Everthere

He was never meant to be important to anyone or anything. Alive for only a few days and both their parents were exalted to the ranks of the Arcanist. It was unsurprising when they were dumped at the doors of the Auction House, a tag on each of their wings proclaiming their worth and who to pay when bought. His poor sister was so confused and scared, but he had seen this coming. His father's haunted eyes and his mother's nervous pride had been as telling as their refusal to name their children. They were born to be sold, and that knowledge turned a heart that so briefly belonged to a dreamer into stone.

Adult dragons milled all around the huge, multi-floored warehouse, shopping, browsing, and trading. There was always at least a couple potential buyers looking at the hatchlings, and while most of the young ones lowered their eyes at being observed, he developed the tendency to stare onlookers right in the eyes, rage and disdain in equal parts showing through his own. When his sister was taken away he kicked and screamed, biting and snarling like a wild animal desperately trying to reach her. His heart, briefly melted into boiling magma, soon returned to its petrified state.

All light had faded from his eyes. His soul, the vibrant but jaded thing that it was, fell shattered to the wayside and swept away like so much refuse. It barely phased him when another crying child was plopped in his pen, effectively taking his sister's place. For the first six hours of their acquaintance he completely ignored her, allowing her to cry herself out and exhaust herself to sleep. It was only after another hour of her quiet snuffles that he realized that she had slowly been inching closer to him and had wrapped herself around him, her fluffy mane pressing into his right foreleg. Tense at the contact but not so cruel as to wake the younger hatchling from the only good night of sleep she'd get in this place, he let her cuddle up against him and resolved to stay perfectly still until morning.

When the little blue Imperial did wake up it was with little yawning or stretching. She sprung up like a Sprangyroo ready for a fight, but her guileless orange eyes told him that this girl had never hurt a fly and never would. Her face lit up when she saw that he had finally noticed her, clearly happy that she was no longer alone in her misery. "My name's Abyss," she said, a tinge of sadness and hope in her voice. "What's yours?" His reply was a swift and sharp "I don't have one." He tried not to be jealous that her parents were decent enough to give her a name. He probably failed.

No matter how hard he tried, Abyss was able to worm her way into his mind. She exuded a subdued kind of hope, a battered but unshakeable faith in better days. She laughed little but smiled often, and her bright, fiery eyes were unspeakably sad. Little by little he found himself concerned for her well-being. He would listen to her talk, indulge her in the few games that could be played is such a wretched place, and stand sentinel over her while she slept. When buyers would come around and examine him like lowly livestock he made sure that not a single claw was laid on her. If any of them so much as brushed against Abyss he would enter into a rage so fierce and concentrated that they would beat a hasty retreat in fear of losing a limb to the vicious little Skydancer.

One night after the lights had gone out and their floor of the warehouse was silent, Abyss cuddled up to him as usual but did not fall asleep. He could feel her eyes on him.

"Go to sleep, Abyss." He commanded, his tone firm and brooking no argument.

"I'm sorry, Pinky," Abyss whispered back. He didn't like her little nickname for him, but didn't comment on it. "I was just thinking..."

The sigh he let out was as silent as he could make it. "What?"

"What happens when one of us is taken away?"

The silence that followed the question was fraught with tension. It was a topic he had refused to dwell on for some time. Thinking about it nearly made him physically ill.

"That won't happen." He proclaimed with confidence.

"You can't say that. It's going to happen some day and you know that," She twisted herself out of the tight grip he had only just realized he had on her. She sat back on her haunches. When she did that she was just the slightest bit taller than him. Her eyes were sadder than he'd ever seen them before. Her ears pressed against her head "I know that."

"I'm not going to let it happen," he huffed angrily. "I won't let them split us up like they did with you and your brother, with me and my sister." He looked down at his clenched claw and saw that it was shaking. "I won't leave you."

The tears that she'd been holding in finally fell and he felt his stone heart crack. "You can't be there forever. Please don't lie to me. Please." Without thinking he gathered her in his arms, his face pressed into her soft mane and the nubs of her antlers poking against his cheek.

"I'll be there for you, Abyss. I'll be there forever, I swear." Her silent crying turned to heaving sobs at his declaration and he was at a loss. "Abyss, Abyss, believe me," he soothed. "Please believe me."

Several minutes were spent like that; Abyss weeping openly and him holding her. He actively tried to settle her, to comfort her, such a far cry from that first night when he let her cry herself to sleep. Once she was calm she gazed up at him, her smile watery and her eyes still so, so sad. "Forever there?" She asked, though it sounded more like a plea. He nodded and cracked a shaky, ugly smile that looked more like a snarl than anything else. It was probably the first one he ever made.

"Forever there."

She sighed contentedly, burrowing her face into his downy, feathery chest. The last two words she spoke before she drifted off to sleep resonated with him so deeply that he felt tears well in his own eyes.

"Ever there..."

It wasn't long before a trader from the Outcasts' Refuge in the Viridian Labyrinth found the pair of youngsters huddled together on a routine trip to the Auction House. The legal trade of unwanted hatchlings was well known to all the clans of Sornieth and was a common way to introduce new blood to old lines. It was also well known that the laws surrounding the industry were gray at best and nonexistent at worst. Seeing these hatchling not only filthy but half starved was heartbreaking and Corellia, not being a dragon to lament a problem without trying to fix it, would see to it that the traders were dealt with in an appropriately violent way.

To the hatchlings she promised a safe and supportive home where they could be their own dragons and never worry for their freedom. Everthere was more than wary of the offer, but Abyss was overjoyed at the idea and eager to leave the confines of the Auction House once and for all. After much pleading, cajoling, and Abyss outright refusing to leave without her best friend, the young Skydancer eventually agreed to go with Corellia.

Now at home in the Refuge and free at last, Everthere has to admit that coming here was one of Abyss's better ideas, if not the best of all. Settling himself against her lean and long body, he can't help but think that most of Abyss's ideas are good ones, so he should really stop analyzing them. She's bigger than him now, both healthy adults now, but other than that not much has changed. He is still a silent and serious sort, prone to brooding and rages in his darker moods. She still smiles more than she laughs and her eyes are still sad and gentle. She still cuddles him in her sleep and he still watches over her.

Except now he's able to crack a sarcastic joke every now and then and his bouts of negativity are both less common and less intense. Now when she smiles it is because he did something to please her, and her eyes are just that bit more lively and that makes all the difference. Now when she presses against him in her sleep he presses back, and while he still watches her it is mostly because she's most beautiful when she's completely at peace.

Now he has a name, and they both might be in love.

Everthere's heart is made of stone, but in its cracks there are blue flowers, wild and growing.