Rival

"Back home again so soon, hm?"

Rival looked up from his wing as he heard a familiar hum come from behind him, quill he had been clutching between his talons suspended mid-marking. "Anubis. I should have known you would want to check in on me."

The coatl chuckled quietly as he came into view, the low rumble sending a warm feeling of nostalgia through Rival's chest. He could remember that chuckle from when he was a hatchling, asking silly questions or getting stuck in strange situations. It was nice to hear it again.

“Of course I would want to visit you, Rival. One does not simply retire from the job of caretaker once a dragon ages.” The coatl settled down beside him, smiling warmly. “How was your trip?”

Rival sighed, looking back down at his wing. Ink dripped from his pen like tears onto a parchment, staining it with a spot of black. Not that it mattered- his wings were covered in them anyway. “More of the same old same old, I'm afraid. As much as I love my adventuring, it never is quite the same visiting a place for the second time.”

“Well, you never were content with staying in one place. The number of times the clan dropped everything to try and find you is truly astonishing.” Anubis said, voice full of amusement. “We’ve known from the very start that you constantly need an adventure to amuse you.”

Rival laughed at that, though his ears flattened in embarrassment at the reminder of what a troublesome hatchling he had been. He reached over to grab his compass and hold it close to him, absentmindedly, as most Pearlcatchers do with their pearl. “Yeah, I suppose I do…”

“You still have that?” Rival looked back up as Anubis spoke, tilting his head in confusion before realising what he was referring too.

“My compass?” Rival waited for Anubis to nod before continuing, “Of course, it hasn't left my side since you gave it to me. It’s seen just about every adventure I've had.”

He smiled as the pleasant memory of Anubis surprising him with the hand-made device purposely shaped like a pearl washed over him, the same happy tears he shed that day springing to his eyes.

He clutched the compass closer to his chest as he met Anubis's eyes once more. “It's my pearl.”

“Oh, my boy.” Anubis hummed warmly, voice crackling with his own tears. “I am so glad that memories from this clan have stuck with you so. I had been beginning to worry that…”

The coatl trailed off and Rival set the compass down to the side in order to move closer. “That?” He asked, an invitation that it was alright to continue.

“That you were beginning to drift away from us. From home.”

Rival’s eyes widened as Anubis finished speaking in barely more than a whisper, face angled away, as if he were ashamed to even say so.

“Why would you think that?” Rival said, moving back into the Coatl’s sight, obviously concerned. “I wouldn’t just vanish on you guys…”

“I know, I know, It’s just…” The coatl sighed, lifting his gaze back up to the pearlcatcher’s and forcing a small, sad smile. “You just have always seemed so much happier...out there. Even as a hatchling you never seemed to want to stay, and as you’ve grown older and stayed away longer I had begun to wonder if...if you were unhappy here.”

“Anubis…” Rival whispered, voice quiet as more tears threatened to fall, spreading his wings out to show the map of Sornieth he had drawn in all its beauty. He beckoned Anubis closer before pointing to a dot on his wing in the area that was the Southern Ice Fields, and then to another in The Tangled Wood. Both were labelled home.“This clan has always been my home. It always will be. By the Shade, I couldn’t ask for a better family if I wanted.”

Without saying a word Anubis rushed forward, wings wrapping around the pearlcatcher in an embrace that he hadn’t known since he was a hatchling. He buried his face into his caretaker’s...no, his dad’s chest as he let tears slip silently down his cheeks. When they finally pulled apart, his eyes were still still full of unshed tears, and Anubis laughed in a hiccuping way as he wiped them away. His own cheeks had dark trails running down them.

“How about you come to my den for dinner tonight, Rival? I’m sure Fletcher would love to hear about your latest adventures.”

Rival couldn’t help but smile.

“I would love to.”