Private Tit For Tat

[Muad Dib]

When she rolled to her side, closing the distance he had placed between them, he was completely fine with it. His hand moved to rest on her hip, his thumb lightly tracing her hip bone and the skin toward her navel. Lightly, he traced the wet fabric off her bottoms, enjoying the sensation as he looked into her eyes. She was too beautiful. He could imagine future arguments between them lost as she pressed against him as she was now, and looking at him the way her golden eyes stared into his soul. And he could easily understand Marta's warning not to make every choice at once.

But he found, despite wanting and desiring her even more now that they had crossed the line from attached to something more, that he was okay with taking their time. That was all he wanted: time with her. To decide when and where they wanted to advance into the future. And plenty of time to learn just how far he could tease her before she melted in his arms. Now that he thoroughly looked forward to learning. Her face found the curve of his neck, and he felt his body jerk, a flush of warmth filling his being.

He knew what she was doing. He had done it many, many times to her. Imprinting his scent to memory. Curiosity almost made him ask what he smelled like. You tend to be immune to your natural smell. But he didn't. There was something incredibly intimate about the woman lying next to him wanting, choosing, to breathe him in. The gradual warmth turned to hunger as he felt lips on his neck. She knew exactly what she was doing as her lips twitched into a smile along his skin.

Her hand drifted to his chest as she laid her head on his shoulder. Her comment on desire drew forth a laugh from her, and he grinned. He loved the sound of her laughter. And then she rose, her hand cupping his face as she whispered a word into his ear. "Ner." Mine. He was shocked to stillness.

It wasn't that she had learned a word of mando'a that surprised him. It was the word itself. And the intent behind it. She was claiming him as surely as if she had placed a brand on his flesh. And in a sense, she did. The word echoed in his heart as he wondered if she truly meant what she said. The teasing and longing that had existed between them since Batuu were things he understood. The need and desire which swept over them on Veradune were felt by them both. But here, on Olanet, she had kissed him and then declared he was hers. He certainly didn't argue because he had felt that way back on Batuu. Hearing her say it made him grow tender, the warmth that filled him moving from desire to an ache that felt wonderful.

Before he could respond, she leaned back in and took what she had claimed. He was more than willing to give it. The contours of her lips melded to his, and he found the hunger revived. But it didn't overwhelm them. Instead, it found its place in the warmth of their bodies, her hand on his face as he tasted her lips. When they parted again, she didn't go far, her head finding the familiar resting place on his own. They simply breathed, their lips near enough for another kiss, yet both finding the intimacy more rewarding in the moment.

"Ner cyar'ika."

He felt the warmth and understanding of exactly what she had uttered flow through him from their bond. The comfortable way she settled against him only stoked the flames of what she had said. And meant. It wasn't just the words. It was the fact that being Mando'ad was part of who he was just as much as wearing the iron skin of his armor. She spoke in the language he had adopted and made his own. And she accepted that part of who he was too. His smile filled with wonder as he gazed into her eyes until it slowly changed into desire.

He rolled back to where he was over her and lowered his head, his lips reflecting the desire he felt. Teeth raked her lip as he deepened the kiss, wanting more. Yet, despite the hunger he felt, he kept his body from pressing into hers. Just because he wanted more didn't mean he was demanding it, or going to take more than either intended at the moment. It was a kiss of passion, not control. He eased his lips back, teasing her head to follow his lips. The realization that he could kiss her anytime he wanted was only overshadowed by the knowledge that she could kiss him anytime she desired. And it filled him with immense pleasure, even as his hand rose from her hip to softly caress her neck and jaw.

"Ner mesh'la cyar'ika." His lips smiled against hers even as movement from the corner of his eye turned his head in that direction. "Look." Farther down the beach, three four-legged K'kayeh dragons splashed in the surf, their size revealing they were adolescents. They stood no taller than their waists, wings flapping in the breeze that swept in from the ocean. Two were different shades of green while the third was a dark charcoal. They ran across the beach, sand flying from their clawed feet. Their tails swished in the air behind them. Then they saw the Interlopers on their beach, and they stopped playing. As one, they let out little roars and charged at them.

Muad looked down into Rin's eyes and grinned as he leaned forward and stole a quick kiss. "Looks like we are about to be attacked." He winked and then sprang up by his arms and sauntered in the direction of the attacking dragons. He crouched as they charged, teeth the size of his fingers snapping as two went wide to either side and the gray one leaped straight for Muad's torso, claws flashing in the light. The mad man leaped forward to meet the dragon as the other two closed from his sides.

The wet thud as man and dragon collided echoed across the beach as the dragon's long body coiled around his chest. The reptilian head was now poised over Muad's head before it flashed down, jaws opened wide. The snake-like tongue flickered across his face, and he laughed loudly as the other two converged on his sides to climb up and assault him with their tongues. The four crashed to the ground as Muad energetically rubbed the soft scales of the green ones, who rolled over, necks and tails slithering in the sand at their enjoyment. The gray one stayed coiled about the man's torso as its head turned toward the woman lying on the sand.

"Shadow, go say hi." That was all the encouragement the diminutive dragon needed. He uncoiled and ran ungainly across the sand toward the woman, its tongue hanging out the side of its mouth. Muad moved to his knees as he watched, his hands still scratching the soft underbellies of the green dragons still writing on the beach in enjoyment. "Shadow, vitsznika." The unfamiliar word was understood as Shadow slowed on his approach to finally drop to its belly to crawl all but the last few feet toward Rin. Its tail beat the sand in excitement as it waited for the woman to close the distance and give him love.

Rin Taal

 

[Rin Taal]

Rin had expected the word to affect him, but she had not expected Muad to go completely still. For one suspended heartbeat after ner left her lips, she wondered whether she had somehow used it incorrectly despite Marta's answer. Then the dyad opened the truth between them, surprise coming first and followed so quickly by tenderness that something inside Rin seemed to ache beneath it. She felt the meaning of her choice settle into him, far beyond the simple translation of mine, and suddenly the little word she had carried away from Marta felt considerably larger than it had when she'd whispered it against his ear. Rin hadn't chosen it casually. She had wanted something that could answer all the names Muad had begun giving her in a language that belonged to an important part of him, but she hadn't entirely understood how deeply he might receive it until she felt that wonderful warmth spreading through him.

His reaction made her glad she'd waited. The affection in Rin's golden eyes deepened as she watched him, and when uncertainty flickered through the dyad over whether she truly meant it, she didn't need words to answer. She simply let him feel what had accompanied the claim from the beginning. She wasn't laying ownership over him or asking a man who had spent so much of his life wandering to surrender any part of himself. She wanted him, not a smaller, safer version shaped to fit neatly into her life. The Mandalorian, the nomad, the father and brother, the warrior carrying too many ghosts, the ridiculous man who could make her ears burn with a sentence and then look at her as though she'd somehow become the remarkable one. Ner meant that she had chosen all of it, and whatever they eventually became, Muad had a place beside her because she wanted him there.

Then he rolled over her again, and the tenderness inside Rin collided rather spectacularly with everything else she felt for him. The first touch of his mouth stole the breath she'd only just recovered, her hand sliding instinctively into his hair as his teeth caught her lower lip. A low sound escaped her before she had any interest in suppressing it, and heat spread beneath her skin with startling speed, answering the hunger in his kiss even while she felt the restraint behind it. That distinction mattered. Muad wasn't holding himself away because he didn't need her. The dyad made the truth of that impossible to mistake. He wanted more and was choosing not to take more, leaving the boundary exactly where they'd placed it together, and somehow knowing how much effort that choice required made the kiss more intoxicating rather than less.

When he began to withdraw, Rin followed before she realized what she was doing, lifting her head from the sand in pursuit of his mouth. The smile she felt against her lips told her he'd done it deliberately, and her eyes opened into a narrow golden glare that held considerably more desire than annoyance. "You are going to abuse this new privilege terribly, aren't you?" Her fingers tightened lightly in his hair as though considering whether to simply pull him back down and take what he was teasing her with anyway. The answer hardly mattered. She already knew she was going to let him get away with far too much, and that realization should probably have concerned her more than it did. Instead, when his hand moved from her hip to her neck and jaw, the tenderness of the touch softened the heat inside her into something richer.

Ner mesh'la cyar'ika.

My beautiful beloved.

Rin understood every word, and somehow that made hearing them together considerably worse for her composure. The meanings returned in Muad's own voice from their flight on Puff. Cyar'ika. Darlin'. Or beloved. Mesh'la. Beautiful. Hearing the translations then had already done terrible things to her, particularly with the two of them pressed together on the back of a flying dragon while attraction burned through both sides of the dyad. Now there was no uncertainty left in what he meant, not with his lips still close enough to brush hers, his fingers resting tenderly against her neck and jaw, and the word she'd learned from Marta returned to her as though it had always belonged alongside the others.

Ner.

She had called him mine, and Muad had answered in kind.

Something warm tightened behind Rin's ribs, different from the heat his kiss had left burning beneath her skin even though the two were becoming increasingly difficult to separate. This reached somewhere deeper, into the place where all her uncertainty about what they were becoming had once lived. She had chosen that little word because she meant it, and hearing him fold it around mesh'la cyar'ika made the choice feel mutual in a way that needed no further explanation. There was still no promise of centuries between them, no attempt to decide every tomorrow after knowing each other for only days. They didn't need one. Right now there was simply the knowledge that she was his beautiful beloved and he was hers, and Rin discovered that was enough to make her heart feel almost painfully full.

Her golden eyes softened as they held his. She could have kissed him again simply for that, and in fact she was already beginning to close the scant distance between their mouths when his attention suddenly shifted toward something farther down the beach. Rin's brow furrowed as the kiss she had every intention of stealing slipped away from her. "What?" At his quiet instruction to look, she reluctantly followed his gaze and promptly forgot all about being deprived.

Three young dragons splashed through the surf farther down the beach, all legs and wings and whipping tails as they chased one another across the wet sand. Rin's entire face brightened as she watched them. They were small only by comparison to Puff, and even at their age possessed enough teeth and claws to make most people reconsider remaining anywhere nearby, but Rin saw the ungainly exuberance before she saw anything threatening. The two green dragons tumbled through the shallows while the charcoal one bounded beside them, and something about the sight struck directly at the part of her that had spent much of her life stopping for every injured, frightened, or simply interesting creature she encountered.

"Oh..." The sound escaped with such naked delight that she didn't try to hide it. Whatever lingering frustration she'd felt at being denied another kiss disappeared beneath wonder as her ears lifted through her damp hair and her smile widened. Muad had already introduced her to Puff, which would have been enough to make the entire day unforgettable on its own, and apparently he'd neglected to mention that Olanet also possessed smaller versions.

Then all three stopped, their attention settling upon the two interlopers occupying their beach. Three sets of eyes found them before the little roars followed, making Rin's ears twitch sharply. When Muad announced that they were about to be attacked, she looked from the dragons to him with growing suspicion, only for his stolen kiss to distract her exactly long enough for him to escape before she could catch him. "Muad..." He was already sauntering directly toward the charging creatures as though being rushed by three dragons was an entirely ordinary part of visiting the beach, leaving Rin to push herself onto one elbow and watch with an increasingly helpless mixture of amusement and disbelief.

She didn't interfere. Muad's complete lack of concern told her enough, and there was no fear coming from him through the dyad to contradict it. Still, when the charcoal dragon launched itself straight at his chest, every protective instinct Rin possessed flared for one sharp instant. Man and dragon collided in the sand, her body already beginning to move before a long tongue swept enthusiastically across Muad's face.

Rin stared for half a heartbeat before the second dragon converged from one side and the third from the other. Whatever concern she'd felt shattered beneath a laugh that burst out of her before she could contain it. Muad disappeared beneath a writhing collection of scales, wings and tails while the young dragons enthusiastically assaulted him with affection, and the sight of him laughing beneath them, scratching at soft underbellies while the two green dragons rolled shamelessly through the sand, filled Rin with a rush of happiness so simple and complete that it caught somewhere inside her.

This was another piece of him, and perhaps one of the gentlest he had shown her.

Not the warrior she'd seen on Batuu, nor the man whose thousand years sometimes seemed to stand behind his eyes. Not the senator, clan leader or any of the other titles that followed him through the galaxy. This was simply Muad on a beach he knew, laughing while young dragons climbed over him as though he'd always belonged among them. Rin had wanted exactly this when she'd told him she wanted to explore a world familiar to him, just the two of them. She had shown him pieces of Veradune because she wanted him to understand where she came from, to walk the roads and meet the people that had shaped her, and now he was giving her the same gift. Every creature that recognized him, every place he took her and every memory attached to this world offered another glimpse into a life she'd only just begun learning.

There was something precious about seeing him here, happy enough to laugh without anything waiting immediately behind it. Rin had already seen Muad in moments of danger, pain, vulnerability and desire, but this touched her differently. There was no wound for her to tend, no enemy to survive and no difficult truth that needed to be pulled from either of them. There was only the man she'd chosen, sprawled in the sand while dragons licked his face, and affection warmed the dyad so freely that she didn't even think about containing it. She found herself wanting to remember the sound of his laughter, to keep this version of him alongside all the others she was slowly collecting.

Then the charcoal dragon looked at her.

Rin's ears tipped forward as Shadow uncoiled from Muad and started toward her with his tongue hanging ridiculously from the side of his mouth. She laughed again, already pushing herself upright, although his enthusiastic charge made her brace one hand in the sand. Muad spoke an unfamiliar word and Shadow immediately slowed, dropping onto his belly and crawling the last few feet with his tail beating hard enough against the beach to scatter sand. The fact that Muad had told him to approach gently wasn't lost on her, and the small consideration warmed her almost as much as the sight of the dragon trying very hard to contain himself.

"Hello, Shadow."

Rin didn't immediately reach for him. Old habits ran too deeply for that. Instead, she lowered herself until she was closer to his level, one knee folding beneath her as she extended a hand palm-up and allowed him the final choice. Her connection to the living world opened almost instinctively, not pushing into the dragon's thoughts or trying to tame something that clearly needed no taming. She simply let her presence reach toward his, warm with curiosity and affection, offering the same uncomplicated reassurance she had given frightened animals countless times before.

I'm safe.

Shadow's excitement hardly suggested he required reassurance, but Rin wanted the introduction to belong to him too. When he closed the last little distance, she let her fingers find the scales beneath his jaw and discovered they were softer than their appearance suggested. Her smile widened instantly as she scratched carefully along his jaw and down his neck, searching for the places that earned the strongest reaction before her other hand joined the first. "Aren't you handsome?" Whatever dignity Shadow might eventually develop as a full-grown K'kayeh dragon was in serious danger of being destroyed within moments.

Rin laughed as she leaned closer, both hands working along the charcoal scales of his neck before she finally gave in and wrapped her arms around him. There was something wonderfully absurd about hugging a dragon on an unfamiliar island while Muad sat several meters away covered in two more of them, yet the absurdity only made the moment sweeter. Shadow was warm beneath her arms, his tail continuing its relentless assault against the sand, and Rin pressed her cheek briefly against the side of his head with a happiness she made no effort to contain.

Her gaze lifted toward Muad over the dragon, and the sight of him sent another warmth through her, quieter than the fire he'd stirred only moments earlier but no less powerful. He had promised to show her his world. So far that had meant flying on Puff, diving beneath an ocean, an island she hadn't known existed, their first kiss, and now three adolescent dragons who apparently regarded Muad as playground equipment. Rin had wanted time alone with him, away from families and questions and everything waiting beyond today, and she was beginning to understand how much she'd needed this too. She wanted to know Muad in places where he didn't have to be anything except himself, and perhaps even more than that, she wanted him to know that she liked the man she found there.

"You neglected to mention there were little ones." The accusation carried absolutely no weight when Rin was still hugging Shadow and smiling broadly enough to betray exactly how delighted she was. "This is important information."

Her attention returned to Shadow, fingers stroking slowly along the scales of his neck as curiosity stirred. Puff had reached through the dyad easily enough, her thoughts strange but understandable once Muad helped with the unfamiliar words, and Rin wondered whether the younger dragons possessed the same ability or whether that came with age. She let her awareness reach gently toward Shadow without forcing the connection, offering the question rather than pressing it into him.

Can you hear me too?

Whether she received words, feelings or nothing at all, Rin found she didn't particularly care. She already adored him, and the realization brought her eyes back to Muad again as affection rose through the dyad without any attempt to restrain it. A few minutes ago she'd called him hers. She could still feel the significance of that word between them, changed now because he knew what she meant and had answered in kind. The desire hadn't gone anywhere either, and watching him wrestle with dragons certainly hadn't helped, but there was something deeply satisfying about allowing that hunger to exist alongside this gentler happiness. She didn't have to choose between wanting Muad and simply enjoying him. Both belonged here.

Rin buried her fingers a little more firmly beneath Shadow's jaw, searching for the place most likely to turn a young dragon into a helpless puddle. Her wet tail curled lazily through the sand behind her, and laughter still lingered in her voice when she looked between the charcoal dragon and Muad. "I think I'm keeping this one, if you both agree."

She gave Shadow another affectionate scratch, leaving the choice as much his as Muad's, before the newly learned Mando'a surfaced and mischief slowly brightened her golden eyes. The word had carried such tenderness when she'd given it to Muad only minutes earlier that using it now felt wonderfully playful, a tiny piece of his language she could finally turn back on him.

"Ner Shadow."

My Shadow.

Rin grinned and hugged the little dragon closer, entirely pleased with herself. Apparently Marta's first Mando'a lesson was already proving exceptionally useful, although as her gaze found Muad again over Shadow's charcoal scales, the warmth behind her smile made it clear that she hadn't forgotten who she'd learned the word for in the first place.

Muad Dib

 

[Muad Dib]

Where he lay sprawled on the beach, the two little dragons wiggling through the sand, Muad watched as Rin interacted with Shadow. A soft smile eased onto his expression as warmth grew in his chest. He had seen the wonder of how she viewed the galaxy. Not jaded, just simple acceptance of things most took for granted. Like an adolescent dragon enjoying vigorous pets from someone new. And exactly as he expected, she wanted to keep the k'kayleh dragon. Her heart truly knew no boundaries, which was one of the things he loved about the Zorren woman.

With a final few pats, he rose to his feet, hands swatting excess sand from his clothes and skin. In near silence, he padded along the surf as the dragons behind him followed while frolicking in the water. "Most dragons bond once they are hatched. They also take the color of their scales from their surroundings in the first few weeks of their life. Bonding to dragons their age is very rare. Interestingly enough, unbonded ones like these are called Wildlings. I guess it shouldn't come as a surprise that a Wilder wants a Wildling." His smile was warm in the moment. Shadow certainly expressed a liking for the Zorren woman—a sentiment he wholeheartedly shared.

"At their age, and unbonded, they only communicate with images, emotions, and memories. But as they spend time with the older of their kind, they begin to pick up their native tongue, and a little bit of my own. Try, ner Werda—my Shadow in Mando'a." He paused near the two still carrying on with the frivolity on the sand. A grin crossed his face as he extended a hand to Rin to assist her up from the ground. When she rose, he leaned in and gave her a small, light kiss on the lips. "I'm not going to get tired of that. Not at all." Smirking, his hand found hers as he turned to look at the pair in the water. "Yaim." Little mewling sounds escaped the dragons' throats, and Muad narrowed his eyes at them. "Now ad'ikas." The small creatures shook their bodies, droplets of water and sand spraying around, some hitting the pair.

Then they galloped in an ungainly gait into the encroaching jungle; he shook his head lightly. "Kids." There was enough humor in his expression to show he was only joking. "Don't worry, my witch, we still have much to see and explore." With her hand in his, he led the way into the foliage of the jungle. The massive canopies above filtered the sunlight into narrow rays. Their bare feet walked along a wide trail softened by the claws of the young animals. Small gray stones littered the ground, most tossed to the sides of the path. Little grass survived the well-trodden trail.

Bright birds fluttered between the tree trunks, and small mammals ran along the branches, causing them to sway as they leaped from tree to tree. "This is one of the sanctuaries I have on Olanet and Siskeen, for the K'kaleh Dragons." As they went deeper, they stepped over a massive brown log that ran across the trail. He paused and looked into her eyes. "We just entered the borders of their nexts. I guess you passed their inspection. That was Goro back there." With a nod, he indicated the log they had crossed, and upon closer inspection, it moved slightly as a massive brown head rose from the depths of the jungle.

The sheer size of the reptilian snout that snorted before disappearing back into the forest was impressive. It was obvious that the head was easily five times the size of Puff's. "Goro was one of the first hatched—the second oldest of her kind. She doesn't brood anymore. Instead, she's made herself the guardian of the nests." When she was ready, Muad would lead Rin even deeper. Suddenly the trees cleared, and a gargantuan castle made of gray stone lay within a massive footprint of meadow. However, the castle had seen better days. Massive turrets that once stretched into the sky had crumbled to only a few stories high. Parapets that once circled the fortress were reduced to piles of stone. Large gaps dotted the walls of the castle.

Perched on the walls were close to two dozen adolescent dragons, standing where gargoyles once existed. Most were shades of green or blue, while a few were darker, like Shadow. Three were a tannish gold. Lying in the meadows were five more K'kaleh dragons, much smaller than Puff but still large enough to be adults. One such dragon lay near the old entrance of the castle, curled into a ball atop a mound of shredded timber.

The majority of the adolescent dragons hopped from the ruins, gliding on the thin membranes of their wings before hitting the ground running toward the pair. High-pitched yips from excited throats followed in their wake as they brushed against Muad and Rin like giant cats looking for attention. He swatted hides affectionally as he tossed Rin a look that passed unspoken words along their bond. You can't keep them all, darlin'.

Muad released her hand and slowly approached the adult dragon curled on the nest. He gently rubbed the golden scales between her eyes as his head tilted toward her spread wings. He waited as the dragon turned yellow eyes toward Rin before placing her nostrils against his bare chest and breathing in. A thought drifted into his mind from the female dragon. There were no words, only imagery of two dragons circling one another. Small nips along their necks before the dragons writhed around one another, and Muad blinked the image from his mind before responding. "Yes. Mate." His cheeks flushed as he looked abashedly at Rin and shrugged. "Easiest way of explaining what you are to me in the few words she understands."

The golden dragon rose from the nest to reveal shorn stumps where her hind legs used to be. She took several off-kilter steps forward, her nose stretching out to sniff Rin, which drew her hair forward from the might of the inhale. A great golden eye looked at Muad as another image washed over the bond. A nest filled with eggs. He laughed and shook his head. He sent an image of an empty nest back to her, who made a loud grumble in her chest before snaking her head behind Rin and nudging her forward. Then she took several more steps before her wings unfolded and battered the clearing with her strokes, which rose the dragon into the air.

He grinned sheepishly as he motioned for Rin to join him. "Pretty sure you probably caught that. She wanted to know if we have a nest with ... our own little hatchlings. I told her it was an empty nest. And she said Why wait?" His laugh was filled with a bit of nervous energy as he carefully climbed into the nest, the dry wood shavings snapping under his feet. At the center of the nest were five eggs the size of a giant ball. His hands moved across the hard, scaled shells until they paused at one. With extreme care, he lifted it in and motioned for Rin to hold out her arms, where he placed it within them. The scales were flexible and warm beneath their hands, and something responded to their presence, a pressure pushing the elastic shell slightly outward. A light began to glow from within, and Muad grinned. "She's using the Force trying to reach you."

Puff's long neck appeared as she curled her head down over the other eggs, acting as a surrogate incubator. Muad stepped back and watched his woman hold the small egg as the edges of the scales slowly began to crack, and the K'kaleh dragon began to emerge.

Rin Taal

 

[Rin Taal]

Rin's attention remained on Shadow as Muad approached, her fingers still buried beneath the young dragon's jaw in what she had quickly discovered was a particularly effective place to scratch. His explanation drew her eyes upward, although the affection in her smile remained as Shadow continued to enjoy every bit of attention she was willing to give him. The idea that the colors of their scales were shaped by the world surrounding them fascinated her, but it was the name given to those who remained unbonded that made her ears lift through the damp strands of her hair. Wildlings. A Wilder finding a Wildling. There was something almost suspiciously appropriate about it, enough that Rin looked down at the charcoal dragon pressed happily against her before glancing back toward Muad with growing amusement. "Then clearly this was inevitable. I don't make the rules."

The humor softened as she listened to how the younger dragons communicated. Images, emotions and memories were things Rin understood considerably better than spoken language when it came to touching another mind, and knowing that was how Shadow presently experienced the world made her earlier instinct to reach toward him feel all the more natural. She looked back into the young dragon's face as Muad offered her another piece of Mando'a, carefully shaping the unfamiliar word before letting the meaning accompany it through the Force. "Ner Werda." My Shadow. There was no expectation that he understand the language itself, only the affection beneath it, and Rin's smile softened when she realized that perhaps someday he might know both.

It took Muad's offered hand to finally persuade her away from Shadow. Rin slipped her fingers into his and allowed him to pull her upright, only to find his lips against hers almost as soon as she had her balance. There was no startled hesitation this time. She answered the small kiss naturally, her mouth following his for the briefest moment when he drew away, and the warmth that settled through her afterward was almost embarrassingly easy. She had spent days wondering what crossing that particular boundary would change between them, imagining it as some enormous threshold after which everything might suddenly become more complicated. Instead, one of the first discoveries she'd made was wonderfully simple. Muad could kiss her when the impulse struck him now, and she could do exactly the same.

"Good, because neither am I." Her thumb brushed once across his hand as her golden eyes met his, and she was still smiling when the two dragons in the water shook themselves with enough enthusiasm to spray both of them. Rin flinched beneath the sudden shower before laughter escaped her, watching them bound toward the jungle at Muad's command. His muttered kids earned an affectionate shake of her head, although the word lingered strangely as he took her hand again and led her beneath the trees. She didn't dwell on why. There was too much life around her to permit it, and Rin's attention moved constantly as they followed the broad trail through the sanctuary, tracking brilliant flashes of wings overhead and the smaller creatures darting between branches.

Sunlight slipped through the massive canopy in broken shafts, warming patches of earth before disappearing again beneath leaves, and there was something immediately comforting about the place despite its unfamiliarity. It wasn't Veradune, yet she recognized the feeling of being surrounded by a world allowed to grow according to its own rhythms. More importantly, she understood a little more of why Muad had wanted to bring her here. This wasn't merely somewhere dragons happened to live. He had made space for them, somewhere they could exist safely without being forced to fit into whatever the rest of the galaxy expected of them. It was another quiet piece of him, and Rin had spent much of the day learning those pieces, beginning to treasure the ones Muad didn't necessarily realize he was showing her.

She was still caught somewhere in that thought when they stepped over the fallen log and Muad stopped several paces later to mention they had entered the borders of the nests. Rin turned toward him as he added, almost casually, that she had apparently passed their inspection and that Goro had been behind them. Her brow furrowed before his nod directed her back toward the enormous brown trunk they'd just crossed, and her confusion lasted only until the shape beneath the foliage shifted. An immense reptilian head slowly rose from the jungle, leaving Rin utterly still as her golden eyes widened and her ears lifted straight upright. Her gaze traveled over a creature whose head alone seemed impossibly larger than Puff before the great dragon released a snort and disappeared back into the greenery with the same deceptive ease that had allowed Rin to mistake her for part of the landscape.

Only then did Rin slowly turn her head toward Muad. "You might have mentioned the log was alive before I stepped over her." There was no genuine reproach behind it. Astonishment and laughter tangled together in her voice, but as Muad explained who Goro was, the humor gradually gave way to something more thoughtful. One of the first hatched, the second oldest of her kind, she no longer brooded herself and instead remained here as guardian over the nests and generations that followed her. Rin's gaze returned to the foliage where the enormous dragon had disappeared, and something about that role resonated immediately with her. Age hadn't removed Goro from the lives of those who came after her. It had simply changed the place she occupied among them. "Guardian of the nests..." she murmured, her smile turning softer. "I like her."

Muad led her onward when she was ready, their hands finding one another again as naturally as they had before, and the jungle eventually opened around them into a broad meadow dominated by the remains of an enormous stone castle. Rin slowed beside him, taking in shattered towers, collapsed parapets and walls opened to the sky by centuries of decay. Whatever history the fortress had once represented was written only in fragments now, but she found herself less interested in what had been lost than in what had taken its place. Dragons perched where stone gargoyles might once have watched the walls, their bodies scattered across the ruins in shades of green, blue, charcoal and gold, while adults rested peacefully in the surrounding meadow. The castle hadn't died. It had simply become something else, reclaimed by a kind of life its builders likely never could have imagined.

Rin barely had time to appreciate the thought before nearly two dozen adolescent dragons launched themselves from the ruins. Their high-pitched yips filled the clearing as wings caught enough air to carry them from the walls, and then they hit the earth running. Her laughter began before the first reached her, and she barely had time to brace herself before scaled bodies crowded around her legs and pressed insistently into her hands, shoulders and hips with all the dignity of enormous house pets demanding affection. Rin reached instinctively for whichever dragon happened to be closest, fingers sliding over one hide before another shoved beneath her hand, and whatever composure she'd managed to retain disappeared beneath pure delight.

Then Muad's thought crossed the dyad. You can't keep them all, darlin'.

Rin looked at him over the collection of dragons surrounding her with an expression of profound disagreement. You don't know that. The certainty accompanying the thought was so perfectly sincere that she nearly convinced herself, and the warmth of Muad's answering presence only deepened her smile. This was what she'd wanted from today. Not merely another world or another adventure, but his world. Places that meant something to him, creatures that knew him and pieces of a life she couldn't possibly learn all at once but could gather one at a time, just as he had begun gathering pieces of hers on Veradune.

Her attention followed him when he left her surrounded by the adolescents and approached the golden female curled near the old entrance. Rin noticed the dragon's missing hind legs only when she began to rise, and concern softened her expression without becoming pity. Whatever had happened to her had clearly not diminished the authority with which she occupied the nest. Muad approached her with an ease born of familiarity, rubbing gently between her eyes before she pressed her nostrils against his bare chest and breathed him in. Rin smiled at the sight, only for the expression to change when imagery suddenly reached her through the connection.

Two dragons circled one another, exchanging small nips along their necks before their bodies curled intimately together, and there was absolutely nothing ambiguous about what the golden female was asking. Heat raced immediately into Rin's ears, and Muad's answer made it considerably worse. Mate. Her golden eyes snapped toward him, finding his cheeks flushed and that almost sheepish shrug already waiting for her. His explanation was perfectly reasonable. The dragon understood only a limited number of words, and mate was apparently the simplest approximation for what Rin had become to him. Yet the simplicity of it was precisely what caught her. There was no elaborate definition, no attempt to decide exactly what they would call themselves tomorrow or a year from now. In this creature's understanding, Rin belonged beside Muad, and apparently that was enough.

"You do seem to enjoy finding new ways to make my ears turn red." The accusation was affectionate rather than wounded, her smile betraying her almost immediately, but whatever teasing response might have followed disappeared when the golden dragon's attention shifted fully toward her. Rin remained where she was and let the female choose the distance between them, damp hair streaming backward when the enormous nose drew close and inhaled with enough force to pull it forward. A startled laugh escaped her as she lifted one hand slowly toward the dragon's muzzle, only for another image to wash through the connection.

A nest filled with eggs.

For a heartbeat Rin didn't understand why the sight struck her so deeply. Then her awareness dropped instinctively toward the small weight resting against her chest, and her fingers moved almost without thought to close gently around Chek's necklace. Muad had given the piece to her after the vision bound within it had shown him, shown her, and somewhere beyond them, children. Possibility rather than certainty, a future glimpsed among countless futures, but one Rin had carried against her skin ever since Muad placed it in her hands. Now an ancient dragon was looking at the two of them and asking about their nest, and the coincidence of those two things caught her somewhere between amusement, wonder and an emotion she wasn't quite ready to name.

Muad answered before she could, sending back the image of emptiness, and the golden female's displeased rumble rolled through the clearing before her head curled behind Rin and nudged her firmly forward. Rin stumbled a step with a startled laugh, one hand still wrapped around the necklace as she caught her balance and stared after the dragon in disbelief. "Did she just..." Muad's explanation confirmed that she absolutely had, and Why wait? was so direct, so utterly uncomplicated by all the things people managed to make complicated, that laughter finally spilled from Rin.

She covered part of her face with one hand while the other remained around Chek's necklace, feeling its familiar shape pressed between her palm and chest. "I have known you for days, Muad. We have only just figured out the kissing part. I think she may be getting slightly ahead of us." The humor was real, but it couldn't entirely hide what moved beneath it. Only days ago the idea would have frightened her. Perhaps not children themselves, but the future implied by them. Permanence. Choosing someone so completely that lives might eventually grow from that choice. Yet standing here with Chek's necklace warm beneath her fingers, the dragon's question lingering between them and Muad only a few steps away, Rin discovered that she wasn't frightened by the possibility anymore.

She wasn't ready for it, but that was very different, and Marta's warning returned quietly to her. They didn't have to make every choice at once. Rin had no intention of doing so. She let the imagined nest remain what Chek's vision had always made it, one possible road among many. She didn't need to decide today whether they would ever walk it, and she certainly wasn't going to turn a handful of extraordinary days into promises about a future neither of them could know. The fact that she could look toward Muad and no longer feel the urge to retreat from the possibility was enough. When her fingers finally released the necklace, there was a tenderness in her gaze that hadn't been there before.

Then she saw the eggs, and whatever thoughts had been gathering about distant futures gave way to immediate wonder as Rin carefully followed Muad into the nest. Dry timber cracked beneath her bare feet while she stared at the five enormous eggs nestled within it, each radiating warmth and a quiet sense of life that reached her before she ever touched one. She had watched creatures hatch before and occasionally helped when nature needed a gentler hand, but nothing about this felt ordinary. Perhaps because she could sense them. Perhaps because of everything that had happened on the way here. Or perhaps because Muad was standing beside her, watching her discover another part of his world.

When he motioned for her arms, Rin held them out without hesitation. The egg settled against her with surprising weight, warm and substantial enough that her arms instinctively adjusted to cradle it closer against her body. Her hands spread over the flexible scales with exquisite care, and for an instant the gesture made her aware of the necklace resting just above the life she held. The coincidence was almost cruel in its timing. A vision of children against her chest and a dragon hatchling in her arms while Muad stood close enough for the dyad to carry every emotion she failed to hide.

Something pressed outward beneath her palm, and everything else disappeared.

Her breath caught as the shell moved again, the faint glow beginning beneath its scales reflecting gold within her already luminous eyes. Muad's explanation reached her from somewhere nearby. She's using the Force trying to reach you. Wonder swept through Rin so intensely that the dyad offered Muad every bit of it before she could have considered tempering the feeling, and her expression softened as she lowered her face toward the egg.

"Hello, little one..."

Her voice carried the same tenderness she might have offered a frightened animal, but there was something almost reverent beneath it now. Rin closed her eyes and allowed her awareness to settle around the tiny life inside rather than reaching inward and overwhelming a mind that had barely entered the world. She offered warmth and safety, sunlight filtering through leaves, the comfort of being held, Shadow's delighted affection and the quiet assurance that there was someone waiting on the other side of the shell. I'm here. Take your time.

The answer wasn't a word. It was pressure beneath her palms, a tiny insistence against the shell that made Rin's smile tremble just before the first crack appeared. Her eyes opened immediately, widening as a thin fracture spread between two scales before branching into another. She went utterly still, every instinct telling her not to interfere with something the hatchling needed to accomplish for herself, and her thumb moved gently beside the growing fracture without ever touching its edge. Wonder, tenderness, excitement and a fierce little spark of protectiveness rose through her so freely that the dyad carried all of it to Muad.

"That's it," she murmured, her voice warm enough to become almost a caress as another tiny movement shifted the shell against her hands. "You've got it. I'm right here."

Puff's long neck curled protectively over the remaining eggs nearby, but Rin's world had narrowed to the warm weight in her arms and the tiny presence reaching toward her through the Force. Another crack formed beneath her fingertips, drawing a soft, breathless laugh from her as she watched it spread, and only then did she look toward Muad. There was no teasing in her expression now, none of the playful embarrassment that had followed the golden dragon's questions about nests and hatchlings. Her golden eyes were luminous with something far more open, and the smile she gave him held all the happiness she wasn't bothering to hide from the dyad.

He had promised to show her his world. Somehow that promise had brought her here, barefoot and still carrying salt from the ocean on her skin, Chek's necklace resting against her chest while she cradled a new life entering the galaxy. They still had Siskeen ahead of them and more of his world that Rin wanted to see, more places and people that had shaped the man whose life had become tangled so unexpectedly with hers. Only days ago she had been trying to decide whether what was growing between them was happening too quickly. Now she found herself thinking less about how quickly they had arrived here and more about how much she wanted the time ahead of them to stretch.

The realization settled quietly rather than frightening her. Rin looked back down as another tiny crack spread across the shell, her smile softening while her thumb brushed carefully over an unbroken scale. "You know...this is becoming terribly unfair." Warm amusement gradually returned to her expression as she lifted her eyes toward him again. "You brought me to an island full of dragons, introduced me to Wildlings, let me hold one while she hatches, and somewhere along the way decided you could kiss me whenever you pleased."

Her smile grew at that last part because they both knew how little objection she had to it, but the teasing softened as she continued looking at him. There would be another world after this one, another day after this one, and eventually the rest of their lives would demand their attention again. Rin knew that. She wasn't trying to pretend they could remain inside this strange little journey forever, nor was she ready to decide what came afterward. Still, somewhere between Batuu, Veradune and this island, the thought of eventually simply saying goodbye to Muad had stopped feeling nearly as uncomplicated as it once would have.

"At this rate, ner cyar'ika, by the time you're finished showing me Siskeen..." Her gaze lingered warmly on his, the emotion beneath the words reaching him through the dyad before she ever finished them. "...I'm not entirely certain how I expect to part with you."

There was no demand hidden inside the admission and no promise of what came next, only an honest recognition of how much had changed between them in such a remarkably short time. Rin lowered her gaze toward the egg again as another fracture appeared beneath her fingers, letting tomorrow remain where it belonged. There were still choices ahead of them, still worlds to see and parts of one another they had barely begun to discover. She didn't need answers to any of those things today. For now, the little dragon in her arms was fighting her way into the world, Muad was beside her, and Rin made no effort at all to hide how completely happy she was to be sharing the moment with him.

Muad Dib

 

[Muad Dib]

He knelt at the edge of the nest, one knee planted in the shredded mulch from claws shredding tree trunks. Long strands of grass were woven into the oval shape of the roost. Miscellaneous feathers dotted the round curve of the lip, where foolish birds had come a little too near the eggs for their mother's comfort. And while the birds posed no real threat to the large eggs, that didn't stop them from meeting a quick demise. It was merely the cycle of nature. Life came from death and death was the final result of life. No matter how long a lifespan stretched.

The morose thought found no perch in his mind as he watched the wonder stretch across Rin's face while she held the giant egg. Images of small children, shadowed figures unrealized and incorporeal, drifted along the dyad, and he chose not to look too closely at the snippets. They were Rin's. Marta and Chek's words echoed in remembrance, speaking of boundaries. Muad was certain the zorren woman hadn't shared them intentionally, and he wouldn't press the line of thought whispering at the back of his mind—two distinctly different perspectives.

You don't have to decide everything at once.
Why wait?

He almost snorted at the absurdity of the two opposing points of view. The question from the K'kaleh dragon was insane. They had just shared their first kiss. Neither was ready or prepared for that kind of commitment, not this soon. The concept was like leaping off a cliff with no idea what lay below: water or stones. And if it be water, could both of them swim? Was the current too strong? Were there obstacles? He couldn't see either of them leaping into bed to fill a nest they hadn't even begun building.

On the other side was advice given by two individuals who had lived for several thousand years. One thing Muad knew was that the longer you lived, the less importance immediacy held. You had plenty of time to decide, simply because your perspective changed over time. This didn't mean every decision needed time and long periods of musing. But not dedicating an appropriate quantity of time felt foolish and reckless. A smirk stretched his lips as he briefly acknowledged that 'foolish' and 'reckless' may be terms even Rin would credit him with.

His errant thoughts vanished as her emotions flooded their connection. Marvel pulsed from the woman, a tenderness mixing into the dyad. But the emotions that followed almost floored him. The warmth that grew as she communicated through emotions and feelings intimately to the unborn dragon. For a moment he was floored by the depth that reached him. And in that moment, his vision returned. Whatever misgivings he held about him being a Buir to a newborn child, he knew Rin would be the best mother a child could have. Her long list of descriptive terms looked good in theory. Yet it was what he experienced as she watched the crack between the egg's scales that cemented it.


The fierceness of tuk'ata. The protectiveness of a Lothal cat. The newfound wonder of someone experiencing a precious moment for the first time. The love that could only be described as infinitely feminine as they held new life. And the beauty of the centennial dual sets of Tatooine where you could witness a sunset on the western horizon while the other sun peeked on the opposite horizon in a sunrise. Rin was all of these, and more. And Muad was in awe of the beauty she had no idea she possessed, inwardly or externally.

Her eyes met his, and he listened as she spoke of how he was playing unfairly up to and including his newly permissible kissing on his own timetable. The flirtatious teasing of her words eased as he sensed her mind turn to what she assumed would naturally come. An inevitable goodbye as their lives returned to the due course of progression. But what she saw as a potential end, he saw as merely the end of a page in a book filled with an infinite length of possibilities. For Muad, there would be a goodbye in their future, only an until. He had just found her. And he wasn't willing to let it end just because their lives continued forward.

"At this rate … I'm not entirely certain how I expect to part with you."

The admission needed no words from him. Despite the fact, he wasn't inclined to leave anything unsaid. "Good. That was the plan. I wasn't expecting a permanent parting, or even a significant one. We're attached, and the dyad doesn't matter. If you think I would let escape the most wonderful, intoxicating, and I'm not talking about Marta and Chek's liquor, beautiful, loving, and amazing woman I ever met … then you don't know me very well. I intend to enjoy every moment we are together, and, when we are apart, look forward to the next time you are in my arms with blush on your skin, and your lips on mine."

His eyes held her golden gaze until more movement within her arms reluctantly drew his gaze away. A pointed horn pierced the shell, and a toss of the unborn dragon's head opened a slit. Muad sent only a mild, twofold warning. There's a small horn at the end of the snout called a dragon's tooth. It uses it to tear through the shell. It dries up and falls off, like an umbilical cord. But it could poke you—careful, cyar'ika. Oh, and if the hatchling does press her snout to your skin, there will be a feeling of a shared connection that drifts over your senses. If you respond in kind, through the Force, then the two of you will be bonded together for life. Do so only if you desire this.

What he didn't say was that he felt the same way about her. Not because of the dyad. Not because of the connection they began on Batuu. But because, when she finally kissed him, he felt everything that had been holding them both back get stripped away. The misgivings and uncertainty swept from him until his instincts cried out that she, the object of his want, need, and desire, had become so entangled within his heart that there would be no separating their path together. She had become the thing he woke up reaching for and the very thing he held tight against him as his eyes finally closed. It was almost as though she had imprinted upon his flesh. And in a way, she had. Rin was permanently tattooed on his soul.

A shadow passed over them, large and slow, and the mother returned with a soft landing that still shook the ground beneath her girth. A large, yellow eye watched the two in the nest while Puff lay her head across the other eggs. Slowly she lowered onto her haunches until her massively scaled belly lay in the tall grass, content to merely observe as an off-white snout pushed through the eggshell. Swiftly, two skinny legs slipped from the tear in the egg and the hatchling struggled to slide its slender body free until, with a single, swift motion, it slipped free and against Rin's chest.

The mother dragon raised her head and trumpeted a roar that every K'kayeh dragon quickly echoed until the air shuddered under their combined might. After several seconds, Muad tilted his head back and lent his voice to the heraldry of another birth. When all the air had been expended from the many lungs, the jungle quieted as the hatchling raised its head toward Rin's face and transparent eyelids flickered. Then she pressed her snout against Rin's cheek.

To an outside observer, it would appear that when scaled snout and silken flesh touched, a ripple of translucent energy washed over the two. A moment frozen as the hatchling offered something only understood on an instinctual level—a bond between mother and child. Muad closed his eyes as he felt the slight shudder in the dyad that reflected the energy that grew between the two. Rin could choose any way she desired. On the one hand, she could choose to merely be a witness to the miracle of the dragon's birth. On the other hand, she could accept the tendril of questioning given by the hatchling and forge a bond that would live on as long as they both did.

Carefully, Muad reached out and removed the egg so the hatchling could wrap its hind legs around her waist, the tail winding around her torso. "You don't have to accept. She'll then bond with one of the others of her kind. Or … you can. The decision is completely up to you." There was no weight in his words. The choice was hers alone. Blue eyes watched as the energy coalesced and converged over them, the bond as of yet unanswered.

Rin Taal

 

[Rin Taal]

Rin had been prepared for his answer to her admission to carry some teasing. Muad had a talent for finding humor almost anywhere, and after everything that had happened between them over the last several days, she had grown accustomed to the warmth that usually accompanied it. She wasn't prepared for the certainty with which he answered her instead.

Good. That was the plan.

Her golden eyes remained on him as the rest followed, and somewhere around, I wasn't expecting a permanent parting, the tiny movement of her thumb against the dragon egg stopped altogether. Muad continued speaking with the same open certainty, seemingly unaware that each word was finding some newly vulnerable place inside her. Wonderful. Intoxicating. Beautiful. Loving. Amazing. He intended to enjoy the time they had together and, whenever circumstances carried them apart, look forward to the next moment she was back in his arms.

For several heartbeats Rin simply stared at him, the warmth of the egg forgotten against her palms as everything he'd said settled somewhere much deeper. The thoughts she'd been carrying about eventually leaving one another had never felt like fear of abandonment. She had assumed separation because that was what her life had always done. Roads crossed, people traveled together for a time, and eventually those roads branched. Rin returned to Veradune when she wished, wandered when the road called, and accepted that most meetings had an ending built somewhere into them. Even the dyad hadn't automatically changed that expectation. A bond didn't require two people to build their lives around one another, and she had been determined from the beginning not to confuse connection with obligation.

But Muad wasn't talking about obligation. He was choosing her again, deliberately and without pretending that choice meant neither of them would ever have lives that carried them in different directions.

The realization struck deeply enough that Rin briefly forgot the egg cradled against her. The dyad carried her reaction before she could find words for it, warmth rising through the bond, tangled with surprise and an emotion so tender that it almost hurt. She felt the instinct to question him, to remind him that they'd known one another for only days and neither could possibly know everything waiting beyond this extraordinary beginning, but the protest never formed. Muad knew all of that already. He wasn't promising that nothing would ever change. He was telling her that when the next road separated them, he intended to find the one that brought them together again.

Something inside Rin loosened beneath that certainty. She had been so careful about allowing herself to need him. Even after kissing him, even after whispering ner and feeling him answer in kind, some small part of her had continued treating what existed between them as something precious precisely because it might be temporary. Now, listening to him speak about future separations as untils instead of endings, Rin realized she didn't want them to be temporary either.

She couldn't have said it the way he did. Words had never come to her with Muad's effortless certainty, especially when they required her to expose the most vulnerable parts of herself. But the dyad didn't require eloquence, so Rin simply opened herself to him rather than scrambling for an answer and allowed him to feel what his declaration had uncovered beneath all the layers of caution she'd carried since Batuu. She wanted the next time too. The next road and the next world. Another evening spent talking until neither noticed how late it had become, another morning waking beside him, another dance, another ridiculous argument and another moment where he somehow embarrassed her and looked entirely too pleased about it. She wanted to show him more of Veradune and see Siskeen through his eyes. She wanted to learn the pieces of his thousand years he hadn't yet trusted her with and give him pieces of her own life in return. When distance eventually came, she wanted the certainty of knowing it was distance and not an ending.

The knowledge was startling in its completeness, and Rin's eyes softened as they remained fixed upon his, the beginnings of a smile trembling at the corners of her mouth. "I don't think I knew that was what I needed to hear until you said it." Her voice was quieter than before, all teasing gone from it, and she swallowed against the tightness gathering in her throat before letting out a small breath that almost became a laugh. "I kept assuming we'd eventually reach the end of this trip and simply...go back to our lives."

Her gaze dipped briefly before returning to him with more certainty than she'd possessed a moment earlier. "But I don't think I want my life to go back to what it was before you crashed into it."

The admission left her feeling strangely exposed, yet no instinct urged her to take it back. She couldn't promise Muad forever simply because forever had begun to seem possible. Marta had been right. There was no need to make every decision at once. But Rin could choose the next meeting and the one after that. She could decide that whatever happened beyond Olanet and Siskeen, she wanted their paths to keep finding one another, and the smile that warmed her face carried that decision before she finally gave it words. "So...no permanent parting." She let the thought cross the dyad too, carrying far more emotion than the simple words could hold. Until next time. However many next times we get.

Movement beneath her palms drew Rin's attention reluctantly downward, and Muad's warning arrived almost simultaneously. Her eyes immediately tracked the growing break in the shell where the tip of a small horn emerged, and she adjusted her grip carefully without tightening it, making certain nothing exposed could catch against her skin as the hatchling worked. The explanation of the dragon's tooth fascinated her, but what followed brought her attention sharply back to Muad. The little dragon would offer a connection through the Force, and if Rin answered it, that bond would last for life.

There was something almost absurd about the timing. They had spent the last several days discussing choice, bonds, and the danger of allowing connection to become obligation. Marta and Chek had reminded them both that love without agency wasn't love at all, and now another life was about to emerge into Rin's arms and offer a connection that, if accepted, might endure for centuries. Yet Muad didn't tell her what to do. Of course he didn't. His warning carried no pressure through the dyad, only knowledge and the certainty that whatever happened next belonged entirely to her.

Rin felt a fresh swell of affection for him because of that. He could have framed the bond as something extraordinary she shouldn't miss, or pointed out how naturally she and Shadow had already connected. Instead, he gave her the truth and stepped away from the choice. "Thank you." The words were meant for more than the warning, and she suspected he knew it.

The egg shifted violently against her, pulling her attention completely back to the life struggling within it. The small horn tore a slit through the shell, and an off-white snout pushed through, followed by two thin forelegs scrabbling awkwardly against the opening. Rin's breath caught in delighted surprise, but she resisted every instinct to help, remembering that this struggle belonged to the hatchling. She simply adjusted her arms to make certain there would be somewhere safe to fall when the shell finally gave way.

It happened all at once. The hatchling slipped suddenly free and against Rin's chest, warm, damp and astonishingly alive, and Rin gasped before laughter escaped her in a soft, breathless rush. Her arms immediately changed from supporting an egg to cradling a newborn dragon, drawing the tiny body instinctively closer just as the mother's roar shattered the clearing. Another voice answered, then another and another until every K'kayeh dragon seemed to join in welcoming the new life, the sheer force of their cries trembling through Rin's body and rattling somewhere deep in her bones.

Then Muad's voice joined them.

Rin looked toward him through the thunder of dragons, and the emotion that rose inside her was simply too large to contain. Tears spilled freely down her cheeks before she even realized they had gathered, warm tracks tracing across skin still touched by salt from the ocean. She made no attempt to wipe them away. There was no grief in them, nothing wounded or frightened that needed to be hidden. They came from joy too enormous for a smile alone, from standing in the middle of an entire sanctuary, announcing that a new life had entered the world, from the tiny living weight held against her chest, and from Muad lending his own voice to the welcome.

A laugh broke through the tears as she looked down at the hatchling, and something almost maternal moved through her before any bond had even been accepted. The little dragon had taken her first breath in Rin's arms. Rin had felt her pushing from inside the shell, encouraged her into the world, and caught her when she emerged. It shouldn't have been enough to make the word mother touch the edges of her thoughts, and yet the feeling was already there in some instinctive, bewildering way.

When the jungle finally quieted, Rin lowered her gaze fully to the life she held. Transparent lids flickered over newborn eyes before the hatchling raised her head toward Rin's face, the movement carrying no fear, only instinct and a searching curiosity that Rin felt almost before the small snout reached her cheek. The moment the scaled snout touched silken skin, the sensation stole what remained of Rin's breath.

Warmth rippled across her skin and immediately deeper, not invading and not demanding, only asking. Rin's eyes closed as the tiny presence unfolded against her senses. It was nothing like the dyad. Muad's presence beside her was vast with history and complexity, woven from a thousand years of choices, memories, pain, and love. This mind held almost none of that yet. There were impressions without names: warmth, hunger, safety, light, the memory of pressure and darkness inside the egg and the sensation of Rin's hands waiting beyond it. Beneath all of those impressions came one small, reaching tendril, the question so simple that no language was necessary.

You?

Rin's heart seemed to stop for a beat.

Muad's earlier explanation returned with perfect clarity. If she answered, this wasn't something she would carry for an afternoon before returning the hatchling to the sanctuary. It wasn't affection for Shadow or the simple delight of meeting Puff. The little dragon was offering her a bond measured in lifetimes, and Rin turned inward not to search for fear but for hesitation, for any suggestion that she might accept simply because the moment was beautiful or because Muad stood beside her watching.

She thought of caravans and the roads she'd spent so much of her life walking, of music, family, Veradune and the freedom that mattered so deeply to her. A bonded dragon would change things. There would be another life to consider in every choice she made, another presence that could need her and another being whose future would become tangled with her own. The responsibility was enormous, but as the newborn's tiny legs wrapped instinctively around her waist when Muad removed the remains of the shell and the slender tail wound around her torso, the certainty answering that responsibility grew just as large.

Rin wanted her, and the realization carried none of the novelty of simply possessing a dragon. It wasn't because Muad had brought her here or because the hatchling had happened to emerge in her arms. She wanted to know who this tiny creature would become. She wanted to watch those translucent eyelids clear, and those skinny legs grow strong, to learn what colors would spread across the pale scales once the world began to leave its mark upon them. She wanted to hear the first words eventually take shape from images and emotions, to teach and be taught, and to watch the newborn discover forests, skies, and all the roads they might someday travel together.

Together.

That was where the answer lived.

Her eyes opened slowly, luminous gold meeting the newborn dragon's gaze at barely any distance at all. Tears still clung to Rin's lashes and traced gently along her cheeks, but she smiled through them as she lifted one hand to cradle the side of the tiny head, thumb moving with exquisite gentleness over damp scales while the question remained suspended between them. "Hello again, little one." Her voice trembled beneath the emotion she no longer had any desire to control.

Rin answered without words. She opened herself through the Force and reached back toward the fragile strand connecting them, returning everything she'd offered through the shell without the careful distance she'd maintained before. Warmth and safety. Sunlight through Veradune's trees. The road beneath her feet and music beneath her fingers. The comfort of family gathered around a table, Marta's patient hands, Chek's forge, her mother's insistence that every child should know an instrument and the endless wonder of discovering somewhere new.

And Muad.

Rin didn't deliberately offer him so much as discover he was already part of what home had begun to mean inside her. His laughter beneath dragons on the beach. His forehead against hers. Woodsmoke, petrichor and vetiver. The warmth of his hand. The first kiss she'd waited until she needed before finally allowing herself to take it, and his promise only moments ago that parting didn't have to mean an ending. All of those impressions flowed around one simple answer.

Yes.

The bond closed, and Rin inhaled sharply as the questioning tendril suddenly became connection. Warmth raced from where the hatchling touched her cheek and spread through every part of her awareness, her eyes widening before closing again as her forehead lowered carefully until it rested against the little dragon's snout. Emotion surged through her so powerfully that she couldn't separate what belonged to herself from the newborn for several heartbeats, and she didn't try. Fresh tears slipped freely from beneath her closed lashes as laughter escaped again, soft and trembling with joy.

This wasn't merely a creature she had witnessed entering the world anymore. Somewhere in the instinctive language of the bond, the meaning of what had been offered became unmistakable.

Mother.

The thought landed with enough force that Rin's breath broke around another tearful laugh. Her arms tightened carefully around the hatchling, one hand supporting the delicate little body while the other continued stroking her cheek. She had left Veradune expecting an adventure with Muad. She hadn't expected to find herself kneeling in a dragon's nest on Olanet, crying with happiness because an infant had chosen her and, in accepting, made Rin something she had never been before.

A mother.

Perhaps not in the way she'd imagined whenever the possibility of children had crossed her thoughts. There had been no pregnancy, no months of preparation and no family gathered around waiting for a birth. Yet the responsibility and love awakening inside her felt no less real for arriving differently. This little life was hers to protect, guide and eventually release into whatever person she became. Marta and Chek's words returned with startling relevance. Give them roots. Let them branch where they will. Always give them somewhere to return.

Rin understood those words differently now.

"All right," she whispered through a smile that refused to settle as her thumb stroked slowly over the hatchling's cheek. "Looks like you're coming with me."

She lowered another kiss to the top of the tiny dragon's damp head, almost laughing when the simple gesture sent another little pulse of warmth through their new connection. The tears kept coming, but Rin let them. She had shed enough tears in her life for loss, fear, and pain. These belonged to joy, to beginnings and to the overwhelming wonder of realizing that only seconds after meeting this tiny creature, she already couldn't imagine simply putting her down and walking away.

Only then did Rin look at Muad.

She had no idea what expression she wore. Her cheeks were wet, her eyes probably brighter than usual, and her smile had become something almost helpless beneath everything she was feeling. None of it mattered because Muad could feel everything anyway. The astonishment. The fierce affection already taking root around a life she'd known for only minutes. The strange, almost dizzying realization that she was somebody's mother now. And beneath all of it remained the warmth his words had left behind before the hatchling ever emerged.

Rin held his gaze while one arm remained wrapped securely around the little dragon, her other hand gently wiping beneath one eye without any attempt to hide why she was crying. "You really are making it impossible for me to imagine going back to the life I had before you."

Her gaze dropped briefly toward the newborn curled against her before returning to him, and another tearful laugh softened the words that followed. "I came here expecting you to show me your world." Her fingers stroked gently along the hatchling's scales. "I didn't expect to become a mother before we even made it to Siskeen."

The wonder in her voice outweighed the humor by far.

Rin looked down at her little dragon again, and as fresh warmth answered her through their newborn bond, she smiled through the tears without trying to stop a single one.

This time, she knew there was no going back to exactly who she'd been before. And she didn't want to.

Muad Dib

 

[Muad Dib]

When Rin spoke about the uncertainty of their road, it ended with his words that struck a nerve. Until. He wasn't offering forever, and he wasn't expecting her to commit to a length of time that spanned centuries or even millennia. Muad was merely doing what he always, typically, usually did. Spoke plainly. He wanted no goodbyes and only until. She commented that she didn't know she needed what he expressed, then finished with, "So … no permanent parting." He grinned as he moved outside the nest with the shell in his hands. And he did what he was good at. Being smug.

"It's what I do, darlin'. Say deep osik, and look good while doing it. And yeah, no permanence unless it's something mutually beneficial." A brow raised as he smirked. But his attention was drawn to the interaction between the Zorren woman and the new hatchling. The wave of her emotions washed over him. He found himself embracing the shared moment in their connection rather than diverting it. Which, for him, was odd. For the longest time, his instinctual response was always to be alone. Solitude. But somehow Rin had changed that. And in doing so, she had changed him, not through a force of her own will but because he wanted the change. He no longer wanted the solitude of being alone. Muad wanted her. In his life. However many untils they would share.

The wonder and awe she felt nearly overpowered him. The decision that loomed before her was an enormous responsibility, and he wouldn't blame her if she said no. Life would change. More than the bond they shared, this would be a mutual decision that would reverberate through time and across worlds. As quickly as the doubt and uncertainty sprang to life, it was banished in the intimate touch and a questing that she answered. Amazement, love, and an instinctual sharing flooded between Zorren and the dragon, and Muad retreated away from their connection. Not out of fear, regret, rejection, or anything of the like. It was with an understanding that what she was experiencing was a wondrous thing that should be hers until she wanted to share. And he wanted no accidental bonding with the hatchling. However, he had a feeling the bonds the couple shared would be felt by the other, regardless of intentions. Derek was an example of that.

He watched the tears stream down her face and was swept away by the depth of her heart. How fiercely she loved. How unabashedly she could emote without fear of judgment. It made him fall a little more for the woman he could now kiss anytime he wanted. Then her eyes found him, and he felt the energy leap between them. The desire, need, and want. He couldn't fathom how she thought she appeared to him at that moment. All he saw was the woman he loved, completely vulnerable. Completely exposed in the depths of her emotions. And completely beautiful.

Her words about him making it impossible only drew a wider grin from him. "That's the point ner mesh'la cyar'ika." Then she said she didn't expect motherhood before Siskeen, and he remarked immediately without thinking. "But maybe on Siskeen." An obvious blush crept into his cheeks as he smiled unrepentantly at the sentence that escaped. Were their intentions in his words? Not like that. They were both new to one another. Still finding out how life looked now that they had made their next step in their relationship. Children weren't even on the horizon, though it remained in the vision. Just not their vision. Not yet.

With a toss of his hand, the egg flew to where the young dragons were, who quickly became engrossed in a game of keep-away. One snagged it to run around while the others gave chase. Along their bond, he prodded Rin with information. You don't have to take the little one away. The bond is permanent. She can learn and grow here. Or she can be your companion and learn and grow with you. This place will always be home for her. Whenever she wants it. The words he thought were eerily similar to what was discussed back on Veradune, and his humor followed them toward the woman.

He turned and slowly headed back along the trail, allowing Rin some time with the hatchling. Though that was only part of the reason. He felt a presence approaching that he needed to deal with. As he leapt over the massive tail of Goro, his hand parted the scales. "I feel him. And I'll deal with it." Goro remained behind, though her head turned to watch him go. Muad couldn't blame her. She had sensed him too. The first. Galabatorix. The only male K'kayeh Dragon in existence. As he continued, the trail turned from the mulchings of dragon claws to the blades of bent grass from the oft-used trail and then into loose sand as he exited from beneath the dense canopies of the jungle.

A dark cloud rose on the horizon. But after a few moments, the rapidly moving cloud formed into a creature of such gargantuan proportions that even Goro would look like a hatchling in his presence. Eight legs the size of the towers back at the ruins slammed into the beach with such force that the sand that entered the air felt more like a sandstorm. Aided by the flapping wings, the grit tore at his body, each speck stinging his exposed skin like needle pricks. Once the sand settled, he realized he was still in the shade, not from the trees but from the massive wings that sprouted on the monster's back in three pairs. The dragon needed them to raise its immense weight from the ground. As the wings folded along its back, a single door extended toward him to crash into the ground before the man. A small chuckle escaped him as he realized the creature had grown even larger. Each foot was now the size of a shuttle.

He walked forward, unafraid, as the massive head descended from the sky until two pairs of black eyes stared down upon him. An unintelligible word escaped from its open maw, though its meaning reverberated in the Force with such raw ferocity that Muad sensed Goro's focused attention turn toward the beach.

Ssssssubmit …

Lines of drool slithered from fangs longer than he was tall. And those were the small ones. Deep in its throat, blue light flashed along the gullet. The creature reared back its head and angled its jaws to the heavens as it repeated a command, and forks of blue Force lightning flashed from its gaping mouth and into the skies.

SSSSSSSSSSUBMIT …

Rin Taal

 

[Rin Taal]

For several heartbeats, Rin could do nothing except look at him.

Muad had a habit of saying things that slipped beneath whatever defenses she thought she possessed, usually while wearing that infuriatingly pleased expression as though he knew precisely what he had done. This was different. There had been no clever turn of phrase meant to make her blush, no teasing implication that left the tips of her ears warm. He had simply told her that he wanted her in his life, that whatever separations waited ahead were not endings, only untils. The simplicity of it struck deeper than some grand promise of forever ever could have. Rin had lived too long to pretend forever was something anyone could offer with certainty. She had watched people leave, watched others die, and had spent enough years wandering to know that roads separated as readily as they joined. Yet somewhere over the course of only days, the thought of her road separating permanently from his had become painful in a way she hadn't expected.

And then, as though the admission hadn't already left her heart frighteningly exposed, Muad had looked at her holding the hatchling and made it perfectly clear that he felt much the same.

The realization settled slowly rather than arriving as some startling revelation. Rin had already known pieces of it. She knew how naturally she reached for him now, how easily his presence had become something she sought rather than merely enjoyed when it happened to be nearby. She knew the warmth she felt when waking beside him, the ache when she imagined eventually having to part from him, and the way the future had begun quietly including Muad without her consciously placing him there. She might not have possessed his ability to gather those feelings together and give them words, but when she searched herself now, there was no uncertainty waiting beneath them. She wanted the same thing. However many untils there were, she wanted the moments between them to lead back to him.

His thought about the hatchling's home only deepened that warmth. Rin looked down at the little creature wound around her, one hand moving carefully over the still-damp scales while the other supported the tiny body against her chest. The bond between them was new enough that she couldn't have described where her own emotions ended, and the hatchling's began. Wonder moved between them, joined by curiosity, contentment, and something so instinctively trusting that fresh tears threatened to join those already drying upon Rin's cheeks. She had become something's mother in the span of a few breaths, and somehow the absurdity of that didn't make the feeling any less profound.

What Muad offered her was another choice, although this one didn't require an answer now. The little dragon could remain here, surrounded by her own kind while she learned what it meant to be K'kayeh, and Rin could return to her. Or Rin could take her away from Olanet and allow the hatchling to grow beside her as a companion. The first possibility tugged unexpectedly hard at Rin. She knew what it meant to belong to a people, to have traditions and instincts passed from one generation to the next, and she wasn't certain she had the right to take that from the little creature simply because they had bonded. Yet the thought of walking away from her already produced an ache Rin hadn't expected. She pressed her cheek gently against the hatchling's head and let the decision remain where it belonged, somewhere ahead of them rather than in this moment.

Then Muad casually mentioned the possibility of Siskeen.

Rin's tear-bright eyes snapped toward him, and the color that immediately climbed into his cheeks was far too satisfying to ignore. Her lips parted into a smile that slowly became something decidedly more mischievous. "Maybe on Siskeen?" she repeated, allowing the words to linger while her golden gaze remained fixed upon him. "Careful, cyar'ika. You were doing remarkably well with the whole no permanence unless it's mutually beneficial thing." She could have tormented him considerably more, and the temptation was certainly there, but the hatchling shifted against her and stole Rin's attention before she could decide how merciless she intended to be.

She felt Muad moving away before she looked up again. At first Rin assumed he was merely giving her the privacy he had deliberately offered when the hatchling reached for her. That alone touched her more than she could easily explain. He could have remained inside the edge of what she was experiencing through their dyad, but he had stepped away and allowed the new bond to belong to Rin until she chose to share it. There would be time for that. She already knew there would be, because the little creature curled against her was now part of whatever strange shape her life was taking, and Muad had become too entangled within that life for the two never to touch.

The sensation that followed changed everything.

Rin's head lifted as Muad disappeared farther down the trail, her pointed ears angling forward while something vast pressed against her awareness through the Force. It wasn't Muad, nor was it Goro, Puff, or any of the dragons surrounding the ruined castle. This presence was different, carrying an oppressive weight that made every instinct Rin possessed sharpen at once. The hatchling felt it too. The little body tightened against her, and the tail wound more securely around her torso, sending a ripple of uncertainty through their newborn connection.

"I know, little one." Rin's voice softened immediately as she stroked one finger along the hatchling's neck. "I feel it too."

Muad's distant words to Goro reached her ears, and whatever softness remained in Rin's expression changed. I'll deal with it. Of course he would. She had known the man for only days and already understood that those four words were precisely the sort of thing Muad would say immediately before walking toward something any sensible person would at least investigate before deciding it was his problem.

Rin rose carefully, adjusting the hatchling against herself before looking toward Puff, Goro, and the other dragons gathered around the ruins. She wasn't about to carry a newborn toward whatever had just arrived, no matter how strongly the bond with Muad pulled her after him. The conflict twisted inside her because the connection she had accepted only moments ago was already making its first demand upon her. This tiny life trusted her completely, yet Muad was somewhere ahead, moving toward a presence powerful enough to make the entire sanctuary aware of it.

For the first time, Rin understood something else about the choice Muad had given her. If the hatchling remained here, this was what here meant. Not abandonment. Not leaving her behind. Family. Others of her own kind who understood things Rin never could, no matter how deeply they were bonded. Whether that eventually became the choice Rin made remained unanswered, but looking at Puff and the others now, she understood why Muad had offered it.

Rin lowered herself beside Puff and carefully eased the hatchling from her arms. Her forehead touched the little creature's snout as she deliberately opened their newborn connection, filling it with reassurance, affection, and the certainty that she was not disappearing from her life simply because she was putting her down. "Stay with your family, sweetheart." Her thumb brushed gently along the tiny jaw before she reluctantly drew back. "I apparently need to find out what trouble he wandered off to meet."

Only when she was satisfied that the hatchling was secure among her own kind did Rin straighten and follow Muad.

She didn't run blindly after him. Whatever waited on the beach was powerful enough that rushing toward it without understanding what she faced would accomplish nothing except perhaps force Muad to divide his attention between the danger and her. Rin moved quickly through the jungle instead, bare feet following the trail while her senses stretched ahead. The closer she came to the shore, the heavier the presence became. It rolled through the Force with something primal and dominating beneath it, so unlike the gentleness she had just experienced from the hatchling that the contrast was almost painful.

Then the jungle opened, and Rin stopped.

For perhaps the first time since meeting Muad Dib, she understood exactly how someone could look at a creature and decide that dragon was an inadequate description.

The enormous form blotted out a portion of the sky. Eight colossal legs anchored it to the beach while three pairs of wings folded along a body so immense that Rin had difficulty comprehending its proportions all at once. Puff had inspired wonder. Goro had inspired awe. This creature inspired the ancient instinct to become very small and hope the predator hadn't noticed you. Sand still hung in the air from its landing, catching in Rin's hair and scraping against her skin as she stared upward toward a head that seemed impossibly distant.

And directly beneath it stood Muad. Rin's heart lodged somewhere unpleasantly high in her throat.

The creature's command did not need translation. It struck through the Force with enough weight that Rin felt it in her bones, a demand for submission so absolute that her first instinct was to resist simply because something had presumed it possessed the right to demand obedience. Then its head reared back, blue light burning within its throat before Force lightning split the sky, and Rin's golden eyes widened despite herself.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me."

The words escaped softly, almost lost beneath the thunderous command that followed. Rin remained at the edge of the jungle rather than immediately moving to Muad's side. He had told Goro he would deal with whatever was approaching, and she trusted him enough not to mistake love for a need to interfere with everything dangerous he did. Trust, however, did not require her to turn around and pretend she couldn't see a creature large enough to step on the mansion without noticing.

She reached gently through the dyad instead.

You wander away from me for a few minutes, and this is what you find?

Warmth accompanied the thought despite the fear tightening inside her; something deliberately familiar offered across their connection rather than panic that might distract him. Beneath it, however, she didn't bother hiding her concern. Muad would feel the sudden fierce need she had to cross the beach, take his hand, and place herself beside him regardless of whether doing so was sensible. He would also feel her choosing not to, at least until she understood what was happening. Rin had trusted him with parts of herself she hadn't expected to give anyone so quickly. She could trust him with this for the moment as well.

I'm here, cyar'ika. If you need me, you won't have to ask twice.

A faint pulse of emotion touched her through the newborn bond from somewhere behind her, and Rin felt her heart squeeze all over again. Only minutes ago she had been crying because a tiny creature had chosen her as its mother. Now she stood at the edge of a beach watching an impossibly enormous dragon demand submission from the man she loved while the entire sanctuary seemed aware of what was unfolding.

Apparently motherhood had not made her life quieter.

Rin turned her attention fully back toward Muad, the wind stirring her long brown-and-gold hair around her pointed ears. Fear remained, but so did trust, affection, and the smallest thread of exasperated amusement that she made absolutely certain traveled through their bond.

Muad Dib

 

[Muad Dib]

"I hear what you're asking. See, the problem is … I'm not going to. Instead, I have a counteroffer. You submit." The words flowed carefree, irony and humor tinting them. The dragon was not amused. In fact, the massive figure rose on its gargantuan legs and raised its serpentine neck, head poised in the sky as it released another blast of force lightning.

Ssssssssubmit …

Malicious wrath rolled from the creature with unavoidable intent. Claws now rent the earth with deep gouges that would have swallowed Rin's old speeder. The immense tail whistled through the air and splashed into the water with an impact that could capsize a yacht. Muad merely smirked as he lightly brushed the sand from his chest and unbuttoned shirt. Something was maddening about his countenance, as though this was only a game of posturing. Which only drove the monstrous form before him into another fit of rage.

Then he felt Rin's presence in the Force, followed closely by her emotions and words. A small smile, meant only for her, crept upon his features as he responded. I'll always need you. However, before he could give more to her, the massive head in the sky turned toward where she stood under the canopy. Four eyes launched toward where her presence echoed in the Force, and it released a gravelly sound from its chest. Instead of an avalanche of noise, it was as though two mountain ranges decided to play a game of chicken and crash into one another. Even the water shimmered, the leaves danced, and the sand on the beach vibrated to the oppressive sound of the creature's amusement.

Sssssssubmit… or I eat father's mate …

The head turned to look upon the man who stood on the sand below. The dragon thought it sensed a weakness it could exploit. And from a certain perspective, it was a true assessment. Attachment was a weakness. It was a chip in the armor that gave your enemies a purchase against you—a vulnerability because of the care you held for the individual. Rin was a fulcrum where anyone could apply pressure for leverage against him—a mortal deficiency of a fatally fragile flaw.

And yet, when he thought about the woman whose life he literally crashed into, he didn't feel weakness but strength. Rin lent calm when it was needed. Passion when the situation warranted it. Force of character in times of questionable moral ambiguity. And a stubbornness that rivaled his own. And despite coming from two different worlds, they slipped into each other's lives as though they had existed there the entire time. Even when war threatened, she looked for an answer to her question. "What can I do to help?" For all these reasons, and countless others, Rin Taal was not a weakness. Never that.

But when Galabatorix turned his gaze toward Rin, the playful slant of Muad's lips disappeared. With a roll of his shoulders, he slipped the shirt off and allowed it to fall to the sand behind him. His right went to the small of his back and pulled the curved kal as his left clenched into a fist. The runes on his forearm glimmered as Muad took two steps forward, a new smile on his face. This one held none of the humor from before but the excited snarl of one predator facing another. The massive K'kayeh Dragon saw the change and took a single step back, one mirrored by all eight legs.

"You remember what happened last time you wanted to challenge me. You can still feel this blade. The cold beskar arranged to make you … less. I brought you into this life. And I can take it from you." Muad stepped forward. Not so much a walk but a stalk. "And if you ever look at my mate like that again, it will be the last thing you ever see. Do you understand me?" The cold fury in his voice rose, power underlined in the Force as he drove his intentions at Galabatorix. His next words came quietly through a snarl. "I said. Do. You. Understand. Me." The dragon recoiled at each syllable until its haunches were in the water.

Yessssssssss …

"Now apologize and then stay. You're our ride back in a little bit." Muad turned his back on the dragon and let his wrath melt away. The kal was resheathed, and Muad retrieved his shirt to loop around his belt. Behind him, the dragon lowered onto his haunches and waited as commanded. Then it lowered the serpentine neck until his nose touched the earth in a sign of humble obeisance and apology to the Zorren woman. Muad reentered the jungle and moved to where Rin waited. He didn't slow, just wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her against himself as his lips found hers with a hard and hungry kiss. One hand moved along her jaw, and his thumb caressed her ear before he leaned his forehead against her and softly nipped at her bottom lip.

"Thanks for the backup, ner cyar'ika. I think we'll take him back to the mansion. Whenever you're ready." He grinned as he broke their embrace, one hand gently smacking her rear as he laughed while walking back towards the beach. He could imagine what her ears were up to, and it drew forth another laugh. Pausing at the edge of the jungle, he leaned against the tree and watched Galabatorix in the water, waiting meekly now. Muad was letting Rin decide what she wished to do. Retrieve the hatchling now, or later. Either way, something told him they wouldn't be leaving Olanet without the little one in tow. A smile curved up the edges of his lips.

Rin Taal

 

[Rin Taal]

The answer Muad gave the creature was so completely, absurdly Muad that affection managed to find Rin even through the tension coiled beneath her ribs. Faced with something enormous enough to make Puff seem almost modest by comparison, something radiating hostility through the Force while demanding his submission, Muad's answer amounted to no, you. Rin had known him for a short time, yet somehow she had already reached the point where this didn't surprise her nearly as much as it should have. She watched him standing there with that maddening smirk upon his face while the creature rose higher and higher above him, eight colossal legs tearing wounds through the beach and a tail striking the ocean with enough force to send water surging outward. Lightning split the sky again, filling the damp air with ozone while the power behind it crawled through the Force and prickled across Rin's skin.

Impossible.

The word slipped through their dyad, wrapped in so much affection that there could be no mistaking what she actually meant. She had begun to discover that "impossible" covered quite a lot where Muad was concerned. Infuriating, reckless, ridiculous, wonderful, and somehow hers had all begun fitting beneath it, and the realization warmed her even while she remained beneath the canopy watching something that could probably kill either of them without much effort. Trusting Muad did not make her blind to the danger. If anything, caring for him had made her acutely aware of it, because the possibility of watching something happen to him had become frighteningly personal in a remarkably short amount of time.

Then the creature's four black eyes turned toward her, and the warmth vanished beneath something cold.

Its attention pressed against Rin before the words ever came, something predatory settling upon her with enough weight that her body understood the threat before her mind finished processing it. When the creature finally pushed its meaning through the Force, threatening to eat father's mate if Muad refused to submit, Rin's ears flattened instinctively into her hair and her tail went rigid behind her. Fear came first, immediate and honest, because there was no sense pretending otherwise when she was staring at something large enough to swallow her without noticing. Yet the fear barely had time to settle before indignation burned through it.

Rin had stayed beneath the trees because Muad asked for nothing from her and because she trusted him to handle whatever strange relationship existed between himself and the dragon. She hadn't challenged it, threatened it, or even stepped onto the beach. She had respected the contest unfolding between them, only for the creature to decide that she was something it could use against him. That bothered Rin far more deeply than the threat of being eaten itself. Her chin lifted as her golden eyes remained upon those four enormous black ones, and although she didn't reach for a weapon or make the foolish mistake of pretending she could intimidate something so immense, neither did she retreat.

Then something changed within the dyad.

Rin felt the warmth disappear from Muad before she fully saw the transformation in him. The playful confidence that had been there moments before hardened into something cold enough that, for the briefest instant, she understood that once again the dragon wasn't the only dangerous creature standing upon that beach. She watched Muad shrug off his shirt and draw the curved kal, the runes upon his forearm beginning to glimmer as he advanced rather than retreated. Rin had known almost from the moment she met him that Muad was dangerous. She had seen what he could do on Batuu and had learned enough about the thousand years behind him to understand that violence was woven deeply into his history. Yet it was easy to forget when that same man lay beside her with his fingers drifting lazily over her skin, teased her until she wanted to strangle or kiss him...sometimes both at the same time, held her while she slept, or looked at her as though somehow she had become precious to him.

There was nothing gentle about him now, and perhaps what startled Rin most was discovering that she wasn't frightened of him.

She respected what she saw. She understood the danger in it, just as she understood the danger radiating from the enormous creature opposite him, but the darkness that surfaced in Muad did not erase the man she knew. It was simply another part of him, and the realization settled somewhere unexpectedly deep. He had spent so much time warning her in little ways that he was not a good man, that there were things inside him she had yet to see. Now she watched him stalk toward something vastly larger than himself with a blade in his hand and murder in his intent because it had threatened her, and Rin found no instinct inside herself telling her to run from him.

Then he called her his mate. Of all the things that should have occupied her thoughts at that particular moment, that was what sent warmth rushing into the tips of her ears. "Of course that's the part I'm going to remember."

The words left her beneath her breath, accompanied by a tiny shake of her head. She had called him ner only a short while ago, had kissed him and claimed him in a way that had felt both frightening and entirely natural, so perhaps she had no grounds to complain. Still, hearing Muad claim her in return, without hesitation and while threatening a dragon large enough to blot out part of the sky, struck something tender beneath all the adrenaline. The creature had called her his mate first. Muad could have ignored the word. Instead, he had repeated it as though there were nothing about it he wished to deny.

His other words left her with questions she could not immediately ask. You remember what happened last time. I brought you into this life. Rin's brow furrowed as she listened, realizing there was an entire history between Muad and this creature that she knew nothing about. More startling than the history itself was the effect his words had. The dragon retreated. Eight enormous legs carried it backward until the ocean surrounded its haunches, and when Muad demanded acknowledgment, the answer finally came.

The danger didn't simply disappear with that surrender. Rin could still feel the creature's power hanging around them, could still smell ozone in the air and sense electricity like a lingering charge across her skin. She had watched enough animals in her lifetime to know that obedience and harmlessness were not the same thing, and she wasn't entirely certain which one she was witnessing now. Then Muad ordered the dragon to apologize to her, and its enormous head began descending toward the beach.

Every instinct Rin possessed suddenly became very interested in how many large teeth were contained within that descending head.

She remained where she was despite the urge to step backward, watching until the creature lowered its nose to the earth before her. The gesture was unmistakable even if she didn't entirely understand the relationship that had compelled it. Some of her anger remained, but the sight of something so immense bowing its head to her was strange enough to soften its edges. Rin inclined her own head slightly, not submissively, but in acknowledgment of what had been offered. "Apology accepted."

Whether the creature understood Basic hardly mattered. Rin suspected something capable of forcing meaning through the Force would understand her intent perfectly well.

She barely had time to lift her gaze again before Muad was coming toward her. Something in his expression warned her a heartbeat before his arm circled her waist, but knowing what he intended did nothing to prepare Rin for the force of his mouth finding hers. Surprise dissolved almost instantly beneath the heat still racing through her body. Her hand spread against his bare chest while the other curled over his shoulder, and she kissed him back with everything the last few minutes had left tangled inside her. Fear, relief, attraction, affection, and the fierce warmth of having watched him defend her all found somewhere to go when she pressed herself against him.

A soft moan slipped from Rin before she could consider suppressing it. She didn't want to.

The kiss felt different after what she had just witnessed. Muad's danger was still there beneath her palm, his heartbeat strong against her hand, yet the fingers touching her jaw were familiar and the thumb that caressed the edge of her pointed ear knew exactly what it did to her. Rin shivered as heat chased down her spine, her tail curling behind her while the tips of her ears burned. His teeth caught her lower lip lightly, and her fingers tightened against his shoulder as need stirred hot and immediate beneath everything softer she felt for him.

When their foreheads finally came together, Rin remained there for a moment and breathed him in. Woodsmoke, petrichor, vetiver, and that faint mineral note she had already begun associating entirely with Muad mixed now with salt, sand, and the ozone hanging in the air. His earlier words returned to her then, quieter than everything that had followed.

I'll always need you.

That touched somewhere the kiss couldn't. Rin's golden eyes lifted to his, and for a few heartbeats the enormous dragon waiting on the beach might as well have ceased to exist. Muad had not said she was something he needed to protect because she was incapable of protecting herself. He had told her he needed her. This mattered greatly, particularly to someone who had spent so much of her life accustomed to coming and going on her own.

"You're impossible."

The words came softly now, affection and wonder carrying more weight than exasperation. She wanted to tell him that she understood what he had meant, perhaps even that the feeling had become frighteningly mutual, but she wasn't sure she could put it into words without somehow making it smaller. Their bond carried what she couldn't say easily enough.

Then his hand smacked her backside.

Rin startled hard enough that the tender moment shattered completely, her ears flaring hot as Muad walked away laughing. "Muad!" His name chased him toward the beach with enough outrage to sound convincing for perhaps half a second before her mouth betrayed her with a smile. She shook her head as she followed, caught between embarrassment and the ridiculous happiness he seemed capable of dragging out of her even after threatening a dragon with dismemberment.

By the time she reached him, Rin's amusement had settled into curiosity. The creature remained in the water exactly where Muad had told it to stay, and that obedience was somehow more difficult for her to understand than its earlier aggression. She slipped her hand naturally into Muad's and leaned against his side, taking a quiet comfort from the contact while her gaze traveled upward over the impossible scale of the dragon. She had to crane her neck to find its head, and even then the sheer size of it made her feel absurdly small.

Her fingers tightened slightly around Muad's. Can something like that actually be tamed?

The question carried more than simple curiosity through the dyad. Rin was trying to reconcile the creature that had threatened to eat her with the one now waiting meekly, after Muad had told it they would need a ride home. She had spent much of her life around wild things and knew there was an enormous difference between trust, partnership, obedience, and breaking something until it complied. Nothing she had seen among Puff or the other dragons felt broken. Even this creature, for all its fury, seemed too fiercely alive for that.

She looked sideways at Muad, her expression caught somewhere between fascination and disbelief. You told something large enough to eat your house that it was giving us a ride home, and it listened. I feel as though there is a considerable portion of this story you've neglected to mention, cyar'ika.

Her humor warmed the question, but before she could pursue it, another presence touched her awareness from behind. It was nothing like the enormous weight waiting in the water. This was tiny and new, a soft pulse through a bond that had existed for only minutes and yet already reached somewhere instinctive inside her.

Rin's expression changed immediately.

The hatchling was still surrounded by her own kind, exactly where Rin had left her, and the reassurance of that eased something inside her even as another ache followed close behind. Muad had given her a choice that was far larger than simply deciding whether to bring a new companion aboard a ship. If the little one stayed here, she would grow among her people. She would learn from Puff, Goro, her mother, and all the others about things Rin could never teach her. She would know what it meant to be K'kayeh rather than merely know the Zorren woman to whom she had bonded. Rin understood the importance of that in a way she hadn't when Muad first presented the choice.

Yet the thought of leaving Olanet without her hurt.

It wasn't logical. They had been bonded for mere minutes, but motherhood apparently cared very little about sensible measurements of time. Rin could already feel the little life at the other end of their connection as hers, not as property or possession, but with the same fierce tenderness that had made the tears come when the hatchling first pressed her snout against Rin's cheek. Whether she eventually chose to leave her here or take her traveling remained a question for later. If she stayed, Rin knew already that Olanet would become somewhere she returned to again and again, because the idea that distance could make this bond unimportant was impossible.

For now, she didn't need to decide any of it. She only needed to hold her daughter again.

Rin turned her face toward Muad, and the smile that found him carried everything the last hour had somehow managed to become. She had kissed him for the first time, been claimed as his mate by a dragon and then by Muad himself, become a mother in a way she could never have anticipated, been threatened with being eaten, watched Muad threaten the offending creature in return, and discovered they apparently intended to ride the enormous thing back to the mansion.

She was beginning to suspect life with Muad Dib would never be quiet.

Her fingers remained entwined with his as she tugged gently toward the jungle. "Come on, cyar'ika. Your enormous lightning-spitting friend can wait a little longer." Her gaze traveled back toward the sanctuary, and the warmth in her expression deepened until there was no teasing left in it at all. "I want to go back to our girl."

Muad Dib

 

[Muad Dib]

Can something like that actually be tamed?

A small smile curved his lips as she leaned into him. Despite the ardor of the moment before, he followed her gaze as it rested on the first of the K'kaleh Dragons. It was amusing, the query that spoke of something beyond what should have been possible. A being of long age, immense power, cunning instinct, and no sense of morality in the way most of the galaxy defined morals. It did what it wanted, when it wanted, and to hell with the consequences. His head shook slightly. "Something like that can't be contained. It can't be reasoned with. There's no bargaining with it. Nothing can change its nature. You either give it its head, control it by force, or you put it down for good. Freedom, chains, or death. That's the only way to handle things ... like that." The hitch in his last words felt more introspective, especially with the mantra he repeated so many times in the past. I'm not a good man. From that perspective, Muad wasn't entirely sure he was speaking only about the dragon or himself. Both were true.

The look on her face drew forth a small chuckle, as disbelief and intrigue combined to make a completely different expression that held both elements. Clearly, there was a story there that had yet to be told. Before he even considered how to word such a moment, Rin's head turned back toward where the nest and the hatchling lay within the ruins. His eyes traced the curve of her neck where it met her shoulder as he felt the emotions roll through their bond. Golden eyes looked through the brush for the small life that had become indescribably interconnected in a single choice by two beings who reached for the same thing—and responded with a similar answer to a question felt rather than heard. The answer was yes. The faint flush of her skin was different from what he caused regularly. Her nostrils flared slightly, and her pupils dilated. Her heartbeat felt the same, and her pulse didn't rush. But there was a new feel to it. Heavier, no, fuller. His smile turned into a smirk. It was a mother's love. And it filled Rin Taal with a glow he found both endearing and attractive.

Her fingers curled against her own as she pulled him back along the trail. While he wouldn't agree with classifying the black dragon as a friend, his view had grown much more interesting as he followed Rin, eyes more than enjoying the scenery. At the word daughter, Muad smiled. "Far be it from me to attempt to keep a mother from her child. Did you envision I would make you a mother before we left Olanet?" His stride lengthened so he could move up next to her. Though his lips did not betray how much he was enjoying the wording of his question, his glowing blue eyes were filled with mischief. He raised their hands so he could press his lips against her fingers. "Who knows, I may yet make you a mother again ..." Teeth flashed from his grin. Surely he was speaking about another creature Rin would want to keep. This time Goro's tail was gone from the trail. Only a well-worn trench where it had dragged free when she repositioned herself closer to the beach to keep an eye on Galabatorix. The elder matriarch didn't trust the other elder dragon any more than Muad did. So she watched, a silent sentry in the jungle. When they reached the clearing, Muad released Rin's hand and then gave her a gentle push forward.

Ahead, the small hatchling was perched on the edge of the nest, translucent eyelids flickering over large pupils. The head flicked side to side as it searched for something. And then it saw Rin and let out a small squawk before hopping from the nest and almost nose-diving onto the ground. Muad winced for a moment. They took a few days to learn how to control every appendage of its body. Yet the creature trotted forward ungainly and without a single mote of grace. Its destination was without doubt. The hatchling tried to run straight for the Zorren woman. Though straight wasn't exactly true. More like a drunken shamble. But it went for Rin regardless. The mad man could sense the emotion that flowed from his mate, and it made him fall a bit more for her. She was everything he could hope for, and nothing he deserved.

Taking a knee near the edge of the trail, he patted several of the younger dragons who rolled across the ground near his side as he enjoyed the ambiance and peace the sanctuary exhibited. He knew he would have to take Rin here. New creatures, nature, a beautiful locale, and another small piece of the puzzle of the man she had chosen to kiss. There were many, many more pieces of his puzzle. Not all of them were things he wished to share yet. But in time, assuming she didn't hightail it, he would. And this was one of the first things he wanted to share with her in their walk down the trail of a shared life.

Rin Taal

 

[Rin Taal]

Rin listened without interrupting, her attention ostensibly remaining upon the immense black dragon while Muad explained what he believed could and could not be done with a creature like Galabatorix. Freedom, chains, or death. The words themselves were harsh, but it was the subtle change near the end that caught her attention more than any of them. Something in his voice shifted when he spoke of a nature that could not be changed, and Rin's golden eyes left the dragon to settle upon the man beside her. She had heard Muad speak of himself often enough in terms that were not altogether different. Not a good man. Dangerous. Too old and too set in what he was to pretend otherwise. Galabatorix was an ancient creature of immense power who seemed determined to answer to no one, and while Rin suspected Muad might object to the comparison, she could not help seeing something familiar in the refusal to be made into what someone else wanted.

She turned fully toward him before they could start back along the trail, one hand rising to rest against his cheek. Her thumb brushed lightly over his skin as she tipped her face upward, studying those glowing blue eyes with an expression softened by affection but carrying enough seriousness to make clear she was not merely teasing him. "I won't ever tame you, Muad. You're your own person, same as he is." Her gaze flicked briefly toward Galabatorix before returning to him, and a small smile finally curved her lips. Accepting what someone was did not mean surrendering all hope of influencing them, after all, and she had accumulated enough evidence to know Muad was not entirely beyond hope. "I can reason and bargain with you, though. Usually." The last word carried considerably more amusement, because claiming Muad Dib could always be reasoned with would have required a degree of dishonesty Rin was unwilling to attempt even for his benefit.

Her hand lingered against his cheek for another moment before slipping away, and when they started along the trail she curled her fingers through his again. The thought of the hatchling waiting for them tugged at her almost immediately, that tiny new presence entirely different from the dyad she shared with Muad but already unmistakably there. She had barely begun considering how strange it was that she could leave a beach with a man and return with him to something she had somehow acquired the right to call a daughter when Muad gave voice to precisely that absurdity. Rin glanced sideways at him at his question, amusement and lingering wonder crossing her face together. "Never in my wildest..."

The rest disappeared when her free hand rose to the necklace resting against her bare skin. Her fingers curled gently around the metal, and dreams remained unspoken because dreams had become considerably more complicated since Chek had forged the necklace with its peculiar ability to reveal the deepest desire of the person to whom it belonged, and Muad had placed it in her hands. What it had shown Rin was something she had long considered not meant for her. A home. Muad. Children who belonged to both of them. It was neither prophecy nor promise, but she could no longer dismiss the image as something belonging to another woman's life when it had come from somewhere within herself.

Once, Rin would have answered that realization by finding the nearest road. She had spent much of her life moving between settlements, caravans and horizons, and there had always been comfort in knowing she could leave before anything settled too firmly around her. Affection was easier between departures, attraction could be enjoyed without becoming a promise, and even love had never required her to discover whether staying could be something she chose freely rather than something that eventually became a cage. Muad had managed to complicate that old certainty without ever asking her to surrender it.

The dyad meant there were fewer places to hide from what she felt for him, but it had never made those feelings inevitable. If anything, knowing how easily emotion could pass between them made the distinction clearer. Muad had felt her affection, uncertainty, and desire, sometimes with an intimacy words could never have managed, and still he left them hers. He wanted her with an intensity, and there was little point pretending either of them misunderstood. Rin knew the way his eyes followed her, the hunger in his kisses, the heat of his hands against her skin, and through the dyad she had felt enough of his desire to know exactly what she did to him. The same bond made hiding her own attraction equally hopeless, particularly after what they had shared on the beach, but neither desire amounted to ownership. Muad could want her fiercely without claiming her, and Rin could want him just as fiercely without becoming something that belonged to him.

Perhaps that was the connection his words about Galabatorix had brought into focus. Rin would never tame Muad, but neither did she need him tamed before she could love him. She did not need chains to keep him beside her, just as she would never accept them around herself. Whatever existed between them had survived because either of them could still choose another direction, and somehow that freedom had made Rin less interested in taking one. Her thumb moved slowly across the necklace as warmth touched her cheeks, the nearest road no longer appearing in her thoughts simply because the future had begun to look frighteningly possible.

Then Muad raised their joined hands and pressed his lips against her fingers before suggesting that he might yet make her a mother again, and the contemplative warmth upon Rin's face changed almost immediately. Her brows rose as she looked at him, because there was enough mischief glowing in those blue eyes to make any claim of innocence laughable. After everything that had passed between them, she certainly was not going to pretend she misunderstood what he was suggesting. Her fingers tightened around his while heat unfurled pleasantly through her, sharpened by the memory of his body close to hers and made difficult to conceal by the bond between them. At the same time, the necklace remained enclosed within her other hand, and the coincidence between his teasing and the future it had revealed made her heart beat a little harder.

There had been a time when that combination of desire and possibility would have sent warning through her rather than warmth. Now Rin found herself looking at Muad and wondering what would happen if they simply kept choosing this. Not a prophecy that had to be fulfilled or a promise either of them was required to make, but mornings that became years because neither had found a reason to leave, and perhaps one day something more than a dragonling giving her the unexpected title of mother. The thought still carried uncertainty, but it no longer felt like a threat to the person she was. More dangerously, she realized she liked it.

"You know..." Rin began, holding his gaze for another moment before her smile slowly grew. "I'm starting to think I should be much more careful about what I let you suggest." Her tone did very little to imply she genuinely wanted him to stop, and the warmth moving through the dyad would have ruined the attempt even if she tried. She let the necklace slip from her fingers and settle against her skin again without explaining what had stopped her from finishing, never in my wildest dreams. Some things were still too new to put into words, and for the moment she was content with the startling discovery that she wanted to find out where this one went.

By the time they reached the clearing, the small presence waiting ahead had begun tugging most of Rin's attention away from Muad and whatever dangerous thoughts he had inspired. When he released her hand and gave her a gentle push forward, she shot him a brief look over her shoulder before movement near the nest claimed her completely. The other dragons and dragonlings became little more than shapes at the edges of her awareness as she found the hatchling perched precariously at the nest's edge, translucent eyelids flickering over enormous pupils while its head moved from side to side in obvious search. The instant those eyes found Rin, recognition passed through their new connection with such uncomplicated certainty that her breath caught.

The answering squawk was followed by the hatchling launching itself from the nest with considerably more enthusiasm than control, nearly driving its nose straight into the ground when it landed. Rin moved on instinct, hands half extending despite there being no possible way she could have caught it across the remaining distance. "Oh, careful!" Concern lasted only until the little creature scrambled upright and resumed its journey toward her, its legs and tail apparently engaged in separate arguments about which direction they were supposed to be going. There was nothing graceful about its determined advance, but there was also no mistaking its destination.

Rin laughed as she dropped into a crouch and opened her arms. "Come here, little one. I've got you." The dragonling continued its staggering rush until it finally reached her, and Rin leaned forward to gather the small creature carefully into her arms. One hand slipped beneath it for support while the other settled along its back, drawing it securely against her as she adjusted for unfamiliar limbs and whatever its tail decided to do. The affection that had startled her when their connection first formed swelled at the reality of holding her, warm and solid and trusting enough to have crossed the clearing simply because she had seen her.

For several moments the ancient dragons, the younger creatures tumbling nearby, and even Muad faded from importance as Rin studied the little life nestled against her. Her fingers moved gently along its back while she lowered her face toward it, wonder softening her features into an expression she would probably have denied possessing if anyone had described it to her beforehand. "There you are." Her voice was quieter now, meant almost entirely for the dragonling. "You were in quite a hurry, weren't you?"

Only once she had the hatchling settled comfortably against her did Rin look back toward Muad. The smile she gave him had lost the teasing edge from the trail, replaced by something softer as she held the creature she had somehow begun thinking of as her daughter. He had taken a knee nearby among several of the younger dragons, patting them as they rolled and tumbled around him, and the sight caught Rin for a moment longer than she intended. The necklace rested against her skin, her daughter shifted warmly in her arms, and Muad was there among the young dragons with that strange mixture of danger and gentleness she had come to know so well. Once, anything that looked this much like the beginning of permanence might have had Rin wondering where the nearest road led. She knew where it was, but for once, she simply had no desire to take it.

Muad Dib

 

[Muad Dib]

He listened to her words with a small nod. Sometimes he forgot they had known each other for only a short time. Muad wasn't worried about being tamed, despite Rin's words. It was the understanding he shared with the alpha dragon. Freedom. Chains. Death. Only those three options. He wouldn't be shackled. Not again. In his youth, he had been a weapon, slave to those in power. In his late teens and twenties, he served the Sith. Until he grew a conscience. Not that he denied morality. He could not simply own one until he was free to grow one. Ever since, he chose never to bend the knee to any being or government. Muad refused that life. And that left freedom or death. Death wasn't hard. It was living to ensure those he called his own retained their freedom and autonomy. Being tamed or broken wasn't an option. Not for the mad man.

Galabatorix was the alpha of the K'kayeh Dragons. He bent the knee to Muad. It was something Muad would never do. He always knew his end would be bloody. Death would come for him. Sooner or later. Contrary to popular belief, he didn't want to die. Death wasn't something he sought. But it was what he was good at. And as long as he stood on the battlefield, it meant those he called his own wouldn't have to. And when the soldiers followed his banners, they were never alone. Those who needed protection would have it. While he never pursued death, neither did he avoid situations where it was a possibility. That was his life. His path. And Muad never regretted it.

Until now.

A vision haunted him. A family. Rin. Perhaps even children. A future he never considered. One that didn't leave him with a final gasp on a war-torn planet surrounded by his enemy. On Veradune, he met Rin's family and felt an ache. He wanted that. Rin's father wasn't cut from the same cloth as he was. It didn't stop him from acknowledging that the home life wasn't desirable. It wasn't until he met the elder Zorren couple on a mountain that he realized his life wasn't designed to be alone. He could have everything. And it started with the woman who just rescinded his decision-making abilities. Not that he could blame her. His innuendos were always designed to bring flame to her ears while the hint of truth lay beneath them. He could easily see Rin adopting more animals. However, the idea of creating a child with the woman who held his heart was far from unpleasant. Yet it was a point on their path they might never reach—that decision he would allow her to make on whatever timetable she needed.

While his hands kept the younger dragons occupied, his gaze drank in the sight of Rin's interaction with her new daughter. The joy was contagious. There was no need for the dyad, or any part of the Force, to see how the hatchling in her arms made the woman feel. Happiness and fulfillment coursed through her. The simple pleasure of holding someone who wanted the relationship as much as you did. A child whom both wanted and needed you. He shared in her excitement.

Then she turned her gaze and found him. The look was both foreign and familiar. The affection was clear, as was happiness. Yet something lingered beneath the obvious—almost a wary longing. And a moment flashed in her golden eyes that could only be described as fight-or-flight. Then it disappeared, and the hint of escape evaporated like the morning dew. He didn't try to decipher what he saw or search the dyad for what he felt. If or when she wanted to share what flashed through her in that moment, it was for her to choose. His eyes turned from hers as he walked over to Puff, leaning against her massive neck. "Bring Shadow and Raxes to the house after we leave. I'll send Galabatorix south after we are dropped off." Puff turned her head and looked at Muad with a single eye, thoughts brushing against his.

Father thinks of war. Take daughter?

His hands stroked her smooth, hard scales. "Not this time. Maybe on the next one." He eased away, back along the trail, to stop halfway down. A feeling of happy contentment brushed him from the hidden Goro. Then a question without words. "Yes. I'm happy." As his steps continued back along the trail, headed slowly for the beach, he felt the huffing roar from Goro that caused the leaves to dance and small creatures to scurry away into their dens. Laughter followed him back to the beach where the enormous black dragon continued to wait.

Rin Taal

 

[Rin Taal]

Rin remained where she was for a little while longer, the dragonling secure against her as Muad moved among the others. She had noticed his gaze upon her before he turned away, just as she had noticed that he did not ask what had passed through her in those few strange seconds. Gratitude mingled quietly with the affection already moving through the dyad. He could have asked. With the connection between them, perhaps he could even have searched more deeply than Rin would have liked, but he did neither. Muad simply allowed whatever had happened to remain hers, and somehow that small act of restraint made the future she had glimpsed feel less frightening rather than more.

Her attention returned to the little creature in her arms, and Rin's expression softened again almost immediately. One hand continued its slow path along the dragonling's back while the other supported her weight, fingers adjusting whenever an unfamiliar limb shifted against her. "You certainly know how to complicate a visit, don't you?" The accusation lacked anything resembling severity. Rin had come to Olanet expecting to see a place important to Muad, meet creatures he had spoken about, and perhaps understand another small piece of the man with whom the Force had inexplicably entangled her. Becoming a mother had not appeared anywhere on that list.

The title still felt enormous compared with the warm little body nestled against her. Rin had cared for animals before, protected people who depended upon her and spent enough of her life among caravans to understand that family was not always determined by blood. This was different. The connection between herself and the hatchling possessed none of the complexity of the dyad she shared with Muad. There were no guarded histories or emotions too complicated to name. The dragonling had reached for her with the uncomplicated certainty of something newly born, and Rin had answered before she had been given enough time to become afraid of what answering meant.

That did not mean affection was going to replace sense.

Rin shifted the hatchling slightly and studied her more carefully, looking over the tiny wings, limbs, and body with the practical attention of someone accustomed to judging whether a creature could safely travel. The determined charge across the clearing had proven she could move under her own power, even if move was currently a generous description of what those legs accomplished. That was not the same thing as being ready to leave the security of the nest. Rin knew very little about the early development of K'kayeh dragons, what they ate, how frequently they needed feeding, whether they required their mother's warmth, or any of the hundred other things that suddenly seemed extremely important now that one of them had apparently decided Rin belonged to her.

"I'm not taking you anywhere until I know I can keep you alive." Her thumb brushed carefully along the dragonling's back, and a small smile softened the practical declaration. "After that, I'm afraid you're stuck with me."

Movement drew her gaze toward Muad as he leaned against Puff's immense neck. Rin could not hear whatever passed between them beyond his spoken answers, but Not this time. Maybe on the next one made one pointed ear twitch with curiosity. She watched him move away from Puff and start back along the trail, only for him to stop halfway and answer someone she could not see. His declaration that he was happy brought a quiet smile to Rin's face before the answering roar rolled through the haven. Leaves shivered overhead, small creatures fled for shelter, and Rin's ears immediately angled back against the force of it.

"Apparently everyone needed to know."

Her laughter joined Muad's as she looked down at the hatchling once more. Leaving her behind, even temporarily, suddenly felt considerably more difficult than Rin would have expected only a short while ago. She did not mistake that reluctance for proof that taking her was the right thing to do. Wanting the dragonling close was about Rin. Making certain she was ready to leave the nest was about her daughter, and between those two considerations there was no contest.

Rin carried her back toward the nest rather than simply setting her down wherever was convenient. She crouched beside it and held the dragonling close for another moment, allowing herself one last gentle stroke along her back before easing her toward the familiar warmth and safety from which she had launched herself so enthusiastically. "Just for now, little one." There was a promise beneath the words that Rin had not expected to be making when the day began. "I need to learn a few things before you come with me."

Only when Rin was satisfied that the hatchling was secure did she rise. Her gaze sought Puff for a moment, already making a quiet mental list of everything she needed to ask before leaving Olanet. If the dragonling was old enough to survive away from the nest and Rin could provide what she required, there would be no question about whether she was coming with her. The bond had already answered that much. Rin simply intended to make certain love did not persuade her to do something before she was prepared to do it properly.

Then she turned toward the trail.

Muad had already put some distance between them, his laughter lingering faintly ahead as he made his way toward the beach. Rin started after him, her steps quickening until the distance began to close. The strange ache of leaving the hatchling remained, but beneath it was the certainty that she would return. That realization alone felt different. Rin had spent much of her life leaving places without knowing whether another road would ever bring her back.

This time, she already knew it would.

 

[Muad Dib]

Back on the beach, Muad approached the titan K'kayeh Dragon, half-submerged in the shore. The sand burned beneath his feet as he walked toward Galabatorix. He stopped at the edge of the compacted sand, small pools of water rising from his weight. Compared to the gargantuan creature before him, Muad was a gnat. Yet the giant head lowered until its muzzle pressed gently into the man's chest. A small smirk appeared as he rubbed the enormous snout, which puffed in contentment. A few more hearty pats along the massive jowls, and the creature turned, extending its front leg and lowering to the ground.

Muad leaped onto the leg and walked along its length, settling behind its fore shoulders. A massive spike rested before him, and Muad turned his head, watching Rin emerge from the jungle. The trees in the depths of the island shuddered from what was most likely Goro readjusting her own large girth. He grinned from the heights from which he sat. "Come on, darlin'. Your chariot awaits." The dragon waited timidly for Rin to climb before readjusting his legs and rising from the sand and surf. Even though it hadn't felt like much time had passed, the sun had already begun its descent in the sky. Muad's hand dropped to the arms encircling him, and he grinned even wider.

"Hold on, ner mesh'la cyar'ika. This will be quite different from Puff." The giant black dragon straightened on its legs, and Muad rocked with the motion as he nodded toward the beach with his head. From their perch, it was as though they sat on the edge of the roof of a towering skyscraper. Then Galabatorix began to walk, then broke into a lope. Each stride was the length of a city block, and, as he gained speed, the wind whipped against their forms. When the beach began to curve to the right, the three pairs of wings began to beat a tempo that shivered the water into ripples despite the waves and vibrated the sand into the air.

And then they took to the air. The dragon turned and flew vertically, Muad's grip on the spike before him tightening as his arm went backward to curve around Rin's waist. Their speed increased, and he leaned forward, bringing Rin's body with his as he squinted against the wind. Up they flew, a slight spin curving their path into the heavens until they pierced the clouds and visibility disappeared. All that existed was the creature's powerful climb beneath them and their bodies pressed together. The clouds were like a thick fog that hid everything from sight. He lightly touched their bond.

This is what being with you is like. I may not see where we're going, but I can feel the direction. All I need is you with me to know that, eventually...

That was when the dragon pierced the upper portion of the clouds. All around them stretched white clouds like a new horizon in every direction. Above them, the skies darkened, letting them see a veil of stars as the sun dipped into the clouds in the distance. The dragon leveled out and began to fly along the top of the clouds, long legs extending below where the wickedly curved claws disappeared. He released his hold, though the wind still buffeted his body, and took her hands to extend outward.

Eventually we will fly above everything. And when we do, there is peace.

His fingers interwove with hers as he turned his head to look over his shoulder. Her hair was streaming straight back from the speed of their ride. Golden eyes glowed, and there was a smile on his lips. And the ache in his chest told him he would remember her exactly like this for the rest of his life. Rin Taal, with a litany of titles that could stretch the entire day in recital, was free. And he turned his head quickly, blaming the wind for making his eyes water. Everything she had shared with him on Veradune had affected him deeply. All he wanted was to give her what she had given him. Not out of obligation that came from favors between friends. But simply because he wanted to share his life with her. He wanted her to see behind the veil of the persona the rest of the galaxy saw to see the man that lived beneath it. A man who realized he loved her.

Rin Taal

 

[Rin Taal]

Leaving the dragonling behind had been considerably harder than Rin expected. She emerged from the jungle empty-handed, though empty was not quite the right word anymore. The small warm weight was gone from her arms, returned to the safety of the nest until Rin understood enough about K'kayeh dragons to know she could properly care for her, but something remained. It was faint at this distance, nothing like the impossible immediacy of the dyad she shared with Muad, yet Rin could still perceive the delicate thread of connection stretching back through the jungle. There were no words and nothing so distinct as thoughts, simply an awareness of another living presence that had somehow decided Rin belonged to her, and every few steps Rin found herself reaching toward that distant warmth almost instinctively.

Finding it still there brought a smile to her face and eased something she hadn't realized was so unsettled. Leaving the dragonling in the nest had been the sensible choice, but sense had done surprisingly little to silence the part of Rin that had wanted to turn around twice already. Knowing the connection hadn't vanished simply because she had walked away made the separation easier to bear. She would return. By then, she intended to know what the little creature needed, and if the dragonling was ready to leave the nest, Rin suspected there would be considerably more discussion about where her new daughter was going.

The sight awaiting her at the beach interrupted that thought rather effectively. Galabatorix was enormous even by the increasingly absurd standards Olanet had established for its dragons. Rin slowed near the edge of the trees, golden eyes traveling upward as she tried to reconcile the creature half-submerged along the shore with the idea that Muad apparently expected her to climb onto him. From where Muad sat between the dragon's shoulders, his invitation drifted down toward her, and Rin tipped her head back to stare at him. "You have a very generous definition of chariot."

Amusement overcame whatever reservations remained. Rin crossed the sand and climbed carefully onto the offered limb, using the immense scales and contours of Galabatorix's body wherever she could find purchase. By the time she reached Muad, the sheer scale of the creature had become even more apparent. She settled behind him and slipped her arms around his middle without needing to be told, her body fitting naturally against his back as the dragon began to rise. Rin had flown countless times in ships and speeders, and Puff had already introduced her to the experience of riding a dragon, but Galabatorix was something else entirely. The beach seemed impossibly far beneath them before he had even begun moving, and Muad's warning brought a laugh close to his ear as Rin tightened her arms around him. "I'm beginning to realize you saying something will be different usually means I should be concerned."

Then Galabatorix ran, and the first tremendous stride drove whatever else Rin might have said from her thoughts. Another followed, then another, each covering an astonishing distance as the wind caught her hair and sent it streaming behind her. Rin leaned instinctively with Muad, holding tighter as the three pairs of wings began beating and the vibration passed through the dragon beneath them. The sensation built until sand and sea abruptly dropped away, and a startled laugh escaped her as exhilaration rushed through her with the ascent.

She had expected height. She had not expected the sheer force of Galabatorix turning upward, nor the strange intimacy of having the world disappear around them as they entered the clouds. Rin pressed closer when Muad's arm curved around her waist, trusting his familiarity with the creature as moisture cooled her skin and her hair whipped wildly around them. For several moments there was no island, no sea, and no horizon to tell her which direction was anything except up. There was only the immense living creature beneath them, Muad's body against hers, and the steady presence of the man himself within the bond they shared.

This is what being with you is like. I may not see where we're going, but I can feel the direction. All I need is you with me to know that, eventually...

Something inside Rin went very still. The dyad had troubled her almost from the moment she understood what it was, not because she regretted it and certainly not because she wanted Muad gone from her thoughts, but because there were moments when she wondered how much of what had grown between them belonged to them and how much belonged to the connection the Force had created. They had been given access to one another that most people could spend years earning. Memories had crossed between them, emotions slipped through defenses neither consciously lowered, and sometimes she could feel Muad before he said a word, while he could do the same with her. She had quietly wondered whether something born beneath those extraordinary circumstances could be authentic, or whether it might prove ephemeral once the wonder of the connection itself became familiar. How was she supposed to know where the dyad ended, and everything else began?

Galabatorix broke through the clouds before Rin could chase the old question any further. The world opened around them in white and gold, clouds stretching like an endless landscape beneath a darkening sky while the setting sun burned along the distant horizon. Above them spread something more tenebrous, the deepening heavens gradually surrendering their stars as the dragon leveled into his flight. Rin forgot every question for a few precious seconds. Wonder crossed the dyad before she could possibly have hidden it, bright and uncomplicated, and a smile spread across her face as she stared across a world she had never imagined seeing quite like this.

Muad took her hands, and Rin allowed him to draw her arms outward, their fingers threading together while the wind tore past them. Nothing held her there except Galabatorix beneath her, Muad before her, and her own willingness to trust both. The sensation should have been terrifying. Instead, laughter threatened again as exhilaration rushed through her, mingling with something warmer when Muad's next thought found her.

Eventually we will fly above everything. And when we do, there is peace.

Rin looked at him when he glanced back, and something shifted with startling simplicity. Perhaps it was the way he smiled at her. Perhaps it was the impossible beauty surrounding them, or the fact that only the evening before she had arrived on Olanet knowing almost nothing about this part of his life and was now soaring above its clouds on the back of a dragon. Perhaps it was simply that she had spent so long asking herself whether the dyad was responsible for how quickly Muad had become important that she had overlooked the simplest answer. The Force had connected them, but it had never chosen what Rin did with that connection.

The realization settled slowly and then with startling certainty. The dyad could let her feel his emotions, but it could not make her enjoy his laughter. It could show her his memories, but it could not make her admire the man those memories had shaped. It could carry desire between them with embarrassing ease, but it had not made her lean toward him in Marta and Chek's kitchen before Chek's timely interruption. It had not made her want another hour beside him, another road, another conversation, or another ridiculous name explained. It had not made her miss him when they were apart, nor could it explain why the sight of his genuine smile affected her more deeply than she knew what to do with. Those things belonged to Rin, chosen in a hundred little moments that had nothing to do with what the Force had decided for either of them.

That certainty should have frightened her. Rin had lived more than a century and a half without ever feeling this way about anyone. She had cared deeply, loved family, formed friendships that survived years and distance, and known attraction before Muad Dib ever wandered into her life. None of it had been this. No one had ever slipped so quickly past the careful boundaries she rarely needed to consciously maintain, and no one had ever made the possibility of permanence feel less like confinement and more like discovering a road she wanted to keep walking simply because of who traveled beside her. Above the clouds, with Muad's hands holding hers, Rin finally understood that the dyad could be real without being the reason everything else was.

Her fingers tightened around his as warmth flowed through their connection, but Rin did not use the bond to shape the realization into words. She wanted, for once, to let herself simply experience something before sharing every piece of it with him. Her cheek came to rest lightly against his shoulder as she looked past him toward the setting sun, her body still pressed securely against his while Galabatorix carried them across the clouds. "I think I understand."

The words were nearly stolen by the wind, but the peace beneath them was not. Rin had spent so much time wondering whether what was happening between them was natural when perhaps she had been asking the wrong question. There was nothing natural about a dyad, nothing ordinary about sharing senses, memories, thoughts, and emotions across a connection neither had asked the Force to create. Yet what she felt for Muad did not need to be ordinary to be authentic. The bond might have opened a door between them, but every step she had taken through it had been her own.

Rin turned her face slightly toward him, watching the profile she was becoming far too fond of while the last sunlight caught against her golden eyes. She still did not know what waited beyond the next bend in whatever road they had found themselves traveling, or how long it would take before the bewildering depth of what was growing between them stopped surprising her. For the first time, she realized she no longer needed the dyad to explain any of it. She had never felt this way about anyone, and there was nothing foreign hiding inside the realization, no subtle pressure from the Force telling her what she ought to want. There was only warmth, certainty, and the unmistakable sense of recognizing something that had been growing inside her for longer than she had possessed the courage to name.

She was falling in love with Muad Dib, and that feeling was entirely, authentically hers.

Muad Dib

 

[Muad Dib]

For a moment, he wondered if his words made any real sense. But then she laid her head against his back, arms circling his waist, where one hand found his, and the peace that emanated within him found an answering echo from her. He grinned against the wind and enjoyed the closeness of body and spirit.

The more time passed, the less he cared about the dyad. It would take very little effort for either of them to eavesdrop on the other. Yet they chose to respect the invisible boundaries where one began and the other ended. Still, a neutral area where they overlapped. This was where they communicated, shared thoughts and memories, all without intruding on their respective personal space. Their mutual respect was another reason they worked so well together. And neither was willing to sacrifice what they were building just to be nosy.

Muad sensed her thoughts may have paralleled his own, and he smirked. Great minds, he thought to himself. The setting sun brought darkness to their ride, along with a drop in temperature. The cold wind whipped past their bodies, no longer pleasantly warm but increasingly cold. Partially because of their speed, in part due to their altitude, but also because of another storm front approaching. His arm wrapped around her gave a gentle squeeze as he allowed his most powerful ability to begin to flow in the Force.

In increments, Muad raised his body temperature, the heat radiating along his body and against Rin, snugly pressed to his back. As the heat grew warmer, he made sure he didn't simply burst into flame. That would not make for a great evening, though the stories that could be told years later would be quite amusing. He stopped himself again. There he went, thinking about time in the length of years when they had only known one another for a short period of time. But despite his attempt to correct himself for assuming there would be years, he couldn't deny that the idea wasn't one he truly desired. Maybe a thousand years hence, they would have their own mountain where people could come to visit them: friends and family.

He almost laughed at the thought. While it was an endearing idea, he couldn't see either of them settling down. They were both wanderers at their core. One from a desire to see new planets, strange locales, exquisite creatures, and a plethora of new faces for her songs, journals, and stories. The other had wandered for so long that it was a core tenet never to let the grass grow beneath his feet. No, there would be no settling down for them, at least not in the near future. Maybe, just maybe, a few centuries from now they would finally want a long stretch of respite and peace. There he went again, thinking about the distant future. Yet, with Rin here, pressed against his back, he knew that he wanted the road to extend for many more miles and for a very long time.

The mental reverie vanished as the muscles of the dragon beneath him flexed and Galabatorix began to spiral in slow, yet large, circles as he lowered through the clouds. After a few minutes, they descended to see the mansion standing on the open grounds near the cliff. Lanterns lit the paths, and a soft glow escaped the floor-to-ceiling glass walls of the room where they ate breakfast at the start of their day.

The K'kayeh Dragon hovered along the edge of the stone wall and extended his leg across the short distance and onto the grassy backyard. Muad patted the massive dragon's side with good nature as he stood, offering one hand to help Rin to her feet. His eyes filled with mischief as he extended a hand down to the leg, and the mansion waited in the semi-dark grounds. "After you, darlin'."

He watched as he moved down the dragon's leg, more than a little distracted by the seat of her hips and the swish of her tail. Clearly, he was just appreciating how she maneuvered down with grace and skill. Certainly with no other agenda. He followed her down with more than a hint of red in his complexion. Once his feet hit the grass, Galabatorix released a little roar that vibrated the glass windows and dove away, rapidly receding into the distance.

With a grin, Muad took two quick steps and caught up to Rin, his arms wrapping her in an embrace as he pulled her to him. Blue eyes glowed in the shadows while he leaned his head down to rest against hers. "Did you have fun today, cyar'ika?" His fingers splayed against the small of her back as his body released the heat that he built. Except in his hands that eased to each of her hips, his thumbs lightly drawing circles along her hipbones. A devilish grin etched upon his lips as he leaned down, intent clear in his hungry eyes.

Right before he kissed her, the glass door opened, and Derek called from the house. "Dinner will be ready in ten minutes if you want to get changed for ... My apologies; I didn't intend to interrupt. Carry on." The door eased shut as he went back to the large table inside.
Rin Taal

 

[Rin Taal]

The warmth came gradually enough that Rin noticed it before she understood its source. The air around them had changed as the sun disappeared, the pleasant wind of their earlier flight sharpening into something cold enough to sting her cheeks and pointed ears. Yet pressed against Muad's back, Rin felt increasingly warm instead. Her eyes narrowed thoughtfully when she realized what he was doing, and amusement slipped through the dyad almost immediately. Of course Muad's answer to getting cold several thousand meters above the ground was apparently to turn himself into a living heater.

Rin made absolutely no complaint about it. She tucked herself a little closer against him instead, one arm secure around his waist while her hand remained with his, cheek resting comfortably against his back. The warmth radiating from him drove away the worst of the cold and left her free to watch the world disappear into gathering darkness. Somewhere beneath the clouds waited Olanet, the sanctuary and the tiny dragonling whose distant presence Rin could still perceive when she reached toward it. Somewhere ahead lay everything Muad had spoken about sharing with her, while behind them stretched two lives that had somehow crossed at precisely the right moment to create something neither had expected.

The question of the dyad no longer troubled her in quite the same way. Rin could feel where they touched one another through it and, just as importantly, where they did not. There remained boundaries between them that neither needed to announce because both respected them. Muad could have reached farther into her thoughts. Rin could have done the same to him. Neither did. What they shared existed because they continually chose to place it within that space between them, and the realization only strengthened what she had understood above the clouds. Whatever the Force had done by joining them, it had not taken away either of their choices. If anything, having the ability to intrude and choosing not to made every freely offered thought, memory, and emotion mean considerably more.

When Galabatorix finally began descending, Rin lifted her head from Muad's back and looked through the gathering clouds. The mansion gradually emerged from the gloaming below, warm light shining through the enormous glass walls while smaller lights marked the paths across grounds already surrendering their details to the coming night. After everything they had seen that day, the sight felt unexpectedly welcoming. Rin tightened her arms instinctively when the dragon adjusted beneath them, then relaxed again as one immense leg extended toward the grass. By the time Galabatorix settled enough for them to dismount, her hair was hopelessly windblown, and she suspected it would take considerable effort to persuade it back into anything resembling order.

Muad offered his hand, and Rin accepted it as she rose. "Such a gentleman." Her smile suggested she knew perfectly well how selectively that description applied to him. She started carefully down Galabatorix's leg, her tail shifting behind her to help with balance while she found each foothold. Rin remained entirely unaware of the particular appreciation occurring behind her until her feet reached the grass and she turned back toward Muad. The color in his face earned a curious lift of one eyebrow, though Galabatorix's departing roar distracted her before she could decide whether it deserved investigation.

The vibration traveled through the ground and rattled the mansion windows before the enormous dragon disappeared into the deepening dusk. Rin watched him go for several seconds, still amazed by how quickly something so impossibly large could become little more than a shape against the evening sky. She had barely begun turning back when Muad caught up with her, his arms circling her and drawing her against him. Rin went willingly, a soft laugh escaping as her hands settled against him and his forehead found hers.

"I did." The answer came without hesitation. Rin's expression softened as she looked into the blue glow of his eyes. "More than I expected to." That hardly seemed adequate for a day that had given her a dragonling, carried her above the clouds, and quietly dismantled one of the lingering doubts she had carried about them, but perhaps he could feel enough of the rest without her explaining it. Her fingers curled lightly into his shirt. "I think I'm going to remember today for a very long time."

His hands moved to her hips, and whatever else Rin might have said became considerably less important.

His fingers settled against the small of her back before easing outward, and when his hands came to rest against the curve of her hips, Rin's breath caught. Then his thumbs moved. Slowly, almost idly, they traced circles over her hipbones, and the effect traveled through her with startling immediacy. It was such a small touch, barely more than the pressure of his hands against skin, yet something tightened low in her stomach and sent a shiver upward along her spine. Her tail gave a small involuntary flick behind her before curling closer, and for one suspended heartbeat Rin forgot entirely what she had been about to say. There was something almost unfair about how easily Muad could do that to her, reducing the space between thought and instinct until her body had already answered him before her mind caught up.

The dyad made hiding the reaction futile. Heat moved through her that had nothing whatsoever to do with Muad raising his body temperature, and Rin knew he could feel at least some echo of it in the space they shared. This time she didn't try to contain it. She knew that look in his eyes by now, but more importantly, she knew what answered it inside herself and no longer felt the same need to question where that response came from. Her fingers tightened against him as another slow pass of his thumbs made her inhale more deeply, and her gaze fell to his mouth before she could stop it. When she looked back into his eyes, the teasing smile she had worn only moments earlier was gone.

Rin leaned into him.

The movement was small but unmistakable, closing what little distance remained between them as Muad lowered his head. Her hands slid farther around him, and the warmth of his body surrounded her while those hands remained anchored against her hips. The rest of Olanet seemed to recede into the gloaming around them. The mansion lights blurred at the edges of her awareness, the night air ceased to matter, and even the dyad seemed secondary to the much simpler awareness of his breath close to hers and the anticipation building in the narrowing space between their mouths.

The glass door opened.

Rin froze so completely that for one absurd heartbeat she remained poised there, face only a short distance from Muad's, while Derek informed them that dinner would be ready in ten minutes. Her pointed ears began warming before he had even reached his apology. By the time carry on followed and the door eased shut again, the tips had gone thoroughly red. Rin remained motionless for another second, as though there might still be some way to recover her composure and pretend Derek had not just caught them seconds away from kissing. The effort was futile. Muad was still holding her, his hands were still resting on her hips, and the dyad was undoubtedly carrying enough of her embarrassment and lingering desire to make any attempt at dignity rather pointless.

A helpless laugh escaped her, and she surrendered what remained of the moment by dropping her forehead against Muad's chest. Her shoulders shook once with another quiet laugh as the sheer absurdity caught up with her. Chek had interrupted them before they almost had their first kiss. Now Derek had somehow managed the same feat after it. Apparently the galaxy had developed a personal investment in ensuring Rin Taal and Muad Dib never reached one another's mouths without an audience appearing at precisely the wrong moment.

"Twice." Rin finally lifted her head enough to look at him, amusement competing with the embarrassment still burning across her ears. "That has happened to us twice now." Her hands remained against him and, despite Derek's interruption, she made no particular effort to escape Muad's embrace. If anything, her fingers caught lightly in his clothing again as she smiled up at him. "I'm beginning to think we need to stop trying this anywhere with witnesses."

The spell had broken, but the desire behind it hadn't. Rin could still feel the memory of his thumbs against her hips as though the touch had left something behind beneath her skin, and the lingering anticipation of the kiss made the interruption almost physically frustrating. Laughter had tangled itself through the moment now, softening the hunger without erasing it. She glanced toward the glass doors and the brightly lit room beyond them before returning her attention to Muad, golden eyes bright with affection and just enough mischief to answer his own.

"And apparently we have ten minutes."

She let that observation sit between them for a beat before the color in her ears deepened even more at her own implication. Rin laughed again and finally eased back enough that they could actually start toward the house, though one hand slipped naturally into his rather than leaving him entirely. Whatever might have happened before Derek opened that door had merely been postponed. For once, Rin didn't need the dyad to tell her that, and she certainly didn't need it to explain why she was already looking forward to finding out when they might finally manage another kiss without someone clearing a throat or opening a door.

Muad Dib

 

[Muad Dib]

If Derek weren't his brother, he'd be a dead man right then. But as the glass doors shut, Rin leaned her face into his chest and laughed. Which, in turn, caused the madman to laugh. Muad wondered briefly if it was too late to return to the island sanctuary. Between the flush through the dyad and the red-tipped ears, he could see and feel her embarrassment. And Rin's unfettered desire. Which matched his own.

"I'm beginning to think we need to stop trying this anywhere with witnesses."

"I wholeheartedly agree. No witness. No interruptions. Nothing to interfere." His grin intermingled with a hint of frustration, but it wasn't like this hadn't happened before. As she said, the first time was on Veradune when she began leaning in, and then Chek cleared his throat. Witnesses.

When she had leaned in, closing the little distance between them, he forgot all about the external world. The only thing to exist was the two of them. It was all he wanted. But now, dinner waited, and an evening with Derek seemed to be on the cards. Not that he didn't love his brother. He did. He also didn't want to kiss his brother until the tips of his ears turned red. That would be the woman currently in his arms. However, part of the visit was to socialize so that Muad couldn't kill his brother. Maybe throw all his suits into a dryer and shrink them ... Now that wasn't a bad idea ...

"And apparently we have ten minutes."

To say his mouth gaped open would have been an understatement. And she knew exactly how her words sounded, judging by the deep tint of blush which crept up her face and into her ears. Before he could respond, though he was frozen for several seconds, she took his hand, and they began to stroll toward the mansion. "For the record, ten minutes would never have been enough time." His smirk of humor was also filled with heat as he spoke matter-of-factly before they reached the door.

He reached out and pulled it open, his other hand ushering her forward before catching her tail and letting her forward momentum pull its length through his fingers. Muad had caught the betraying twitching before the interruption and couldn't help but toss liquidized tibanna gas onto the flames. As she walked by, he was reminded of her scantily clad state. The wrap that once hugged her hips was somewhere on the island. Not that he was complaining. Because he most assuredly was not. The door closed as they entered the room.

Derek was busy setting the table and breaking out several bottles of evening libations. Crimson eyes looked up for a moment before returning to his deliberations. His black jacket and red tie lay across the desk in the corner while the top buttons near his throat had been unbuttoned. It was the closest anyone had ever seen him get to relaxed and informal. Muad only shook his head as he walked up behind Rin and leaned into her. The Force-imbued heat was gone, but the flush of heat remained. "Maybe we should go change into something more ... appropriate for dinner. Or there will be no dinner." His lips tickled her ear at his statement while one hand lightly brushed her hip.

Then he laughed and turned, one hand snagging hers and pulling her along to the bedroom where only earlier this morning they had awoken together. When he pushed the door open, he leaned against the door frame and nodded for her to enter. But he stayed exactly where he was. "Darlin', if I follow you in right now, we won't be joining Derek for dinner. I'm going to use the refresher in his room. The closet will have anything you want to wear ... See you in a few."

He quickly turned away, headed to Derek's room, and entered. After a quick shower in the refresher, he stood in front of Derek's closet with his hands on his hips: suits, suits, and more suits. Oh wait, look what we have here. More suits. "How many suits does a guy need?" Finally, near the back of the closet, behind a pile of suits, he found a pair of black slacks and a V-neck, long-sleeved black shirt. He stole a pair of black dress socks but decided to forgo shoes. Were they in the house, right?

As he left the room, he seriously considered hiring Derek a fashion designer. His brother needed help. The crimson stare from Derek prompted a smirk.

"I see you decided to help yourself to my wardrobe."
"Seriously, bro, are you color blind?"
"No."
"You sure?"
"Yes."
"Then are you just blind?"

Derek paused as he eased several dishes onto the table.

"I can see well enough to notice how comfortable the two of you were." There was no judgment in his voice, only a calm recognition of facts. Muad inclined his head, a small smile on his face as Derek merely poured them both a drink. After a moment's thought, he poured a third tumbler of Corellian whiskey before taking a seat across from Muad. "Is that wise?"

The madman claimed the glass before leaning back into the seat. He understood his brother's misgivings. Muad knew the concern was for the many rituals, wounds, trips into other realms, and half a dozen other things that affected his body. Before today, it was a distant concern. But after the beach and standing in the backyard less than half an hour ago, perhaps he should give it more immediate consideration.

"Yeah ... Probably not."
"But you still intend on a consummation?"
"You really should stay out of my head."
"You didn't answer the question."
"I love her."

Derek leaned back into the embrace of his own chair, his glass of whiskey retrieved and held in his hand. The crimson gaze flickered to Muad's quarters, where he thought he had heard the door open, but Muad was oblivious. "Hmm." Derek took a drink from his tumbler.

"I never thought to hear those words escape you. Not after Arabella."
"You know I never intended to have any relationship like that. Especially not marriage. Bella was different, and we were young. And then we were both different and not young. She left, and I was content. I never planned on another relationship. And definitely not falling in love."

Silence grew between them. Not the uncomfortable kind, but the ease of familiarity. Derek raised his glass in a toast.

"To you, brother. And to love. You may have been married for nigh a millennium, but the two of you parted ways for centuries. And while my love life may be cursed, as you put it, yours has been non-existent. Arabella was your first, in every sense of the word. Is Rin aware she would only be your second in just as many categories?"
"You make me sound like an old maid."
"You are an old maid."
"Takes one to know one."
"Very mature."
"Thanks."
"That wasn't a compliment. Seriously, brother, you should discuss your past, to a degree, before pursuing this any farther. I'm not saying don't. I'm just saying, you aren't like everyone else. You're broken in more ways than one."

Muad took a drink while his other hand swept through his disheveled hair as he turned over Derek's words. The other man wasn't wrong. He sighed and took another drink.

Rin Taal

 

[Rin Taal]

Muad's answer about ten minutes stopped Rin mid-step. She turned her head slowly toward him, golden eyes widening just enough to betray that she had understood exactly what he meant. The warmth that had only begun retreating from her ears promptly returned, and for several seconds she could think of absolutely nothing useful to say. Unfortunately, Muad's expression made it perfectly clear he was enjoying that fact. "I didn't mean..." Rin began, then stopped because attempting to explain what she had meant would only make things worse. Her mouth closed, opened once more, and finally curved into a reluctant smile. "You know what? Never mind."

She should have expected retaliation. What she did not expect was his hand catching her tail as she passed through the door. The first contact made her draw a sharp breath, but it was the slow pull of its length through his fingers that truly caught her. Sensation chased his hand all the way toward the tip, startlingly intimate through something so simple, and Rin's stride faltered before instinct curled her tail toward her leg the instant it slipped free. Her shoulders tightened with it, a quick contraction low in her stomach answering the lingering sensation before she could decide what she thought about him doing that. When she looked back over her shoulder, the renewed color along her pointed ears ruined whatever reproach she might have managed. Worse, Muad would not need to interpret the blush. The dyad had already betrayed the hot little rush his touch sent through her.

"You're enjoying this far too much."

The accusation would have carried considerably more authority if Rin's body had not spent the last several minutes making an accomplice of itself. Muad's hands on her hips outside had awakened something that had never quite settled again, leaving the memory of his thumbs moving over her hipbones with an almost physical persistence. She could still summon the exact pressure without trying. The warmth low in her stomach had faded to a quiet ache rather than disappeared, and even the brush of her own movement against the places he had touched seemed capable of recalling it. By the time Muad came up behind her, Rin was painfully aware of how little it might take to bring all of that rushing back.

Apparently, very little.

His breath grazed the sensitive edge of her ear first, close enough that Rin felt the warmth of it before his words registered. Her spine straightened, a tiny involuntary response that brought her attention sharply backward toward him. Then his hand brushed her hip.

The effect ran deeper than the touch had any right to. Her breath caught behind her ribs as the muscles beneath his passing hand tightened instinctively, and the warmth smoldering inside her dropped suddenly lower, coiling hard enough in her stomach that she felt it in her bones. Her fingers curled against her palm. Even her knees seemed to lose a fraction of their certainty before she caught herself, and her tail swept close behind her as though it could somehow contain the reaction the rest of her had already surrendered. The contact lasted scarcely a moment, but her body held onto it after his hand was gone, nerves humming beneath her skin in its wake.

For one dangerous second, changing clothes seemed considerably less important than turning around.

Then Muad caught her hand and pulled her toward the bedroom, and Rin followed with considerably less resistance than good judgment probably recommended. The desire moving between them through the dyad only sharpened the physical awareness of him ahead of her, but it wasn't the bond making her want him. She knew that now. The dyad merely gave resonance to something her body was already making impossible to misunderstand.

Muad stopped at the doorway.

Rin stared at him while he explained precisely why he was not coming inside, and the absurdity of it collided with everything still thrumming beneath her skin. Considering what had happened outside, and what one passing touch in the hallway had just done to her, she could hardly accuse him of exaggerating. "That's probably wise." She stepped backward into the room, still facing him, and somehow managed a smile that was warmer than it was composed. "Apparently one of us has to be sensible long enough to make it to dinner."

She let the door close between them before releasing the breath she had been holding and resting the front of her head against it. For several heartbeats Rin simply stood there in the sudden quiet, eyes closed, waiting for her pulse to remember that nothing was currently happening to her. Her body was slower to accept the news. She could still feel his fingers traveling along her tail, his breath against her ear, the fleeting pressure at her hip, and beneath all of it, the deeper memory of his thumbs circling her hipbones outside. The sensations overlapped until she could no longer separate the most recent touch from the anticipation that had preceded Derek's interruption.

The evening was nowhere near finished, which was simultaneously a wonderful and deeply inconvenient realization.

Eventually Rin opened her eyes and pushed away from the door before ten minutes became twenty. She could still feel the distant thread leading toward the dragonling at the sanctuary and remember clouds beneath Galabatorix's wings, Muad's hands joined with hers above them, and the realization that had settled so quietly into certainty somewhere over Olanet. Those memories possessed a tenderness entirely different from the heat currently refusing to leave her body, yet somehow both belonged to the same man. That might have been the most disarming part of all. Muad could make her feel safe enough to rest against him above the clouds and, hours later, reduce coherent thought to a rather tenuous proposition with the movement of one hand across her hip.

She had no intention of dressing for dinner as though she were heading back onto a frontier trail, nor did the evening call for the clothes she might have chosen for a festival on Veradune. What she eventually settled upon occupied its own comfortable middle ground. The sleeveless shirt was soft and close-fitting, its muted earthen shade complementing the warmth of her skin without any elaborate cut. She paired it with a long skirt in a deeper natural tone, fitted comfortably around her waist before falling loosely toward her ankles, with enough freedom in the fabric for her tail to move naturally behind her. The combination was simple and distinctly hers, nicer than the practical clothing she wore while traveling without suggesting she had dressed for anything more elaborate than dinner with someone important to Muad.

Her feet remained bare. That decision required no consideration whatsoever.

Rin had just begun trying to coax her windblown hair back into some semblance of order when voices carried through the mansion. Zorren hearing had always been useful on the road, warning her of approaching animals, movement beyond a campfire's light, and people who believed lowering their voices by a fraction made a conversation private. Here it placed her in an uncomfortable interstice between privacy and knowledge. Walls and distance separated her from the brothers, and she was neither reaching through the dyad nor moving closer to hear them, yet ordinary conversation carried clearly enough through the quiet house that she could not simply command her ears to stop working.

Derek's voice reached her first, asking whether something was wise. Rin's hands stilled briefly in her hair, though without context there was little to make of the question, and she had no intention of creeping toward the door to acquire any. She resumed working through a stubborn section, deliberately keeping her attention on what she was doing. Muad's response clarified rather more than she needed, however, and the direction of the conversation became unmistakable. Apparently changing rooms had done very little to make this evening less embarrassing. She could have run water or deliberately made enough noise to drown them out, but doing so suddenly felt almost as conspicuous as pressing her ear to the wall. Instead, Rin continued getting ready, neither pursuing the conversation nor pretending her hearing had somehow ceased to function.

Then Derek pressed him for an answer, and Muad gave one.

I love her.

The hand smoothing Rin's hair slowly came to rest against her shoulder. Only a short while ago, above Olanet's clouds, she had finally admitted the same truth to herself and deliberately kept the realization from the dyad because she wanted it to belong entirely to her for a little while before she chose to give it to him. She had wondered when she would be ready to say the words aloud. Hearing them unexpectedly from Muad, spoken not to persuade her or draw an answer from her but simply because his brother had asked him for the truth, gave them a different weight. Nothing in them was performative, and nothing was asked in return. They were simply true for him.

The words settled somewhere deep enough to feel indelible. Warmth spread beneath Rin's chest, entirely different from the desire that had consumed her outside, carrying a tenderness powerful enough that she had to draw a slow breath before continuing. She did not reach for Muad through the dyad. Doing so now would feel too much like acknowledging something he had not chosen to share with her, and that mattered. Muad believed he was speaking privately with his brother. Rin would respect the intention even if her hearing had rendered the privacy imperfect, holding the knowledge without taking advantage of it.

The conversation continued, and then Rin heard another name. Arabella. A name and vision that had been given to her on Batuu.

Fragments gradually assembled themselves into something she had not known. Marriage. Centuries apart. A relationship Muad had apparently never intended to repeat. Nearly a millennium bound in some fashion to another woman, even if much of that time had been spent separately, was not an insignificant piece of someone's history. Curiosity rose immediately, accompanied by the strange little ache of discovering how much of Muad's life remained unknown to her, but jealousy never quite followed. Rin had never imagined that a man who had lived as long as Muad came to her without history. She had one hundred and fifty-four years behind her, while he had vastly more. Expecting either of them to arrive at this point untouched by everything that preceded it would have been absurd.

What bothered her more was Derek's final assessment. She could hear enough in his voice to know broken had not been offered with contempt. There was familiarity between the brothers, concern beneath the bluntness, and Rin understood that Derek knew parts of Muad she did not. Even so, the word sat poorly with her. She had seen pieces of Muad that frightened other people, felt old pain within him, glimpsed memories carrying violence and loss, and encountered contradictions she suspected she would spend years untangling if they were fortunate enough to have them. He was complicated, scarred in ways that had nothing to do with flesh, occasionally infuriating and frequently ridiculous, but none of those things meant he needed someone to put him back together. Broken implied something requiring repair, and Rin had no intention of fixing Muad Dib.

She finished smoothing her hair and studied herself for a moment, fingers settling naturally against the necklace at her chest. There would be questions eventually. Arabella deserved more than a conversation overheard through walls, and so did Muad. Rin wanted to know about the woman he had married, why they had separated, what centuries of that history had meant to him, and what remained of it now. More importantly, she wanted Muad to tell her because he chose to. Whatever the extraordinary openness of their dyad sometimes offered them, Rin did not want to build what was growing between them upon knowledge taken before the other was ready to give it.

When Rin finally opened the bedroom door, she stepped into the hall barefoot, the long skirt brushing softly around her legs while her tail curved naturally behind her. The brothers' conversation had quieted, and she approached without trying to conceal herself. Whatever she had accidentally overheard would remain hers for now, although one part of it followed her toward the dining room with considerably greater persistence than everything else.

*I love her...*A smile threatened before she could stop it, and Rin suppressed it with only moderate success. Perhaps that was just as well. Muad knew her too well already for a completely neutral expression to survive much scrutiny, particularly when the words he did not know she had heard were still reverberating through her. When she entered the room, her golden eyes found him first, and for a moment she simply looked at him. There was no accusation in her expression, no question about Arabella waiting to be sprung upon him over dinner, only something newly tender that she could not quite persuade herself to hide.

Then Rin turned toward Derek. She had come here partly because Muad wanted her to know his brother, and after spending the day immersed in pieces of Muad's world that had previously been closed to her, she found herself genuinely wanting that as well. "I hope I didn't keep either of you waiting." Her attention drifted back toward Muad and took in the black clothing he had apparently managed to liberate from Derek's wardrobe. One corner of her mouth lifted. "You clean up surprisingly well."

Rin crossed the remaining distance toward the table, resisting the temptation to make any comment about the apparently inexhaustible supply of suits occupying Derek's closet. Explaining how she knew about that particular brotherly disagreement would be rather more complicated than the joke deserved. Instead, she intended to have dinner with Muad and Derek, listen to them, ask questions when they were hers to ask, and learn more about the family Muad wanted to share with her.

Later, when they were alone and if Muad chose to tell her about Arabella, Rin would listen. She had no need to force the conversation simply because circumstance had given her knowledge a little early. As for the other thing she had overheard, that would be considerably harder to tuck quietly away. Every time her eyes found Muad across the room, the words returned with the same warmth they had carried the first time, settling beside the truth Rin herself had discovered only hours earlier.

He loved her, and she loved him too.

Muad Dib