Chapter 2110: A Full Bed

As soon as the meeting was over, Karl was right to work, making the Villa Stones for the Elves’ shipment. They didn’t take long to make, now that he had the practice, but they wanted hundreds of them, and they were an item that he couldn’t spread the workload across a large team for.

And since he couldn’t share the workload, it was best to get it done right away, so that he had his nights free for leisure activities.

It was well after midnight when he finished the order for the Elves, and Karl returned to his room only to find his bed fully occupied. There was Dana, and Tian, and Cara, and Skadi. But there were also all of Thor’s children lined up at the foot of the bed under a single blanket snoring happily.

He was going to have to find another spot to sleep.

Karl had just walked back out of the bedroom when he caught Cara’s eye flick open, letting him know the badger was fully aware of the situation, and had likely managed to manipulate it somehow.

For what end, he did not know.

"You can come join us on the pillows?" Karl heard a gentle voice announce in a questioning tone.

It was one of the hatchlings, whose name Karl didn’t know, but the fact that they were here in the Tiny World’s house instead of the nest seemed odd. Unless they were studying at the Library and wore themselves out.

That was a distinct possibility.

"Sure, let’s go have a nap."

"Can you do it in cat form? It looks really warm, like a fur blanket."

Karl chuckled as he transformed, and then followed the little dragon into the room at the end of the hall, where pillows had been set out, and dozens of little dragons were sleeping.

Or, pretending to sleep, because they were all up the moment he entered the room.

"Lay down and sleep, I’m joining the pile today."

That caused an immediate rearrangement of bodies, and Karl realized that there were more than dragons in here. Lotus and Tifa were also in the pile of bodies, but they had been mostly covered in adolescent dragons until a second ago.

The commotion woke the Priestess turned Beast Master, who opened one eye, then sleepily pulled the Spirit Bear into her arms and slipped right back into slumber.

Lotus could sleep anywhere, anytime. If she had something furry to cuddle.

Karl woke in the morning covered in dragons, with Nachtia poking at his foot with the toe of her boot.

"You want to get up and give back the little ones? They are pretending to be asleep so that they can spend more time in here with you," the black dragon complained.

Reluctantly, Karl sat up, sending Yewan rolling to the side, where the older dragon was waiting to catch him.

"Now that you’re not pretending to sleep and clinging to Karl, it’s time for your morning training, and then breakfast. Say goodbye to all your friends."

Yewan sighed as Nachtia lectured him. "{ Karl, help me. I swear, she’s trying to teach me about our deity by working me to death before breakfast. I bet she’s not even going to offer me meat unless I beg. }"

Karl made a dramatic gasp. "No meat? How inhumane. I can definitely get the breakfast menu altered to include lots of meat for you."

For a second Yewan looked pleased, and then realized that Karl had missed the important part.

"{ No! You have to help with the working me to death part! }"

Karl smiled and patted the little dragon. "No worries, my friend, she won’t work you to death in the next hour before breakfast is ready. You just need to get through your lessons, and then come join the rest of us over by the lake."

Yewan nodded sadly, and let Nachtia lead him away for morning training.

You couldn’t win every battle, he had learned that long ago. But he had hoped to win this one and not start his day until after breakfast.

Instead, he was being shipped off to study holy texts that he had been avoiding, and he was certain that Nachtia wasn’t going to let him escape until he memorized them. She was a stickler for the rules, and the last Avatar of the Black Dragon that was here had left her a detailed training schedule for young black dragons that seemed entirely too intensive to Yewan.

Perhaps it was a translation error, and they had meant to set schedules for every year, not every month?

Because she was making him learn new things every single day, and then even reviewing them with tests. It was cruel and unusual punishment was what it was.

There were rules against that, he had been forced to memorize them.

But somehow, she still insisted that what she was doing did not qualify, and that he would be punished with more work if he dared to slack off and skip his training.

Karl laughed at the little dragon’s stream of complaints as he was carried away, then joined the other little ones as they headed off to help with breakfast. Which mostly meant that the Orphanage Matrons would meet them there, and assign them tasks for the morning while the cooks worked and tried not to step on any tails.

That was where Karl found Tessa and Thor, who had their little ones back, though Dana and Skadi were still asleep.

Tian and Cara had gotten up early, because Cara wanted to go swimming, and Tian wanted the Elves to brush his tail before they started breakfast. They were really good at it.

"Why do I get the feeling that you all are conspiring to keep me from sleeping in my own bed?" Karl asked as Cara walked up to him with a cupcake.

"Because we are, naturally. But it’s for a good cause. You don’t need to worry too much about it, you’ll get a proper night’s sleep very soon. Just not too soon."

That was unnecessarily cryptic.