Fruity Friendship
#36 of The Life and Times of Jarzyl Mintaka (Slice of Life Stories)
The Equinox Festival is a drakken tradition, but Jarzyl makes up her own traditions.
Just another clean, wholesome, minor little tale. (4,696 words)
"Boom!" There was a deep thud as a drum was struck, and the referee raised their head and spat a jet of firebreath skywards. In unison, twelve young dragons moved forward from their starting positions and leapt up onto the cliff that bordered this side of the valley to begin climbing. Spread out across the vertical rock face, they all started ascending.
Back down in the forest clearing beside the cliff, a large crowd of dragons was enjoying the festivities. Music echoed about, and stalls sold snacks, games, and trinkets, even as performers demonstrated feats of entertainment, athletics, or magical skill.
Atlas was sitting by the cliff side with Caden, and together the two young dragons watched as their peers raced to climb up the rock face. Caden was leisurely sipping from a cup of honeyed tea she had bought from one of the stalls. Lapping at the liquid, the green-scaled fledgling swallowed down another gulp of her drink and let out a satisfied sigh. "Ahh. This is good stuff." She nodded towards Atlas. "What are her chances of winning, you think?"
"Jarzyl's fast." Atlas was observing the vertical race intently. The various young dragons all racing to climb up the cliff had a multitude of different scale colours, as did the rest of the crowd which was attending the Equinox Festival, but Atlas's attention was focused on one particular fledgling who had scales of an amber, orange hue.
Jarzyl was fast. At this part of the valley in particular, the cliff was sheer and many body lengths in height, yet the fledgling showed no fear or hesitation as she made her way upwards. With claws extended she found cracks and edges in the rock to provide hold points for all four of her paws in turn, and with a steady rhythm she ascended. Atlas's gaze was locked. Jarzyl was his good friend, yet even beyond that it was deeply impressive to watch as she moved. There were currently twelve dragon fledglings all trying to climb the cliff, but about half of them were taking their time and were just there to participate in this festival game. They moved slowly, cautiously, and often halted position just to take a rest and watch the others.
In comparison, the other six fledglings were trying for some speed. Drakken athletics normally took the form of aerial races, manoeuvring stunts, or other activities that related to flying, but this was one of the rarer exceptions where dragons didn't use their wings. Jarzyl was quick and agile as she climbed up the rock face, using her fore and hindlegs in smooth rhythm to keep moving upwards. It wasn't about brute strength, but instead about flexibility, grip, balance, and endurance. To scale up a vertical rock cliff was surely harder than to just gain that amount of height by flying, and that was the point of the challenge. Jarzyl and the various other dragon fledglings kept their wings tucked against the backs, only occasionally flapping them for balance as they clung onto the cliff side.
And so, Atlas couldn't look away. If he averted his gaze for even a moment his friend would already have changed position and gone even higher, yet he also felt a tense nervousness. There were no safety ropes attached to the flight harness Jarzyl was wearing, and so if her claws ever slipped and she fell, there was no guarantee that she could get clear off the cliff to throw open her wings. But Jarzyl didn't fall--and from the way she moved up the cliff, unlike some of the other fledglings making the climb, she had no fear of falling at all.
Jarzyl had started off the fastest, making a big leap from the ground and moving quickly, but around a third of the way up, another fledgling had overtaken her. The way they both moved made it look so easy to scamper up the valley wall like it was nothing but a gentle incline, instead of the near vertical cliff that it really was. Atlas kneaded his claws against the dirt, watching as Jarzyl used her claws to grab onto the rock and nimbly made her way upwards. Entirely unlike his friend, Atlas was a three-legged dragon--a cripple--and though he was still fully capable in flight, that meant that he was far slower with walking, running, or other activities that relied on a dragon's four legs. Certainly he could never have hoped to climb that cliff, as tall and precipitously vertical as it was. Yet in watching Jarzyl climb, he felt his hearts pounding in his chest with nervous excitement as he wished for her to succeed.
The Equinox Festival was a drakken tradition that stretched back countless ages. It had started as a special day in distant history where various large clans had signed a pact to replace hostile rivalry with friendship; and now many generations on, it had become a day of festivities and to celebrate the changing of the seasons together. Among the old traditions, one ritual was this vertical race, where dragons young and old would take turns competing to try and climb up the cliff side. Hatchlings or younger fledglings might only try to get a quarter or halfway up the cliff, but adult drakken or older fledglings like Jarzyl and the other climbers could try to go all the way to the top.
Vines covered certain areas of the rocky surface, especially right near the top where they grew so thick as to form a continuous mat covering the cliff. Nestled amongst all the dangling greenery, there were pale white flowers visible, along with numerous clusters of large, bright yellow berries. Each berry was larger than a dragon's clenched paw, and it was the objective of the cliff ascent to climb all the way up and snatch one of these berries--though there was no reward for speed other than bragging rights, but still the fledglings enjoyed racing each other.
As the crowd watched, the dragon fledglings continued their climb up the cliff. Jarzyl had been overtaken and fallen to second place, yet right at the final top quarter of the cliff, she surged ahead even as her competitor slowed. Jarzyl smoothly transitioned from climbing up the rough rock surface to grabbing vines as holds, and then with a gesture that looked casual, she darted her snout forward and snapped of the largest of the yellow berries that was in range.
"Boom!" With a deep rumble like thunder, a drum was struck again. A referee dragon standing over the top of the cliff gestured with her wings as Jarzyl pulled herself over the edge and climbed up onto the top, carefully carrying that large yellow berry in her mouth.
Atlas slowly let out a breath that he had even realized he'd been holding, while Caden nodded her head approvingly and took another sip from her tea. "She did it."
Looking up from the base of the cliff, Atlas could see the referee lower her head in a quick bow towards Jarzyl, who returned the gesture. Almost all the other dragon fledglings were still making their way upwards, though there were a couple who had satisfied themselves with only getting up to the halfway point, and one other climber who had also made it to the top of the cliff already, just after Jarzyl. From his position down on the ground, Atlas saw Jarzyl dip her head in salute to that other fledgling who had managed to finish his ascent--one of their fellow schoolmates, a grey-scaled fledgling from clan Taslin whose name was Knaster. Knaster was carrying his own berry, and he bowed back towards Jarzyl, acknowledging her win with a deeper bow of his head.
Peering over the edge of the cliff, Jarzyl waved a wing towards her parents, who were watching her from a different spot down in the valley, elsewhere in the large forest clearing. But then the fledgling's gaze shifted towards where her friends were waiting. Jarzyl spun around so that her back was facing the cliff, and then with a smooth motion she backflipped off the edge and into a downward plummet. She whirled through the air, dropping quickly in a few seconds what had taken her minutes to climb up high. At the last moment she flared opened her wings and slowed her fall, landing neatly right beside Atlas and Caden with a gust of wind that sent leaves scattering.
"You won!" Caden strolled over towards Jarzyl, as did Atlas.
Jarzyl was still holding that large yellow berry in her mouth, but she sat back on her haunches and dropped the fruit into her paw. "It seems I did." Her neck frill perked up and she grinned at Caden. Then with a grunt, she twisted her body from side to side in a stretch. "Hggh. Good exercise."
"Well done," Atlas said, dipping his head in a bow towards her. "You were... you were really fast. I thought for a moment that Knaster would make it to the top before you, but he had some trouble when he reached the vines, and you were so quick."
Jarzyl grinned at him. "Thanks, Atlas." Her voice sounded nonchalant--surprisingly so, given her normally energetic, lively personality.
Atlas let out a soft, amused chuckle. "Heh. You seem remarkably calm about your victory. No... celebratory screaming, no dancing, no victorious backflips, no running around hugging people? I thought you would be more excited."
Jarzyl's grinned widely. "Is it really worth celebrating? It wasn't a surprise. But you want a backflip? I'll backflip for you. Watch this." She put the berry on the top surface of her left wing and then sharply flicked her wing, which send the berry flying straight upwards. "Hah!" Instantly the young dragon followed this up with a springing leap combined with a hard flap of her wings, not in a takeoff stroke but instead to rotate her entire body through an acrobatic somersault. Landing lightly on all four paws, Jarzyl kept her head tilted upwards, and then she lunged sideways and snapped out her snout to neatly catch the large berry in her jaws as it fell back down.
"Woah." Atlas made a soft impressed sound from his throat. His tail tip flicked without him thinking about it, and he shifted his weight between his three paws. Jarzyl was so casually agile in a manner that was completely opposite to his awkwardness, and though he didn't verbally admit it, he found that deeply impressive.
Caden was less impressed, and she just chuckled. "Show-off!"
Jarzyl remained crouched with her wings unfurled for a moment. Then she stood back upright with a casual flick of her neck frill. She waved her wings once before flipping them onto her back in a smooth, graceful movement, and she dropped the berry back into a forepaw again.
The amber-scaled fledgling nodded towards the cliff, then towards the forest clearing and the rest of the festival. "You saw the rest of them. I already knew I was the fastest out of this group of fledglings, so it wasn't a surprise that I'd be the first to get to the top of the cliff. I knew it, Knaster knew it, and... ah..." Jarzyl stepped right up to Atlas so she was standing close beside him, but facing the other way and looking over his shoulder. Leaning even closer, she murmured in his ear, "And I think you knew it too, didn't you?" Then she reared up on her hindlegs and wrapped her wings around Atlas, pulling him into an embrace. "But if you want a hug, that can also be arranged. Oh yes. Hmmmrrrrr..."
Jarzyl made a soft, rumbly noise and held her tight hug for a few seconds. She smelled of rock dust and greenery after having climbed up the cliff. And from all the exertion she had just been through, Atlas could feel the warmth emanating from his friend's scales as she pressed her body against his, but then she released him and glanced around calmly. "All that climbing sure was tiring. I'm going to get a drink. Could you hold this for me?" She casually pushed the large yellow berry into his grasp, and then she spun around and trotted off, with her tail slowly swishing from side to side.
Sitting up on his haunches, Atlas held the berry with his forepaw, and he blinked several times. "Uhm..."
Caden had been watching the whole exchange from right beside them, and now she raised an eye ridge and lapped at her own cup of honeyed tea. "Jarzyl is so silly and playful sometimes, but other times she can just _radiate_confidence when she wants to. What did she whisper to you, right before she hugged you?"
"Nothing..." Atlas unfurled his own wings and wrapped them around his own body for a moment. It was a perfectly temperate autumn afternoon with scattered clouds covering the sky, yet suddenly he felt oddly cold. Or perhaps he simply missed the warm feeling of Jarzyl hugging him, though he didn't say that aloud. Instead he lowered his gaze and stared at the berry--it was bright yellow and made up of about a dozen smaller drupelets.
Caden nodded towards the berry. "Do you know what that is?"
"It's a sourberry. It grows on vines near the top of cliffs, and is the traditional prize of the Equinox Festival's cliff climb," Atlas replied.
Caden nodded again. "That's correct. A sourberry is too sour to be eaten just on its own, so it's usually used as flavouring to food. Do you know the tradition?"
Atlas had vaguely heard of the tradition Caden was referring to, but he said nothing, and she continued.
"The saying goes, a sourberry is meant to be shared.That's because each berry is too big for a single person's meal. You'll taste nothing but overwhelming sourness if you eat it alone, but with two people to share it, it adds a zesty, tangy flavour. Hence, after completing the cliff climb and snatching a sourberry, one of the old clan traditions is to give the berry to your mate. Or if you don't have a mate, then you give it someonewhom you would like to be mates with..."
Atlas snorted softly. "Pfft. It's just a berry. And Jarzyl only passed it to me to hold while she's getting her drink."
"Oh, I don't know about that!" Caden was grinning, and she used a paw to nudge Atlas's side. "Maybe she's trying to signal something to you?"
"You're overthinking it. The old clan tradition was for the berry to be a gift to be shared. You could give it to an old friend, or to make a new friend, or as a peace offering, or however." Atlas nodded his head decidedly. "Anyway, Jarzyl wasn't even giving it to me. She just needed someone to hold her berry while she's getting a drink. That's all."
Caden laughed. "Hahaha. You're probably right. It might have been a flirty move, but I don't think Jarzyl intended it to be."
Jarzyl came back soon, scampering three legged and carrying a drink packet filled with icy fruit juice in her paw. "I'm back. I have juice." Sitting down next to her friends, Jarzyl flicked out a claw and sliced open the top of the packet to sip at the beverage contained within. Then she took the berry back from Atlas. "Thanks for helping me to hold that."
"You're welcome," Atlas said.
Jarzyl grinned warmly at him, then at Caden too. "This festival is great."
"Food, music, games--that's all you need for a celebration," Caden agreed. She drank again from her own cup of tea, which made Jarzyl frown.
"Atlas, you don't have a drink yet! I should have got one for you. Here, why don't you take this one and I'll go get another." Jarzyl passed Atlas her drink.
"I can pay you for this--" Atlas started to say, but Jarzyl cut him off with a shake of her head.
"Not necessary. No debts between friends." Jarzyl was still holding onto her sourberry. She glanced at it for a second, then an odd expression crossed her face which Atlas couldn't quite interpret. "Help me hold this again, will you?"
Atlas was a three-legged dragon missing his left forepaw, so holding the drink packet already put him at the limit for his carrying capacity. "Sure. Just let me..." He tried to open one of the pouches of his flight harness to use as storage, but Jarzyl casually strolled up to him before he could get it open.
Atlas was a dragon fledgling quickly nearing adulthood, and a pair of horns had started to grow from the back of his head. Whereas neck crests or frills (like the one Jarzyl had) were usually present right from hatching, horns were an anatomical feature that only developed around when a dragon reached the fledgling growth spurt. Atlas's horns had started growing only months ago and were a smooth conical shape, pointing straight backwards and curving mildly downwards. Last he had checked in the mirror, they were about a third the length of the rest of his skull, though still growing quickly and uneven in length.
"Let me just..." Rearing up on her hindlimbs, Jarzyl grabbed his left horn--the moderately shorter one--to tilt his head towards her, and then she firmly slapped the large yellow sourberry onto his other horn, using it like a spike. "Hehehehe!" Jarzyl let out a wicked, cackling giggle, and her neck frill perked right up.
"Umm," Atlas said.
"Ahaha." Sticking out her tongue, Jarzyl cleaned Atlas's horn, licking up the small dribble of juice that had spurted from the berry when it had been impaled. After a moment she released his head and pulled back. Jarzyl stared at him, then nodded, looking pleased with herself. "That will do!" She grinned mischievously and licked her snout clean, then she leaned close and licked the side of his snout affectionately. "That'll do." Without further comment the fledgling spun around and cheerfully trotted off in the direction of one of the drink stalls again.
Atlas blinked. He could feel the slight weight of the large berry on his right horn, and when he opened his mouth and licked his own snout, he could taste the fruity sourness from where Jarzyl's tongue had brushed against the side of his muzzle.
"Wow," Caden said, and she shook her head. "Atlas, honestly speaking, you're always a little bit awkwardly cute with that missing leg, but this might be the most flustered I've ever seen you. And I can't tell. I really can't tell. Is Jarz being playful or is she being flirtatious? Or maybe both? Either way, she just owns you, doesn't she?"
"I..." Atlas didn't know what to say, so he didn't respond. He used his jaws to hold onto the juice drink packet, then he carefully felt up the back of his head with his paw. The sourberry was lodged around the middle of his right horn, and he didn't try to remove it. Instead he just watched as Jarzyl walked over to the drink stall with a cheery skip in her steps.
Caden had a wide, amused grin. "All those years back when we were only young hatchlings and I first met you, I used to think that Jarzyl liked bullying you--but then I realized that was just her playfulness, and you were the one who most tolerated her antics."
Atlas took a draught from the juice packet, and the cool liquid was fruity and sweet against his tongue. He made a slight tilt of his head, indicating the berry that was impaled on his right horn. "That's an accurate way of describing it. And Jarz still bullies me, clearly."
Caden only laughed. "Hahaha. You enjoy having her attention, and she needs yours." After taking another sip from her honeyed tea, Caden used her wing to pat Atlas's back, and she nudged him forward. "Go on then. After her."
Atlas slipped the juice packed into a pouch of his flight harness, and then he stood up and went to follow after Jarzyl.
Jarzyl had bought herself another pouch of juice by the time Atlas came strolling over to her. She took a gulp from the pouch and then resealed the top, before clipping it onto her flight harness. The drink pouch was partially translucent, revealing that the pulpy juice inside was a bright orange colour that blended in with the amber orange colouration of her scales. "This drink is more orange than I am."
"That depends on which scales you're comparing it with," Atlas replied, which was true. Whereas his own scales were a dark, sooty colour all over, Jarzyl's colouration showed a faint countershading pattern with lighter hues on her chest, underside, and paws, with a darker orange on her back and neck.
"I suppose that's true." Jarzyl grinned at Atlas, then she glanced around. "Where's Caden?"
Atlas looked over his shoulder. Caden was no longer where they had been sitting earlier; she had melted away into the crowd of dragons that loitered around the forested valley and were strolling around the Equinox Festival. "She... went off somewhere. I think she went to go find Glecion."
With a flick of her neck frill, Jarzyl shrugged. "We'll probably bump into them sooner or later. Let's go look around the festival." Walking over to Atlas, she bumped against his side, then briefly coiled her tail tip around his paw to tug him after her.
Across the large, forested valley, booths and markets had been set up to sell food, drinks, trinkets, toys, or other goods, along with offering games, music, performances, and other entertainment. The two fledglings went around the festival, moving through the crowds and taking in the sights.
The sourberry was still stuck on Atlas's horn, and Jarzyl didn't take it back. In fact, after they had spent some more time enjoying the Equinox Festival, she did the exact opposite. Atlas was standing beside Jarzyl as they both waited to get some roasted meat from a food booth. While the vendor was using his firebreath to carefully scorch the meat to tasty perfection, Atlas had turned his attention to another side, where an icespitter drakka was using her frostbreath to carve a delicate ice sculpture that resembled a beaver or some other related animal.
Suddenly he heard Jarzyl say, "Hey Atlas, hold still for me." Then her forelimb went around his shoulder from behind, grabbing his chin. Before Atlas could even react, he felt his head pushed forward slightly as Jarzyl impaled more food onto his other horn. This time it was diced cubes of meat that had been roasted and then dipped into a thick sauce that smelled of nuts and spices.
Atlas turned around to see Jarzyl licking her right paw and grinning widely, with her neck frill perked up from excitement. Her left paw was holding onto the wooden skewer on which the meat had formerly been threaded onto, before she'd taken it off and stuck it on his horn instead. Sitting back on his haunches, Atlas felt up his horns--the meat was hot, almost too hot to be held with a paw, though his horns insulated the heat from his head. He wiped away a drip of sauce that had drippled down. "Uhh... why?"
Jarzyl waved the wooden skewer. "I thought it would be funny, and it is! Heheha. You should see yourself." She bounced between all four paws, restless with playful energy, then she nodded and gestured towards the back of her own head. "You know what I said the other day? I take it back. I used to be happy with only having a neck frill, but now I want horns too. They seem so convenient!"
Atlas tapped his paw against his flight harness with its various pouches. "Or... you could just use a flight harness like a normal dragon?"
"This way is more fun." Waving her wing for him to follow her, Jarzyl trotted over to another booth to order more food.
After a few more minutes, both of Atlas's horns were stacked with all manner of food--it had started with that large yellow berry, then Jarzyl had added cubes and cuts of roasted meats, along with various slices of vegetables, fruit, tubers, and herbs.
Nerlin and Indry--two other fledglings from the same school as Atlas, both his friends--briefly stopped to observe. "Oh, hello Atlas. That is... an interesting fashion statement you're sporting," Indry noted.
Nerlin pointed towards Atlas's horns. "Is this some obscure clan tradition or...?"
"Possibly, but not that I know of," Atlas admitted.
His two friends strolled off again, and eventually Jarzyl came back, carrying a bright red apple in her jaws that she had plucked from a fruit tree. The Equinox Festival was a celebration of unity between all dragon clans, but it was also a harvest festival to mark the end of the yearly growing season. Natural forest covered a good portion of the valley, but there were also large areas where the woods had been pushed back to make room for orchards with rows and rows of fruit trees. In the coming days all the produce would all be harvested, but now as part of the festival, anyone was free to pluck a ripe fruit for eating immediately.
Jarzyl tried to stick the apple onto Atlas's horn, but his horn wasn't quite pointy enough to properly pierce the fruit. With a shrug, she bit into the apple before offering it to Atlas. Taking the fruit, Atlas also took a bite--the apple was ripe, juicy, and deliciously crisp. He took the time to chew and swallow, before gesturing up towards his horns. "So... is that enough food for your dinner?"
Jarzyl just gave him a casual grin. "It's enough to share."
A while later, Atlas and Jarzyl were sitting in a meadow that overlooked most of the valley. A cool breeze rolled through the field, making waves in the tall grass and the colourful wildflowers. Atlas peered down at the valley where the Equinox Festival was ongoing--numerous dragons could be seen enjoying the festivities, but from afar they seemed unimportant.
Jarzyl rolled about in the grass, waving her wings. She sighed happily, then she flipped back upright and trotted over towards Atlas before slumping down against his side. "I like this season, and I like this weather. It's not too cold, not too hot, and it's so nice and windy. It is just_right_."
"I prefer summer. The heat generates more thermals and it's easier to soar," Atlas murmured.
"Hmm, hmm!" Bobbing her head, which made her neck frill wobble, Jarzyl began singing lines from a lively, uplifting folk song that had some of the musicians had been playing in the festival. "I see the clouds, I see the sky, and that's where I've got to be!"
Atlas could feel the faint rumble in Jarzyl's chest as she sang, leaning against his side, and without thinking about it he started humming along. In that brief instant, harmonizing together in pitch, Atlas felt perfectly connected and satisfied. Nothing else seemed important, it was just this calm, pleasant moment with Jarzyl leaning again him and singing happily.
"Whenever I try to fly, gravity pulls me straight down! Yeah, yeah..." When she finished a stanza, Jarzyl let the song trail off. Atlas had been staring out over the valley, but then Jarzyl stood up and grabbed his chin with her paw to tilt his head towards her. Casually leaning close, Jarzyl nipped a bite of meat from the assortment of foods that she had stashed on his horns. "This is a good day! It's a good day to be friends."
Atlas chuckled softly, and his smile was entirely genuine. "True."
"Open skies, great view, and nothing in the world to worry about. Hmmrrr!" Humming happily, Jarzyl plucked another of the chunks of roasted meat that was skewered on Atlas's horns, and she popped it into his mouth.
END