First Demonic Dragon

A great bird wrapped in golden flame; plummeting from the sky before it inevitably hit the ground.

A great beast made of seemingly indestructible plates was pulled to the earth, and the hide it prided itself for was stripped from his very flesh.

Their screams.

So visceral that they were almost tangible. So heartbreaking that they brought rivers to one's eyes.

And yet, they had an echo to them that reverberated around in one's skull.

Like they were coming from somewhere faraway. Perhaps another world.

Or more accurately... the future.

-

Yemaya and Yemaja awoke with a start at exactly the same moment.

And their bedroom was... much more packed than it was just a couple of moments ago.

Over thirty people live in the Tathamet manor at any given time, and all thirty had jammed themselves into the twins' bedroom when they heard them scream.

Even little Courtney, who is still relatively powerless, came running down the hall at the first sign of trouble.

The rooms in the house were soundproof to keep everyone's nightly-activities as private as possible.

So for the entire house to hear it, the twins had to have screamed not from their bodies, but from their very souls.

Needless to say, they were quite embarrassed.

"Wow…. I'm surprised you all didn't bring the fur babies in here too." Yemaja joked.

There was a series of taps against the bedroom window.

The twins glanced over their shoulder and found the four adorable little monstrosities with their faces smushed against the glass.

"Okay, now this all seems serious... Any chance you're trying to talk to me about my car's extended warranty?"

No one laughed. Not even a little bit.

"You don't even have a car." Courtney frowned.

"Yes I do. Mom made a couple for me." Yemaja smiled.

Everyone looked at Valerie with a sort of 'No you didn't' look.

"…You made automobiles for a dragon with working wings?" Helios asked.

"And a goddess who can teleport..?" Kirina reminded.

"S-She said she liked the design of a few of them." Valerie shrugged.

Everyone suddenly thought that Val may have had a higher problem with spoiling their children than Abaddon did.

Ignoring her overly doting maternal instincts, everyone turned their attention back to the twin sisters who were the reason for this spontaneous get-to-gether.

"Since when did you start having visions, sweet girl?" Lailah asked with a measure of concern.

Yemaya scratched her cheek in embarrassment. "Right about the time we got these fashionable new additions in our heads." She pointed to her third eye.

"Usually we just see flashes of lottery numbers, small accidents, and times where people get caught cheating on their partners... Shelly's in for some real shit when she gets off work early tomorrow."

Again, no one was laughing, but they were slightly relieved that the twins did not appear to be hurt in any way.

"Sorry to wake you, everyone..." Yemaya lowered her head.

Almost instantly, she was pelted with dismissal after dismissal from every adult and child in the room.

Rhea: "Think nothing of it, dear. We're just glad that you're alright."

Lusamine: "You don't have to apologize for anything. Family takes care of family, right?"

Bashenga: "…I'll thank you not to worry me again… but I suppose that it is fortuitous that no harm has befallen you two."

After seeing that the twins were alright, everyone slowly trickled out of Yemaja's room.

The last ones to leave where the grandparents, but the girls' actual parents still stayed behind.

Abaddon climbed into bed with the girls and sat between them; almost like he did when they were younger.

Though there was a small difference.

"Dad.. Are you resting alright? You've got bags under your eyes." Yemaya asked.

The twins' mothers glanced amongst each other. Something that did not escape their notice.

"I'm fine, little miss. I may be staying up a bit later than usual, but that's nothing that you need to be concerned about. I'm supposed to be the parent here, remember?"

Abaddon smiled like normal in that moment, but the twins couldn't help but feel like there was maybe something underlying with their father.

For a moment, they could have sworn that they saw an unreadable emotion on his face… but it disappeared long before they could muster the courage to ask him about it.

"Now, what's this vision you girls had? I doubt it's the results of the game this Saturday."

"It's not… and you and Jasmine are not going to like the final score by the way."

"Fuck."

Yemaya gripped her covers and took a deep breath.

"My vision… it was about the other two back on earth."

"Oh..?"

Sif was the only one who was confused about what exactly her daughter could've meant by 'other two'.

"Mind filling in the only non-dragon in the room?" She raised her hand.

Her lovers shook their heads and chuckled.

The title of primordial beast does not only belong to Abaddon's former fragments.

There are many such creatures among the various pantheons who hold that designation. All of them requiring the combined efforts of multiple gods to put down or seal.

They can be anarchists, but most have a grander role that they are fated to play in the creator's grand plan.

The Judeo-Christian beasts of the land, sea, and air are such a denomination.

Upon the arrival of the EndWar, they are supposed to be eaten by righteous souls as a reward for their diligence.

Yemaya actually knows Ziz, the golden phoenix, and Behemoth, the undisputed King of Beasts.

Though the last time she actually saw them was somewhere around the time that mankind first started playing with fire.

But the last time she actually heard them try to speak to her was somewhere around the Bronze Age. They had briefly awoken her to complain about the smell.

The three were a relatively close-knit group. Even when one took into account that they barely talked.

For Yemaya to suddenly have a vision of the future, and their demise at that, it was no wonder why she had produced such a volatile reaction within her.

And Yemaja had been equally affected due to her close association with her twin sister.

"Those two may be a bit mouthy, but they are good people and my oldest friends… They don't deserve to die like that."

"Did either of you see the culprit..?" Audrina asked.

Yemaya and Yemaja shook their heads.

But having denied that, they still felt as though they might've had a fairly decent idea as to what or who would've tried to do such a thing on earth.

The night passed by slowly for the girls after their parents had left the room too.

Yemaja and Yemaya didn't need to say anything to each other for them to both know that they were thinking the same thing.

The very next morning, the usually habitual late sleepers turned into early risers.

They carried themselves out of their bedroom and out of their wing; coincidentally passing Courtney who was in the process of getting ready to leave for school.

Together, the girls made their way up to their parents' wing while rehearsing everything that they wanted to say.

Yemaya was extremely detail oriented. She created an entire script for them to follow in the span of five minutes.

It was foolproof! Genius! A work of thematic brilliance!

As long as they stuck to their plan, there was no way that they couldn't convince their father to-

"Moms, Dad, we want to go on a mission!" Yemaja kicked open her parents' bedroom door and exclaimed loudly at the top of her lungs.

'You bitch, that's not the plan!!' All of Yemaya's planning. All of the projected academy awards she could have won. It was all down the drain from this point forward.

Abaddon was lounging in bed drinking something warm from a mug while he fed Bekka grapes like she was a big happy gerbil.

Lailah was rubbing Lillian's feet under the guise of preventing aches in pregnancy. All the rest of the wives were still asleep.

Aside from the end of the world or an attack on their family, the Tathamets can sleep through just about anything.

"I'm sorry… Come again please?" Abaddon blinked.

"W-We-"

"We want you to send us to earth so that we can go and save Behemoth and Ziz before it's too late!" Yemaja finished.

"Y-Yea, that." Yemaya nodded in agreement.

Abaddon sighed deeply in exhaustion as he dispersed his #1 Dragon-Dad mug.

"Girls… I'm sorry, but I can't do that for you. I, and anyone from Tehom is still barred from entering earth. Yesh will not so easily drop the barrier either."

"B-But maybe you could talk to him though..!" Yemaya reasoned. "O-Or atleast convince him that my friends don't have to die?"

Abaddon looked slightly embarrassed. "That… may be a hard sell at the moment. Our relationship is… strained."

Both of the girls were completely blindsided. They had come here fully expecting for their father to say yes.

He hardly ever told his children no. Not unless one of them asked if they could start dating.

This was like a gut punch.

Yemaya: "B-But if we don't try to do something, then they'll…"

Yemaja: "We can't let that happen."

The room was dead quiet as Abaddon's face remained obscured behind his hair.

Finally, Lailah decided to break the silence as the voice of reason for the group.

"Girls, why don't you give us a moment..? We need to talk to your father."