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The apartment was filled with a thick, golden silence that felt heavy with the scent of ozone and expensive laundry detergent. The battle of the three day birth had concluded, leaving the nest a tangled wreckage of oversized hoodies and crumpled silk. In the center of the debris, the Dragon Panther egg sat—a perfect, unmoving orb of obsidian shot through with veins of pulsing solar gold.
It didn't crack. It didn't shake. It simply existed, radiating a low frequency hum that made the floorboards vibrate.
Kaelan lay amidst the pillows, his body feeling as though it had been dismantled and put back together by an amateur. He was sore everywhere—his joints felt like rusted iron, and his skin was hypersensitive. His black panther ears were limply folded against his head, and his slit pupils were clouded with a level of exhaustion that transcended the mortal plane.
"I... I can't move," Kaelan croaked, his voice a dry rasp. "Ignis... if you don't bring me a gallon of water and a steak, I am going to haunt you while I'm still alive."
Ignis was already moving, his manic gold eyes bright with a mixture of relief and possessive pride. He had never looked more like a King—and more like a devoted nursemaid. He brought the water, he brought the food, and he moved with a quiet, obedient grace that almost made Kaelan forget how much he wanted to bite him.
However, the peace lasted exactly ten minutes.
Ignis reached into the nest, his large, scarred hands gently lifting the heavy, iridescent egg. He walked over to the mahogany bookshelf near the window, cleared away a stack of Kaelan's finance textbooks, and placed the egg on the shelf like a decorative vase.
Kaelan's head snapped up, his neck popping painfully.
"What... are you doing?" Kaelan hissed, his short temper reigniting like a pilot light. "Is that a child or a trophy? You can't just put it next to the encyclopedia! It's an egg, not a heavy office paperweight!"
"It needs the sunlight, Kaelan," Ignis explained calmly, though his smirk was visible. "The shelf is the highest point in the room. In the Solar Peaks, we place the royal clutch on the highest crag. It teaches the hatchling the height of its future domain."
"We are in an apartment in the city, not a crag!" Kaelan shrieked, then winced as the effort made his ribs ache. "Put it back in the nest! I spent three days of agony and deadly curses on those hoodies! I am not letting my... my 'greedy spark' sits there like a thrift store find!"
Ignis sighed, the King yielding to the Panther's furious maternal (or paternal) instinct. He moved the egg back, but Kaelan remained snapped, grumbling under his breath about "lizard interior design" and "unrefined parenting skills."
Meanwhile, downstairs in the service hallway, a different kind of obsession was unfolding.
The South Lord—who had completely forgotten his mission to incinerate Kaelan—was currently hovering three inches behind the pink haired stylist. The Lord, whose name was emri , was dressed in soot stained robes that looked entirely out of place next to the neon lights of the city.
The stylist, whose name was Miro, stopped abruptly and turned around, his spring sunset eyes flashing with pride. Miro wasn't just a human,he was a Witch Hybrid, a person of ancient blood and even higher standards.
"Look, ancient Breath," Miro snapped, flicking a stray lock of vibrant pink hair out of his face. "I told you. I have a client at four. Stop following me. You're scaring the locals and you smell like a campfire."
Emri didn't flinch. He was caught in the Dragon Strike, a soul bond that made him as obedient as a puppy and as stubborn as a mountain.
"Tell me," emri rumbled, his voice dropping into a deep, gravelly tone. "How many winters have you seen, Miro? You look... untouched by the rot of time."
"I'm twenty one," Miro said, crossing his arms. "And I'm a Witch. I can turn your teeth into marshmallows if you don't back off."
Balthazar's eyes widened. "Twenty one? I am but twenty seven in my human relative form. A perfect age. We are practically of the same generation."
"You look like you're a thousand years old and currently on fire," Miro muttered.
The South Lord spent the next six hours following Miro everywhere. He followed him into a high end boutique, where he was arrested for disturbing the peace after he tried to pay for a silk scarf with a handful of cursed gold coins. He was released ten minutes later after magically convincing the officers he was a confused cosplayer.
An hour later, he was arrested a second time for trying to clear a path for Miro by breathing a small puff of smoke at a group of slow walking tourists.
By the third arrest of the day—this time for trying to claim a Starbucks as Miro's temporary palace—the pink haired stylist was reaching his limit. He stood outside the police station, watching Balthazar walk out yet again, looking completely unfazed.
"Why?" Miro asked, his pride struggling against a weird, creeping sense of amusement. "Why are you doing this?"
"Because," emri aid, stepping into Miro's personal space, his eyes glowing with an ancient, possessive light. "You are the only thing in this grey world that is brighter than my fire. I have forgotten my mission. I have forgotten my King. I only remember... the pink."
Miro stared at him. He was a Witch-Hybrid, he knew a soul bond when he saw one. He sighed, a dramatic, jaded sound. "Fine. If you're going to be my shadow, you're going to have to change. You look like a chimney sweep. Follow me. We're going to my studio."
Back in the apartment, Kaelan had finally fallen into a shallow sleep, his hand resting on the smooth, warm surface of the iridescent egg. The egg gave a tiny, rhythmic pulse of light, matching Kaelan's heartbeat.
Ignis sat by the bed, watching them both. He knew the egg wouldn't hatch immediately—it was a hybrid, a creature that needed to soak in the love of the Panther and the power of the Dragon before it could face the world.
"Take your time, little spark," Ignis whispered, his eyes softened . "Your father has a lot of normal human things to learn before you arrive. And your mother... Well, he's still practicing his sharp tongue on me and I can't say it's bad either. "
Kaelan stirred in his sleep, mumbling something about oversized hoodies and stupid lizards, and Ignis just smiled, content to wait another eternity if it meant staying in this room…