"Do you think we're ready for this?" Webb asked. The imperial had not taken his eyes off of the two eggs nestled between him and his mate. They seemed so tiny, compared to his bulk. He feared that if he got too close, he would break them. For all of his bravery and courage in combat, he felt completely out of his depth at the thought of hatchlings.
"You're forgetting that I've done this before. Twice. On my own," Seaberry pointed out, shaking her head with a smile. Gosh, he loved that smile. Just being so close to her, he felt so warm. "Seriously, with the two of us, it's going to be a piece of cake."
"But with the kingdom being as unstable as it is..." Webb trailed off, feeling his mouth grow dry. "Jett is gaining power. He could attack any day. I'm technically the head of the army. The head of an army that we don't have. I'm part of the frontlines. Is now really a good time to be bringing hatchlings in the world?"
"First of all, it's kind of too late to back out of this," Seaberry chuckled. "Secondly, there's no such thing as a perfect time for hatchlings. Seriously. Karma's egg arrived during the midst of a rebellion. She was my first child. I had no idea what I was doing then, and somehow I made it work. She's fine. She's living with her best friend, she's built a life for herself. She may not be happy all of the time, but life's not easy. I know she doesn't take anything lying down. And honestly? I think it's far more important raising dragons who are prepared to fight the adversity in life than those who chase fleeting happiness and stability."
"I just won't want to mess this up," Webb sighed. Why did he feel so nervous.
"Oh, you will," Seaberry pointed out. "But when you do, we'll work through it together. That's the whole point of this dang thing."
Webb smiled. He knew Seaberry had not had an easy life, but it had given her a wisdom he could only hope to achieve himself someday. If there was anyone he wanted to raise a nest with, it was her.
Clarissa sat at a table in the nearly-empty tavern. Amity was the only other dragon there, distracting herself by stacking empty glasses in a precarious position. Clarissa had come because she was supposed to have another training session with Webb today, but he had cancelled their lesson due to personal circumstance. Now Clarissa didn't know what to do with herself. Webb had never called off a lesson in all the time he had been training her, since she was young, to be a proper warrior.
Seeing as Seaberry wasn't present either- a rare occurrence for the devoted spiral, she had a feeling she knew what was going on. Despite herself, she felt a little sick to her stomach. She was, of course, happy for the couple, and for the children who would grow up with such loving parents, but it only served as a reminder of how broken her own family was. Her father hadn't been the same since his brother's death, and neither had her mother, for very different reasons. She felt as though she were adrift, unsupported, and looking for her place in the clan. Where was it that she truly belonged? She had so many choices before her.
"Hey," Clarissa looked up to see her Aunt Karma take a seat in the chair across from her.
"Hey," Clarissa said, not meeting the spiral's gaze. "Are you here to see Grandma and the new nest?"
"I mean, that's part of the reason I came, but I also wanted to check in with you. I'm sorry I haven't been around all that much this past year. Things have been hard for us since..."
"Since Uncle Bone died. Yeah, I know," Clarissa said. "It's been hard on everyone."
"How are your parents doing?" Karma asked.
Clarissa shrugged. "I mean, Mom's still hiding out with Uncle Lucien, doing who knows what. I visit from time to time, but just like always, they seem to be wrapped up in some secret plan that they won't tell me about. Dad still doesn't really seem himself. I mean, he lost his clutchmate. That's pretty big." Clarissa wondered if all this would be different if she had a clutchmate to share all this with. But it was just her, alone in this sea of possibilities. She knew that she had clutchmates somewhere our there in Sornieth, ones the city had taken away, but she knew it was unlikely that she would ever see them again.
Karma nodded. "And how are you doing?"
"I honestly don't know," Clarissa snorted, shaking her head. "I have so many questions, but I don't think anyone can answer them. I think this is the sort of thing I have to figure out on my own."
"Well, if you need anyone to talk to, my door is always open," Karma said. "Seriously, you and I are family. And family needs to stick together as best we can. Life is going to throw curveballs, believe me, I know this from experience. Family can be messy, but we've got to look out for one another."
"Right," Clarissa nodded.
"Well, I should probably check in with Mom. But don't hesitate to reach out if you need anything, okay?" Karma said, getting up and patting the mirror on the shoulder. Clarissa watched as her aunt slipped away in the back, startling Amity and causing her to drop the glass she was holding. Clarissa heard it shatter on the floor.
Her conversation with Karma should have helped, but it didn't. 'Family should stick together,' she had said. Well, that was a lot easier when you only had one branch of family to keep together. What did one do when their family was split on opposing sides? Who did one choose? How did one choose? Was she a princess, or would that be a betrayal to her mother? And yet, if she took her mother's path and explored the Black Market, would that mean turning her back on her father's family, who had so lovingly helped to raise her?
Which one should she embrace? Somehow, there didn't seem to be any easy answers.
The tunnels were dark. Only the light of Elladan and Gillian's lanterns lit their path. The stone wound deep, like the throat of a large dragon. Following the map was harder than Elladan thought, even with all of his tunneling experience. Marasi had obviously done significant damage to the tunnels in this area in her attempts to save Dusk and Darkstar. Of course, if she hadn't saved the pair, the Black Market wouldn't have Edna and Elladan wouldn't have had one of his closest friends. So it was worth it, even if it made it overwhelmingly frustrated for the ridgeback now, especially when he was trying, for whatever reason, to keep alive a wildclaw with no tunneling instincts whatsoever.
"Now, we should be getting close to Crius' Vault," Elladan pointed out. "We just need to figure out where the dang thing actually is so that we can dig."
Gillian wasn't listening. He had stopped several paces back, and was staring at some torn piece of parchment on the ground. Rolling his eyes, Elladan backtracked to join him.
"What is it?" He snapped. "We don't have time to stop for every piece of anything some poor dragon lost here before us. The ridgeback tunnels are where a lot of lost things end up, with our borrowing and all. If we stop and look at everything, we'll never find what remains of your grandfather's vault."
Gillian didn't seem to be listening. He stood, entranced by what he saw. The wildclaw moved a rock to pick up the parchment. A fragment of a song seemed to be written on it.
"Do you hear that?" Gillian asked.
"Hear what?" Elladan snapped back. Was the wildclaw going crazy? He didn't hear anything. Was he stuck down in the tunnels with someone who had absolutely lost it?
"The music," Gillian said, looking around, eyes wide. "We have to find the source of the music!"
"Like hell we do," Elladan grumbled. But it was too late. The wildclaw had already disappeared in the opposite direction, taking his grandfather's map with him.
The ridgeback had no choice but to follow, putting the task Jett had given him on the backburner. Whatever this was, it better be worth the trouble he was about to get into with his king.
Can I just say, these hints came along at the perfect time. I have plans for NOTN, but I was struggling to figure out what needed to be done to build up to it aside from training dragons and making them choose their sides. I don't know what these are leading up to, but we'll discover it together, like we did at the start of the Stories of Windkeep Tower with Bounty of the Elements.
If it is another ancient breed, as everyone is speculating, it will fit well because I have an unwritten rule that whenever a new breed is released, I am allowed to introduce one into my Pinkerlocke without a familiar pull.
Also, I have a poll for you all. You see, up until now, all my nests have happened for plot-relevant reasons, but now I have no planned plot nests for the time being and a lot of RTB pairs after so long since my last non-alphabet legacy pull. I put on Seaberry and Webb for the first apparel pull because I've been wanting to breed them since I put Jett and Scoril on their nest, plus they have GORGEOUS offspring. But I am at a complete loss of who I want to breed for the second pull, and I have too many options. So, it's up to you all. Whoever gets the most votes by the time I wake up and get on FR tomorrow morning (Sunday December 8th) will be the pair going on a nest. So, vote away.
