Jar-zyl
#17 of The Life and Times of Jarzyl Mintaka (Slice of Life Stories)
There's plenty of adventure to be had even at home, as Jarzyl demonstrates to her friend.
This is a direct continuation of the previous story, but you don't need to have read that first to understand this slice-of-life tale. (3,800 words)
When Jarzyl woke up from her nap, the sun had dipped lower in the sky and evening sunlight now filled most of the living room. The dragon fledgling jolted awake, and she instantly hopped to her feet. "Ah! What just...? Did I...?"
Her friend, Atlas, had been lying down on the other couch on the opposite side of the living room, and he had been reading from a book placed between his paws. He glanced up at Jarzyl's sudden motion. "Good evening. I hope you've had a good sleep." Grinning faintly, he nodded towards her. "Clearly your cousin isn't the only one who needed an afternoon nap."
Jarzyl shook her head, and she tried to push back the sleep inertia which still had her thoughts feeling sluggish. "Sorry."
"No problem," Atlas replied, then he returned to reading his book.
Sliding off the couch, Jarzyl scampered over to the window balcony at the side of the living room. Stepping out onto the balcony, the young dragon stretched open her wings and enjoyed the brisk wind which washed over her body. Living in the City of Wings, outdoors was always windy. Flags and streamers of countless colours flapped from almost every building Jarzyl could see, ranging from low-level houses like the one she lived in with her parents (if anything in the City of Wings could be considered low), all the way to the immense skyscrapers that took up much of Avaeria. Flying was a quintessential part of being a dragon, and the many flags helped indicate local wind conditions to aide in airborne travel. Tall clan banners also proudly flapped from many buildings, indicating the affiliation of their inhabitants or owners.
Jarzyl adjusted the banner that hung from the balcony here--it had become tangled up, so she tossed it outwards to flap free in the wind. That banner proudly bore the insignia of Mintaka clan, and the fabric was appropriately tricoloured with a stripe of azure blue for her mother, a stripe of warm yellow for her father, and a final band of amber orange to represent Jarzyl herself, corresponding to their main scale colours.
Taking a deep breath, Jarzyl absorbed the broad, evening view of the city she had lived in all her life. The gleaming urban landscape was illuminated by warm sunlight coming from a dazzling blue sky half filled with puffy wide clouds--but the sun was at a lower angle now, closer to the horizon than the zenith. Jarzyl blinked, and then she turned around to glance at Atlas again. "How... long... was I asleep?"
"A couple of hours, maybe," Atlas replied.
"Huh." Crouching her forelimbs, Jarzyl stretched out her back and twisted her head from side to side. "Ok then. I guess Maycor's still asleep, otherwise we would hear him chirping."
"Probably."
"I'll go check." Jarzyl trotted back inside from the balcony, and then she headed down the corridor towards her room. Atlas slid the book he had been reading back into the back pouch of his flight harness, above his back but slightly further behind his wings. Then he stood and followed after her.
"Keep it quiet," Jarzyl whispered to Atlas, as they both stood outside her bedroom. Even as she said it, Jarzyl contemplated that this instruction was somewhat redundant since Atlas was almost always quiet and reserved. Regardless, she nodded her head in the direction of the closed door. "If Maycor's still asleep, I don't want to wake him up. Hopefully he just keeps napping until my parents come to pick me and him up."
Atlas nodded. "You're going for your Mintaka annual reunion dinner, right? It's getting close to dinnertime."
"Yep." Slowly Jarzyl slid open her bedroom door and peeked into the darkened room. Inside it was dark and quiet, with the only motion being the opaque curtains gently blowing in the late afternoon breeze. Maycor was still wrapped up in blankets and sleeping--the young hatchling appeared to have fallen asleep while gnawing on one of the wooden bars of the cot, and some of his drool had wet the mattress.
Jarzyl slid the door shut again, satisfied that her cousin was still asleep. "He's still napping. What a relief! Why did I ever agree to babysit my cousin? Hatchlings are so, so irritating."
Atlas raised an eye ridge. "You know, that's your cot he's sleeping in, and you were using it yourself just a few years back. Who are you to judge? Literally just two months ago, we were both still considered hatchlings too."
"But we were old hatchlings, whereas Maycor is young hatchling and he's irritating. We can fly! That means we're way better than hatchlings." Jarzyl flicked her wings. "Anyway..."
"Now what?" Atlas asked.
"I don't know, but I'm sure I can find something to do," Jarzyl replied.
Just as cautiously as she had pushed open the door to her bed room, Jarzyl used her snout to nudge the door handle of the study room before slowly pushing it open. "Ooh, the study is unlocked!" she chirped.
Atlas was standing beside her, and he raised an eye ridge. "Why is that surprising?"
"Because normally my parents keep the study room locked."
"So now you're trespassing?"
"Bah! No, of course not. I can't trespass in my own home," Jarzyl retorted, flicking her neck frill indignantly. Pushing the door fully open, she trotted into the study room. "I've been in here plenty of times, just usually when my parents are here too. They don't want me messing up their work and stuff." Spreading her wings, she gestured around--the study room was roughly the same size as her bedroom, but it held cabinets filled with documents, tall shelves filled with books, as well as a pair of working desks. A light field projector sat dormant near the window, filled with white enchanted sand that could be used to display shapes and objects.
Excitedly scampering forward, Jarzyl flumped herself down on one of the floor cushions that was placed in front of a desk, where her father normally sat while he was doing work at home. Keeping her forepaws on the ground, Jarzyl sat up straight and extended her neck. "Hehe, look! I'm not a tiny hatchling anymore! I'm tall enough to sit on the floor while also looking over the desk."
Atlas strolled into the study too. "Ok...?"
"Oh, hey--sit down and let's see which of us is taller." Springing back to her feet, Jarzyl ran over and sat down beside Atlas to compare her dimensions to her friend. By her estimation she was slightly longer than Atlas in terms of overall nose-to-tail length, and he was slightly skinnier. While seated however, their heads both came up to the same height.
"You're longer than me," Atlas noted.
"Yeah. But if we're just talking about height from the ground, we're about the same," Jarzyl replied. "Except... Why do you always...?" Standing up, Jarzyl walked behind Atlas and used her forepaw to pull back his shoulder and wing, while simultaneously using her other forepaw to press his back forward. "Sit up straight! Don't slouch!"
"Umm," Atlas said, but he did sit up straight.
Jarzyl sat down beside him again, and this time Atlas was slightly taller than her, though not by much. "You look so much better when you have good posture," she commented, then she used a paw to pat Atlas on the head in a manner that was simultaneously friendly and condescending.
Before he could react, Jarzyl stood up and went back to the work desk. "Anyway... I used to be so small that I had to sit on my parents' shoulders to see the desk! Father never let me sit directly on top of the desk, cause that would interfere with his work. Or maybe also safety or something." Rearing up on her hindlegs, Jarzyl leaned over the desk and snatched up a chisel that was amongst a collection of tools neatly arranged atop the work surface.
"I thought your father was a clan architect? He uses that for drawing up building plans? That seems excessively sharp and pointy for the task," Atlas drily commented.
Jarzyl waved the chisel around. "Of course not! He uses this... uh... thing to do stonework. You know my father has stone affinity, right? So he does stone carving for his design work, as well as for a hobby. He uses his magic, and his claws, and also tools like this one." Jarzyl used the chisel to pretend to work at an imaginary rock in front of her. "Stabby-stab-stab, and a rock gets cut into shape."
"Hmm." Atlas stood up and took a few steps to the side so that he wasn't quite in stabbing range, which made Jarzyl giggle.
"Hahaha..." Jarzyl put down the chisel and then glanced around the room, looking for something interesting. Though she was normally not allowed in the study on her own, she'd never actually had much reason to want to be in here. It was mostly just a boring place for her parents to do their boring adult work. There were a few things that were more interesting, however. "Oh, you see those stone shapes over there? My father carved those all." Hopping back to her feet, Jarzyl walked over to one particular bookcase which filled not with books, but instead was a display cabinet with sculptures.
Stonework of all manner of things were placed on display here--tiny, intricately-detailed flowers or trees, small sculptures of dragons posed to be flying, standing, or walking, as well as larger objects such as vases or abstract shapes, and even a large scale model that turned out to be a recreation of the entire City of Wings in all its dense, draconic, airborne glory--all made from grey or white stone.
"I always thought stone magic is boring compared to firebreathing, windriding, or the more exotic types of affinities, but I have to admit that all these carvings are fascinating," Jarzyl said.
Atlas nodded his head in agreement. "Any and all magic is useful if you are good enough at it."
"Yeah..." Jarzyl let out a soft sigh. "Huh. I wish we didn't have to wait be adult drakken for our magic to develop. Flying is absolutely the best thing ever, but being a fledgling would be twice as fantastic if we could use magic too."
Atlas didn't say anything in reply, but he nodded again in his solemn, agreeable manner, as he often did.
"Oh, hey, hey, check this out," Jarzyl said. Rearing up on her hindlegs, she grabbed a large elliptical object off the display cabinet, where it had been sitting on a stand. Putting the stone ovoid down on the ground, Jarzyl rested a paw at it and beamed at Atlas. "Look! I've never shown you this thing before, have I?"
"It's a... a rounded rock," Atlas concluded.
"It's more than just that. This is an egg! It's my egg," Jarzyl explained, and she patted her paw against the egg.
Atlas blinked a few times, then his brow furled as he squinted at Jarzyl. "Your... egg?
"Yep. I hatched from this! Sort of. Apparently while I was still in the shell, my father made an exact replica of my egg down to the exact size, details, and weight, and that's what this is," Jarzyl explained. Years ago when she had first noticed this replica and her father had explained to her what it was, Jarzyl had been very much confused by the idea that she'd hatched from an egg because she had no memory whatsoever of this event. Now though, she just found it amusing and a useful comparison to see how much she'd changed.
Tucking in her legs, wings, and tail, Jarzyl tried to compress herself to compare her current size against the replica of her egg. As best she could tell, she was about four times larger at the present--it was clear that she was growing, undergoing the fledgling growth spurt that was associated with gaining the ability to fly. Jarzyl shuffled her wings and nodded happily. "I'm no hatchling. I'm big now. A dragon fledge!"
"Hm..." Atlas made an intrigued noise, and he examined the replica egg. He gently lifted it up and down, feeling the weight. "This is... interesting."
"It is!" Jarzyl used her snout to nudge the replica egg, and it rolled about in a large circle on the floor until it was right back where it started. "It makes me feel weird to think that so many years ago, I hatched out of an egg that was exactly like this thing. Uggh, really weird. My father made this replica out of stone, but my mother made the real egg. Weeeeird thought!"
A faint, amused grin crossed Atlas's snout. "Technically, it wasn't just your mother who made your egg, was it?"
Jarzyl frowned confusedly. "Hmm? But I thought drakka made eggs? Uh... uh... I remember from science class it was only female animals that could make eggs, even dragons too."
Atlas opened and closed his mouth a few times, and he seemed to avoid eye contact with her, as if embarrassed all of a sudden. "I'm pretty sure your father helped your mother make _your_egg. And you. The process... isn't something you can do alone."
Jarzyl's confused frown only got more confused and more frowny. "Huh? Explain?" she demanded.
Atlas shook his head. "Maybe we should talk about something else. You really have no idea how eggs are made, do you?"
In response, Jarzyl stuck her tongue out at her friend. "Who cares? I don't need to know and I don't want to know, because if making eggs is anything like laying eggs, then it's completely disgusting and I'm never ever doing that," she replied, though mentally she made a note to figure it out. Her mother had many books and medical encyclopaedias from her healer training, and Jarzyl was admittedly curious. For some baffling reason she couldn't comprehend, increasingly more and more of the young dragons of her age were bringing up this specific topic in overheard conversation, treating it either as forbidden and embarrassing, or hilarious and joke-worthy. What was up with that?
Atlas definitely looked embarrassed now. He shuffled his wings and glanced away.
Jarzyl squinted her eyes and drooped her neck frill flat, then she let out a suspicious growl. "Rrrr... Fine let's talk about something else." Rearing up on her hinds again, she picked up the replica of her egg and placed it back in its stand on the bookshelf.
"Now what else is interesting around here?" Jarzyl muttered, glancing around the study. "Ah, what about _that_thing? I've always wondered what was inside." Right beside the bookcase there was a large vase made from polished smooth white marble stone, and she had long been curious about what was stored inside this vase. Her parents had always told her not to climb bookshelves or jump up walls with her claws, but now they weren't here to tell her not to.
Jarzyl leaned back on her haunches, then she scrambled up the wall with her claws and leapt up onto the large vase--it was concave in shape and near the top it widened out again. The young dragon landed atop the vase, balanced precariously on the flanged opening of the vase.
"Jarz, careful there..." Atlas warned.
"I'll be fine! I've always wanted to find out what was kept in here." Jarzyl tried to peer into the vase, but the inside was all dark and she couldn't see anything. Fuelled by curiosity, she leaned forward and stuck her head into the vase... and then promptly lost the grip of her forepaw and slipped forward. "Uh!"
Her whole head and neck ended up dangling inside the vase along with her forepaws, with only her wings keeping her from falling further inside. And it was all for nothing anyway--the inside of the vase was just empty except for a thin layer of dust. "Bother," Jarzyl muttered to herself, and her voice sounded amplified as it echoed around her. "Ok, right. So that vase is empty. All my years spent wondering for nothing. I thought it would be... I don't know...? Secret clan documents, or a stash of food, or something interesting."
Jarzyl tried to get up and out, but her current position made her forelimbs inoperable--the side of the vase was too slippery for her to push herself out, and her hindlegs were at a bad angle. She then tried to twist her body and flap her wings, yet this also had little effect. The vase was so large and heavy that even her mass wasn't enough to move it, so she remained stuck in her awkward inverted vertical stance with her head down and her tail upwards, trapped in the vase. "Bother..."
"Jarz, are you stuck?" Atlas asked. His voice was muffled from outside the vase.
Even without seeing her friend, Jarzyl could sense his judgemental stare. "No! I'm not stuck. I... just..." Again she flapped her wings and kicked her hindlegs to try to free herself from her predicament, but she couldn't find any way to escape. "I can... uhh..."
"You are stuck," Atlas decided.
"I'm not! I'm just having some difficulty with... Woah!" Jarzyl again tried using her wings to free herself, but she let out a grunt as she slipped even further into the vase, wedging her left wing at an uncomfortable angle folded against her side, trapped in the vase's narrow neck. "Argh. My wing! Ok. No problem. This is a solvable issue..."
Now using her hindlegs, Jarzyl tried to kick off the wall and pull herself out of the vase, but instead she ended up making it wobble. "You're going to--" Atlas started to warn her, but at this point there was nothing Jarzyl could do to correct. The vase wobbled about with her still stuck half in it, and then the whole thing rolled onto its side and fell against the floor with the solid clack of stone striking against tile.
"Nooo...! Oww," Jarzyl muttered, as her skull also bounced off the inner side of the vase. As the vase had slowly been tipping over she had felt a brief instant of terror, which now faded because the vase had been solid enough to not get smashed. "Ok, at least it didn't break. My father would have been grumpy if I smashed this vase."
At least now her hindlegs and tail were on the ground, so Jarzyl tried to back out of the vase... only to find that she was still stuck because her left wing remained half wedged in the vase, pressed against her upper back and keeping her trapped.
"Are you still stuck?" Atlas asked.
"No! As soon as I can get my wing loose, then... I'll... Hmmf!" Flailing about, Jarzyl tried to free her wing and her upper body from the base, to no avail. She tried backing out even further, but this only pulled painfully on her wing as she dragged the vase along, with her head and upper body still stuck inside it.
"You're still stuck," Atlas concluded in a matter-of-factly tone. "Do you need my help?"
"I require _no_assistance! I am entirely capable of... I can fix this by myself! Ngggh!" Beyond just being frustrating, it was a very vulnerable position to be stuck in this manner, unable to freely move or see anything outside. Finally Jarzyl gave up and went limp, slumping down against the ground. "Yes, I'm stuck. Save me please."
Atlas made a quiet, but familiar noise that sounded like a mix between a sigh and a chuckle. "Hah." Jarzyl couldn't hear him moving about, but suddenly she felt his forepaw on her rump. "How do you even do these things to yourself, Jarz?" he muttered. Atlas tried pushing her to one side, then he walked forward.
"Aih!" Jarzyl let out a surprised squeak, and she twitched when she felt something touch her side. "Oh! Don't tickle me! That's not fair."
"I didn't tickle you. That was just my wing brushing you by accident," Atlas said.
"You didn't? Huh." Jarzyl tried to flick her neck frill expressively, but it just tapped pointless against the inside wall of the vase, and Atlas couldn't see this gesture anyway. "Because if it was you stuck in this vase, I would totally have tickled you."
"I bet you would have," Atlas agreed.
For another long moment Jarzyl was just left to dwell in silence and darkness, and then... "YAHhhh!" She uttered a yelp and physically jerked away when she felt Atlas's tail tip brush right against her midriff, somewhere between her lower underbelly and her ribcage. Jarzyl crossed her hindlegs and made a few small hops. A shudder ran from her neck all the way down her spine, making her tail tip tremble and tap against the floor. "Ohhh! Oooh! That tickled! That one was intentional! Hey!"
"Yep, that one was," Atlas admitted. And then Jarzyl felt his paw on her scales again, but this time the point of contact was on her left wing, untwisting the limb and pulling it out of the vase. With her wing no longer awkwardly trapped, Jarzyl could finally back herself out of the vase.
Stepping her forepaws out of the vase, Jarzyl tiredly dropped onto her side and stared up at the ceiling, then at Atlas, who was again watching her with his silent judgmental stare. "Ooh! Ok. Right. Yes. Thank you."
"Clearly I see why your parents never trusted you to be here on your own..." Atlas said to her.
"It's fine. I'm fine. Totally all ok. Everyone gets stuck in a bad place every now and then." Jarzyl slapped her wings against the floor, then she flipped herself right side up and kicked back up to a four-legged stand. "Hey, but it could have been worse. Hehaha. Oh, oh! Atlas! Atlas!" A sudden burst of inspiration made Jarzyl giggle. Running forward, she snatched up a glass container from a shelf and gestured at it. "At least I didn't... I didn't get my head stuck in this jar, because... then it would be... Jar-zyl. Ahahaha. Get it? Jar. Jar-zyl? Hahahahahahaha."
Atlas fixed her with an incredulous glare for one second, then he burst out into laughter too. "Hahahahah...!" Shaking his head, Atlas tucked his head under a wing even as he kept laughing, as if he was embarrassed to show his mirth. "That's terrible! That's... Heh, hahaha..."
Waving her wings left and right, Jarzyl shuffled her four feet on the spot and danced to an imagined tune. "Yes, yes! Haha, Oh, yeah. Hahehe." While still maintaining her dance moves, she slid back over to the vase and pushed it back upright.
END