"Mrrmmrrrmmrmmrmrrrmmmm..." Celestine grumbled in bed. She woke up early and was gripping the crystal in her hand till her fingers turned white. She woke up from the dream with a renewed vigor.

I said. There really is no difference in the feeling I can pick up in her bones. She just needs to figure out how to feel it herself and use it.

She let out an exhausted sigh and put the crystal on the bed cover. She jumped off the bed and started to get dressed for the day. Instead of wearing a cozy lounging outfit, she started to put on a pale cyan skirt and white top with green embroidery. She topped everything off with white sandals and a white sun hat. What she wore was one of her new outfits purchased by Daemon during the last year. While her old outfits still fit her, the style of these were leagues above her old wardrobe. She and Mother got odd looks on their first trip to the mansion, but she fit right in as a child in expensive clothes like these. And they also served the purpose of keeping her cool in the hot morning sun.

I asked. I could just glean what she is thinking by listening to her surface thoughts like I often do, but I find that actually talking to her helps our relationship. I don't want to be known as that thing in the back of her mind that bugs her now and then, I want to be a friend.

She said.

I said.

I said sternly. It's like my little reprimand in the dream about needing to protect herself went in one ear and out the other.

She tried to reason out of this, but like a child her reasoning is flawed.

I said. She grumbled for a bit, then relented and left the room to find Mother.

Mother wakes up even before the sun rises. It was the same in the house in the slums. She would be making the rounds to make sure the cook was awake and preparing breakfast while she was taking the clothes off the line outside. The clothes need to dry at night or the sun will bleach them.

"Momma! Can I goto the shops and get some stuff?" She spoke cheerfully while entering the backyard to see Mother doing what she usually does.

"Hm?" Mother turned and looked at Celestine up and down. "You're just all ready to go aren't you? You weren't planning on leaving without me were you?"

"O-of course not!" She lied.

"What did you want anyway? We already went shopping for clothes for your birthday. Don't get greedy."

"It's not that. I want to make something for Sullivan." Celestine intentionally calls her half-brother by his name when Mother is around. She learned this early on that Mother makes a strange face when she hears her refer to him as 'Bubby', so she only calls him that when they're alone. There's an emotional minefield there and she doesn't want to step on it.

"Make something?" Mother was about to fold a pair of pants. She laid it down on the basket so Celestine could have her full attention. "What did you have in mind? A picture?"

"It's something Novos told me about. It's a game." She said.

Mother's eyes seemed to soften when my name was mentioned. That was a nice feeling, it'd make my heart flutter if I had one. Shortly after the ceremony, when Celestine would mention me, Mother had an odd disdain in her expression. But in the year since the awakening, she seemed to warm up to me. "What kind of game?"

"It's a game that uses a flat play area that's painted and different shaped pieces. It looks really neat!" Celestine replied in the best way she could. She's still a child and a lot of words that would better describe the game, she had never heard. I mean, in a world where wood is a rarity, would you expect to hear the word for 'board?'

"Well if you draw it, I'm sure I can have it made for you. Come on inside, let's get some paper and you can show me."

"No! I want to make it myself! I want to learn how to paint and carve things like all the statues in the house!"

Mother's face lit up like she just thought of something. I think I just saw her smirk. She's easy to read when it comes to Celestine. Her face just screams 'maybe this will be a good outlet to get rid of her blossoming perverse side.' I can still recall the lecture and light spanking she gave Celestine the night Warran moved in and Celestine wouldn't shut up about the cute dog boy, who much to her despair turned out to be an old elf the next day.

"Okay. We'll visit the artisan shops and see what we can find." Mother said, taking off the girl's hat and patting her on the head. "Go eat breakfast and I will get ready, okay?"

Celestine smiled brightly before nodding and running back inside, leaving the hat in Mother's hand.

Breakfast was never really too important in Celestine's eyes. All it does is fill her belly for the beginning of the day. She never asks what any of the food is. Today was a bowl of something that was the consistency of oatmeal with a side of something that looked like sausage, but wasn't spiced with anything. Very simple, not tasty but not disagreeable. It just filled her stomach and she was on her way to do whatever she was going to do for the day.

After she cleaned up her bowl and plate, both made of a glazed bone material instead of clay or porcelain curiously, she ran into the main hall and sat on a couch while waiting for Mother.

A little while later, Sullivan was slowly walking downstairs in his lounging clothes while rubbing his eyes. His lounging clothes really just consisted of a loose button-up shirt and shorts.

"Morning Bubby!" Celestine greeted him as soon as he stepped on the last step.

"Morning Sis, why are you up so early? Going somewhere?" He asked, his eyes clearing up and looking at what his half-sister was wearing.

"Just some errands with momma." She said, lying.

"Ah, okay." He replied, not asking any further. If he was older, he might have doubted his sister because of her bright smile, but he was too tired and a day of lessons from Daemon probably awaited him. Daemon was working his son to exhaustion a lot in that work room. Sullivan passed by Celestine and entered the dining room for breakfast.

A few minutes later, Daemon casually walked downstairs in his usual green reptilian leather suit. "My heart is cleansed! My beautiful daughter's smile is exactly what I needed to see when I woke up this morning!" He declared as soon as he saw Celestine.

Her smile disappeared immediately, replaced by a poker face.

"And gone. WOE IS ME!" He cried. "Have a good outing with your mother, Celestine," he said before laughing a bit at himself and following Sullivan into the dining room.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

After he was out of sight, she let out a laugh she was holding. Daemon's antics were funny sometimes, but his abrupt mood swing was what made her laugh. From comically depressed to casually amused in less than a minute. She liked the man that she found out was her father and she wanted to know why Mother held so much contempt for him, but the part of her that wanted to avoid the emotional minefield was stronger than her desire for their history. She would keep her curiosity down and wait for a time when Mother decides to tell her.

The next person downstairs was Mother. She had changed into an outfit not unlike Celestine's, but her skirt color was a very light brown and the embroidery on her top matched the brown skirt. It was like they were wearing each other's eye colors. With Mother's green eyes and Celestine's brown. Mother had her own sun hat on and she was carrying Celestine's with her.

Celestine hopped up to Mother's side. Mother put the sun hat on her head and held her daughter's hand as they walked out the door into the heat of the day and to the shops.

The city is pretty much separated into three parts. One large and growing part of the city was eloquently named the equivalent to 'slums' in their language. It's basically the residential district for the common folk and where Celestine and Mother lived a year ago. Next to that, but separated by a wide road, a less densely populated area, but populated with much more costly housing, was the area where the more well-to-do folk lived. Those who could afford to build, maintain, and pay taxes for the large houses lived in this district. It wouldn't be a stretch to call this noble housing, but the city doesn't have any kind of feudal nobility system. The people who lived here were usually merchants, shop owners, or artisans. This is the area where Daemon's mansion is built and that mansion is the largest building in the city other than the church, which is situated at the center of all three districts.

The last district, and the smallest, was the commercial district. It housed all the shops and public buildings. The shops were already open for the day. More people came in and out of the grocer shops than any of the more special shops of course. For people who didn't have much in the way of food storage, they need to leave in the morning to shop for lunch and dinner food supplies. Daemon's mansion has a magic icebox powered by the crystal in the attic. It keeps food at a proper temperature for preservation. A magical refrigerator. Available only for those who can afford it, of course.

We weaved around other women who were going between grocer shops and stayed clear of the men who were laborers carrying boxes or pulling carts. This was rush hour.

We stopped at a shop that sold parchments, charcoal writing sticks made from bones, canvas, inks, pens, and paints first. This was pretty straight forward. Go in, ask for brushes, a set of paints, and a stiff board to paint on. The board was interesting. It had the texture of papyrus. But it wasn't just a sheet of paper. It was many many sheets of paper held together by an adhesive and pressed to make a rigid board about half an inch thick. A very nice substitute for wood board in a place where wood is a luxury. The material this board is made of must grow from either a fast growing plant or a plant in great abundance nearby.

We left the store with Mother carrying the bag of supplies while Celestine carried the board under her arm. Their next stop was an artisan's shop. Mother didn't trust Celestine enough to just outright buy carving tools, so she went to an artisan first to see if she could hire a tutor. All of this was approved by Daemon of course, or if it wasn't he wouldn't care as long as it was something Celestine wanted. Daemon seemed to have a surplus of money. Enough he didn't care how it was spent. It made me wonder why he never hired any guards. The mansion would be a prime target for thieves.

They entered the shop and Celestine was wide-eyed at what she saw. There at the counter, haggling with an old man and trying to sell small white statues to him, was a man covered in red scales. Or would it even be right to call him a man? He had the upper torso of a man. He was rather skinny and his arms showed little in the way of muscle like the laborers that wander the streets. Instead of the smooth skin of a human, his entire body was covered in the scaly skin of a reptile. Pale yellow chest, front neck, abdomen, and red glistening scales everywhere else. Instead of hair, he had thousands of odd red elongated spiky scales that looked to be hair covering the top of his head. His skin wasn't his most defining feature however, oh no. He lacked legs entirely. In place of legs, he had a huge snake-like body that was pulled up tightly behind him on the ground so as to not impede others from walking inside the shop. It wriggled and twisted in coils as if it had a mind of its own while his attention was on the contents of a bone crate he was pulling things out of to show the clerk.

The contents of the crate were statues of various things. Other snake people, animals, and something like a horn covered with tribal-looking markings. Bone jewelery was also being pulled out of a bag and placed on the counter.

"Duc'kaal, you know these statues don't sell well. I haven't even broken into the last batch you brought in. The antlers make nice mantelpieces though for tourists, but we don't get many of those." The clerk said, eying the horn.

"How is that my fault? The only tourists that seem to make it here these days are adventurers and that's only with my brother's benevolence. The only merchants that come here are here to sell grain from Hope and bring back sand. Who the hells needs to cart sand anyway? I say you need to do a better job of appealing to them."

"They use it to make glass. The @&@%^$@^ farms in Southern Hope are very lucrative with their trade and depend the mutual trade of grains for sand. You should know that. We can't live on meat alone like your people can. If you were making these statues for profit anyway, you would be making the trek there yourself."

"Ahh, just give me something to complain about, man. I'm tired of my complaints going on deaf ears at home." The snake man said, running his hand through his scaly hair. Celestine caught a glimpse of his abdomen under his burlap shirt. His muscles there were incredibly defined compared to his arms.

"How is your brother, Duc'kaal?" Mother spoke up, entering the shop and pulling Celestine in with her.

"Hm?" The snake man looked at the new entries, squinted his eyes and then smiled. It was odd, you would have expected a snake man to have slit eyes, but his were round like humans. "Well if it isn't Sylv. Been too long since I've seen you. You look smaller than when I last saw you, I suspect the reason for that is there beside you." He chuckled, "My brother's doing well enough. His devil-spawn of a first-hatched son is giving him grief, though. I hope he can beat the boy into a man before he dies of old age. Gods know I can't."

"I'm sure he'll mature. He was quite shy when I met him."

"He didn't know he would be heir to the tribe then. Innocence of childhood ruined by pride." He sighed. "So what's your little one's name?"

Mother pulled Celestine forward and put her hand on her shoulder. "This is Celestine. Celestine, this is Duc'kaal. Brother of the Black Scale chieftain."

Celestine couldn't speak, she couldn't find her tongue. Elves, okay not too different; furry dog men, they still had some human skin and look to them; but this man here looked more monster than man. And here he was talking so casually.

"Bah hahaha!" His teeth! All of them were sharp to a point! They weren't anything like a snake's teeth, these looked like the teeth of a shark! He could easily kill us! "Look at her, she's shaking. I always love the reaction you little humans have when you see us for the first time. I remember meeting Daemon's son for the first time. Poor brat pissed his pants! You looked like you were going to go white as a ghost when you visited our village too, Sylv."

"We had just gotten onto the land and your tribe was the first we met." Mother replied, gently patting Celestine's shoulder and speaking with a calm voice.

"Ahhh, memories. That's all an old man like me has anymore. Hey, can I come visit your home one day? I would like to carve you, Sylv, now that you aren't bloated in the belly anymore. Call it an apology gift for my rudeness at the time."

"Actually, Duc'kaal, I was wondering, now that we ran into you, if you could tutor my daughter? She took an interest in carving and we were just coming in here to buy supplies and ask for a tutor."

The snake man started to move. With each stride his waist made an exaggerated sway and the snake part of his body coiled to push him forward effortlessly. He came to stand in front of Celestine. He looked down at the ground. "Well she hasn't pissed herself, so she could probably stand to be near an old man like me." He lowered himself and I saw a glimpse of something like a knee resting on the ground through his yellow underskin while he brought his head down to her level. A vestigial limb? Did he have leg bones that have fused together with his tail? The evolution of such a creature fascinated me as much as his mere presence terrified Celestine. "What do you say, little one? You want to learn how to carve bone? That's about all that's in this desert worth carving." He turned around to face the clerk, "even if no one wants to buy it!"

"People want function, not form, Duc'kaal. The bloody bone crate is probably worth more than what you brought me."

"Bah, no appreciation for art! I can't rule the tribe so what else am I good for?" He turned back to the girl, placed his hand on her head over the sun hat and patted her head. His hand... is was warm. Not as hot as you would expect a cold blooded creature to be on this hot desert day, but warm like a human's body heat. What is this man? "What do you say?"

"O-o-okay. P-please teach me!" She cried back, her voice croaking between a few words from nervousness.

"Attagirl." He rose back up to his previous height and addressed Mother. "I'll go commission her some carving tools from a blacksmith and go back home to collect some bones for her to practice on."

"I can pay-" Mother said before he interrupted her.

"No need. The metal coins I get from your city are just piling up in my pocket. I need to put them back into circulation somehow." He turned to the clerk. "What are my carvings and jewelery worth, man?"

"Without everything being glossed, it's not worth much. I'll give you twenty silver for everything, including the crate."

"Tch. Fine. Whatever." He turned to Mother. "Was there something specific she wanted to make? I can look out for different bones that way. Jewelry I guess?"

"A game!" Celestine chimed in. "I want to make game pieces for a game to give my brother for his birthday!"

"Brother now? You sound like a nice sister to go out of your way to learn an entire craft just for a gift. But I have no right to judge. Where you two living at? I can visit to teach her after everything's made and ready."