“I guess that’s it,” Fluffy said, pointing at the bright brown mountainside slightly to our right. “Though, it is not as green as I imagined it.”

Indeed, I had to agree with her that the area around it reminded me more of a savannah, rather than the green plane we expected, given that Cloudy had mentioned a forest nearby. There was still a bit of vegetation, a few trees and bushes, but overall, it was quite barren.

“Are you sure? There are more mountains around here, maybe they have more plant life,” I replied.

Fluffy stopped mid air and hovered there for a few seconds, looking around.

“Quite,” she shrugged. “My parents said it was slightly south of the railroad station.” She pointed at it. “Which is over there. And surrounded by other mountains in a half moon circle.” Now her hoof wandered over the horizon. “Seems fitting to me.”

I gave the scenery another look. “Well, we’ll find out. Let’s land there and start looking for this hidden kirin village.”

“It may be better if I fly ahead and look for it, who knows how they’ll react when my strong dragonfriend lands in the center of their village all of a sudden.” As she said this, she flew over to me and began stroking my chest with her hooves. “You know how somecreatures react to mighty dragons.”

“I am quite sure that they will take it well, they are half dragons after all. And,” I pointed at Fiery with my snout, “I have the best diplomat you can imagine on my back.” That being said, said ‘diplomat’ was currently half asleep.

“One more reason for me to go first,” she smiled. “Don’t want to risk anything with the greatest of all treasures, right?”

I smirked, “You just want to feel the thrill of adventure again, don’t you?” I inquired while raising an eyebrow.

She blushed. “Maybe a little bit,” she said with her cute little pegasus voice, something I couldn’t resist. “It has been some time since I explored anything.”

I flattened my gaze at that.

“Besides the best dragonfriend in the world of course,” she hastily added.

I smiled. “Better. Fine, you may fly ahead, but if anything suspicious happens, you come back. I don’t want to erase a kirin village from the world because they hurt my mate.”

Fluffy rolled her eyes and quickly placed a kiss on my nose. “I promise.” She then flew back to check on Fiery, and when she found her still lazily resting on my back, she flew off.

Before I followed her at a slower pace, I took the opportunity to check on Fiery myself. It was hard to resist the urge to nuzzle her and purr, but she needed her sleep. We had left Fluffy’s parents home quite early in the morning, so it was understandable that our little kirin was more than a little tired.

Be it as it may, in another half an hour at most, she would have to wake up and hopefully play with other kirins.

*

The village on top of the Peaks of Peril was not too hard to find once we were slightly closer. Fluffy had already landed, and was in the middle of a conversation with one of the kirins by the time I arrived.

“Hey Big Softy,” she yelled, waving at me, “we’re over here!”

“Oh, ohh, is that your dragonfriend?” the kirin Fluffy was talking with asked while walking over. “Wow, that is a dragon you got yourself there! Look at his scales, so shiny!” She turned around and yelled, “Dragon!” into the village before turning her attention quickly back to me. “And such huge wings, he really is amazing!”

Well, that was not what I had expected. I landed right next to them and looked around, normally creatures are very fearful of me, and when somecreature yelled dragon, it was mostly in fear and to warn others. Not so with this kirin. While this first one was still praising my appearance, which I liked, several kirins peaked out from every corner. And instead of looking worried, running away, or the other usual actions, they started to whisper excitedly and hastily trotted over.

“You must be really happy to have him,” the kirin went on, “and is this…” her eyes got wider and a huge smile spread across her face, “a baby! You had a baby with him! It is yours right?” She quickly glanced at Fluffy, “This is so awesome!”

Indeed, Fiery had gotten curious about what was going on and had sleepily opened an eye and peaked above my wing for a moment, before curling up again.

“You must tell me everything! How you two got together, what it’s like to have a kirin baby as a pony and… oh, I totally forgot,” she focused on my face for a moment and bowed, “welcome to the Peaks of Peril. My name is Autumn Blaze.”

Now she stayed in this position waiting for my response. I was a bit surprised at first, but then nodded. “The Black Death,” I replied.

“Welcome The Black Death,” she said and rose up. “It has been so long since we had a dragon here, kind of forgot the formal greeting for a second.” She clapped her hooves together. “I love visitors,” for a second, a sad expression got on her face, “we have so few visitors here, but,” the expression vanished and the happy smile returned, “it’s gotten a lot better lately!”

In the meantime, upwards of a dozen kirins had arrived at our location and started to form a half circle in front of us. Fluffy trotted over to my side, though not out of concern for herself it seemed, but more so of how I might react. I rubbed my head over hers to show her that I didn’t feel threatened and would not attack them. Truth be told, a warm welcome for once was a pleasant change.

“This is a far warmer welcome than I had expected,” I told her.

“If all kirins are half dragons, it kind of makes sense, you know. Babies have to come from somewhere. I guess that means they’ll know how to deal with dragons,” Fluffy replied.

“It means a lot of ponies took advantage of dragons with a liking for softness,” I jokingly stated, while at the same time giving it an accusatory tone.

“Naughty pony race,” she admitted, ironically, with a grin while stroking my side with her wing.

Autumn Blaze used the short pause that followed to join the conversation, “So what brings you here? You wanna see the opera? Or the stream of silence? Or…?”

Fluffy finished her stroking by rubbing her head against my side before she answered. “We wanted to learn more about kirins, and especially how to raise one. You see, our daughter, Fiery Leadership,” she pointed at her, “is a kirin, and, uhm, we thought it wouldn’t hurt to see how you guys handle raising children.”

“Not that we are not capable of… “ I started, but stopped when I saw the amazed and surprised faces around us. All of the kirins suddenly became very excited when I mentioned Fiery, and had started to whisper to each other more loudly.

Fluffy noticed it too. “Uhm,” she made a gesture with her hoof, including all the kirins in the crowd, “what’s with them?”

“They’re just excited,” Autumn Blaze explained, “it has been a while since we’ve seen a first generation kirin,” She giggled in joy, “and a pegasus one too. As you can see,” she pointed at her horn, “All of us have unicorn heritage, a pegasus kirin is something rare for us.”

“First generation kirin?” Fluffy asked.

“A first generation kirin is the baby of a dragon and a pony,” a new voice replied.

I looked for who had said this. When I directed my gaze towards where the voice had come from, I saw a huge kirin approaching us from behind. She was a good bit taller than the rest of the kirins, who were more or less the same size as Fluffy, appearing to be closer to my size. She had a light brown coat and a bluish mane in the same style Fiery had, and like the other kirins, she had a large horn. However, sitting at the base of her horn was a crown

“A first generation usually has the best traits from their dragon and pony heritage. Unfortunately, depending on what kind of mate they choose to take, following generations can lose some of these characteristics.”

“And you are?” I asked.

“I am Rain Shine, leader of this kirins. Welcome to the Peaks of Peril, dragon.”

I kept my gaze on her, waiting for her to address Fluffy too, but she didn’t.

“Hi, Rain Shine,” Fluffy said, compelled to do so by her friendly pony personality. “I am Danger Do. And that is,” she pointed first at me, then to Fiery, “ The Black Death and our daughter, Fiery Leadership. Nice to meet you.”

Rain Shine just nodded.

I knew that ponies were more friendly and loose about greetings, and Fluffy didn’t seem to mind, but if these kirins really knew dragon protocol, and it seemed so to a degree, it was like I told you with my mom, one has to be acknowledged to secure their social standing.

I would not allow the kirins’ leader to fob Fluffy with a nod. My tail tip raised up and my wings spread a bit, together with the growl that formed in my throat, it was a clear display of my disapproval of Rain Shines lack of respect for my mate.

“Big Softy,” Fluffy scolded me and pokeds me into the chest. “Be nice.”

I ignored her and presented my fangs, hissing at Rain Shine, challenging her.

She looked kind of surprised, her gaze switching between me and Fluffy a few times. It seemed she had some trouble understanding why her actions had made me angry, but she quickly overcame them.

“And welcome to you, Danger Do, to the Peaks of Peril,” she finally added.

“I will not tolerate any disrespect for my mate,” I made this clear with another growl before I returned to a less aggressive stance. “My mate deserves the same respect as I do, anycreature that fails to show her this will have to deal with me.”

“Big Softy!” Fluffy yelled at me, “that was rude!” My demand that everycreature treat her with respect seemed to have fluttered her a bit. Based on her tone of voice, especially after living with her for so long, the redness of her cheeks was not due to her being angry at my rudeness.

“I am sorry, he is a bit overprotective sometimes,” Fluffy explained to the kirins. “He is very sensitive when it comes to me and our daughter.”

“Don’t you worry about that,” Autumn Blaze replied, “we are familiar with dragon behaviour. I think the problem was just that it wasn’t obvious that you’re his mate, like, real mate instead of just friends with benefits. Probably because you’re not carrying your mate insignias, but only a collar. I mean it is a nice collar, suits you nicely, but it doesn’t show that you two are married at all.”

“Uhm, what?” Fluffy asked.

“You know, the golden rings around your horn, or in your case wing joints. The public display that you two are married. I mean, right now, everypony, or dragon, or kirin would assume your handsome dragonfriend here is still available.”

“He is not available!” Fluffy made clear, laying a wing possessively on me. “We are not married yet, but we are mates!”

This statement caused the kirins to return to whispering amongst themselves. It seemed the news that we are not married had made a few of these kirins quite happy.

Fluffy noticed it too, and after a short moment of shock, I could see the fur along her back begin to rise as she started fluffing up. “Mine!” she yelled, adding her second wing to my side. When this didn’t seem to do the trick, she added a growl in the direction of the kirins.

I couldn’t resist purring. Normally I was the one she called jealous and clingy, but this time, she was the one who was claiming her mate in front of others. I rubbed my head against her back and let her feel my deep purr while I inhaled her smell, a strong scent of autumny cinnamon. As I told you, she normally smelt like this, but it had gotten five times stronger now that she was jealousy claiming her mate.

I simply had to pick her up and cuddle her. Yes, perhaps not the very best moment to do so, but I am a black dragon, I can choose when to cuddle my mate. Though, Fluffy growled more deeply and struggled a bit to force me to let go of her so she could continue hissing at the kirins. Oh, she was so adorable!

“Feels good doesn’t it...” I inquired and placed soft kisses on every spot of her head or neck I could reach, “... claiming your mate in front of others.

When she realized I would not let her go since she had triggered my soft side too effectively, she glared at me with a mix of anger and this cuteness she always has when angry. “Put me down!” She demanded.

I turned her around so she was face to face with me and lifted her higher. “Not before you admit that it’s not only fun, but satisfies something deep in your heart.” Of course, I used this opportunity to cuddle her and purr as I did so.

She struggled and tried to push my head away with a hoof, but it was useless of course. “This is not the time to cuddle, Big Softy!”

I rubbed my cheek against hers and whispered into her ear. “Now remember all the times you scolded me for growling and hissing at creatures that took my claim of you into question. How does it feel to not be able to display your claim to me?”

“That is something completely different! Nocreature tried to snatch me away from you like these kirins are!” She flicked her ears and tried to give me a grumpy look.

“And nokirin had a chance to snatching me away from you, and you know that.”

Her growling got quieter and more defensive at that. She knew I loved her and that what I said was true.

“Mine,” I said while holding her gaze and giving her a kiss.

She snorted unhappy having lost the argument, but returned the kiss anyways. Though, she still growled.

“You’re lucky that I am not a pony, I understand these desires.” I placed her back on the ground. “You can go hiss and growl at the kirins now if you like.”

Surprisingly, this support from me kind of killed it for her.

“I don’t want to anymore,” she admitted silently. She gave the surrounding kirins a stare. “Still mine!”

“We saw that,” Rain Shine admitted, with a very confused look. “I, uhm, I confess I did not see that coming. And I apologize for not showing you the respect you deserve as his mate.” She made a step towards us. “I’ve… never heard or seen a black dragon that is a cuddler before. They are normally not the type to do that.”

“What do you mean?” Fluffy asked.

“Black dragons are normally very possessive. When not married, they collect a lot of ponies or kirins to have, well, fun with. So seeing you without anything displaying your right to claim him for yourself and yourself alone, it seemed to be that you were just his slave or toy, no matter if you had a child together or not.”

Rain Shine shook her head slightly. “The fact he is actually a cuddler, binding himself to only one pony, is kind of… uncommon.”

“It is a family thing,” I explained, using the opportunity to rub my head against Fluffy once more while her scent was so intense and good, “and Fortuna has her claws in it too.”

“Oh, you must tell us everything about it!” Autumn Blaze requested. “And feel free to add a lot of funny side comments and running gags!”

We stared at her.

“Uhm, if you like to that is,” she added with a grin.

“We could use that as a chance to start over too,” Rain Shine agreed. “Again, I am sorry for the bad greeting, so let me invite you to the mainhal. I am sure everykirin is curious about your story.”

*

Well, it turned out that it wasn’t our story that was the main attraction, but Fiery. Once we got to the mainhal and settled down, our daughter decided it was a good idea to leave daddy’s back and see what the new day brought. The reaction of the kirins, particularly Rain Shine, was quite special though.

“Azure Blood?” she asked astonished, rising up when she noticed Fiery’s scale colour. Her gaze quickly wandered to me. “Your dad is an azure dragon?”

“My mom is,” I said, offering Fiery a snout to lean against while she tried to figure out how to react to suddenly being the center of attention for so many new creatures.

My daughter turned to me and pointed at the kirins, squeaking.

“Yes, kirins,” I explained, “just like you.”

“That makes it even more strange for you to be a cuddler,” Rain Shine whispered, more to herself than to me.

“I know, I know.” I raised my head and looked at her. “Azure dragons are not the friendly, harmonious type of dragons. More like the dictator and ruler type.” I shrugged. “Believe me I know, I was raised by one.”

“Hey, Fiery,” Fluffy shouted out for our daughter, “stay with mom and dad!”

Our little one had used the moment I wasn’t paying attention to quickly move forward and towards the nearest kirin. It was the light greyish gold chatty one, Autumn Blaze.

“Look at you little cutie,” she said while lowering her head to Fiery’s level.

My daughter on the other claw, tried her best to elevate herself, getting into her meerkat position.

“Fiery, I told you that you should stay with us!” Fluffy reminded her while going after her. Fiery was even so generous as to look back at her for a moment before pointing at Autumn Blaze and squeaking.

“Oh, she is sooo adorable,” Autumn Blaze said, “can I lift her up? If she lets me of course,” she added.

“You may try,” I permitted, “but be aware that she normally does not allow it. And I would get very angry if someone would ignore her wishes in that regard.”

“I would never dare, though I am sure she would love to cuddle with a cozy kirin, right?” The last word was addressed at Fiery. “Do you like to be cuddled, Fiery?” She opened her hooves and offered Fiery a place between her shoulder and mane.

As I said, Fiery hesitated, letting random creatures pick her up or pet her were not things she normally allowed. Though, to my surprise, after checking if mom and dad were okay with it, she stepped forward and gave Autumn Blaze a sniff, searching for any signs of danger. When she found nothing wrong, she moved into her forelegs and let her pick her up.

“Fiery,” Fluffy said surprised,” you normally don’t let creatures do that.”

“Maybe it’s because I’m a kirin too,” Autumn Blaze guessed. “I mean, I assume I’m the first kirin to try this since you came here to learn how to raise a baby kirin, which means you don’t know another kirin that could tell you. Or it’s just my mane that’s attracting her,” she added after Fiery started to put her claws into it and pull at it, happily squeaking. “Don’t worry,” she rejected Fluffys helping hoof, “kirins hair isn’t so easily pulled out, she won’t be able to do too much damage.”

That statement didn’t prevent her from trying though.

“You know what is even better than ripping off my mane, Fiery? Autumn Blaze asked. “How about this?” She moved her own hoof into Fiery’s mane and started to softly scratch her somewhere between the ears.

The effect was immediate, as not long after she started doing this, Fiery relaxed into Autumn’s forelegs and released a loud purring. Whatever Autumn was doing, it was entirely to Fiery’s approval, she even moved her head so that the other kirin could reach the spots more easily.

“Yeah, you like that, right? Who is a happy baby, huh? You are!” Autumn proclaimed. And it was true, a lot of happy kirin noises were being produced by my daughter, showing her approval.

“You’ve got to show me how you’re doing that,” Fluffy requested, coming closer, “ she really seems to like what you are doing.”

“Oh it is nothing, everykirin likes that. You simply have to carefully scratch the spot between where the ears and scales meet. I mean, who doesn’t like that?”

“Yes, everykirin likes that,” a mare that had somehow appeared at my side affirmed. “Especially if such a shiny dragon does it,” she added it a seductive tone while rubbing over my side.

While I didn’t mind the attention and her approach, I didn’t even need to look to know the status of Fluffy’s backcoat. I smiled internally and waited for my mate to burst out. However, instead of yelling and screaming, or even growling, it was the new mare who’s reaction changed drastically. Just a short glance in the direction of my mate and her eyes widened while her pupils shrunk to pinheads.

After a short glance at Fluffy, I knew why.

You know the phrase ‘giving someone a death stare’? Well, it should be named giving someone the Fluffy stare. Her wings had sprung open and her mane and coat had risen as much as they could. There also seemed to be a burning fire in her eyes, the kind of fire that promised a bloody rage and many dead bodies before finally extinguishing. Dragonrage, only, in the eyes of a pony.

While I found it very attractive, the mare next to me started to fear for her life, shivering while proceeding back to where she had come from.

“It looks like my marefriend would prefer it if you would find someone else to help you with that,” I said with an amused tone. “Otherwise, she may get angry at you.”

The mare simply nodded quickly and rushed back into the crowd.

“You must forgive them,” Autumn said, trying to ease the situation, “we really haven’t had a dragon here for a long time, not to mention the fact that we weren’t able to speak for the last few years. Our conversation skills are not exactly the best. We’ve also gotten used to only using gestures, so that doesn’t help either.” She moved her hoof to Fiery’s other ear, keeping her distracted. “So we can be a bit rude sometimes, we don't mean to be, we’re just a bit blunt.” She paused for a second. “And you have to admit, your dragonfriend is very attractive. Did I mention how shiny his scales are already?”

Well, the last part of her comment didn’t help her argument, of course I am attractive and shiny, but Fluffy obviously didn’t want to hear that from other mares. I saw her gaze slowly wander to Autumn, but before things could get worse, I played my trump card.

“Fluffy! You don’t want to ruin this trip for Fiery, right?” I walked over and rubbed my head against hers. “Remember, we came all the way here because of our daughter. You don’t want to ruin this for her by being overly jealous, right? You want to be the reasonable mare here, or...”

It was a good thing that her motherly instincts were stronger than her jealous marefriend instincts. I could see it in her eyes that my words had done their trick, though it took a moment for her body to follow.

“Your marefriend seems to be a bit overzealous,” Autumn whispered to me behind her hoof.

“Yes, and I am perfectly fine with that,” I whispered back, just loud enough for Fluffy to hear. “And it really feels good to see how much she loves me since she’s acting protective and jealous for a change.”

Knowing that I was up to something, Fluffy reacted quite quickly. “Oh no, you are not using this as an excuse to hiss and growl at anycreature that is nice to me in the future,” Fluffy demanded, but I was already smiling widely. “No!” she repeated.

“No, I am definitely using this as an excuse. And if you ever complain about me doing it, I’ll just need to remind you of how you were acting today.” Even though I tried to say this in a neutral tone, or mostly neutral, my smile leached its way into my words. “This trip is already a success simply for the fact that I am now allowed to growl at creatures in the future.”

“I did not growl this time!” Fluffy pointed out. “I stayed silent all the while!”

Dammit! She was right about that, but I would not give up so easily. “Right, I’ll give you that, though, I may just look threatening like you did then. That should be enough in most cases anyway.”

“Big Softy!”

“Yes?” I recited, flickering my eyes at her.

“You… you…”

“Yes?”

Fluffy inhaled deeply. “You are a far too civilized azure blooded dragon to do such a thing when it is obviously not necessary.”

I was going to reply to that not being true, and that a good dragon would do exactly such a thing, but following Fluffy’s gaze, it was hard to miss that several kirins and Fiery were watching us. I had to rethink that statement. It was still true, but if I admitted that an azure blooded dragon would do something like that, it would reflect poorly on such a noble heritage, likely lowering my social standing for pointing that out in front of everykirin.

“Well played, Fluffy,” I whispered, “but we’re discussing that when we are alone again.”

“Oh no, if you have any objections, just go ahead and tell everycreature, otherwise, I’ll have to assume you are agreeing with my point of view,” she whispered back with this mischievous pony grin.

Oh this impudent little pegasus! I was so proud! Using my own pride against me while looking cute enough to get away with it, one of the many reasons I loved her so much.

“I will get you back for this,” I purred and licked over her cheek. “In a most naughty dragon way of course.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” she purred back.

Well, since that was settled, after a bit more purring and a little cuddling, my attention moved back to Fiery. She was still being so generous as to allow Autumn Blaze to proceed to pet her, and it seemed that it would stay this way a while longer. Our visit here was not only about her being fondled though. I finally decided to ask about where the other kirin bornlings are.

“Hmm, most of them are in the kindergarden at this time of day,” Autumn answered, “well, at least the younger ones that are not babies anymore. A baby like Fiery would stay with their parents at home while the older ones go to school.” She looked at Fiery again and smiled. “I can show you around if you like? There are a lot of other places you surely want to see too, and I can tell you all about what we kirins do during the day and such, also…”

A tiny claw had placed itself on Autumn’s mouth, preventing her from speaking further. It seems my daughter preferred it if she focused on petting her instead of talking with us.

“That’s my daughter,” I purred and moved my snout over to cuddle with Fiery. “Being petted and cuddled is most important of course.”

Fiery was more than happy that I shared her point of view, and tried to explain to me what she did and why, at least, that was what I assumed when I saw her bubbling and squeaking while gesticulating at Autumn in some baby ways.

“Absolutely,” I agreed when she finished.

“It sure is,” Autumn also agreed. And while I cuddled my daughter, Autumn began rubbing my head. “Wow, these scales are smooth! Are you using a special shampoo? Or how do you get them so clean and smooth? Normally scales get a bit rough if you clean them too eagerly, but yours are like glass.”

“Hooves off of my dragonfriend!” Fluffy shouted, though, I managed to calm her by turning and cuddling her too.

“Oh I am sorry,” Autumn said, “I was just curious.” She returned her hoof to Fiery’s ear now that my head was out of the way. “Shiny and sleek scales are a blessing, so if there is a trick to get them this way, I’d really like to know.”

“Well,” I paused to purr at Fluffy and demanded her attention before I placed a kiss on her lips, “I'll tell you the secret while you show us around. I am sure my mate is okay with you guiding us since you don’t seem interested in stealing me away from her.”

“I’d sure like to show you around,” she turned to Fluffy, “and I promise to not steal your dragonfriend.”

Fluffy seemed to accept that promise, but she still pointed a hoof towards her eyes before turning it to Autumn, making it clear that she would keep her eyes on her.

“Don’t you worry,” Autumn started, but again, a tiny claw found its way on her mouth.

“You better return her to my mate,” I said, “otherwise you won’t be able to tell us anything.”

Well, while the idea was good, the reality was a bit tricky. When Autumn hoofed Fiery over, the little one demanded the same treatment from Fluffy now, which she could not provide at first, resulting in heart melting squeaking. So we had to wait a few minutes till Autumn taught Fluffy how to do the ‘scratch-to-make-kirins-happy-thing’.

When Fiery was happy with the result, we were finally able to move on.”

Author's Note

Seems like kirins like dragons very much, who had thought that?

To quote my editor Schattendrache on this after he read the chapter:

kirins be thirsty