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As soon as Lierce’s voice burst into the chamber, both Aaliyah and Asariel quit their squabbles and kept close to each other, practically clinging. Forget the tales of Dragon Knights! They were much more intimidating---and louder---than either youngling could have ever imagined! Asariel, for one, was oddly reminded of the first time he encountered an adult dragon when he had barely been out of the egg… it had seemed amazing that anything could be that big.

Aaliyah, however, was a bit more calm than her older brother. Unlike him, she was not prone to hero worship and mindless fancy. Human? She frowned as much as she could with reptilian lips and looked around. What human? What was going on? Still, she couldn’t ask that! She didn’t want to appear dumb, after all… still… she looked around at the other younglings, trying to figure out whether or not they had any idea of what was happening. From the looks on their faces, they weren’t any more informed than she was. So… maybe it would be ok to ask such an obvious question?

The words from the nearby youngling reassured her a bit.

"Any question?" Asariel asked eventually, tilting his head to one side. Looking up at Master Lierce curiously, he was silent for a few moments before he continued on. "Where do babies come from?"

Aaliyah covered her eyes with her paws for a moment, the very picture of humiliation. She didn’t know either to be honest, but she, at least, realized that it wasn’t all that important right about now. She hit the blue youngling with her tail, surprising a cry from the male, who responded with a playful snap.

The room slowly fell silent as the youngling’s question was relayed across the older dragons and soon all eyes fell to a rather bemused Master Lierce. Even the Fallen seemed to relax and chuckle among themselves at what was happening. Overall, the entire mood of the room seemed to loosen and everyone waited for what the Dragon-Bound Knight would say next.

“Eggs, of course,” Master Lierce finally said, “And I’m certain that there’s another dragon here that would be willing to give you the more complicated explanation later…” His eyes drifted towards one of the entrances. “Like Fam.”

“No,” she said.

“You can’t do worse than what my father told me. He said they came from hell and I should be careful to say my prayers each night unless I got one left with me,” Hammand, Lierce’s Dragon-Bound said with a shrug and Fam glared at him like she wished he would just drop dead on the spot.


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Tarketh waited until everyone was settled before leaping into the air, his wings snapping out and powering his flight up above the treetops. He flew directly towards a mountain that loomed above all the others and after a bit of flight it was close enough to see the details of and the snowcapped peak hiding in the clouds above. He fell into a lazy spiral, growing lower and lower to the ground until he landed just above the treeline where the mountain side was spread out in a low-angle cliff.

“Just do what my Dragon-Bound tells you,” Tarketh said to the two, and then he lifted up again into the air, flying towards the higher cliffs of the mountain.

The human glanced at the two and stared down at the ground.

“My name doesn’t really matter,” he said, “but you can call me Aer for now. C’mon. There’s an entrance up there- “ He pointed to where a depression formed in the rock. “and I’ll just do any talking and you will agree with anything I say. Let’s go.”

He started climbing up towards the entrance.

As they flew quickly through the air, both Blade and Astalder felt exhilarated to be up above the ground and moving so swiftly. The human had leaned forward slightly as the wind rushed through his dark hair and gazed down, wondering just how high they were right now. It may have been a "gentle" flight, but it was still quite an experience for the two of them.

But their time in the sky was soon over, as the large purple dragon landed onto the small cliff.

Hopping off of Tarketh's back, Astalder stretched out and beamed back up at the blue sky above them. He couldn't wait until he was able to do such a thing himself.

Nodding as he slid off the back of the large dragon, Blade let out a small breath before turning towards "Aer" as he spoke for the first time.

"And just in case... I'm Blade, and the little one is Astalder.."

After motioning to the youngling to come along, he went ahead and followed the Dragon-Bound and whispered to the young dragon.

"Don't mention what happened and go along with everything ok?"

Receiving a nod, he just proceeded onwards.

“Astalder and Blade. Right.”

Aer led them up the mountainside to the depression. There, the rock seemed to just sink inward and into a tunnel of semi-darkness. A human was standing along the wall, a sword at his belt and a red tabard over his tunic. He glanced at the three with mild disinterest.

“Meeting has just started,” he said lazily, “But what’s a youngling doing here with two humans? Rather unusual.”

“Found the egg with a merchant,” Aer said, his voice turning into the country drawl accent found in some parts of the borderlands, “Couldn’t get him to say where it came from but we brought it and my brother here kept it warm til it hatched.”

He nodded at Blade.

“Name is Aer. This is Blade and the dragon is Astalder. Father called me back to escort my brother to the dragons so that they wouldn’t get in any more trouble back home.”

The guard looked at Blade and nodded in respect.

“You’ve been taking care of the youngling then?” he said, “How much trouble have you gotten for it, then? I’ve heard the human lands are hostile towards even stolen dragons.”

The two younglings looked at each other, both wondering the same exact thing for once. There was no question about it: the egg thief would be punished, and punished harshly from the looks of it. Still, it didn’t seem like something that the entire clan needed to gather for, at least in Asariel’s opinion. Why didn’t the knights take care of that by themselves? Surely, they didn’t need to gather up every single dragon down to the last hatchling for this sort of thing…

Aaliyah went a little further along with this thought. The human must have known he would be punished if caught. Younger than Asariel, Aaliyah still remembered the hatching grounds in vivid detail and how they were watched by an older dragon at nearly every minute of the day.

“Things must be pretty desperate for humans then, if they are willing to steal dragon eggs…” she murmured very quietly. Her tail flicked slightly as she considered this. She had never been out of the dragon lands before and had been carefully watched over for her entire life. Need wasn’t something she was really acquainted with. Starvation was foreign to her. The idea of harming dragons got under her skin---although, with her young mind the worst ‘cruelty’ inflicted on the hatchlings was missing a meal---but, really… there was more to the situation here.

Glancing up at the guard, Blade nodded before turning towards where some voices came from. He could just barely make out a few things that were said, but from the sounds of things, it dealt with stealing and dragon eggs. There also seemed to be a number of angry voices within the mix, which made him a little uncomfortable, seeing how he got Astalder in the first place.

Glancing back to the guard, he went along with Aer's words, even though the youngling didn't bring too much trouble. It didn't bother him much to lie, as it really wasn't something new to him.

"Eeeh... Some people threatened to skin him, and others tried to burn down the house while everyone was asleep... "

Blinking, Astalder glanced up at Blade before gazing out past the guard. His kin were very near; he could sense them.

“No wonder you wanted to get out,” the guard said in admiration, “Good of you to come so far to keep the youngling safe. I’ll warn you – things are a bit tense around here. There’s been an instance of egg theft and it’s not like the other times and there’s going to be a lot of fighting between the clans over what to do with the eggs and like. So be careful and I wouldn’t go around advertising that the youngling came from a stolen egg. Even if you got it for the right reasons.”

He shrugged and jerked his head towards the interior.

“Anyway, you all look fine to me. Go on in and if you need anything contact Fam or any of the other caretakers. They wear blue pendants around their necks.”

Aer thanked him and then hurried into the tunnels. He grabbed Blade’s shoulder.

“I leave you now,” he said, “Do not follow and do not speak of this.” He hesitated and fear flashed over his face for a moment. “It they question you later – after – protect yourself. I’m sorry you were even involved this far but I have no choice in my fate anymore.”

And then he turned and started down a side tunnel, away from the two.

Nodding to the guard, Blade and Astalder went ahead into the tunnels. So it seemed he wasn't quite hearing things earlier about stolen eggs. In any case, he'll have to be careful with what he says about the youngling and how he came about to meeting him and such.

Pausing as Aer stopped him to say a few things, the young human nodded slightly before solemnly watching him leave.

What have I gotten us into...? he thought, I hope things don't get too messy around here soon..

Letting out a sigh, he gazed down at Astalder who was trotting further ahead, curious to see this council. After shaking his head to himself, Blade jogged to catch up with the youngling as they entered the area of the meeting.

Silently, as they both moved closer to the group, the little black dragon nearly darted out when he saw several other younglings. It seemed there were several humans around as well, aside from all the dragons here. But still, just the number of the larger beings here was enough to make him feel quite excited to be here. And it seemed that his human companion agreed more or less as well.

"Wow..."