Spirit found his new clan amazing and confusing all at once. He tried very hard not to gawk about like a hatchling, and to remember everyone’s name. But at the sight of other Coatls in blue, black, purple, red, even yellow … well, he truly did try not to stare, but he’d never seen anything like that before. His parents, siblings, half-siblings, and all but one of his grandparents were all pure white. These new Coatls were strange and beautiful, and yet they wouldn’t make eye contact with him. However, grandfather Gwydion had once told him, “When it comes to colors, lad, some dragons are just old-fashioned.”

So Spirit shrugged, thinking charitably that no one could help how they were made, and settled in comfortably. When one of the senior Coatls presented him with a Longneck Mender as companion, Spirit accepted in good grace. Afterwards he explained things to the baffled Longneck and assured him that yes, his health was excellent, actually. The Longneck, humor glinting in his heavy-lidded eyes, replied that he might as well stay, then, so that the senior Coatl wouldn’t develop an ulcer from worrying about “that poor child.”

Within days of Spirit’s arrival, a new development threw the lair into confusion: the sudden appearance of tiny, flitting, furry creatures that howled piercingly when upset. Hasty consultation with neighboring lairs confirmed that the phenomenon was widespread. The Manticores denied all knowledge of the event. The Mages shortly determined that the creatures were called cats, and probably friendly.

Spirit already knew that. He had come home to discover no less than five of the creatures lined up in a row beneath the cupboard that held his stash of dried fish. Upon his arrival the entire horde began pacing back and forth in front of him, making the most pitiful noises. Bemused, Spirit gave each one a fish. That evening, with purring cats draping themselves all over him, he remarked to the Longneck that these couldn’t possibly be familiars, because whoever heard of a Bonding that required only a fish?