You look ridiculous wearing that hat, I hope you know that. Auron fancies himself as an explorer, travelling to far-off places and searching dangerous ruins in the hopes of finding treasure. However, as an Arcane dragon, he spends most of his time reading about the places he could be travelling to, and rarely gets around to that whole "exploring" bit. Even so, he is still reasonably well travelled, having been to the territory of nearly all the other flights. He's even been to most of the locations he claims to have explored, although he's never explored the tombs of Cairnstone Rest or fought off hordes of Serthis in a jungle as he claims. Auron instead prefers to just observe these locations, preferably from a safe distance, and with an escape route already carefully planned out. And yet, even though her never does much of anything on his trips, Auron still manages to learn the occasional thing about the places he visits. A particularly generous dragon might even be willing to call him a cultural historian! While many of the books on the shelves in his den were written by others, some are his own recordings of the stories of dragons from faraway places, neatly organized so that he can easily find material for making up another adventure. (The 'artefacts' displayed in his den, on the other claw, are merely souvenirs he bought from other clans.) Most of Auron's travels are to the earth flight, and not only because it's arcane's closest neighbour. Earth has a fancinating and well-documented history, which means Auron can do all sorts of adventuring that involves nothing more dangerous than talking to the workers at a dig site. Or it would, if he could ever stop talking up his supposed exploits. Of course the archaeologists want the assistance of such a famous explorer, so of course Auron always ends up down in the tunnels anyways. He's never actually found anything himself, but his well honed danger sense has probably saved the lives of many other tunnel delvers. Probably, because he invariably slinks of to safety without sticking around to find out. Auron's been reported missing and assumed dead at least a dozen times. That he keeps coming back from 'death' only seems to make his falsified exploits more believable. Auron keeps a massive supply of health potions in his den, which he guzzles upon taking the slightest injury. Belanoir refuses to brew him any more, but he's got other places to get them from. While at the clan, Auron often tries to assist Delyth with studying the results of her fieldwork, but she'd prefer it if the clueless imperial would stop trying, and preferably keep his giant body away from the fragile pottery shards as well. He's permitted to relate the history of objects on display in the museum to visitors, but only with supervision. When Simoeis arrived at the lair, it was Auron who was there to take her in, on account of him being closest to the entrance at the time. She quickly became one of Auron's closest friends, partially because of his interest in her robotic nature, and partially because she is the only one who actually believes the tales of his supposed exploits. His efforts lately have been on helping Simoeis find her charge, but her plans for an expedition to the Shifting Expanse have him worried. Not because it would be any trouble for the Great Explorer Auron, of course not. He just wants to make sure that Simoeis, er... doesn't get her circuits overloaded by all that dangerous electricity in the Shifting Expanse? Maybe an expedition to somewhere closer first would be at hand, like the Starwood Strand. Baby steps, you know? (He's doomed.)

friend close friend friend friend would like as a friend

[Congrats Auron, you get a story that's not even particularly about you.]

Auron had seen a lot of bad ideas in his time, but this one was by far the worst. That it wasn't his idea for once wasn't much of a consolation.

Still, there was no way he could say no to Simoeis. Not when she'd been making that pleading face of hers. As a Legendary Explorer™ he couldn't just dash the hopes of someone who saw him as their hero. (Especially when she's the only one who sees him that way.)

Auron craned his neck to look backward at the guardian, who was happily gliding behind him, confident that the imperial knew what he was doing. He didn't. Stalking their clan leader didn't sit right with Auron at all. Admittedly, Silas probably knew they were there, considering how big they were and that they had to stay within a few hundred metres to be able to see him. Well, for Auron to see him. The technology in Simoeis's robotic eyes had a zoom function. Auron had asked about that before — well, he'd asked if she had laser eyes, and she'd told him about her impressive vision capabilities instead. He'd left disappointed, but hadn't failed to notice she didn't deny the lasery goodness.

Auron looked back in the direction that he was flying, and took in the clear morning skies over the Starwood Strand. The rising sun lit up the leaves below in orange, really highlighting the total lack of fae in the air. Panicking, Auron twisted himself around in the air to face his companion.

"He landed just over there," Simoeis said, pointing a claw at a glowing clump of trees, "We should go say hi right away! I'm sure he'll be happy to know he's not going to have to travel alone."

"I'm sure he will," Auron replied, falling horizontally more than flying, "Everyone knows that when you sneak out in the middle of the night what you really want is others following you."

Simoeis said something in response, but Auron wasn't able to hear her over the sound of himself crashing through the tops of some birches.

---

Those trees had it coming, Auron thought as he pulled himself out of the world's largest game of pick-up-sticks. They should have known not to grow that tall.

Simoeis was busy moving the fallen trees off to the side, stacking them into a neat pile. In a few days, a centaur lumberjack would stumble upon the logs and give thanks to their heathen gods for providing such a miracle. But today there were no lumberjacks, just two dragons proving that dragons were superior to trees in every respect.

And a third dragon, who might have actually preferred the trees over these two.

---

Silas was well aware he'd been followed. Cursing his own ineptitude, he'd quickly realized that there wasn't much he could do but keep flying and hope his pursuers would give up. There was no way he'd hurt his own clan members trying to fight back, after all.

At least, he figured, they were going to try to talk him out of it first. A guardian and an imperial; Voltak and Sirene, if he had to guess. Both of them could outfly him with ease, and carry him in a single claw if they planned to drag him back to the fortress. Since they hadn't done that yet, they must hoping he'd return willingly. That seemed a bit out of character for Sirene, but even she followed Kokoro's orders.

Kokoro. As much as Silas appreciated everything he did, the guard captain was overbearing at times. Silas might be the size of one, but he wasn't a hatchling! He didn't need somebody protecting him at all times!

With renewed determination, Silas tried to fly for as long as he could, but his stamina was nowhere near that of the larger dragons. He was forced to land, picking the densest part of the nearby forest in a vain hope that the 'rescue' squad wouldn't be able to fit. For a moment he considered finding a hiding spot, but quickly dismissed that idea. That was childish, and he'd just finished telling himself he wasn't a child.

He'd never had the chance to be a child.

---

That was a few minutes ago. The sound of a crash had hit his ears like one of Jenna's constant complaints, and like one of those complaints, he reluctantly went to go deal with it. Flying right into the claws of his pursuers. Silas winced internally. Would he never learn?

Well, apparently he'd never learn how to recognize dragons from a long way away, because this sure wasn't Sirene and Voltak. Auron and Simoeis were about as far away from those two as you could get. Silas was at a loss for words, racking his brain for any reason that they'd be following him.

"Hi Silas!", yelled Simoeis, breaking the silence.

"Hello?", he responded reflexively.

"I heard you were going to the Shifting Expanse, and we're coming with you! Auron's going to help me find the engineers who built me."

Behind her, Auron made his best "this isn't my fault" face.

"That's great," Silas said, "But you two are on your own. I'm going by myself. You can leave, and in return I won't ask you how you learned where I'm going."

"I heard you telling that one imperial who likes wandering the hallways at night! Now that I've told you, that means we can come with you, right?"

Silas was flabbergasted. It was nice to know that imperial hadn't been a fevered hallucination, but why would only Simoeis have seen him? And how did she overhear him without him noticing? He tried to tell Simoeis that, no, that didn't mean she could come along, but he was still too shocked to form words.

---

Over by the stacked logs, Auron was chuckling to himself. It wasn't often somebody got one over the clan leader. It looked like Simoeis's ridiculous plan was going to work after all. That was—

Wait, no, that wasn't good at all. Auron didn't want to go on this adventure! It was dangerous, and they'd be travelling for months. That was months where they could be attacked by beastclans, monsters, or even other dragons! Maybe Simoeis thought she was some sort of invincible robot, but Auron was no warrior. Warriors were dragons like Primera, who was right over there, carrying a whole ton of supplies.

Auron blinked a couple of times, and then looked again. Nope, Primera was still there. For some reason. She looked quite tired, as if she'd been running for hours. She probably had, Auron figured. With the canopy between them, she could have been underneath his flight the whole time and he wouldn't have noticed.

And boy, did Primera look cross. A blessing in disguise, to be sure, as Primera was much better at being angry than Silas was. She could out-anger him in her sleep! So as long as she was mad at the fae, Silas couldn't be mad at him. The fundamental Law of Furious Mirrors promised him that. Normally he'd take the opportunity to make himself scarce, but there was a solitary valiant bone in his body. He couldn't just abandon Simoeis. After all, even an imperial's smallest bone is still pretty big.

---

"You complete idiot!", Primera yelled, "What do you think you're doing, running off in the middle of the night to get yourself killed?"

She didn't give Silas a chance to explain himself. That was a shame, Auron felt. He'd wanted to know what this was all about. He looked over to check on Simoeis, but she had already decided to straighten the logs and pretend that this had nothing to with her. Auron smirked. He'd taught her well.

"I know you don't think you're particularly important, but a lot of the clan depends on you. You can't just go flying off to who-knows-were on a whim!"

"Look," Silas tried to explain, "If you knew what was going on you'd understand why–"

"And you," Primera continued, shouting at a tree," You could have done something other than lurk off to the side like a needy floracat!"

A green shape suddenly moved in Auron's peripheral vision. Many dragons wouldn't have noticed it, but cowardice tends to make you good at spotting hidden dancer. The shape scowled at Primera, before leaping from the tree branch and gliding down to the ground.

Looking aloof and indifferent as usual, Gwenith casually twirled her blade in her claws. "I don't think what I did or didn't do matters to you," she said.

"When apparently you knew what was going on the whole time, I think it does. You could have talked Silas out of it, and then we wouldn't be off gallivanting through this forest like we've all caught shade madness!"

Was it his imagination, or did Silas flinch slightly at that comment? Auron adjusted his hat slightly, trying to act like he hadn't noticed.

"Maybe," Gwenith continued, "I like this forest, and the rest of you just happened to intrude on my piece of it."

Slowly, Primera slipped off the heavy supplies she'd been carrying. "Maybe," she hissed, dropping into a fighting stance, "Or maybe it's finally time I taught you a lesson on how to show proper respect for the clan guard."

Gwenith stared coolly at Primera, not letting her voice or frills give away the barest hint of emotion. With a deft flick of her wrist, she pointed the tip of her blade at Primera. "I'd like to see you try."

---

Seeing two of his friends about to come to blows, the part of Silas's brain that handled crisis management performed vile necromantic rituals on his voicebox, restoring his long unused ability to yell.

"Wait!", he yelled. A rather uncreative return to the land of being loud, all things considered. Yet, it was enough to catch everyone else's attention. Five pairs of eyes trained themselves on his small figure.

Silas wasn't able to meet the gaze of even one of those eyes, but he did manage to speak. "Just... just stop, okay? If you really want to know what's going on with me, I'll tell you. But not here. I need time to think about it myself."

The silence while he paused to catch his breath could have suffocated them all.

"There's a clan not far to the east of here. Meet me there, and I'll try to make you understand why I have to do this." With that, Silas took to the air and left. Gwenith shook her head at the other three and immediately followed him.

Auron stood there for a moment, hoping that one of the other two would make the first move. Primera did.

"Well, what are you waiting for?", she asked him, "Those bags aren't going to carry themselves."

Then she dashed off to follow the two fae. Simoeis excitedly ran after her, humming a happy song about adventure to herself.

Auron sighed as he picked up the bags of supplies and tried to find a non-existent way to comfortably wear something fitted for a mirror. Somehow, this was even worse than he'd imagined it.