No Delicacy (Anastasia the Nonbinary Dragon)
“If you want to date my mom, go ahead, I won’t stop you.”
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The news hit Ero with a resounding blow.
Lucille, his mother, was dead.
He couldn’t breathe. His body trembled, and he curled up into a tight ball on the couch.
After a while, a boy of Ero’s age, with marble-black hair and dark brown eyes, cleared his throat. “Sorry, I should have been gentler.”
Ero bit his lip. “There’s no way you could be gentle, Ya Luo.” The calf-shifter’s words were hard like granite, though.
Qing Shui, Ya Luo’s mother, came over to place a comforting hand on the calf shifter’s shoulder. Ero wanted to shrug her off, but he was too drained and sad to move.
“You’re welcome to stay in our home, Ero,” the woman said in a soft voice. “For as long as you like.”
“Unless you have another place you want to go?” Ya Luo asked.
Ero couldn’t stand the dragon shifters’ stares right now, so he squeezed his eyes shut. “No, I have no home if my — my parents aren’t around.” He shifted a bit in his seat. “And what about my dad, Mateo? Do you have any news on him?”
“Nothing. We have no idea, sorry,” Ya Luo said, sounding genuinely sorry.
They stayed in silence for a while. At length, Ero opened his eyes but didn’t look at Qing Shui or Ya Luo. He ate a cracker and sipped some orange juice instead, for the sake of having something to do with his hands.
Then he glanced up and gave Ya Luo a hard stare, nearly a glare. He put down his glass of orange juice. “Do you know where Anastasia is?”
Ya Luo’s shoulders seemed to relax, and he nodded. “My father’s spies tracked down the heir a short while ago. My uncle went to speak to zir.” He glanced away with a frown. “He should be back by now. Not sure what’s taking him so long.”
Ero looked at Ya Luo and at Qing Shui, the latter looking especially worried. “Can you take me to where Ana was last seen?”
Ya Luo replied instantly, “Not today. Tomorrow, when you’ve had enough rest.”
The calf-shifter bristled. “I don’t need to rest!” He also eyed Qing Shui, who hadn’t said anything.
“You do, actually,” Ya Luo maintained in a voice too stern and commanding for his age. He folded his arms across his chest. “Rest up and you’ll have more energy to talk to your cousin Ana tomorrow.”
Ero gaped at first, then said, “What about my other cousin, Mildred?”
This time, Qing Shui finally spoke. She fiddled with her braid. “We haven’t actively looked for her. But some of our scouts saw her flying off with two blue dragons.”
It made Ero wonder what determined who they spied on.
For now, he would bide his time and watch what Ya Luo and Qing Shui did next. He wasn’t content to be a pet in someone else’s palace.
The morning after her terrible meeting with Clive, Mildred had a clearer head.
She strutted with confidence through the hall, and down the stairs to the dining room. Everyone else was already there, also in human form.
Clive was his usual surly self. Demiel gave her a polite smile. Natash looked awkward. Vera glared at her before glancing away. Lance, for some reason, avoided Mildred’s eyes, keeping his head down as he ate some porridge.
Mildred frowned at Lance, at his dismissal of her. Regardless, she sat in the empty chair beside Demiel, where she faced Clive.
“So,” she said to her husband, “are you ready to explain everything to me?”
“Oh, for crying out loud,” Vera said, raising her fork in the air.
But Natash shook his head at her. “This is not your battle, Vera.”
The teenage girl fumed but kept quiet. Her eyes darted between her parents, like she was scanning for threats. It broke Mildred’s heart.
Clive sighed. “Don’t worry, honey,” he said to their daughter. “I’ll tell your mother the truth and only the truth.” His face was tense and stony as he turned his gaze on Mildred. “I don’t know If you even care, but Vera and I hardly got out of that collapsing palace in one piece. Meanwhile, we saw you climb onto a blue dragon and fly away, leaving us down there.”
“No,” Mildred said. “You don’t get to make me look like the villain. There was so much rubble that I couldn’t find you. I had to look out for Ero too, or Aunt Lucille would have my head.”
“Yet you lost him too, didn’t you?” countered Clive.
Mildred pressed her lips together and stared down at her onion soup.
Clive took this as a sign to continue. He put his elbows on the desk and clutched his mug of tea tight. He cleared his throat and cast a nervous glance at the clock.
“I carried Vera out of the palace and ran away as fast as I could. We had a few close calls, but we thankfully were all right. I was about to run back home to our barn, but a silver dragon spotted us and picked us up in her talons. At first, I thought she wanted to hurt us, so I struggled. But the dragon said that she would drop us to our death if I kept moving. We were at least a mile above the ground at the time, so I stayed still.
“Initially, I wondered if the silver dragon was Queen Freya. But this dragon was smaller, and from the sound of her voice, much younger. Soon enough, we were joined by a somewhat larger white dragon. They discussed matters among themselves that I barely understood. The silver dragon decided to give us some relief and placed us on the white dragon’s back. She warned us not to hurt him.
“I wanted to laugh. Since it wasn’t like two bovine shifters could do anything to harm a dragon, with their tough scales. But instead, I asked them where we were going. They didn’t answer. Before I could ask again, something hard hit my head and I blacked out.
“When I finally awoke, I was in a bedchamber, here in this castle, in The Gloom.” He glanced at Vera, who sighed and stared down at her cup.
Mildred sat there stunned. She stared at her husband, his implacable face. Vera was avoiding eye contact with her. Then she looked at Lance.
The blue dragon shifter gazed back at her. His lips were a hard line. It was hard to tell whether he was angry at Clive or Mildred — or neither.
The cow shifter sat up straight in her chair. “So who were the silver and white dragons?”
Her husband smirked. “It would be nice if we all knew.” He gave Lance and Demiel a side eye. “Your dragon friends here might have an idea.”
To Mildred’s surprise, Lance spoke. “Yes. We used to be friends with them a long time ago. But not anymore. We drifted apart.” He flicked a strand of golden blond hair from his face.
Was it just her, or did Mildred sense a lie there? She was about to question him further, when there was a loud clanging.
It was Vera, knocking her porcelain cup loudly with a metal spoon. She said, “Enough! Uncle Lance, we don’t need to know the details. The important part is that I’m safe and healed, and my parents can happily get a divorce and we can all finally get some peace.”
Mildred flinched at her harsh tone.
Lance scolded, “Why are you being so abrasive towards your mother, Vera?”
The teenage girl snorted, lifting her chin at him. “I’m sick and tired of all these grownup games. Let’s get on with it and stop wasting time.”
“Are you in such a hurry for your parents to get a divorce?” Lance asked.
Mildred made herself small in her chair, hating this entire conversation.
The calf-shifter smirked and waved a dismissive hand at him. “If you want to date my mom, go ahead, I won’t stop you.”
“No!” Mildred and Lance both said at once. They exchanged a glance and Mildred felt her cheeks flush with shame. Mildred spoke first. “Vera, you’ve misunderstood. Uncle Lance and I don’t have that kind of relationship.”
“Then what kind of a relationship do you have?” Vera demanded.
Demiel, who had been silent all this time, let out a loud chuckle. “How entertaining this is. Brother, you have dug yourself into a deep hole.”
His brother scowled at him. “Mildred and I did nothing wrong.”
“Oh yeah?” Clive cut in. “Then what on earth were you doing yesterday night? With your hands all over my wife?”
Mildred groaned. “Clive, you’re being ridiculous.”
Vera laughed, a sharp, incisive sound. “It’s a good thing Dad is divorcing you. You’ll be free to shack it with anyone you want, mom.”
Mildred didn’t know how things could devolve into such chaos. Her head spun and she stood up. Everyone stared at her. She gritted her teeth and said, “I need some time out.”
Without waiting for anyone’s response, the cow shifter ran out of the dining room and up the stairs.
Once she shut herself back in her room and locked the door, she exhaled deeply. But a moment later, there was an insistent rapping on her door. “Mildred, open up! We need to talk.”
It was Lance.
The cow shifter wrinkled her nose. “Didn’t you hear my daughter’s accusations? She thinks that there’s something between us. Do you want to spread the rumors further?”
“Of course I don’t. But Vera was just being obnoxious. We’re not doing anything inappropriate. Others can believe what they want, but you and I know we are innocent,” Lance said. He knocked on her door again, but more gently this time. “Can I come in? Please?”
Mildred paused, but at long last, she turned the doorknob and let him enter.
Lance looked terrible. He seemed more tired and haggard than she had ever seen him. Even his golden hair appeared duller and messier than usual. He sat on her bed without asking.
Mildred felt a mixture of annoyance and sadness as she pulled up a chair and faced him. “What the hell do you want to talk about?” she demanded.
“I need to tell you something.” Lance tugged at his hair, strangely distressed. “But promise me that you won’t tell the others.”
Mildred stared at him, her eyes wide. Against her better judgment, she said, “Okay. Tell me.”
He waved her forward. Mildred glowered at him, but leaned towards the dragon shifter. Lance whispered something in her ear that made her heart pound. She was suddenly very scared.
