Meara

“Raise her well, Ganymede. She’ll need it.”

Once just a foundling that was discovered by Tonghua of Clan Fenghuang, Meara was raised as an altogether average member of Ganymeyde's clan, a member of no particular precedence, by all means a common citizen who helped with the Clan's day-to-day business. When the Shade Sleep affected the Clan, she - at the time, a skydancer - had planned to leave with much of the rest of the clan, but it was then that she found Titania and the Places Between Places.

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To the north, the Viridian Labyrinth sprawled with a calmness that might have appeared careless, if the onlooker were naïve enough, or intimidating, to the fainthearted. But the Fae was neither, and merely continued above above the green overgrowth, golden wings fluttering and translucent in the midday sun.

It was a beautiful day, to be sure. Most of the heat of summer had come and gone, and the air was beginning to gain the crispness that heralded the autumn. The sky was a clear, beautiful blue, with barely a wisp of cloud to be seen. It was with only mild disappointment that Tonghua finally alighted on the heart tree of the clan he’d been seeking, balanced delicately on the whisper-thin end of a branch weighed down by cloven leaves. A soft chirp sounded from the region between his wings, and Tonghua merely flicked them out and back again, which soothed it back to silence.

“You have no right to be here, interloper,” a voice like green and growing things said, echoes like whispers fading in its wake. Tonghua merely straightened, wings and crests flaring around him like bursts of golden light.

“Good morning, Ganymede,” Tonghua said, lifting his chin slightly. The trees parted with barely a sound, branches seeming to draw apart of their own volition to make way for the dragon approaching. She was tall and huge, though even she was dwarfed by these trees, with glimmering scales in shades of azure and emerald and everything in between, the light dancing along her shifting form and bringing out highlights of violet or gold. Her wings shone too, huge and feathered with green pale enough to be delicate, contrasting sharply with the luminous, vibrant green of her eyes, which flashed brightly under her white hood.

“Why are you in my forest, little one?” Ganymede asked, lowering her head slightly so she was at eye-level with Tonghua, who was perhaps half the size of her head.

Tonghua cocked his head to the side, crests flaring out to emphasize the movement. “Can I not visit a friend?”

“Tonghua, we are not friends.”

“Really? I thought we were. I suppose we were mistaken. How sad. Friends do favors for their friends, no?”

A subtle frown that bared teeth. “What in Gladekeeper’s name are you talking about?”

Tonghua craned his neck back, which, considering he was a Fae, basically meant he bent his neck enough so that he could comfortably look between his shoulder blades. “Come, child.”

Hesitantly, a head covered in teal scales appeared, blinked huge green eyes over Tonghua’s shoulder, and ducked back down again. “Well, we shall work on that,” Tonghua said. “She is for you.”

“What.”

The Fae’s crest rose and fell almost impatiently. “She is for you. She shares your colors and will, in time, share your magic, as none of your own children do or will, even more than pretty Nanami. The Change will come upon her early, as it did to you. Qingyan has seen this.”

“Qingyan is imprecise at best. You will forgive me if I do not take your word or hers as a matter of course.”

Tonghua made a sharp, chirruping sound, and the Fae poked her head back up hesitantly. When she simply stared at the Imperial, Tonghua clicked, once, twice, three times, and she carefully stretched up to her full height, unfurling small wings. Like he’d said, the Fae’s colors matched Ganymede’s, though her scales did not refract light in the same way. She made a soft trilling noise and stretched out her neck towards Ganymede, huge green eyes blinking owlishly.

Hesitantly, Ganymede reached up with one large claw, which the Imperial matriarch extended to the teal Fae. She lurched forward and wrapped her tiny forelimbs around Ganymede’s single toe, then, with a wriggle and a sudden lunge, surged up over Tonghua’s shoulder and catapulted onto Ganymede’s hand. With a self-satisfied noise, she unfurled her wings and preened, humming and chirring happily.

“You see? You like her already. Your very natures are in sympathy.” Ganymede was sure that, if Tonghua had been any breed but a Fae, the smugness in his voice would be thick enough to drown in. As it was, his tail was curled around his hind legs, the tip draped across one shoulder, and his wings and crests unfurled in a way that displayed every bit of their bright golden hue, fluttering every so often.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself. How did you find her? She’s not yours.”

“Shadowbinder only knows,” Tonghua said. “This little girl must have made her way across the strait on her own, for she was in my clan’s lair when we found her. In fact, Sol nearly sat on her.”

“…”

“Feihong pushed him over before he could,” Tonghua reassured her. “She is very protective of children. Sol was hurt more than she. Do you want her or not? Should I take her to Colecanth instead?”

“Don’t you dare,” Ganymede said absently, still inspecting the teal Fae with a large green eye bigger than she was. “You know he’ll never let her go.”

“He is softhearted,” Tonghua agreed. “It is endearing. What is your answer? It takes a while to fly across the strait.”

“… Her name?”

“I would not know it.” Tonghua reared up, supporting all his weight on his tail, as his wings fluttered slightly to help keep him aloft. “You ought to.”

“Meara, then.”

Tonghua bared teeth in a gesture that was probably supposed to be a smile. “You see? Not so difficult.” Before Ganymede could retort, he leapt off the branch and hovered, wings sweeping gently in elegant arcs. “Raise her well, Ganymede. She’ll need it.” Without so much as a backward glance, Tonghua zipped off, scattering fragile leaves from their branches. The sound of his wings quickly vanished, swallowed by the overarching sky, and Ganymede was left with Meara, who merely yawned and clung harder to her claws.

Sometimes, Ganymede really did believe Shadow dragons could be improved with a proper branch to the head.