Dragons of Arillia (Draft 1.4)

[IceRiver1020]

Dragons of Arillia
Book 1 in the Dragons of Arillia series
Draft 1.4

Summary:

Spoiler

Young dragon Pierce has lived his life believing that he is worthless, too small, too weak, all he has is knowledge, and a healthy fear of his clutchmates. But when his sister, Poison, recklessly gets them kidnapped by humans it's up to him to rescue her and find a way home, with a little help from some unlikely allies, and a strength that he never knew he had.

Red, Pierce's older brother, has never been one to act without orders, but there is nobody to tell you how to solve your problems or live a full life, then war breaks out between the kingdom of the fire dragons and the humans, and his aunt begins to crack under the weight of her duties as Queen. Red must learn to act, to take charge, or risk losing everything, his friends, his family, and the future he didn't know that he wanted.

Chapter 1: Lonely Lake

Red watched as Zephyr tossed the glass orb into the air and caught it again before lobbing it into the lake, the light it had been enchanted to glow with gleamed under the surface for a moment before it had sunk too deep to see.

“Whose turn is it this time?” Zephyr asked, looking around at the group of dragons.

Today was an uncommon day, a day when Red and all of his closest friends were able to gather at their favorite spot to hang out, Lonely Lake. Dawn, who he had met in warrior training, was a metallic and pink scaled dragoness, then there were Zephyr and Night, Red’s best friends since before he could fly, Zephyr’s scales were the color often used to portray the depths of the ocean in paintings, and Night’s scale coloration matched his name, dark as midnight but with under scales white like the moon, lastly there was Zephyr’s elder brother, Cove, who’s scales were the colors of dark rock and winter sky.

“I’ll go next,” Cove said, wading into the shallows, mud clouding the water as it was stirred by his steps.

Red’s friends had been taking turns retrieving the glowing orb from the bottom of the lake, and he had abstained from the activity. He could stand to be in the water as long as he could touch the bottom, but diving to the bottom of a lake was too much to ask, and the cold water would cause his right wing to ache, his stomach clenched just watching the others go under.

“Are you sure you don’t mind?” Dawn asked him as Cove submerged, her shiny scales were still covered in water droplets from taking her own turn, “We could just do something else that you can participate in.”

“Don’t worry about me,” he replied, “I’m okay with watching, just because I’m not participating in the game doesn’t mean I’m not hanging out.”

“I guess so,” she replied, brushing droplets of water off of her baby pink chest scales, “How has the Queen been, last I saw her she seemed a bit stressed?”

“She’s been worried about the tension at the border, the humans are really starting to make trouble, I say it’s fortunate nobody up there has gotten hurt yet.”

“You don’t think we’ll go to war do you?” Dawn’s wing’s spread slightly as if she planned to fly to battle that instant.

“I don’t know, we’ve never exactly been on friendly terms with the humans, the tension has only grown more and more, even old Calla can’t remember a time when we were at peace with them. I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened.”

“I don’t understand, why can’t they leave us alone, why must they always stir up trouble?”

“I hear that they harvest the bodies of dragons they’ve murdered to make weapons and armor.” Zephyr chipped in, blue eyes wide.

“I suppose they see us as no different from mindless animals like bears, and wolves, something to either tame or destroy.” Night growled.

“Could we not live in peace with them, if we tried?” Dawn asked.

Red scoffed, “Peace is fine by me, but humans are selfish monsters who know nothing but hate for our kind, I don’t think they’ll be satisfied until or kingdom is in ruins and all the dragons of Arillia are either dead or enslaved.

“Cove’s sure taking his time down there,” Night said, bringing everyone’s attention to the water, which was eerily still.

Dawn frowned, “He’s probably just having some trouble finding it.”

The four of them silently watched the surface of the water, Red trying to push away his irrational fears. It probably felt like they were waiting for longer than they were, but after a time there was no doubt that Cove was taking longer than he should.

“Someone should at least check on him.” Dawn decided.

Zephyr sprinted into the shallows and slipped into the deep water like an otter. Dawn ran along the shore towards the river that fed into the lake and called out to the aquatic dragons who were relaxing on the rocks. Red for one felt useless and his anxiety was rising.

“I’ll go get a healer, just in case.” Night said.

“No, I’ll go,” Red replied, getting to his feet, “You probably know more first aid than me so if something has happened and a healer doesn’t get here soon enough you’ll be more useful than me.”

Night gave a nod, and looked slightly relieved, “I think Moon is the closest, at least of the healers I know.”

Red got a running start and then leapt into the air with a powerful flap of his red and gold wings, ignoring the pain it caused in the right one. He racked his brain to remember the way to Moon’s den, he hadn’t visited often, but he found it relatively quickly and hurried in. Most noticeable about the place was the strong smell of herbs, with a hint of blood, there were beds laid out on the floor, shelves stocked with bandages, jars, and baskets lining every wall, and it was quite empty aside from the healer, a sleeping old dragon, and a mother with her fledgling.

The white and gray dragoness had stopped in the middle of wrapping clean cotton bandages around the fledgling’s foreleg. “Red, what brings you here?” she asked, now hurrying to finish up what she was doing, “If you’re here on Night’s behalf then you can tell him-”

“No, it’s Cove,” Red interrupted, “There’s no time to explain, I have no idea if he’s okay or not.”

Moon thrust a roll of bandages and a jar of something towards the fledgling’s mother saying, “Put this on it daily and rewrap the wound,” then slung a leather satchel around her neck and followed Red out of the den, back to the lake.

When they arrived they found Cove laying on the shore coughing, hacking, and holding a bleeding foreleg close to his chest while Zephyr and the others stood anxiously around him.

“What happened?” Moon asked, getting right to work, listening to his breathing and taking out jars of various medicines.

“He nearly drowned,” Zephyr replied, his voice shaking slightly, “He was trying to retrieve an orb from the lake and his leg got caught in some rocks.”

“It’s lucky you freed him in time,” Moon replied, wrapping some bandages around the wounded leg, “He should be fine after a little rest.”

“Thank you for coming so quickly,” Zephyr said, “I hope you weren’t very busy.”

“No, it was just the usual, sprains, cuts, thorns…” Moon turned to Red, “It’s been awhile since I last saw Violet, do you know when she’ll be visiting?”

“Yes, she’s coming tomorrow actually, I’m sure she’ll be happy to see you again.”

Moon smiled, “We could have a nice little reunion, all of us, it’d be almost like when we were in school.”

“Yeah…” Red replied distractedly, he’d noticed that Night had been slowly retreating.

Moon followed his gaze and her amber eyes met Night’s, the tension in the air was like a rubber band pulled too tight, ready to snap, but then Moon looked away and Night seemed to wilt.

“I should get back to my den,” Moon said, “I might have patients waiting, it could be urgent.”

“Right,” Zephyr replied, looking awkward, “See you around then.”

“I’ll tell Violet to pay you a visit,” Red added.

When she was gone everyone looked at Night, who glared back and snapped, “Mind your own business!”

“Hey, nobody said anything,” Dawn protested.

Cove shifted, heaved himself onto his feet amid protests from his brother, and he said, “I’m fine now, I can’t lay here all day.”

“Moon said to rest,” Zephyr replied.

“All I did was stand up,” Cove chuckled, though it turned into a cough, “Sorry, my throat still feels a bit rough.”

“The medicine Moon gave you should start to help,” Night replied.

“Yes, speaking of Moon…” Cove said, giving Night a significant look, “Follow me.”

“I don’t want to talk.” Night protested.

“I didn’t ask to talk,” Cove replied earnestly, “You’re free to be silent.”

With a heavy sigh, Night and the older drake walked along the shore until they were well out of earshot and settled down by the water.

“He’s such a dad,” Zephyr chuckled, “When me and my clutch were very young he was always helping mom and dad wrangle us, they’ve always been extremely grateful.”

“He’s like a second Tide.” Dawn joked.

Tide was their mentor in warrior training, he was wise and always seemed to know what to say. Red regretted that he hadn’t kept in better contact with Tide in the eight years since graduating.

“Oh!” Zephyr said suddenly, “Dawn, could you summon the orb back? I was more concerned with getting Cove to the surface than grabbing it.”

Dawn sighed, “It was exhausting enough just lighting it up, why don’t you learn a thing or two about magic and do it yourself? I haven’t got unlimited magical energy you know!”

“I can’t,” Zephyr complained, “When the tester checked me for magical potential he said that he was horrified by my lack of magical ability, I couldn’t make a scale glow, certainly not without passing out!”

Red stifled a laugh, he didn’t have any right to, he had barely any more magical energy than Zephyr did, a light spell like Dawn’s would give him nausea and a severe headache, he knew because he’d tried it once, and only once. Fire dragons had a greater number of mages than any other species in Arillia but still at least fifty percent of them had barely any magical energy at all.

“Have Cove do it,” Dawn replied, “Having a splitting headache doesn’t appeal to me, just because I have more magic than you doesn’t make me a mage.”

“My brother nearly drowned.”

“Nearly drowning doesn’t reduce one’s magical energy Zephyr, he’s not frail.”

“Are you two going to bicker all afternoon?” Red asked, “It’s not like it really matters, we can just get another one.”

“Glassmakers are stingier than magma dragons,” Zephyr grumbled, “They always want a sack of materials in exchange, gemstones and stuff, even if you’re just asking for a simple orb.”

“Hey!” Dawn snapped, “My mom wasn’t stingy, and glassmaking isn’t simple!”

“Your mom’s a glassmaker?” Red asked, partially to interrupt the two and partially because of genuine interest, Dawn never talked about her family aside from complaining about her clutch brothers’ annoying habits.

“She was,” Dawn sighed, “I have a collection of marbles she made for me when I was little.”

“What happened?” Zephyr asked, “Why isn’t she still a glassmaker?”

“Tact isn’t your thing, is it?” Dawn replied.

“I guess that means you won’t answer?”

“I don’t have to divulge my life story to you.” Dawn replied.

“I thought we were friends,” Zephyr said in mock offence, to which Dawn just rolled her eyes.

“Why don’t you talk about your family if you’re so keen on the topic?” Dawn asked.

“There’s not much to tell, except for Cove my brothers and sisters are all working as healers, minor mages, and artists. Some of my older siblings have gotten married now, a few have clutches, my nieces and nephews are loud and obnoxious to no end, I haven’t spoken to my extended family in a while, and my parents are enjoying a quiet, peaceful life without any of us left in the den. Red’s family is probably more interesting.”

“What, just because my dad is the queen’s half-brother?” Red snorted.

“Nah,” Zephyr replied, “You don’t even talk to your extended family aside from Queen Orchid, I like to hear what the little ones are up to.”

“You would have been so offended if someone had called you a ‘little one’ when you were sixteen,” Dawn pointed out.

“They’re sixteen now?” Zephyr’s expression became disturbed, “I feel freakin’ old now, I was thirteen when they hatched!”

“I thought you already knew your age.” Dawn chuckled, “Next year you’ll join me in the early thirties!”

“We haven’t even lived a third of our lives yet,” Red reminded, “But yes, they’re sixteen now, three of them are in warrior training, one is in mage training, and one is a scholar, he mainly studies history.”

“Do Gem and Smoke still pick on Pierce?” Dawn asked.

“Yeah, how’s the little runt holding up?”

“Probably,” Red sighed, “I wish he would learn to defend himself, last I knew he would just roll over and take it.”

“Your parents don’t do anything to stop it?” Zephyr asked.

“Dad doesn’t care and it always happens when mom’s not around, Pierce doesn’t tell her anything either, he’s gotten sickeningly good at hiding injuries--Scarlet has always had an interest in healing, I suspect she helps him--but he can also take a beating surprisingly well, though he shouldn’t have to.”

“I don’t get how anyone could treat their own brother that way,” Dawn said, “Just because he’s smaller?”

The conversation was broken off there by the return of Cove and Night.

“What’re you guys talking about?” Cove asked.

“Just my screwed up family!” Red replied with sarcastic cheer.

Zephyr failed to stifle his laughter and gave up trying, between laughs he managed to say, “Dude, how do you say it like that? That’s what’s really screwed up!”

Cove’s expression was a mix between amused and concerned, while Night responded as was typical, barely any reaction at all.

Red shared a small laugh then said, “But seriously, Smoke is one messed up dragon, if I were his parent I wouldn’t let him anywhere near sharp objects, he’s too violent.”

“If I were his parent i’d have tanned his hide ages ago,” Dawn replied, “Messed up is putting it lightly, I wouldn’t tolerate that kind of behavior.”

“He’s still attacking Pierce?” Cove asked, looking at Red very seriously, “If your parents aren’t doing anything about it then you’d better step in, if it were Zephyr being bullied I would have done something about it ages ago.”

“All you had to do was look at them and nobody even wanted to try anything,” Zephyr replied, “From what I’ve heard, Smoke doesn’t find anyone very intimidating.”

“If intimidation hadn’t worked, I wasn’t all bark and no bite,” Cove affirmed, “That little punk needs to be stopped, one way or another.”

“Jeez, you are kinda scary,” Dawn said, “Smoke is lucky not to have you for an older brother.”

“I’d say he and Pierce are both unlucky,” Cove replied, then looked pointedly at Red, “If you keep running from your parents you’ll never be there for your siblings, Pierce especially.”

Red tensed, his instinct was to go into a more aggressive stance, but Cove was the last dragon he wanted to pick a fight with, not only was he intimidating and more experienced, but Red respected him, “I’m not running away,” his voice wavered, he didn’t even have himself convinced.

Cove hummed and replied, “If you say so, but at least think about my words a little, in the end family is all you’ve got. I’m sure Poison and Scarlet have their brother’s back, but neither of them present the slightest threat, they can’t make Smoke stop.”

“Poison is training to be a warrior as well-”

“But she’s the bottom of her class,” Cove interrupted, “Tide says that bullying from her classmates, including her own siblings, has destroyed what little confidence she had, therefore she has progressed very little. It seems Pierce is no longer the only target, and I am disappointed that you didn’t already know this, they’re your siblings, not mine.”

This dragon had nearly drowned earlier? Red had no words to defend himself, Cove being disappointed was as bad as his own parents being disappointed, but as much respect as he had for the other drake, at that moment Red hated how sickeningly perfect he always seemed, he never seemed to say or do anything wrong, Red didn’t think he’d faced a single challenge in his life. It was even worse that Cove was scolding him in front of everyone else, no matter how right or wrong he was.

After a moment of tense silence Cove sighed, “I apologize, you’re not open about it but I understand your struggles, I suppose sometimes I forget that your situation as very different from my own experiences, but still I encourage you to do what you can.”

“I don’t understand.” Red replied, “You weren’t wrong, I should be more invested in their lives.”

“I wasn’t being fair though, I got upset, I-”

“Stop being so perfect, you’re making me wanna bite you!” Red snapped.

Cove laughed, “That’s fair, but I wouldn’t call myself perfect, I’m just better at hiding my mistakes!”

“He is awfully mysterious about what he’s been up to sometimes,” Zephyr added, “One time he came home with his face all scratched up and snapped at me when I asked what happened.”

The smile on Cove’s face vanished completely, replaced by a look of grief and anger that Red had never seen on the older drake before, the change was alarming to say the least.

“I’m scared to ask,” Dawn muttered.

Cove shook himself, forced a more pleasant expression, and said with false cheer, “Let’s not talk about that.”


Artwork is mine.

Author's note:

Spoiler

Glad to have found another place to share my story and hopefully get some critique!

I'm going to add the chapters here over time, but the novel in its entirety is already posted on Wattpad if you are desperate for more (which I doubt ).

https://www.wattpad.com/story/167136789 ... -draft-1-4

I both got the idea for, and started work on this story on August 9th, 2015 (Red's randomly generated hatchday), under the working title "Noble Beast." After beginning, and subsequently scrapping, four other versions of the story (one of which I'd barely even started, so I usually don't count it), I finally finished drafting it on November 10th of 2018.

I have a writing group where I've been sharing it for critique, but I don't think one can ever have too much critique! Even if sharing my novel somewhere makes me SUPER nervous at first haha!

I hope to publish it someday, but until then this thing needs to get critiqued and go through some revisions!

You are encouraged to make posts on the thread, or simply PM me your thoughts, I love nothing more than knowing what everyone thinks, I would even love for you to tell me every thought that pops into your head as you read if you wanted to!

[IceRiver1020]

Chapter 2: Family Reunion

Pierce flipped through a book about the reign of Queen Golden Glow, but he wasn’t really taking any of it in, he already knew about it, perhaps better than most dragons considering that queen was his grandmother. One particular sentence caught his attention though “it is speculated that Queen Golden Glow used magic as a means of forcing Gray Dawn into a relationship with her.” The fire in his chest flared but he forced it back down. It is speculated? There was nothing to speculate about, that was exactly what had happened! He hated studying his grandmother more than anything else, it was nothing but a reminder of what sick, twisted dragons his grandparents were, every time the stories were recounted all he wanted to do was claw his ears off or gouge his eyes out so that he wouldn’t have to see or hear it anymore. He slammed the book shut and returned it to the shelf, why had he even bothered studying? He could write the report just fine without having to torture himself, so what if he got one or two minor details wrong?

A few of the other dragons in the library had looked up from their studies at the noise he’d made and some gave him looks of dislike or disapproval as he slung his satchel around his neck and left. Peirce didn’t care, he dealt with worse crap from his own family, it didn’t matter what strangers thought, for his classmates were much like strangers to him, he did not speak to them and they did not speak to him.

Once outside he stopped abruptly, Scarlet was lounging on a boulder outside the library.

“What are you doing here?” Pierce asked, “Don’t you have magic lessons?”

The red and gold dragoness scowled, and the catlike pupils in her mismatched purple and green eyes narrowed, “I’m not going.”

“Still though, why are you here?”

“I thought I’d wait for you and then we could hang out or something, plus there’s probably someone going around looking for me and the library isn’t one of my typical hiding places.”

Pierce glanced up at the empty sky, “I was going to head home, Poison is back from training by now, and Violet is coming to visit later this afternoon.”

“What are you going to do at home?” Scarlet snorted, “Do homework and read old documents while Poison pesters you?”

“No, I don’t do that at home anymore, I’m sick of telling Dim that I can’t turn in my assignments because my brother burned them.”

“That sounds like a great excuse to just not do it at all,” Scarlet perked up, “Ol’ Dimwit believes you doesn’t he?”

“Don’t call him that,” Pierce snapped, glancing around to check that the other dragon wasn’t around, “Unlike you I actually enjoy what I’m doing, and no he doesn’t usually believe me, it’s not like I can prove it!”

“Alright, don’t get your tail in a twist,” she replied, “You get worked up about such little things, if you could see where your life is going you wouldn’t care about menial tasks like homework. Then again, that’s probably why you can’t see it.”

“You don’t make any sense,” Pierce grumbled, “As if you can see where my life is going.”

“Not exactly, but your potential is quite great.”

“Don’t mock me.”

“I’m serious though,” she replied, and she sounded like it, “You can do great things, if you’ll just put your mind to it.”

He raised a brow, “What, is that part of your special ability?”

She frowned, “Really Pierce, knowing my ability will only make things more difficult for both of us, there’s a reason why they told me not to tell anyone.”

“What’s the point in having an ability if you have to hide it?”

Scarlet leapt down from her boulder and beckoned for him to walk with her, “You wouldn’t understand, even if I could explain it to you, it’s something that others will want to abuse, there’s a lot of misconceptions about how my ability works.”

This part of the woods was fairly quiet aside from the sound of their feet crunching on the layer of twigs and decaying leaves that always coated the ground. Areas like this that were frequented by dragons tended to have very little wildlife, mostly just tiny creatures like birds and squirrels, but only when nobody was around.

“Where are we going?” he asked.

“Lonely Lake,” she replied, “We have time before Violet is supposed to arrive.”

“Why the lake?” Pierce asked, “Everyone hangs out at lakes, what’s wrong with the woods, or the peaks?”

“I like the lake, sometimes I run into Red there, it’s the only time I get to spend with him these days.”

Pierce had nothing to say in response, mostly because he didn’t want to argue with her. The two had been close back when Red was an adolescent, but he had basically ditched them the moment he turned twenty, he never came to visit unless Violet was there because he felt obligated to. Pierce thought that Scarlet was living in the past and wished that she would give it up, Red didn’t care anymore.

When they reached the lakeside Scarlet ran into the shallows and splashed at him with her tail, “Come on, the water’s great!”

He placed his satchel on a rock a safe distance from the water and then waded in. Of his clutchmates Scarlet was the smallest and even she had him beat in size and strength so when she made to tackle him he was quick to dodge out of the way.

“Aw, you’re no fun, we used to wrestle all the time when we were little.” Scarlet said.

He scoffed, “You always let me win, and now that I’m smart enough to know that, it’s not going to make me feel better.”

“You don’t know that I was going to let you win.”

“Either that or you’ll kick my tail, neither is very appealing.”

She stuck her tongue out and splashed him again, “Pessimist!”

“If you don’t like it you don’t have to hang out with me,” Pierce chuckled, splashing her back.

They chased one another around the shallows, splashing and nipping at each other’s tails for a while, Pierce didn’t have size and strength on his side but over the years he’d gotten good at running away, Scarlet was bigger but she didn’t get as much exercise, being the only sibling that Smoke and Gem ignored, and a mage too.

“Hey Scar!” Someone called from the shore, interrupting the brother and sister’s fun. A group of dragons were landing on the shore and beckoning for her to join them.

“Who’s the runt?” a black and orange male called as the two waded over to them.

“This is my brother Pierce,” she introduced, “Didn’t I tell you guys I was going to be hanging out with him today?”

The group of three were not the sort that he would imagine his sister hanging out with, the black and orange male was scarred up like he tended to get into fights, he had the physic of a warrior in training, the other two appeared to be mages, a purple and green male who had an expression like he hated everything and everyone, and a blue and brown female who wore a combination a metal and black leather jewelry, necklaces, bracelets, anklets, tail and horn ornaments, and several ear piercings. She was the one who had first called out.

“I know ness, but ditching isn’t the same without you,” the female replied, “Also, aren’t you going to introduce us to your brother?”

“Right,” Scarlet sighed, “Pierce, this is Stream, Hollow, Amar-”

“Don’t you dare say my name!” The purple one growled.

“-Anth.” Scarlet finished, “His name is Amaranth, and he hates it, so call him Mar.”

Pierce thought that Mar probably hated everything.

“Cool, now that the runt knows who we are, let’s ditch him!” Stream said.

“What?” Scarlet took a step back, “I’m not ditching my brother, you guys can live without me for one day you know!”

“Oh come on, that little thing can’t be more fun than we are.” Stream argued.

“He’s my brother.”

Stream rolled her eyes, “Creator, Scarlet stop being such a little-”

“Hey, don’t cuss at me,” Scarlet interrupted, “I told you I had other plans today, if you can’t respect that then you’re the one being-”

“Scarlet!” Pierce snapped, she never used that kind of language at home, he was sure that her friends weren’t a very good influence.

Hollow chuckled, “Well, looks like the runt is sensitive about words, why don’t you get off your high mountain?”

“Look,” Pierce said to Scarlet, ignoring Hollow, “I don’t want to put a wedge between you and your friends, I’ll just go home.”

“No, you’re my brother,” she shot a filthy look at the others, “Friends can be replaced, especially friends who don’t respect me.”

Stream scowled, “Fine, I don’t need you.”

“Apparently you do, if you can’t let me spend one day with my brother.”

When Stream and the others had gone Pierce said, “It didn't have to go like that, you could have just gone with them, I don't mind.”

“When will you stop being such a pushover?” She demanded, “I stayed because I wanted to and because they were being jerks, you're not getting in you way of me having friends, and besides, they'll be over it in a day or two.”

It was clear that neither felt like resuming their game, it hadn’t been much time together, but he did appreciate that she’d wanted to spend it with him, even if her so called friends spoiled the mood. He checked the position of the sun, above the tops of the western side of the mountains that surrounded the Southern Kingdom’s capital.

“I guess we should head home.” Scarlet noted just as he was about to say the same.

Pierce grabbed his satchel and then the clutchmates took off, flying low over the treetops.

“It’s not quite time for you to be home yet,” Pierce noted, “What will you say to mom?”

“I’ll just make something up,” she grumbled, then brightened, “Oh, I was thinking of getting my ear pierced, what do you think?”

He cast her a disapproving look, for both of the things she’d said, he didn’t like this new rebellious streak. Scarlet had always been good, he’d expect this kind of thing from Poison. As far as he knew, the only times he’d seen her lie to their mother was whenever it was for him or Poison, hiding the evidence of Smoke’s and Gem’s bullying.

“Don’t give me that look,” she said, “I do whatever I want, I don’t need the approval of you or anyone else.”

“Then why did you ask?”

His question received no answer, for they had arrived at home, a small clearing around a rocky den, fruit trees and berry bushes dotting the open land and lining the edge of the woods, wherein ferns and other foliage was encouraged to grow and spread wildly, with the help of a little magic. Their mother and Poison were busy picking fruit, while their father, Gem, and Smoke seemed to have just returned from hunting, evidenced by the deer carcasses that they were just beginning the clean and butcher.

As they landed, Emerald bounded towards them, leaving Poison with the baskets of fruit they’d collected, and gave Pierce a motherly nuzzle while saying, “You’re late, I was beginning to worry, and Scarlet,” she gave young dragoness a serious look, “You’re home early.”

“Trillium heard that Violet was coming and said I could leave early today to help prepare,” Scarlet replied sweetly, “I figured I would pick up Pierce on my way back too.”

“I see, well, why don’t the two of you go to the woods and pick some ferns for me?” Emerald replied, turning back towards Poison, “There should be some baskets in the den.”

“Yes mother,” Scarlet beckoned Pierce to follow and the two headed inside to retrieve the baskets.

“Won’t Trillium tell mom that you skipped?” Pierce asked as she busied herself pulling the baskets down from their shelf.

“No way, I suck at magic, she’s probably glad to be rid of me.”

They walked past the deer carcasses on their way to the woods and Pierce caught the strong smell of blood, it made his mouth water, but at the same time it was powerful enough that he almost gagged. He also briefly met his brother’s purple eyed glare, which was like two amethysts imbued with evil magic and cast into a pile of gray ash. Gem and Spark on the other hand didn’t even acknowledge him.

“I can’t believe how easily you lied though,” Pierce said once they were in the shelter of the trees, “Mom believed you so easily too.”

“Mom thinks I’m still all sweet and innocent,” she replied, pulling up handfuls of fern, “As someone who knows better, I can’t believe that you’re surprised.”

“I guess I don’t like believing you’ve changed that much,” he dug up some roots that he knew were tasty.

“I’ve always been like this, I just didn’t show it as much when we were younger, do you think I cared about rules all those times I convinced Red to take me flying, even though mom had forbidden it?”

“You could have fallen and hurt yourself,” Pierce muttered, “That was reckless.”

“Exactly,” she grinned, “There’s no reward without a little risk, and those were the best times of my life.”

He sighed but otherwise let it drop, instead focusing on harvesting greens. Fireweed, amaranth, mushrooms, purslane, dock, and much more, he just wished that they lived a little closer to a river so that he could collect cattail too, without needing to travel. When their baskets were full Scarlet stretched and looked up at what little sky could be seen through the treetops.

“I wonder if Red has arrived yet?” she said.

“He should at least get here before Violet,” Pierce replied before picking up his basket in his mouth, “He lish ‘uch closher.”

“I can barely understand you with your mouth full,” she snorted and picked up her own basket.

They almost bumped into Gem on their way out of the woods, as she was hanging the deerskins from a tree branch.

“Watch it!” Gem snapped, green eyes narrowed, in the shade of the trees her dark red scales looked almost black and her shiny silver under scales were dulled, not to mention the fact she was covered in blood, it all made her appear more frightening than usual.

Pierce gave the bigger dragons a wider berth than was perhaps necessary, but trouble was the last thing he wanted, certainly not today. He and Scarlet placed their baskets just outside the den, next to the baskets of collected fruit, and then he glanced over his shoulder to check the progress on the deer, as he’d been too focused on avoiding the scarier members of his family to take much notice before. The scene was gory, blood splattered all over, guts collected in buckets, hides hung on trees, bones discarded, and meat in the process of being sliced.

“I’m glad they’re the ones who always have to do the butchering,” Scarlet said, “Not only is it a bit messy, I also don’t trust them to tell the difference between safe and poisonous mushrooms.”

Pierce smirked at the thought of Smoke and Gem trying to figure out what plants and fungi are safe to eat, “Let’s be honest, we wouldn’t know what we’re doing with their job either.”

“At least botching their job couldn’t end in someone being poisoned,” She snorted, “And they probably think that we’ve got the easy jobs.”

“Let them live in their delusions,” Poison said, joining them.

“How was warrior training today?” Pierce asked.

“Ugh, don’t even get me started, Gem embarrassed me in front of everyone and Tide…” She let out an angry huff, “He was worried that she’d injured me so he sent me to a healer, even though I told him that I was fine.”

“Were you?” Scarlet asked.

Poison answered with a glare, and Pierce intended to ease the tension but caught sight of something more interesting. Violet was coming in for a landing, two hatchlings on her back and her husband by her side, also carrying a hatchling.

“Violet, how was your flight!” Scarlet called, rushing over to greet the black and silver dragoness.

“It was alright,” Violet replied, lowering herself to the ground so that her daughters could hop off.

Emerald emerged from the den and went to join them, “It’s been far too long Violet, you should really come visit more often!”

“I would,” Violet smiled apologetically, “But you know what it’s like up north, they just don’t have enough healers and I can’t leave my patients more than necessary.”

“Of course, and I’m so proud of you, helping the needy.” Emerald gave a sigh, “I just hope you’re safe up there if war breaks out, you know the human’s have been threatening our borders for some time.”

“I’m not quite that far north, we’ll be fine.”

“Well, your father and siblings should be getting to venison cooked soon, we’re mainly just waiting for Red to arrive.”

“Typical Red, he’ll probably make us wait as long as possible,” Violet sighed.

“I wish he would stop doing that, he knows it upsets your father.” Emerald cast a nervous glance towards her husband.

“That’s probably why he does it,” Poison put in.

The comment did nothing to sooth Emerald, and Pierce scanned the sky, though he had no hope for spotting his brother. He then turned his attention towards his nieces and brother-in-law. Wind was keeping the girls entertained with a small collection of handmade dolls, likely made of animal furs, and stuffed with cotton.

There was Blackberry, who was black and silver like Violet but with her father’s pale green eyes, Lavender was also black, but with green underscales, and their mother’s purple eyes, and lastly Sky was their father’s pale blue, with silver, and purple eyes. They were only six years old and rather hyper, they soon grew bored of the toys and began pretending to attack their father.

“Rawr, die evil mag’a dragon!” Lavender cried before pouncing onto Wind’s back.

Wind chuckled, “Magma dragon, eh?”

“No, no!” Blackberry said to her sister, “He’s a he-heyoomin, and he’s tryn’a steal fire dragon ter-ter...atery!”

Pierce suppressed a laugh and headed over to them, “Yes, we humans will steal all your territory!”

“Anoder one!” Sky cried, and the three bounded over to him, growling and snapping their teeth.

He hopped away from one as she tried to bite his foreleg, but another got hold of his wing, the third bit his tail, and the first jumped onto his back while he was trying to free himself of the others.

“You’ll never beat us, you monster!” Lavender cried.

Pierce plopped himself down on the ground and rolled onto his side, “No, I am defeated, I was no match for the might of the fire dragons!”

The three cheered and giggled, but continued their attack, nipping and scratching uselessly at his scales. He looked to Wind for help but the elder drake gave him a “you’re on your own” look.

“Hey!” he laughed, “You’ve won already, go hunt down a bear or something.”

“Oh!” Sky said, “Uncle Pierce, you gotta see our new toys, mommy made ‘em for us!”

“Yeah,” Blackberry chipped in, “Dere’s a wolf, a deer-”

“An’ a bear, like you mentioned!” Sky interrupted.

The three climbed off of him and retrieved their toys to show him. They weren’t quite masterpieces, but he could easily tell what they were supposed to be without being told, there was also a lynx, a rabbit, and a fox, enough that each could play with two.

“That’s cool, I didn’t now Violet could make stuff like that.”

“Mommy’s learning how, an’ we have a lot more at home!”

Pierce could smell the meat cooking now, and hoped that Red wouldn’t be too much longer. Wind was now encouraging the girls to get cleaned up for dinner, and everyone else was setting up a place to eat outside since the den was normally crowded enough with just the seven of them. He went to help lay out the greens and when he was nearly done he heard Scarlet call, “he’s here!” Sure enough, Red flew over the trees in that awkward way he always did, and landed a short distance away, covered in drying mud.

“Red, what in Arillia happened to you?” Emerald growled, “You’re filthy!”

“Sorry,” Red replied, not sounding sorry at all, “I was hanging out with the guys and lost track of time, I didn’t think I had time to clean up first.”

“You’re late,” Spark said cooly.

“No I’m not,” Red argued, as he made his way to the treeline, in the direction of the stream, “I was told to come for dinner, and dinner hasn’t started yet, if you wanted me here sooner then you should have said so.”

When Red was gone Emerald turned to her husband, “Can we...not have any arguments this time?”

“That’s up to him,” Spark said.

“It takes two to argue, and I don’t want things to end in disaster this time.”

Everyone was settled down and ready to eat when Red returned, clean, and looking not dissimilar to a wet cat; Dripping, and not one bit happy about it. He gave himself a rough shake at the treeline, trying to remove those last stubborn drops, then joined the family, sitting in the spot Scarlet had saved him between herself and Gem.

Pierce paid little attention to the conversation happening between Red, Violet, and their mother. It was smalltalk mostly. Instead he focused on the food, and getting some of the meat before it was all gone.

“Has the Queen said much to you about how things are with the humans?” Spark asked, catching Pierce's attention.

Red looked somewhat irritated, “No, I’m not privy to the kind of information, I’m only a guard.”

“Ah, that’s right, all your family connections and you still weren’t able to secure a better job than that of a lowly guard, why not an enforcer at least? It’s almost as much of a disgrace as your wings, I suppose that’s the reason you couldn’t get a better job?”

Everyone shared frightened glances, Emerald looked ready to strangle her husband, and Red shot their father a look of pure hatred, Pierce could see him gritting his teeth against whatever foul words were on his tongue, and felt a desperate need to get as far away as possible. In fact, several members of the family seemed braced to run. Violet and Wind actually got up and took their daughters elsewhere.

Red tore his gaze away from Spark with a scoff, “Family connections, you don’t even call your own sister by her name, whatever falling out you had it’s a surprise she wants anything to do with your son.”

Spark growled, “You speak of things which you know nothing about.”

“Wonder whose fault that is? Apparently even Aunt Orchid doesn’t know what went wrong.”

Pierce felt a jolt of surprise, Red rarely referred to her as Aunt Orchid, he often said that he didn’t like the informality of it, but it seemed that he was perfectly happy doing it to make a point.

“You’re right, I suppose you don’t have family connections, because you’re no son of mine.”

Red gave a laugh, and replied, “That’s a relief, I certainly don’t want to be attached to your family legacy; a murderer, and a whore queen, what wonderful grandparents, and lets not even get started on the father, it’s a wonder his wife and kids never left him.”

“Red!” Emerald snapped, “That’s enough.”

Poison, Scarlet, and Gem got up and put some space between themselves and the situation, Pierce joined them, but Smoke remained where he was, a sick look of excitement and fascination on his face.

“Oh, what I say is enough,” Red sneered, “But anything he says is just fine!”

“I didn’t say that!”

“I don’t even know why I agreed to come here, I’m done taking his-”

“Red really, this isn’t necessary!”

“Tell that to him!”

“Please, why can’t we just have a nice family dinner for once?”

“Ask him!”

“It takes two-”

Red swore, making their mother flinch, “I don’t care, I’m done, you can’t honestly expect me to sit there and take it while he criticizes me!”

Spark scoffed, “I’m not the one throwing a childish fit over something someone said.”

Pierce backed away several more steps as Red shared some choice words. He felt a stress headache coming on and retreated into the den, the girls following close behind.

“Well, that was a new record,” Poison said with a nervous laugh, “The arguing seems to start sooner every time.”

“And for smaller reasons,” Scarlet sighed.

The yelling was still audible in the main room, Gem and Poison stayed near the entrance to listen some more, but Scarlet said she was going for a flight, and Pierce headed for his room at the back of the cave. He passed by the guest room on the way and noticed Violet and Wind having a hushed conversation while the girls ate food that was smuggled in with them. Pierce considered whether or not he should have done the same, but decided that he wasn’t hungry anymore, all he wanted to do was go to bed early. Why did they still hope for good family gatherings?


Today's character art!

[IceRiver1020]

Chapter 3: Friends

The morning was chilly, and as always, it stabbed at the joint of his wing like ice daggers. Red buried himself deeper in the furs making up his bed. By midday it would be warm, as was typical for a spring day in southern Arillia, and he had no desire to leave bed before then, or even after it. The previous day’s events still haunted him, and even though he’d had work from eight that evening to four in the morning, he’d gotten little to no sleep.

Lies. Anger. Bitterness. Regret.

As usual, he’d purposely come later than his father would accept, and he’d purposely done so without washing up first, just to satisfy himself with their disapproval. Their disapproval hadn’t been satisfying though, it never was, but still he purposely incited it every single time. He hated himself for what happened as much as he hated his parents for it. Or more specifically, his father. Emerald hadn’t deserved any of it. He’d had to leave to go to work without any reconciliation.

“Red!” Dawn’s voice called from outside.

He cursed under his breath and rolled out of bed, he could pretend to be sleeping but if Zephyr was with her there wouldn’t be any use, he would invite himself in.

“Come in!” Red replied, walking across the single room den to greet her at the entrance.

“How’d it go yesterday?” Dawn asked, preceding Cove into the den.

“Zephyr said you snapped at Queen Orchid,” Cove added, “Right before he conked out.”

Red cursed again, “He’s not with you, I could have pretended to be sleeping.”

Cove laughed, “That bad?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“It’s okay, I don’t have the best family relations either,” Dawn said.

Cove cast her a sympathetic look and Red wondered if she’d told him much about it, she was very private. He knew that the two were close, but how close if she was letting down her walls?

“You look tired, have you been sleeping at all?” Cove asked.

“No, not for a lack of trying.”

“I could get something for you from Moon, she should have something to help you sleep.”

“It’ll be fine, I’ll just stay up the rest of the day and go to bed early tonight, my sleeping pattern won’t be easy to fix if I start sleeping during the day.”

“Well then why don’t we help keep you from dozing off?” Dawn suggested.

“Yeah,” Cove added, “Dawn and I were headed to the peaks today, I know of this cool cavern we should check out.”

“At this hour, it sounds cold, but I don’t have anything else to do today.”

“It’ll be fun!” Dawn said, leading the way out of the den.

“I’ve never explored the peaks much.” Red admitted.

“What, you’ve stayed in the center of this boring old crater all your life?” Dawn asked, “I’ve been up the peaks many times.”

“I’ve got both of you beat,” Cove laughed, “I used to visit the beach with my family once a year, the ocean is amazing.”

“Oh!” Dawn exclaimed, “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if one day we all took a trip to the beach together, the three of us, Zephyr, Night, and anyone else who wants to come?”

“That would be wonderful,” Cove said in a wistful tone, “I haven’t been there in years, Zephyr and I could show you all the best spots, there’s this secluded little bay, it’s beautiful, I’m almost tempted to move there one day.”

Much of their flight to the peaks consisted of Cove and Dawn discussing the beach, and the world outside the capital in general, Red quietly listening and enjoying their company while trying to fly straight, the ache from the morning chill made it harder. When they arrived Cove lead them into a landing outside the dark, toothy mouth of a cave.

“Just look at those stalactites, and stalagmites,” Dawn breathed, “Did anyone think to bring a lamp?”

Red and Dawn looked to Cove, who looked sheepishly back at them and said, “Guess I forgot about that, but we’ll be fine, just grab some branches off a tree to burn.”

As suggested, Red located the nearest tree and began stripping it of its branches, wishing he’d brought something sharp to make it easier. The larger branches he had to bite at the bases of to weaken them, and even then they put up a fight coming off.

“That poor tree,” Dawn laughed, “One would think it had murdered your family.”

Finally finished, Red spat out a mixture of wood and sap, “I’d have appreciated some help.”

Cove hummed thoughtfully, “Nah, looked like a good way for you to vent your frustrations, there’s no way I was getting between you and that tree.”

Red grinned, he had to admit that he did feel better, just a bit sorry for the now mangled tree. They gathered up the branches and altered several of them so that they worked better as makeshift torches, finally they laid all but one across Cove’s back and Red volunteered to carry it since he wasn’t much of a talker anyway.

Branch clamped between his jaws and burning with blue flames, they advanced into the cave, the flickering light of their torch dancing across the rough, natural walls. He stepped in something wet and glanced down, seeing that there were small puddles of water scattered across the cave floor. He looked up and blinked as a cold droplet of water splattered between his eyes, having dripped down from a stalactite.

“Where’s the water come from?” Dawn asked.

“Dunno, it’s cave water.” Cove replied.

“That’s a really lame answer,” Dawn chuckled, “What’s so special about this place that you just had to check it out anyway?”

“I’m not gonna tell you, that’d ruin the surprise!”

“Oh, is it that impressive?”

“Just wait and see.”

They found their way into a narrow tunnel, though it was more dry, and Red lead the way since he had the torch. Cove and Dawn continued to talk behind him, he was beginning to feel a bit like a third wheel, though he supposed it was his own fault, not being able to participate in any conversation. Eventually though they left the narrow tunnel behind, the torch burning low.

“I’ll carry the next one,” Dawn volunteered as Red lit a new torch.

The tunnels became more complex as they went on, twisting and splitting in several directions at once, though someone had marked the correct path with symbols carved into the stone so they didn’t get lost.

“How’s Violet by the way?” Cove asked as hey walked.

“Seemed fine, she and Wind seemed happy, the girls are six now and bundles of energy.” He heaved a sigh, “Honestly, we didn’t talk that much before things went downhill.”

“Ah, that’s okay, she’s staying a couple days isn’t she?” He replied, “You’ll have more time to talk.”

He hummed in response, not thrilled with the chosen topic. Couldn’t Cove talk to him about anything other than family? He almost wished to go back to when he was the one carrying the torch.

“Alright, something else then,” Cove chuckled, “You went with Zephyr and Night to the creek yesterday didn’t you?”

“Yes, I was going to keep dry at first, but then Zephyr started throwing mud at me and I couldn’t help beating his sorry tail in a mud fight, even Night joined in eventually.”

“Zephyr said that he was the winner,” Cove challenged.

“I assure you, I won,” Red replied confidently, “He was just too embarrassed to admit it.”

Cove laughed, “At least there seems to be an agreement between you two that Night is absolutely not the winner.”

“Pff, I bet Night will claim that he won too if you ask him.”

“I’m sure he will,” Cove agreed, “The three of you will have to have a rematch, but this time you’ll have me to beat too.”

“Hah, I’ll beat you soundly, just like I did your brother.”

“Don’t make me laugh!”

As they came to an underground stream Dawn tossed the dwindling remains of her torch into the water and lit the next one for Cove to carry, though he told them it wasn’t much farther before sticking it in his mouth. They leapt across the water one by one and continued on, the tunnel still winding but with much fewer forks and branching paths.

“How long do you think we’ve been in here?” Dawn asked.

“Hard to say,” Red replied, “A couple hours probably.”

“Olive would probably know, he knew a lot about caves…”

“Who?”

“Sorry, I was talking to myself, it’s nobody you’d know.”

He didn’t want to press her for more information so he tried to think of something else to say, it turned out however that a conversation topic wasn’t necessary because they finally stepped out into a massive cavern that could only be their destination. There was a dark underground lake which reflected in it’s placid surface the light of thousands of glowing crystals which were embedded into the walls and especially the high ceiling of the cavern, and the patches of wall that weren’t covered in crystal looked as though they used to be.

“Wow!” Dawn breathed, her metallic scales seemed to glow softly with the colorful lights of the crystals.

Cove dropped the torch, as the no longer needed it and the two said in unison, “I wish-” they broke off and glanced at each other sympathetically. Red felt severely out of the loop.

“You’re not the one that needs to wish anything,” Cove said reassuringly, “He’s with you.”

“Someday though, you won’t have to wish either.” Dawn replied.

Red was very confused about what they meant, but didn’t want to ruin the moment by asking invasive questions. The moment didn’t last long though, Cove glanced towards Red and then back to Dawn.

“I’m going to have a poke around some of those tunnels branching off over there,” Cove said, “I’ll let you guys know if I find anything interesting.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t go alone,” Dawn replied, “What if you get lost or-”

“I’ll be fine, I’m not going far and I’ll watch my step.”

“Alright then, just be careful...”

When Cove had disappeared into a tunnel Red looked to Dawn, “So, what should we do?”

“What?” She started, “Oh, well we didn’t get to talk much before…”

“Alright, well, what was it you and Cove were talking about?”

“Ah, you’ll have to ask Cove about his thing, it’s not my place to tell you about it…”

“You don’t have to tell me yours either if you don’t want to, I was just curious.”

“Well, it was about that dragon I mentioned earlier, Olive,” she gazed out at the lake, “He was my older brother.”

“I didn’t know your parents had more than one clutch.”

“They didn’t, Olive was adopted, but he was as much my brother as the others.”

“I guess he’s not around anymore?”

“He was a miner, him and his girlfriend died in a collapse many years ago…”

He’d known that her mother had died when she was very young, though she’d never said of what, but he’d never known that she even had an older brother. It brought to mind the many other things that he didn’t know about her, it would be easier to list all of the things he did know.

“You’re very secretive,” He noted, “I’m surprised Cove knows, I guess the two of you are pretty close.”

“He’s like a brother to me, surely you weren’t thinking of something else.”

“I admit it crossed my mind once or twice,” he chuckled, “But I’m not one to assume.”

Cove didn’t find anything else of interest and they poked around the cavern a little bit, collected a small bag of glowing crystals in an assortment of colors, and finally decided to return home, once again taking turns carrying the torches until they stepped out into the outside world, within sight of the mutilated tree.

“Oh, it’s a bit later than I expected!” Dawn said, “A couple hours after noon.”

“No wonder I’m so hungry,” Red groaned, “I didn’t even have breakfast.”

“We’ll find some food on the way home,” Cove replied.

The friends managed to catch some venison and ate it as it was, leaving the remains for wolves and scavengers, then foraged berries, mushrooms, and various foliage until they were satisfied. They decided to head to Red’s den first, then Cove and Dawn would return to their own homes, but when they arrived they found an armored dragon waiting for them.

“I was hoping you all would return soon,” the dragon said as they landed, he wasn’t one Red recognized, and based on size alone he appeared to be around ten to twelve years old.

“What’s wrong?” Red asked.

“The Queen made an announcement, that we are now at war with the humans, the three of you were missing so I was tasked with finding and informing you.”

“I see,” Cove replied, “Thank you for the message…”

“Citrus,” the drake introduced himself, aside from being small he was orange and yellow scaled, inspiration for his name perhaps, “I’m a newly recruited messenger, I may be small but I’m twenty years old and not to be underestimated.”

Cove smiled warmly and extended his wing, pulling the small dragon close, “Welcome to the family then Citrus!”

Dawn snorted, “Are you adopting him too now Cove?”

“Yes, this is my son now.”

“I’m what?” Citrus asked.

“Cove, you’re making the poor guy uncomfortable,” Dawn chuckled, “You’ll have to forgive him Citrus, it just means that he likes you, he’s such a dad.”

“This really isn’t the time,” Red said, “You heard what he said, we’re at war.”

“What better time to enjoy life then?” Cove asked, “If we frown all the time then what is life worth, and did we even live it?”

“Okay, you’ve bought me,” Citrus said, “You can adopt me now.”

“See, the bearer of bad news agrees with me,” Cove laughed.

Red tried to be less irritated by it all, he knew that Cove really was taking the situation seriously, he was trying to soften the blow for everyone including himself. Soon though, the Queen would be gathering her army and sending it north, even palace guards like themselves could get sent away to fight, and though humans were small and without the natural protection of scales, they were resourceful creatures, the armor they crafted was imbued with magic, and their mages could do devastating damage. Dragons would die.

When the others had gone and he was alone Red began feeling the affects of both his sleepless night and their adventure through the caves. It was still a bit early to be going to bed though, and he was wondering what he could do to keep himself awake for just a little longer when he caught sight of yet another dragon coming to visit. This time though it wasn’t a friend or a messenger, it was his brother-in-law.

The lithe blue and green drake landed lightly before him and said, “Red, I suppose you’ve heard the news?”

“The war, yes,” he replied, sitting down, “Is that what brings you here?”

“Not entirely, mostly I just wanted to pay you a visit, we don’t talk much.”

“No, I suppose we don’t, what do want to talk about?”

Wind sat himself down beside Red, “Don’t know, we could talk about anything, we don’t know each other very well.”

“How about Violet then,” the one thing he knew that they had in common, “I suppose the two of you are happy together?”

“Yes, I don’t think I deserve her,” Wind smiled, “She’s something special, and me… I’m just some fool she took pity on.”

Red raised a brow, “What makes you think that?”

“Well you know how we met I’m sure, when we were both working with Gold Leaf, but there’s more to it than that,” Wind pulled his wings tight to his sides, “I was more than Gold Leaf’s medicine maker, I was in a relationship with her, and at the time I refused to call it what it was, abusive.”

Red’s ears flattened, he’d known that Violet despised Gold Leaf, now he was finding out why, “You don’t have to go into detail, I imagine it’s difficult for you to talk about.”

“I’ll just give you an idea what it was like,” Wind decided, “She was nice in the beginning, but eventually her true colors showed, she seemed to like making me feel useless, she also knew my weaknesses and exploited them, if I did the slightest thing wrong she would tell me what a clumsy idiot I was, rarely did she cause me physical harm but that’s far from the only kind of abuse.”

“Why are you telling me all of this?” Red asked, wondering how he’d earned the kind of trust required for Wind to share his story.

“Do I have to have any one specific reason?” Wind replied, “There are several more vague ones.”

“I’m just a little surprised that you trust me enough.”

“It’s in the past, it still has effects on my self-confidence and sense of worth, but it was eight years ago, it’s something that I’m trying to put behind myself, and I’m happy now, all thanks to Violet, I don’t know where I would be now if I hadn’t met her, and now I have the girls too.”

“What about your family, like your parents or siblings?”

“I’m an orphan, and I never knew my siblings, they all either got adopted or had different foster parents,” he explained, “Gold Leaf’s aunt and uncle were my foster parents actually, and they never had enough time for all of us so I wasn’t particularly close with them.”

“One of my close friends is an orphan as well, though he had better luck than you did.”

“That’s good, me and Violet have actually been talking about adopting someday, I’d like to give some kids the chance I didn’t have.”

“What made you decide to be a medicine maker?” Red asked.

“Well, originally I was training to be a healer, but I didn’t quite have the stomach for it, so I settled for being a medicine maker, it’s equally as important, and though many healers know how to do both there are still others who don't, especially in places farther from the capital. But what about you?”

“Believe it or not, I used to like my dad, a long time ago I wanted to be like him, and more than that I wanted to be able to protect others,” He frowned, “Violet and I decided what we wanted to be at about the same time, when Slate died.”

“She told me about that, she also said it made you afraid of water.”

“What other embarrassing things did she tell you?” Red chuckled.

“How about that time you tried to fly and broke your wing?”

“Ugh,” Red winced, but still smiled, “She didn’t tell you why did she?”

“Actually, she didn’t, she just called you an idiot,” Wind replied and the two laughed together.

“Yeah, that sounds like something she would say,” he sighed, “We used to be really close, but now we almost never talk.”

“How about we come over here for dinner tomorrow?” Wind suggested, “After what happened last night I wouldn’t expect you to go back to your parents’ den.”

“That would be nice, and I really should apologise to mom.”

“That’d be a good idea,” Wind agreed.