[Kaida Leucos]

Kaida

Every muscle in her body cried out in protest as she trudged through the streets of the village. The uneven dirt street made her footing uneasy, and quite a few times her ankle almost rolled underneath her.

“Careful…” a gentle young voice echoed in her head and she rolled her eyes, but despite herself she felt a smile forming on her face. Novoros had been in her life for nearly half a year at this point - he was getting big, too big for Kaida to carry him in her bag or under her cloak, and so he flew high, high ahead. His size and color made him almost mistakable for a crow if you didn’t look hard enough - and they were both counting on nobody looking hard enough.

Dragons weren’t a rare sight in Quenyi – nearly everyone had seen one, and many were riders themselves, but it was not the correct time for a young dragon to be flying about. The last bonding ceremony had been long ago, those dragons were already grown, their riders already seasoned. Novoros was only the size of a wolfhound - a large wolfhound, to be sure, but still much too small to make sense. Kaida had heard rumors of stolen eggs, whispers of vengeful broodmothers hunting for their young, leaving none alive in their wake. So – probably best to just keep their situation on the down low until Novo was big enough to ride.

“I do not look like a crow,” a huffy voice whined. Kaida chuckled slightly and looked up. She continued trudging along – she was so very nearly to her destination, and then she and Novoros could sun on the rocks by the lake, and she could rest her weary muscles.

Ocia, where her family lived, and where she spent most of her time onshore, had been fine when Novoros was a bit smaller, but he was getting harder to conceal. It would only be a little longer before he was large enough to pass for a dragon grown – a tiny one, but a dragon grown all the same – and then she would be fine. The only explaining she’d have to do would be to her mother and grandfather, a few cousins, maybe an uncle… but then she would be free to go home. She sighed.

These months had been a bit fraught, the strange dreams of the Quenyese king hadn’t stopped – not for her or for Novo. It was odd, the images seemed so familiar right until she woke up, and then the feeling was just a whisper. It also hadn’t been helping her sleep. But she was at least glad her father knew her secret. His quiet, gruff demeanor did not betray him, but Kaida knew he had been excited, accepting… proud, even, of the fact that she had discovered the dragon’s egg in the seedy underbelly of Ocia’s markets. It wouldn’t have been like her to leave it there – and anyway, she was the type of person to take things like that as a sign! It was a Quenyese thing. If Novoros was not meant for her, why did she feel such a strong pull to the black onyx of his egg? Why did the linen curtain concealing its location fall away just so? And why, then, was it so easy to steal?

She smirked as she continued on, looking up to see the shore of the lake approaching her very quickly. She heard the gentle, familiar chirp of Novoros as he landed next to her. They were far out enough, far from other people, they needn’t worry about prying eyes.

“You looked good up there, little crow,” Kaida giggled, scratching the scales below Novoros’s chin as he bristled. He nipped at her hand and then blew a chortle of smoke out of his nose. ”And you looked like an ant.” He replied. They both broke into giggles as Kaida began peeling her boots and leathers off to jump into the lake. Novoros was way ahead of her, splashing like a cannonball into the cold water. Kaida followed closely behind, and like children, they splashed and played.

After a while, Kaida crawled back onto the shore. A flat slab of dark stone hung into the lake, and she lay her back on it, sighing contentedly as the heat seeped into her sore muscles. Novoros continued to splash and play, chasing fish and diving as deep as he could stand.

Kaida eyelids were heavy, opening less and less with each passing blink. She rested a hand on her bare stomach and allowed her eyes to close. It was so warm… so nice…

And then the telltale pitterpatter of footsteps on dirt jolted her back to her senses.

“Novo…” she hissed, turning toward the dragon. “Novoros!” She snapped – the black dragon stopped his splashing and glanced at her. “Someone is coming – hide!” she whispered. The black dragon nodded and scampered onshore, diving behind the rock as Kaida stood.

“Hark?” she offered, wincing at the awkward language. “Er… Hello? Who goes there?”

I can't stop you from putting roots in my dreamland

[Alicen Pierceson]

Finally, it was in view. Where someone else would see a small sleepy, maybe even quaint village, Alicen saw a nice soft bed, a warm meal, and company she actually wanted to keep. She almost got lost in the thoughts of home that was so close. Though she knew they had to make a quick pit stop first because…

“My wings are tired, my feet are tired, I’m hungry, thirsty, and I have dirt all in my feathers.” It was the familiar litany of complaints that Ryner made on the last leg of every trip they went on, or it at least seemed like that. He wasn’t even flying at the moment, choosing to walk alongside her, his feathers reflecting the sun’s glare, giving them a silvery sheen. He dramatically limped along. She was used to such dramatics after having known him for four years.

“We’ll stop by the lake so you can clean up a little. I don’t think you can fit in the wash basin anymore.” She would at least soak her feet for a bit. They still had plenty of time before the next meal and they weren’t really expected for any particular time.

“Yeah, I’m a big, strong dragon now!” He struck a pose, immediately forgetting about his complaints so he could show off. “Hey, remember that time when I was little and I hid in the tub until Jack came in and I jumped out at him? I don’t think I’ve ever heard that sound come out of a human ever again.”

Alicen rolled her eyes. Ryner had been a terror to her twin ever since he hatched. He had gotten marginally better with age, but it was clear that Jack would always be the first target for his teasing and pranks. Fortunately, none of them were malicious enough to do any harm, though she knew it frayed on her poor brother’s nerves.

“I want you to be nice to him and leave him alone when we get home. He’s under enough stress with his apothecary training. He doesn’t need to worry about you hiding his things or putting up with your snide remarks.”

“If I don’t?” Ryner playfully replied. “It’s not like you can make me sleep outside anymore. I kind of have to anyway now.”

“I won’t buy you that cut of meat you like so much at the market and you’re big enough now that acting all cutesy for the merchant that sells it won’t work anymore.”

Yes, Ryner was still cute and very fluffy, but his features had lost their baby factor, so he wasn’t in that category anymore. That and he ate more, so that particular merchant probably couldn’t afford to give him the amount of meat he would want for free.

The dragon huffed. “Fine, I’ll go easy on him, but only because you told me to.”

She knew that was probably the best she would get out of him for now. It would probably last a couple of days before he got bored, but at least it would earn Jack and the whole house some peace. Quiet, not so much.

They neared the edge of the lake and Alicen’s feet were as sore as Ryner’s supposedly were, though he seemed to have forgotten all about it, looking forward to eventually getting that cut of meat he so loved.

That was when she heard someone yelling and looked to see a woman Close to her age on a flat rock near the water. Alicen blinked as she processed that fact.

“Oh, I live here. We're just returning home from a job.”

The fact that someone else was there didn't surprise her. After all, people of all types stopped To take advantage of the lake, especially if they had been traveling. What caught her off guard was the fact that Ryner, a dragon, hadn’t smelled or heard that someone else was there.

“What?” He questioned as he picked up her thoughts of annoyance at him. “Other people and dragons come here all the time. There's nothing strange about that!”

Ryner backed away from the edge a little bit, crouched down, and dug one of his back claws against The earth. “She better brace herself.”

“Ryner wait-!”

But it was too late. Ryner went full sprint at the water and dived in. The resulting wave splashed over anyone close to the shore.

[Kaida Leucos]

Kaida

Kaida blinked. Her shoulders had instinctively hunched nearly to her ears as the strangers approached, but when they were fully in view she relaxed them. The sight of the majestic, fluffy white dragon alongside the lithe brunette had certainly caught her off guard – but just for a moment. She recognized the fact that they were speaking in their minds – something about their expressions mirrored her and Novoros’s. And the woman had quite a disarming appearance. She had a handsome face for a dragon rider, and a mess of charming brown curls that bounced to her shoulders. Kaida felt her lips pull into a grin.

“You live here?” She repeated, looking around. That was odd. The people who usually came to Sunsalt were merchants such as herself. Kaida had chosen this spot specifically because she thought there wouldn’t be too many Quenyese wandering about. She wasn’t unhappy with the company – no, Kaida always knew that whenever she met a fellow countryman it would be an instantaneous connection. There was something about the people of Quenyi that she admired so deeply. Their resilience, their history, and their friendliness reminded Kaida that she was among her people.

“Well, welcome home,” she said, grinning, hinging at the hip to pick up her clothes. Kaida was not pressed about her state of undress. Anything she didn’t want a stranger to see was covered by her shift, and any Quenyese worth their salt wouldn’t feel shy around a large body of swimming water.

”Kaida, who is that!” She heard Novoros’s voice ring in her mind. ’Shush little crow. I don’t want them catching wind of you’ she thought, waving her hand behind her back.

Although, maybe she should have known better. The beautiful white dragon had a playful aura about him. And he seemed young, a little older than Novoros, but not much. Perhaps he’d hatched in the last bonding ceremony. Maybe he was an outlier like Novoros. In any case, Kaida saw it before it happened. The white dragon reared up, braced himself against the earth, and launched himself into the water.

The resulting splash was profound. Kaida held up a hand to shield her eyes from the lake water. But, as soon as the splash had subsided, the lithe little body of Novoros appeared from behind his hiding rock and his tiny-for-a-dragon body curled into a ball and jumped off the cape of the slab of stone she was stood on, splashing her again.

Kaida felt her heart sink and she exclaimed out loud, “Novo, no!”

But, it was too late. Novoros was already playfully splashing the larger white dragon. Kaida furrowed her brow and looked at the other woman.

“Er…” she stumbled. Truly, she had no idea what to say.

I can't stop you from putting roots in my dreamland

[Alicen Pierceson]

Alicen was now completely soaked thanks to Ryner’s little maneuver. Water dripped from her clothes and her hair. Well, at least she wouldn’t need to take that long of a bath when she got home.

“Ryner!” She snapped out loud where the other woman could hear her serious tone. “Look before you leap! You’re too large to be jumping into places without checking them out first! What if you accidentally landed on someone?”

The white dragon stuck his head up and tilted it a bit as if to shrug. “But I didn’t.” He pointed out, a perfectly logical answer in his mind. And that was about all he could say before he was joined in the water by a black bundle of scales. He didn’t put much thought into how the young black dragon got in there. All he knew was that he had challenged him. He put all his strength into splashing him back. Fortunately, as vain and irresponsible and brash as Ryner could be, he rarely resorted to actually using his teeth and claws on anyone, not that he had really ever been in a situation where he needed to, thankfully.

Alicen observed the two play for a bit. Why had he seemingly been hiding when they approached? Perhaps his rider was the cautious type and had him hide. Not everyone who traveled out here was nice after all and this Novo was a small, young dragon. It had taken Alicen a couple of years to confidently start traveling any amount of distance with Ryner, who was of a more slender variety of dragons than the one he currently played around with. If he somehow got into a scrap with a much bigger dragon, it probably wouldn’t go well for him. Same for Novo too.

“Did you get yours later too?” Alicen simply asked, indicating Novo. With the amount of traveling she had done, she’d met all kinds of riders and dragons. Yes, a majority had gone to a bonding festival when they were children and did it then, but there were still those who were up older like her when they had done theirs and she had even met a handful who had been outliers, eggs hatched at odd times or under different circumstances. “It’s all right, it’s nothing to be ashamed of. I didn’t get Ryner’s egg until I was eighteen.”

The thought of the other woman having stolen an egg didn’t cross her mind for more than a few seconds. To Alicen, there were other much more logical and likely explanations, especially given that they were hanging out by a lake near civilization.

“He’s very cute though and his scales are pretty,” she commented as she removed her soaked outer travel wear and started squeezing them out before putting them back on. The layer she wore beneath was plenty of coverage and was something she didn’t mind being seen in, especially for as short a time as it took to squeeze out some of the water. Ironically, the only part of her that wasn’t wet was her feet. She still needed to soak those. She kicked off her boots and socks and sat on a rock shelf that was close enough to the water that she could dangle her feet into it. “Don’t worry about Ryner. He’s all bark and no bite. Right? You’ll play nice with the smaller dragon.” She said that part out loud and deliberately.

Ryner innocently lifted his front claw that he had intended on using to pin the younger dragon’s tail down with and set it beside him.

“Of course. Why wouldn’t I?”

[Kaida Leucos]

Kaida

As the larger white dragon splashed him, Novoros reared his head back and let out a series of sharp, high-pitched chirps that indicated his amusement. Kaida reached out her hand to protest to his presence but quickly stopped once she realized the woman hadn’t questioned Novoros’s age at all.

She lowered her hand and looked at the young woman, and then back at Novoros and the white dragon, whose name was apparently Ryner. She knitted her brow together and opened her mouth to speak. Truly, she didn’t want to lie to this young lady - she wasn’t the lying type. Sneaking, yes. Omissions… yes. In all her time since Novo had hatched, though, she’d never outright told a lie. Luckily, the woman had asked a question that didn’t really require any sort of explanation.

”Er… Yes,” she replied, wiping the droplets of lake water off her face. ”I was older when we bonded. Novoros is flying on his own now, thankfully, but he’s still a long way from letting me ride him,” she chuckled.

She mentally scanned the area around them before the other woman complimented Novoros. Novo chittered and stood tall in the water, shooting Kaida a glance. ”I’m pretty,” he giggled, wiggling his wings around so they shimmered in the ripples. Kaida smiled, despite herself, and rolled her eyes.

“Thank you, obviously he’s also very humble and practices humility,” she teased, shooting him a playful look. “He’s very pretty, too, I’ve never seen a dragon with such brilliant white scales,”

“His name is Novoros,” she smiled, “and I’m Kaida.” She joined the young woman and sat down on the rock, dipping her feet in the lake.

“Now that is Ryner,” she said, “what is your name? And what brings you home?” she asked, leaning back on her hands and smiling at the young woman.

I can't stop you from putting roots in my dreamland