Before Fia could utter another word, Evander raised his wings in her defense. "She already told you. Both of you are her best friends." His amber eyes flitted to Viliant and Arenis in turn. No matter who Fia picked as her ultimate best friend, Evander anticipated that it would cause a firestorm between the dragonets. The mature dragon did not want to mediate a foolish, childish fight at what should be a joyous occasion.
"But she has to choose one of us," Arenis insisted, anxious to hear that Fia held no grudge against him after he had run away from the humans. The pirates had put up a fight that the dragonets could not win. Even so, Arenis never would have abandoned her if Fia had not yelled at him to get away. I got help as quickly as I could, he lamented, even if it had not been quick enough for the adult dragons to save her. What happened wasn't my fault, the red dragonet rationalized despite all his guilt. I tried my best.
Fia did not know how to manage Arenis's emotions, especially when Viliant bombarded her on the other end of the telepathic link that she maintained between each of the dragonets.
Do you even remember when you said I was your best friend? Viliant demanded.
"No," Fia admitted with a peep. The dragonette only remembered when she had bargained with Viliant for him to consider her a friend in the first place—his only friend. At some point, their friendship had naturally progressed as their need for survival left them inextricably entwined. I don't know when we became best friends. It just sort of happened.
With his eyes squinted in frustration, Viliant knew it was not her fault that she could not recall the exact moment which had been so formative for him. You were wracked with fever. You were dying, Viliant remembered for her, no words needed to conjure the grave image of Fia in her most dire moment. I called Rokinth for help. I saved you.
In spite of her best attempts to move past her brush with death, Viliant thrust that vivid memory back into her mind. It had already been scorched into her psyche, freezing her inner flame like blackfire. Overwhelmed by the message which she received over telepathy at this moment. Fia cut herself off from both Viliant and Arenis. The pink dragonette cowered behind Evander's foreleg. Her bleary, watery eyes blinked past her hurt and confusion. "You're both my friends, and that's all that matters. I just wanna go home."
Without another word needed from the dragonette, Evander bowed his head to let Fia climb between his horns once more. Close behind her, Arenis clambered onto his older brother's back. Viliant was left with his claws clenched into the sand, waiting for Evander to pick him up in the loose grip of his claws. The vast wingbeats of the dragon warrior carried all three dragonets into the sky with him.
Without any curved horns or orange scales to block his line of sight, Viliant had the best view of the landscape. He assessed the volcanic island which he had chosen to be his new home. Below sandy beaches gave way to tall green grasses, which themselves gave way to trees, short at first but taller the deeper into the island that Evander soared. Treeless meadows dotted the forest, scarred with scorch marks around their edges. In each meadow, colorful flowers blossomed. Viliant marveled at the closest cluster which had giant purple petals which drooped against their tall stems.
As they flew closer to the center of the island, its most prominent feature became clear: the volcano. It rose from the forest, the trees along its sides giving way to brown then black rock. A plume of smoke lifted from its crater, breathing like the fire dragons that inhabited its gradual slope. Some shimmering veins curled down the mountainside, thicker near its source before thinning out around the first huts.
Viliant's body reacted with a slight shudder at the ambient mana which emanated from this location. "I never felt mana this strong," the black dragonet stated, still awestruck. The only thing which had come close was the Wraith Isle on their way here.
"The Carlinoa Clan has made our home here since dragons first learned how to harness the wind beneath our wings and the magic in our veins." Evander shared a small history lesson with the dragonets. "Our ancestors have taken their final roost in the volcano for thousands of years, adding more mana to the scorched earth."
Viliant did not understand enough about magic to comprehend how that process worked. However, he could witness the vitality of the Carlinoa Clan in its present state for himself.
Viliant directed his attention farther down the slope of the volcano. The Carlinoa clan fashioned their buildings out of whale bones. Some constructions bowed like simple nests while others offered a roof overhead. Many open pavilions had braces in their rafters that formed a second story. Although the fire dragons' architecture could not hold a candle to the humans in Syene or the dragons of Malakow, Viliant found the primal atmosphere more welcoming to his instincts.
Below, dozens of dragons flitted across the volcano like ants on a hill. The residents of the Carlinoa Clan looked small from this vantage point, even if this species of dragon had the size to rival the likes of Rokirith from his own Dagonir Clan. The bright scales of the fire dragons reflected the sunlight in red, orange, yellow, and pink—like Fia.
"I see it!" squealed the ecstatic dragonette. "That's my house: right there!" Without bothering to point a claw that Viliant could not see anyway, Fia bounced on top of Evander's head.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
The warrior did not need any directions, since he knew exactly where the nest of Fia's family neighbored his parents' home.
"Hold on," Evander warned Fia, whose little claws repeatedly poked the scales which covered his skull.
She stopped bouncing and latched onto his horns like Arenis did to the spines of his back. In a firm but gentle grip, Evander secured his hold on Viliant. The dragon warrior tipped into his descent toward Fia's family hut. His wings billowed out on either side until the claws of the large dragon touched down. Within the distance of another wingspan, the broad doorway welcomed any dragon whose entrance would not upset residents.
Fia scampered off Evander's head so fast, she did not wait for him to lower his neck. Her paw landed over one of his eyes, closed in defense. Fia jumped off his snout like any other perch, and she glided past the threshold of her house. "Mommy! Daddy! I'm home!" she announced. The claw at Fia's heel scraped a line across the dirt floor. The pink dragonette stopped near the entrance, waiting for her eyes—drawn wide in excitement—to adjust to the dim interior.
No fire had been lit, making her home feel cold and empty compared to how she remembered it. Maybe they're out hunting, she figured, but that made Fia pout her droopy wings. Either her mother or father always stayed close to home in case Fia came back to the nest for whatever reason. Right when Fia was about to timidly step back out with a trembling heart, a large mound shifted at the center of the room.
The light pink scales looked dingy in the low light. The neck of the dragoness swayed like she had just stirred from a nap. "Fia?" her shaky voice croaked in disbelief. "Is it really you?"
Having no need for words, Fia whistled a note that her mother would recognize. The dragonette raced to her mother who uncoiled her body. Fia flung herself into her mother's open wings, connecting with her over telepathy. Too overwhelmed to speak aloud even if she wanted to, Fia said, Mommy.... I missed you so much.
I missed you too, Fia—my little spark. Her mother held her dear to the ridged scales of her crest. Fia was swaddled in her wings and forelegs, neck and tail. Both Fia and her mother felt so overwhelmed and relieved, they broke down to tears. Together, they cried and shared the joy of their reunion over telepathy.
From the doorway, Viliant peered inside at this emotional scene. I guess it's not just their scales, Viliant thought, recalling how Fia often compared herself to her mother. They both cry a lot too.
Viliant did not know how to process the heartfelt display that he witnessed, so the cynical dragon relied on his first reflex. Nonetheless, he found his claws drawn a step closer. Viliant felt an urge to be a part of that scene. Maybe if he experienced it for himself, he would understand it better.
Evander barred the black dragonet's slow approach with an outstretched wing. "Let's wait out here. We should give them some space."
Fia's mother nuzzled her cheek against her precious dragonette. While she did this, Fia noticed a plush bed behind her mother. This generous, dragon-sized bed had been moved into the middle of the room to accommodate more leaves, straw, and feathers. At its center, an egg was swaddled in the nest with its plates covered in a pale pink.
The surprise made Fia regain her voice. "Is that an egg?" she blurted out. The stilted pupils of the dragonette nearly crossed as she stared at the rotund object. While she had taken an instant fondness to the egg that Rokirith had saved, Fia regarded this one differently. What's this egg doing in my house? she wondered.
Fia's mother padded over to the egg and looped her tender tail around its thickest part. "I never got a chance to tell you," she trilled, delivering this message aloud and including telepathy to help Fia better understand. "I was ready to have another egg before you left."
Despite the good intentions held within her mother's mind, Fia's chest thumped with dread. The revelation primed her heart to shatter like an eggshell. Bigger tears wobbled from Fia's eyes all over again. "Mommy was trying to replace me!"
"No!" her mother gasped in horror. She caught her squirming dragonette in her wings and soothed her with a melodic hum. "We'd never do that, Fia. You're our precious dragonette. You're irreplaceable. That's why your father went looking for you!" As much as it had pained her mother to stay on the island, the dragoness also knew that she needed to lay her next egg and help it hatch. Fia's mother was also the mother of another, unhatched dragonet. "I'm sorry I didn't get the chance to explain this to you in a better way," she whispered to Fa, knowing that telepathy would not help the dragonette understand anymore. "But I love you, Fia."
A small part of Fia. knew that she ought to trust her mother's words. The dragonette let her mother's lullaby soothe her anxious heart. I'm loved, she knew, and she did not need telepathy to feel that. Even so, Fia shot a distrustful glare at the egg which was not developed enough to hold a telepathic connection, much less understand anything that happened around it.
After they had clarified the misunderstanding, the dragon mother and daughter lingered together in this moment, Fia's mother peeked over the dragonette's horns toward the doorway. She did not see the dragon that she expected to be waiting at the threshold.
Evander shifted near the entrance with Arenis and another, big dragonet under his wings.
Her mother looked down to Fia, her eyes welled with worry. "Where's your father?" she asked Fia.
"Huh?" Fia jumped out of her mother's embrace, reanimated in excitement. Fia expected the question to prompt her to run and greet her father. Her excess energy brought her to dash around their hut in a circle."Daddy! Where is he?" Fia repeated, unsure where she should go to find him.
"I thought you'd know," Fa's mother said with a wince over her balk. "He went out, looking for you!"
"What?" Fia reeled at this revelation. If Fia's father had gone looking for her, then that meant she would not find him anywhere on Carlinoa Island. Her eyes wavered at the prospect of her father, flying all the way to the Kingdom of Syene by his lonesome.
Fia's mother directed her gaze past her, looking to the other adult dragon for a better explanation. From the doorway, Evander offered a sad shake of his head. Since Fia's father had departed from the island in search of their lost dragonette, he had yet to come back.
"No!" Fia wailed. She had not expected so much to change over the months that she had been gone. If she had learned anything over the course of her journey, then Fia knew that she needed to do something about it.