FSE

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formerly SoFurry search engine

As Warrav unfolded the aged map, Xavi was frozen as her mind fabricated the worst possible scenarios. If he went blundering into the library while Aro was there... he'd be liable to treat the dragon like a hostile animal, at best. In all his naivety, Aro was likely to mention Xavi... and that would be the worst possible way for Warrav to learn they'd been talking. He'd be irate enough without thinking Xavi was trying to keep it from him.

But that was a selfish worry. Aro's fragility and Warrav's insensitivity... Xavi did not want to think what would come of a meeting between her brother and the dragon if she were not present to intervene. And if Warrav had found the library... Aro's library... Xavi could imagine little that would keep her brother from the place.

But there was nothing she could do without raising suspicion; how could she suddenly blurt out everything about the dragon without seeming fearful because she had hidden this from Warrav?

Well, she had. But she would have told him soon! Now there was nothing she could do...

"Ooh, found something interesting have you?" Jadere's tone rose in excitement.

Warrav smirked triumphantly. "Doubtlessly. This will..."

"I want to see!" The vixen leapt to her feet.

"Now wait just a- Stop! You're going to tear it... That's- Damn it!"

Xavi blinked. In the space of Warrav's stuttering protests, Jadere had weaseled the old page from his grasp. He stood there with grasping fingers, as though half believing his eyes had tricked him. Jadere studiously ignored him, and began pacing with the map. In a huff, Warrav tried to follow her and get glimpses over her shoulder. "Come back here with that...!"

But Jadere turned and paced the other direction before he could get a look, studying the map for herself. "As much as it resembles eighth era design... Would you look at this?" She turned back to Warrav, flipping the map to let him see and indicating a spot.

For a moment, Xavi was stabbed with fear again. But as she saw the shape of the map's layout, she knew Jadere was pointing nowhere near the library.

"So they do have a mannathar mine..." Warrav smirked. "Yes... Yes, now that is worth a look."

Where had Xavi heard that before? She ought to know, but it was early enough in the morning her mind was drawing a blank. "Mannathar?" She questioned aloud.

Jadere shot her a grin even broader than Warrav's as she folded the map away from his prying eyes again. "The crystals used for artifice, girl. They don't precisely grow on trees, you know."

"Ah, those." Xavi shook her head, freshly aware of her hatred of mornings.

"Now may I please..." Warrav reached for the map again.

"What, don't trust me to find the way?" The vixen kept it an inch out of his reach. "I'm quite familiar with maps, thank you kindly. Remind me... how many countries have you traveled to?"

Warrav muttered something about 'running his own bloody expedition'. Jadere pointed, and Warrav took a few steps to the building she indicated: one of the facades built into the cliff wall, relatively small and tucked away in a corner.

The fox turned to Xavi. "Coming?" She wore a smile... but almost as soon as her back was to Warrav, she shed the pretense and gave Xavi a stern and telling eye.

Xavi nodded, and not just in answer to the question. She thanked Jadere with her eyes, and acknowledged the silent message. She'd given Xavi the chance to tell her brother everything before he found the library. The vixen had done it for her sake, and Xavi'd better not waste it.

Nearly spilling her half-forgotten cup in the process of standing, she rose to follow after her brother and the fox. As she walked, she tried to sort out her thoughts. The surface of her tea rippled with her shaking, uncertain fingers. She took a few sips and savored the flavor to help her focus her thoughts. Come to think of it, she wasn't sure she recognized the flavor. It was a minty, earthy taste that was mildly bitter and tangy. Perhaps something from Jadere's homeland? She rather liked it...

Perhaps it was best to simply tell it the way it happened.

About the time Jadere was shoving open the heavy oaken doors of the building she had indicated, Xavi felt a little more ready. "Warrav? There's something I should tell you..."

Her brother rolled his eyes. "If it is relevant, why would you prelude it so?"

Xavi ignored the comment. "It's about the dragon."

"Never you mind that creature; by this point, we can be fairly sure he won't be attacking us. Probably hiding in a hole somewhere, scared stiff of us."

"Warrav!" Xavi shook her head; she couldn't let her bother's manners dissuade her. She pushed on, "As a matter of fact, I was curious about him."

"Well now, no one present happens to be a dragon expert, so you're out of luck. And this isn't the time, Xavi." He spread a wing at the doors as they entered. "Most of these buildings didn't have doors, I note. It makes sense the mine entrance would have one; they would be locked to prevent thievery or unauthorized mining while the mine was shut down..." Light from the doorway was all that lit the long hall beyond and the arching buttresses overhead. Between each buttress stood a desk, and shelves coated the walls behind them.

Xavi frowned. "Will you just listen for a moment?"

"I would be happy to, if you had something pertinent to add." Warrav shook his head and swept off to the nearest desk and the bookcases behind it.

Jadere glanced back and forth between the bickering siblings, her brow furrowed from concern. "The girl's a mind to tell you something; give the girl a fair ear, will you?"

"Perhaps if she were of a mind to help me understand why she even decided to come along, out of the blue," he retorted.

The vixen shared a glance with Xavi. It was hard to tell if Jadere was trying to be encouraging, or needed it in that instant.

"Tell me someone thought to bring a lantern."

After a moment, the fox stepped over to Warrav, muttering a word of magic and snapping her fingers in a show of lighting a sphere of magic light hovering above her palm.

"Thank you," Warrav grunted in the most ungrateful tone.

Xavi took a deep breath and cleared her throat. "About the dragon... I was curious what he was doing here, and how he survived. I decided to..."

"Xavi, I'm sure your theories are fascinating," Warrav lashed back, "but I am trying to work here!"

"This is important!" Xavi spread her wings. Being closer to the entrance, her wing blotted out much of the morning light, and cast a shadow over where Warrav was pulling musty old documents from a shelf. By itself, Jadere's light was relatively poor, and his eyes shot to Xavi in annoyance.

Then they widened in horror. "Xavi! Behind you! Get away!"

Warrav's words seemed distant as another thought struck her just then: actually, Xavi's wing wouldn't block that much light. She turned around to find a dragon silhouetted against the doorway. "Oh! Aro..." She caught herself smiling. Turning back to her mortified brother, she continued, "As I was saying, I decided to meet the dragon. Warrav, Jadere... this is Arothmel. Arothmel... Jadere and Warrav." Xavi motioned to each of them in turn as she introduced them.

The dragon cocked his head at her. "Why do you say it twice?"

Xavi laughed, glancing back at him. "I guess it's repetitive, now that I think about it! But that's how we introduce people." All her worries had transformed into a fluttering feeling of warmth; she couldn't believe how well that had gone. And oh, Warrav's face was priceless as stared between his sister and the dragon.

Warrav worked his beak wordlessly several moments. Suddenly, he snapped at Jadere, "I thought you were watching her!"

"Oh... I kept her out of trouble." Jadere tossed her head in Xavi's direction. "See? Safe and sound."

"If you put this idea into her head...!"

"Hardly. Your sister was determined, and was quite resourceful as well."

Warrav marched over to Xavi with a glower, snatching her arm and pulling her a step away from the dragon. "If you'd a half ounce of sense for your own safety..."

"Warrav!" Xavi shoved his wings off her. "You're the one liable to get bitten, at this rate!" Those warm feelings were twisting into disgust; why, oh why did her brother have to be such an arse?

Aro took a step back from the entryway, his eyes widening. "I'm not going to bite anyone!"

Despite her brother's behavior, Xavi chuckled. "Oh, I know that Aro. I'm almost tempted to do it myself." She snapped her beak at Warrav. And just to prove the poor dragon was harmless, she stepped to him and extended a wing to the white scales of his neck.

Aro jumped slightly at the touch, but within a moment he was purring and pressing his head against her wing, his enthusiasm nearly throwing Xavi off balance. She chuckled, and rubbed his snout, looking back at her other companions.

Jadere smirked warmly at the sight of the dragon's eagerness. Warrav was a picture of vexation. He shook his head and strode over to Jadere. "Give me that damn map," he snapped, snatching it out of her grasp.

"Map?" The dragon's earfins perked up and his head lifted from Xavi's wing. "Where are you going?"

Warrav turned his scowl on the dragon a moment. "The mannathar mine."

Aro's head swiveled to Xavi. "What is a man-a-thar his?"

A smirk grew upon her. "A 'mine' can also be a place where people dig to find metal or gems... or crystals, sometimes. Mannathar is a kind of crystal used in artifice. That's, ah... magic... things." Though she struggled for words, she realized she had a perfect example on hand. She pulled the round piece of glass from her pocket and gestured to the veins of blue crystal woven into the rim.

"Ah, like your embral!" Aro's fins raised in understanding.

"Embral?" Xavi blinked.

The dragon nodded. "That is what the people who lived here called them. It makes everything brighter when you look through it?"

"Yes, but... we don't have a word for these. We just don't make things like this." She shrugged. "Not commonly at least."

One of Aro's earfins lifted at the sound of footsteps. He and Xavi glanced over toward Warrav, who was trudging deeper into the hall. The dragon called out, "You can't get there that way."

Warrav glanced over his shoulder and brandished the map. "Codswallop."

He stumped on down the dark hall, undeterred. Jadere glanced back at Xavi and the dragon, hesitating a moment, but opted to chase after Warrav with her magic sphere of light. A moment later, Aro was on their heels, and Xavi chased after him. She couldn't ward off a grin. Aro likely knew the area better than that old map.

Xavi caught up to the dragon as hall widened into a broad, open space. Jadere's magic sphere could hardly light it, though in its glow Arothmel's scales glistened robin egg blue. Knowing the dragon's eyes were far better than her own, and wanting to trip over anything, Xavi walked close beside him. The vixen just did her best to keep up with Warrav's steps and light his way.

"Where you're from, can everyone do what she's doing?" Aro asked.

Xavi followed the dragon's eyes, and he was watching Jadere with her magic ball of light. "She does make it look simple... But no. Actually I'm not even sure what kind of spell that is. Why?"

"How does everyone else see at night without an embral, then?"

Chuckling, Xavi explained, "Usually with candles, or torches, or lamps... I'm sure the people who lived here used those too."

"That is true..." Aro mused. "I do use their lamps sometimes."

Jadere's light was finally illuminating the far wall, and two passages. They were staircases, plunging downward. Warrav arbitrarily chose the left one. Fortunately, the steps weren't too steep. A metal rail ran down the center of the staircase, but there was no sign of any cart that might have run on it. With only the vixen's magical light, the top landing was lost in darkness, and it was difficult to tell just how far they descended. Xavi might have found her patience worn, but she found her gaze drifting to the dragon trotting down the steps beside her. Aro's brow was lowered and Xavi could almost see the thoughts churning in his head. Had they been alone she would have asked him what was on his mind - but with Warrav and Jadere just ahead, she hesitated until it seemed wrong to break the silence.

Finally they reached the bottom landing. The next chamber may as well have been a mirror image of that at the top of the stairs, if not just a bit larger; the magic light barely reached the ceiling, let alone the walls. Darkness seemed to press in, and it was actually a bit chilly this far down. Warrav marched on, until the far wall came into view.

If it could indeed be called a wall. The room ended not in masonry, but a semicircle of bare earth. A half dozen narrow tunnels bore deeper. Or rather, they had. Even as dark as it was, everyone knew Warrav was scowling.

"They used wood to support their tunnels," Aro chimed in, his cheery cheery tone echoing loudly. "But it all rotted, so the ceiling fell."

"Thank you for that especially obvious assessment," Warrav growled.

Jadere hummed to herself, musing. "I wonder if they stripped the veins or if there's actually anything left. Mannathar mines are so few and far between... It would be a shame to start digging again only to find the Aldaians had already carved out everything of value. Perhaps that was why this particular city was abandoned?"

"There is a lot of crystal down there, actually," the dragon said. "I do not know if any of it is mannathar, though."

"Really." Warrav eyed Arothmel suspiciously. "And just how did you learn that?"

"There is another way down there." The dragon's earfins perked up, catching Jadere's light. "I can show you."

"Oh, would you please?" Jadere grinned broadly.

His cheerful, affirmative trill resounding in the dark chamber, he turned around and trotted back the way they'd come. He reached the stairs, and bound up them eight at a time. Xavi hurried after him, and Jadere was torn between catching up with her or hanging back so as not to leave Warrav in the dark. He followed, but at a clearly unenthused pace. At length, the fox grabbed him by the wing and picked up the pace on his behalf.

Xavi's hurry dwindled sharply after about the fiftieth stair step, as she remembered just how many stairs there were, and began to pace herself. Lucky the dragon didn't need light; from the sounds of his claws scratching and skittering, he was halfway up the flight already.

By the time the vixen and the raven siblings reached the top of the stairs with burning thighs, Aro was sitting on his haunches, waiting. He hopped to his feet as soon as he saw them, and Xavi had to call out to inform him she and her companions just weren't that fast. After that, he was constantly looking over his shoulder to be sure he wasn't getting ahead of them.

Out into the sunlight the dragon led, then into a different building nearby. The main hall just inside this one's doorway was framed by sweeping staircases along either wall, raising to the upper floors. Aro, instead, wound through side passages to staircases leading down into a warren of corridors not unlike those beneath the library. There were plenty of side rooms, but if they had ever been used for storage, they were long since empty.

Xavi wondered why someplace like this would connect to a mine. And she was sure Warrav would be just as skeptical, though he seemed to have given up vocalizing his complaints for now. He settling for muttering under his breath.

As they wound through the halls, Jadere perked up and asked the dragon, "So Xavi tells me you read Aldaian?"

"I do."

"Aloud?"

"Yes."

Hearing this roused Warrav to grumble, "And just where did you learn to speak a dead language?"

Aro glanced at him in confusion. "This city. I've always lived here."

"He's asking how you learned it," Xavi interceded.

"Sorry. Thank you." He nodded at her, and explained, "Mother taught me the letters and the sounds. The rest I learned with the books the children were taught with."

"Oh, she spoke with Aldaians quite often, I'm sure," Warrav shook his head, words drawling.

Xavi winced at his sardonic tone.

"It seems she did," the dragon replied, oblivious to the sarcasm.

"Dragons are long-lived creatures." The vixen noted.

Warrav harrumphed. "If they weren't such egotistical recluses, we might actually know that for a fact."

"I think we can safely assume they generally live longer than a century or two." Jadere elbowed him.

Ignoring her, Warrav snapped at the dragon again, "And I suppose these books you learned from have all crumbled into dust by now?"

"No, I took care of them as well as I could. They're all in the..." Suddenly he glanced at Xavi.

She realized he was seeking her approval, though she wasn't entirely sure why. But she granted with a nod.

"They're all in the library," the dragon finished.

"Oh?" That managed to cause Warrav to perk a bit. "Now that, I should very much like to see... if anything legible actually remains."

"Oh yes, I've done my best to take care of it. You..." Aro paused in his steps. "You want to go there now?"

"To the mine first," Jadere inserted with a smile. The next instant, she shot Warrav a venomous glare that precluded all opposition.

"Are we nearly there, Aro?" Xavi asked.

"Yes, nearly."

The dragon picked up his pace again, trotting through the maze-like corridors of forgotten purpose.

One of the side rooms drew Xavi's eye. A massive crack slashed across the floor and two walls; about a third of the room seemed to be in the process of breaking away from the rest of the structure. Aro turned off into the very next room. Here, half the floor and the entire far wall had collapsed into what appeared to be a natural cavern. An occassional drip echoed from the yawning chasm, announced the presence of water. The dragon trotted down the rubble of masonry as easily as stairs, but he had to wait up for those not fortunate enough to be blessed with four feet to pick their way down.

The tunnel had been polished from stone and earth by years of erosion; Xavi could scarcely fathom how long it must have taken to form even such a narrow passage, given how little rainfall a desert got. Yet the ceiling was adorned with stalactites, and even now one steadily dripped. Likely precipitation; it was noticeably cooler, as the mine entrance had been.

The passage, however, ended a pool.

Arothmel trotted straight into the water, splashing heedlessly, the waves he made casting dancing reflections of Jadere's magic light across the tunnel roof.

"Aro..." Xavi called out to him.

"Nearly there. It's through here." The dragon waded deeper. The passage didn't end at all; it was, however, completely submerged.

"Aro," Xavi repeated, "We can't... er... How far does it go underwater?"

"It's only about as far as the last hallway." He blinked at his own words, and curled his neck back into an 'S' as the wheels turned in his head. It was clear he'd never stopped to consider that the distance might be further than others swim, or even hold their breath. "I..." His earfins drooped, and he hung his head, exhaling heavily. "There's no other way, anymore..."

"Beautiful," Warrav muttered under his breath. "The one way we have to ascertain the old mine's value is only traversable by a feral who can't tell a mannathar crystal from a pretty rock."

The dragon's head sank a bit more. "I wish I could help..."

Xavi, however, had an idea. "You can, Aro. Swim to the other side, and immediately turn around and come back. If you do that, we'll know long it takes."

His eyes lighting up again, the dragon immediately plunged under the water. His tail lashed up a moment before it too disappeared.

For several moment there was only the rippling surface of the water lapping at the stone. Then quiet, as the water stilled.

Jadere hissed at Warrav. "The least you could do is be halfway civil to him."

"And why should I? He's done nothing but waste our time so far. Let Xavi waste time with him if she must, but I..."

"Does the fact he can read Aldaian mean anything to you?"

"And who's to say that claim is remotely legitimate? For all we know, his mother could have assigned sounds to the letters at random, and all he speaks is a facsimile of the actual language. We'll never be able to verify such a claim."

"I'm amazed the archeological community hasn't thrown you out on your tail feathers."

"I can be perfectly amicable to anyone I choose, provided they've any real sense."

"Oh, stuff yourself."

Xavi ignored their heated squabble. She was holding her breath and counting, and their antics made it difficult to keep her place. It actually helped her to picture Aro swimming. She hit seventy three, and she instinctively gasped for a breath.

Jadere and Warrav noticed what Xavi was doing, and both fell silent.

On and on Xavi counted, trying to isolate her rhythmic counting beat from the sporadic dripping noises. Her beak bobbed with each number. One hundred forty. One fifty. Two hundred. She frowned to herself.

The surface of the water burst as Aro came up wings, gasping for two long breaths of air before exclaiming, "I'm back!"

Xavi took a deep breath herself, a little relieved to see him. Two hundred thirty, round trip. A hundred and fifteen each way. A hundred ten, maybe, depending on how long the dragon had had to stop for air on the other side.

"Well?" The vixen's query echoed.

Aro cocked his head at her. "Well what?"

Xavi was thinking. She knew that actually being underwater suppressed much of the body's instinct to breathe. The gap seemed daunting, but... it was only another thirty seconds...

Then she caught Warrav muttering, "Bloody waste of time..."

"I can do it," she informed her brother with sudden zeal. "I daresay I can tell mannathar from pretty rocks, and if Aro helps me, I can make it across." She turned her smile on the dragon. "You'll help me, won't you?"

"Of course!" He trilled.

The vixen reached for Warrav's wing. "Come along. Perhaps we'll see about this library Arothmel's mentioned, hmm?"

Warrav glanced between Xavi and the fox, eyes going wide. "Wait, she... You can't just..."

The fox shook her head, dragging Warrav back the way they'd come. "'Tis Xavi's choice, regardless." To Xavi, she asked, "You going to be alright without light?"

"Yes," Xavi replied, touching the small, round glass through the fabric of her robe pocket. The embral.

"Don't you dare let my sister drown, you hear?" Warrav shot at the dragon. "If you hurt her, you oversized newt, I'll-"

"Enough out of you," The vixen snapped, fastening her paw around his beak. His eyes crossed as his vision was obscured by the orb of light hovering above her paw, and Jadere jerked him along. "You've insulted him quite enough for one day, don't you think? He's not going to hurt Xavi."

The sight of her brother struggling so drove a pang into Xavi's chest. She bowed her head as the dark engulfed her, sighing and taking a moment to collect herself. Why did he have to be that way? Warrav had a thought for Xavi's safety, but his whole attitude was... oppressive. She'd born it well enough while she'd tried to convince him to help her attend university, but witnessing another fall prey to his vicious language cut her more deeply than she had anticipated.

Gentle sloshes from the water alerted her to the dragon's approach. Barely had she turned to try and comfort him after Warrav's verbal barrage, when his snout pressed against her shoulder. "Are you ok?" He asked, earfins sagging.

She chucked at his concern, lifting a wing to scratch under his chin. "I'm alright, Aro. I just hate the way he treats you. You've been nothing but kind and willful to help."

"Then... is 'newt' a bad word?"

Xavi laughed once. "Not... exactly. It's a type of small lizard, and often considered somewhat... unintelligent. Feral newts are even smaller." She shook her head at the prejudice. "Still. You didn't deserve any of what he said."

"It's ok. You warned me he was like that." Aro leaned his head against her wing, giving into a throaty purr, his eyes half-closing.

Smiling, the raven rubbed at his ear fins. He was too cute when he was purring like this.

The dragon's eyes opened and he blinked at the tunnel they'd disappeared down. "I wish they wouldn't go to the library. I would rather be there..."

"It'll be fine, Aro. You've done the best you could."

The weight of his muzzle lifted. "I was going to take you to the other side to see the mine."

"Right." Xavi slipped the embral from her pocket. "Alright, now..." The raven looked at the pool. The rippling waters Aro stood in looked oddly murky, practically opaque through the embral she held to her eye. Glancing up at the dragon, Xavi wondered just what the best way would be for him to help her across. "Can I maybe get up on your back and hold your neck while you swim?"

The dragon glanced toward the underwater passage, his brow furrowed. "There are a lot of sharp rocks along the top... I think I have a better way. Could you come...?" He beckoned Xavi.

She set one foot in the pool and shivered; the water was freezing. "C-Cold!" she yelped. "G-Give me a moment to adjust..." It would be easiest to hold her breath if she were calm and not tense from the temperature. She lowered the embral from her eye, not planning to open her eyes in murky water anyway. Carefully finding her footing with her talons, forcing herself to step into the deeper water. When it was up to her waist, she crouched down right where she was, shivering, bearing with the chill to let the bulk of her body acclimatize.

The water stirred, announcing Aro drawing closer and crouching down in a half-circle behind her. "Whenever you are ready."

After a few moments, when the chill of the water was not so jarring, the raven asked, "How do you want to do this?"

"I know how I want to do it, but I am not sure how to say it."

Xavi felt his paw on her back. It must have been his front paw; nimble digits curled partway around her stomach.

"Are you ready?"

Embral clutched tightly between her fingers, she muttered a "Yes," closed her eyes, and sucked in a breath.

The dragon's second front paw gripped Xavi's other side, and she was pushed into the pool. Aro's mass swung overhead as he dove over her, lunging for the tunnel and scooping her against his chest. She folded her wings around his paws. Unable to see what was ahead, she simply trusted Aro understood that her life was very literally in his paws. She felt his heart beating against her back, through his scales. His arms gripped her like iron, and from the way she felt his body move, he was likely paddling with legs and tail. Here and there, a claw scrape and a sudden lurch forward told her one of his hind legs found footing to propel them forward. Every move he made, she could feel the water stir, rebounding off the walls of a disconcertingly narrow passage.

The close confines made it no harder for Xavi to keep calm. Being calm was the best way to conserve her breath, she knew... And she was never bashed or scraped against any rocks. Aro clearly knew this passage very well, and seemed to manage it without his front paws very well. Perhaps he was used to carrying something across? Xavi couldn't imagine what, but at that thought, she was able to relax in his grip. Several times she stopped herself from counting - knowing how long she'd been submerged would only make her anxious.

All at once, the water grew significantly calmer. Though she could still feel the dragon move, and nothing else had changed, the water didn't stir up so much. A larger passage, perhaps? Just as she considered this, she felt the water surge past at an alarming rate. Aro's movement had changed; she felt muscles of his chest and sides working. He was using his wings! The speed each beat of his wings drove them was exhilarating, and Xavi had to caution herself against the excitement. She was growing all too aware of her need for breath as it was.

Her lungs burning, she desperately hoped she hadn't made a grave error in deciding to go through with this. Aro's speed now was her only hope. But she trusted him. If nothing else, she trusted his intentions. Her lungs had passed from a burning sensation to feeling like they were simply rotting inside her. It was a struggle to keep her beak clamped. She couldn't help but think, if she had to die, she couldn't hope for a purer heart to carry her. She squeezed one of his paws, wishing she could communicate as much of her trust as her urgency.

She had barely noticed Aro angling upward until they burst into open air. Xavi felt the dragon hefting and holding her head and shoulders above water, allowing her to fill her body with blessed breath. Her eyes fluttered open, more instinctively than anything else. But where she expected to find utter blackness of a cavern deprived of daylight, she found a sky of glistening blue and green stars and flowing auroras.

The raven shook her head, drawing several more deep breaths to clear her head. That couldn't be right; her eyes were playing tricks. Wiping that from mind, she struggled to make sense of her surroundings.

They seemed to be drifting at the surface of an underground lake. Aro paddling that kept them afloat, every little splash he made echoed in the yawning space. As Xavi grew more aware of this, she noticed she wasn't the only one breathing hard. Though winded, the dragon was gently swimming toward the water's edge. With a better grip on her surroundings, Xavi looked up again, lifting the embral to get a better look at the place.

She blinked, realizing she didn't need it. There were veins of crystals glowing vibrant blue spiderwebbing the cavern roof. Reflecting off the rippling underwater lake, wavering strands of blue and green light danced all over the cavern. Wait, green? When Xavi looked harder, many of the points of light along the walls had a much softer glow, and were green instead of blue. To Xavi's knowledge, mannathar was the only form of crystal that would glow, and she'd never heard of green mannathar crystals before... but she couldn't deny her eyes this time. She realized she was holding her breath; the cavern was nothing short of incredible.

Finally, Aro's back paws gripped a solid surface, and he helped Xavi find her feet and stumble onto the rocky shore. The glow suffusing the room wasn't bright enough to comfortably find footing, the raven found. Holding the embral to her eye washed out the ceiling's colors into a gray blur, but the shape of the was clearer. Beyond the shore of the subterranean lake, the cavern was a maze of stalagmites jutting up from the floor, and stalactites hanging precariously high overhead. Looking up, she imagined them almost like a forest of stone pine tress, as seen from above the treetops. Momentarily disoriented by the mental image, she dropped her gaze and found the dragon. Aro fixed hesitant eyes on her, apparently unwilling to break the silence that had fallen between them.

"Thank you, Aro," Xavi breathed heavily. "I definitely couldn't have made it without you."

"I am glad you did make it." He leaned his head down to inspect her. "You are not hurt?"

"I'm alright. Just catching my breath, still." She couldn't help but lift her eyes to the glistening crystal veins once more without the embral. It really was a stunning display.

"Is it the crystal you hoped for?"

"Yes, I'm sure of it." The raven smirked, looking at the ceiling laced with glowing shards and facets. She was certain the sight would have put a grin on Jadere's muzzle, and maybe even lifted Warrav's spirits. "At least the blue ones are. But what's the green?" There seemed to be a much higher concentration of the green where the walls angled downward to curve into the stalactite forests.

"Green...?" Aro glanced up, and understanding dawned on him quickly. He leapt to his feet. "Come, I'll show you."

Tail swishing in his wake, the dragon wove through the forest of stone with purpose. Xavi followed after him with mounting curiosity. Something about the path he chose made her think he must have come down this way before and knew it intrinsically. The path wasn't always easy, particularly not for Aro, who had to tuck his wings in tightly to get through many a narrow space. One passage between two gargantuan stalagmites was so narrow at the floor, he had to shuffle his paws along single file. Xavi almost felt a little sorry she had such an easy time of it. Finally, after many an impressive feat of dexterity on the dragon's part, they broke into a space where the cavern wall met the floor.

What Xavi saw through the embral confused her. Masses of something like knotty rope blanketed the walls and some of the floor. Here and there were bulbous masses. Whatever this was, it was supposed to explain the green... so she looked without the embral. The large bumps, and many of the smaller ones, seemed to be emitting a faint, greenish light through a veiny membrane. "Aro... What is this?"

"Look." The dragon lifted a paw to the thickest pod of light, and brushed at it. The membrane parted in round and pointed segments, and beneath them Xavi glimpsed the pure blue glow and glint of mannathar crystals.

Xavi took a few steps closer and peered at the open "pod". She looked through the embral again. They were leaves! Dozens of layers of heart shaped leaves, growing from vines clinging to the cavern wall. The whole cavern must have been thriving with a kind of underground vine that lived on the moisture of the lake, and the light of mannathar crystals! "How did you know about this, Aro?"

"I used to come down before the mines all fell in. I use the vines, burning them in the library fireplace." He withdrew his paw, and all the leaves flopped loosely back into place, though ruffled.

Now that he mentioned it, Xavi recalled when she'd finally gotten Aro to speak with her, she'd caught him carrying a bundle of vines... This was where he'd gotten them, it seemed. They'd even been wet, likely from being carried through the underwater tunnel... No wonder Aro was used to carrying something that way. She couldn't help but smile at the dragon. The more she learned how he'd lived all these years, the more apparent it became that he was incredibly resourceful.

Her eyes were drawn upward, along the wall. Now that she knew what the green light was, she began to imagine she could see the vines so high overhead. "This place is beautiful..."

"Why?" Aro asked, prompting Xavi to stare at him in surprise. "I know the word," he preempted the raven, "but what makes it so?"

Xavi smiled again. "If you ask what people find to be beautiful, everyone will have a different answer, and none of them are wrong. Beauty..." She glanced up at the glittering ceiling once more, seeking the right words the dragon might understand. "Whatever you find that makes you stop, makes you wonder, gives you awe... and it makes you want to experience more. That is beauty."

"So it's what you like to look at?"

"It certainly can be, but... it doesn't have to be." Xavi glanced his way, striving to think of an example he might understand. She highly doubted Aro had experienced music. Stories, maybe?

The dragon beat her to it. "Mother called me beautiful. I don't think she meant just how I looked."

Xavi brought the embral back to her eye to make out Aro's features. His brow was furrowed. It was clear there was something about this concept he was thinking giving serious thought to.

"That's right. Who a person is, that can be beautiful too."

"And the library. Many of the Aldaian writings make me wonder, and I am awed by their understanding and accomplishments. Is that...?"

The raven's curiosity was growing. Why did Aro want to understand so clearly what was appropriate to consider beautiful? "Yes, intelligence, wisdom, and historical accomplishments can all be beautiful."

Aro's gaze lingered on Xavi. His eyes flitted down her form, and back up. If his ear fins' membranes hadn't looked so white through the embral, the raven would never have noticed them darken ever so slightly. He must have been flushing until his ears were more purple than pink. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out; instead his eyes darted away.

She dared to put two and two together. "You think... I'm... beautiful?"

"I do," the dragon admitted. "Everything you say amazes me, and makes me wonder... in different ways than the Aldaian writers, but you are beautiful that way. And... And to... look at. I hope that's not bad to say or..."

Xavi's cheeks grew hot. "N-No, that's not... bad to say..." Though Warrav would most certainly throw a fit.

"I want to know something..." The dragon began hesitantly.

"What's that?"

Aro glanced down at her wing. "I have scales... but yours are different. I read about birds in the Aldaian tongue, but I don't know what you call them."

"Oh, these are feathers." She stretched out her wing in demonstration.

"Feathers." Aro mulled on the word, his eyes examining the raven's wing - from the long, thick primaries to the downy feathers that coated the vast majority of her frame.

"Yes, birds have feathers. And most mammals have fur, like Jadere. Mammals and reptiles have arms instead of these wings. She doesn't have all this," Xavi used her other wing to indicate the expanse of feathers apart from the actual limb, as well the wing bone that extended beyond her fingers, though normally she tucked that back alongside her wrist to keep it out of the way. "Jadere, and most mammals, have a fifth finger instead."

"Can you fly?"

Xavi shook her head. "No, these wings are just vestigial. That is... they look like a feral bird's wings, but they don't really function. I don't have nearly enough wingspan to deal with my weight."

"But... dragons do fly, right?"

"Well, yes," Xavi said slowly. Not that she'd met any other dragons, but everyone certainly thought dragons flew. And, eyeing Aro's wings, they certainly didn't look vestigial. But surely Aro wouldn't ask unless... "You can't fly?"

He shook his head mournfully, spreading out his wings. "I jump from the highest places I could reach from the buildings. I beat my wings, but I never rise, only glide down. It is so hard, I cannot do it often. I need to hunt often, and I am always tired after trying to fly."

Xavi half-turned, her eye tracing his wings and the joints that attached them to his weathered frame. Trying to live off as little food as he did, it made sense that Aro couldn't take much exertion. And his unpracticed flight muscles had simply never grown into the task. As the silence crept on, the dragon's gaze fell. The raven could almost voice his thoughts; he wanted to fly, and he was disappointed he didn't seem to measure up to his own species.

She put a note of cheer in her voice. "You're still pretty young, maybe you just have to grow a little more!"

"Feral birds fly, and they are far smaller than I."

"I'm just saying, maybe your wings have more growing to do." If he could strengthened his flight muscles. If he survived that long. If he grew much larger, sooner or later, rodents weren't going to be enough... He'd bleed the local population to extinction first. She cringed inside, but put on a smile for him. "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll fly someday."

Aro didn't lift his head. "Maybe..."

Not wanting to leave him doubtful and depressed, Xavi mentally backtracked to a more cheerful subject. "Hey, you said you didn't know words for our bodies in this language? Bipedal creatures, I mean." She stood up and presented herself, spreading the wing not holding her embral in place. Her display drew the dragon's gawking eyes instantly. "Would you like to learn? You have a perfect example right here..."

He nodded vigorously. The raven grinned at his enthusiasm. He always seemed eager to learn new things. Perhaps there was another motive too: he had just admitted to thinking she was beautiful... but Xavi found she didn't mind the implications of that.

From there she did her best to explain the common knowledge vocabulary of outward anatomy, starting from her head and face, working down to her scaled feet. She made a point to note the differences in naming between avians and mammals, since the dragon was already familiar with being a reptile himself. Though she was by no means an expert, Xavi wanted him to be well informed enough to communicate with strangers. If any archeologists or mining expeditions besides Warrav and Jadere came, it would be an important skill.

But Xavi realized that perhaps she was hoping for something else. Hoping he could one day leave this place and live in greener lands. If he could live somewhere he could eat his fill of proper prey, he would grow stronger... maybe strong enough to fly.