before which they assure the small family it is simply a gift between friends, that is a small fairy clutching a dragon egg caved out of adamantine.

It’s maybe two night after this Percy awakens with a start to a miracle standing at the edge of the edge of his and Rusty’s bed, not unusual as the small girl is prone to night mares, but it’s her eyes that startle him. Unlike anytime before her eyes are basically glowing in the dim room, reflecting like like any predator animal does. Confused and slightly on edge he reaches out for his daughter while nudging his husband with his other hand praying he wakes up.

“What’s wrong pixie? Did you have another nightmare?”, he asks in Sylvan. But Mira makes no movement toward him, just continues to stand and stare at him from the edge of the bed. Well and truly concerned now Percy begins to stand up from the edge of the bed and prompts her again “Mira, sweetheart what’s wrong?”

It's at the mention of her name she seems to finally actually be looking him and her eyes blink back to normal loosing that preadator gaze. But whatever it is she says to her papa is damn near unintelligible and honestly if Percy wasn't so sleep deprived he would think what she said wasn't even Sylvan.

This trend continues for a couple more days, eventually they decide mira must be coming down with something which is worrying for the two dads who have yet to deal with a sick mira. She complains of a sore throat and rusty has noticed some small rashes in random small patches. Percy is no good with healing magic, and rusty frankly only knows emergency wound care not how to help a sick child. So they do what they think is best and take her with them to see Adhara again, maybe the older dragon knows a way to treat whatever this is. And thankfully they do, Adhara shares a speciality tea and a balm made of somethign that looks oddly like the night sky for the rashes.

That night is when all hell breaks loose, the two husbands too worried abou mira haven't gone to bed yet despite the hour and mearly stay in the living room of the small cottage they are borrowing at the edge of town. It's nearing midnight and the music of the crickets and the breeze are all that can be heard, until the percing cry of a child breaks through the calm night. They rush to open her door and her room is lit up brighter then a christmas tree, fae fire dancing along the outlines of the rooms highlighting the light sliver scales peaking out from her shirt neckline and her now shockingly serpentine eyes. Her head whips around to look at her fathers, the fear in her eyes impossible to miss.