Water Touched - A Dragon Tribe Origin

Chapter Twenty-Five - Darien

1/1/1999

Ah, Journal, I have now discovered I am once again pregnant. This will be number seven for me. I don't know why, but every time it happens, I start to get nervous. Funny, huh? I've been through so many pregnancies; one would think it wouldn't scare me anymore. Why should it? Still, there's always this uncertainty present. Will he be okay? Will I do my job right and keep him safe?

Darien had to stop there, unsure if he was ready to keep reading. Of course, he wanted to know who his mother was, but he felt increasingly nauseous with every flip of the page. He knew how the story would end, and he didn't want to reach that ending. The only way he'd ever get to know her was through her own hand, though. His father didn't like to talk about her. None of his brothers did. And she had wanted him to read her words. That part stuck out as well, and he hated the idea of being disobedient to her final wishes. Reading a journal wasn't that difficult of a request.

More importantly, it gave him something to focus on that wasn't Tai. It still boggled his mind that she just...left. Why would she do that? He'd been hoping that maybe she'd have a change of heart after a few hours, or a day passed. It'd been three. If he kept thinking about it, agonizing over it, he'd end up unleashing his anger via telepathy. Some things were better left said in person, and he was determined to wait until then to say them.

He took in a deep breath and continued.

Will I do my job right and keep him safe?

I think I'm going to tell Orion after one more, this will be it. He's set on having a minimum of eight sons. Eight is a solid number for a family of his people. It's an even number. It's a holy number. He has a lot of reasons why eight is good. I guess most of the families of the water dragons average around fourteen. Fourteen! I don't know what woman would want to be pregnant fourteen times, even with the shortened period of time in utero that comes with dragon birthing. It's still exhausting both physically and emotionally. Then when they hatch, you still have another little one running around who is lovable and enraging all at the same time. These boys require a lot of attention and there is only so much of me to go around.

I've gotten used to six. Seven, I know I can do. Eight will be possible. Beyond that, and I might end up losing my mind.

I like being a mother, but it's tiring. If it's not Brian wanting advice about girls and friends and how to begin navigating being a teenager, then it's Tommy wanting food and cuddles and trying to kill himself by drinking dish detergent. My patience is starting to run thinner, and thinner every day. I don't mean to be so short with the boys all of the time, I honestly don't. Sometimes, I feel like the worst mom alive because of it.

Orion tries hard to help out, but given his status he doesn't always have time. Maybe I can stop after seven. Seven sounds like a better number than eight. Seven would be perfect. This one we tried for. I want him and have dreamed about him. It feels right.

Darien stopped again. One thing was sure, his mother was honest. Granted, it was a journal, so she was supposed to unload all truth into it. Just knowing how much she wanted him was painful and special all at the same time. She wanted him, that would always mean something, but her biggest desire would end up becoming her undoing. It made him all the more apprehensive of having sons of his own. After the transition Tai went through, he couldn't stomach the idea of what a pregnancy might do. Assuming he ever saw her again and they made progress enough where she'd ever want to be pregnant.

Tai. He told himself he wasn't going to think about her. When she left, a piece of him went too, and he was surprised by how much it stung despite them only having been together for a few days. They were forever bound together. Nothing would change that. He probably should not have told her she could leave, but he had meant what he said about her not being his prisoner. Of course, he hadn't expected her to take it so literally, either.