Foxglove:
Pattern Ref -
Official Character Design-

Accessories - Blue sapphire gemstone earring and a black leather travel pouch with silver embellishments.

Blaze:
Pattern Ref -



Official Character Design -

Accessories - Leather gloves that allow his claws to stick out and goggles. Sometimes he wears a leather apron because he's helping the blacksmith.

Clementine and Mischief:
Clementine Pattern Ref -
Mischief Pattern Ref -
Official Character Design:

Accessories - (Clementine) Goggles, belt with several paint brushes, and dried paint on her arms (she washes it off sometimes). (Mischief) None.

Azuki and Taeko:
Azuki Pattern (and paint) Ref -



Taeko Pattern Ref -


Official Character Design -
Accessories - (Azuki) A quiver strapped to her back full of arrows, a bow, and paint patterns. (Taeko) Paint markings on it's forehead (this is used to tell the difference between wild and tamed drakes/scarroks).

Lín Shǒu:
Lín Shǒu Pattern Ref (instead of the giant golden splotch on his cheeks just make them small golden freckles instead) -

Official Character Design (without pattern) -
Accessories - None, he's a Forest Spirit Guardian, any earthly possessions are ban.

If you haven't already noticed, the majority of the chapters have character names beside them (mostly Foxglove and Blaze, but Lin, Clem, and Azuki will get their own chapters too). This is meant to show that that chapter takes place in the perspective of a specific character in third person.

Sometimes there will be two names next to the chapter, this is meant to signify that it is a chapter circled around those two characters (this will be especially common with Lin and Clem since their character arcs are closely knit together, but this may vary).

There are a few chapters without a name next to them too, this is meant to signify that it is either no or all perspectives in third person.

Not rlly a chapter key thing, but Imma mention it anyways, during flashbacks for particular characters, they will be in first person, and they will be italicized for the entirety of the flashback, while thoughts in said flashback won't be italicized.


For those who don't know, the dragon species actually have another name that they're also refereed to, so this is a list of what each species's names are w/ a side of extra fauna.

Disclaimer: Some of these are characters that haven't been released yet in game; also I will switch between terms very often.

Western/European Dragon (I won't use European bc I don't think Europe exists in game) = Vodros

Eastern/Asian Dragon (won't use Asian bc once again, I don't think Asia exists in game) = Yamati

Wyvern = Fyrrwin

Lindworm = Yggaron

Behemoth = Gaulung

Amphithere/Quetzalcoatl = Tecatl

Ka'sai = Them lizor/dragon ppl (idk)

Crab = Capril

Gardeos = Golem

Griffin = Reeka

Hokura = Dragonturtle

Fae Dragon = Prystaria

Drake = Scarrok

Kirin (fluffy, antlered hose thingies?!?!) = Kylan

Prologue

Chapter 1: Foxglove

Chapter 2: Blaze

Chapter 3: Foxglove

Chapter 4: Blaze

Chapter 5: Foxglove

Chapter 6: Blaze

Chapter 7: Blaze and Foxglove

Chapter 8: Foxglove

Chapter 9: Blaze

Chapter 10: Foxglove

Chapter 11: Clementine

Chapter 12: Blaze

"Long ago, there three nations. The Fire Kingdom, the Ice Nation, and the Ka'sai Tribes. The Fire Kingdom were mostly made of Vordos dragons. The Ice Nation is made of Fyrrwins, your species." The elder Ka'sai added. His scales were dull from age, multiple shades of blue, cyan, green, and yellow all beginning to look grayish, he had horns that slightly curved downward, that were greyish cyan at the base, greyish green in the middle, and had yellow tips. He had a small goatee on his chin made of a grey fur. He wore a dark midnight blue cloak with silver tracing the edges and a porpulite amulet attached, had a waterskin strapped to his leg, and glasses "The Ka'sai---"

"Like you!"

He sighed, pushing his glasses up his nose. "Yes, Foxglove, like me. Anyways, the Ka'sai are scattered across all four islands, in large tribes, often found in villages they---"

The young dragonet raised her wingstud. "What about Yamati, Yggaron, Tecatl, and Gaulung? Don't they have their own nations too?" She had large ears, a pair of straight horns, spikes ran down her spine from under those horns, at the tip of her tail she had a sharp, cyan tail barb that seemed to pulse and radiate with a soft glow. Her lower jaw had a few almost crystalline spikes that stuck out. Her pattern consisted of cyan, which mostly dominated her face and neck, but she also had a cyan spot in the shape of a crescent moon on her wings. Electric indigo, which was also a stripe down her body, her talons and her wings faded to electric indigo too. Shamrock green, which took most of her spots under her wings along with a few stripes on her wings, midnight blue, which was all over her back, cobalt blue patterns on her wings and neck, and a pastel green underbelly.

"No, they are either solitary, too nomadic to create a settlement, little to know information is known about them, or they are too aggressive to confirm it. Now, no more interruptions please." He warned.

"Okay." Foxglove smiled.

He gave her a pointed look.

"Sorry." She mumbled while looking down.

"Where was I? Ah yes, the villages the Ka'sai built. Most of the nations had a fragile peace treaty to not cause a war, after the first one had caused massive damage, so the Fyrrwins and the Vordos agreed to have a marriage of the state. Only a few days before the marriage as meant to occur, the Ice Fyrrwin Princess, Crystal, went missing. The queen of the Ice Nation, Queen Frysta, accused the Vordos of stealing her eldest heir. Meanwhile, the Firelord, King Azar, accused the Fyrrwins of backing out of the alliance. Ultimately, this triggered the Fracti Fiducia War. In more recent years, they have also begun to integrate into Fyrrwin and Vordos society, so depending on which nation or tribe they were born in, would be the deciding factor on who they would fight along side, unless they were from a tribe, then they would typically stay neutral. About 10 years ago, around the same time I found you, a Tecatl known as Astra the Seer of the Stars told all dragons a prophecy.
'Five dragons are destined to end this war,
Five dragons are destined to end the bloodshed,
Five dragons are destined to mend these bonds,
Five dragons are destined to unite,
For if all fail to unite, all shall perish.'
Not every dragon trusts in such a cryptic prophecy, but yet again, past Tecatl have brought prophecies that have come to pass, so there are a few that are waiting ever so patiently until they day these five dragons arrive. The end."

"Aw, but that isn't a satisfying end." Foxglove whined.

"That's all there is to this story." The Ka'sai replied, closing the book titled, History of the Fracti Fiducia War. "Perhaps one day you'll get to see the end of this war."

"What about you?"

He shrugged. "I may or may not survive. Now, go to bed, Foxglove. We have a long day ahead of us."

"Are we moving again?"

"Yes, now sleep." He tucked her in with a moss blanket.

"Why do we move so often?"

He averted his gaze, almost contemplating on revealing the answer to her. "You'll find out when you're older, now, please get some rest."

"Fine," she groaned, curling up before dozing off.

17 Years Later, Daziban

Foxglove sat in the cave, tapping her wingspurs out of pure boredom. She flicked crystal looking tail in annoyance as she waited for her father figure to return.

She always hated waiting in whatever cave they temporarily stayed at for hours on end.

She'd be fine if there were more scrolls... or just more to do in general, but she had read each of those scrolls to a point where she could quote the entire scroll.

She groaned as she rolled on her back, placing her wingspured wings on her chest, staring up at the stone ceiling.

The worst part? They were in a very cool part of the island. It was like Akito was torturing her on purpose!

There were three rules:

1. Don't light a fire and start cooking.

She wasn't sure how she'd manage that since she couldn't breath fire, and even if she tried lighting it with flint and steel, her wingspurs would fail her since she didn't have the nimble fingers her father figure had.

2. No drawing anywhere.

Why though? Drawing is fun. It used to be: "No drawing on the walls," but when she was younger, she thought she was outsmarting him by drawing on the floor... that's why the rule changed.

3. Never leave the cave they were in, under any circumstances... unless they were moving.

That one. That one really ticked her off. Why can't she take a singular peek outside, eh? Like seriously, she's literally a young adult.

Then a dangerously stupid idea popped into her head, causing her to instantly leap onto her feet.

It'll only be a few minutes, there's nothing wrong with that, right? What could possibly go wrong? She thought as she crept out.

She was instantly blinded by bright light.

"Ah!" She yowled, using one of her wings to shelter her from the sunlight. She blinked vigorously until her eyes adjusted. There were bright dots still in her vision. "Floaters... great."

'You mean photopsias, which are caused by the bleaching of pigments in the retina which causes the retina's neurons to adapt; which still linger even after the light disappears, which creates an after image?' Her father's voice echoed in her mind.

She groaned, facepalming. Thanks, mind dad... wait, "mind dad"? She shook her head. Focus Foxglove!

As her eyes slowly adjusted to her surroundings she inhaled the salty breeze of the ocean, the soft sound of waves lapping against the shore.

Unfortunately, she lost her footing in the soft sand underneath her talons and ended up rolling down slightly steep hill that was in front of the narrow entrance of the cave. She rolled until she hit what looked like a log in the water. "Oww," she groaned, shaking the sand out that had managed to get in between her scales.

Then she realized her talons were wet.

"Eww," she hissed as she shook off the water; then she looked around.

Giant, glowing, aquatic mushrooms pierced the waters surface. Many strange bushes with round, teal leaves that seemed to have grooves in the were scattered across the shore. Glowing cyan, green, and magenta moss dotted along the stems of the large semi-aquatic mushrooms. Some phosphorescent vines hung from below the mushrooms.

She felt the sand underneath her talons, small, turquoise waves brushing against them every now and then. She inhaled the fresh... salty, ocean breeze as she felt the sunlight hit her darker scales, warming her up, then exhaled.

She decided to try to take a sip of the water.

Bad idea.

She instantly spat it up. "Eww." Why is it salty? She thought as she attempted to remove the taste of fish poo and natural salt. It was nothing like the waterskins she drank from.

Many scents filled her nostrils. Some were slightly decipherable (from the limited time she spent out side *cough* *cough* moving caves) whilst others were completely new to her.

A large boulder caught her attention.

She looked down at her wings, spreading them. Flying practice, she thought, nodding to herself. She began flapping them. Once she felt comfortable enough, she lifted off.

She landed on the boulder and looked around, spotting a shelf on one of the large, semi-aquatic mushrooms.

Once again, she lifted off.

She landed, looking around.

There were these stalagmite that had mushrooms growing on them.

Perhaps they are younger mushrooms, she hypothesized in her mind.

She noticed this strange structure in the distance. She decided to glide down to a lower, more open mushroom. She decided to fly towards it, weaving in between the structures.

She landed on the small, rock island with a large mushroom on it.

Another structure caught her eye.

After landing on another shelf she saw it.

A large, crystal-like tree.

"Whoa," she gasped, staring up at the glittering crystalline leaves. I need to check that out, she thought, once again, lifting off.

She entered the base of the tree. It was almost like a crystalline mangrove from the way the roots held the tree above water. Except, there was an island underneath it.

Blue firefly-looking things floated around in the cavity.

The entire inside had a whimsical atmosphere.

One of the firefly thingies flew in front of her nose and blinked at her.

She chuckled as it landed on her nose.

After a few minutes, she decided to find her way back home.

As she approached the island she landed in earlier she flew close to the water, she tilted her body, allowing her wing to brush it's surface.

She chuckled before she spun skyward.

She stopped spinning allowing water to sprinkle all over, creating a dazzling glitter effect that surrounded her. "Wahoo!!" She cheered as she laughed.

Then she noticed five, heavily armored, large dragons flying nearby. They turned in her direction, their ears perking upward.

Vordos, she thought before she dove down into a crevice behind a stalagmite, pressing her body against the wall of the island.

The soft sound of wing beats halting and talons hitting the ground seemed deafening to her.

Her ears pinned against her skull as she held her breath.

She saw what seemed to be their leader gesturing to search.

One of the dragons peaked into the crevice she was in.

Her head was pressed against the wall at this point, her entire body tense.

He looked around for a moment, his green eyes scanning for any signs of life.

Her heart pounded against her chest. She thought it was about to burst out of her rib cage.

Suddenly a Capril scuttled out of the same crevice.

It was a smaller one, but it caught the dragons attention.

He picked it up before biting down on it, releasing a crunching sound. "Nothing here!" He called back before walking away.

She released a sigh of relief, her body relaxing a bit.

She heard wing beats again, this time growing fainter.

She exited the crevice before lifting off, beating her wings as fast as she could.

There was a pained roar nearby, one that came from the direction of her cave.

Her heart stopped, dread pooling inside of her.

Clang! Clang!

The familiar sound of a blacksmiths hammer slamming into a blade.

Hisssssss

Steam poured out of the cooling bucket.

"Hey Blaze, can you heat up to forge again?" Ruul asked, as he quenched the sword.

"Sure!" Blaze replied, carefully breathing fire into the forge. The Vordos's scales glowed shades of yellow, orange, and red as he breathed fire.

"That should be good enough." Ruul said as he placed the blade onto the smoldering coals.

The blade began to glow, so he took it out.

The grey Ka'sai repeated this process three more times until the center of the blade had a glowing, purple line. He had a leaf skirt.

Suddenly, Clementine, Mischief, and Azuki burst into the smithy.

"Blaze, can you hang out today?!" Clementine asked, panting.

She had a dark purple back with cyan tear-drop shaped spots that faded into a coral color before fading into a orange and then a yellow. She also had light almost white fur, and a tuft of fur at the tip of her tail that was dark purple and had orangish veins that faded into coral between each vein. She also had bright cyan eyes and underbelly. Her nose was also dark purple, and she had a couple of dark purple freckles on her face. She had a cyan spot on her nose that encircled a few coral scales. Her horns were dark purple at the base, fading into coral, orange, and yellow. The spikes on also had dark purple bases but seemed to skip coral and go straight to orange and yellow. Her feet would've been orange... if there wasn't dried paint covering them. She had a pair of goggles on her head and a belt with several paintbrush sleeves.

Azuki's drake followed, sitting down next to the young Ka'sai.

"He's in the middle of work." Ruul replied.

"Co'mon, pleeeeeassseeeeee dad?!?!?!" Azuki pleaded with the adult Ka'sai.

Azuki had salmon, purple scales, a tan underbelly, and a few scattered orange scales. She had a leaf skirt, a leaf top, black bandages around her feet, a waterskin strapped to her thigh, and a pink, purple, and green chest and face paint that looked like wings, and she had burnt orange eyes. She was also slightly smaller than the Ka'sai her age, considering she was a female, and female Ka'sai tended to be larger than males.

Her drake, Taeko, was a heavily armored creature by nature. It's armored scales started yellow and then faded to a salmon color, sometimes they were tipped with a brighter shade of red. It had lime green, yellow, and dark cyan scales. The armor plate on it's head was similar to the back ones, but instead, the red marking was in the middle and it faded from pale salmon to yellow. It also had a dark red paint mark at the center of it's forehead in the shape of a diamond. It's eyes were a pale salmon that faded to blue.

Ruul sighed, "Fine, but don't get into any trouble. We already lost Arok earlier this year, I don't need to loose anyone else too."

"We'll be fine dad, we're just gonna go exploring," Azuki replied, rolling her eyes.

"Don't go too far and get lost, got it?" Ruul warned.

"Okay!" All three of them said in unison before bolting off, not giving the current blacksmith enough time to respond.

As soon as they exited the village gates Clementine asked, "So, where are we going anyways?"

"Kwadena Forest," Azuki replied as she strode along the path. "Kwadena Canyon, to be exact."

"What?!" Blaze whipped his head around.

"Whaaat? We've never been to the canyon before, and it sounds fun." Azuki replied.

"That is literally the one place Ruul has said on multiple occasions not to go! That place is crawling with Yggaron that won't hesitate to eat you if there are no mushrooms around, if you die, Ruul will fire me, or oh, I don't know, KILL ME!" Blaze lectured.

"He didn't say it this time," Azuki gave him a dirt eating grin. "Besides, there are plenty of ores to collect there, and worst case scenario, both of you can fly us out of there. Also, aren't you the one who likes having fun?"

"Not when my job is on the line," he mumbled before turning to Clementine, who was distracting herself with Mischief. He stared at the young shedragon, attempting to meet her gaze.

Clementine kept looking away, but he could tell she knew that he wanted backup.

"Clementine..."

A nonexistent bead of sweat was dripping down the Yamati's face.

He gently batted her with his wing, forcing her to face him.

After a few seconds she shrugged, "She has a point though."

Two against one, he thought. "Dammit," he cursed under his breath. He turned to the Ka'sai, "Fine, but if we die, I will haunt you for the rest of time."

"But won't you be dead too?" Clementine asked.

"Don't question it," he warned.

"Haha!" Azuki pumped her fist in victory before running off, Taeko followed close behind.

"Wait up!" Clementine bounded after Azuki, who was followed by Mischief.

Blaze reluctantly followed.

Along the way, they stopped to collect supplies not only for the smithy, but also the hatchery, until they finally reached the canyon.

"You excited?" Azuki asked, curiosity gleaming in her eyes.

Blaze glared at her. "To possibly never go home again?" He retorted.

"Or be the youngest Vordos to ever leave the canyon? Or are you too chicken?"

He snorted, "You're chicken," he gently pushed her aside with his wing, pride getting the best of him as he confidently strode into the canyon.

She smirked, following after him.

Clementine followed, keeping a wary eye on their surroundings.

There were soft slithers and hisses that made Blaze's spines slightly raise, his ears pinning to his head.

"You scared?" Azuki teased.

"I only fear my mother when she's pissed off because I got fired from my job and came home without any experience, and I'll never hear the end of it from my brother," he hissed.

"Suuuurrrreeee," Azuki nodded slowly. Though she'd never admit it vocally, he could tell the young Ka'sai was nervous too by the way her eyes darted from crevice to crevice and how her tail was slightly tucked. "Oh look, Azulite!" she pointed at the ores with glowing blue crystals growing out of them.

"Should we harvest it for the alchemist?" Blaze asked.

Both she dragons turned to him, wide eyed.

"What?"

"Well..." Clementine started.

"He left our village eight years ago, and never returned. We're not allowed to speak his name, and his departure has been left unknown to our generation," Azuki explained.

"Even if you ask the dragons who were there, they refuse to tell you anything about him, but from the several shades of green I see on them along with the rest of their body language, they seem... afraid. " Clementine added.

"And it infuriates me! Why can't I get to know that part of our village's history, but they can? I just don't understand, ugh!" Azuki kicked a rock out of frustration.

"Greetingsssssss travelersssss," a voice behind them said.

The voice sent shivers down his spine as his spikes rose even more, ears pinning to his skull.

Foxglove landed on the nearest mushroom and hid herself as well as she possibly could. After situating herself, she cautiously peeked over.

Her father had a nasty gash on his leg, blood poured from it as he held onto his "cane", he was snarling.

The four armored dragons circled him, snarling as they did so.

The one that nearly found her lunged at him, claws ready to rake down any victims spine.

Suddenly, the blue crystals on Akito's "cane" lit up, changing into a purple color.

At the same time, the dragon prepared to attack him was levitating, surrounded by this purple energy.

Or perhaps the cane... staff is causing him to levitate, she speculated. Wait, since when was father a sorcerer?... Or wizard depending on how he acquired those abilities.

Said dragon was slammed into the wall.

The second tackled him to the ground successfully, forcing the Ka'sai to drop his staff.

The leader picked it up and snapped it in half. "No more tricks, Akito. You're coming with us."

The sorcerer struggled, or perhaps writhed in pain... maybe both. She couldn't tell from a distance, but she needed to do something.

If I jump in, they might capture or kill me... or even kill father, so that definitely won't work. Perhaps... She got distracted.

The second cuffed him and then gripped his shoulders with her talons before lifting off.

The leader followed before taking the lead. He looked over his shoulder an roared.

The third groaned as he pried himself off of the wall and took off, shaking off any pebbles. "I'm going to have to pick these out of my scales, you know."

The other two ignored him, flying inland.

She raised a brow, Why would they deeper into Daziban instead of Southwest to Eztalin? They're clearly from the Ignis Army... Perhaps they're stationed around here. She shook her head and dove into the cave, FOCUS! I'll need supplies... lets see... maps, a waterskin, meat, scrolls on survival, healing potion... maybe I should pack food and water potions just in case I don't have access to food and water, she thought, sifting through objects. She picked a travel pouch off the wall (she'd never seen Akito use it, so she wondered who it was for) and slid her head through.

The pouch was a dark midnight blue, almost impossible to distinguish from black without the properly trained eye, silver traced along the flap of the pouch straps, embellished with a silver shank button in the center of the flap, and there were holes in the sides meant to tie waterskins and other pouches and/or potions to the strap of the pouch. There was also a scroll pouch underneath it with the same style. Either she was larger than she thought, or it was enchanted due to the fact that it felt perfect for her size, perhaps it was made for a dragon her size.

After fitting the pouch around her neck, she stripped the walls of their maps and grabbed important scrolls before storing them in the neck pouch. Then she grabbed three viles, one blue, on green, and one red, tying them together and then tying them into one of the few holes in the pouch. Finally, she grabbed a pouch with cooked meat and a waterskin and tied them onto the opposite side of the pouch.

She ran out of the cave and sniffed the tracks around the cave. She nodded after locking onto her fathers before lifting off.

Lucky, she was downwind because the scents flooded to her nostrils, and also long as she kept her distance, the Ignis soldiers wouldn't catch her scent either, though she had to fight the wind in order to actually follow them, but the wind wasn't too harsh, so that wasn't much of a problem. Besides, she had bigger problems to deal with right now.

She flew as fast as her wings could carry her.

A light breeze pushed against her face and body, she felt heavier than before, and more exhausted since she actively beating her wings as fast as she could. She naturally tucked her legs and pinned her ears against her head as a means to be more aerodynamic. This altitude, and the entire domain of the sky felt foreign to her, even though she was a Fyrrwin. Her species ruled the skies, and yet she felt... humbled by the sheer size of the heavens. An endless expanse of blue, splattered with white, fluffy clouds that probably tasted like water and would soak her to the bone.

She finally say the three specks grow in size, and they seemed to be diving.

This must be where they're stationed, she assumed as she slowly began her descent.

After landing, she hid behind a bush, quietly creeping closer to the entrance of the camp.

There were two Ka'sai guards holding spears and wearing armor. If she had to guess, the armor was made of leather.

They closed the gate, most likely after allowing the Vordos entry.

The thing was that the Ka'sai didn't have a particular horn shape, nor did they have a fire-like palette on their scales.

Had the Ka'sai choose their allies? Or were the soldiers just passing through? It was hard to tell.

The gate was beginning to close, so she took her chances and darted in, hardly giving the guards a chance to react before she dove into the nearest bushes.

She had not thought this through, which she hated to admit, but she hardly had any time to properly think.

Her green gaze darted from place to place, only stopping to find a hiding spot, or some other unique thing... like for example wanted and missing posters.

Wanted Dead, she read. It didn't even mention alive, whatever this dragon did must've been serious. Then it showed a picture of a Fyrrwin with dark purple scales on her back, horns that faded from dark purple to ice blue to cyan. Foxglove looked at the lips of the dragon, which weren't toothy, they were straight, therefore confirming that this was in fact a female. The dragoness had yellow eyes that had green veins in them with two scratch marks over it, she had a dark purple nose horn, can most of her face consisted of a bright aurora green, with a little bit of darker cyan blue. From what she could see, the underbelly scales on her neck were white. She looked to be in her mid to late 20s, and for some reason, felt eerily familiar, but Foxglove couldn't pinpoint where she recognized this dragoness from. Former Princess Aurora of the Fywrrins
Reward: 100,000 Aurin Coins. She whistled softly under her breath, She must've done something really bad then because usually princesses are pardoned of their crimes.


Next to it was another wanted poster that read: Wanted Dead or Alive Then a picture of a Ka'sai underneath it. He looked an awful like Akito, but a younger version of him. The male Ka'sai's scales were brighter, and his eyes seemed to spark with curiosity. He had a black cloak and a black scroll pouch; both objects were a dark midnight blue and had golden embellishments, similar to the ones her scroll pouch had.

Her heart sank as she read the name.

Former Alchemist/Wizard Akito
Reward: 50,000 Aurin Coins.

All three yelped, forcing themselves into each other. He could feel all of their heartbeats pounding against their chests.

Taeko stood infront of them, snarling while Mischief hid behind Clementine.

"Relaxsss, I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to know thissss: Have you sssseen any really, REALLY large musssshroomssss by chance?" The Yggaron asked, his blue eyes scanning the area. He had a black back and dark grey patterns, underneath the dark grey scales there were brown scales and then green scales that faded to a light grey. He had frills on his face that were black, dark green surrounded green spots and blue stripes, and a sail from his head to the bottom of his neck that was black, green encased blue spots. His wings black and also had green and blue spots, and the wings faded from black to white. Finally, he had a tail fin that was attached to black spikes and the majority of it was green, but black encased the blue spots this time.

Clementine was the first to calm down and ask him a question. "Not that I can recall. What's so special about it?"

He felt her separate from the cluster. He soon after followed, whilst Azuki shook it off.

"What'sss sssso sssspecial about it? It'sss the most deliciousss mussshroom I've ever tasssted! Unfortunately, it wasss too deliciousss, so I ate it in one go, and I couldn't give it to my children. And now I crave itssss ever ssso wonderful tassste, but I haven't been able to find one since," He explained before introducing himself. "Oh, where are my mannersss, I am Xariasz."

"Must be pretty rare then," Blaze mumbled under his breath.

"Well, Xariasz... is that right?" Clementine paused.

Xariasz nodded.

"Okay, okay, good. We will keep our eyes peeled for it, but do you know where the ore deposits are around here?" Clementine asked.

"Ooh yesss, follow me," the Yggaron gestured before slithering towards another tunnel.

Blaze leaned into Clementine's ear and whispered, "Are you sure this is safe?"

"Unless he's a really good liar, I don't see any grey, so I think we can trust him," she whispered.

Azuki shrugged and began following him, followed by Clementine and their pets.

Blaze sighed and hesitantly followed.

"We're here!" Xariasz called.

"Thank you," Clementine dipped her head in thanks.

"No problem, just make sure you don't take too many minerals, and try to keep an eye out for those mushrooms," Xariasz replied.

"We will!" Clementine waved.

The lindworm waved his hand and wing before slithering off.

"See, that wasn't so bad, wimp." Azuki teased.

Blaze snorted, "You were quieter than a mouse, and I'm pretty sure I saw you shaking. Wouldn't be surprised if you needed a new skirt."

Her pupils thinned, clutching her fist as her teeth gritted. "You wanna go, city boy?" She growled, getting into a fighting stance.

He smirked, "One hit with my tail, and you'll be on the ground, crying."

Azuki charged at him, but before she could land of blow on him Clementine stopped her.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Calm down you two, we don't need to get into a fight right now," the brightly colored Eastern Dragon said, holding the younger, yet ferocious Ka'sai back with her tail, who was throwing air punches and kicks at him.

Mischief landed on Blaze's head and dropped something.

"Ow!" Blaze yelped, feeling the object hit his eye and fall onto the ground.

Azuki snickered.

He glared at her, and she did the same for a few seconds.

Clementine picked up the glowing blue crystal, probing it. "It's... AZULITE!" Clementine exclaimed, her head whipped around to the Reeka. "Where'd you find this?"

The little Reeka did a loop, chirping before it began leading them.

They chased after the griffin until she stopped in front of an Azulite ore.

Clementine began digging before Blaze gently shouldered her aside. "Let the men take care of this," he said, cracking his knuckles. With one heavy blow, he slashed the ore and shattered it. He turned back with a smirk.

Azuki rolled her eyes, crossing her arms and turning around.

Clementine clapped softly, impressed by his strength as he flexed.

Taeko rested his head on her lap and she began stroking his head.

The drake purred softly, causing her to smile.

"Look at how many ores are around here, jeez Mischief, you hit the jackpot," Clementine observed, giving the little griffin a scratch under the chin. "There's enough ores here to give to the entire time, maybe even a city."

"I've got to hand it to you Mischief, this is quite the find," Blaze said. "Maybe lindworms aren't as bad as we describe them as."

"It's almost too perfect, too good to be true. Why would so many dragons pass up on all of these ores?" Azuki noted.

"Who are you?" A hiss came from the left of them.

Blaze's heart dropped, spines shooting up.

The pouch he was wearing, was hers, but smaller, this only confirmed her fears. No, nononono. That can't be right, it must be a mistake, she thought desperately attempting to rationalize the situation, going through every possible reason.

Though, something else also caught her attention as her gaze slowly drifted to the missing poster below.

Missing Foxglove looked at the lips again, and once again they were straight, indicating this was another female. This dragoness looked a lot like Foxglove actually, but there were a few differences. This dragoness had shamrock green eyes with electric indigo veins, midnight blue armor scales that ran down from her head and probably all the way to her tail. Most of her face had shamrock green patterns, but a little bit of cyan and a little less of electric indigo also paired with the scales. As far as Foxglove could tell, the dragoness had a light blue underbelly. Her horns were midnight blue at the base, and faded to ice blue to a cyan color, same went for her jaw scales. She looked to be in her late 20s, at least at the time it was painted because it looked ancient, at least a decade old. Foxglove didn't even know posters could last that long, she wondered how it was even holding on still.
Princess Crystal of the Fyrrwins
Last seen fleeing Fluitans Island, heading South with a Vordos
Reward: 1,000,000 Aurin Coins


Geez, Queen Frysta is desperate for her daughter back, huh? She thought, but her eyes kept drifting down to the second poster. Whatever had her father figure done to make it onto a wanted poster, and more importantly, did he actually commit whatever crime is worth a bounty of 50,000 Aurin Coins.

Her ears perked as she heard mocking laughter echo. She peeked over the bush. I need to catch up, she thought, quickly diving into several bushes along the way until she landed in one big enough to conceal her, and close to where the soldiers were.

They shoved Akito forward towards the hut with all kinds of crystals and powders were.

"Is this where you did all your nerdy stuff?" One teased, whilst the others laughed.

"So bad you won't be able to do it anymore," the second mocked.

Akito looked more annoyed than anything.

After recomposing themselves, the moved on.

They shoved him into a cage and slammed the door.

"Ever wonder what Empress Frysta'll do when we get him to the Ice Empire?" The third asked, he seemed genuinely curious.

The first shrugged.

"Who cares? We'll be rich when we get back!" The second replied.

"Wonder if King Azar'll promote us to the Royal Army," the third said.

"He better, we worked hard to get here," the second responded.

The other two stared at each other and gave each other a two-faced look, smirking slightly.

All three grinned before walking off.

She slithered over, latching onto the cage. "I'm getting you out of here," she whispered.

Akito's eyes widened, "No, you need to get out of here. They'll capture you too!" He whisper-shouted desperately.

"I can't just leave you here!" She whispered.

"Save yourself!"

She shook her head, "No, nononono. I'm not leaving you here!" She shook the cage. "Just open already!"

He rested his hand on her wingstud. "Foxglove, look me in the eye," he said, firmly.

She met his gaze, she was doing her best to hold them back.

"I need you to get out of here as fast as you can," he sighed, "I love you, Foxglove."

"Dad---" her voice broke, "Why?"

He let go and folded his arms, "I've done a lot of wrong in my life. Now I need to face my punishment, even if it's death."

"Like what? Why won't you tell me?!"

He averted his gaze, "Just go, Foxglove."

"But---"

"No buts."

She let go of the cage, "Will I ever see you again?"

He sighed again, "No. I'm not coming back this time."

Her ears drooped.

He grabbed her wingstud again, "Just promise me you'll stay safe, okay?"

"Okay," she croaked, "I love you too."

"I know, I know," he said, quietly. "Now go, before they take you too."

She nodded, turning around and walking away. She spread her wings out, but looked over her shoulder.

He quietly beckoned her with a weak smile.

She looked forward again before lifting off.

After distancing herself from the village, she pulled out her map and gazed around, until her eyes locked onto one large forest: The Great Kwadena Forest.

She pulled out her landmark scroll and flipped over to Kwadena.

A relatively uninhabited forest thick coverage created by the great Kwadena trees. The main danger lies in Kwadena Canyon were one of the main lindworm, she read before her mind interrupted.

Yggaron.

Then she continued reading, ...colonies. The only lindworm colony on Daziban. It is said to hold the Queen of the lindworms---

YGGARON!

Other than that, it isn't believe to hold any other dangers except for Dragontraps and the occasional Forest Spirit Guardian (but as long as you don't try to actively hurt the forest they shouldn't try to attack you), so watch out for those!

She rolled up the scroll, Perfect. She lifted off again and gazed around until she spotted large trees before gliding over.

All of them whipped around, only to be met by the angry glare of angry lindworms.

"Are you ssstealing from usssss?" The same one hissed.

More lindworms gathered, their hisses echoing through the canyon.

Xariasz was behind the lead one.

"I thought you said we could harvest the ores!" Clementine cried, her ears drooped, her face showed nothing but the shock of the betrayal.

Azuki took of her bow and took an arrow from her quiver, preparing to shoot.

Blaze felt his throat heat up as his body prepared to breathe fire, he flexed his talons at the same time.

He could feel their backs pressing together at this point as they backed up.

They were surrounded by what could be hundreds of lindworms.

Xariasz shrugged, "Food is ssscarce right now. You three will ssserve as a nice meal for usssss."

"You lied! How could you?!" Clementine barked.

He could see she was holding back tears.

He swore he saw a hint of guilt in Xariasz's eyes when the Eastern Dragon spoke, but when three dragonets slithered up to his side, one of which looked exactly like him, it disappeared.

He's just trying to provide for his family, Blaze thought, feeling a little bit of sympathy for the dragonets.

"You guys are really nothing more than just lying snakes," Azuki hissed, as she glared.

"Enough! Brothersss and sssisssterssss, let usss feassst tonight!" The first yowled.

Azuki let out a battle cry, about to shoot, but Clementine picked her up and flew off.

Blaze picked up Taeko and lifted off.

Azuki flailed around angrily, "Are we seriously running away?!" She roared, "Let me go! I'd rather die than be seen as a coward like Blaze!"

He grit his teeth, suppressing a retort.

Clementine landed on a tree branch, gently setting down Azuki.

Blaze landed next to her, setting down Taeko, who was clinging onto the branch for dear life.

Clementine burred her face into her palms. "I did it again," she groaned.

Azuki looked up.

"I trusted another dragon because I didn't see any grey, and they lied to me!" She slammed one of her palms against the side of her head. "What is wrong with me!" Each time she said a word, her palm hit her face, but before she could hit herself again on me Azuki grabbed her talon.

"Hey, don't beat yourself up about it, you didn't know," the Ka'sai said.

He had no idea the Ka'sai could be so tender.

Blaze was about to wrap Clementine in his wing before Azuki slapped it away and shook her head.

And there goes the moment.

"Yeah, but it happens every time," Clementine looked down, "I just feel so stupid."

"No you're not," Blaze interjected. "Some dragons are just really good a lying, that doesn't make you stupid. You just have to be a bit more cautious next time."

"Yeah!" Azuki unexpectedly agreed. "It's good to see the good in everyone, but unfortunately, not everyone makes those good choices."

Clementine sniffled while smiling, before pulling both of them in for a hug. "Thank's guys," she whispered.

"No prob," Azuki replied.

Blaze nodded.

Mischief snuggled into Clementines neck, comfortingly.

He thought about pulling away from Azuki, and she was probably thinking the same thing, but neither of them wanted to ruin the moment either, so they stayed hugging until Clementine ended it.

"We should probably head back, my parents and your dad," she pointed at Azuki, "are probably getting worried."

"Yeah, it's getting dark," Blaze added before suddenly feeling something crash into him and push him off the branches of the tree.

The two dragons fell through the branches, feeling as branches snapped until both landed onto the ground.

"Oww" Blaze groaned, scratching the back of his head. "What the hell happ---" His gaze locked onto the she-wyvern in front of him. "Whoa," he murmured, mesmerized by her stunning display of scales.

Foxglove also scratched the back of her head with her wingstud, just as confused. Then she realized she dropped her map. "Crap," she mumbled, frantically searching for it.

"Did it hurt when you fell from heaven? Because you look like an Quetzal," Blaze said, coyly.

Her ear twitched, and she looked up, "What?" Confusion was evident on her face. "Also, don't you mean Tecatl?" She added.

They just stared at each other for a few moments in awkward silence.

"Blaze, are you okay?!" Clementine called, picking up Taeko, while Azuki was on her back. Then she glided down and landed. "Um, who's this?"

Foxglove managed to grab her map, "I apologize for crashing into you, I wasn't paying attention."

Azuki jumped off of Clementine's back, "Yeah, okay, but who are you?"

Foxglove stuffed the map into the pouch, hesitant to respond.

"Who---" Azuki started before another voice interjected.

"What have you done!"

Their heads whipped around, only to meet the gaze of another Eastern Dragon.

He was holding up broken branches. His scales were white, his underbelly gold. He had this red stripe on either side of him that had these symbols that were inbetween two dots, and a red line that stretched to the next verse, this repeated two more times.

Foxglove guessed these were an oath.

He had golden antlers tipped red, same went to the spikes that ran down his back. He had golden freckles on his face, a pair of whiskers with a tuft of golden fur with red veins. He had a little bit of fur on his jaw and elbows. His talons were gold, and his eyes were bright blue with red veins, creating this illusion that it was purple.

"Lín Shǒu," Clementine greeted, her voice somewhat cold.

That was new.

"Clementine," the other Eastern greeted. His cold gaze swept over the group, "Now who is responsible for this?"

Foxglove sighed, looking down while raising a wingstud, while Blaze raised a talon.

Azuki blatantly pointed at Blaze and Foxglove.

Clementine smacked Azuki in the back of the head with her tail and shook her head.

Lín Shǒu nodded, "I hereby banish all of you from the forest."

"What?! We didn't do anything!" Azuki objected.

"You disturbed the Yggaron, therefore you are in fault too," he said.

"That's not fair! They attacked us!"

"You entered their home, now go," he ordered.

"Wait, you're a Forest Spirit Guardian, aren't you?" Foxglove observed. "I do apologize for breaking the branches of this tree."

"Yes, now as said Forest Spirit Guardian, I order all of you to leave before I escort you."

"Lín, can't you just let this one go for once?" Clementine asked.

"The more dragons that enter Yggaron territory, the higher chance they are going to declare war. We already have enough bloodshed from our current war, we do not need to create more. Additionally, how many times do I have to remind you that you need to address me by my full name?" Lín Shǒu explained.

Clementine just stared at him.

Lín Shǒu sighed, "I'm escorting all of you back to your village."

"What?! Why?!" Azuki barked.

"It's getting late, and all of you are children."

"We aren't children!" Azuki protested.

"I can't go to that village," Foxglove said.

Lín Shǒu raised a brow.

"I don't live there."

"Then where do you live?"

Foxglove averted her gaze, "I don't have a home."

Lín Shǒu nodded, "Despite the fact that you have broken branches, we Forest Guardians are required to shelter anyone that doesn't have a home."

"We have room in the village!" Blaze offered.

"You physically cannot be speaking for our village, you're not even from there!" Azuki hissed.

"But he is right," Clementine agreed.

"I thought you were on my side!"

"Both of you are my friends! I'm not gonna choose one over the other if the other one is right!" Clementine explained.

"We've known each other for FOUR YEARS! We just met him last month ago."

Blaze would've thrown a retort, if he hadn't been to busy staring at the wyvern. But there were a few things off about her:
1. She external had ears, wyverns had internal ears that weren't visible, every dragon knew that.
2. She had spikes behind her horns, on her back, and at the tip of her tail behind the strange crystal shaped barb at the end of it. Wyverns didn't have that many spikes.
3. Those spikes seemed to look like actual crystals, but had the general shape of the spikes.
She was beautiful, in her own, unique way, but who'd want someone like Blaze anyways?

"So? It's our job to help him feel welcome in our village. That's what Aphtaria Hawa was built off of!" Clementine argued.

Lín Shǒu just seemed annoyed, "Enough of this bickering, let us get a move on before dark."

Clementine shot him a glare, but he seemed to just ignore it, flying away.

Azuki climbed onto Clementine's back while Blaze grabbed the drake and lifted off, Foxglove also followed.

"What're you waiting for?" Azuki growled impatiently.

Clementine lifted off without answering.

They had been flying for a few minutes now, but she couldn't help but allow her gaze to drift over to the other dragons. Particularly the one she guessed was named Blaze.

He was bright red, orange, and yellow. The scales that trailed from head to tail were a much darker shade of red, it was almost like tiny rivulets of lava ran in between each dark scale. He had striped spikes that ran from head to tail that were dark red, orange, and then yellow, the ones on his back were more abundant. His wings looked like pools of lava, separated by dark red. Considering he had jaw spikes, she guessed that he was a young adult, like herself. What truely stood out to her the most about him was the fact that he had these stunning, bright blue eyes, that almost seemed to glow like his scales. That was pretty rare in Vordos who came from Eztalin, judging by the patterns of his wings, he could possibly even be related to the Fire Emperor Azar himself due to his wing pattern.

He seemed to notice and turned around, flashing her a coyly grin while flexing one of his biceps.

She raised a confused brow.

This seemed to deflate his confidence immediately, and he sped up to catch up to Lín Shǒu, a light blush of embarrassment plastered across his cheeks, but it was hard to tell due to the amount of warm colors that coated his scales.

They dove down in front of the gates.

"Lín Shǒu," the two Ka'sai guards bowed respectfully.

The Eastern nodded, "Please keep an eye on these three, for they have caused trouble in the forest," he gestured to the others with his tail.

"What about that one?" One of the Ka'sai guards directly pointed at Foxglove.

"I'm taking her with me to shelter," Lín Shǒu explained, calmly.

"We can take her in. We have plenty of room," the other pitched in.

"Are you sure? I don't want to seem like a burden," Foxglove said.

"Aphtaria built Aphtaria Hawa as a sanctuary for all, no matter who you are," the guard explained.

Foxglove stared hesitantly at Lín Shǒu.

"Aphtaria is a good dragoness, and from what I've heard, Aphtaria Hawa is a good home for younger dragons," Lín Shǒu replied. "Ultimately, it's up to you to decide though."

"You should stay! It's really nice here. I think you'd like it," the other, brightly colored Yamati smiled.

Foxglove looked at Lín Shǒu again.

"The Kwadena Sanctuary is great, but there are less dragons your age to interact with. Again, it's your choice."

She bit her tongue, but her mouth was still closed, trying to decide, looking back and fourth.

The brightly colored Yamati had a pleading expression, the one called Blaze smiled, and the younger Ka'sai looked like she was trying to be indifferent to the situation.

Then she saw the soldiers from before, walking around, menacingly.

"I don't think I should stay here," Foxglove said, watching as the three soldiers march past.

"Aww," Clementine pouted while Blaze seemed disappointed, but was doing his best to hide it.

Lín Shǒu nodded, "Then it's decided. Have a good night," he said, gesturing for Foxglove to follow before lifting off.

"Bye!" Clementine called.

"Stay safe!" Blaze added.

Azuki simply waved, but only because Clementine forced her to.

"Bye!" Foxglove called back before joining the other Yamati, she caught up pretty quickly. "So what is the Kwandena Sanctuary exactly? I've only read little snippets of in from a few scrolls, but they're very vague," she inquired.

"You'll see soon enough," Lín Shǒu replied, speeding up a little.

Before long, they began descending into the forest.

She recognized the springs, "Wait, are we headed to the Dragon Springs?"

"Not quite, just wait," he dove down.

She hesitated, but curiosity got the best of her, so she followed. While weaving in between branches, she spotted the Forest Gaurdian on a platform, conversing with what seemed like another Yamati, but with Yggaron features. She landed next to Lín Shǒu.

"Welcome to the Kwandena Sanctuary," Lín Shǒu gestured.

"Whoa," Foxglove gasped as she gazed upon the view.

Tree houses made of leaves dotted the branches of each tree, bridges made of vines connected each of them, there were more platforms, the stairs were made of large mushrooms that acted like steps, many bright flowers were scattered across the place ---something she'd have to investigate the next day--- and glowing fungi lit up the paths all around.


"Well hello there, you're Foxglove, right? I'm Ribbon, nice to meet you," the strange Yamati greeted, waving. Foxglove noticed she didn't have a distinct tail tip, distinct horn shape, or whiskers, three ways to tell if she was a male Yggaron or Yamati, which she wasn't. She had the body of a Yamati, but had the patterns and wings of a Yggaron, also she was much plumper, probably a trait she inherited from the Yggaron side. She had black base color, a wide and prominent cyan dorsal stripe, and alternating red bars along the sides above the lateral stripes. Her head was redish-orangish, and her belly was blueish color. She had three spikes on both sides of her head, a black sail with red spots that surrounded bright red spots, and a cyan bottom that blended in with the stripe that ran down her spine. She had a pair of wings that were black, red-orange, red, cyan, pale blue, and had red spots surrounded by even more black. Her eyes were yellow with pink veins.

"Hi," Foxglove replied, quietly.

"I sssee we've got a shy one, aye? Come along, sweetheart, I'll take you to your hut. It's getting late," Ribbon continued, draping her small, probably vestigial wing, over Foxglove's shoulders. She had a minor Yggaron accent too.

Foxglove tensed at the sudden contact.

"You've been through a lot, haven't you?"

Foxglove looked over her shoulder, perhaps the gaurdian could've explained the situation better, but he was nowhere to be found.

"Don't worry, we'll make sure you feel nice and welcome here," Ribbon continued, guiding Foxglove up the steps.

Foxglove sighed before she continued to walk up the steps.

Ribbon grunted at each step as she pulled herself up, "Ssorry, this must be awkward for you, I can't fly," Ribbon explained as she heaved herself up. "Phew, we need to plant more mushrooms in between steps to shorten the gap. I'm surprised no dragonets have fallen through yet. Perhaps that's a project we can work on tomorrow. Oh those youngersters would love that! Oop, we're here!"

It was a small treehouse, with a hole large enough to fit a 10 year old dragon.

Ribbon walked in, "Come along, sweetheart. It's getting late."

The inside had a sunroof in the ceiling, a moss bed in the corner, a chest, a nightstand with a larger mushroom growing from it, and a few shelves.

"This will be your treehouse until you decide to move out. I will give you a tour of the sanctuary tomorrow morning," Ribbon explained, before handing Foxglove a scroll, "This is your schedule, and map," she dipped her claw in red ink and X'd out a treehouse, "This is your tree house. You can use this map if you get lost. Now, unpack and go to bed, sweetheart, you need to rest." Ribbon pat Foxglove on her shoulder with her wing before walking out.

Foxglove sighed before she set her travel pouch on the shelf. Foxglove flinched at Ribbon's voice.

"Oh! I almost forgot, if you want to turn off your mushroom, just clap your talons together, same goes for if you want to turn it on," Ribbon peaked her head in, "Okay, now toodle-loo!" Ribbon finished before finally leaving.

Foxglove curled up on the moss bed, staring up at the skyhole.

The events of the day seemed to hit her all at once, and she quietly cried herself to sleep, knowing that everything she once knew was gone now.

Blaze woke up the next morning, exhausted.

Throughout the night, images of Foxglove just kept appearing in his mind. The beautiful arrangement of her scales, her slightly quirky personality and appearance. It was... alluring, but also brought up plenty of questions.

He walked over to the water trough and splashed water onto his face, to hopefully wake him up better. It evaporated as soon as it touched his scales.

"Hey, Blaze," Dawn, a soldier from the Ignis Army greeted. One of his older brother---Magma---'s comrade and friends.

"Hi," Blaze replied.

Another soldier came up from behind her and draped his wing over Dawn's shoulder, "What's up, little man?" Cyrus greeted, lifting a talon, prepared for a high-five. He was Magma's best friend.

Blaze's ears dropped, "I don't go by that nickname anymore," Blaze grumbled.

"Don't leave me hangin'," Cyrus gave Blaze a dirteating grin.

Blaze rolled his eyes, before giving him the high-five.

Then a third soldier walked out, "Whew, I'm starving. When're we getting breakfast?"

"Arid, we're heading to Epipléon, remember? We captured a fugitive, and now we're going to earn our reward," Cyrus explained.

"Wait, fugitive? When?" Blaze questioned.

"While you were gone, and we were out on patrol, we caught a fugitive by the name of Akito, and now we're going to take him to Empress Frysta," Dawn explained.

"I thought our soldiers weren't permitted to bring fugitives to the wyverns for a reward," Blaze said, confusion evidence on his face.

"There's no harm in it if Firelord Azar doesn't know," Cyrus grinned.

"If you guys get in trouble, I'm not bailing you out," Blaze warned before walking away, "Have a good day!"

"Geez, not ominous at all," he heard Arid murmur as he walked away.

That morning was very foggy, with a minor drizzle here and there, but he at least he could still see the lampposts. When he entered the smithy, a wave of heat came over him from the forge.

"Morning, Ruul," Blaze greeted, grabbing leather gloves, eye protection, and an apron.

"Morning, Blaze," Ruul responded.

Then Blaze spotted Azuki, who was sorting different ingots, she looked miserable. He looked over her shoulder. "You put a Gentin ore with Cyprin ore," he commented.

Azuki groaned, dropping her head onto the table, "This is soooooooo boring."

"Well, that's the consequence for going to the one place I told you not to go," Ruul replied.

Blaze snickered.

"Oh, you're not off the hook either, Blaze," Ruul warned. "You're lucky I'm not firing you, but you are going to get a punishment too, you're not getting paid for today's work. In fact, why don't you and Azuki work together on sorting ingots, eh?"

"What?!" Both of them whipped around.

"No way!" Azuki protested.

"This won't end well," Blaze added.

"Well, even better. Now quit being immature and start working before I make your punishments worse."

Both of them groaned, reluctantly complying.

Blaze sat down next to Azuki, who scooted away from him, side eyeing him.

He replied with the same look before turning to the ingots. He noticed how the ores were sorted in a weird order, "We usually sort them in terms of currency value."

"Well too bad, we're doing it my way," Azuki stuck her tongue out and crossed her arms.

Blaze rolled his eyes, "Whatever. You do cyprin ore, and I'll do aurin and gentin ore."

"I wanna do aurin ore, thank you very much," she grabbed a cyprin ingot and stuck her tongue out at him. "Besides, I'm more valuable."

"Wow, just going based off of what was closest, but okay. Also, that's cyprin." He slid the golden aurin ingot over, "This is aurin."

She snatched the ore from his talon and displayed her tongue, again.

Blaze gave her a dismissive look while grabbing the cyprin ingot and placing it with the other cyprin ingots. He slid the aurin ingots over to her while sliding the cyprin ingots over to himself. He grabbed a few more gentin and cyprin ingots and sorting them before he was finished. He decided to start helping Azuki.

"No! I can do it myself!" She said, fiercely, swiping the rest of the ores over to her pile.

"Okay, tiny," he retorted.

"Shut up, city boy," Azuki snapped, but there was something else in her eyes. It was almost like her confidence had died away for a second.

Clementine entered the smithy, "Hi!" She greeted.

"Hey!" Azuki and Blaze greeted at the same time before glaring at each other.

"Hello, Clementine."

"Is it okay if I hang out with Azuki and Blaze?" She asked.

"No, both of them are in trouble, but once their shifts are over, then yes," Ruul explained.

Clementine nodded, albeit disappointingly, "Okay, have a good day!" She waved, before walking out, followed by Mischief.

Azuki groaned again.

"I warned you, but you didn't listen," Blaze whispered.

"Yeah, but you came along anyways. Why?" Azuki snapped back.

"If I had the option to protect you and didn't, then Ruul would've never forgiven me," Blaze admitted quietly.

"But I don't need protecting!" Azuki argued.

"Yes you do," Ruul interjected.

"No I don't!" Azuki barked.

"I've already lost your parents, I don't know what'd I do if I lost you too," Ruul's said softly before raising it again, "Now get back to work!"

"Yes sir!" Blaze saluted before grabbing a large crucible. "I'm assuming this these ores have already been refined and alloyed since they're in bars, correct?"

"Yes," Ruul replied, "I just received that shipment of metal yesterday. I need you two to make coins. Azuki, I need you to grab safety equipment."

Azuki sighed, grabbing leather gloves, goggles, and an apron.

Blaze glazed the crucible by lightly breathing a touch of fire into it before placing a bar in. He continued to breathe fire until the bar melted and then poured the liquefied aurin into the molds. He moved the mold over to the shade and repeated the process until off the the ingots had been made into coins.

"How do you do this all day?" Azuki inquired, watching as the process unfolded.

"It's a little trick called fire," Blaze replied.

"Blaze, I need you to heat the forge!" Ruul called.

"On it!" Blaze called, rushing over before breathing a little bit of fire into it.

"That should be good," Ruul said, satisfied.

Blaze nodded, returning to original post.

"Not the fire part, I mean the part where you repeat the same tedious process over and over again without making any mistakes," Azuki pressed.

Blaze flipped the coin mold and hit the back of it to empty it. One coin chipped and Blaze picked it up, holding it in front of Azuki, "We do make mistakes. In fact, we make mistakes all of the time. We just don't let anyone see it by correcting the mistakes by reusing the material until they look good enough for the public eye," Blaze explained, placing the coin into the crucible and melting it again. He poured it coin into one mold, and waited till it cooled, finishing by pulling the coin out of the mold and holding it up, "Pretty neat, huh?"

Azuki nodded slightly, but caught herself. "Do you... like your job?"

"When I first came here, I thought it was going to suck---" Blaze started, noticing that Ruul was staring at him, "But it grew on me, eventually."

"Why do you like your job?"

Blaze chuckled before slightly teasing her, "I didn't know you were so inquisitive."

"Only because I'm bored!" Azuki snapped, but looked away, "What does... inquisitive mean?"

Blaze's expression fell, "You don't know what that means?"

Azuki shook her head in embarrassment.

He looked over to Ruul.

"That's the first time I've ever heard that word," Ruul admitted.

His eyes widened, "What? How? What kind of education do you have here?"

"We don't have an 'education'," Ruul used quotation fingers.

Foxglove awoke the next morning to the sounds of birds chirping and frogs croaking accompanied by sunlight flooding through the sunroof. She yawned before stretching.

"Good morning!" Ribbon greeted, peeking her head in.

Foxglove yelped in surprise before realizing it was just Ribbon. "Good morning," Foxglove greeted, groggily.

Ribbon walked in, looking around, "Seems like you haven't unpacked very much."

"I just don't have that much stuff," Foxglove grinned nervously.

Ribbon nodded, "How did you sleep?"

She shrugged, "As well as I could I guess."

"Good, good. Our cooks are prepping breakfast for everyone, meet at the Great Kwadena in ten. Don't worry, it's hard to miss. See you then!" The Yamati hybrid waved before going back down the steps.

"See you soon," Foxglove replied before Ribbon returned.

"Oh wait! I almost forgot. Here, take this. This is a pouch sundial, just press down on it and the cover will flip back and a small gnomon will come out. You know how to use sundials, correct?" Ribbon explained.

"Yes."'

"And you know what a gnomon is?"

Foxglove nodded.

"Good, good. Now, see you in the dining hall!" Ribbon replied, waving once more before disappearing behind the wall.

Foxglove grabbed her travel pouch and the scroll Ribbon had given her yesterday. She exited the tree house and looked over the sanctuary.

It was bustling with life. Dragonets wrestled with each other on the platforms, their giggling echoing through the canopy, while older dragons were clumped together, speaking... or gossiping. Many of these dragons seemed to have some sort of abnormality, almost as if they were hybrids or in some cases, had severe scars on their bodies, likely from the war, there were even a few melanistic, albino, and piebald dragons. Light filtered through the leaves while birds glided through the trees while monkeys swung from branch to branch. She swore she saw a gecko eat a bug before returning to its position, seemingly disappearing into the bark again. Tree houses dotted many branches of each tree, all connected by vine bridges and platforms.

Then she spotted it.

At the center of the sanctuary laid the Great Kwadena. A truly massive tree, probably the largest in the entire forest, and it was the only one with windows on the trunk of the tree along with several balconies. Lanterns hung from branches, all of the vine bridges connected to it like a massive web. At the base, there were greenhouses surrounding the trunk. Dragons had begun flocking towards the tree on the bridges, which were surprisingly sturdy considering hundreds of dragons which were probably equivalent of at least one ton all together just walking across... okay a bit of an exaggeration, but Foxglove has literally never around this many dragons, it was very overwhelming.

Foxglove took a deep breath before she stepped onto the bridge, following the crowd. She followed them up the stairs and entered the dining hall. She was immediately hit with the scent of food, lots of food.

Lines of tables, all of which were covered in food, extended from one end of the room to the stage at the back, several gaps to allow dragons to pass through. The largest table was marked 50+, in fact, all of the tables were marked with their corresponding ages... well there were a few exceptions, like very young dragonets who were too young and small to sit without their parents.

Her gaze locked onto the 15+ table, she took the seat farthest from the rest of the dragons, which was a seat in the back of the table.

Five dragons got up onto the stage, one of which was Ribbon. Standing beside her was a brightly colored Fyrrwin, a black Yamati, a piebald Vordos, and an albino Ka'sai.

Ribbon walked up ahead of them, "Good morning, everyone!"

"Morning!" Young dragonets responded, even a few adults did so too.

"Before we eat, I would like to announce the names of a few new dragons that have decided to stay with us. Please stand when your name has been called," Ribbon said before pulling out a list. She began reading the names aloud, "Aamu..."

Foxglove zoned out until her name was called, she stood up in response. Another ka'sai next to her also stood.

"Foxglove, Taki, and last, but not certainly least, Zephyr. Please help them feel welcome here as they get comfortable here. I will personally help them figure out their schedule, but if you guys want to help them, then I'd appreciate it. These are the most important announcements I have to make, you may now dig in!" Ribbon explained.

Foxglove watched as the limited amount of dragons her age shovel food onto their plates. She turned to the plates in front of her. She carefully grabbed a fried egg and slid it onto her plate, followed by a few sausages, and a loaf of bread. She bit into the sausage first, which released a snap followed by a burst of flavor. Her green eyes lit up as she devoured it.

A ka'sai next to her nudged her, "You know it's good when the sausages like that snap like that," he grinned before dipping his slice of bread into the egg yolk and eating it. He had dark, pale blue, red, and light blue scales. He wore a white scarf covered in red meander patterns scarf adorned with aurin scarf pendents from the rim of the scarf, a leather skirt, an aurin horn ring on one horn, a couple of rings, a waterskin strapped to his thigh, a leather fanny pack around his waist, and black bandages around his feet, "I'm Taki, I'm guessing you're Foxglove?"

She quietly nodded.

"Nice to met you," the Ka'sai revealed to be Taki held his hand out.

Foxglove gave him her wingstud, and they shook hands.

"I assumed I was the only newcomer my age, but I guess I was wrong."

Foxglove noticed he had a guitar strapped to his back, "Are you a musician?"

"Bard actually. I'm just staying here for a few nights. I'm planning on donating some of my money while I'm at it," Taki clarified.

She stared at the patterns on his scarf. "Are you from the Fire Kingdom?" She asked, gesturing towards the scarf.

"No, I'm from Hatun Yunka, I just travel a lot due to my musical career," he explained.

Foxglove nodded, finishing her sausage. She was about to eat the sausage by herself when Taki stopped her.

"Dip the bread into the egg, trust me, it tastes better."

Foxglove raised a brow before grabbing the slice and dipping it onto the yolk until the bottom was orangish. She took a cautious bite before her eyes lit up, "Whoa."

"Exactly. Anyways, where are you from?" He asked while she absolutely devoured her food like it was the last meal she may ever eat. "Wow you are hungry."

Her ears perked up, "Hmm?"

Taki lightly chuckled, "You just wolfed your entire meal down."

Her ears drooped, "Is that bad?"

"Nah, it just means you're enjoying your meal," Taki pat her on the back.

She tensed up.

He retracted his hand, "Are you... okay?"

"No one's ever touched me like that before... I didn't expect it."

Taki's brows furrowed, "Where are you from?"

Foxglove shrugged, "I moved around a lot." She hardly knew this dragon, he didn't need to know the details. "This food is amazing!" She changed the subject.

"Yeah, Smog's a great cook. He's that piebald Western over there," Taki waved towards Smog who was one of the dragons in the front.

Smog waved back before returning to his conversation with Ribbon.

"Which island did you stay at?" Taki pressed.

"This one," Foxglove hesitantly responded.

"You know, you look a lot like the missing Wyvern Princess," Taki observed.

"The missing Fyrrwin Princess? She's probably in her forties right now, I mean, her disappearance was like 20 years ago. I doubt they have a current painting of her, when I saw her missing posters, they looked ancient," Foxglove brushed him off.

Taki was still staring at her, suspicion evident on his face, but that vanished pretty quickly, "True. You do have minor features of a hybrid, but you could pass as a wyvern pretty easily."

"What?" Foxglove stared at him in shock.

"Yeah, you didn't know that?"

Clementine walked away from the smithy in disappointment, but decided not to let it affect her day too much. After all, she had Mischief, and a new shipment of paint powder that Aphtaria saved just for her.

She skipped over to the supply pile near the southern entrance , and blue gaze immediately locked onto the crate set aside from the rest labeled, Clementine. She squealed a little bit and picked it up. "C'mon Mischief!" She called and she dragged the crate over to the west side of the village with a giant rock wall, the perfect canvas in her eyes.

Suddenly a pouch slammed into her back, red power exploded out of it, coating her scales.

"Hey Paintbrush!" A ka'sai dragonet called from behind her.

Oh no, Clementine thought, looking over her shoulder.

"Wanna play a game of Living Canvas?" He continued.

Several other dragonets stood behind him, grinning.

Her ears drooped and her tail tucked, "N-no," she replied, feebly.

"I think she said yes guys," he grinned, picking up another pouch, the others did the same.

She gulped before flipping on her goggles to protect her eyes at least, and curling up into a ball, front talons shielding her face.

They surrounded her and began pelting her with pouches whilst laughing and calling her names.

"Stop," she whispered, "Please, stop."

Her attempts were in vain, the pelting only got worse.

A voice cleared their throat behind them, "Is there something going on here?"

The dragonets froze, "No, Mother," one lied through their teeth, an invisible bead of sweat rolling down their faces.

"Then go on, leave Clementine alone," Mother Aphtaria replied, dismissing them with her talons.

"Yes, Mother," the dragonets dispersed.

The elderly dragoness gently rested her hand on Clementine's shoulder, "They're gone now, sweetheart."

Clementine opened her eye, looking around before uncurling, "Thank you, Mother."

"You're welcome, darling," Aphtaria smiled, picking up the crate of power, though, she struggled.

"Here, I can carry it," Clementine took the crate off of the elder's hands.

Aphtaria smiled, "Thank you, my child."

The elderly ka'sai had blue, green, and yellow scales that had dulled from age, her horns had this fan-like shape and were curved inward from the side (idk how to describe horn five -_-). Her back slumped forwards. She wore a brown, linen, asymmetrical dress, had a waterskin tied to her thigh, a fanny-pack around her waist, and she held onto a staff with Virdite crystals at the top.

"No problem," Clementine smiled.

Mischief landed on Aphtaria's shoulder and chirped in greeting.

"Well hello there, Mischief," the Ka'sai stroked the reeka's shoulder.

The reeka leaned into the touch, chirping/purring happily her tail held upright with a slight curve , her head feathers puffed up a little.

Aphtaria chuckled, while watching Clementine paint on the wall.

Clementine drew remarkably accurate landscapes, dragons, and reeka's perched in little caves in mountain sides. Then she drew herself, alone.

The Ka'sai always took note of this, "You always draw yourself, alone in your art whilst everything else lives in groups, why is that? Does it have to do with Lín Shǒu?"

Clementine's talon froze, it clenched shakily.

Aphtaria's gaze softened, gently resting her hand on Clementine's shoulder, "So it is about him."

Clementine set her talon down and nodded quietly.

"You do know he still loves you, right?"

Clementine's ears drooped, "Then why'd he leave me?"

Aphtaria thought for a long moment, carefully choosing her words, "Your brother was never good with his feelings, and when he found a passion, he'd get carried away, but he always cared about you."

"Well, he didn't care enough," the colorful Yamati said, bitterly before leaving the cave.

The elder sighed, tracing the dragonet's painting with a claw before also leaving the cave.

Clementine watched as the elder walked away and decided to follow her.

Aphtaria stopped in front of a cage with a Ka'sai in it.

His back slumped, chin resting on his knee, tail tucked. He looked up when the elder approached his cage, he laughed bitterly, "Here to remind me of my actions? To ostracize me?"

"No," Aphtaria replied simply.

"Then why?"

"We haven't talked in a while, I was hoping to talk to an old friend."

"Why can't you be like the rest of them, Aphtaria? Why can't you just hate me?"

The elder thought for a long moment, carefully choosing her words before responding, "You have a good heart, Akito. You didn't have good bad intentions."

"That doesn't reverse the suffering of hundreds of dragons," the Ka'sai, now revealed to be Akito, averted his gaze.

Aphtaria's gaze and tone softened, "When you and your sister first arrived to this village 20 years ago, you had this optimistic glint in your eyes. No one knew your name, all they knew was that you were an alchemist from the Ice Kingdom, you brought alchemy to this village, you revolutionized health with your magic," Aphtaria chuckled, "I still remember how you and Takemi would bicker, but both of you always had eachother's backs. It wasn't until Princess Aurora arrived 12 years later when things started to go downhill for you. She manipulated you into doing despicable things."

"I was 32."

"Anyone can be prone to manipulation."

"That doesn't excuse my excuse my actions."

"No. However, if I do know anything about you, you've been working on ways to redeem yourself," Aphtaria replied.

Akito stayed silent before responding, "None of my antidotes work, and even if I did make a successful one, no one would use it since they don't trust me, and I'd get executed either way."

"You don't have a school?!" Blaze's ears shot up.

Both of the Ka'sai shook their heads.

"I mean, we learn many things from the hatchery, but we don't use those kinds of... fancy words," Ruul explained.

"That's terrible! I mean, I'll admit, I kind of hated school, but I never realized... What did you guys learn exactly?" Blaze questioned.

"Mostly survival skills, we learned how to talk of course, and a little bit of history, but the majority of us don't know how to read and write---including myself--- unless you came from a more advanced village, town, or city," Ruul explained. "Jobs that have to do with smithing and other, more complicated jobs are only here because foreigners taught us how to do them."

Blaze covered his mouth, "Oh Athyne, how could you let this happen," he murmured softly. "Okay, duly noted. Wait, how do you follow those instructions up there?" Blaze pointed at the note posted on one of the posts holding up the hut.

"I don't... I just memorized Arok's instuctions from before he... died."

"You memorized long, complicated instructions for several months straight?!?"

Ruul scratched the back of his neck, "Well, yeah, repetition helps. It kind of becomes muscle memory after a while. Is that a bad thing?"

"It's impressive, but what'll happen if you forget, then what?"

Ruul shrugged, uncomfortably.

Wings of Fire (If you couldn't already tell what the Kwandena Sanctuary was based off of, there might be a few other references in here later on)

The California Red Sided Garter Snake (aka what Ribbon is based off of)

Harry Potter (the general set up of the dining hall at the Kwadena Sanctuary... kind of, since I had to account for dragon sizes, species, etc.)

Quechua (I mostly used these for names like Yurac and Supay, species or dragons from tribes in warmer places. This language is believed to have originated from Peru.)

Finnish and/or other Finno-Ugric. Even a few Germanic and Slavic names (I used this language for names like Taavi and Aino [both Finnish as far as I know]. These names are usually used in the Fyrrwin kingdom or tribes from colder regions.)