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She had been practicing. A few arrows would need repair after the abuse they had taken. Though there might be more high tech weapons and she had learned to use them, there was something simple and soothing about the weight of the bow in her hand and the pull of the string as she adjusted her entire body to make certian the arrow flew true. After all, once they returned home, it was unlikely that they would be able to bring any of Stacy's toys home with them. It was better to stay in touch with her training.

"Papa? Mama?" Ah, Mama must still be out. Papa looked relaxed for once. She hung her bow, letting it settle on the hooks made for that purpose and unfastened her quiver to join it. "How was your day, Papa?"

"A bit boring, actually. What about you, Kali?" Kang patted the seat next to him. It still surprised him sometimes to see her all grown up, and he could easily see bits of himself and Fonrar in her. Bits of her aunts, too, if he looked really closely.

"Practice. The last fight left me feeling unfocused." She settled next to him, wings arranging themselves in a way that would likely leave the wingless stunned, but was second nature to her. "But it was relaxing. I broke three arrows, I will need to fix them soon. Where is Mama? Out looking through supplies again?"

"Unfocused? If you're not the best archer on this ship, you're damn close. I haven't seen you miss your mark in at least a year," Kang laughed. "I think so. She said she might be late showing up tonight."

"Unfocused mentally, Papa. My aim is still true. I needed time to think, practice was a good way to clear my head of everything but the problem I needed to handle." She smiled, settled comfortably next to him. "I still have room to improve, and no Brevo or Yana to distract me with moving targets."

She resettled her wings. "I did not get to see the last clutch, was she this...dedicated to finding all of the proper materials with us, Papa?"

Kang tilted his head to one side slightly, "Time to think about what? And yes, she was. So were your aunts, I hear, and the other females." And, if Kali ever got the chance (he hoped she would; he wanted grandchildren), he knew she'd probably do the same thing too.

She smiled, leaning against his shoulder. "Nothing, Papa. Do not trouble yourself about it."

She tapped her tail quietly against the couch, not thinking of the fact that baring any unusual occurrences, the next generation of her siblings would be the ones that might give their father a chance for grandchildren, not herself. "How many do you think, Papa? Four, like us? Six like auntie?"

"You know you can always talk to me or your mother if you need to," Kang bumped Kali's shoulder lightly. He hoped it didn't end up like that. "Hmm. I'll guess five. It's too early to tell; we can't feel the eggs yet."

"I know, Papa. It is only thoughts, for the moment, chasing themselves around my head. Once they settle down enough for me to understand them, I will bring them to you."

She returned the bump, stretching her wing absently to relieve a bit of tension in her shoulders. "I hope none of them are anything like Brevo or Yana."

"Good. You know I hate seeing you bothered by anything." Kang leaned back in his chair, just enjoying the moment, and snorted, "I don't think the ship would be able to handle those two. I know you still miss them, though, and so do we, despite the havoc they'd cause. Grosk, too."

"I know. I will piece it together into coherent thoughts, rather than the chaotic tangle it currently exists in." She giggled, soft and thoughtful. "They would race to see who could receive the most violations first. It would be terrible. And Grosk would be standing behind them, starting fights for them by saying all the wrong things."

Kang snorted again, "And give your mother and I a heart attack in the process."

He nodded at the mug in front of him and asked her, "Have you had dinner yet? There's some fresh venison in the back, from Chancellor's herd."

"Naturally, that is part of the attraction to the idea, and also that there is simply no way that on could be worse off than the other. That takes skill. I love them, though I think they would do poorly here. They are very used to the freedom to do mostly as they will."

She yawned, considering her stomach for a moment. "Perhaps I should, I do not feel very hungry just yet."

"Ah, well. I think they'd learn to behave. Eventually." Kang frowned slightly. Seeing them get Punishment would probably kill him; Stacy hadn't relaxed her rules regarding violations much. "Enough about them, though. I'll get us some dinner and we can wait for your mother. I doubt she'll mind that we started without her, since she's not eating much at the moment anyways."

"Eventually meaning sometime in the next century, papa? I rather think they might refuse to learn." She smiled sadly, watching him. The first time she had seen a Punishment had been unnerving and had given her fear for her outspoken and thickheaded siblings. She did not wish to see it happen to them, but knew it would take one or the other getting one for them both to settle.

"Hopefully after, she will feel more like eating again. I wonder what she could be looking for to settle herself with this time."

Kang knew it too, and he didn't like thinking about it. Smiling wryly, he nodded, "Hopefully."

He frowned a bit again. "Fish, maybe, from the river. She's been eating a lot of it lately." Crucible spent a lot of his time down there, and while he'd grudgingly accepted years ago that the dragon didn't actually mean them any harm, he was still a little sore about the past history and being lied to. He hadn't bothered finding out if there was any relation to himself or Fonrar, not wanting to know.

"She likes the river. It is pleasing and quiet there." Even with the presence of the bronze. Perhaps it had been her introduction to him as a child, but his presence did not seem to give her as much worry as it did her father.

"Perhaps we could take dinner and join her there, do you beleive she would appreciate company?"

It made Kang feel very uncomfortable when Kali or Fonrar visited the river, but he knew he had no right to tell them to avoid it or the dragon. He just had to deal with it. He was grateful that Crucible respected his feelings and didn't talk to him often. "That sounds like a good idea. Let me check and see if she's even down there first." He took out his omnicomm and sent his mate a quick message.

Kali waited, patient and relaxed against her father's side. If there was one thing she had managed to inherit, that her siblings had somehow missed, it was the ability to be still. To wait.

There was nothing to be lost in taking a moment for silence.

"It will be nice to give her company, I think we will all be much happier once the eggs arrive. Though I imagine it will not settle her nerves overmuch until they hatch." It was exciting, to think of having siblings again. Little brothers and sisters to teach and help her parents with.

"She is, by Goliath's castle. I'll carry the food," Kang put his omnicomm away and stood up, finishing off his ale. "Don't expect her to leave them alone for very long at a time. I could barely get her to leave the house even for a couple of hours before you hatched."

"Oh, perhaps Goliath would like to join us." She rose, twisting lightly on her feet to look at him, smiling. "Papa, I am twenty, not a hatchling in need of constant attention. I will help mama look after the eggs, if she should want me to."

She had gone to war not three months past her tenth life-day with her father. She had learned to govern at his shoulder. It did not matter if Yana, Brevo and Grosk woke tomorrow from their sleep, or the three brothers and sisters she had never had the chance to meet, she was her father's eldest daughter. That fact would remain unchanged, even should her brothers and sister awake with the same years as she had.

Helping mama would be good practice, if she ever had a chance to have a clutch of her own.

Kang laughed and gave Kali a quick half-hug; he still didn't indulge in a lot of PDA, but living among humans and other races for so long had gotten him to loosen up a little bit. "I didn't say anything like that. I'm very well aware that you're an adult now." A snort, and he added, "You grew up on me too fast."

His wings rustled slightly, "I'll ask him, but more often than not lately, he's busy with other things." Goliath was rarely at his castle anymore, and far too focused on fighting the Ohm.

It would be strange, to encounter her siblings again with a new knowledge of human physical affection. But she returned the half hug, body leaning gracefully into her father's.

"All parents say that, Papa. I grew up at exactly proper speed." She smiled. "At least you can say, than even if I grew too fast, at least I grew up well."

She dipped her head in a nod. "It would be nice to offer the invitation, regardless."

"That you did," Kang smiled. He was very proud of Kali, and didn't bother trying to hide that fact from others. She was smart, damn good at archery and hand-to-hand, and most importantly, she was his daughter, something he once thought he'd never get the chance to have. "Go get whatever you want to drink, and I'll let Goliath know where we'll be if he wants to join us."