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You should never leave your clothing unantended when you have someone like Indrys with you.~~

License to (Un)Kilt by

~

One would be hard pressed to determine which need was greater: the thirst of the herd, or the need that the four herd-handlers had expressed repeatedly for the whole of the sweltering afternoon.

The quartet of dragonfolk, half of whom were a pair of red-scaled twins named Indrys and Vygo, had been ordered to take the clan's assemblage of horses to a well-known lake. It was always used when the domesticated beasts needed to be watered. But, left to their own devices, both an unattended herd would have ambled their way there, and so too would the young dragonfolk, if only to cool off.

Of the two - draconic youngsters and cattle - it was the half scaled, half human skinned individuals who were likely to take a refreshing dip in the slightly rippling expanse of cool, fresh water. The way the oppressive and overly bright of the summer's day made the meagre waves of the massive steppe-borne lake sparkle and shimmer was all the more inviting.

Nevertheless, it was only Vygo who was bold enough to actually disrobe and swim.

It was not that disrobing was any great courageous act, though. Dragonfolk, perhaps with the male anatomy so naturally concealed, and possibly all the more due to their wild and free-spirited nature, had very little qualms with their own personal nudity and the bareness of others around them. No, it was merely that the four of them were in the midst of an assigned task, which typically brooked no quarter in terms of personal time.

Vygo's argument was elegant in its simplicity. He reasoned that he could swim for as long as it took for the simple-minded animals to all have their fill of the lake's thirst-quenching reserves. He knew as well as they all did that even though the herd was in not-quite-dire-but-still-pronounced need of water, the group of equines would take their sweet time actually finishing. Sure, most would drink immediately, but some would annoyingly hang back and do what amounted to socializing with others, then the first set of drinkers would tromp away while others moved in, even though any dragon watching would know they'd be back for more in time after their own round of socializing.

Only Indy attempted to dissuade her brother, as it so often seemed that only she could even attempt to talk sense into him. It was said that he only had an ear for her, even if it was not necessarily true. Many families could be like this, of course: only other members of a family can joke with or playfully insult or counsel other in certain ways. It was not something only the twins did. But, with them, it felt the most true for the greatest majority of the time, more so than any other example.

But that was the bond of twinship, wasn't it?

Regardless, Indrys scolded her brother and told him how irresponsible he was to even think such a thing, to shirk his responsibilities so callously. In truth she knew they had all been thinking of doing as he had done. She might have almost done it herself first, if he hadn't suddenly spoken up about his intent to go swimming. As soon as he had announced it, she had inwardly cursed. At that moment, she knew she couldn't follow suit (if only due to her contrarian mood), instead deciding to oppose him, if only to portray an untrue image of propriety.

Just to get on her brother's nerves, obviously. She honestly had no problem with his choice. The rest of them couldn't join him, for

had to attend to the herd, just in case one wandered off.

The brother-twin finished stripping down and strode into the lake. He only stopped his short journey into the cool embrace of the water to stroke the broad neck of Sitsi, his mount, as she drank at the shore.

Crossing her arms and slashing her tail back and forth behind her white dress clad self, her ears shifted slightly in place as she thought.

"C'mon Indrys, leave him! Let's make sure they all drink their fill," called Oyn, the brown-haired male with particularly tall horns.

-

All too soon - at least from Vygo's perspective - it was time for him to stop swimming. He could tell, with how almost none of the horses were drinking any further. Reluctantly, he came out of the water. Given how lacking in proper landmarks the shoreline in that corner of the lake was, and thanks to how the herd had shifted, the naked male twin was naturally unable to immediately locate his pile of clothes. He also realized that it might have been entirely possible that one of the others might have moved his garments in an effort to keep them out from under the careless hooves of a thirsty animal.

His thoughts turned to his sister, whom he loved so dearly, being so kind and devoted as to have taken care of his possessions in such a manner, despite the objections she had given voice to before his little aquatic indiscretion. His heart was buoyed by thoughts of how she was too good to him, and that he would have to do something nice for her sometime soon to thank her.

Little by little, though, his thoughts in general soured with frustration, as he was unable to find his clothes at all, anywhere! He had to hunt around the herd a little, for if they had not been there, anything on the ground would have been completely plain to see. More and more, his face took on an all-too-familiar disgruntled cast, stress warping his handsome features a bit at a time. He had been holding off on asking his companions, what with the somewhat clandestine nature of his dip in the lake. No one would have been around to hear him and thereby catch him out, but when one enters into a bit of unlawful work-shirking, there's always the instinct to be covert.

Just as he was about to give up on said stealthiness and cry out to the others, he saw the sash that was meant to adorn his belt. No belt in sight, though! No, wait, there it was, some distance away. And there was his vest, strewn even further afield. Had some horses picked up his clothes in their mouths and danced around with them? His frown melted into a smirk for a moment, imagining that, before he scowled all the more at gathering up his stuff. Gone were the thoughts of his caring, considerate sister. He sighed, he supposed this was the price of his little swim.

In the heat of the late afternoon, he could feel the sun beginning to dry off his back already. With his simmering anger, he could almost get the sense of the moisture that clung to his scales being boiled off by the harsh rays outside and his upset, within.

With his arms full of all but one item of his outfit, he scanned his eyes around for the one thing he was missing, and the one thing he would have to put on first: His kilt. Where was the cursed thing?

His braids flopped around his head as his head turned with increasing speed, even his ears flapping a little as his horns sliced the air above him, back and forth. All the horses had naturally moved away from his position, and there was nowhere for his kilt to hide any longer.

"Yoo-hoo! ~Dear brother~!" came Indy's voice, entirely too-sweet in a way that spoke volumes about the possible revelation she held. Even before he looked, Vygo knew what she had, with the tinge of mocking sing-song she used.

She was waving to him

his kilt as a broad heavy, brown flag. She was on the shore of the lake and when they locked eyes, she held it out, perhaps threatening to drop it into the water. As she turned, raising his lower-body-clothing above her head again while looking back at him over her shoulder, she called, "Come and get it, unless you want to walk back into camp with a vest and a bare crotch!"

Even though being naked around the rest of the clan wasn't a big deal, being weirdly half clothed would have made him look ridiculous, and highlighted that someone had

his kilt, which was another matter entirely!

Cursing, Vygo gave chase immediately. Indrys' first running step made a splash in the shallows of the lake, a shimmering cascade of water propelled up around the impact - in the same instant, a less shiny explosion of cloth erupted at Vygo's feet. He had thrown down the rest of his outfit to run after his escaping kilt and sister.

Quickly, he was splashing along in the shallow water behind Indy, who hadn't truly been trying to get away until Vygo was hot on her heels. It was almost always like this when they raced or chased one another for any reason. The thrill of it was in being close, nearly running alongside one another, their gait practically matching, as if they were two halves of the same four-legged creature. In no time, they were leaving the herd and their two compatriots behind. Jov, the red-headed but brown scaled one, shook his fist after them, yelling at them to stop being such empty-headed children and to come back and help them herd the horses back to camp. Oyn just chuckled, watching the twins go with arms crossed.

"You must not want this back, or you'd have caught me by now, my brother!" teased Indy, still running.

"You're going to pay for this,

," he shouted, putting sarcastic emphasis on the term of affection.



