FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Jarzyl excitedly bounced up and down on her paws as the park rangers issued more equipment--helmets made from a stiff but lightweight fibrous material, some of which also came with attached neck guard flaps. "Make sure you get the right size. You want the helmet to fit snugly on your head, but not be too loose. Also check that the neck guard covers your neck fully, without being too long as that will rub against your back," explained one of the park rangers. "Here are the ones we use for fledglings."

Jarzyl walked forward to the table and picked up the first helmet she saw to try it on. She tried to adjust the straps, but the tour guide shook her head and passed her a different helmet instead. "You've got a neck frill, love. Use the one without the attached neck guard, and then clip a separate neck guard directly on your neck under the frill."

Jarzyl did exactly that. She swapped her helmet for one which only covered her head, and then she picked up a separate neck guard and clipped it by the collar around her neck underneath her frill. "This is great!"

Caden was beside her, but she was (as expected) less enthusiastic. "First the magnetic collars to not get dizzy, then the wooden sandals to not get your paws poked, and now helmets and neck guards? Are these hygienic?"

"We clean them after every use, and they are mandatory if you want to explore the plateau away from the visitor centre," explained the tour guide. "The mountain is ever changing and unstable. Sometimes rocks and pebbles fall from the cliffs, and you don't want them hitting your head."

"Oh! What if a giant boulder falls and squishes us?" Jarzyl asked excitedly.

"Bigger rocks usually contain some needlemir and so they'll float--for a while, at least--so it's the small rocks you need to be careful about. Though you should avoid floating boulders anyway," the tour guide said.

"Falling rocks... that sounds... fun," Caden murmured, in a sarcastic vocal tone that implied the exact opposite.

"It sounds extremely fun!" Jarzyl happily declared, with not the slightest trace of sarcasm or doubt in her tone.

Drak Tasilus was nearby, making sure that all the young dragons were wearing their protective equipment properly. "Caden, if you would prefer not to, you can always stay here and go to the hot springs instead," he suggested with his typical serious, adult, _boring_tone.

"No, I'm fine. I can do this." Caden put a helmet and clipped on the strap.

With the tour of the visitor centre complete, and lunch eaten, the fledglings had been presented with a choice between two activities--they could go explore the mountain plateau on a scavenger hunt to collect needlemir crystals, or they could go over to a series of nearby hot springs and enjoy a bath in the warm, bubbling, mineral-enriched water.

Jarzyl had obviously been far more interested in exploring and crystal collecting rather than soaking in hot water like she was trying to convert herself into a soup. Caden had countered that the hot springs were a relaxing, calming option rather than trying to navigate the hazardous rocky landscape for crystals that they might not even be able to find.

Atlas and Glecion were coming along to follow them, but those two fledglings had acted neutral_and _indecisive by saying they were happy to do either activity, which was just unhelpful towards finding a consensus. Eventually Jarzyl and Caden had come to an agreement--they would go have a look around the plateau to see if any crystals were to be found, then they would spend the latter half of the afternoon relaxing in the hot springs. So now they were just outside the visitor centre with about half of their combined class group--the others having already gone off to the hot springs.

Jarzyl slapped her head to test the foam padding of her helmet--the headgear was flat and roughly triangular in shape, covering the top of her head and the upper part of her snout. She looked over Caden's helmet and nodded approval at the fitting. "Looks good! We look good."

"No, no we don't." Caden glanced down at herself, taking in the helmet and neck guard, to the collar band, to the wooden sandals. "This is very unfashionable."

"I don't care for fashion. I care for adventure! We're all geared up. So exciting, aho, aha," Jarzyl sang. Other young dragons who were already equipped with their helmets were now starting to head out into the plateau to roam about some of the many different pathways and hiking trails--paired up, or grouped into threes, fours, or even more. Jarzyl was all ready to go, but she was waiting on her friends. She scampered over to where Atlas and Glecion were putting on their helmets. "Hello! Ready to go?"

Glecion had her helmet on, partially covering her blindfold because her helmet was slightly oversized and tilted at a lower angle than fully proper. With any other dragon it might have affected their vision, but for Glecion that didn't matter. "I'm ready. Sure hope I don't walk off a cliff..."

"It'll be fine! We'll take good care of you," Jarzyl assured her. "Right, Atlas?"

Atlas nodded, which slightly dislodged the helmet he was still trying to strap on. Given that he had only one forepaw, he was using the dextrous tip of his tail to hold one buckle so he could align it and secure it into its catch. "Hmm."

"Just let me... Hold still and I'll help." Jarzyl walked up and took Atlas's helmet and adjusted it so it was right atop his head. When this didn't quite seat it properly, she lifted away the helmet and glanced at the back of her friend's head. "Oh that's interesting. Your skull shape is weird."

"Is it?" Atlas said.

Jarzyl tapped Atlas's head, right at two slight protrusions from the back of his skull. "Your skull is bumpy. That's why this helmet doesn't fit right. What's up with that? Is your brain really that big?"

At this comment, Glecion let out a soft chuckle, and Atlas looked marginally more awkward than his usual level of mild awkwardness. Caden had come over as well, and she watched this exchange with an amused smile. "Jarz, you silly thing. Those are horns. Or at least, horn buds which are still growing out and haven't even emerged yet."

"What? Oh. Atlas is growing horns? That's interesting," Jarzyl said.

Atlas sat back on his haunches and rubbed the back of his head with his paw. "I didn't realize... oh? Hmm. I never thought about that. Fledging is when dragons start to grow horns. So it... that makes sense? Is this a good thing?"

Jarzyl squinted at Atlas, trying to imagine what her friend would look like with horns. Dragon horns usually pointed upwards and backwards from the top of their heads, sometimes with a slight curve. She had never actually thought about what Atlas would look like when he grew up, or indeed what any of her friends would look like as they continued to grow and eventually became adult drakken. Jarzyl had never even considered what she herself would look like as she inevitably had to grow up--things were changing, whether she was ready for them or not.

"That would be a new look," Jarzyl finally decided. She touched the back of her own skull, but she felt no such distortion. No horns for her--not yet, at least, though she would be fine never getting them. She was happy with the way she looked, with her orange scales and her neck frill. Plus, she also had the vague suspicious that horns would need to be filed, trimmed, polished, or otherwise maintained in some way to look proper, and that just seemed like extra unnecessary work.

Caden tilted her head as she too stared at Atlas. "It would be an improvement, certainly. Horns look good on a dragon... unless they get oversized, or asymmetric, or they curve too much. But nine times out of ten, it's an improvement."

"May I?" Glecion asked, and she raised her paw. Atlas took Glecion's paw and let her feel the back of his head, right at those two bony bumps that Jarzyl now realized where actually visible if she'd even cared to look. Though the horns hadn't yet even erupted from his skin and scales, his head shape was a bit more... pointy than a hatchling's.

Jarzyl also patted Atlas' head again, making him look awkward. "Weird. Different! I never ever thought about you growing horns. I wonder what you'll look like when they're all grown out and you're all horny."

Glecion sniggered, and Caden shook her head. "Horned not horny, Jarz..."

Jarzyl shifted Atlas's head about as she kept peering at his horn stubs, which made her friend look even more awkward. "What? What's the difference? I've read both words in books, so I'm pretty sure they're both valid words."

"Just... they're different words. It is a good question, though--how long will Atlas' horns end up growing? Longer looks better," Caden said. "Atlas, do your parents have horns?"

Atlas flicked his wings in a shrug. "I have no idea whatsoever."

Caden nodded her head understandingly. "Sorry, I forgot you were clanless."

"Eep!" Jarzyl made a shocked squeak and sat up straight, snatching back her paw. She glanced at Caden with a surprised expression.

Caden turned to Jarzyl and raised an eye ridge. "What? Why are you looking at me like that? Surely you knew Atlas was clanless? You two have been friends for more than a decade."

Jarzyl nervously pawed at the gravel ground, and she glanced towards Atlas. "I... I knew that, but it was... I thought it was sort of a secret...?"

Atlas was unperturbed. "It's not really a secret. Clan records are freely available in the library archives for any dragon in the city. Though of course, being clanless isn't something I like to freely share about. I get looked down on enough for being a cripple."

"As I said before, I'm a people person. I know these things." Caden lazily shrugged her shoulders. "The whole clan system sucks. It's a primitive relic from back when dragons lived in tribes. Society can and should do better, instead of dividing itself apart into a hierarchy of clans, where some get put on the bottom." Caden nodded towards Glecion. "It's not just Atlas, I bet. Glecion, you're clanless too, aren't you? That's how you two know each other."

Glecion shuffled her wings awkwardly. "I... umm... yes. Atlas and I are both from the same clanless sheltered home. I think Atlas summarized it succinctly--it's not a real secret, but it's not something to be boasted about at all. Technically my designation is under a Hasitas clan, but when that clan contains just one blind fledgling, that's useless."

A brief frown crossed Caden's face, and her expression darkened for a moment. "Clanless... Hasitas? Eh, life sucks. I shouldn't have brought this topic up. We're supposed to be going on a fun field trip adventure, not discussing society's inequalities."

Jarzyl perked up, and she waved her wings for attention. "Hey! Like I said--I'm from Mintaka, Caden is from Hasilt-Taslin, and Atlas and Glecion are clanless, but that means nothing to us. We are all still going to be friends and treat each other well." Using her outstretched wings, Jarzyl pulled the other three fledglings into a group hug.

"Friends!" Glecion happily agreed, returning the hug with her own wing patting Jarzyl's back.

Atlas just looked awkward, and Caden rolled her eyes. "I will allow this group hug as a show of solidarity, and also in recognition of our many years of friendship, as trying as they sometimes are," Caden muttered.

"We're all friends! Now stop talking about sad stuff and let's go searching for crystals," Jarzyl announced. Releasing the hug, she grabbed a slightly larger helmet and slapped it on Atlas' head, before tightening the strap and giving him a gentle tap to his skull. "Let's go!"

---

Jarzyl was so filled with energy that she pranced with very step, bouncing from left to right just to slow herself down and let her friends catch up. Caden was following with her, as were Atlas and Glecion.

Atlas wasn't a very fast walker, unsurprisingly since he was missing a foreleg--and with Glecion sticking by his side for guidance, the two of them were even slower. Jarzyl didn't mind, though. She had her friends, they were in an amazing place, and this was an adventure. "So back at the visitor centre, there was a sign talking about different ways to find needlemir crystals."

"There are crystals everywhere," Caden said. She made a stomping gesture with one foot, grinding the wooden sandal against the half gravel, half dirt path they were walking on. Each footstep made a crunch sound as they walked. Unlike the artificially hardened, flattened ground that the visitor centre had been built on, the ground here was speckled and glittered from tiny, minute, multi-coloured shards of needlemir. The sandals were properly needed now, so the crystals wouldn't poke their paws.

Jarzyl shook her head. "Small crystals are everywhere, but those are worthless. What we're looking for is big crystals. At least the size of a tooth or even the size of a paw. Bigger is better! Did no one else read the info signs?"

Atlas spoke up. "I did. I read them aloud for Glecion. Needlemir inundates all the rocks of Mizalin-on-Sky, mixing in with every portion of this floating mountain. But it's relatively rare for complete crystals to form, since unrefined needlemir dissolves in water unless it can be stabilized in a super-saturated solution or by lightning. The crystals usually grow deep underground at high pressure, or at least in the very centre of the floating mountains."

"Yep. And then constant movement and shifting of the rock eventually drives the crystals up to the surface, which is why historically dragons would scavenge for needlemir crystals like what we're doing. But nowadays the heavy industrial facilities at Diracore Quarry artificially grow most of the crystals used by the city. Ooh! Look!" Spotting something in the ground, Jarzyl ran forward and slipped off one of her sandals from her forepaw so she could snatch up a small crystal half buried in the dirt. "Found one. Maybe. Do you think this passes the threshold of being big enough to be worth something? Let me check..."

Atlas leaned in to Glecion, who was walking beside him with her partially extended wing touching his shoulder. "Jarzyl just picked up a small, blue coloured crystal. It has a rectangular shape, but is barely even the size of a tail tip. She's... listening to it now," he explained to Glecion, since she couldn't see what Jarzyl was doing.

"What are you doing?" Caden asked. "Are you trying to stick that crystal in your ear?"

Jarzyl laughed. "Ha! No. You really didn't read any of the informational signs, did you? Needlemir crystals, unrefined or otherwise, are used for storing magical energy. If the crystal is large enough to be useful, you'll be able to hear it resonating softly from the energy it contains. This one is! It's going hmmmmmmmm. Anyone want to listen?"

The other three fledglings clustered around Jarzyl and leaned close, and everyone went quiet. Sure enough, a soft, ethereal humming was barely audible when the wind died down, emanating from that small blue crystal. "hmmmmmmmm..."

Caden was visibly impressed. "Oh. It really does hum. That's interesting."

"I can hear it!" Glecion agreed, nodding her head.

"First find!" Jarzyl slipped the crystal into a dedicated pouch that had also been given out to each of the fledglings. This pouch clipped onto the side of her flight harness under her wing, and was lined with thickened material so the sharp, pointy crystals would not poke their way out of the bag. "That's why besides just looking out for crystals visually, it's also possible to just listen for them."

Atlas shifted his shoulder to nudge Glecion. "So maybe Glecion could find a few crystals too. I wasn't sure how loud they would hum, but if that small a crystal is already audible, the bigger crystals should be louder."

Glecion smiled, just the slightest. "I don't hold up much hope. It isn't easy to find crystals when you can't see them. I came along because I wanted to spend more time with you guys. Although..." Glecion flicked out her wing and pointed it ahead, then slightly to the left. "I do hear more humming coming from there. It's a different pitch. Hmmmmmm instead of hmmmmm!" she hummed.

"Wait, really?" Jarzyl asked.

"It's hard to hear with the wind, but I definitely heard a humming sound coming from that direction," Glecion insisted.

Jarzyl perked up her ears, but she couldn't hear anything. The first crystal she'd found was inside her pouch and inaudible, but now she could only hear the intermitted _whoosh_sound of the wind blowing across the rocky ground. "Let me go see." She trotted forward in the direction Glecion had pointed.

Coming to a stop by the side of the rough dirt path, Jarzyl peered out over the uneven, mounded landscape that made up the plateau of the mountain. After just the briefest moment of hesitation, she strolled out from the dirt path and onto the rocky landscape. Sure enough, Glecion had been right--just a short distance off the path, hidden behind a boulder, a green crystal was protruding from the ground. "Huh." This one was larger than the first one, just about the size of her paw pad, and it rested neatly in the centre of her paw. Jarzyl dug up the crystal and carried it back, walking three-legged to carry both the crystal and her sandal.

The soft, harmonic hum of the crystal coupled with the crunch of her returning footsteps instantly let Glecion deduce she'd been right. "You found another one?" Glecion asked excitedly.

"Oh no. You found another one. Here." Jarzyl passed the crystal to Glecion, who curiously ran her paws across its surface to feel the facets of the rectangular, spikey, pointed crystal.

"Wow. Wow!" Glecion chuckled. "Hah, I didn't think I would find anything at all! That makes my day."

Atlas nodded his head towards Caden. "So now it's just us two who haven't found any crystals."

"That doesn't bother me at all," Caden replied.

The four young dragons resumed walking down the hiking trail. Jarzyl sprinted ahead excitedly, and she often dashed off the trail to scramble up rocks and peer over the landscape, trying to spot more crystals. After a few minutes she came scampering back, carrying another small chunk of crystal in her mouth. "I found another one! Look! Ooh, I can feel it vibrating my teeth as it hums."

"So the score is two for Jarzyl, one for Glecion, and zero for me and Caden," Atlas said. "Not that it's a competition."

Jarzyl nodded. "It's not a competition at all. Though if it was a competition, I would be winning." She slipped the second crystal into her collection pouch and ran off the path again to resume her hunt.

Caden could see Atlas glancing around curiously, but he couldn't properly explore the area because he was also guiding Glecion through the weaving, bumpy hiking trail. "Hey Atlas," Caden started.

"Yes?"

"Why don't you let me guide Glecion, and you can go run about with Jarzyl? If Glecion doesn't mind that, of course. It's just that between the four of us, I think you and Jarzyl are the ones who are most interested in this activity. Glecion and I can just walk slowly and chit chat, while you and Jarzyl run around like maniacs searching for humming crystals."

Atlas glanced to Glecion. "I..."

Glecion couldn't even see him looking at her, but she nodded anyway. "That sounds like a good idea! Go on, Atlas! You told me you always liked adventuring with Jarzyl, and I'd be happy to chat with Caden."

"Ok then. As long as you don't mind. But just let me know if you need anything," Atlas said. Glecion raised her wing from his shoulder so he could walk off, and then Caden came and put Glecion's partially unfurled wing on her shoulder, so she could guide the blind fledgling. Atlas then went to follow after Jarzyl, running with his asymmetric but practiced three-legged gait.

"So Glecion, it's been a while since we last met, hasn't it? You remember me, I hope?" Caden said.

Glecion nodded quickly. "I remember you! You were the exchange student who joined a few of my classes from your own school, and we were in a group project together. Was that enough for us to qualify for friendship? I'd say that definitely counts for acquaintanceship at least."

Caden laughed. "Hah. We can now definitely upgrade to friendship after today, then. How are you finding the field trip?"

"Windy!"

"Is windy a good thing?"

"It's a great thing. I love feeling air rushing over my scales. What about you? Are you enjoying our excursion today?" Glecion asked.

"Oh, definitely. It's always nice to spend a school day not in school." Caden glanced down, as the hiking trail continued to curve about. "The path is starting to go uphill, and there are a few rock ledges we're going to climb. Not quite stairs, but don't stub your paws."

"Noted, thanks," Glecion replied.

"As I was saying, this field trip is a pleasant distraction from everyday life. The visitor centre and the museum were very... historical, I suppose I would say."

"Agreed! I found the information about needlemir interesting. All the different varieties of crystal structure, and the physics behind how the mountains float..."

Caden chuckled. "No, I didn't find that part interesting at all. Personally for me, it was the... the history, the background of this place that I found interesting. To think--a long, long time ago, dragons lived in these floating mountains and scavenged crystals for trade. Way before they figured out how to use stone magic for all the... advanced mining and industrial processes instead."

"It's hard to differentiate people from the places they lived in," Glecion replied. Even as they kept walking, with her wing on Caden's shoulder, Glecion flicked her ears. "Is that... yelling, I hear?"

"That's just Jarzyl and Atlas. They're scrambling over the rocks, both moving back and forth to search the left and right sides of the trail, trying to compete with each other to see who can gather the most crystals. The excited yelling is them boasting to each other whenever they find another one." Caden's eyes narrowed as she evaluated her two friends. "Jarzyl is faster to jump from rock to rock, and she's way more graceful as she does it. But Atlas is more observant and patient to listen for the hum, whereas Jarzyl just goes by eye and looks for shiny crystals glinting in the rocks."

Glecion smiled faintly. "Who's winning?"

"Hard to tell. Each crystal they find is of different shape and size, so who really knows?"

Glecion had been walking slowly, cautiously putting her paws down to not trip up on rocks, but now she slowed down even further. Caden also slowed down, since she was guiding Glecion along.

"Am I walking too fast?" Caden asked.

"No, this pace is fine. Just... listen." Glecion flipped open a wing and pointed.

Caden also stopped talking, and then a few seconds later she heard it too--the faint, but characteristic _hum_of a needlemir crystal. "Good ear, Glecion."

"If I had bad hearing in addition to being blind... you know... that would just make life properly unfair, wouldn't it?" Glecion replied, with a smirk on her face.

The two fledglings walked together, heading to the side of the hiking trail where Caden bent down and dug out a needlemir crystal. "You heard right. Here it is--another crystal, right by the side of the trail."

"What does it look like? Describe it, please?" Glecion asked,

"It's... green in colour, slightly bigger than the one you found before, but still small enough to fit in a paw easily. More triangular in shape, with four pointy bits all around at regular angles. Do you want to feel it? Just don't poke yourself with the pointy bits." Caden passed over the crystal, and Glecion examined it with her paws, as well as putting it to her ear to hear the steady hum.

"Wow. How did Jarzyl and Atlas miss this one? Aren't they ahead of us, trying to find crystals?" Glecion wondered.

"Maybe it just so happened to push out of the ground right after they'd searched the area?" Caden suggested.

"Seems unlikely. At the museum they said that crystals mostly emerge from the ground during storms, when the wind and rain shake the floating mountains, and lightning strikes energize the crystals. Just imagine how scary it must be to be here when that happens, with the ground literally shaking and shifting in the wind."

Caden turned to stare out from the plateau, looking out to the skyscape filled with clouds and other floating mountains. "We might not have to imagine. The sky is turning grey, at least in that direction. I can't tell you what direction it is because this magnet collar has blocked out my internal compass... just... that direction. I think that's south, maybe?"

Glecion giggled. "Hehe. But really? Is there really a storm coming?"

"There's a storm forming in the distance, and given how supposedly the tangled flux lines makes Mizalin-on-Sky a literal magnet for bad weather, I think we can assume the storm will eventually arrive here. But we should be long gone from here by then."

"Hmm. Anyway, I suppose Atlas and Jarzyl both just happened to overlook this crystal," Glecion turned the crystal over, examining it with her paws, then she offered it to Caden. "Here, Caden. You can have it."

"But you found it."

"Perhaps, but I already have one, so now I'm giving this one to you," Glecion said. "After all, you said it was green, right? And that's the colour of your scales."

"Aww, Glecion! Thanks! A gift!" Caden nudged Glecion's neck with her snout, in an affectionate gesture that made Glecion's grin widen. "It is green, though not quite the same shade as my scales. But thanks! Now we both have one crystal."

Glecion was still smiling, and she nervously used a wing to cover her snout, as if embarrassed to openly display so much emotion. "I just... I like chatting with you, and I'm glad to have made a new friend."

Caden smiled too. "Always nice to have more friends."

They resumed walking, slowly making their way up the hiking path, which was curving around and slowly ascending the floating mountain, moving away for the flatter area of the plateau. Jarzyl and Atlas were ahead of them, moving quicker and roaming on and off the trail to search for crystals, but neither Caden nor Glecion minded taking the slower route to keep chatting. They talked about their surroundings, or their schools, or even life in general. Eventually the conversation drifted to one particular topic.

"So this might be too personal to ask. Just feel free to stop me at any time if you don't want to talk about it, ok?" Caden said. "But earlier you said your official clan designation was Hasitas?"

"I've no problem with talking about that." Glecion shrugged. "Yes, my full name is Glecion Hasitas, but that means nothing. Hasitas is an endling clan with only me and my sister in it. No clan rights, no clan property, no clan sponsorship, no representation in the general council... Yeah. Hasitas means absolutely nothing."

Caden was quiet for a moment. "Does it really mean nothing?"

"I'm as clanless as a dragon can be! It's just that legally, dragons can't have no clan at all, so clanless dragons like me and Atlas will be tossed into generic, worthless, empty endling clans that are made up by the city clerks. Usually they just..." Glecion smiled faintly, and she let out a soft chuckle. "Heh. Usually they aren't even very creative about coming up with names for the new, blank, useless clans they create just to keep us not technically clanless. Normally they just take the name of the clan that decided to abandon that egg or hatchling and garble it up slightly."

Caden sighed. "Yeah, that's what I heard..."

"So when I say my clan designation is technically Hasitas," Glecion continued, "that's because my parentage directly traces back to two particular clans: hasi-tas, which stands for--"

"--Hasilt and Taslin, two of the city's most powerful dragon clans," Caden completed, sounding glum. "Those are my clans..." she murmured softly.

Glecion's faint smile didn't shift, and if anything she looked even more amused. "This world is filled with coincidences. So our origins were similar, but see how our paths have differed!"

A lengthy silence followed, eventually broken by Caden. "Are you alright with this topic? We could just go back to chatting about the scenery or other casual things."

"We could, and we probably be should soon, but I have always been curious to actually meet a Hasilt-Taslin dragon. Especially another fledgling who must have been... part of the partnership program. You know the history, I assume?" Glecion said.

"Hasilt and Taslin are two big, bloated, self-serving clans who decided that an alliance would be in mutual strategic interest, and they decided to solidify this via arranged partnerships and crossbreeding?" Caden replied.

Glecion giggled. "Hehaha. That's one way to describe our existence! I assume your parents are wingleaders from each of the two clans?"

"They are," Caden confirmed. "And they are both idiots!" she grumbled. "No, no that's not true. They aren't idiots or stupid, but they are selfish and narcissistic and calculating, just like everything wrong with the clans. My parents don't love each other, just like how the clans don't love each other--they just tolerate each other because of the mutual strategic value. Big clans are terrible."

Glecion shrugged again. "The clans aren't that bad... or are they? I've always thought they were powerful and political, but not actually bad."

Caden fixed Glecion with an incredulous look, which she couldn't see. Nevertheless, Glecion could probably here it from her voice, which came out as shocked squeak. "What? The clans aren't bad? Glecion, you're clanless--they abandoned you! Where's the compassion in that? Clans are... collections and groups of dragons, made by dragons for dragons. They are supposed to help people, not abandon them. That's not fair."

Glecion didn't seem bothered. "Maybe I am looking at it more favourably because I've always dreamed of being accepted back into Hasilt or Taslin, or any clan at all, really. And it was fair, in a way? I only learned the actual story behind how I became clanless a few years ago... want to hear?"

"Do tell," Caden prompted.

"The history was that my mother was from Hasilt, my father was from Taslin, and they were both young wingleaders looking to help solidify clan relations, so they... solidified relations. But at some point it just... didn't work between them. Of course, as the saying goes--you can't take back an egg that's been laid."

"Literally, in your case?"

"Literally. But then... story twist! It turned out to be a twin egg, so the clans agreed that between me and my sister, one of us would go to Hasilt and the other would be Taslin. That's fair, right?"

"In a way, but also... cruel to separate a family..." Caden hesitantly said.

Glecion didn't appear sad or regretful at all. "But then when we actually hatched, turns out there was a double twist! Being squished up in a shared egg had messed up my blood pressure and damaged the ocular blood vessels, so my eyes hadn't grown right and I was blind. And it wouldn't be fair for one clan to have to raise a blind hatchling while the other was normal. So... there was only one fair solution--we both ended up clanless."

"That is terrible. That is actually terrible," Caden said. "That is heartless and just... cruel and wrong."

"It's life! I'm alive, and though clanless, I do get food and schooling, and I have friends... I think life is alright. Everything will work out," Glecion insisted.

A silence stretched on, until Caden broke it. "I always love to complain about the clans and my parents, but I have to admit I do benefit from being Hasilt-Taslin. The house I live in, the fact that I even got into a sector one school with the grades I had... all that came because of my clans. It isn't fair, but how could I turn down all those benefits that came my way?"

"You shouldn't turn it down. That would be just silly." Glecion clicked her tongue. "If I was in your position, as a perfectly healthy, normal fledgling with all the advantage that came with being in two powerful clans, I would never throw that away."

"But that isn't fair, is it? That you and I were both... we were both conceived under the same machinations of two strong city clans, yet you're clanless but I'm not," Caden said.

"If that bothers you... Hahaha." Glecion laughed, but Caden couldn't see what was humorous about their conversation. "You're Hasilt-Taslin. One day you'll be first among many, prime choice to become a wingleader for one of those clans, or maybe even both. You could change things from the inside. Make things right. Make things fair."

"In a world that was right and fair, we could have been sisters..." Caden murmured. "Ok, let's go back to talking about easy, casual topics. This is too much."

Glecion nodded, and her grin widened. "So those needlemir crystals... they're interesting, aren't they? They go hmmmm."

TO BE CONTINUED...

---