I don't remember much from the next few weeks. Bits and pieces of recollection studded my understanding of the time. I woke in the morning once and there was a bright light in our den, and Mum and Pop spoke in hushed voices that oozed with secrets.
"Four eggs, who would take an egg? Let alone four? What kind of...of...monster." It was Mum but her voice was different, strained.
"I know, I'm also worried."
It was the light speaking.
We didn't go out much after that, not alone. We had classes in certain rooms, there were always guards. Nobody understood why. I remember all the times Hailpip came to me because she too could sense how off everything was, how unfair it was that none of the older dragons explained anything. I agreed but at the same time, so much didn't make sense, I don't know if I would have understood.
There was an empty place where Kiri always was.
I don't understand how she left. Mum said it was an accident, but nothing more. There was a glazed sense to her voice whenever she spoke about it, I don't think she understood fully either. That was a frightening realization. I'd been hanging off this precipice of confusion for such a long time and I was so sick of hanging. I didn't like the way I could feel how many years I'd spent in the pool of time. I was almost seven years old, that wasn't a lot at all, so why did it feel so vast?
For the first time in my life, I attended a funeral. It was like a festival, but no one laughed, no one danced. Every dragon who could manage climbed to the top of the mountain, where the late summer sun wafted down, no snow in sight. Kiri's mum had wrapped her body in hithea leaves. They placed her in a pyre, and one by one, dragons who'd known her left tokens and treasures of their belongings nearby, things of hers or things that held her memory. Ronan had brought a gemstone, a ruby, that he'd carved her face into. Strife was the one who placed the flame, as the smoke drifted into the sky, she and Kiri's pather led the Pride in a wordless, somber song. Amidst the vibrations of hundreds of singing dragons and the calming scent of hithea spice, grief relaxed its grip on me.
I used to ask myself all the time where she went, but after that day I didn't need to.
Blurry day after blurry day, time passed so fast. It took a long time for Ronan to come out of the den again. It took a long time for May's garden to bloom. Everything took so long, until it finally didn't. Until things finally snapped back in clear, undistorted crystalline. Only to be replaced by a new fear.
"We're leaving?" May sputtered.
Pop's frame tensed slightly. "It's for the good of everyone."
"There's a new den built for us, it's just a little higher up the mountain." Mum explained.
"How much?" Seth
They we silent for a moment.
"It'll be a little harder to see your friends." Pop admitted.
The four of us went silent.
"Why?" I frowned.
"I know it's hard to understand," Mum cooed, "but our family just needs to be in a safer place right now."
"But this is our home," Ronan's voice quivered. "This is where we hatched, where we're to grow."
"I want to stay here as well." Pop curled his tail around us. "I'm afraid it's just one of things I can't say too much about. All I can do is make you a promise that it's for the safety of you four, and the safety of the pride."
"Why can't you talk about it?" It came out as more of a hiss than I would have liked, I could already feel how taken aback Pop was. "Sorry, I'm just tired on not knowing things."
Mum wrapped her wing around me. "We don't know everything ourselves. That's part of the reason why. I don't want to tell you everything, we don't want to put weight on your hearts when things are so heavy already. I can promise you too, one day when the time is right, the four of you will know everything you ask."
They had their palms extended, and act of sealing the promise. I placed my smaller paw on top of theirs, Seth and May following suit, but the fourth hesitated.
"What time is that?" He asked, like the spoken word tasted bitter.
"I don't know, love." Mum's tongue flicked against his forehead. "I trust I'll know when it comes."
Ronan chewed on that thought. "I trust you too."
When he rested his paw on the very top a spark seemed to jump through my forearm.
It took less than a day to leave. Mum and Pop had already packed their hoards. It took one trip for us to carry our bedding and personal items up to the top the mountain. I had in a pouch around my shoulders two things. A bundle of lavender tied with a string, and a few precious pieces of gold I'd found myself. I carried one last thing, a new story on my tongue and I knew why I needed to tell it.
I dropped my bed roll in front of the entrance. My siblings stopped and looked at me, expectantly.
"Uh...I have to do something." I blinked. "Sorry about dumping my stuff on you but...uh...I'll be back soon I promise."
I distantly heard my family call my name as I dashed back into the tunnels. It had been so long since my lungs ached with frosty air. The kind that'd never seen the light of day. It had been so long since I ran recklessly, almost blindly, scooped up earth in my hardened pads, digging into it with my worn-down claws. I was not as young as I used to be, my legs were longer, the heart was light, and my hatchling claws were so much sharper, but Skylark knew I still devoured mountain tunnels to survive.
I almost didn't find it. A crag in the wall, so slim only a very small dragon could slip through. I was not as young as I used to be, but I was still the smallest child. Our scent still clung to the walls. The scales we'd rubbed off sneaking in her still lay at the bottom of the crag.
Just I knew she would be, Hailpip was waiting for me when I squeezed inside. Without thinking I gently pressed my muzzle against hers, redrawing quickly when I realized, but she leaned forward and left her forward pressed against mine. Her scent flooded my lungs, I inhaled sharply but waited until she leaned back to exhale. I had to remember that smell.
We'd kept meeting each other in the middle of the night long after the time Pop had caught me sneaking back. Our meetings were less frequent since then, only when the moon was full, but we still did it. Ever since Kiri passed, I hadn't seen her. I hadn't been out, I don't think she was allowed either, but this night was one of our nights. We both knew we'd be here tonight.
She sniffed my face. "Why do you have that feeling around you? What happened?"
My heart sunk, "I think this might be the last time I meet you here."
Her mood shifting from a lazy breeze on a field of still-green grass to a crinkling dead leaf. "Your parents are still keeping you in? For how much longer?"
I winced, "no... we're moving away. To far for me to sneak away each moon."
Her claws dug into the hard each, mixing her dismay with mine. "I heard a rumor. The very top of the mountain, huh?"
I nodded.
"Nothing makes sense." She sighed, sinking down to the ground and burying her face into her paws.
I curled up next to her. "It doesn't, but they promised I'd know one day, whatever I asked."
"Do you think that's possible? To know everything?" When she looked up at me our faces were so close.
Why did it feel different now? I wanted to store every memory I had of her in a hoard. It was like trying to keep a honey-sweet in my mouth when it would only keep disintegrating. She was so honey sweet.
"I don't know..." I swallowed, "I don't want to think about that right now. I brought you gifts."
She looked up; her tail curled into a flattered coil. "Oh? I...um...I actually did too."
"Ah," my face got so hot. "Do you—do you want to go first?"
She shrugged, "nah."
I hadn't been flustered around her before. I'd never said goodbye before. Things were changing so terribly fast. A misstep, a tear in a tapestry, a sneeze, a fall, I could feel things creep like honey compared to how fast I had to run to escape this change. Still it nipped at my heels.
I offered her the lavender. Her round and delicate paws wrapped around mine and she took a deep, satisfied breath. I let three gold rocks tumble from me to her and she chirped, fire bloomed in her chest as it did in mine, like the lavender it smelled just the same as when we hatchlings. When we were hungry for growth and gnawed on the whole earth.
"They're beautiful," her voice was mostly breath, and then, mostly gone.
You're beautiful. "One more. A Story."
Her head whipped up to stare at me, a wild curiosity fell off like old scales. Then I threw away apprehension with reckless abandon. It was okay, it was just us here. There was no reason to be scared.
"There's a stream in the woods that sings when the full moon shines on the water. It's home to many creatures, frogs in the mud, striders on the water, and near the bottom in a perfect circle there were two fish."
Hailpip curled into a ball next to me, our warmth ebbed together.
"They swam 'round this river, never straying far from the calm, never coming to close to the surface. During this time things were safe and calm and everything made sense. But under water they couldn't hear the river's song. They could feel it, but they longed to hear the tunes. They longed to metamorphose, to grow legs and breathe like the frogs do. To fly like the bird that preyed upon them. Their wish came true, and the next time the full moon hung overhead one fish was scooped up by an eagle, the other was swept downstream."
I could make out the faintest of light in front of me as fire instinctively dribbled off my tongue. I think they're might have been two lights. I think they might have swum around our heads in a slow, floating dance.
"In that moment they heard the song and were satisfied. Until their separate situations set in and one lost, the other far away, they mourned for what they'd lost. The bird fumbled, dropping the fish into and unfamiliar pond, the other continued downstream, in hope that they'd see something familiar. They asked questions now, was it worth it? Was this better? Did I give up my home for this? It was like this for many years.
"Until the second fish found their river deposited into a pond, and came face to face with the friend lost so many moonsongs ago. There was no more questions or doubts, they took of their dance once more, and knew this didn't have to be better, the change wasn't good or bad, it was simply theirs and even scratched and tumbled now, they were happy."
I squeezed my eyes shut and shook my head back and forth, dispelling the flame I'd summoned. Hailpip folded her paws together and clapped enthusiastically.
"That was so wonderful, I always love the endings! Isn't that funny?" She chuffed. "Longtayle, I thing you have a talent like me!"
A chill ran down my spine. "What?"
"How else do you explain the fire?' She paused, "did you know it was shaped like the fish in your story?"
I frowned. "I didn't."
She shrugged, "ask Master Kuu about it." She stopped, something still obviously weighing down her tongue. "Speaking of..."
There was the ruffling of a leather pouch, and my heart skipped a beat when I heard the familiar clink of pebbles. Hailpip spread out my palm and dropped two pebbles into it. They were surprisingly warm.
"I never got to show you my listening stones," she whispered. "I have three, but I want you to see these two first."
Her paw covered mine, cupping our pads into a bowl as she lifted them up to eye level. I copied her when she leaned into them, I realized she was listening. They were making... not quite a sound, not quite a feeling. I was holding memories.
One of them was when we first met, the first real story I ever told. The other was our first flying lesson. It wasn't quite reliving the moment, but my body felt light, and soft as the feelings and senses from those days came rushing back. I opened my mouth to say anything, but I was too choked up.
Without saying a word, Hailpip took a third stone from her pouch, and curled my pads over the other two and pushing them into my chest. The third stone she held herself, pressed her forehead against mine, and purred deeply. Gentle stings traveled down my limbs, like kiss from a hundred honey bees.
"I want to remember this moment forever," she whispered, and pressed the final stone into my palm.
I'd cried before, when I laughed to hard or yawned to deep, but never because I was sad. I had never had a price of my heart snag on a second and stay there forever. I don't she had either, but there was comfort in embracing the unknown together. There was comfort in our parting gifts.
Preserved in the pebble was a memory of this night, the last time the two of us met under the moon in our mountain.
The walk back was lonely and it was so very cold. My siblings had covered for me, I made it back without suspicion, with three precious pebbles in a pouch around my neck. The rest of the night was spent building, cleaning, and making this new cave a home. Pop left just before the sun rose, but not long after that we were finished and the five of us stood outside, taking a break and soaking in the realness of the situation. Grafted into the side of the mountain, so high the clouds could brush the peak, was a metal curve that smelled of gold.
"It's like a flower," May sighed, curling her tail around her legs.
"It'll do." Ronan let out a grunt.
Behind me, I could feel the sun on my back. There were a few powerful wingbeats, and four sturdy paws hit the lip on the platform we waited on.
"It needs a name," Pop breathed, walking up behind us, I could feel his body heat from here.
I took a deep breath, and buried my predispositions in the home we left behind. There was only a path forward with three blessed stones and two promises strung around my neck. Standing up, and listened to the hum on the Mountain, there was a word on my tongue
I turned back towards my family. "How about Mattúr?"