"Quincess."
"So lovely to meet you."
The two dragons, each so similar Ndete was already confused as to which was which, dipped their heads in unison.
"Well met," Ndete answered, dipping her head in return. Then she shook her head. "How do your family even tell you apart?"
The one on the right grinned. "Licto is much more mischievous."
Which meant that this was Lihir.
Licto shook his head. "You're just better at not being caught," he corrected his twin.
Two sets of identical amber eyes glittered. Ndete searched for some small mark that would separate them, but there was nothing. Every spike, every scale was the same. She gave up with a sigh just as Kana walked up.
"Licto, Lihir," she greeted them.
Unlike the Pence from the Mountain colony, they barely acknowledged her.
Kana leaned in closer to Ndete. "There is another arrival."
That was unexpected. "Who is it?"
"Fayal, of the northern reaches."
Ndete looked up sharply. The flatlands far to the northwest were the closest dragon colony to the remaining human reservations.
"I should greet him." Ndete turned a smile on the twins, their pale orange scales shimmering in the midday sun. "Please excuse me," she said, trying to mask her relief at escaping. "I must greet another guest."
She thought she saw a flash of annoyance in Licto's eyes. Lihir merely nodded with another grin, his attention already diverted to the large spread of food laid out along the riverbank. Leaving them to whatever mischief they were bound to get into, Ndete hurried to follow Kana.
"I don't remember hearing about this one," Ndete said as they walked.
Kana gave her a strange look. "I don't think he was expected," she answered, throwing a furtive glance behind them.
Oh?
"His colony is somewhat... isolated from the others."
Ndete was liking the sound of this more and more.
"Your mother would certainly not have accepted, had they notified us he was coming."
A prickling sensation moved along Ndete's skin, traveling beneath her scales like a current. It sounded almost too good to be true. Which probably meant that it was. They would probably arrive at the field to find some horrible creature, here merely to flaunt his own potential claim for Pendragon. Or perhaps he had taken one look at Kana and been smitten, as Tatun had.
Ndete eyed her friend. "Did you already... greet him?"
Kana frowned. "Greet him? No, I—"
Any further discussion was cut off as a jet of flame erupted from the brush ahead of them. Kana jumped back. A moment later, a small white head poked out. Blue eyes like enormous sapphires peered up at them.
"Sorry," a small voice quavered. "I was only trying to catch the mouse."
Mouse?
"Xian!" A larger form came around a corner, white scales shimmering in the sunlight. Eyes that were nearly violet took in the scene, looking from the youngster to Ndete and Kana. "I'm so sorry," he stammered. "She slipped away when I wasn't looking." He turned to the youngster. "Xian, I told you to stay close."
The young girl blinked her blue eyes at the larger dragon. "Sorry Fayal." She looked abashed.
Fayal immediately softened. He shook his head. "Did you catch it, at least?"
Xian pouted. "No, he slipped into a hole."
"Well I'm sure we can find you another one later," he soothed.
Ndete cocked her head. "Actually, I think I can help."
Xian turned her enormous blue eyes to Ndete. "Really?"
She couldn't help but grin. "Really. Where's the hole?"
Xian scrambled back, pushing away the brush to reveal a hole in the dirt. Ndete got down on the ground, wriggling in as close as she could. She looked up at Xian.
"Watch this."
She placed her mouth carefully over the hole, so that it covered it completely. Then, pulling her fire from within, she allowed the flaming heat to fill her. At the last moment she banked the heat, and a rolling wave of smoke poured from her lips. She blew it carefully into the hole.
Xian watched, her blue eyes like twin pools of water, her lips parted.
A moment later, a tiny form shot from a hole they had not seen several feet away. He leapt several feet into the air before zipping away in the direction of the trees. It was all so fast that no one even made a move to catch him, but Xian's grin was reward enough.
"That was amazing!"
Ndete smiled back. "Thank you. I learned that from my brother."
Xian blinked. "Pinatubo?"
Ndete felt a rush of surprise.
"Yes." Her voice sounded distant in her ears. "We called him Pina."
Xian's blue eyes turned serious. "I'm sorry he died. You must miss him very much."
The unexpected kindness caught Ndete off guard. "Yes." Her voice came out husky and low. "Yes, I miss him terribly."
Xian looked up over her shoulder. "I would miss Fayal too," she admitted.
Ndete looked up to find Fayal's violet eyes locked on her. "It must have been awful," he said softly, "losing him like that. And this..." he waved an arm to indicate the preliminary, still visible in the distance. "I'm sorry that you have to even think about such things at a time like this. It doesn't seem fair."
Warmth rushed through her, flooding the place behind her eyes and filling them with what almost felt like mortalis tears. "No," she agreed. "It's not fair, but it is necessary."
The white dragon gave a nod. "Sometimes drastic measures are required to keep the balance of things."
Ndete sensed there was more to his statement. "As in participating in a preliminary without telling anyone you were coming?"
His lavender eyes sparkled. "You are as bright as you are lovely, Quincess."
Ndete rolled her eyes at his formality, but a burst of tingles rippled through her chest. Honor save her but this was the most interesting Pence she had met. Perhaps there was hope in all of this after all.
"Come," she said, turning back toward the gathering outside the warren with a renewed vigor. "You can explain everything to me while we prepare your grand entrance."
"Me too?" Xian looked up at them both hopefully.
"Of course you too!" Ndete wrapped a wing around the little dragon. "You," she said conspiratorially, "can fill me in on whatever secrets Fayal forgets to tell me."
Xian nodded emphatically.
Fayal laughed.
Ndete looked up to see Kana staring at her, eyes wide. She glanced at Fayal and back to Ndete, then turned away, her face twitching.
"Everything all right, Kana?"
"Oh yes," her friend answered without turning back. "Quite."
Ndete felt a flush creep along her neck. Kana always had been too perceptive. She made a much better ally than foe. Ndete's parents might think that they were keeping their offspring in check by having her friends so close, but Ndete knew that should it come to sides, they would be on hers.
Now the question was, what of this newcomer? What had driven them to this 'drastic measure,' and to what end?
"Okay," Ndete said, turning back to Fayal. "Out with it."
Fayal met her gaze without flinching.
"First," he said, "I should tell you that the disease that took your brother is spreading much faster and farther than you know."
Alarm gripped her in its cold hand.
"There are reports that the colonies in the far west have lost nearly half."
Ndete heard Kana gasp.
"But of even greater import is that we have a cure."
Ndete stopped to stare. "A cure? How? What is it?"
"A plant. It grows along the rocks of the great norther lakes."
Shock and hope warred inside her. They must let her father know!
"How did you find it?"
"We didn't." His periwinkle eyes shimmered. "The humans did."