Upon Vestia: Chapter Twenty-Nine

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Ivor was pretty thankful for Tala's quiet thoughts, if her unshielded thoughts were anything like her speaking voice, he'd have had a headache already.
He nodded slowly.

"Yeah, I can fly, but I can't speak with my mind." Skye said with a smile as she looked over the babies.

~~~
"Yeah, the people here are amazing." Jewel said as she looked to Ivor again. "Are you still scared of the others?"

"It is? Man, I want in on that job," James said, trying to sound envious. "Way better than being a janitor or a medic, no doubt about it."

~~
Ellie tried to get the babies to go to Skye. "She's awesome, you'll love her, kids!"

Skye laughed as the babies crawled on her due to Ellie's pushing, even if her pushing was mental instead of physical.

Ivor frowned. "T.. they are loud..." He explained. "and.. some are very... angry...." He shook his head.

---

Matt laughed. "So what now? Do we continue to amuse our fake audience, or should we find another scene?"

Ellie giggled. "They like you. Well, I think they do." She reached out to pet one of them, "I think they like most people, actually. Cause we all love them."

~~
"Hmm," James thought about that. "I dunno, what would you like to see? Anything specific?"

Matt shook his head. "Not really. Hey computer, new scene please!" Random was fine by him. The scene dissolved into a pretty meadow. "well.. that's a change..."

Jewel frowned a little then nodded "Yeah, I can see them being angry, being separated from their kids for that war they didn't want and most wanting to free their people from slavery of one kind or another." She shook her head "I think I am glad I can't hear anyone's thoughts." She said as she flew up to sit on a chandelier a moment. "What do you like doing, like a game or something?" She asked curiously.

~~~
"They do like you both" One of the mothers said with a smile. "They are happy when they are playful and learning new things."

Skye pet the babies she could, though a few went back to Ellie, since Skye only had two hands to pet with and they liked hearing her squeeing in her mind.

James yelped as the scenery changed. "That's a lot of sky!" He pulled himself together pretty quickly though, he was getting used to open spaces. "Ooh, nice flowers. Makes you want to like, make daisy crowns or something, doesn't it?"

~~
Ellie nodded. "What sort of things are they learning? Like, are they learning to talk and read yet?" She wasn't sure what the timeline was like for learning to read for the dragons, or how old they were anyway. "Or are they mostly learning about having fun and making friends at this point?"

The mother chuckled softly "The older ones are learning reading and speaking in common, the younger ones are just learning about living and being a friend." The babies were different ages, the two youngest just a day old.

"That's so cuuute," Ellie said. "Some of you are starting to read? Aww!"

"i d.. don't... really know many games." Ivor admitted. "Some of.. the other crew tried to teach me cards but... I could read their thoughts and they thought that was cheating." He lowered his head. Yeah he wasn't allowed to play poker, he had an unfair advantage. "you.. are lucky you can't hear thoughts... it is.. very distracting.. and not... not good. People get angry when you hear their private thoughts, or know things you should not. " He looked at the floor. "I don't like hearing the voices..."

---

Matt looked up at the sky. "aww man, sorry! You okay?" He grinned a bit at the idea of flower crowns. "you know, for all the wandering around outdoors I did as a kid, we didn't really pick flowers much. How do you make crowns outta them?" It was a skill he'd never learned.

"I'm good now, skies are just kinda a shock every time," James said, smiling sheepishly. "Irrational fears, you know how it is." He looked thoughtful, "I'm not actually sure how to make a flower crown. Let's try to figure it out."

"maybe the computer has lessons." Matt joked.

The oldest ones nodded and looked to Ellie. "Yes, we read." One said, speaking out loud so Skye could hear too.

~~~
Jewel thought about that, it made sense that card games wouldn't be good to play with a mind reader. "Well, then we would have to find a game that it won't matter if you know what the other person has, like monopoly." She said, glad to have thought of that.

"Man, probably," James said, grinning at the idea. "It can't be that hard though, I mean, kids can figure it out, right?" He sat down in the grass and started picking daisies.

~~
"Oh man, what books are you reading?" Ellie asked excitedly. "That's so neat!" She was so proud of the dragons, they were so precocious, omg.

"Just kid books for them for now." The mother said. "Simple, easy to read so they can learn the words on paper and not just in the mind."

"monopo lee?" Ivot asked, he had no idea what she meant.

--

"Pass some here." Matt asked, he couldnt really reached the flowers from his chair.

Ellie nodded. "Fun. Like Doctor Moose and stuff?" She petted one of the babies.

~~
James saluted, and handed some flowers to Matt. "Not sure how many we'll need, but there's some for you to start with." He picked up a few flowers and eyed them, trying to figure out how best to stick them together. Tying knots seemed like it might be awkward, hmm.

Jewel chuckled softly. "It's a board game, if we find one I can teach you."

~~~
"Doctor Moose?" The mother asked curiously.

The babies enjoyed being pet by her and Skye, settling in place to nap if they stayed still long enough

"You know, the one with the books with the fox in socks and the fishes," Ellie said. "He was like a big thing in the old days. Doctor Moose wasn't his real name though, he was actually named Theodore Roosevelt." She nodded sagely.

"I will have to get you to find some of them for us." The mother said with a grin

"I'll totally bring some next time," Ellie said cheerfully. She smiled at the baby dragons, "Maybe you little guys will even be able to read them to us."

"We read, we read" The babies said cheerfully, getting up to scamper around her happily.

"Do you have any books here you can read to us?" Ellie asked. Because holy crap, that sounded even more adorable than every other thing the baby dragons did. She watched them scamper about, smiling. She might not want to be a mom, but she really loved being a doting aunt to any dragon baby she saw.

The babies looked to one another then turned and ran off to get the books they could read, bringing back some kid books to read to the adults. They were probably the same ones Asher had read to Danika as a baby

Matt held the flower stems close to his face so he could actually see them properly, even with contact lenses in they were kinda fuzzy for him. He still hadn't gotten a new perscription, whoops? And was too vain to wear the glasses he'd stolen from his mirror self long term, they got in the way damnit.

He stared at the stems, trying to work out how to tie these together. He tried a few knots but those just snapped. Hmmm, there had to be trick to this.

---

Ivor nodded slowly. "a... alright..." He agreed.

"Oh man, that one with the Snow Dragon! I remember that," Ellie said. "Your uh, princes and princesses totally liked that one when they were teeny tiny." She opened the book for the dragons since they were probably still small enough to have trouble with opening books.

~~
James was similarly puzzled by this new and difficult task. His eyesight was a lot better than Matt's, but that didn't seem to help the fact that he didn't know what to do here.

"Maybe we can braid them together," he mused. "I used to french braid my sister's hair sometimes, maybe you can do something similar with flowers?" He eyed the flowers in his lap thoughtfully.