A/N: Written for the @ZombieHorde prompt 

"Quinn love? Aren't you ready yet?" Jay yelled as he made his way into our bedroom.

I rolled my eyes at my mate even as I pulled on my leather boots, having just finished pulling on my best tunic and breeches.

"No, dear. I'm still naked. The same as I was the last time you asked that same question five seconds ago," I said as I finally got to my feet and stretched some of the aches and pains from my body.

It had been a long yet pleasantly fruitful day at the Forge that day, and I'd had to work extra hard and fast to get the last commissions out to customers by the end of the day. I knew that I had as yet more commissions and orders to deal with the following morning; I smiled at the thought, as I was already looking forward to getting on with things.

Jay gestured rudely at me at my earlier tart response, even as he sent me a blast of violet amusement over our shared mated link. I grinned at him and gestured twice as rudely back at him.

Jay affected a scandalised look before he said - "Really, Quinn Blacksmith. Such rudery right before the December-month feast and festivities! What would the children say?"

"Thankfully nothing, considering we have none of our own," I replied just as tartly. "And therefore there is no one but ourselves to see what we're doing."

Jay sighed and shook his head at me before he said - "You didn't used to be so smart-mouthed, Quinn."

"Now, I wonder who taught me that little trick?" I asked, staring pointedly at Jay.

Jay caught the burgeoning curls of a grin that had started to pull at the corners of my mouth; that smile was coupled with the violet wash of my own amusement filtering over our link. Jay laughed outright and nodded.

"Okay, so I might have ruined you with my low-born ways, dear," he said but he didn't look in the slightest bit contrite.

"Not ruined," I contradicted thoughtfully. "You've merely honed down the sharp Alpha edges."

"What sharp Alpha edges?" Jay retorted as he stared at me. "You might well be the only Alpha dragon-shifter around these parts, but you certainly have never acted like one."

He began to walk around with a pronounced macho strut. I laughed at his affectionate teasing because though I had been told multiple times that I did have a commanding presence and a certain authoritative strut when I walked, my personality and general humour did not match.

My laughter turned into a tut before I said - "Well, never mind any Alpha edges or otherwise, Jay love. We've got to get to the feast or we'll be late. Which is something that you were worried about not five seconds ago judging by you harassing me into my clothes."

"I would never-" Jay retorted but he broke his sentence in half with an unbidden laugh. "It's all slander and lies, Blacksmith."

I just grinned and shook my head affectionately at my still-grinning mate even as I strode towards the bedroom door. I left the room and I strode towards the front door before I swung the heavy barrier open. I checked out of the door and saw that it still was snowing heavily.

Fat white flakes flocked down from heavy clouds and already the hill on which our cabin stood was cloaked in snow. The trees that surrounded our garden were equally choked with snow, and down below, the valley and town of Esterloch were draped still further. I could see the glimmer of oil lamps and rush lights moving about through the far-off streets as well as the guttering beginnings of a bonfire and fire pit in roughly the vicinity of Esterloch Park. Those tiny pinprick lights added a certain sense of warmth and industry to the snow-choked darkness and I smiled. I turned slightly when I felt Jay press the heavy drape of my thickest cloak around my shoulders. He grinned at me even as I nodded a silent thanks at my mate. He pressed a kiss against my cheek which made me laugh.

"You can do better than that, love," I said before I proved my point by scooping him up in my arms and pressing a kiss against his mouth.

Jay broke away eventually with a loud laugh even as he draped his arms around my neck.

"Carry on doing things like that, Quinn love and I won't want to go the feast," he said and quirked his eyebrows at me.

"Time for that later. Afterwards," I countered and winked at my mate.

Jay grinned and nodded; I knew without him ever having to say so that he would hold me to those words and it wasn't something that I would have promised lightly, anyway.

Without further word, we made our way outside and I ensured that the cabin was locked against the night and potential thieves before Jay undressed again and transformed into his dragon form. As it was snowing, Jay's ice-drake side loved the lower-than-normal temperatures far more than my fire-drake side did and so it had been agreed that to save me the bother of freezing myself into oblivion while flying. Jay would do it for me and I would ride on his back as he flew down to the town below.

Before we left our garden, I picked up Jay's abandoned clothes and held them close to my chest as I climbed onto Jay's back - with Jay's help of course. I felt the familiar surge and bunch of powerful muscles as Jay took flight, his wings flaring around me as he did so. I let out a yell of excitement as he did so and Jay whuffled back a dragon-laugh at my response.

The night darkness whizzed past me as Jay coasted down towards the outskirts of town with a jubilant bugle and a flare of his blue wings. Despite the discomfort and the sting of the cold and snow, I felt an answering burst of excitement roar through me, at giving control to Jay for once. Jay had always been grateful to me for that transference of power on occasion as practically all Alphas did not afford their mates - Betas such as Jay - to take the lead. I was rare in that respect in that I did afford Jay the lead and quite enjoyed it when he did.

We landed and Jay allowed me to slide from his back. I waited while Jay turned back into his human form again; by the time he'd finished, the snow had stopped falling, much to Jay's disappointed detriment.

I smiled at his complaints even as I silently and patiently helped him to dress. Jay laughed openly yet affectionately at me as I fussed over his clothing; I straightened it all and generally made sure that he was warm - even though we both knew that he didn't require the warmth. That fussing and primping was born out of my protective side coming to the fore, as I wanted to provide for my life-mate after all. Jay rewarded me with a kiss, however, which made me smile and reflect on the fact that the protective fussing had been worth it.

"Have you quite finished now, Quinn?" Jay asked before he poked his tongue out at me in his cheekiest fashion.

"Yes. No. Hang on a minute," I replied before I licked the pad of my thumb and pretended to wipe a non-existent mark from my mate's cheek.

I was rewarded by a gentle slap around the face from Jay which made both Jay and me laugh.

"Now can we go?" Jay asked and raised an eyebrow at me.

"Yes. For real, this time," I assured him and grinned.

Jay merely winked at me in response and so from there, we made our way to the Park where we were greeted by all who saw us as we passed. Naturally, we responded in kind with amused smiles and salutes, even as we made our way to the fire pit. There we found that pigs and birds such as chickens and turkeys were turning on spits over the flames and sausages in buns and pies were being handed around as merrily as the mead and ale.

Jay and I were glad to note that Toby, the mage who lived in one of the nearby valleys had accepted our invitation and had thus arrived at the festivities. With him was his wife, Genie and they were both soon to join us.

It looked as though Toby was halfway in his cups already; although it wasn't something that happened often both Jay and I had borne witness to the mage's drunkenness before. Then again, Genie was just as inebriated as her husband, which proved that they both were in the mood for thoroughly enjoying themselves.

In time, the songs began and I was encouraged to sing some of the songs from my former home valley of Adiren; I sang with Jay's capable accompaniment on the lute as usual, and we joined in with other songs sung by other people if we knew them.

Storytelling around the fire came afterwards, filled with good cheer and laughter, as well as plenty of food passed around and shared. In all of the hubbub and merriment, I wasn't sure who it was that had started the chants for Toby to perform some magic, yet the chants soon began. I wasn't entirely sure that it was wise for the mage to do so, given how far Toby was in his cups that evening. As one of the most powerful mages in Erialand, I knew that anything could happen and there was an extreme potential for something to go wrong as a consequence.

As such I tried to talk him out of it, yet Toby assured me with the slightly slurred epithet of - "I'm fine. I can do this."

I still wasn't convinced by his smile-filled assurances however, yet I knew that I couldn't pull rank on him or order him not to do anything when it wasn't ordinarily my way to do so - unless it was a very dire situation. I doubted that that evening counted as such so I capitulated with as much good grace as I could muster; only Jay was aware of my deep displeasure, however, which was something I was infinitely glad for - as always.

Toby began his impromptu show with a few disappearing tricks by making mugs and beakers appear and disappear at random; turkey legs and half-eaten pies soon vanished into thin air to turn up in unexpected places. I began to relax and return to my usual trust in Toby when I saw that everything seemed to be going fine and that he had, indeed, had as much control over everything as he usually had when he was sober.

Then he tried something else while my attention was otherwise diverted by Jay. I wasn't entirely sure what the mage was trying to do as a consequence, yet whatever his intentions, it didn't work as nothing happened at all. Everyone started laughing and jeering amicably at the mage even as Toby blushed and gamely tried again. That time, fireworks began popping in the sky over our heads and any former jeering soon gave way to cries of absolute wonder.

While everyone was distracted by the light display that careened noisily over our heads in bursts of rainbow light, I became aware of a certain disturbed dissonance in the air, as if something dark and evilly magic was happening nearby. Jay also looked in the same direction as I had already glanced in, while some of the nearest elves began to shift with discomfort in their seats.

Then sudden screams broke through the night and chairs and benches were overturned in sudden haste; people began to pound around and to run and jostle through the resultant milling crowds - as though to get away from something as yet unseen. I stood and headed in the opposite direction to where the masses had started to run from, with Jay swift to follow in my footsteps.

I yelled at Rowan and Sarosi, two other Elders and highly respected elves to attend to us. Thankfully, the elves were swift to join Jay and me and their daggers drawn; they had seen no need to bring their usual bows and arrows with them as understandably, the feast did not require anyone to attend while fully armed.

We soon arrived at the burial ground where the evil emanations seemed the strongest and we found the earth moving and crumbling beneath our feet. Some of the dead had already broken free of their earthly prisons and were shuffling around near-mindlessly which, I presumed had been the event that had sparked such previous panic in the festivities.

People - living ones - had started to gather at the sidelines, gawking and yelling drunkenly as yet more undead hands began to claw out of the earth. I stepped back in angry disgust as some of the dead began to make their way fully out of the ground.

Those dead turned lifeless eyes onto us as they shuffled inexorably towards us. Their grasping hands tried to grab a hold of all of us as the walking dead began to surround us. Rowan and Sarosi began slashing at the dead with their daggers, trying to fend them off to no avail - nothing they could do could stave them off for long nor could they truly hurt them. Even though they were dead, the zombies still belonged to families and as such, had once been loved and cherished.

Jay and I slipped off to a more private place and soon changed into our dragon forms. We then returned to the burial site and I bellowed out a dragon bugle to make the onlookers - and Rowan and Sarosi by proxy - step away. Thankfully most did and those drunken sots that remained were soon forcibly encouraged from the fences by the stern elf Elders.

Jay and I began to sweep the dead aside with gentle paws as they began to surround us and grasp at our sides. We continued doing so until Sarosi could bring Toby to the fore. With a few well-chosen words, he then put the dead back in their graves respectfully and although he seemed a little more sober than he had earlier in the night, I could still sense the haziness of inebriation hanging around his wearied body.

I felt the wash of his magic tickling over my skin and I shivered as a result, though that reaction was a pleasurable, even comforting one - more comforting than the previous wash of magic had been when the dead had risen from their graves.

We waited for a while after Toby had finished his spell-casting, yet it seemed as though the dubious fun in the burial ground was over for the night.

****

There didn't seem much point in carousing after our escapades with the walking dead. None of us truly felt much in the mood to finish off the feast or the party, so most began to drift home. Because Toby and Genie had drunk too much to get to their own valley safely, Jay and I put them up for the night in our own cabin, utilising the truckle bed we always kept beneath our own to do so.

****

"So what was all that about last night?" I asked Toby with a certain degree of amusement the following morning. "Why did the dead decide to rise?"

I smiled at the mage even as I served up a full Esterloch breakfast to him. Toby was much beleaguered that morning as he had a horrendous headache, yet Genie seemed to have fared better than her sore-headed husband. Though her head still hurt, her pains and grievances were not quite so bad as Toby's.

"I must have swapped some of my incantations around when I was trying to magic up some fireworks," Toby moaned as he stared dejectedly down at his fried eggs.

"Swapped? More like garbled the wrong words," Genie said with a typically good-natured laugh.

Toby gave his wife a sour look, which made Genie laugh all the harder. When the mage turned away from his wife again, I saw the warmly amused look in his eyes which gave some explanation as to why Genie had laughed; Toby wasn't truly angry with her at all, merely offering up a pretence of the same. I grinned even as Jay laughed around his mouthful of sausage.

"It doesn't matter, Tobe love. We all make mistakes," I advised him, kindly.

"And it's not as though you haven't made some of those before yourself, Tobe," Jay reminded the mage through his mouthful of meat. "Such as the time when you swapped me with Quinn and we were both in the wrong bodies."

"And you turned Jay into the female version of himself," I added with a grin.

Toby directed his earlier sour look upon my mate and me yet his head was at such an angle that I could see the amusement ringing clear in his eyes again and I laughed. It proved that Toby still wasn't as angry or as sore about the occurrence or the resultant jokes as he was trying to make out; instead, he looked a little embarrassed.

"Oh well. I suppose I really did make a mistake somewhere," he finally conceded with a sigh. "But I did rectify it."

"That you did," I said gently.

"After giving everyone a good drake-blasted scare," Jay said and hooted with sudden laughter.

That earned him another sour look from Toby which was tempered once again with the mage's sore-headed amusement.

"Okay, Jay. Don't rub it in," Toby said. "I'll have to make up for the scare somehow. Give a free fireworks display or something."

He grinned when we all yelled at him in horror to do no such thing.

He laughed before he amended - "I'll pay for a feast then."

"Well! Upon my word! What am I then? Can't I bake some things for this feast?" Genie asked as she slammed her eating knife indignantly upon the table.

She directed a wink at Jay and me even as we laughed at her immediate response. Genie was a baker and a very good one too; Jay and I could attest to that as well as Toby himself could.

"Yes, love. You are more than capable. But you can't cook an entire feast all on your own," Toby reminded her with some gentle amusement. "You do need some help."

Genie had to agree with that after some slightly disgruntled thought.

"That's better," I said when the others finally looked to me for agreement.

As the Alpha dragon-shifter of the valley and sometimes war leader in times of need, I was naturally the one that everyone answered to at the end of the day. While that responsibility rarely sat comfortably with me, it was also something that I rarely took for granted or took lightly. Instead, I gave my decisions on things when they were most needed - even at times when it was agreeing to a feast.

Toby merely grunted and nodded before he shovelled a huge bite of fried egg into his mouth and began chewing.

****

Toby was as good as his word and arranged for a follow-up feast two weeks later in Sunderloch. Genie, of course, baked as much as she was capable of producing and oversaw the rest of it that was baked by other people.

Everyone from Esterloch was invited to the new feast and that time, Toby markedly remained sober. We also did not hold the feast near Sunderloch's burial ground, which at least protected us from any marauding zombies. As such, the feast was an enjoyably wholesome affair and was enjoyed by all and sundry.