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_This was supposed to be a quick, sweet, short story, but it turned out to be about ten times as long as I planned (which is fine by me). Here's chapter one, which features an overly excitable young dragon on the verge of a school excursion. _

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"I am so very ready!" Jumping up and down, Jarzyl could feel the weight of various pouches weighing her body down, strapped to her flight harness. Most of the mass that she was carrying was concentrated in a large water pack, and though Jarzyl was personally doubtful that dehydration was as much of a concern as her parents and teachers had insisted it would be, it had been on the packing list and so she'd brought it. The weight barely slowed her down, and it did nothing at all to dampen her excitement, for today was sure to be an exciting day.

Sitting beside Jarzyl was one of her friends. Caden carefully adjusted the straps of her own flight harness, and she shuffled her wings so that they were gracefully furled on her back. "Do try to calm yourself, Jarz," suggested the other young dragon.

"But this is so exciting!" Jarzyl did the opposite of calming herself and sprung to her feet, then she leapt against the nearby wall and flapped her wings, doing a complete somersault before landing right beside Caden again. "This is the best day ever! I love field trips! And I love being a fledgling! We're finally allowed to go on field trips to places way outside the city!"

Caden did seem somewhat excited, although not quite at the level as Jarzyl. "I'm just glad for any opportunity to not have to sit through math class..."

"Oh yes. That too." Jarzyl excitedly bounced up and down on all four feet, then she dashed towards the nearby wall and did another backflip off it. "Hah!" Her claws made a clink sound as she kicked off the metal surface, before spinning through the air and landing on the ground again. Grinning widely, Jarzyl pranced about on the spot and waved her wings back and forth. She extended her claws, making each of her impromptu dance steps come with a clinking metallic sound.

Many areas in Avaeria were built from stone, but there were certain areas of the city where the construction instead used metal. Jarzyl and Caden were currently in a vast, enclosed rectangular area that seemed far too large to be considered a mere room--this was an airship hangar. The walls, floor, and ceiling of this immense space were all made from metal, and placed right in the centre of the airship hangar was, as expected, an airship, resting balanced between four large clamp arms that extended out from two opposite walls.

Equally metallic as the hangar that housed it, the airship was a stretched, angular oval-shaped ellipsoid with flat metal surfaces that glinted in the multiple spotlights that filled the whole hangar with light. Umbilical hoses and wires stretched out to the airship, serving as guideways for glowing tendrils of magical energy that spun around the wires as power flowed into the craft. On first entering this airship hangar, Jarzyl had literally jumped with glee on seeing the airship--all the way back from when she'd been a tiny hatchling, she'd loved seeing the massive metallic vehicles cruise their way across the sky supported by astoundingly powerful magic.

Even now that Jarzyl had grown old enough to finally fly using her own wings, the young dragon still found drakken airships fascinating. Instead of having wings, airships just floated wherever they were commanded to go in a manner entirely unlike how a dragon flapped their way around, and Jarzyl found that very interesting indeed.

Not that this field trip would be the first time she'd ever gotten to ride in an airship, but that didn't mean she wasn't still thrilled. Jarzyl glanced around the airship hangar, looking eagerly across the many dragons assembled here. It was mostly all young fledglings like her, along with their parents or guardians come to see them off on this day-long field trip. Her mother had needed to leave for work just after dropping Jarzyl off at the hangar, but her father was still here, standing at the other side of the hangar and chatting with some of the other parents.

Jarzyl felt her neck frill perking up from sheer, unrestrained excitement, and she joyfully tapped her paws against the ground. It was still early in the morning and in the harsh glare of the hangar's spotlights she could see her warm breath condensing in the cool air.

Curling her neck back, Jarzyl bit on the drinking tube that was connected to her flight harness's water bag to take a quick refreshing sip. It really was very exciting to be going on a field trip! The airship was big and glorious with its shiny angular hull, adorned with cloudy condensation gently wafting from its thruster ports. Glowing white tendrils of magical energy spun down the cables and clamps which connected the airship to the hangar, charging the power core that was hidden deep in the craft.

Just as exciting as getting to ride an airship was their destination for the day--although Jarzyl and her fellow schoolmates were old enough to be able to fly, this field trip was a considerable distance outside the city and so they were going to ride an airship out.

Glancing around, Jarzyl looked around to see if any of her other friends had arrived. "I'm going to go look around and see who else has already arrived!" she said to Caden.

"Good idea. You might as well go for a walk around the hangar if you've got so much energy," Caden replied, before flipping open a wing and lazily beginning to groom herself, using her tongue to lick her scales clean.

Hopping to her feet again, Jarzyl trotted away from Caden and went searching for other friends. Among the dozens upon dozens of young dragons here, she recognized many familiar faces, yet there were also many unknown fledglings she had never seen before. New people to meet and befriend--what an exciting yet anxious prospect. The city's Education Division was coordinating this field trip, with multiple different schools from across the city all riding together on one airship.

As she trotted about, Jarzyl exchanged greetings with various friends and acquaintances she came across. A blue-scaled fledgling named Pyxis was sitting back on her haunches and appeared to be frantically checking through her flight harness pouches. Jarzyl happily walked over and bowed her head in a friendly greeting. "Hello!"

Pyxis was so busy with searching through her harness pouches that she didn't even notice Jarzyl until Jarzyl head-butted her shoulder. "Oh! Oh, it's you. Hi, Jarz," Pyxis exclaimed, looking up from her searching.

"Hi Pyxis. What are you looking for? Did you lose something?"

"Yes! Or... no? Maybe." Pyxis flicked her neck frill up then down, looking nervous. "I feel like I forgot to pack something for today's field trip, so I was trying to search through all my harness pouches to make sure I'd brought everything, but then I realized that I did forget to bring the packing list that told us all the things to bring. So I can't actually check!"

Jarzyl found that thoroughly amusing. "Hehe. Why even worry about that? There wasn't much on that list, and most of it was optional stuff anyway. This field trip is supposed to be an adventure! Adventures aren't about worrying or about packing lists."

"I just want to be prepared for anything." Pyxis nodded towards Jarzyl. "Do you have the packing list with you? Can I borrow yours?"

"Sure." Jarzyl reached down to the chest pouch of her own flight harness and pulled out a crumpled sheet of paper. "You can keep it."

Pyxis took the list and smoothened out the paper, then she quickly started running down all the items. "Thanks..."

"Hah!" Laughing, Jarzyl jumped back to her feet and kept exploring the hangar, looking to see if she could find other friends. She opened a wing and waved at Indry, a nocturnal fledgling who was sitting back on his haunches and using one of his wing pennants to clean his dark goggles--nocturnal dragons were a subspecies of dragon with darker scales and specially adapted eyes for hunting at night, so they had to wear light-dimming goggles during the day to prevent their sensitive eyes from being overwhelmed by sunlight. Indry stopped cleaning his googles to wave back at Jarzyl, making his pennant flutter back and forth as he waved his wing.

Jarzyl pranced from her left paws to her right paws as she kept looking around the hangar. Thinking of nocturnal dragons, she started looking in particular for a certain nocturnal fledgling who was one of her closest friends--where was Atlas? Dragon scales came in all sorts of colours, but Atlas had scales of smooth, sooty black colour. Rearing up on her hindlegs, Jarzyl raised up her head to see if she could spot her dark-scaled friend. Of course, beyond his dark scales and silent judgemental stare, Atlas's main distinguishing feature was that he was unique amongst every other fledgling Jarzyl knew--he was a three-legged dragon missing his front left leg--a cripple. Jarzyl had never quite managed to extract a proper answer over why her good friend was missing one of his four legs; simultaneously he was both awkward and mysterious, and Jarzyl found that endearingly entertaining.

It took some walking around, but eventually Jarzyl managed to find her friend. After circling all around the airship, Jarzyl spotted Atlas walking at the side of the hangar, moving with his familiar, asymmetric gait. "Hey! Atlas!" Jarzyl called, sprinting over.

Atlas had been carrying a pair of empty water packs in his mouth, but he stopped and put them down as Jarzyl ran over. "Oh, hello."

"You made it! This field trip is going to be so great." Jarzyl beamed, her neck frill perking up. "Caden and I are sitting over by that side--come and join us!" she suggesting, pointing with the tip of her tail.

Atlas nodded, but then he stopped and shook his head. "Uh... Sorry, I'm a bit busy right now, Jarz. Can't really stop to chat."

"Oh. Ok. You're busy...? Well once you're not busy, we're sitting over by the corner there!" Jarzyl said.

Much to her surprise, Atlas again shook his head. "I might not be able to. I'm busy all day, so I might not get to stick with you guys for this field trip. But if I do see you later, maybe we chat then." He politely nodded his head at Jarzyl, and then he picked up the empty water packs and walked away, headed towards a collection of water dispensers placed at the side of the hangar, where there were several other fledglings also filling up on water.

Jarzyl's neck frill twitched and it took deliberate mental effort to keep it from drooping flat against her neck. "Oh. That's... fine. See you later, then." Atlas was one of her closest friends (as was Caden), and Jarzyl casually wondered what Atlas could be so busy with that he wasn't going to be with them for this field trip. Not that it was a big issue. Jarzyl sighed to herself, but she resumed her walk around the hangar, looking to find other friends or make some new ones.

Just as Jarzyl was returning to where Caden was still seated, she saw someone else--it wasn't a fledgling she had met before, but this young dragon seemed odd, and that was enough to make her change course.

Feeling curious, Jarzyl strolled over to make a new friend.

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The dragon fledgling was sitting alone at the side of the airship hangar, with her head in a slight bow. Her scales were a dark, ashen grey, but there were faint stripes of paler green running vertically down her sides under her wings. That was a nice colour to be, Jarzyl decided--her own scales were amber orange all over, with a lighter countershaded hue for her underbelly. However instead of having any stripes, Jarzyl had a spattering of white spots on her side, where some scales were randomly paler than her normal orange. Having white spots was a pattern that was very common amongst hatchlings, but which usually went away with age. Jarzyl had been hoping that her spots would go away as she was now well into the fledgling growth spurt, but they hadn't quite faded yet--not that it truly bothered her.

The odd, unknown fledgling turned her head at the sound of Jarzyl's footsteps, and her ears perked up. Just like all the other young dragons assembling in the hangar, this fledgling was wearing a flight harness, comprised of various pouches attached to a grid of belts and straps that ran over her body, allowing her to carry items while walking or in flight. Of course, that wasn't the odd part of her attire--the odd part was that she appeared to be wearing a strip of cloth wrapped around her head, covering her eyes. At first Jarzyl had thought this was a natural scale pattern around the other dragon's eyes, but it was really just a cloth. Interesting!

"Hello. I'm Jarzyl. Who are you supposed to be?" Jarzyl asked in a cheerful tone.

The fledgling was quiet for a moment before responding hesitantly. "Me...?" Her voice was soft and slightly raspy, but still easily understandable.

"Yes, you!" Jarzyl sat down and used her tail tip to gently tap the other fledgling's paws. "Hello, I'm Jarzyl. Who are you supposed to be? Have we met before?"

"Umm... Hello, Jarzyl, it's a pleasure to meet you. Don't think we've met before. My name is Glecion," said the fledgling.

"Glecion. Gless-ceeon? Gliz-zeon! Nice to meet you too!" Jarzyl nodded happily, though she wasn't sure if Glecion could even see this gesture because of the cloth tied around her head. "Is that a cloth tied around your head? Doesn't that make it hard to see?"

Glecion shifted her weight between her paws, looking nervous. "Uh... yes... I suppose it would?"

"Huh. So why do you have a cloth tied around your head?" Jarzyl peered closer at Glecion, who didn't react. "You have dark scales--are you a nocturnal dragon? Is this like wearing dark goggles, except with a cloth instead?"

Glecion was again quiet for a moment before replying. "Are you... mocking me?" she asked hesitantly.

Jarzyl's neck frill snapped up in surprise. "Mocking you? Why would I be mocking you? I was just curious. Should I not be asking you about your blindfold? Sorry. I can go away if you want."

"No, sorry. I'm not accusing you of... I'm just not used to people being curious about me. Most of my schoolmates just avoid me because I'm blind." Reaching up a paw, Glecion pulled off the cloth to reveal that her eyes were black.

"Oh, wow! So that's not just a blindfold--you're actually blind!" Jarzyl leaned closer, feeling even more curious now. Her first impression was that Glecion had empty eye sockets--which would have been very cool, like some mysterious villain in a story book--but no, she did have eyes but they were just black and uniform. Instead of the normal, coloured iris with a black pupil in the middle, her eyes were a smooth, flat black colour all over with speckles and small splotches of whitish discolouration evenly spread around the spherical surfaces. "Interesting! Your eyes look like stars."

Glecion's gaze was distant and unseeing, but her brow furled in surprise. "They do?"

"They do!" Jarzyl insisted cheerily. "Your eyes are black all over, but with white bits at random spots. It's like looking through a telescope at space, except it's your face. It's very interesting."

"I've never looked through a telescope. I've always been blind," Glecion replied. She didn't sound bitter or even sad, but instead like she was simply stating a fact. "Never had anyone say that my eyes look like stars, though."

"It looks cool. I wish my eyes were cool... although I guess it isn't really worth it for being blind."

"Hmm." Glecion made an indifferent noise. "No, it's not worth it, but I make do. I've always made do."

Jarzyl blinked her eyes closed, trying to imagine how life would be like if she didn't have her sight. It seemed like such a different way to live. Since smell or hearing couldn't work for locating prey while flying high above the world, vision was the strongest sense of most any dragon (except possibly this one). Not that dragons bothered hunting wild prey any more, but still Glecion's life was surely very different from usual. "Can I ask you more questions? Is that impolite? I'm really curious!"

"Sure. I'm... not really used to people being curious about me. Mostly I get ignored or pitied, and occasionally called mean names. Or avoided entirely because I'm different."

Jarzyl nodded her head sympathetically, then remembered that Glecion couldn't see this, so she just said it. "I'm nodding, with sympathy and agreement and all that. Some people aren't nice, but I'm nice! Let's be friends."

"Seriously? I could... I could use more friends. I like talking with people, but it's hard for me to walk up to someone and start a conversation," Glecion admitted.

"Great! We're friends then. Jarzyl and Glecion, new friendship formed. Excellent." Jarzyl extended a wing and hugged Glecion's shoulders as they sat next to each other--Glecion was slightly awkward, but she seemed to enjoy the gesture.

"Can I ask you a question...?" Glecion asked, after Jarzyl had furled her wing back up.

"Ask away."

"Ok. Can you describe yourself?

Jarzyl bit her lip as she thought about that. "Huh! You're blind, so... I suppose you have no idea at all what I even look like! Haha. I could tell you that I was a big, tall, elderly drake with huge horns and... uh... tattered wings from countless battles with my many foes, and you wouldn't be able to tell otherwise because you can't see me! Hahaha. I could be whoever I wanted..."

Glecion chuckled too. "Heh. Riiight. Ok let me guess what you look like. From when you hugged me earlier, I'm guessing you're about the same size as me. From the resonance of your voice, I'm pretty sure you're a female fledgling, and probably also just about my age because we're all going on this field trip together. Also I heard your voice squeak, so probably still going through the fledgling growth spurt, same as me."

"Eey!" Jarzyl squeaked. "My voice is not squeaky. It is deep and powerful and very majestic as any dragon's voice should be. I could roar so loud that your bones shake." Jarzyl tried deepening her voice and making an imposing growl, but she ended up choking and coughing. "Grawrr--ahhk! Ugh."

Glecion made a quiet noise that sounded very much like a barely restrained chuckle. "Heh..."

"Ahem. But seriously though, I think your guess was accurate." Taking a step back, Jarzyl glanced over herself, then back at Glecion. "We're about the same size. We both look like... normal dragon fledglings. Two wings, four legs, tail, head, neck, body, and all that. You're... slightly skinnier than me. And your scales are dark grey, whereas my scales are orange."

"Colours don't mean much to me," Glecion replied, with a faint grin crossing her snout. "Orange is the colour that has a fruit, right?"

"Yes! I have the colours of citrus and autumn leaves and sunsets. And also carrots. If I was edible, I would be delicious," Jarzyl said. "Whereas you're grey, which is more like storm clouds and mountains. Not that it matters. Anyway, I've got more questions--so you're completely blind, and you wear a blindfold so that everyone knows that you're blind?"

Lowering her head, Glecion wrapped the blindfold back around her eyes and tied it into a knot behind her head with a quick, well-practiced motion. "Yes."

"Hmm, cool!" Jarzyl felt like she was overflowing with curiosity. "Have you ever thought about wearing eyepatches instead of a cloth blindfold? Then you could be like a pirate. Like those stories about dragons from centuries ago who used to try and attack airships and intercept them as they delivered cargo to the city. And then they would take horrific battle loses and get scars and injuries and all that. Except they had one eyepatch, not two, but still it would be cool. Can you even read books? Do you know what I'm talking about?"

"Um." Glecion tilted her head as she thought about this for a moment. "No, I haven't thought about wearing eyepatches. That would probably be the same as just wearing a blindfold. Uh, I can read books but they have to be special books which I can read by touching. Or I ask my sister to help me read the words out aloud if she's already reading something. Or there is... I have a small, modified light field projector that can read out the words of a book aloud."

Jarzyl nodded. "Interesting! So since you're blind, are your ears really good to make up for it? Can you use echolocation to see everything around you with sound and clicking noises, like a bat?"

"Unfortunately not..."

"Eeeeee_ekkkk_!" Jarzyl squeaked, but this time intentionally, and she flicked her ears around to test if she could possible hear the echoes bouncing off from the nearby hangar wall. She could not. "Do you have some sort of hidden secret ability since you're blind? Can you see the future? I've also read another book where there was a blind seer who couldn't see anything in the real would but they could see time and he had all sorts of weird time travel magic."

Glecion's grin had widened, and she appeared amused. "Again, unfortunately not. I don't think time travel is real..."

"What about normal, proper magic? Can you use magic? I guess not since you're just a fledgling too. But what about when you grow up? Have you ever thought about what sort of magical affinity you'll get? Wouldn't it be cool if you get air affinity and you can see things by sensing the air itself? Magic is cool. I wish I was old enough to do magic. I want to get firebreath so I can roast meat and eat it."

Jarzyl's various rambling thoughts made Glecion break out into mirthful laughter. "Hahahe! Your mind is just... frilled to the brim with interesting ideas, Jarzyl."

"Thank you, thank you. I've never met anyone like you before." Jarzyl took a deep breath as she thought about actual proper questions. "What about... If you can't see anything, don't you... walk into things a lot?"

"I try not to walk into things. I know the exact route between my school and my home, and usually my sister is around to help guide me if I need it."

"That makes sense. So where's your sister? Is she going on the field trip too? I'm really excited for today's field trip," Jarzyl said.

Glecion's amusement faded, and some of her nervousness returned. "Oh. Well... My sister was busy today with an interview... for... uh... an important scholarship. So I have a friend helping to guide me for the field trip. It is exciting, I agree."

"That's nice. Today is going to be great! I've heard that the natural park is very--" Before Jarzyl could complete her sentence, a proper drakken roar echoed through the hangar, and an adult dragon near the airship reared up on their hindlimbs and waved their wings. "Oh, it looks like they want us start assembling up in our different schools and classes to begin boarding the airship."

Glecion nodded. "Hmm. I guess you should go then. I'll wait for my friend to come back."

"Do you want me to walk you over?" Jarzyl asked.

"Uh... No need, otherwise my friend wouldn't know where I went." Glecion smiled. "Thanks for offering to help though."

Jarzyl unfurled a wing and wrapped it around Glecion for a quick, friendly hug. "We're friends now! You're an interesting person and so am I. I'll see you around, maybe during this field trip, or later in the future. Bye!"

"Bye..." Glecion extended her own wing to try and return Jarzyl's hug, though the action was slightly awkward as if she wasn't used the gesture.

Jarzyl didn't mind. She gave the blind fledgling one last pat on the back, then with a skip in her step she headed off back to where her schoolmates were assembling.

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TO BE CONTINUED