Night of the Demented Symbiots

Chapter 1

Chapter One

“Trelon!” Cara called out in exasperation from the small office she had set up on the other side of the kitchen. “Have you seen my new tool cloner? I know I put it in my bag this morning.”

“I haven’t seen it,” Trelon replied as he carefully juggled the items in his arms and tried not to drop the small truck that was precariously balanced on top of the pile of mangled dolls, misshapen stuffed animals, pink shorts and shoes, and a dozen other articles that he had collected so far.

The triumphant grin starting to curve his lips died when he stepped on the small, square, plastic building block that Cara had insisted was a fun learning toy for the twins. Pain shot through his bare foot and up his leg, causing a loud curse to explode from his lips when he lost his balance. A cascade of tumbling toys and clothes fell around him as he hopped around on one foot.

With a grunt, Trelon sat down on the floor and rubbed his offended heel with a tired sigh. His gaze swept over the cluttered living room. The toys he had picked up were once again strewn all over the floor. From this vantage point, he could see even more blocks and the sock he had been searching for earlier under the couch.

He released his foot and rolled onto his stomach to scoop the miscellaneous objects out from under the couch. Never in his life would he have imagined that he, a mighty Dragon Lord, would end up on the floor gathering up a missing pink sock and a pile of toys from under the couch in his once immaculate living quarters.

In all honesty, he would not trade his life now for all the riches in the universe. As far as he was concerned, he was the luckiest warrior alive. Well, almost the luckiest, he thought when the pain in his heel reminded him of the small blocks the girls loved to leave lying around. He grimaced when he felt his dragon chortle in delight and suddenly perk up. A silent chuckle shook Trelon’s shoulders.

You are just as bad as the girls. You know that, don’t you? He grimaced.

You like, too, his dragon growled back.

Where are they? Trelon asked, stilling all movement while he listened.

In the background, he could hear Cara grumbling under her breath that she knew she had replaced the cloner in her tool bag earlier. He focused, trying to pinpoint any unusual sound. The girls were getting better, he thought with pride. He slowly raised his head, trying to catch a glimpse of them.

Up! His dragon urged.

Trelon jerked his head up just as Amber tumbled toward him from over the back of the couch. Before she could roll off the front of it, he rose up on his knees with a deep, husky laugh and opened his arms to catch her. His arms wrapped around Amber at the same time as he felt Jade sliding her arms around his neck.

“We got you’s, Daddy!” Jade giggled in his right ear.

“Hi, Daddy,” Amber laughed, staring up at him with bright, golden eyes.

Trelon’s gaze lit up with delight. He would never, ever get tired of seeing the glowing faces of his daughters. His eyes lifted when he saw a movement on the other side of the couch. His gaze locked on Cara’s face, flushed from her frantic search. She was staring at him with an expression that he greedily held onto – love. The warmth of it surrounded him, causing everything else to fade for a moment.

“Have you girls seen my new cloner?” Cara asked with a raised eyebrow, pulling her gaze away from Trelon to stare down at Amber.

“Mommy, you’s looking at Daddy funny again,” Jade answered.

Cara placed her hands on her hips and shook her head. “You’re, sweetheart – You’re looking at Daddy funny again is the correct way to say it and I always look at your daddy funny. That’s because I love him,” Cara stated with a grin. “So, what did the two of you build today?”

Jade rested her chin on Trelon’s shoulder and brightly smiled. “Amber wanted to see’s – see – how the robot worked. We put its back together when we’s were done with it,” she said with a mischievous expression.

“Yeah, we’s had funs playing with them,” Amber said with a happy nod.

“Them?” Trelon repeated, interrupting Cara when she started to correct Amber. His eyes widened in alarm. “Where is the robot?”

“In Mommy’s big working room,” Amber replied in confusion. “We’s put it on the charger likes you told us.”

“What’s wrong?” Cara asked as he awkwardly pushed up off the floor and to his feet.

Trelon knew his face looked grim. Well, not exactly grim – more like resigned. It didn’t help that his dragon had broken down into a fit of laughter and was rolling around inside him like a lopsided ball.

“I only built one robot,” he muttered, holding Amber on his left hip while his right hand reached around to steady Jade, who was still clinging to his back.

“Uh-oh,” Cara whispered, her eyes widening as his words sank in.

‘Uh-oh’ was right, Trelon thought with a combination of amusement and resignation. The girls had received a double dose of creativity when it came to their love of tinkering and building things. It was really was his own fault. He should have known they would disassemble the robot he had given them earlier this morning in an effort to figure out how it worked. They did that with all of their toys. He just hadn’t expected them to do it so quickly. A part of him couldn’t resist seeing what their minds came up with next; while the other part cringed knowing this was just the beginning.

He was almost to the kitchen when he heard a knock on the entrance door. He turned, throwing Cara an exasperated look, then winced when the sound of a muted crash echoed from Cara’s larger workroom.

“I’ve got this. You go see what the girls built,” Cara said, tossing her head toward the back room. “Don’t destroy it, though! I want to see it too!” She hastily called out, heading for the door.

“They’s just little robots now, Mommy,” Amber said, peeking over Trelon’s shoulder.

“Yeah, and they’s gots lots….” Jade’s voice faded and her eyes grew larger when another loud crash came from the workroom. “Uh-oh,” she whispered. “I’s thinks we should have turned them off.”

Trelon’s shoulders shook with mirth. The expression on the girls’ faces was priceless. Their large, golden eyes were filled with wonder and excitement – and a dash of trepidation – their cheeks were rosy, and their small mouths mirrored each other with an ‘O’ shape.

He carefully lowered Jade to the floor and watched with pride as she shifted into her dragon form. A moment later, Amber’s red dragon scurried after Jade’s pink one. He vaguely wondered if he should shift as well when Symba, his symbiot, flashed by him, closely followed by the two smaller symbiots belonging to Amber and Jade, almost knocking him over. It was his second, third, and fourth warning that he was going to be in trouble.