Dawn laughed warmly as her cousin chased the three little skydancer watermelons around - his first brood. She had only been in Lanatus’s camp for about a week, but in that time she had seen that while he may have a lot of muscle, he was mostly just a lovable fool. As her laughter died down, she was startled by an obelisk she had never seen before diving straight through a bush and being chased by bees.
The electricity bound wildclaw caught the obelisk in his massive wings, chuckling. While Dawn didn’t get a good look at the bug-chased dragon, it had left behind what seemed to be a trail of sparkling stardust.
With their target hidden behind the wildclaw’s electric wings, the bees disbanded and only then was the neon dragon released. It shook itself out and looked around, getting it’s bearings a bit.
“Ah!! This must be the camp of the pastry dragons Yes?? We saw some of you at the last meeting that Sundrum called!”
The wildclaw laughed warmly. “Yes, that’s right. You’re a member of the Starchild Foundation, right? I think I’ve seen you before too.”
“Yes that is correct! We are sorry for the rude interruption… you know how bees are.”
While this conversation went down, Lanatus turned to his mate with a great big grin.
“You didn’t tell me that there are even more Watermelons here!!”
Of course he registered the newcomer as a watermelon. Bright green coat with lovely pink wings. And of course the literal stardust coming off them just makes them zesty. Just a zesty watermelon.
Leigh sighed a bit. “Once again, Lanatus. I am not a watermelon. They are not a watermelon either. Have you ever seen a watermelon leave behind a trail of stardust?”
“Well, no. Of course not. That’s what makes them special,” he said with a scoff, laying down with his kids.
Leigh rolled her eyes and lay down beside her family. Dawn, full of curiosity, walked over to Omega and the newbie. After all, she had never seen a dragon glitter and glow like that, especially not a watermelon-coded one.
“Hey, uh… sorry to interrupt but… I’ve not seen you hear before, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t intrigued by your coloring… who are you?”
“How very forward of you!! We like that.”
The Obelisk puffed up a bit, grinning a bit.
“We are Jericho! Keeper of the Cosmos and protector of the Stars. Even if Cordelia doesn’t let us do our job very well.”
“Cordelia…? I’m afraid I don’t know of her either. You see, I’m new here.”
“Ahh!! Well we can take you to meet her! The research facility isn’t too far from here.”
While there’s no way that Dawn would have any idea what research facility Jericho was talking about, she was curious enough to find out and they seemed excited enough to show. So she agreed to follow them for now, bidding a temporary farewell to her cousin and having to promise that she’d stay safe before he let her go off.

As Jericho had promised, the walk to the Starchild Research Foundation headquarters wasn’t too terribly far. The building was far larger than Dawn would have ever expected to see fully intact in the shadow realm. Not only was it large and intact, but it was almost completely alight with the stardust of various shades floating around it.
Humming a bit, Jericho went inside without hesitation. They had no reason for anxiety if this was truly their home after all. However, Dawn was a bit more apprehensive as she followed the Obelisk inside. After all, she didn’t know this portion of the clan at all, and while Jericho seemed chipper, this could very well be a trap.
She looked around the well lit hallways as they entered. The walls were barren, lacking any decoration or personality. As they drew deeper into the heart of the building, the activity level picked up. There were dragons that were obviously scientists, and other “dragons” who looked to be made of pure stardust. Unlike Jericho thought, their palettes stuck to a single color- blue, red, or yellow.
“Say, you aren’t quite like the other starry dragons here… what’s with that if you don’t mind my asking?”
Jericho looked at her with a wide grin before responding.
“Well, we AREN’T like the other stars here. Each of them are pure, formed from a single star. However, we are an ever growing collective of a multitude of stars! Hence our odd colors and our tendency to refer to ourselves as the multiple creatures we are. If a dying star isn’t strong enough to become a creature on it’s own, it is taken into our collective.”
Well, that certainly explained why the obelisk looking creature was so incredibly massive compared the the pastry and other melon obelisks that Dawn was used to.
Then suddenly they heard a yelp. Curiously, Jericho lifted the paw that they had been setting down. The tiniest fae that Dawn had ever seen was cowering underneath where Jericho had been going to step down.
"Yeesh!! Watch your giant paws please Jericho!! You 'bout near crushed me!!"
"Sorry Cancri... we didn't see you there. Say, why are you down there anyway? Don't you prefer to fly??"
"Well I do, but..."
The tiny "dragon" spread out his wing to show that the ends were fraying out, no longer staying together in the wing shape they should.
Jericho frowned a bit.
"That means your magic... What happened? Who did this to you?"
He picked up the itty bitty fae in his paw, a deep frown on his face. The fae closed his wings, curling up a bit.
"Who do you think it was, Jericho? Who always causes issues around here? It was Kepler. It's ALWAYS Kepler."
"Of course."
They scowled a bit, their paw curling around Cancri just a bit. Suddenly they turned to the watermelon at their side.
"Dawn. Dr. Leodia will have to wait. Do you know how to fight?"
"Yeah, my dad taught me. Why, what's up?"
"We're going after Kepler. If he's stealing magic from other stars, he's taken things too far. This is our job, Dawn. And even if we can't protect everyone, we can at least protect Cancri and the other stars here. Are you in or not?"
"...I'm in."

As soon as she said the word, the large starry dragon was off. This time, Dawn practically had to run to keep up with them. Jericho walked with a purpose and anger in his step. Even poor Cancri, buried in their mane, was practically clinging on for dear life. Jericho's footsteps resounded in the hallway around them, and Dawn could have sworn that they caused the hallway to shake.
They turned sharply, Dawn having to dodge getting hit by their tail. She yelped and scampered after them. Only then they turn to look at her, slowing to a pace that made her crash into them.
"We're sorry... we didn't realize how much larger than you we are."
They offered an awkward grin and started walking again, slower this time so that she could keep up. Their face had dissolved back to anger, though, as they had to be presentably angry when bursting in on Kepler. Cancri had his head slipped through one of the curls in Jericho's fur, a place where he could keep safe but still watch. Occasionally Dawn would glance at the fae, more curious than anything, until she couldn't resist asking any longer.
"So Cancri, their fur looks all gooy, does it feel like that too?"
Before Cancri had the chance to answer, Jericho looked down at the nocturne by their side.
"We're right here you know. If you want to know, you can just feel for yourself."
Without thinking twice, Dawn stuck her whole hand into their fur. She was in awe. It felt alive on its own, swirling around her hand, enveloping her in warmth and almost pulling her in with a gravitational pull of its own.
"Woah....."
"We're here," they said, snapping her out of her out of her trance.
Dawn took her hand back, looking up at the chamber they stood outside. From the dragon inside's reaction, it was clear that while they could see him, he couldn't see them - presumably mirrored on his side. Gold light crackled around inside the chamber. The glass had some old blood stains on it. A large imperial sat in the middle of the chamber, practically ablaze with light, his eyes aflame from the Flamecaller's blessing. While he looked like a totally normal dragon, Dawn could tell deep down that something about him wasn't right, and that this interaction was about to go horribly, terribly wrong.

Jericho pressed a paw against the glass prison and a door appeared - made of some kind of arcana. Dawn frowned a bit as it cracked open. The imperial inside spun to face them, a dark grin covering his face.
“Well, well, well. If it isn’t Jericho! It’s been a while since I’ve seen you..”
Jericho scowled a bit.
"Cut it out, Kepler. You know why we're here."
They stepped into the room to confront the Imperial, Dawn nervously following after them. Kepler got to his feet, and Jericho's hackles raised. Cancri slowly tucked himself into the giant's fur, just in time too. The Imperial circled around them for a moment, eyeing them before he dove at Jericho, claws out and ethereal hands grabbing at them. Jericho braced the impact, jamming the many sharp points of his horns and crown into the yellow giant's side. However, Kepler didn't seem to feel the pain at all.
While he was distracted though, Dawn took the opportunity to get the massive sword away from Kepler. She knew that if that was brought out, it would be trouble.
Before she knew what she was looking at, the two massive dragons were battling it out in the middle of the mirrored dome. Starlight sparkled around them, but not in a positive way such as staring in the night sky, but more like sun flares - hot and dangerous. It was terrifying, and Dawn did her best to stay out out of the fire fight.
Kepler was full of more power than she could ever imagine in a dragon, and that was more than apparent when Jericho was slammed into the glass, cracking it.
"Glad to see you'll be breaking me out of this little prison too!!" Kepler said with a cold laugh.
Jericho groaned a bit. They may be a beast, but even they've got a breaking point. Dawn frowned a bit. She knew that she'd have to step in sooner or later.
Jericho pushed themself to their feet with a groan, and Kepler let them, only so that he could knock them down again. He was just playing with them now.
With a running leap and a roar from deep down inside her, Dawn launched herself at Kepler, catching him off guard and giving Jericho the chance to get up and recollect themself. Now that they had Dawn's help, Jericho was able to more effectively bring the rouge star down and keep him that way.
"Cordelia will be informed of your thievery. You know all you've done is earned yourself a more elaborate prison."
"For now..." He said with a cold laugh. "I'll just find another way around your stupid systems. Boo hoo on you. Cordelia's got you wrapped around her claws like the little sucker you are."
"Maybe she does, but we made an agreement. As did you. At least we stick to it. We will get as close to as close to that line as we can, but at least we have morals."
Jericho stomped out of the case, Dawn slipping out after them.
"We owe you." They said softly. "He... He had taken more power than we anticipated. We wouldn't have been able to do that without you."
"Oh, it's no problem really.... Thank you for not letting him touch me. We'll call it even, alright?"
Jericho smiled warmly.
"Sure. Just this once."

Dawn paced back and forth in the research facility she now called home. She didn't feel the cold much anymore, especially when she was with Jericho. Big... warm... Jericho. But thinking about them wouldn't help this.
"Dawn? What's the matter, love?"
Jericho's words snapped her from her thoughts.
"It's this cold... I know in my heart that the farm's going to be in danger from it. I've been keeping up to date with the drama happening there and I'm almost certain that the Forsaken Fruit is in charge of this... This is the coldest winter there's been in years!! We could go to the farm and help there, but that's not really going to fix anything and... and -"
"Stop. We don't know who your talking about or why in the universe they'd be trying to wipe out the young melons with the cold, but, clearly, we need to take them down. Right? If we can keep Kepler locked up where he can cause harm, certainly we can't take down some bad fruit, right? Just have to hit them at the source. And between the two of us, we think there's enough magic and strength to do that. Where do we find them?"
"I... Jericho... this isn't your battle... besides, if you come with me, then who's going to keep care of things here?"
"Cordelia can! Sure. This ISN'T our battle, but you're our mate! You're always helping us keep things in line here. We can help, and whether or not your whole family is going to be there to help out as well, we wouldn't be able to forgive ourselves if we let you go off and something happened to you."
"I don't even know where to find them, Jericho... I know what needs to be done, but I don't know how to do it. I don't know if we CAN even do it."
"Relax, Dawn. Look, we head to the farm first, find out what they know. Then we can go from there. We've trained you to be sensitive to magic, perhaps you can use this to help track down the uh... the...." they faltered for a second, "the... uh... bad fruit."
She slowly nodded. She knew that they were right. Surely some of the other members of her family would have a better idea of what was going on. It was decided then and there and before the end of the day, the two were off, headed to the original family patch. While Jericho went off to ask around for any information that could possibly help, Dawn pressed her claws into the ground beneath her.
Living with the stars meant she was being constantly overwhelmed by magic, so out her she was able to better get sense of what was coming from what. Such cold, hard ground. Self doubt pressed into her as she pressed on her senses. Would the magic even be strong enough for her to pick up on? Tracking wasn't her strong suite on a good day, but she knew that if they could get any information at all, it would help them find the source. Find the Forsaken Fruit. Bring an end to this awful winter.