Showing Some Restraint
#12 of The Life and Times of Jarzyl Mintaka (Slice of Life Stories)
Jarzyl comes up with a new sort of game to play with her friends.
Synopsis: Jarzyl comes up with a new game to play with her friends. (6,818 words)
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Jarzyl Mintaka entered the library and headed straight for the front desk. She didn't know whether it was a deliberate effect created by magical spells or just something she was entirely imagining, but it always felt like the Library of Avaeria somehow possessed an aura of respect and seriousness. The place was so quiet that speaking in a hushed whisper came naturally, and the long rows of looming bookshelves seemed to silently speak of deep knowledge and countless stories waiting to be discovered. Readers or researchers wandered through the shelves to browse, or lounged at designated reading areas to read storybooks or pore over research papers.
Though Jarzyl had recently learned to fly and thus qualified to be called a fledgling, she was still quite a bit smaller than an adult dragon. Going over to the front desk, the young dragon reared up on her hindlegs and waved her wings to catch the attention of the librarian. "Hello!" she said, in an cheerful but quiet voice.
The drakka look up from her paperwork, then peered over the desk and stared down at Jarzyl. "Hello. Do you need help, dear? You have a book reservation, or are you looking for something?"
Jarzyl's neck frill perked up. She told the librarian exactly what she was looking for.
"Ah. Well, I believe... Try the restricted section. Let me just activate the elevator for you." Standing up on all fours, the librarian strolled over to a nearby elevator. Jarzyl followed quickly, taking multiple scampering steps for each broad stride the librarian made.
The librarian stepped into the lift and did something with the control panel, then she pressed the button for the lowest floor, deep in the basement of the central library. "Ok, you can just have a looksee around there. Else you could try the non-fiction section too."
Jarzyl stepped into the elevator and nodded her head. She sat down on her haunches. "Ok. Thanks!"
"No problem. I hope you find what you're looking for." The librarian stepped out and went back to the front desk, and the elevator doors closed.
Jarzyl had never been to this part of the library. She had seen the restricted section listed on the floor directory and labelled on the elevator buttons, but she'd never gotten the chance to find out what exactly was kept in somewhere as ominously named as the restricted section.
As the elevator car rapidly descended to the lowest level of the library building, Jarzyl wondered what sort of strange mysteries she might find. But when the doors opened again, the place appeared anticlimactic--she'd been hoping for a secret laboratory or a massive vault, but instead it was just another large room with yet more rows of bookshelves. There wasn't even any dramatic lighting or patrolling security guards.
Jarzyl hopped to her feet and trotted out of the elevator. The doors slid quickly shut behind her, nearly pinching her tail. Why would books need to be restricted anyway? The books on the shelves didn't look different from normal books, except most of them looked very old and each one was encased in what appeared to be a clear protective hard-casing instead of being left out on a shelf like normal books. Jarzyl imagined they were secret tomes filled with dangerous knowledge, cursed books about dark magic, or banned history books which spoke of supressed political conspiracies. However, finding out about all that could wait a while. Moving down the aisle, Jarzyl walked past several rows of bookshelves until she manage to locate precisely what she'd come here to find.
Standing in the middle of one row, a black-scaled, three-legged fledgling was pushing a cart filled with books, nudging it forwardly slowly with his snout. Several bands of blue coloured fabric were attached onto the fledgling's flight harness, inscribed with the insignia of the Avaerian Library Division and marking him as a librarian just like the drakka at the front desk.
Stopping her target, Jarzyl charged.
"Uhh!" The three-legged fledgling, whose name was Atlas, gasped when Jarzyl tackled him in a sudden hug. He tensed up immediately, then relaxed when he saw it was her. "No playing around in the library..." he muttered.
Jarzyl wrapped her wings around Atlas and hugged him tightly, then she let go after a few seconds. "Hello! Did you miss me?"
"No. It has literally been just a few hours since I last saw you at school. How could I possibly be missing you?" Atlas replied. He resumed pushing his cart down the row, shoving it forward with his shoulder and moving slowly with his asymmetric three-legged gait. "What are you doing here? How'd you get access to the restricted section?"
"I came to find you, obviously, and the librarian told me I would find you down here. It's no fun sitting at home all alone, and Caden had a change of plans so she can't come to my place until later in the afternoon before dinner. Sleepover tonight... so exciting! I just can't wait." Jarzyl playfully batted at the tip of Atlas's tail, then she trotted forward to walk beside him. "After your work, you're coming to my house straight away, right?"
"Right, but not now. Now I'm busy with work. I'm supposed to shelve all these books before my shift ends," Atlas replied.
Jarzyl drooped her neck frill and shuffled her wings. It was her friend's choice to work if he wanted to, but it made her feel like he was growing up faster and being more responsible than her. "Work. Work. Wooooork_._ You're a part-time librarian now--hmm, does that make you a civil servant?"
"I... I suppose so?"
"Cool. So you serve the city now." Jarzyl hopped up onto Atlas's book cart and sat down on an empty spot, coiling her tail around the handle for balance.
Atlas looked around, but of the few other dragons who were in the restricted section, none were paying any attention to the two fledglings. He kept pushing the cart, though it moved slightly slower than before. "You're not supposed to sit on that. It's for books only."
Jarzyl chose to ignore that fact. "But why are you working anyway?" she asked. "We're students. That's already a full-time occupation. Why not wait till you're a full proper adult drakken before working?"
"Because I'd like to start earning some money right now. Since unlike you, I don't have rich parents and a powerful clan to back me up."
Jarzyl shook her head. "Oh, that is not true! Well, the powerful clan part is true (yay Mintaka!), but my parents aren't rich."
Atlas gave her a sceptical look, raising one eye ridge. "Your mother is a senior healer, and your father is a clan wingleader. Jarz, you live in sector one. And you think you're not rich?"
"Lots of people live in sector one! It's the most populated city sector," Jarzyl countered. "I'm not rich. I feel very modest and humble and middle class."
Atlas snorted. "Pfft. Your grandfather is North Mintaka--the prime wingleader of Mintaka clan? Quite possibly the most powerful drakken in Avaeria."
Jarzyl squinted at her friend. "Hey! How do you know that? I've never told you that--I've never told _anyone_that. Prime wingleader is just a... presiding role, not a strict leadership. Anyway it doesn't matter who my grandparents or parents were, since I'm me and I define myself. Stop making me feel weird."
Atlas halted and picked up a book from the cart (which was, as all the books were, encased in a clear hard casing) then hopped up onto his hindlegs and slid that book into the appropriate place on a nearby shelf. "Anyway since you asked--I know who your grandfather is because ancestry and clan records are publically available information. Anyone can look that up if they want. Those records happen to be located upstairs right in this same building, as a matter of fact. Level 3."
"Huh. I didn't know that. Wait, so you mean that you looked my name up and specifically checked my clan information?"
Atlas shrugged. He resumed pushing his cart, with Jarzyl and books atop it, down the aisle. "The data archive was there, so I just searched anyone I could think of. I was curious."
"Interesting. Maybe I should look your records up!" Jarzyl replied teasingly.
"You can try. Do let me know if you actually manage to find anything," Atlas said, sounding mysterious as usual. There was always something quiet and faintly mysterious about Atlas--he seemed to have a strange ability to be totally immune against probing questions or awkward silences, so Jarzyl still hadn't managed to get her three-legged friend to tell the story of how he'd lost his foreleg. Surely if it was just a mere hatching defect he wouldn't have been so secretive about it. They'd been friends for so many years, and she'd vowed to one day find out.
Right now, however, there was other hidden knowledge that Jarzyl was curious about. "So anyway, what's up with this restricted section? Why are these books restricted? Are they... cursed? Or evil? Or banned?"
Atlas also tended to be very straightforward. Someone else might have joked about the question or asked her to guess, whereas Atlas just told her the answer. "What? Evil? How can a book be evil? The books in the restricted archive aren't restricted because of their contents. They are kept here because they are very old historic texts which have to be handled specially. Researchers have to be very careful with these books so they don't get damaged."
Jarzyl felt her neck frill drooping. The mystique of the restricted section seemed to fade away, displaced by mundane reality. "Oh. Well that's boring!"
Atlas didn't agree. "Boring? This is fascinating. Some of the volumes are ancient! You think that you or I are young? But every dragon in the city is young when you think about how old some of these books are. There are texts that predate the maiden flight of Avaeria, or even the development of the Diracore settlement. They are as old as civilization! Tales from a different time far before we could build airships or summon lighting from thunderclouds--stories and records of an era when dragons clans were just tribes, and when we lived in caves and trees."
"Oh. Well... then it's not so boring when you put it that way," Jarzyl admitted. "So when are you done with your shift?"
Atlas stopped pushing his cart and sat back on his hindlegs. He reached into the shoulder pouch of his flight harness and pulled out a pocket watch (which Jarzyl recognized, since she'd given it to him as a gift several years ago). "Not so soon. Why don't you head back up to the normal book section and find something to read? I'll come find you when I'm done."
Leaning towards her friend, Jarzyl gave him a friendly lick on the side of his neck. "Ok. Have fun with your job!"
"Are you carrying those books home as part of your librarian job, or did you just borrow them from the library because you want to read them?" Jarzyl asked, nodding the overstuffed pouches of Atlas's flight harness. Her friend was carrying at least half a dozen books, or possibly even more than that.
"What do you think?" Atlas replied.
Jarzyl knew her friend well. "I think you borrowed them to read."
"You are correct!"
"Yay!"
The two dragon fledglings were walking down the road together, heading from the Library of Avaeria and towards the residential zone where Jarzyl lived with her parents. Atlas was carrying so many books that Jarzyl wasn't sure if he could even manage a takeoff, but it was alright if they just walked--her home was close enough.
Sector One, commonly referred to as the central district or just central, was the dense city core located right in the middle of Avaeria. Many important places were found here--marketplaces, museums, the medical centre, their school, and even industrial facilities like the city's primary power core and master propulsion control. Every dragon clan had their headquarters in Sector One; ranging in size from a modest office in city hall for the smaller clans, up to multiple whole buildings for the larger clans (Jarzyl's clan, Mintaka, had several office towers).
All this importance translated to a busy place. Dragons could be seen soaring through the air above them, flying from one location to another, and even the street had lots of people making their way through the sector. Jarzyl had grown up in the busy, hectic environment of the city core, and she was well used to it. As they left the commercial areas and entered the residential zones, some of that busyness quietened down as office towers were replaced by apartment towers and large neighbourhoods.
"Do they even pay you very well? To be a part-time librarian?" Jarzyl asked her friend, as they walked slowly side by side.
"They pay me more than I would get if I didn't work," Atlas replied, which Jarzyl interpreted as a no.
"Hmm. So is shelving books the only thing you do in your job?" she then asked.
"There are other things too. The books you can actually borrow from the library are just one part of what's done there--there's also archiving, records, documentation, research, and outreach. I don't do most of that. I just help the actual librarians when they do."
"So grown up! Getting a job and being responsible!" Jarzyl cheerfully exclaimed. Running up to a nearby wall, she jumped up and did a backflip off the wall, flapping her wings to complete the spinning motion before flicking them open in a dramatic flourish. "I don't want to grow up! Work sounds boring. I'll be forever young." She pranced from paw to paw, alternating between legs with springy steps.
Atlas kept walking forward at his steady pace, limping because of his missing foreleg. "You'll have to grow up eventually. Everyone does. And if you ask me, doing nothing with your life is more boring that having a proper job and something to do with your time. Maybe you don't feel that way cause you already spend lots of time in school."
"Maybe," Jarzyl conceded. She didn't really want to think about the future--school was tough enough already, without even having to worry about what came next. As they continued walking down the street, she nudged Atlas's shoulder with her own. "Do you need help carrying your books? They look heavy."
Atlas shrugged, making his wings bob up and down on his back. "I can manage. I've always managed."
"That doesn't mean I can't help. Here, let me take that." Jarzyl unclipped Atlas's shoulder pouch from his flight harness and clipped it onto her own. She could feel the solid weight of the books inside, but it would take more than that to weigh her down.
"Thanks," Atlas said, but Jarzyl wasn't done yet.
She leaned back on her hindlegs and leapt entirely over Atlas to his other side, then she unclipped his other shoulder pouch and carried that too. "Here. Give me that. I can carry that too."
Atlas looked amused by her antics. "Are you just impatient to get home? Am I walking too slowly for your liking? We could always have just flown, you know."
"I'm not impatient! I move forward in time and space at the ideal speed!" Jarzyl retorted, even though Atlas was correct. Admittedly her friend was walking faster now that she helped him carry his books.
"Or maybe you just have too much energy and need to burn some of it off," Atlas also observed, which bothered Jarzyl because he was again correct. Atlas always seemed rather quiet, but it wasn't from a lack of things to say.
"Too much energy? I'll show you too much energy!" Jarzyl smacked her tail against the ground, pretending to look offended, then she turned to Atlas and charged at him.
The dark-scaled, three-legged fledgling braced himself, expecting her to try tackling him, but instead Jarzyl ducked down and slid perpendicularly between Atlas's foreleg and hindlegs. Standing up, she lifted him entirely off the ground. His weight was on her shoulders, and she used her wings to keep him balanced as she carried him.
Atlas didn't struggle, but he sounded faintly surprised. "Oh! Ok. This is... I'm up here now."
"Damn right! Did you know this is how medics are supposed to carry injured people? Dragon down--emergency evacuation needed! Let's go! Yaaaah!" Letting out a cheer that wasn't quite a roar, Jarzyl sprinted down the road and headed for home, literally carrying her friend on her back.
"You can put me down. I am quite capable of walking, believe it or not," Atlas said.
Jarzyl panted as she caught her breath, but she didn't put Atlas down. Her friend's scaled underbelly felt warm against her upper back, and she could feel his chest vibrating when he spoke. Now they were deep in the residential zone, heading past rows of houses; Jarzyl's home was just a few streets away. "No! You don't think I'm strong enough? I'll show you!"
"It's really not about your strength. This is an impractical way for us to travel," Atlas said. If he had struggled or actually put up some resistance Jarzyl would have put him down, but he didn't, so she didn't.
Jarzyl took a deep breath and prepared herself. At first carrying Atlas hadn't been so hard, but now it felt like her bones and muscles were being strained. Nevertheless, she had started this task and she was going to finish it. "I can do this! Hhhuuuhh!" Sprinting forwards again, she ran down the street and turned the corner towards her home.
Houses in Avaeria came in all sorts of designs, but almost universal in the City of Wings was the requirement for compact construction and optimized use of space. Jarzyl's home was near the Sector One border and partially embedded in the ground, as were many of the houses in this residential area. As she ran down the street, in between passing houses Jarzyl could catch glimpses of the sector border--at the edge of Sector One, the concrete and steel which made up the ground just stopped abruptly, leaving nothing but open air. Sector Five, the adjacent city sector, was visible a short distance across this gap, linked to Sector One by interconnecting bridges and huge supporting struts. Both sectors were just modular parts of Avaeria--a colossal floating city, held up in the sky by unthinkably powerful magic.
When Jarzyl reached her front door, she spun and whipped her tail around to knock the door. She was still carrying Atlas on her back, slung perpendicularly behind her shoulder blades and between her wings. "Are you going to put me down now?" asked the three-legged fledgling.
Jarzyl flicked her neck frill and grinned. "Nah."
A few seconds later, the door was slid open by a drake with scales of warm gold. Jarzyl's father didn't seem surprised by the sight of his daughter carrying Atlas. "Welcome home. Why are you carrying Atlas?"
"Thanks! I've abducted a prisoner!" Jarzyl happily replied. "I mean--I've abducted a friend. Wait. I mean--I've brought back a friend. Yes!"
"I suppose you have. Hello to you too, Atlas." Stepping back from the doorway, Jarzyl's father let her trot into the house, still conveying Atlas on her back.
Atlas tried to bow his head, though this gesture was slightly awkward with his position. "Good evening, drak. Thank you for... letting my stay over in your house tonight."
"You're very welcome. Any friend of my daughter is a friend of mine." Jarzyl's father nodded his head towards her room. "Caden just arrived too. She's in your room."
"Ok! Nice. So Caden's early after all!" Jarzyl scampered over to her room, where another of her friends was waiting. Caden was sitting near the balcony window and peering over the edge--being at the sector border meant that if one looked down over the edge, it was possible to see the actual ground far, far below, over which the city was flying.
Whereas Jarzyl scales were a bright orange and Atlas's were a sooty black, Caden's colouration was a modest leaf-green. Caden turned around when Jarzyl scampered into the room, but she also didn't look surprised to see Atlas being carried. "Hey," she said in greeting, raising her head fractionally in what might be considered an attempt at a polite bow.
"Heey!" Jarzyl chirped back. With great effort, she jumped up onto her bed. Finally dropping Atlas down, she slumped onto the mattress and panted tiredly. "Oh, that was tiring. Huuh. Whooh. You and your books (whew!) are actually rather heavy."
Atlas stood up and shook himself all over, dislodging a few loose scales. "Congratulations, you successfully proved... I don't know what you proved. I'm not quite sure what the goal of all that was."
"Life isn't about goals! It's about the journey. Or something," Jarzyl said.
Atlas nodded towards Caden. "I would just like to make clear that I am entirely capable of walking, and it was Jarzyl who decided to sweep me off my feet and sprint all the way home."
"Yeah, I'm not surprised. It's the sort of thing she would do," Caden agreed. "She's got too much energy."
Still sprawled out on her bed, Jarzyl unclipped the book-filled harness pouches and pushed them towards Atlas, then she tugged the quick release catches of her flight harness and struggled out of the gear entirely. "Alright! We're home. Now let's doing something more interesting."
Caden spread her wings and twirled herself around. A pair of black cloth pennants was tied around the tips of her wings, and the thin narrow flags trailed around as she moved her wings. "Mm? How do I look? I think I look good."
Jarzyl nodded happily. "You do! You look great! Just like a proper official of justice."
"Nice." Caden curled her neck into a graceful S and tried to look regal. "Ok, give me my introduction."
"Behold: Officiate Cadencial Hasilt-Taslin the Gorgeous and Green-scaled, chief officiate of law and also rules and regulations and the other things. Wearing the official looking attire, which looks very nice. Mm, yes," Jarzyl declared.
"Thank you, thank you! I am outstanding," Caden agreed.
"Oh yes." Using her paw, Jarzyl adjusted the ragged old patchwork blanket which was tied around her own neck. "And how does the Cape of Villainy look on me?"
"Suitable villainous," Caden agreed, bobbing her head up and down. "But isn't that supposed to be the Cape of Evil, not the Cape of Villainy?"
"Father doesn't like it when I say I'm acting evil, but acting villainous is alright," Jarzyl explained. "Ahem! I am Jarzyl Mintaka the Nefarious, villain who will take over the City of Wings and bend it to fit my nefarious plans." She hopped up and down and flicked her wings, making her improvised cape flutter dramatically.
Her "cape" was made from a patchwork blanket that she'd used to sleep with back when she was still a young hatchling. Eventually after years of use the blanket had gotten so tattered that her father had decided to replace it instead of continuously repairing it. Of course, Jarzyl had been heartbroken by this change and refused to sleep in her own bed for a few nights until her father had given this old blanket back to go along with the new one. Thinking back about it, Jarzyl felt faintly amused by how childish she'd once been, getting so overly attached to a simple blanket... although admittedly she still hadn't gotten to throwing out the old blanket. At least now its raggedness made it ideal as a cape which a villain would wear, lending appropriateness to their games. The blanket was made from a mix of coloured cloth squares all sewn together, and Jarzyl rubbed her cheek against her favourite patch which was comfortingly fluffy and soft. It smelled nice and familiar and like home.
Instead of being multi-coloured, Jarzyl's new (at the time) blanket was a plain white quilt, which made it an excellent contrast against Atlas's dark scales. The three-legged fledgling looked awkward with the blanket tied around his neck, but Jarzyl thought he looked superbly heroic. "Oh yes! We all look fabulous! Atlas looks great in the Cape of Heroes. Excellent! So heroic!" Jarzyl happily declared.
"I don't think I look that heroic," Atlas noted.
Jarzyl flicked her neck frill. "It's what's on the inside that counts, not the outside. As long as you feel heroic, you _are_heroic."
"What if I don't feel heroic on the inside either?" Atlas countered.
"Then that makes you even more heroic because the greatest heroes don't want to be heroes. When everyday people rise to the challenge, that makes them the true heroes! Or something. I read that in a book once, I think? Anyway let me do your introduction."
"Ok...?" Atlas said.
"Let's hear it," Caden agreed.
Jarzyl cleared her throat. "Ahem. Behold, Atlas Tyces, greatest champion of saving the world and things! Bold and heroic and ingenious! He of the dark scales and... uh... Wait, what colour are your scales? Are they black, or just a really dark grey?" Jarzyl trotted over and peered closely at Atlas's side. "I used to think you were black, but sometimes your scales have this weird sort of... shimmer look which makes them seem dark grey."
Atlas shrugged awkwardly. "I don't know? My scales are just black. I don't know what you mean by shimmer look."
Caden walked over to Atlas's other side. "That faintly shiny look is called lustre--your scales have lustre. It's normally really hard to get a smooth lustre effect because that requires polishing all your scales perfectly, and if you don't do it right then your scales will look uneven." Caden used a paw and poked Atlas's shoulder. "But when your scales are just a flat colour, then naturally they all look even and lustrous without polishing. And dark coloured scales just makes things even easier because that hides any scratches or asymmetric scale plates. Trust me--I waste so much of my time polishing my scales, trying to make them look good."
"Interesting! I did not know all these things. I thought scales are just scales," Jarzyl said. "But as I was saying: Behold, Atlas Tyces the heroic cape-wearing hero! He of the sooty scales and the silent judgemental stare! Three quarters dragon, one quarter dragon but without the leg part!"
Caden looked like very much she wanted to laugh, but she held it in. "Are you... are you allowed to say that?"
Atlas tilted his head. "That is... technically true, so I will allow it."
Jarzyl excitedly shuffled between all four paws. "Oh yeah! We're heroes and villains and in-between neutral parties."
"So what is the game today? Tag?" Atlas asked.
"Sure. Or we could just do duelling." Jarzyl reared up on her hindlegs and spread her wings. "Rawr! As villain, my heinous villainous plot is to take over the world and kill everyone. Agent of Justice, I challenge you to a duel to the death. Fight me!" Then Jarzyl charged at Caden tried to tackle her.
"Tss! Fight me yourself, coward!" Caden bared her teeth and hissed, then she dodged to the side before ramming into Jarzyl's side. The two fledglings went down in a messy scramble of limbs as they both attempted to pin down the other.
Atlas slowly trotted over. The three-legged fledgling stayed well clear of the tussle. "As hero, I maintain strategic neutrality," he decided.
"Neutrality is for cowards! Help me! Or fight me!" Jarzyl yelled, then she tried to bite Caden's neck.
Caden resorted by pushing Jarzyl's snout away with a paw. "Pin her tail! Come on, don't let Jarzyl win!"
Atlas sighed, and for a moment Jarzyl thought he really wasn't going to join in the game, but then he lunged forward and grabbed at her tail. It was a messy, chaotic sort of fight where on one was really trying to harm anyone else, but also none of the three fledglings were entirely clear on who was winning or even who was fighting against who.
It took a few minutes, but eventually the three-way conflict ended in a vague stalemate with their limbs all tangled up and everyone panting tiredly. "Truce. Truce! Hold... I declare an all stop," Caden panted. The green-scaled fledgling rolled onto her front and pulled her tail free from under Atlas's chest.
"Argh... Who won that round?" Jarzyl asked.
"No one. In war, there are no winners, only survivors," Atlas said, but Jarzyl grabbed her cape (which had come loose during the brawl) and tossed it over his head. Atlas took her cape and put it back on the bed. He was still wearing his own cape--the white blanket was still tied around his neck.
"Anyway, anyway... While waiting for Atlas at his boring library job, I found a book that had some interesting things. I've got a new idea for a game that's related to a duel. Wait here; I'll be back." Still lying on her back, Jarzyl slid across the floor until her head bumped against the door. Rolling around, she scampered out of her room.
Caden and Atlas both exchanged a look. "What are the odds that this new game idea of Jarzyl's is crazy, ridiculous, or potentially insane?" Caden asked.
Atlas nodded. "Really high? But that's obvious--the challenge is to guess what it'll be. I'm thinking... some sort of torture game where we all see how long we can stick our tails into a pot of ice water?"
Caden burst out into chuckles. "Hahaha! That's terrible, but totally sounds like something Jarzyl would suggest. Don't let her hear you say that or she'll get more ideas. Or what about... uh... if we're thinking it's going to be a torture game, then maybe some sort of tickling thing where we see who can endure the most--"
Right at that moment, Jarzyl scampered back into the room, carrying a coil of rope in her jaws. She spat the rope out of her mouth, and stuck out her tongue. "Uggh, that tastes gross. Anyway, it's rope!"
Caden and Atlas exchanged glances again.
"Whipping," Atlas suggested.
"Choking each other," Caden suggested.
Jarzyl frowned at both of her friends. "What's wrong with you people? Why do you always say I'm the one coming up with the crazy ideas when you two are equally wicked? Anyway the book I was reading was about magical tricks. Not actual magic, but... illusion stuff. So I was thinking I'd have you guys tie me up as well as you can, and then I'd try to escape!"
Atlas trotted forward and poked at the coil of rope. It was moderately thick, about as thick as the tip of a fledgling's tail. "That's actually not a very crazy idea," he said. "Where did you even get this rope from?"
"The kitchen. Don't ask me what it's used for because I don't know, but I always saw it hanging around in one of the cupboards. So tie me up and let's see if I can escape. We can take turns, but I want to go first!"
"It's only appropriate that the villain gets tied up as punishment for her villainy," Caden agreed. She picked up one end of the rope coil.
Atlas picked up the other end of the rope. "So how do we do this?"
Jarzyl flicked her neck frill up and down. "Uh... I'm not actually sure. The book didn't go into that much detail because it was more focused on playing cards and coins."
"Let's just try it." Caden bit down on her end of the rope and she began walking around Jarzyl, pulling the rope behind her. With Atlas holding the other end, Caden coiled the rope around Jarzyl's body. After about a dozen times of circling around, Caden paused and tried to pull the rope taut. "Hmm, is this working?"
Jarzyl was sitting down and the rope was coiled all around her midriff, somewhat pinning her forelimbs against her body even if the rest of her was unbound. "Hang on. Don't make any knots yet, just hold the rope tight and let me see." Testing out her bonds, Jarzyl quickly discovered that this particular tie-up was easy to escape from. From just wiggling her wings and forelimbs, she could shift the rope until it was no longer binding her forelimbs. "No, this isn't working. It's way too easy to escape."
"Ok, let's think about this properly," Atlas suggested. "To get someone tied up, you need to restrain them so they can't move and they can't break free. That would mean we need to tie up all four of your paws, your tail, your wings, and maybe your snout too so you can't bite the rope? Do we even have enough rope for all that?"
"Well you don't need to tie up my snout. I won't bite the rope," Jarzyl said.
"Oh! I've got an idea." Caden ran over the Jarzyl's bed and tapped the bedframe. "What about instead of just tying you up, we tie you down to something? Then we don't need to bind your limbs fully, we just need to have you tied up against the bed."
"Like in stories where the hero is tied to the outer hull of an airship that is slowly moving towards the fountain of lava from an active volcano?" Jarzyl said.
"Yes, exactly like that, but without the airship and without the volcano, so not really like that at all," Atlas muttered.
"Worth a shot!" Jumping out of the rope coil entirely, Jarzyl went over to her bed and hopped on, pulling the rope behind her with her tail. She whipped her tail around and tossed the end of the rope towards Caden, who tried to catch it but missed.
"Ok, villainous tie up attempt, round two," Atlas said.
Jarzyl flopped belly down on her bed. "Do it!"
Caden slid the loose end of the rope under Jarzyl's bed, then Atlas went over to the other side and pulled it before tossing it over Jarzyl's back. Again and again they repeated this action, trying to use the full length of the rope to tie Jarzyl down.
Finally Caden took one end of the rope and tied it around one of the bed's legs, before taking the other end of the rope and doing the same thing. "Well that looks... Hmm. Hey, Atlas--uh, hero?"
Atlas blinked. "Yes, Officiate Caden?"
"What is your overall analysis of our prisoner restraining plan?"
Atlas peered at Jarzyl, then shook his head. "I don't know if this is the proper way to tie a villain up. It looks too comfortable."
"It is actually quite comfortable," Jarzyl confirmed. Even though Atlas and Caden had tried to pull the rope tight, the springiness of the mattress meant Jarzyl had some room to manoeuvre. The rope was repeatedly tied over her back, but it didn't feel very secure. "I don't know if this is much of a tie down. I could probably wiggle free."
"Don't wiggle free yet; we can try other things. What else could we do?" Caden wondered. She turned to Atlas. "Hero, come up with some better ideas to restrain the villain!"
"Hmm. Finding ways to trap someone doesn't seem very heroic, but let me think about it anyway." Atlas hopped up over to the end of Jarzyl's bed where her tail was facing. She couldn't see what he was doing because she couldn't turn around, but then she felt him grab a pillow and toss it towards her. "Maybe we could pile heavy things on her to pin her down. Not enough to actually crush her, but just enough to make it harder to escape?"
"That's an idea," Jarzyl agreed.
"There's not much around we could use, though," Caden said, glancing around the room. "Oh, I know! We'll just use you. Atlas, come here."
"Hmm?"
Caden stepped up onto the bed and sat down in front of Jarzyl, just ahead of all the ropes keeping her tied up. "Sit down on Jarz. Pin her down like in the duel," she told their three-legged friend.
Jarzyl could feel the mattress shift as Atlas came over from the end of the bed. "How do I...? Like this?" She couldn't see what he was doing as he was behind her, but then he used his hindlimbs to pin down her tail, which was flicking from side to side from curious impatience, then he used his sole forepaw to press down on her lower back. "How's that? I'm not hurting you, right?"
"You can try to pin me down much harder than that. It's not even a back massage," Jarzyl replied.
Caden shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Don't be so hesitant--be aggressive! Come on. Pin the villain down properly. Give her a proper showing." The green-scaled fledgling stood up and stepped over the ropes carefully.
Jarzyl couldn't see what was going on behind her, as she was still belly-down to the bed with multiple loops of rope going over her back, but the suddenly she felt Caden shove Atlas forward. He stumbled forward and landed on Jarzyl, with his chest pressed against her wings and his underbelly against her lower back. "Ooh! Hey," he grumbled.
Caden sounded pleased. "There we go. Very nice! Just put all your weight on her. Pin her down properly!"
When Atlas talked, Jarzyl could feel his chest rumbling now, pressed up against her back. "I'm not squishing you, am I?"
Jarzyl tilted her head up, and neck frill bumped against Atlas's chin. "Not at all. This is... actually even more comfortable than before." It felt strangely pleasant to feel Atlas pinning her down, with his three limbs going around her sides in a move that felt oddly protective. His scales felt smooth and warm as they rubbed against hers.
"You're not supposed to be enjoying this. You're supposed to be tied up and being punished for your crimes," Caden declared, though Jarzyl could hear that her friend was grinning. "Ok, now where were we? Ah, the villainous Jarzyl has been restrained! The hero has her pinned down and at his mercy."
"Curses, I've been captured, but no prison can hold me!" Jarzyl finally began trying to escape her bindings. The ropes were pushing her down against the bed (as was Atlas, still lying on top of her), but she could wiggle enough to shift the ropes.
"Uh, the villain is escaping!" Atlas noted. "Caden--I mean, Officiate Caden of the justice division, stop her!"
"Ok. Hm." Trotting forward, Caden tried to use the tip of her tail to jab Jarzyl's side, but the ropes got in the way, so instead she poked at Atlas's sides.
"Ah! Hey! Stop tickling me, you're supposed to be a force of justice!" Atlas exclaimed.
"Justice doesn't means side with good or evil, but just side with myself, so I can do whatever I want," Caden replied.
"Ah ha... Hey. Hey! Stop it... Ahhh... Nooo!" Atlas squirmed about on top of Jarzyl as Caden kept trying to tickle his sides.
Right at that moment, the bedroom door opened and a drake with scales of golden colour strolled in. Jarzyl's father took one look at the scene--his daughter tied down to her own bed, with one of her close friends lying atop her prone body, and another close friend sitting nearby--then he shook his head. His neck frill twitched once, but then went still. "Do I... even want to know... what you three are doing?" he asked.
The three fledglings glanced at each other. "Um. It was Jarzyl's idea," Atlas said.
Jarzyl's father didn't look like he doubted that at all. He opened his mouth as if about to say something, then he closed it again.
"I found rope in the kitchen, so I thought it would be fun to practice tying myself up and trying to escape...?" Jarzyl explained. "But then it was too easy to escape even after I was tied up, so Atlas was trying to pin me down too?"
Her father let out a sigh. "Alright. Well... That's... Ok. Dinner's ready, so stop doing...that and come eat."
"Food, yay!" Jarzyl wiggled forwards and out of the ropes, and Atlas hopped off her simultaneously.
"And so once again the villain escapes to fight another day," Atlas concluded. He untied the blanket from his neck and put it back on the bed.
Caden yawned widely, then she unfurled her wings and reached up to pull off her wing pennants. "Another day, then," she agreed.
END