Just then, the front doors to the mansion flew open with a loud bang. There was a screeching sound that made her ears burn and her head pound. Multiple loud footsteps that rushed towards them. Hale flared her wings out in a panicked frenzy as the feelings in her bones and heart suddenly exploded. As she looked up with wide fearful eyes, she swore to the gods that her heart stopped beating for the second time that day.
---
As soon as she looked up, the horrible tingling that had exploded through her only worsened. Her vision went blurry, but she could still see the fuzzy colors and outlines of the figures around her. A small, quick pink and white blur was coming straight for her, followed by a larger reddish-brown one. She could hear flapping too, but it sounded far away.
Hale panicked and made an attempt to jump backwards to get away from the figures that were quickly approaching; which would have been easy if she were still human, unfortunately, that wasn’t the case anymore. The dragoness pushed her front legs off of the ground and reared backwards, completely forgetting that she now had back legs she needed to worry about. She yelped in surprise as she threw all of her weight backwards, and in one swift motion she fell backwards. The teenager winced in pain as she collided with the stone path. Her wings were crushed under her weight, as were the spikes that she apparently had because she could feel them painfully press into her back. She wasn’t focused on the pain though, she was too focused on trying to get back up and get away from the figures.
She rolled from her back onto her side, and winced in pain as the tingly feeling that had overwhelmed her before suddenly disappeared and was replaced with a painful throbbing in her head and back. Hale let out a hiss and placed one of her hand-like paws on her face, mentally cursing every word in the book as she used her index and ‘thumb’ claws to rub her closed eyes.
“-agon.”
“Calm down, Sarah!”
“Hah! Not the only one anymore, bro!”
“-ou okay?”
Voices. So many voices tuned into her brain it was almost dizzying. Hale heard a giggle and felt two arms that were slightly warmer than her wrap themselves around the bottom of her neck near her chest. The teenager’s eyes flew open and she tensed up, looking down. Large, innocent, silvery-white eyes with golden-red flecks around the pupils bore into her light blue ones. A small, pale skinned girl grinned up at her. The girl looked to be about seven or eight years old, she had long snow white hair that hung in loose curls ending around the bottom of her back. She wore a pink sun dress that had a thick black bow tied around the waist and silver floral patterns lining the bottom rim.
She squealed happily and hugged the dragoness tighter when Hale looked at her.
“Oh my gosh you look like Cole! And you’re soooo pretty! Prettier than Cole! He’s all dark and gloomy colored but you’re light and-!” The girl cut herself off with another happy squeal as she nuzzled her head into Hale’s chest.
Hale stiffened up even more. Most girls, or just people in general, found kids funny and cute, but they both scared the teenager to death and irked her to no end. When she was around them something in her stomach curled uneasily and she became fidgety, not knowing what to do or how to react around them. But, when they were being loud and obnoxious, that awkward uneasiness turned into a bitter, hot hate and she just wanted to strangle them.
But now, one of those things was currently complimenting her and nuzzling into her chest. She wasn’t horrible or anything like that, if anything she was just more peppy and over excited than annoying. The teenager just didn’t know or understand how to react, she didn’t know if it would be acceptable to push the child away or to tell her to move or… Before she could figure out what to do, the girl began chatting excitedly again.
“So what’s your name? My name’s Sarah! You’re a dragon right? Abby says I’m a banshee, and that I’m very helpful around the mansion because I can predict when someone new is about to come! And he was right! How old are you? What powers do you have? Are they the same as Cole’s? Are you as weird as he is? Do all you guys have wings and horns? What about those things on your tails? Will you-!”
Just then a chicken-like creature with dragon wings and tail came over and gently used his tail to lift the small girl up and away from the dragoness.
“Oh I am so sorry about her, miss!” He, judging from the voice, apologized kindly.
“Uhm…” Hale mumbled dumbly as her wide blue eyes slowly took in the scene in front of her while her mind tried to process what was going on. The creature in front of her, now that she had a better look of him, was indeed a rooster with dragon wings and a tail- so she wasn’t hallucinating. His feathers were a dark red in color with a few freckled white spots on his chest and cheeks. His leathery dragon wings and scaly tail were a cobalt color though they lacked any sort of markings. His voiced sounded aged but kind, and his posture was slouched ever so slightly- further proving her theory.
“She just gets excited when a new one arrives.” The bird said before grinning widely as he set the girl down and gave her a gentle pat on the head with his tail. He turned to Sarah, his smile melting into a somewhat stern look, “Sarah, don’t you have something to say?”
The small girl looked down at the bird, who was about half a foot shorter than her, and a guilty look flashed across her features. The banshee then looked up at Hale, and opened her mouth to probably apologize.
The dragoness also began to open her mouth, ready to say that any sort of apology was not needed, but she was interrupted once again by a voice she did not recognize.
“Relax Martin, she’s just a kid. It happens.” Sarah squealed happily again and turned around. Hale followed her gaze only to be met with the sight of two figures; one was human-like and the other was a dragon.
The human-like one was a young man that looked to be in his twenties. He had sleek, slightly messy pitch black hair that ended a little bit past his pointed ears( though his hair hid his ears for the most part). His bangs were swept to the side, away from his odd, bright neon green eyes so he could see. Most of his skin was hidden by his attire, but the skin on his face was visible. He had pale, almost grayish skin. It was like blood was no longer flowing through his veins and his skin had become lifeless.
‘He is lifeless, you dumb ass. All of us are,’ Hale thought bitterly to herself before continuing to look the two figures over.
The human figure wore a black zip-up trench coat with many pockets that ended a little bit past his knees. Currently, it was unzipped revealing the dark blue and gray striped tank top that he wore underneath. The figure wore a pair of black pants and lace-up boots that went up to three inches before his knee caps.
The male was grinning widely, revealing a pair of sharp, white fangs… A vampire maybe..?
The second figure that walked beside him had a similar color scheme. The dragon’s scales were the same black color the assumed vampire’s hair was, with dark grey under scales and the same neon green eyes. He had light gray horns adorning his head that were angled back towards his body in a jagged, flowing manner. He also had a spade on the tip of his tail that was the same color as his horns, which Hale assumed is what Sarah had been questioning her about earlier. The dragon also had jagged, dorsal-fin like spikes that began at his forehead and ended at the tip of his tail. His dark grey-blue spikes started out small at first, each individual spike growing slightly larger than the last as they traveled down his spine until they hit the middle of his back where the largest one lied. After that they decreased in size once more before disappearing into his scales. Two large, black wings with dark blue-grey insides sprouted form his back.
His wings looked similar to her own; in fact, his whole body build seemed similar to hers. Four legs, two wings, one tail… Maybe they were the same type of dragon. That was beside the point though, for the moment.
“Has ta’ learn somehow,” The bird creature mumbled in reply as the vampire and dragon came to a stop in front of them. “Why are you outside anyway? Doesn’t yer’ skin hurt?” Marvin continued, ruffling his feathers with a small sneer.
“But Martin, we have a guest!” The human-like creature exclaimed, gesturing to the dragoness with his hands and arms. Hale felt herself shrink back a bit as all eyes were suddenly focused on her again, she hated when everyone was looking at her.
“No Neo! Not guest! Buddy! Friend!” The little girl exclaimed, jumping up and down by the twenty-year-old in her excitement. The one called Neo grinned widely down at the girl and reached out a hand to pat her on the head.
“Yes, Sarah, a friend.” He said to her, continuing to rest his hand on her head while he regarded the bird-like creature again. “It would’ve been rude if I didn’t come out like everyone else!”
“I don’t care about that! Get back in that house before you turn to ashes out here! And before you even give me the ‘oh but its shady out here’ excuse, I don’t want to hear it! Sunlight can still seep through and then what!? I don’t think Absalom would approve of that happening either!” the elderly creature exclaimed with a flap of his blue wings.
The dragon beside Neo, who had been silent up until this point, slowly opened his right wing and allowed it to hover over the vampire; almost like an umbrella.
“There! Problem solved!” He said, flashing the small group a wide grin filled with many sharp needle-like teeth. The little banshee giggled and clapped her hands while Martin let out a huff.
“Teenagers,” he grumbled under his breath with a roll of his shiny black eyes.
“Cole! Cole! Look!” Sarah exclaimed, rushing over to the dragon and grabbing his left forearm. “She looks like you! You can have a friend now!” the banshee pointed to Hale, still smiling.
The dragoness tensed up once again, not liking being called to attention by a kid. All of their eyes fell on her again. It was like she was being examined, inside and out; like if they all stared long enough they would be able to know exactly who she is and pry into her secrets and such. Of course, that probably wasn’t possible, unless any of them had mind-reading powers or could see into her past.
‘Mention anything about babies or marriage kid and you’re dead…again.’ Hale thought bitterly before forcing a small fake smile.
“Uh… Hello,” she said shyly, trying her damnedest to be polite despite wanting to snap at them to stop staring at her.
“Well hi there! As you’ve probably heard, my name’s Neo, and this is my brother Cole. Welcome to the mansion!” the vampire greeted her energetically, continuing to keep his huge grin. Was everyone here this happy and energetic?
“Oi! That’s my line,” Absalom said with a small smile as he approached the group. Neo and Cole laughed, Marvin just smiled, and Sarah giggled and ran up to the minotaur.
“Abby!” She exclaimed, raising her arms and outstretching her hands in a ‘pick me up’ motion while standing on the tips of her black flats. The large creature smiled softly and in one swift motion picked the giddy girl up and sat her down on his left shoulder.
“Sorry ‘Abby’, but I like saying your line,” Neo joked with a wide grin. Absalom simply shook his head and smiled, clearly not having any more to say on the subject. Instead, his yellow eyes focused on Hale.
The dragoness flinched before slowly getting to her paws, feeling like a complete and utter fool for her reaction. But how else was she supposed to react? It’s not like she knew what was going on…
‘But what the hell was that…feeling anyway? Is that a normal thing for dragons to do? I hope not. My head is still pounding too. Maybe I should ask Absalom about it?’
She once again locked eyes with the bull-like creature, who of course saw her staring and simply offered her a kind smile.
“Come on, let’s go get you settled in; you still have much to learn and see.” He said before turning around and beginning to walk up the creaky white porch steps.
“Dibs on finding her a room!” Sarah called over her shoulder to the males that were slowly beginning to climb up the steps.
“Hey, no fair!” Neo called back with a small pout. “I was gonna call that!”
“Dibs on the tour!” Cole suddenly called out with a laugh as he removed his wing from over Neo’s head when they had entered the shade of the porch.
“No! Not my own brother too! You traitor!” the vampire exclaimed, comically balling his hands into fists and waving them around like an angry old man. The black dragon simply laughed and patted his back with his tail.
“Gotta’ be quicker, bro.” he replied.
Martin simply huffed and began to slowly make his way up the steps, but he still wore a small smile.
“You all get so over-excited about these types of things. I’ll never understand it.”
As Hale watched all of the chatter and events unfold in front of her, she couldn’t help but let a sad smile slip onto her features.
‘Holy crap.’ She thought to herself as she slowly climbed the white steps that led to the large mansion doors; double tapping her foot on each step to make sure they were stable. ‘It’s like they’re one, huge, weird, mixed up family. All of them are dead, there’s a father-like figure, there’s a child, a grandpa, and two teenagers, all of them are living under the same roof, and they seem to care a lot for each other. All they need now is a mother.’ Another thought slipped into her mind as she hesitantly walked through the large double doors and into the vast interior of the mansion.
‘Oh my god,’
“Welcome to your new home, young one.”
‘I’m a part of this family now.’
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Yea it’s not the most eventful chapter, but I wanted to get descriptions and introductions out of the way. It also seemed like a good stopping point.
Characters belong to me, so please don't steal.