Honey Drops Side Stories - 1. Chapter 1

Shifting upon his pillow, Brader ran a long, pale finger around the edge of his tea cup, watching the way the tea rippled in the cup. His silvery white scales shimmered like a rainbow as he curled his tail around him a bit tighter. Looking up, hearing the very familiar humming of his roommate along with the soft rasp of scales on smooth stone coming up to the room, the albino naga placed his cup to the side.

Smiling as a green head popped through the door, Brader uncurled and slid into an upright position.

“Damerious, how was work?” he asked, voice husky and smooth, watching the lean body move into his study, the green naga smiling shyly. His friend wore a simple black khaki wrap and a shirt with sleeves falling past his fingers.

“It was work. Three more hibernation chambers were found and the people within freed,” he replied, slithering over to slid into a low chair. Pushing a bit of hair back, the smaller male took in the others posture. “How was training today?” Brader shook his head with a smile and a snort.

“New recruits today. They’re still not able to combine their instinct with their knowledge, even after a year of training,” the albino stated, pouring tea into a small cup and handing it to his guest. Damerious smiled and nodded to his friend.

“But you’ll be able to help them right?” he asked, sipping his tea, humming at the slight cinnamon taste.

“Of course, I always do. I may have to take them out on a training trip before we’re done though.”

“Oh? Would that be soon?” the green naga asked, wrapping his hands around the tea cup.

“In a few months,” Brader replied, finishing his now cool tea before pouring a fresh cup, wincing lightly at the heat. Damerious hummed and watched his friend closely, gold eyes darkening in worry. The other was usually much more vocal then he was at the moment, making Damerious worry since he knew that it meant that something had happened to make the albino naga remember his past.

“Who asked you a stupid question?”

“What do you meant, Damerious?” Brader asked in return, trying to dodge the question. He knew very well that the other wouldn’t let it go but that didn’t mean he couldn’t make it harder for the other.

“You know very well what I am talking about. Warrior or not, I can still torment you,” the green naga threatened, eyes pinning the other into his seat.

“How?” Brader asked warily.

“Grilled rats for dinner, for a month or until you tell me what I want to know,” was the cool reply, making him moan at that.

“Don’t be so mean,” Brader pouted, getting a tiny smile from his friend.

“Well then, tell me what has made you so moody,” Damerious replied, settling back into the chair. The white naga huffed and eyed the lean form of the other male.

“They asked me why I was a warrior instead of a breeder at the temple house,” Brader said, stirring his tea slowly.

“Oh,” Damerious breathed, placing his cup aside. He knew that the other nagas past wasn’t really all that nice. Or so he had gathered from all of the years he had know the other.

“I told them that I was the best for training them and not being some stud for those with money. After all, I may be an albino but my parents weren’t,” Brader said, waving a hand before he sipped some more tea. “Means I’m not exactly the most wanted one around.”

“Our society and culture at its best,” Damerious snorted, shaking his head.

“Yeah, right,” Brader replied, settling into a chair finally. Damerious had a feeling that Brader was to lost in his thoughts to really catch just what he was saying. But he also knew the other well enough to know that no matter what, Brader knew what he was saying.

“Brader,” Damerious started, his voice low and soft.

“No, I want to talk to you. We’ve known each other since we were children, barely wiggling,” Brader interrupted, getting out of his chair and moving towards the fire. Placing a fresh log on the embers, he watched as the fire flared up once more.

“Yes, but then you disappeared without a word, Brader,” Damerious replied.

“That is true,” Brader sighed, coiling onto a pillow, relaxing into the softness. “But I still want to tell you what happened during that time.”

“You don’t have to,” Damerious said softly, moving over to his friend. Pulling a pillow close to the other pillow, he settled onto it and brushed a bit of silver white hair out of the albinos face. “I know that it is hard for you to think about, much less speak about it.” Smiling, the white naga took the others hand and stroked over it, playing with the light dusting of scale look a likes that sat over the back of Damerious hand. Trailing his fingers over the V that they created, he hummed at the softness, knowing that the marks were the sign of his friends status.

“It wasn’t so bad really. Just sadder then I had hoped for my childhood,” he said slowly, looking up at his friend with sad eyes. “After I left, I went to live with an uncle. Mind you, this was about the time that my adult scales were coming through. My mother had long left me and my father, so I barely knew her, or even remembered her.”

“Why did she leave?” the green snake asked, leaning against Brader, watching the tips of their tails curl around each other and letting his friend play with his hands as much as the albino wanted to.

“The marriage was arranged for them by their parents. My mothers’ family is a high class warrior and protector family while my fathers is a royal guardian family. We’re trained in how to fight and protect the royals and nobles from the moment we’re able to hold a weapon. It was mostly a political marriage, either way you look at it,” Brader explained, smirking lightly. Damerious soaked up the information, not having known exactly who Braders family had been or their social status, and was rather surprised at it.

“I see,” he finally hummed. Brader reached around his friend and grabbed his tea cup before taking a sip of the now luke warm tea. Wrinkling his nose, he settled back onto his pillow and started talking again.

“She left the year I started training, heading for another area. She never wanted to be a mother, but was expected to have an heir. Well, she had me, waited for my 3ed birthday and left,” Brader sighed, watching Damerious lean against him with a sigh. “When I turned 9, my adult scales started to come through and my father knew I would end up an albino. So he sent me to outside of the main royal control to my uncle.”

“I never really knew you had an uncle until you said something about him,” Damerious broke in, playing with a bit of Braders hair, pulling it free from the loose bun that held most of it back. Laughing, Brader watched slim fingers twist the bit around them.

“Yeah, neither did I until I met him. My dad drugged me and sent me off after your birthday. I lived about four miles from the south border from that day,” Brader hummed, returning the favor and pulling a loose strand of green hair out to play with. “During that time, I learned that my uncle hadn’t wanted to marry my mother so had left, leaving my father to marry her instead. He was a rather cold man, far from someone a child should have grown up around.

“My days were filled with farming and training to eventually come back and take my place. Since I was just outside of the royals control I didn’t have to go to the temple and become a glorified stud for more albino nagas. Especially since I wasn’t likely to create a child that has my coloring due to the fact that I’m a first generation albino,” Brader snorted, shaking his head at the thoughts.

“So you got out of being forced to join the temple just because you were outside of the borders…” Damerious trailed off, looking up at his friend with wide eyes.

“And because trying to take me would be viewed as them wanting to start a war,” the elder said, putting his now cold tea to the side. “My uncle wasn’t happy when they tried to convince him to hand me over. Told them flat out that I was a son of a high protector and he was not allowing me to lose my place to become a glorified whore for the capital. He reminded me of the stories of how humans used to act.”

“You mean before the worlds took over Earth and set it back on a path of healing but enslaving the natives, right?” Damerious teased, pulling away from his friend and sliding over to the kettle. Dumping the old pot of tea, he started a fresh pot of it, smiling over his shoulder.

“Yes, quite,” Brader drawled, watching the way his friend moved. “As I said, it wasn’t painful, just not something that a child should go through before they know or at least understand what was going on. I had not idea what was going on so I was quite lost. After that, once I was old enough and had been trained, I came back here, took over my fathers position in teaching and ran into you soon after.”

“Quite literally to,” the other naga smirked as the kettle whistled shrilly.

“Not my fault I was behind a stack of papers and your nose was buried in a ‘pad,” Brader snorted, watching as Damerious made the fresh tea.

“I never did get that ‘pad fixed,” he said, pouting as he poured the fresh tea into their cups after dumping them out.

“And I bought you a new one to replace it,” the white snake snorted. The green naga stuck his tongue out at the other before once more sitting on his pillow once more.

“That doesn’t mean I haven’t mourned the loss of it,” Damerious replied, gazing at his friend with a huff. Pouting, Brader settled back onto his pillow and returned the gaze. He knew that there would be more idiots when it came to his coloring and that they would try so hard to make him join the temple but he also knew that they would never succeed.

After all, with Damerious by his side, people were scared to approach him. He may be small, but the green naga was quite deadly after all.