Let The Chaos Continue

Put Memories In Thy Purse

A/N: First half of this inspired (and partially quoted) from Othello, because I thought this scene was hilarious, even for Shakespeare.

Ander and Ray were sitting at the roots of a tree, laughing their heads off. 

"Read it again!" Ander begged, laughing. Ray picked up the scroll by his feet, and composed himself as best he could.

He cleared his throat, and began reciting the scroll in a nasally, pompous voice.

"Come, be a man. Drown thyself! Drown cats and blind puppies. I have professed me thy friend and I confess me knit to thy deserving with cables of perdurable toughness; I could never better stead thee than now. Put money in thy purse!" He stopped, doubling over with laughter as Ander rolled on the ground. 

"Follow thou the wars!" Ander cried out. "Defeat thy favour with an usurped beard; I say, PUT MONEY IN THY PURSE!"

"MONEY IN THY PURSE!" Ray echoed, "Put but money in thy purse!"

"Fill thy purse with money!"

"Put money in thy purse!"

"I shall sell all my land!" They doubled over again, laughing too hard to continue.

".....Am I interrupting?" A new voice asked. Ander wiped tears of laughter from her face and sighed before glancing over at the dragon who had entered the clearing.

"Oh, hello Parrot," She sighed. "Nah, we're just having a little fun."

"What was the joke?" Parrot asked, confused. Ray and Ander smirked.

"Put money in thy purse, Mea." Ray growled playfully. They lost it, and a very confused Parrot slowly backed away.

"Iago, you coot!" Ander called out, causing Ray to laugh harder.

*~*~*~*

Rin, Joy, and Shore were in Joy's office, working on whatever task Glory had assigned them all.

"So, Mother," Shore began. "When you're Queen, will you assign us all paperwork as well?" 

"Yes and No." Joy offered. "Somebody's gotta do it, and if I'm Queen, it's not gonna be me."

"It's so weird to think about you being Queen." Rin admitted. "I could never imagine anyone but Grandmother on the throne." Joy shrugged.

"I thought that too at first, but then you start to see it differently." Joy smiled at her daughter. "Who knows- your child could be Queen someday." Rin grinned and turned to stare at her work.

"I don't think so." She offered. 

"You never know." Joy advised. Rin shook her head.

"Even if one of my dragonets becomes Queen, it won't be this one." 

"Not right for the job?" Shore guessed.

"Wrong gender." Rin insisted. Joy nearly dropped her pen.

"It's a boy?" She whispered. Rin smiled.

"I think so." 

"Well then it definitely is. The mother always knows." Joy declared.

"So you knew that I was going to be a boy, and that Rin and Ander would be girls?" Shore questioned. Joy nodded.

"I definitely knew that you would be a boy, but the girls....the whole twin thing threw me off, so I wasn't sure."

"It's so weird to think about." Rin proclaimed. "That you just know. Heck, I didn't even think I'd ever even have a dragonet."

"I thought the same thing." Joy admitted, causing her children to stare at her.

"Really?" Shore questioned. "You never thought you'd have dragonets?" Joy shrugged.

"I guess I just never really wanted to have dragonets. When I was growing up, I always thought that Rainkeeper would have a daughter, and she'd be heir to the throne, so there wouldn't be a need for me to have a child. And after I got serious with Kelp, and everything with his stupid agreement with Coral- I guess I just assumed I wouldn't have one."

"So you didn't want us." Rin concluded.

"That's not true." Joy objected. "Once I found out I was going to have a dragonet, I wanted one more then ever."

"So we just weren't planned." Shore assumed. Joy made a face.

"Well, YOU weren't." She corrected. "Rin and Ander were." Shore scowled.

"Ha!" Rin laughed at him. "You're the accident!" 

"Says the girl who got knocked up." Shore shot back. Rin glared at him, and turned back to Joy.

"Did you ever regret having Shore?" She asked. "I mean, seeing as he wasn't expected and he was your first dragonet." Joy shook her head.

"No." She smiled. "I never regretted having any of you for even a second. You were all perfect in your own ways." 

"Which is the polite way of saying we're all weirdos." Shore declared, grinning. 

"Hey, I'm damn proud of my weirdos." Joy declared. Rin and Shore smiled. 

"Was it ever weird, after Shore first hatched?" Rin asked. "Like, did you ever think you were going to mess everything up, or anything like that?"

"Oh, all the time." Joy insisted. "For the first week after Shore hatched, I thought I was going to accidentally kill him just by touching him."

"That's ridiculous." Shore offered. Joy smirked.

"Have a dragonet, and you'll be terrified by it too." She commented. "I was legitimately terrified to touch you. I made Kelp do everything, just in case."

"How'd you get passed it?" Rin asked. Joy smiled, glancing at her son.

"Well, they say dragonets can sense fear." She began. "And Shore must have known I was deathly afraid of laying a talon on him. There was this one day where Kelp, that sly bastard, purposefully left me alone with him because he was trying to help me get over the fear. And Shore climbed out of his little hammock without my knowledge, and he found me, and he hugged me." Joy grinned. "I was horrified at first, but he didn't care. He just stared up at me with his little adoring eyes, and just like that, all my fears melted away."

"Too bad I'm not smart like that now." Shore commented, but he was smiling.

"That sounds so simple." Rin offered. 

"It is." Joy confirmed. "You'll understand when your dragonet hatches, Rin, I promise. Everything just kind of has a way of making sense after that." Rin smiled softly.

"I hope you're right."