Jannat

Jannat moved like the quaking of mountains, crushing small stones beneath her feet. Rolling her head on her thick neck to shake off the dust of the road, she flicked out her tongue to taste the small cloud that came billowing off of her. In it, she tasted granite and sandstone, but quartz most of all. Out here, it was almost all quartz. She also tasted things that didn’t exactly have names, like the feeling of years and years of steady wind, the echoes of battles fought over foolish things and vital things, the sounds of care and work and play and love. That one always made her smile.

There was so much out here, where others saw only a barren desert with no life or beauty at all. It just took a little digging to find, that was all. Jannat walked steadily, roaming paths that had had always been hers, even if she had not been born to them.

She had been born on the Southern Icefield, taught immediately the ways of snow and storm. She had been taught how to tell where the ice was sound and how to protect her food from frost. She had been taught never to stray from the path, for that way lay a silent, frozen death. When she was 24, she left.

The ice was not for her, although she had traversed it many times with her clan. Instead, she yearned for the land, for warmth on her scales and earth beneath her feet. She dreamed waking dreams of deserts and rolling hills, and could not keep herself from yearning for them. And so, when she grew old enough, she left.

She tried the lands of the Gladekeeper first, but found no satisfaction there. The trees clustered close, blotting out the sun, and one could not walk forever, but instead had to weave and duck amongst the growth. Jannat moved on.

She tried the Shifting Expanse, but found no place there among the industrious, hard working clans. They had no use for a traveler who saw a great deal but made little with her own claws. Jannat moved on.

At last she came to the Sunbeam Ruins, where the grass blew easy in the warm wind and the remains of the shattered city still stand strong against the horizon. As she settled into the tracks of Snappers old and young, she smiled. She had finally found the paths that were hers to roam.

Jannat met many dragons in her travels. Some were other Snappers traveling the same paths as she, and with them she traded nods of understanding and familiarity. Some were clans who made their homes in the great, flat grassland of the Light territories, and with them she traded stories and food. One was a clan called Hearthstone, and with them she traded knowledge and love.

Jannat came to Hearthstone on her third trip around the Sunbeam Ruins, and never expected to come back. She stayed a few days, got rest and water and food. In exchange, she learned about their mission and their research and contributed what she could. There is much to be learned from traveling the world with your eyes wide open, and Jannat was able to contribute some information about the use and history of the artifacts Hearthstone had discovered.

While she stayed, one dragon caught her eye. He was young, she could tell that much, and a Bogsneak with colors similar to hers. He wore spectacles and carried books, but that was all she could tell. The reason for this was that she rarely saw him outside his home, where he spent nearly all of his time. She did a bit of inquiring and discovered that his name was Brick, and that his mother kept him inside a great deal of the time out of a sense of protectiveness. He was rarely seen even by his clanmates. Jannat decided she would meet this elusive dragon.

She thought on the problem for several days, but had other things to attend to as well. The clan wished for her to share her knowledge, share the things she had seen in her travels. She did her best, although the scholars were often frustrated with how little she knew. There was only so much one could learn without straying from the paths that Jannat was bound to tread.

One one memorable occasion, an angry scholar lashed her tail around a bookcase and brought it crashing down. “What good are you?!” shouted the frustrated Spiral. “You can’t even answer one question!” Jannat helped clean up the workshop, but she never spoke to the other dragon again.

News of the incident, and the calm way Jannat had handled it, spread throughout the clan. The scholar apparently had a rather infamous temper, and Jannat had responded with dignity and grace. The clan members looked at her differently after that. She smiled, and continued to help them with what she could.

When she managed to corner Brick, it was entirely by accident. She was exiting a cave after answering several questions for a researcher, and there he was. He was puzzled when she pulled him aside, but went along with it, and thus a friendship began.

Brick began to visit Jannat whenever he could, and she him. They talked through entire days at a stretch, sharing ideas and information. Just as Jannat had learned much from wandering and watching, Brick had learned a great deal from staying in one place and reading. Each knew things of interest to the other, and their wildly different histories and approaches to life led to ideas and trains of thought that nobody had ever imagined.

The clan was entirely supportive of the friendship, for they viewed Brick as something of a shut-in, and were pleased to see him getting out more. They were also surprised and delighted by the results of the two dragons’ long conversations, which helped their work immensely. And as Jannat prepared to leave, she realized she had fallen in love.

Brick was a sweet, gentle, kind-hearted dragon with a passion for learning and a unique outlook on the world. He was also, she had to admit to herself, really cute. The clan was a good place, full of good people and fascinating ideas. And so, as she settled once again into the familiar rhythm of walking, she was already making plans to return.