Logan Castle Ch. 8

The next morning Rebecca woke up to the sound of whispering and quickly recognized Cora and Rose’s voices as well as Brian’s sister Rachel. Opening her eyes she could see them all standing by the doorway to the library.

“So do you think he told her or do you think she told him that she knew first?” Rachel asked.

“I don’t know, but whatever happened they seem to be getting along quite well,” Rose replied.

“I still can’t believe how accepting she of his true form, he’s certainly lucky,” Cora said.

Rebecca finally decided to let them know she was awake, “I’m in love with him,” she couldn’t help smiling when they all three jumped at the sound of her voice; “wouldn’t it be normal for me to accept him no matter what form he’s in?”

“Not really,” Brian replied as he unwrapped his wings and set her on the floor near the others who had come into the room, before becoming human himself.

“Most of the time when a human is willing to date or marry a dragon they still don’t feel comfortable with them unless they’re in human form,” Cora told her.

Brian came up behind Rebecca and wrapped his arms around her, “That’s just the way most humans are, any dragon who considers getting involved with a human knows that chances are if they end up marrying the human they’ll have to practically give up their true dragon form in order to be with the human they love. Then there are the incredibly rare gems like you, who are so completely accepting of my true form that it’s hard to believe,” he told her, gently kissing her neck and  wrapping his wings around her.

Rebecca quickly, but carefully to avoid making him have to loosen his wings much, turned to face him and smiled, “You can do part dragon and part human? Not just one or the other?”

“Yes, any combination you like,” he told her.

“The best of both worlds, I must be in heaven,” she said as she wrapped her arms around him.

“Well I could hardly deny you my wings, I know how addicted you are to them,” he said before kissing her.

When they stopped he asked, “So you like that better from a dragon or human?”

“I don’t know, I think it may take a lot more kissing in both forms to decide that,” she said then smiled, “Honestly though I don’t think there’s much difference, I’d kiss you no matter what your form,”

“Wait a minute; you kissed him when he was a dragon?” Rose asked.

“Yes, why?” Rebecca asked turning back to face her.

“You’re just such a contradiction to everything dragons are taught and what historical accounts say to expect if a dragon gets involved with a human. He wasn’t exaggerating when he said you were completely accepting of his true form, was he?” Rose asked.

Rachel got a mischievous grin on her face and said, “Now the question is just how accepting will she be once they’re married?”

“Rachel!” Rose exclaimed, while Rebecca turned a brilliant shade of red.

“What? It’s just a thought, I mean, like you said she’s a lot different than most humans have been throughout history,” Rachel replied then looked at Rebecca and asked, “So are you blushing because just talking about sex embarrasses you, or because you’re embarrassed to admit that you wouldn’t be quite that accepting or because you would?”

Rebecca was having a hard time even thinking of a response, none of those guesses were quite right and then Rachel grinned, “Or are you blushing because not only would you do it, you’ve already been thinking about it?”

Rebecca was quite certain that at that point her face couldn’t possibly get any redder or that the conversation could get any worse so she finally answered, “More like wondering if it was actually possible,” she admitted, unable to make eye contact with any of them.

“Oh it’s possible; you and Brian will have to figure out the details after your married though. A human being that accepting of a dragon’s true form is so rare that the details are unknown, even in the dragon version of the Kama Sutra,” Rachel told her.

“How do you even know that exists?” Rose exclaimed.

Rachel said, “I found it tucked behind the other books when I was dusting the library at grandma and grandpa’s house. Just because we can’t have sex until after we’re married doesn’t mean we can’t know what we’re doing when we do get married. When I found that book I decided that I fully intend to blow my future husbands mind on our wedding night. If you ever get a look at that particular copy though, ignore the hand written comments, some of them are-”

Cora quickly clamped a hand over Rachel’s mouth, “I’m sure they’ve heard quite enough dear,” she said then turned to Rebecca, “So Duff tells me you want to stay here at the castle?”

“Yes, I love it here, the age and history behind the place would be enough to make me want to stay, add to that the fact that it’s my own family’s history and that makes me want to stay even more. Then of course there’s Brian, I’m certainly not going to leave him, so I won’t be leaving Scotland and I already own this place so it makes sense to stay here,” Rebecca told her.

“It may not be that easy for you to stay in the castle,” Rose told her.

“Why not, Duff has given up on trying to scare me off, hasn’t he?” Rebecca asked.

“Yes, but humans were never to live in this castle again. Our family was simply left in charge of looking after the place when the last of the Logan clan left the area. We can’t actually choose whether or not to let you stay here,” Rose told her.

“We’ve already let the dragon council know about your willingness to live by the laws that governed the humans who were allowed to live here before and the fact you and Brian are dating may help. Ultimately though, it’s up to the council and the dragon branch Logan clan to decide whether to allow you to stay here. They’ll let you stay for now, but soon you’ll have to go before them and convince them to let you stay,” Cora explained.

Brian tightened his arms and wings around her reassuringly, “Even if they do decide not to let you stay in the castle you can always stay with my family, if you can put up with them. Then once we get married that makes you a member of our family, a guardian of the castle. Although you won’t be able to let any other humans know you’re living there and can’t make any changes to it, you’d be able to stay in the castle when ever and for however long you want to. I’ve been living here a lot of the time since I was nineteen. Now if you get permission from the council to live here, then you can do what you want with the castle as long as you stay within the rules that also applied to your inheriting it. You could even finishing getting the indoor plumbing installed, maybe even some electric lights.”

“Okay, either way would work for me, although getting a water heater put in here would be nice so I’ll have to do my best to convince the council to let me stay,” Rebecca said, then asked Rose, “If they won’t let me stay, would you really be okay with me stay with you until Brian and I get married?”

“Of course not, we have a guest room, although I have a feeling Brian will want to have you stay in his room,” she said smiling, “He seems rather reluctant to let you go.”

Brian smiled, “I’ve found the perfect woman, I have to hold onto her or I might wake up and find out she was just a wonderful dream. Anyways, she loves my wings being around her as much as I love having them around her. And of course she’ll be staying in my room.”

“Are you sure that’s alright?” Rebecca asked a little uncertainly.

“You’ve got to start trying to think like a dragon, the whole no sex outside of marriage thing means no one suspects anything improper if a couple shares or room or even bed before they’re married because they know nothing will happen. Anyways it’s not like we haven’t already been sleeping together the last few nights,” he said then added, “Well sleeping together in the most literal meaning of the words not the way that phrase has been twisted to mean anything but sleeping.”

“True, okay, so whatever happens I get to keep sleeping with your wings around me, that works for me. I really do hope the council will let me stay though, I want so much to clean up and restore this place,” Rebecca said.

“I’m sure you won’t have a problem convincing them to let you stay,” Rachel told her, “Now I think it’s time for breakfast and I mean a real breakfast, not that boring travel food you’ve got over there,” she said motioning towards a box of granola bars Rebecca had sitting next to her cooler, “Come on, it’s time for a real magic show,” with that she left the library and headed towards the dining room.

When they got into the dining room all of a sudden the dust and cobwebs disappeared, the dishes were clean and then large piles of pancakes and sausage appeared on five of the plates with pitchers of maple syrup next to them.

Rachel smiled, “Perfect.”

“Yes, much better than the beef stew,” Brain teased as he pulled a chair out for Rebecca.

“You’re never going to let me live that down, are you?” Rachel asked.

“Of course not,” he replied as he sat down next to Rebecca then told her, “When Rachel started getting her magical abilities she decided she wanted to make dinner for the whole family. She couldn’t just make the food appear in dishes we already had, she wanted to magically make the dishes and the food, but she forgot the bowls, so all of sudden we had large amounts of steaming hot beef stew appearing in front of us and then dropping onto the table and running off into everyone’s laps. It’s been nearly two years since that happened and we’re just starting to trust her not to burn us all with her food, for a long time as soon as we realized she was going to magically prepare the food we’d be getting as far away from the table as possible.”

“I don’t know if I should feel sorrier for you getting burned or for her because you’re still teasing her about it,” Rebecca said then asked, “So you don’t have magic when you’re younger?”

“No, we usually start getting magical abilities when we’re between sixteen and eighteen, usually closer to eighteen and sometimes older. It really all depends on when you’re mature and responsible enough to handle having magic. I’ve heard of dragons as young as ten, but very mature for their age gaining their magic, then there are some cases of dragons not getting their magic until they were in their late twenties. It’s all a matter of when God knows they’re ready to have that power. The ability to shift from dragon to human form though almost always happens at eighteen except in the case of an emergency when a younger dragon may need to shift to human form to avoid being noticed by humans. Other than that the parents control when younger dragons shift forms. Now we can discuss this more later because if we don’t you’re never going to eat,” Brian said.

Rebecca glanced down at her untouched food and smiled, “I can’t help it, I’ve been fascinated by dragons for most of my life, how could I not pay full attention now that I’m getting to learn the real facts?”

“You know the library is full of books about dragons that were actually written by dragons?” Brian asked.

“I didn’t know they were actually written by dragons, I did see them, but they’re all in Latin. I know Latin, but not well enough to read and translate those books very fast, I tried and I got through one page in about an hour,” Rebecca told him.

“I could always magically translate them to English for you,” Brian offered, then added, “But only if you start eating.”

“That would be wonderful,” Rebecca said as she finally poured the syrup onto her pancakes and started to eat.


- - - - - - - - - -

“So what do you want to do today?” Brian asked after the others had left.

“Well if the council decides not to let me stay I won’t be able to do anything to really clean up and restore the castle right?”

“Unfortunately yes, just a couple of rooms at the most,” Brian replied.

“What about before they make a decision?” Rebecca asked.

“Well no one has said there’s anything you can’t do,” Brian replied smiling.

“Then I want to clean this place up as much as possible while I can,” Rebecca told him.

“Alright, where do you want to start?” Brian asked.

“Let’s start with the kitchen; if I do get permission to live here I want to be able to cook some real food. Rachel is right, granola bars and sandwiches do get rather bland when you’re eating them every day for over a week. You have no idea how nice having dinner with your family was or Rachel’s pancakes were this morning,” Rebecca told him.

“Then we’ll get you a nice clean kitchen and have grandma come over to teach you how to cook in the old ovens and over the open fire. Until then I’m sure now that we’re officially dating my mom is going to be inviting you over all the time,” Brian told her.

“That sounds great,” Rebecca said as they grabbed her cleaning supplies and headed to the kitchen.

They spent the next several hours pulling all of the dishes out of the cupboards, cleaning them out, washing the dishes and putting them back. Dusting the cobwebs and dust from the ceiling to the floors, cleaning out the ovens, fireplaces and the big old pots that were used over the fire.

“I think that’s it, everything is clean,” Brian said as he hung the last pot from its hook in the fireplace.

“It certainly looks better, doesn’t it?” Rebecca said as she tossed a towel into a bag of used rags.

“Yes, it does. The council has to let you stay, you’d do so much good for this place,” Brian told her, “So more cleaning or are you ready for a break?”

“I guess I could use at least a short break,” Rebecca replied.

“How about we get outside, we could take a walk around the lake,” Brian suggested offering her his arm.

“That’ sounds nice,” Rebecca replied taking his arm, “it would probably be a good idea to get some fresh air after breathing all that dust.”

-

They walked around the lake until they were at the end that was completely hidden by the castle.

“It’s an awfully nice day, maybe we should just go swimming instead,” Brian suggested.

“That would be nice, get some of the dirt and dust off from cleaning, but it would mean running clear back into the castle to get my swimsuit,” Rebecca pointed out.

“No, you wouldn’t, I can do more than hot baths and bath towels,” he said then grinned evilly, “How about a string bikini?”

“Only if you have a death wish,” Rebecca replied.

“Okay, how about this,” he said.

All of a sudden Rebecca’s clothes were replaced by a modest one piece swimsuit with a skirt on it that went half way to her knees.

She smiled, “Okay this will do,”

“Yes, don’t think it matters whether it’s a perfectly modest swimsuit or something less modest, you’d look gorgeous in any swimsuit,” Brian told her.

“Thank you,” Rebecca said then froze when she looked up at Brian who was now wearing nothing but swim trunks, showing off his perfectly muscled body.

“Like the view?” Brian asked smiling.

“Yes, definitely,” Rebecca admitted blushing slightly, “So do you choose what you look like when you’re in human form?”

“No, I assume it’s simply what I would have looked like if I had been born human. Dragons can change their human appearance, but only for a little while. We can stay in our human forms or even part human and part dragon form for weeks without it affecting our magical abilities, but if the human appearance is altered we can maintain it for about an hour before it’s used too much magical energy to keep it up,” he told her.

“Well I think you’re almost perfect just the way you are now,” Rebecca told him.

“Only almost perfect?” Brian asked.

Rebecca smiled as she wrapped her arms around his neck, “If you were human you’d be perfect, but since you’re not, you’d have to have wings to be perfect,”

Brian smiled, “You really are addicted to my wings, aren’t you?”

“I think so,” Rebecca replied smiling as Brian’s wings appeared and wrapped around her, a chill of pleasure running down her spine as the warm leathery skin wrapped around her bare shoulders. Then reluctantly she asked, “Are you sure this is a good idea, looking like this outside?”

“No one ever comes out here, we should be fine,” he told her then swept her up into his arms and with a few flaps of his wings had them out over the lake then his wings suddenly disappeared, dropping them both into the water.

They swam for nearly an hour until Rebecca said, “Maybe we should head back inside, with all this swimming I’m going to be too tired to get any more work done.”

“Or maybe we should just take a break from the swimming,” Brian said disappearing under the water. When he resurfaced he was in his dragon form, floating on his back, his tail curled around Rebecca’s waist and lifted her out of the water then set her on his chest.

Rebecca trailed her fingers along his tail as he slowly unwrapped it from her waist until her hands came to the bone like club at the end which had four narrow ridges that curved in to form a dull point.

“Is this for beating your enemies with?” she asked jokingly.

“That or stabbing them and usually it’s not really enemies, just any guys my sisters bring home that I don’t like,” Brian replied.

“Stabbing? You must be able to get a lot of force going behind it, this thing is as dull as a river rock,” Rebecca said running her hand over it.

“Looks can be deceiving,” Brian said as he shifted his tail enough that the tip was a little farther away from Rebecca then the four ridges suddenly snapped open, each one forming a sharply pointed spike with a fifth slightly shorter spike at the center.

“I guess you’re right,” Rebecca said, “I’ve got to admit that’s pretty impressive.”

“It’s also annoyingly useful,” Brian said as he snapped it back shut.

“How so?” Rebecca asked.

“Well, my mom just has spikes of her tail, sort of like a stegosaurus and all of my siblings inherited her tail spikes. I inherited my tail from my dad and grandmother, when ever my mom is working on a sewing project or anything that she needed a string cut and didn’t have her scissors and dad wasn’t around I got to be her scissors,” Brian told her then smiled, “It’s also pretty useful as a spear for catching fish, dad says he regrets teaching me to fish because I always catch more than he does, but neither one of us can come close to how many grandma can catch. She does say I’m almost as good as she is at cooking them though.”

“You’ll have to make me dinner sometime then, I love fish,” Rebecca told him.

I’d love to, we’ll make a day of it, we have a few extra fishing poles that my mom and siblings use that you could borrow and we can spend a day fishing and then I’ll make you dinner,” he told her.

“That sounds like a wonderful idea,” she said as she lay down on his chest, letting the sun start to warm her, “It’s no wonder humans don’t think dragons exist, your family seems so human that I don’t think anyone would ever suspect you weren’t human, you’re certainly not quite what I would have expected,”

“What did you expect, that we’d be hiding in damp, musty old caves?” Brian asked.

“Well not damp, musty caves, but yes, living in hiding in caves, deep underground away from any chance of being seen by humans, but set up more like a home than just a plain bare rock cave,” Rebecca replied.

“Then you’re not too far off, there are some dragons who do live in caves so they don’t have to spend most of their time pretending to be human. Others like my family spend enough time in human form to own property and live among humans without being noticed,” he smiled, “But we do have a cave too, where we can go to just be our selves. Every winter we tell everyone we know we’re going on some long vacation, the truth is we’re just taking a vacation from pretending to be human and spend that time in our cave,”

“You don’t go crazy being cooped up in a cave for that long?” Rebecca asked.

“It’s not exactly a small cave, it’s an ancient cave that has continually been added onto since before the castle was built. It probably goes at least several miles down and has so many tunnels and rooms that it would probably be impossible to get around in without getting lost without the use of magic to point in the direction of where you want to go. There’s also a room that was started about four hundred years ago and took about a hundred years to complete that, if we make our selves a little smaller we can fly around in comfortably,” he told her.

“That must be nice, I think it would drive me crazy to have wings and not be able to fly,” Rebecca said.

“We do get to fly sometimes, when it’s cloudy enough for us to stay hidden above the clouds or at night if the moon isn’t too bright, then if humans did see us it would be so briefly that they shouldn’t even be sure of what they saw and we’ve never heard of anyone reporting seeing a dragon,” Brian told her.

“How do you get up above the clouds without binging seen during the day?” Rebecca asked.

“We take off from somewhere like this, out in the country where there aren't any people around. O r if we're in a more residential area, we can also shrink down to about the size of a large house cat, small enough to not be noticed from a distance and just big enough to make it above the clouds without exhausting ourselves,” he told her.

They floated like, just relaxing and talking for a while until Brian suddenly lifted his head for a second, “So much for no one ever coming around here, I’ll see you later,” he said then sank beneath the water and disappeared.

Rebecca started to swim towards the shore then notice Katherine walk around the corner of the castle wall.

“I was beginning to wonder if the ghosts had scared you off, it’s been a while since I last heard from you,” Katherine said as she walked over to her.

“I’m sorry about not coming to visit, I just got so busy around the castle that I haven’t really had time to think about much else,” Rebecca replied.

“What about the ghosts? Are they still causing you trouble?” she asked.

“Not as much, I’ve actually been able to sleep the last few nights. I think they’re finally giving up,” Rebecca replied.

“Amazing, you’ve managed to stay in the castle longer than anyone has before from what I was told and from the sounds of it may just be able to stay permanently, I’m impressed,” Katherine told her.

“I’m probably just too stubborn for my own good,” Rebecca replied, “Will you come in and see the castle now that the ghosts aren’t so active?”

“Sure, I guess I could, if you’re sure the ghosts won’t come after me,” Katherine said.

“Don’t worry, they only try to scare people off at night,” Rebecca told her as they headed around to the castle entrance.

Once they got inside Rebecca showed Katherine to the library, grabbed a change of clothes and went to quickly get dressed. When she got back Katherine was looking at the books.

“So many of these books have pictures of dragons on the covers, do you think they’re all about dragons? Is it possible there are actually that many books that are this old about dragons?” Katharine asked.

“Back then people did believe dragons were real, so it’s possible they’re all about dragons. I know several of the ones I’ve looked at are,” Rebecca told her.

“How do you know?” Katherine asked.

“I know Latin, at least well enough to get a good idea of what the titles are and what’s in them,” Rebecca told her then changing the subject said, “Come on, I’ve got to give you a proper tour of this place.”

Rebecca showed her around the castle, then when they got to the huge ball room Katharine asked, “Why do you think the doors onto the balcony are so tall?”

“If they were open they would have let in a lot of light, maybe it was so they wouldn’t have to use as many candles to light the ballroom,” Rebecca suggested.

“Do you have any idea how boring you are?” Katharine asked.

“Why?”

“Look at this place, who ever lived here was obsessed with dragons, unless the stories are true and the builders were dragons. Couldn’t you just see someone having an extravagant ball, this is big enough to fit hundreds if not thousands of people into. Maybe it isn't so big so you could fit a bunch of people in, but so dragons could fit in too and those big doors are how they got in,” Katharine said.

“That could be too,” Rebecca replied before leading Katharine out of the room before she would have a chance to notice the names on the pictures.

After finishing the tour of the castle and visiting for a little while longer Katharine headed home and Rebecca decided to start cleaning the grand ballroom.