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Description
After what had felt like hours of travel, Ddraig and her family had arrived at the foot of the hill that she'd once called home. Dafydd had come to help them all out of the car, and before they could say anything to them, Captains Sol and 'Emlyn' had taken flight and disappeared into the skies; evidently securing the perimeter for them. Elwynn, on the other hand, had bounded out of the car in excitement, and was happily exploring the area just around them, while at the same time, Eve, who had followed him, was pointing at various things that she'd seen the last time she was there to Olivia, who'd never been to Wales before.
Ddraig and Alexander emerged last, and Ddraig found herself taking a deep breath as she looked up at the peak of the hill.
"Elwynn, why don't you go and play with your sister for a bit?" Alexander said, nodding in Eve's direction.
"Yes, Elwynn, let's go and see what's over here!" Eve said, immediately recognising Alexander's signal. The three dragons promptly ran off, leaving Ddraig and Alexander alone on the side of the hill.
"Are you ready?" Alexander said, turning to face Ddraig. She nodded in response, and they both took to the air, reaching the entrance to the cave of her birth in a matter of minutes. There it was; the tree, exactly where it had been when she saw it in her dreams. She faintly remembered noticing it the last time she'd been to her home cave, but she hadn't paid it any more attention at the time.
She and Alexander landed, and she slowly began walking towards the tree, with Alexander following closely behind her. Part of her wasn't quite sure what to do from here; the shock of seeing her dream made real was a tough thing to comprehend.
"Ddraig?" Alexander said, moving alongside. "Are you all right?"
"Yes, yes, sorry." she said, shaking her head to clear her thoughts, before looking down at the ground. The jar; that's what she needed to find. It was the thing that her mother had wanted her to have, and it was somewhere between the roots. She moved closer to the tree, while Alexander stopped by the large stone at the base, and she began nosing at the grass growing nearby.
Before long, she'd found a depression in the dirt, and quickly started digging; unearthing the same small ceramic jar she'd seen in her dream. She gasped in surprise.
"What is it?" Alexander said, from over by the boulder.
Ddraig looked more closely at the little jar, which had several glyphs in old draconic carved into the side. No matter how faded they were, Ddraig would always recognise the symbols that made up her own name. Curious, she moved to open the ceramic jar, only to hear a strange yet familiar noise coming from inside as she tilted it. In that instance, she knew what it was. It was an age old tradition amongst dragonkind for a mother dragoness to save the eggshells of her hatchlings so that they could be buried with them one day, although Ddraig couldn't say why for sure. She had a feeling that there was an ancient Relgimist myth that explained just why, though, and made a mental note to ask Eve about it when she next saw her.
"Alex," Ddraig called, "Alex, I think these are my-"
"Ddraig?" Alexander said, cutting her off. "I think you need to see this."
Ddraig turned, and saw that he was looking at the large boulder resting alongside the tree. As she moved over to him, Alexander pointed towards a mossy bit, and Ddraig saw that there was something carved into the stone.
No...it couldn't be, she thought.
She moved closer, her stomach tightening as she did, and she brushed away the moss to see the extent of the carving. Weathered, but still faintly legible were two words. Selena Caesin.
Ddraig's legs trembled beneath her, and she sank to a sitting position, staring at the boulder.
"Ddraig?" Alexander said, looking at her with worry.
"She was here." she said bitterly, her voice cracking. "She was here all along, and I missed her because I was only looking at that bloody cave."
"Hey, now, it's okay." Alexander said, wrapping a wing around her. "We've found her now. That's all that matters."
Ddraig sniffed, and burrowed her head under her mate's neck; holding him tightly as she did. The two of them stood there in silence for some time, until eventually Ddraig pulled herself free from his embrace, and went back to looking at the stone.
"What do you want to do, my dear?" Alexander said, watching her intently.
Ddraig said nothing at first. What could she do, she thought bitterly? Her mother was dead, and nothing could change that. But steadily, as she began to calm down, a new thought began to enter her mind. Now that she knew just where her mother's remains were, she wanted to make sure she'd never lose them again.
"Alex," she eventually said. "I want to take her home."
"You mean...yes, I understand." he said, nodding his head. "But I think we might need a bit of help doing that," he added, pulling away from her and waving up at the sky. Ddraig blinked in surprise as Captains Sol and 'Emlyn' appeared in the air before them; having seemingly materialised before them. Evidently, her guards were more skilled with stealth than she had thought.
"Would you be able to arrange for an excavation team to come and help us...get something back to Avalar?" Alexander said, walking over to them as they landed.
"Wait!" Ddraig called, stopping him in his tracks, and causing him to turn around.
"I don't-" she paused. "I don't want to kill the tree. I want to take it with us too." she said, feeling ridiculous as the words left her mouth.
Ddraig half expected her mate to look at her as if she'd gone crazy, or ask what was so important about the tree, but to her amazement, he simply nodded his head and said "Of course, my dear." before turning and relaying that request to the two Captains. Truly, she had chosen a good mate.
After a few more minutes of discussion, with 'Emlyn' remarking that the nearby city of Bangor would be the best place to start, and Captain Sol advising that he'd also contact the Avalarian Mage's Ministry, the two dragons took flight and began heading north, and Alexander walked back to join here.
"There we go." he said, sitting beside her. "We can relax now, my dear; everything's being taken care of. Would you like to back to the castle for now?" he said, tilting his head in the direction of the car.
Ddraig found herself strangely hesitant to leave. "Could we just sit here for a while?" Ddraig said, getting comfortable against Alexander's side. She wanted to wait until at least one of the others got back, just so could be sure that her mother's tree would be safe, and not go walking off the instant she looked away.
"Of course." Alexander said, curling his tail around them both. "It's quite a beautiful little place, isn't it?" he added, admiring the view that lay before them.
"It is." Ddraig said, remembering how even as a hatchling, she'd thought the area around her home was a lovely place to live, even if her home itself wasn't.
"I...what was it like?" Alexander eventually said. "You and your mother being here, I mean? I understand if you don't want to talk about-"
"No, no, it's fine, Alex." she said, nuzzling his neck, before she began her tale.

***

Back at home, Ddraig sighed, finding herself staring again at the ancient jar containing the shells - or whatever was left of them now - of the egg that she had hatched from. At present, she was lying on one of the couches in her study, with Elwynn resting against her chest and softly snoring. It felt like the last few days had passed by so quickly. After finding her mother's tree, Ddraig found herself strangely hesitant to leave; her mind imagining all sorts of insane disasters that could befall the countryside and separate her from her mother once more if she let the tree out of her sight. Fortunately, Captain Sol had wandered up to them at that point, and had immediately reassured Ddraig that he and 'Captain Emlyn' would set a small group of their men to guard the area until the mages could assemble in the area.
From that point, things had gone relatively smoothly; the next morning, Logan had taken them on a guided tour of the nearby "Crud Cerrig"; an ancient draconic stone circle, considered sacred by many Relgimists, and thought by most scholars to be the earliest known site of Western Dragon activity. Eve and Olivia had spent most of the time staring around in awe, and little Elwynn had shared their delight; eventually engaging in a game of hide and seek with them around some of the larger standing stones. Although Ddraig didn't view the area with the same reverence that Eve and Olivia did, she couldn't deny that there wasn't something special about the old ruin. In some places, the air even tingled as if imbued with magical energy.
This small moment of joy had been enough to shake her from her melancholy, but things had unfortunately gone wrong again after that. Not long after returning to Castle Ixeniejir, Ddraig had asked to go back to her birth cave to watch the mages as they worked. Alexander, who'd been spending the last few hours in an almost perpetual conversation with various people via phone - having managed to borrow a satellite phone from Captain Sol - had attempted to dissuade her from this, but unsuccessfully, and so they'd soon set out again, and had arrived just in time to watch as the excavation teams finished and the mages - including her old friend Finnegan, who'd been flown in from Eluithol to help - got to work.
As the tree rose from the ground; levitated by the work of no less than three mages, Ddraig saw something large and white dislodge itself and fall from the soil. A thousand dark images had rushed through her head about just what it had been, and she'd gasped loudly before she'd even realised she was making a sound.
Alexander had promptly leapt in front of her to shield her with his bulk, while Captains Sol and 'Emlyn' had rushed over to the tree, but Ddraig barely noticed either; a white-hot rage had overcome her, and she had begun screaming curses and profanities at the mages for not being more careful, more respectful, more...anything! Alexander had tried in vain to soothe her with calming words, but it had ultimately been Captain's Sol's words that had jarred her from her anger.
"It was a rock, your Highness, I swear." she'd heard him say. "Nothing more!"
"Look, Ddraig," 'Captain Emlyn' said from behind her, and she'd turned to see the shadow dragon holding a pale fragment of stone in his foreclaws. It truly wasn't a...
The burning fire that was her anger vanished, leaving only grief in its wake, and Ddraig had lowered her head in sorrow; trying desperately not to cry.
"I think we should go home." Alexander had said, and Ddraig felt him move alongside her, sheltering her with one of his wings, and she had let him lead her back to their limousine, only looking back once to see the tree being safely loaded onto a large truck that was been placed near the foot of the hill. After retrieving Elwynn, Eve and Olivia from Castle Ixeniejir and bidding her family farewell, it had been a short drive back to Caernarfon Airport, and then a slightly longer flight back to Warfang. Upon touching down, Alexander had had yet another phone call - from Marcus, of all people - and had left to deal with that, while Eve and Olivia had gone with Ddraig and Elwynn back to Warfang Manor, at which point she'd asked to be left alone for a moment, and had retreated to her study with Elwynn.
From downstairs, she heard the sound of the front doors opening, and footsteps going up the stairs. Alexander's head soon appeared at the doorway to the room, and she raised a wing in silent greeting.
"Hey." Alexander said, moving over to kiss her forehead. "It's all been sorted now."
"Sorted?" Ddraig asked, arching her head to rub Alexander's neck.
"I made a few enquiries with Marcus while we were in Wales about your mother and her family." Ddraig's eyes went wide, as Alexander continued speaking. "He did some digging and found your grandparents had been buried in a pauper's grave outside the old Warfang city walls, along with their only valuables...the eggshells of a "missing child" of theirs."
Ddraig's jaw dropped, as she struggled to process what she was hearing.
"Marcus is having their remains shifted to be your mother's tree, so we can have them all interred together." Alexander said, smiling at her reaction. Ddraig didn't think she'd ever loved him more than she did in that moment.
"I...I don't think I'll ever be able to thank you enough for this, Alex." she said, dumbstruck.
Alexander smiled again. "You don't owe me anything, my dear." he said, and they moved their heads nearer towards one another; Ddraig placing one foreclaw on Alexander's shoulder to pull him close as they made love.
"Of course," Alexander added, when they eventually broke apart, "I wouldn't say no to a 'cuddle' later tonight, if you're feeling up for that. Once this little one's safely in bed?" he said, glancing at Elwynn.
Ddraig raised a brow in quiet amusement. "Oh, really?" she snorted, although she wasn't exactly against the idea. "You'd give me another egg so soon?"
"Maybe not another egg." Alexander said, sitting down beside her. "At least, not yet. But maybe when Elwynn's a bit older. It'd be nice for him to have some siblings who're closer to his size."
"Mmm." Ddraig said, picturing herself surrounded by adoring hatchlings. "I'd love to have another little girl one day. She'd be a sweet little green scaled dragoness, and I'd call her Selena."
Alexander smiled. "I'd like that. And maybe we could have another little boy as well?"
Ddraig chuckled. "Named Alexander, no doubt?"
Alexander at least had the good grace to turn red. "Well, yes, but I'd still like another son. He could be as rambunctious as this little one, and as driven to rule as me. He'll be a good little King."
"King?" Ddraig said, confused.
"Well, Elwynn can't inherit the Netherlands AND Avalar." Alexander explained. "We'd need to have another hatchling for that reason alone."
"I suppose..." Ddraig said, although she was less concerned with that side of things. "Sounds like a plan, in any case." Ddraig said, just as Elwynn began to stir, whimpering.
"Indeed it does." Alexander added, moving over to his young son. "It's all right, my love." he said, nuzzling Elwynn's nose.
His young son yawned in response. "Daddy?" he said, sleepily opening his eyes.
"Come on, little one, let's get you to your bed." Alexander said, lowering his head for Elwynn to climb on it. Ddraig got up from the couch, stretching in the process, and followed Alexander out into the hallway.
"If you like, we can go and see the tree," Alexander said to her, "Once we've got him all tucked in tightly. Eve and Olivia are still here, aren't they?"
"They are." Ddraig said, cocking her head towards the lounge door.
Alexander smiled again. "Let's go, then."

Description
After what had felt like hours of travel, Ddraig and her family had arrived at the foot of the hill that she'd once called home. Dafydd had come to help them all out of the car, and before they could say anything to them, Captains Sol and 'Emlyn' had taken flight and disappeared into the skies; evidently securing the perimeter for them. Elwynn, on the other hand, had bounded out of the car in excitement, and was happily exploring the area just around them, while at the same time, Eve, who had followed him, was pointing at various things that she'd seen the last time she was there to Olivia, who'd never been to Wales before.
Ddraig and Alexander emerged last, and Ddraig found herself taking a deep breath as she looked up at the peak of the hill.
"Elwynn, why don't you go and play with your sister for a bit?" Alexander said, nodding in Eve's direction.
"Yes, Elwynn, let's go and see what's over here!" Eve said, immediately recognising Alexander's signal. The three dragons promptly ran off, leaving Ddraig and Alexander alone on the side of the hill.
"Are you ready?" Alexander said, turning to face Ddraig. She nodded in response, and they both took to the air, reaching the entrance to the cave of her birth in a matter of minutes. There it was; the tree, exactly where it had been when she saw it in her dreams. She faintly remembered noticing it the last time she'd been to her home cave, but she hadn't paid it any more attention at the time.
She and Alexander landed, and she slowly began walking towards the tree, with Alexander following closely behind her. Part of her wasn't quite sure what to do from here; the shock of seeing her dream made real was a tough thing to comprehend.
"Ddraig?" Alexander said, moving alongside. "Are you all right?"
"Yes, yes, sorry." she said, shaking her head to clear her thoughts, before looking down at the ground. The jar; that's what she needed to find. It was the thing that her mother had wanted her to have, and it was somewhere between the roots. She moved closer to the tree, while Alexander stopped by the large stone at the base, and she began nosing at the grass growing nearby.
Before long, she'd found a depression in the dirt, and quickly started digging; unearthing the same small ceramic jar she'd seen in her dream. She gasped in surprise.
"What is it?" Alexander said, from over by the boulder.
Ddraig looked more closely at the little jar, which had several glyphs in old draconic carved into the side. No matter how faded they were, Ddraig would always recognise the symbols that made up her own name. Curious, she moved to open the ceramic jar, only to hear a strange yet familiar noise coming from inside as she tilted it. In that instance, she knew what it was. It was an age old tradition amongst dragonkind for a mother dragoness to save the eggshells of her hatchlings so that they could be buried with them one day, although Ddraig couldn't say why for sure. She had a feeling that there was an ancient Relgimist myth that explained just why, though, and made a mental note to ask Eve about it when she next saw her.
"Alex," Ddraig called, "Alex, I think these are my-"
"Ddraig?" Alexander said, cutting her off. "I think you need to see this."
Ddraig turned, and saw that he was looking at the large boulder resting alongside the tree. As she moved over to him, Alexander pointed towards a mossy bit, and Ddraig saw that there was something carved into the stone.
No...it couldn't be, she thought.
She moved closer, her stomach tightening as she did, and she brushed away the moss to see the extent of the carving. Weathered, but still faintly legible were two words. Selena Caesin.
Ddraig's legs trembled beneath her, and she sank to a sitting position, staring at the boulder.
"Ddraig?" Alexander said, looking at her with worry.
"She was here." she said bitterly, her voice cracking. "She was here all along, and I missed her because I was only looking at that bloody cave."
"Hey, now, it's okay." Alexander said, wrapping a wing around her. "We've found her now. That's all that matters."
Ddraig sniffed, and burrowed her head under her mate's neck; holding him tightly as she did. The two of them stood there in silence for some time, until eventually Ddraig pulled herself free from his embrace, and went back to looking at the stone.
"What do you want to do, my dear?" Alexander said, watching her intently.
Ddraig said nothing at first. What could she do, she thought bitterly? Her mother was dead, and nothing could change that. But steadily, as she began to calm down, a new thought began to enter her mind. Now that she knew just where her mother's remains were, she wanted to make sure she'd never lose them again.
"Alex," she eventually said. "I want to take her home."
"You mean...yes, I understand." he said, nodding his head. "But I think we might need a bit of help doing that," he added, pulling away from her and waving up at the sky. Ddraig blinked in surprise as Captains Sol and 'Emlyn' appeared in the air before them; having seemingly materialised before them. Evidently, her guards were more skilled with stealth than she had thought.
"Would you be able to arrange for an excavation team to come and help us...get something back to Avalar?" Alexander said, walking over to them as they landed.
"Wait!" Ddraig called, stopping him in his tracks, and causing him to turn around.
"I don't-" she paused. "I don't want to kill the tree. I want to take it with us too." she said, feeling ridiculous as the words left her mouth.
Ddraig half expected her mate to look at her as if she'd gone crazy, or ask what was so important about the tree, but to her amazement, he simply nodded his head and said "Of course, my dear." before turning and relaying that request to the two Captains. Truly, she had chosen a good mate.
After a few more minutes of discussion, with 'Emlyn' remarking that the nearby city of Bangor would be the best place to start, and Captain Sol advising that he'd also contact the Avalarian Mage's Ministry, the two dragons took flight and began heading north, and Alexander walked back to join here.
"There we go." he said, sitting beside her. "We can relax now, my dear; everything's being taken care of. Would you like to back to the castle for now?" he said, tilting his head in the direction of the car.
Ddraig found herself strangely hesitant to leave. "Could we just sit here for a while?" Ddraig said, getting comfortable against Alexander's side. She wanted to wait until at least one of the others got back, just so could be sure that her mother's tree would be safe, and not go walking off the instant she looked away.
"Of course." Alexander said, curling his tail around them both. "It's quite a beautiful little place, isn't it?" he added, admiring the view that lay before them.
"It is." Ddraig said, remembering how even as a hatchling, she'd thought the area around her home was a lovely place to live, even if her home itself wasn't.
"I...what was it like?" Alexander eventually said. "You and your mother being here, I mean? I understand if you don't want to talk about-"
"No, no, it's fine, Alex." she said, nuzzling his neck, before she began her tale.

***

Back at home, Ddraig sighed, finding herself staring again at the ancient jar containing the shells - or whatever was left of them now - of the egg that she had hatched from. At present, she was lying on one of the couches in her study, with Elwynn resting against her chest and softly snoring. It felt like the last few days had passed by so quickly. After finding her mother's tree, Ddraig found herself strangely hesitant to leave; her mind imagining all sorts of insane disasters that could befall the countryside and separate her from her mother once more if she let the tree out of her sight. Fortunately, Captain Sol had wandered up to them at that point, and had immediately reassured Ddraig that he and 'Captain Emlyn' would set a small group of their men to guard the area until the mages could assemble in the area.
From that point, things had gone relatively smoothly; the next morning, Logan had taken them on a guided tour of the nearby "Crud Cerrig"; an ancient draconic stone circle, considered sacred by many Relgimists, and thought by most scholars to be the earliest known site of Western Dragon activity. Eve and Olivia had spent most of the time staring around in awe, and little Elwynn had shared their delight; eventually engaging in a game of hide and seek with them around some of the larger standing stones. Although Ddraig didn't view the area with the same reverence that Eve and Olivia did, she couldn't deny that there wasn't something special about the old ruin. In some places, the air even tingled as if imbued with magical energy.
This small moment of joy had been enough to shake her from her melancholy, but things had unfortunately gone wrong again after that. Not long after returning to Castle Ixeniejir, Ddraig had asked to go back to her birth cave to watch the mages as they worked. Alexander, who'd been spending the last few hours in an almost perpetual conversation with various people via phone - having managed to borrow a satellite phone from Captain Sol - had attempted to dissuade her from this, but unsuccessfully, and so they'd soon set out again, and had arrived just in time to watch as the excavation teams finished and the mages - including her old friend Finnegan, who'd been flown in from Eluithol to help - got to work.
As the tree rose from the ground; levitated by the work of no less than three mages, Ddraig saw something large and white dislodge itself and fall from the soil. A thousand dark images had rushed through her head about just what it had been, and she'd gasped loudly before she'd even realised she was making a sound.
Alexander had promptly leapt in front of her to shield her with his bulk, while Captains Sol and 'Emlyn' had rushed over to the tree, but Ddraig barely noticed either; a white-hot rage had overcome her, and she had begun screaming curses and profanities at the mages for not being more careful, more respectful, more...anything! Alexander had tried in vain to soothe her with calming words, but it had ultimately been Captain's Sol's words that had jarred her from her anger.
"It was a rock, your Highness, I swear." she'd heard him say. "Nothing more!"
"Look, Ddraig," 'Captain Emlyn' said from behind her, and she'd turned to see the shadow dragon holding a pale fragment of stone in his foreclaws. It truly wasn't a...
The burning fire that was her anger vanished, leaving only grief in its wake, and Ddraig had lowered her head in sorrow; trying desperately not to cry.
"I think we should go home." Alexander had said, and Ddraig felt him move alongside her, sheltering her with one of his wings, and she had let him lead her back to their limousine, only looking back once to see the tree being safely loaded onto a large truck that was been placed near the foot of the hill. After retrieving Elwynn, Eve and Olivia from Castle Ixeniejir and bidding her family farewell, it had been a short drive back to Caernarfon Airport, and then a slightly longer flight back to Warfang. Upon touching down, Alexander had had yet another phone call - from Marcus, of all people - and had left to deal with that, while Eve and Olivia had gone with Ddraig and Elwynn back to Warfang Manor, at which point she'd asked to be left alone for a moment, and had retreated to her study with Elwynn.
From downstairs, she heard the sound of the front doors opening, and footsteps going up the stairs. Alexander's head soon appeared at the doorway to the room, and she raised a wing in silent greeting.
"Hey." Alexander said, moving over to kiss her forehead. "It's all been sorted now."
"Sorted?" Ddraig asked, arching her head to rub Alexander's neck.
"I made a few enquiries with Marcus while we were in Wales about your mother and her family." Ddraig's eyes went wide, as Alexander continued speaking. "He did some digging and found your grandparents had been buried in a pauper's grave outside the old Warfang city walls, along with their only valuables...the eggshells of a "missing child" of theirs."
Ddraig's jaw dropped, as she struggled to process what she was hearing.
"Marcus is having their remains shifted to be your mother's tree, so we can have them all interred together." Alexander said, smiling at her reaction. Ddraig didn't think she'd ever loved him more than she did in that moment.
"I...I don't think I'll ever be able to thank you enough for this, Alex." she said, dumbstruck.
Alexander smiled again. "You don't owe me anything, my dear." he said, and they moved their heads nearer towards one another; Ddraig placing one foreclaw on Alexander's shoulder to pull him close as they made love.
"Of course," Alexander added, when they eventually broke apart, "I wouldn't say no to a 'cuddle' later tonight, if you're feeling up for that. Once this little one's safely in bed?" he said, glancing at Elwynn.
Ddraig raised a brow in quiet amusement. "Oh, really?" she snorted, although she wasn't exactly against the idea. "You'd give me another egg so soon?"
"Maybe not another egg." Alexander said, sitting down beside her. "At least, not yet. But maybe when Elwynn's a bit older. It'd be nice for him to have some siblings who're closer to his size."
"Mmm." Ddraig said, picturing herself surrounded by adoring hatchlings. "I'd love to have another little girl one day. She'd be a sweet little green scaled dragoness, and I'd call her Selena."
Alexander smiled. "I'd like that. And maybe we could have another little boy as well?"
Ddraig chuckled. "Named Alexander, no doubt?"
Alexander at least had the good grace to turn red. "Well, yes, but I'd still like another son. He could be as rambunctious as this little one, and as driven to rule as me. He'll be a good little King."
"King?" Ddraig said, confused.
"Well, Elwynn can't inherit the Netherlands AND Avalar." Alexander explained. "We'd need to have another hatchling for that reason alone."
"I suppose..." Ddraig said, although she was less concerned with that side of things. "Sounds like a plan, in any case." Ddraig said, just as Elwynn began to stir, whimpering.
"Indeed it does." Alexander added, moving over to his young son. "It's all right, my love." he said, nuzzling Elwynn's nose.
His young son yawned in response. "Daddy?" he said, sleepily opening his eyes.
"Come on, little one, let's get you to your bed." Alexander said, lowering his head for Elwynn to climb on it. Ddraig got up from the couch, stretching in the process, and followed Alexander out into the hallway.
"If you like, we can go and see the tree," Alexander said to her, "Once we've got him all tucked in tightly. Eve and Olivia are still here, aren't they?"
"They are." Ddraig said, cocking her head towards the lounge door.
Alexander smiled again. "Let's go, then."