Jacquotte

"I'm trying, Jackie. Slow down!" The younger fae huffed, having not inherited the slim build and wide wings of their father the way his sister had. Instead, his body was average like their mom- If not a bit stocky from his habit of staying inside more oft than not.

Anyone could see it. They were their parent's children. Jacquotte in her cool tones resembled their father, yet had the same adventure-lust as their mom, while Leon was just as pink as mom with their father's penchant for academia.

And with their parents being feared pirates... They were bound to get into more than their fair share of mischief. Willing or not.

"Where are we even going?" Leon whined, finally catching up when Jacquotte slowed into a controlled glide. The Stolen South had, humorously enough, sailed north and was at port in a seaside town in Dragonhome, far enough away from their usual haunts to get away with flying their 'emergency back-up colors'. In other words, they were pretending they weren't pirates. The current cover story? Traveling merchants. It wasn't too far off, they were technically selling wares...

They just didn't specify that the wares were gained by stealing.

"We're in Dragonhome, Lee. You know, home of the Colonnades of Antiquity? That Dragonhome? Come on brother, you're the nerd here, not me." Jacquotte rolled her eyes, picking up the pace to fly in a lazy loop over her lethargic sibling.

"The colonna- Wh- Jackie!" Leon sputtered. "That is a several-days flight from here! Even for Aunt Sumi! We are not going all the way out there!"

"Of course not! What I'm saying, is that where there are big markets..." Jacquotte suddenly swooped down, grabbing her brother to bring him down with her. She twisted and swerved through the air, coming to stop at the underside of a signpost staked into the arid dirt. "There are copycat tourist traps!"

Before them was, just as Jacquotte had said, a much smaller but still bustling market. If the sign they had dropped under was to be believed, it prided itself on being more accessible to those traveling by boat.

They did get here by boat at least. They could give it that much.

"Wow. Amazing. Okay, we came, I've seen it, fun little trip, now can we go home?" Leon turned around and made to flush from the ground, but was stopped by his sister stepping on his tail.

"Lee. Come on. We never get to go out on land! This is our only chance to have ourselves a real adventure." Jacquotte whined.

"What 'adventure' is to be had amongst-" Leon peered out over the market stalls. "Half price Potato Onions." He droned, sounding every bit like a bored fae.

"We're pirates, little brother." Jacquotte climbed up the left signpole, Leon taking the right. "We'll find something!"

"You'll steal something, more like."

"What can I say? Sticky fingers run in the family." Jacquotte grinned. "Let's go!"

"Fine..." Leon groaned, and the two took to the air.

From above, they could see all kinds of shops and stalls and booths. Stands full of produce, pop-ups selling flowers, racks on racks of second-claw apparel- Nothing catching the elder sibling's eye, much to the younger's chagrin. They had flown all the way to the farthest end of the market, avoiding the eyes of the big dragons that didn't know how to look and blending in with the crowd for the little dragons that did.

"Great! Nothing! Oh well we tried, you gave it your best shot sis, back to the boat." Leon huffed, taking to the air just in time for his sister to yank him back down to the ground. "Ow! Hey, watch where you-"

"Shhh!" Jacquotte hissed. "Look."

The back corner of the market was cold and dark, carved into a cliffside, exposed fossils lining the walls. The remnants of some old excavation, illuminated by lamplight. A banner in a particularly dank and dreary spot read; 'Ancient's Ancients'.

"That name is kinda stupid." Leon grumbled. Jacquotte shushed him again and started sneaking inside.

Rusty metals and dusty chairs, furniture held together with wood glue and a prayer to the Gladekeeper, a permeating musty smell that lingered in the back of their snouts. The shop was some sort of antiques store, manned by four dragons- A black and yellow gaoler, a banescale with bright red feathers, a pinkish undertide sitting coiled-up in a massive washbasin, and a blue aberration-

"Hey! What're you kids doing here?! You lookin' to buy something or what?!" A white veilspun sprung in front of them, eliciting a shriek from the siblings. Make that five.

"Nakko, don't scare off the customers!" The aberration chided with both heads at once. Her timing was off a bit and her voices bounced out-of-time. "Terribly sorry about that dears. We don't get many customers, and when we do Nakko's the only one that can see them in this blasted dark."

"I like it! Keeps 'em on their toes..." Nakko laughed, getting picked up and moved away from the siblings by the banescale.

"Welcome to Ancient's Ancients! All your needs for very few cents!~" He sang, feathers rustling.

"H-hello." Jacquotte stammered. "We, we're looking for treasures."

"Y'ain't gonna find much in the way of real valuables here, kiddos." The gaoler huffed, her massive antlers covered in chains and baubles. She took a second, cursory glance over them, meeting their eyes. "But for other children of the Warden, y'kin look around."

"I didn't think gaolers ever left the Icefield." Leon gasped. "Not unless, not unless they're Seekers." The gaoler gave a wry grin.

"That's my treasure, young'n." She rasped, laughing heartily. "We're all mold-breakers here."

"You two's fit right in!" Nakko chattered. "I never seen faes e-mote like that before! I need to scare the customers more often."

"No you don't." The undertide grunted, water sloshing dangerously close to the edge of his basin. "What's your names, kids?"

"I'm Jacquotte, and this is my little brother Leon." Jacquotte slung her arm over Leon's neck, dragging him close. "Our parents have emotions too! But the ships handyman and her appren, apprenni, apprentice, they don't."

"Seadwellers, kindred souls we are indeed." The undertide laughed, a booming sound. "The name's Evercrash. My deal is I want to see more than the water. Ironic, isn't it? Grumpy horns back there is Cralosa, sings-a-lot is Tharuse, Jimai has the two heads, and you've met Nakko."

"The pleasure is mine to meet you this time!~" Tharuse took a deep bow, Nakko almost falling off his head.

"He twists his rhymes a little, but he's got the spirit!" Nakko cackled, hanging on by the horns. "Me, I do not do tight spaces, no no. Not my thing at all. Can't stand livin' with my folks, they are just the worst."

"I thought they kicked you out for being annoying." Jimai hummed.

"That too!"

Jacquotte and Leon fluttered up onto a table propped up by a stack of books beneath a single broken leg, wobbling it a tad. From up there, the ancient dragons seemed a lot less scary.

"Why are you guys selling junk in a dark corner?" Jacquotte asked.

"Jackie, don't be rude!" Leon hissed, but the older dragons just chuckled.

"This is the most we could get. We would be sellin' better stuff in a better place, if we could afford to." Cralosa shook her head, antlers jangling. "But all we can pick up is stuff that oughta just be tossed in the heap."

"Scavenge for free, sell for money!~" Tharuse bemoaned, wing cast dramatically over his face. "It works on paper but in practice we're paupers!~"

"Not to mention that when you don't fit the standard, dragons simply want nothing to do with you." Jimai sorrowfully shook her heads, almost knocking them together. "Just because I am one dragon, or because 'Losa is considered a child still, or because Ever is here!"

"Just like Mom and Dad..." Jacquote muttered. She turned to whisper to her brother. "We gotta help 'em out."

"How? What can we do?" Leon mumbled.

"You wanna, don't you?"

"...Yeah."

"Then we'll find a way." Jacquotte blinked. "Hey! What if you weren't selling garbage?"

"That would certainly help." Evercrash quipped.

"We can help you, but you gotta promise to not ask questions." Jacquotte fluttered upwards. "We gotta get our Mom and Dad!"

Flying as fast as they could back to the port, the siblings interrupted their own grounding with their tale. It took some convincing, especially of the ship's treasurer, but eventually the Ancients were established as the middlemen for selling the Stolen South's ill-gained goods.

They didn't get any treasure, all they got was grounded and deck duty with Malo, but they did, at least, learn something that day.