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Jarzyl and Caden were both seated at their desks, side by side, and the two dragon fledglings were comparing their homework sheets before class was about to start for the day. While they had both finished the assignment, their math answers didn't agree. Jarzyl tapped the text. "Hmm... I don't think you need to divide again here."

Caden disagreed. "I worked on these questions with my study group yesterday. We talked it out and decided that you do need to divide again to get the proper area. Reylin was very convincing. Though if you ask me to explain why, I'm not sure I could."

Jarzyl hummed again, unconvinced. "Hmmm."

Then another fledgling showed up to the classroom. Normally Atlas was quite punctual, but this time he was one of the last to arrive, with almost everyone else in their class already here. At first Jarzyl beamed at the sight of their friend, with her neck frill perking up, but then her expression turned to shock and she gasped softly. "Oh!"

Caden glanced up. "Look who finally turned up. Great. Let him settle this." She waved the sooty-coloured, three-legged fledgling over. "Atlas. Over here."

Atlas dipped his head in a casual bow to the two female fledglings. "Good morning."

"Yeah, hello. What's your answer for question six? Do you divide again, or just the once?"

Jarzyl interrupted before Atlas could reply. "Hey! What happened to you!?"

Atlas shrugged indifferently, bobbing his wings up and down. "It's nothing."

"Huh? What?" Unlike Jarzyl, Caden took another moment to notice. "What are you talking about...? Oh, missing horn!"

"It's really nothing," Atlas insisted. As a fledgling, he had started to grow a pair of horns from the back of his head, pointing backwards with a slight curve. But unlike the last time they had seen him, in school just yesterday, now he had only had one horn. The other one was missing. "It snapped off randomly yesterday evening. I wasn't even trying to polish it or anything."

"What?!" Jarzyl exclaimed. "That's terrible!!" She beckoned for Atlas to sit at the desk beside her, in the spot she had been reserving for him, and then she examined the back of his head. "Oh, no! No, no, no."

Rather than the smooth, conical horn which had been there yesterday, now the back right side of his head just had a flattish spot of white horn material instead, from where the horn had snapped off cleanly. It was in sharp contrast to his left horn, which was still there at the other side of his head. Atlas tolerated Jarzyl's prodding with mild amusement. "It's fine. It didn't hurt. I asked the shelter guardian, then the school doctor this morning, and they all said it was nothing to be worried about."

Caden nodded. "Horns are high maintenance. You have to polish them constantly to look good, but if you go on a diet or suddenly fall sick, that can make them entirely shed off. You're not sick, are you?"

"I'm not sick," Atlas confirmed. "The doctor said it's not uncommon for this sort of thing to happen to dragons our age--you grow, you stop growing, then it starts again, and with all that change sometimes things like this happen."

"It isn't... it isn't because I like to grab your horns and wobble your head, is it?" Jarzyl asked sheepishly.

Atlas laughed. "It's not that. The school doc said that if anything, that ought to have made my horns grow tougher. She said that a random horn loss without any specific reason can sometimes happens during fledgling development, from the growth spurts, hormones, stress, and everything. It's unlikely to happen again, especially once I'm a proper adult drakken, unless I'm really starving or severely ill."

Caden peered Atlas over, then nodded. "Half horned Atlas! It's an unconventional look, but it's distinctive. Very unique. A little scruffy, but catches the eye." She laughed, then hurriedly bit it back. "Heh--oh I shouldn't laugh, but... with that broken horn, you're even more asymmetric than usual."

"Haha! That is true." Atlas laughed too.

Jarzyl just sighed, sounding disappointed. "Aww...!" Of the three friends, she seemed by far the most upset by this development. She gingerly tapped Atlas's one remaining horn, resting her other paw on his head. "But I liked how you looked with two horns. All long and nice."

"It'll grow back in a few months." Atlas tilted his head left, then right. "My head feels unbalanced though. I'll have to grind down the other horn so it isn't so much longer than the horn stump."

Caden rubbed the back of her own head, imagining she had horns. "I know a good grooming salon! It's where I get my scales polished and my claws trimmed sometimes, but they do horns as well. Do you want the address? They'll be able to trim down your other horn while keeping it looking good."

Atlas shrugged. "I can't afford a fancy salon."

"It's not fancy. It's an affordable place."

Atlas grinned. "Affordable is still more expensive than free. I was thinking I could borrow a file from the school masonry workshop, and grind down the horn myself. Or even just grab a saw and cut the horn off entirely, to match."

Jarzyl flinched. She threw a sharp look at Atlas, then turned to Caden. "Give me the address."

Caden obligingly wrote on her notepad, then she tore off the paper and passed it to Jarzyl. "Here. But you already know the place--it's that salon in sector three where I took you a couple of times, and tried to get you to go for a scale scrub. But you were simply incapable of sitting still and relaxing."

"Right. I remember, yes." Jarzyl took the paper, checked it, then folded it up and slipped it into her flight harness.

A faint smile crossed Caden's snout. "Suddenly changed your mind about going for a scale scrub? Or are you going to drag Atlas there to get his horns--or horn--done up nicely?"

Jarzyl muttered something under her breath, too quiet for either of her close friends to hear.

Caden laughed, then she gestured at her desk again. "Anyway, the math assignment. You do need to divide again, yes? Atlas?"

"No, you shouldn't. The first time is enough, otherwise you'd also need to recalculate the vector functions. And if you do that, then function transfer rule means that it's the same as just not dividing at all."

Caden frowned. "Oh...? Are you sure? Because I'm not sure myself, but I just trust in the judgement of those better at maths than me. Let me check this with Reylin. She was very convincing yesterday." Standing up, Caden strolled off to the other side of the classroom to confer with another classmate and friend.

Meanwhile, Jarzyl was still examining Atlas's head. She tilted his chin with her paw, moving his head to different angles. "I'll have to get used to how you look now."

Atlas chuckled. "Do I really look that different? I never had any horns until barely a year or two ago. All my life as a hatchling, I was always hornless. It's not like it took you a long time to get used to how I looked with horns."

"Yes, but as you often say, we aren't hatchlings anymore," Jarzyl replied. "You are not going to the masonry workshop, and you are _not_going to saw off that other horn yourself," she insisted, before letting him go. "The salon can trim it down, but keep the horn."

Atlas chuckled. "This is surprising. I didn't think you would care so much about how my horns looked. You always seem... not the type who is vain or obsessed about physical appearance?"

Jarzyl clicked her tongue softly. "Just because I'm not like Caden and I don't bother with polishing scales or neatly trimming my claws every day, doesn't mean I don't care about appearances. I think I look good enough from the effort I do put in." She glanced down at herself, then looked up at Atlas. "Honestly, if you told me that you think my scales look rough and could use more care, then yes, I would get them polished. But..." Jarzyl slid her paw down her side. Her voice got lower, and quieter. "I didn't hear you make any complaints whatsoever about roughness, last time you were touching me..."

It was amusing to see Atlas's eyes go wide. "Jarz! You said you didn't want to talk about that stuff in class." He glanced around, but no one was paying attention to them.

"Eh." Jarzyl grunted. "Eat more food with calcium, so your missing horn grows back fast."

"Hah. And hey, I did bring it to school. Check this out." Atlas reached into his flight harness and then he took out his broken horn. It was a lengthy conical shape, white and smooth. The tip was rounded off and the base was flat but rough, from where it had broken off his head. He showed it to Jarzyl. "The doctor recommended washing the horn clean, then grinding it up into a powder and eating it for the minerals. Hahah. She said not to gnaw on it because that's not good for teeth, but otherwise it can be eaten."

"Nooo, don't eat it! What a waste! Just drink more milk or eat rocks if you need minerals." Jarzyl took the horn, and she ran her paws over it, feeling its smooth, polished surface and its conical shape. "Wow. This thing--it's a piece of you." She sniffed at the horn. "It even smells like you."

"Horns are the same material as scales, just denser," Atlas pointed out.

Jarzyl neck frill twitched. She glanced around, then gave him a look. "Uh... weird question, but can I keep this?"

"Haha!" Atlas laughed. He considered it for a moment, then shrugged again. "Sure, you can have that if you want?"

"Thanks."

"I don't know why you'd want it. It not useful for anything."

"I'll have a use for this," Jarzyl assured him.

Atlas looked thoughtful. "Going to put it on your shelf as a display piece?"

"Maybe. But there are other potential uses."

"I guess you could hollow it out, and drink from it like a cup?" Atlas guessed.

"Oh, nothing like that. I have cups to use as cups." Jarzyl weighed the horn in her paw, then held it against the back of her head, pressing down her frill. "Hehe. I could make a headband with this to wear your horn as an accessory. Hahaha! I'd be just as horny as you."

"More so," Atlas muttered. "Your odd fascination with my horns continues, and now escalates," he drily noted.

"It's not odd. It's nice that you have horns. I like your horns. I like to hold this one, although I would prefer if it was still on your head, making you look handsome. But since it has come off, I'll just hold it instead." Jarzyl waved his horn about. Then she suddenly grinned a wicked smile and flicked her neck frill at Atlas. She gripped her paw around the tapering, conical shape of the horn, then slid downwards, loosening her grip as she went down. "That shape is... yeah, I am absolutely going to have a use for this. I think it will... fit."

Atlas raised an eye ridge. "Is that a joke? Are you joking?"

Jarzyl winked at him playfully. "Of course it's a joke. I wouldn't do that, whatever that means. Yes. You know me."

Atlas's eyes narrowed. "Hmm, yes. I know you."

"Hehehe." Jarzyl giggled in an extremely suspect manner. "Hypothetically speaking, purely out of a scientific curiosity, is it true that a drake's horns match the size of his horn?"

Atlas thought about it. "That's a myth. I don't think that's scientific."

Jarzyl casually shrugged. "Flicher told me that before. But Flicher's got big horns, so of course he would say something like that. But then again, I've heard gossip from Pyxis who heard it from Exilion that apparently Flicher wasn't exaggerating."

"How would Exilion know that? Actually, never mind. I think I can guess."

Jarzyl laughed. "So, it's not true then?" She gestured with Atlas's broken horn. "This horn compared to your other horn...? Not the other horn on your head."

"I can't believe you would ask me that. Ok that's not true--I shouldn't be surprised at this point," Atlas muttered, shaking his head in half disbelief. But then he reached over and felt up the horn that Jarzyl was holding, getting a feel for its exact size in his paw. "It is similar in size, yes." Then he sighed. "I can't believe I just answered that."

That got yet more laughter out from Jarzyl. "Good to know, good to know. For... reasons."

"Does that sate your curiosity?"

"No. No, it doesn't." Jarzyl slipped the horn into her flight harness and patted the pouch. "Atlas," she muttered, saying his name all contented and smug, as if she owned it and owned him.

Atlas adjusted the way he was sitting on the floor cushion. "Jarzyl."

Caden returned and sat down on Jarzyl's other side, which put an end to that line of inquiry. "You were right. It's only a single division, not double. I need to update my answer!"

Jarzyl's grin suddenly was back to innocent, just her normal cheery smile. "Yep."

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END