“Yay!” Gretel squealed, delighted, and tackled Efron just to let her energy out. The older juvenile playfully feigned being hurt by the light touch, and the wind type hatchling laughed. “How does it feel to have a name after all this time?”

“Feels like the first step to getting out of here,” the violet revealer replied with a determined smile.

“Oh? I thought you didn't want to go back to your family?”

Efron seemed mortified at the mention of them. “I don't!” he confirmed immediately. “In fact, they're the reason I want to leave this island. The farther I can get from my parents, the better!”

“What… did they do to you?” Gretel couldn't stop herself from asking. Social dragons usually have good relationships with their parents… While some solitary types like me have never even met theirs.

Her friend tensed and his eyes gained that familiar distant look, staring past her at the ground as he scarcely breathed.

Is he daydreaming again? “...Efron?”

He snapped out of it, then shook his head and backed away from her, his breaths quick and shallow as if to make up for holding it.

No–he’s panicking, Gretel realized after he couldn't catch his breath and also noticed his clawed hands trembling. She felt a pang of guilt for bringing it up, that she then forced aside out of worry for her friend. “I'm sorry… It's okay–they aren't here…! I have great sight, so if I see them coming, we can both hide!”

Her attempts to assure him fell flat. As a last resort to help, Gretel was about to summon a light wind to embrace him, which she had often done to self-soothe after scary encounters on her travels. Before she even had a chance to, though, she saw that glint of his gemstones and he immediately began to calm down.

The tiny wyvern hesitated, eyes trained on the gems. She found herself curious about the connection between his sudden positive mood shifts and them shining, but she was too scared of upsetting him again to ask, especially since he had calmed down by this point. “...Are you okay?” Gretel murmured.

Efron nodded, but turned away slightly as if ashamed by his reaction. “Sorry about that… You didn't do anything wrong. I just…” He sighed, gave it some thought, then tried again to explain, “When it ends, I get…”

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When what ends? He gets what? The wind type sat attentively, awaiting him to finish his sentence. When the revealer didn't, green eyes still avoiding her gaze, she couldn't keep hers from looking at the gems again. When the gemstone’s powers end, he gets panicked?

Efron exhaled and faced her, then immediately chuckled with amusement at how wide curiosity had made her hot pink eyes. “You like my gems? Bet you've never seen natural ones so close up before, huh?” he said with a genuine, somewhat proud smile. She could tell her friend was relieved by the change of topic, too.

“I heard revealers are born with them, but I don't know what they do,” Gretel admitted. “Are they different from obtained gems?”

“Yep! I'd even say they're better than obtained ones–at least in terms of extenders, which is the only type of gem we can have naturally.”

“Better how?”

“When they deplete, they just draw from our bodies to replete, so we can use them indefinitely.”

“Natural gems deplete?”

“Y-Yeah. Just not permanently,” the violet yearling said. “There's a wait time while they replete after we've depleted them… But I have two, so I can extend both of my abilities at once, one right after another, or even the same one twice in a row.”

“Wait–revealers have more than one ability?!”

Efron froze, as if not meaning to share that, but ultimately nodded. “Reveals, and conceals.”

“What are conceals?” she asked excitedly. Can he use it to conceal himself during hide-and-seek? What other games can we play with it?!

“They're… the opposite of reveals,” he replied vaguely.

The hatchling tilted her head, confused. “So it makes others avoid your hunting traps?”

“Huh? No–conceals aren't used on others.”

Gretel was completely lost. “Is it the opposite of reveals because you're revealing yourself instead of others? Why is it called ‘conceal’ then?”

He opened his mouth as if to explain, then closed it and shook his head. “You might be too young to understand right now. I'll tell you when you're older, okay…?”

She snorted. “I may be little, but I've probably been around more places and different dragons than you have!”

Efron bit his lower lip indecisively. “Well, instead of making others act on their hidden truths with reveals… Conceals let us hide our own truths–suppress them, so they don't bother us… at least, temporarily,” he finally explained. “Our gemstones let us increase how long we can use either ability without draining our bodies; the gemstone gets drained, or depleted, instead.”

“Is that why I see it glinting so much?!” she blurted out, horrified. He's been repressing himself around me all this time?! Does he not trust me enough to be his true self when I'm here…?

“You saw that?!” He was equally horrified. “I was trying to be discreet…”

She shook her head. “Why? What are you hiding?” Gretel thought back to the first times she'd seen them shine: when he had gotten defensive over his hunting methods. The next was when he had started crying after she’d caught him singing. Those feelings are normal! Why repress them? “I won't judge you, I promise!”

The young revealer hesitated with reluctance once more. “Again, you might be too young to understand…”

Gretel could tell the topic was making him uncomfortable, so despite her desperate want for answers, she decided to let it go.