A/N:

Status quo: This story is on hiatus, and in need of a small rewrite. However, I still think it's a cute idea, and I do plan on continuing it someday. The writing is a bit old, but salvageable, so it won't need a complete facelift. An innocent, light-hearted story isn't something I do often, and it's a breath of fresh air for me. But it could be a while until that happens. Until then, enjoy.

"Morida! Calho! Time to wake up!" Mother's call wafted up in the room like the air on a warm summer day.

Yawning, I blinked a few times and rose, pushing the baby-blue blanket off me. Folding it back over my circular bed, I tucked it in and smoothed out the wrinkles. I liked to be up immediately with no wasted time.

Turning, I strode over the the window and pushed it open, happily breathing in the burst of fresh air. I peered out of the half-crescent hole and down at the land below. Already some of the other dragons were walking about, some quickly travelling through portals and others weaving, so Mother must have woken us a bit later than usual.

"Cal, come on," I said, walking over to Calho's bed and giving his royal blue shoulder a light push.

"Wha-at?" Cal complained, rolling over and glaring at me with his big eyes, the colour of forget-me-nots. Cal was very cute when he wasn't throwing a tantrum or giving me the evil eye.

"Mother says to get up," I replied, glaring back. Calho was either going to throw a fit or do what I told him; that's just the way he was.

"Alright," Cal said, deciding to be agreeable today. He jumped out of bed and scurried out of the room, not even bothering to make his bed before he went. I rolled my eyes. He could be so messy sometimes, even for a five-year-old.

As I skipped off towards the stairs, I stopped at the mirror next to the doorway to glance at my reflection. My scales were cyan-coloured and my eyes were green, a fairly normal trait, but my underbelly, horns, and wings were light yellow. This was a rather atypical feature of Dream Weavers; every last one that I knew had pale green-white highlights with just a tinge of yellow. I always shrugged off the unusual color, though, figuring it had something to do with those "genies" Mother had told me about.

"Good morning, Mother!" I chirped, skipping the last two steps and jumping down into the dining room. The tile floor clicked under my claws as I walked over to her.

"Good morning, Morida." Mother smiled.

I always thought she was a very pretty dragon. Her scales were cerulean-colored like deep water, while her teal eyes were big and expressive (like Calho's). She was always smiling warmly and spoke in a soft voice, plus, she deemed so graceful. I wanted to be just like her when I grew up, but I wasn't as pretty or nice and I was too clumsy to ever dream of being graceful.

I couldn't eat breakfast fast enough, so eager to get outside was I. Mother had to tell me twice to slow down before I choked on the food. Cal finished at the same time I did, though, so I didn't have to wait like I usually did. With a call of thanks to Mother, we were gone, down the hall and into the courtyard.

I gazed out over the floating islands before me, some small and some large. The rivers, pools, and waterrises sparkled like stars in the sunlight. I turned my excited gaze to the sky, streaked with a plethora of vivid colours set off by puffy white wisps of clouds that floating lazily by. Padding over the soft green grass that tickled my ankles, I peered over the edge of the floating island and into the swirling purple void.

"What do you think is down there?" I asked Cal, shivering with fearful delight. All I had ever been told was not to fall into it.

"Well, a big pool of water, of course. Where do you think the waterrises come from?" Cal asked matter-of-factly.

"Oh." I hadn't thought of it like that before.

"Come on, let's go!" Cal whooped before running off. I bounded aftr him, wondering what we were going to do today; every day of my life was different.

Cal and I were the only children in this world, but there were many others throughout the portals. The two I knew well were Ayrizi, a boy who was thirteen and lived in Dark Passage, and Nimbi, the seven-year-old little girl from Sky Ruler. She was more Calho's friend than mine, but she was a lot of fun. I didn't get to see the other kids that often, but it didn't matter; the homeworld never got boring.

Cal and I happened to run past one of the portals and I stopped in the tall, dewy grass to examine it. The portals were all made of blue, non-lustrous crystal and had three points at the top of it, the middle spiking higher than the others. The glided words hovering in front of this portal read 'HAUNTED TOWERS' in bold lettering.

Haunted Towers was a pretty interesting world, but it wasn't my favourite in the Dream Weavers world; Sky Ruler took that medal. As for my least favourite...

"I got it! Let's go to Jacques today!" Cal exclaimed, coming to a halt and running back over to me.

I scrunched up my face. "No way. Father said not to go there."

Jacques was a world created by a foolish dragon named Revilo, as I had been told. Revilo had overestimated his powers; he had believed he was talented enough to create a new subworld without the help of the Magic Crafters. But while he was making the world, it backfired and was filled with all sorts of evil creatures and a harsh, nightmarish land.

The monsters escaped into the other worlds, but luckily, they had been subdued before any dragon could get hurt. As punishment, Lateef banished Revilo to live in the real he had created, forever. This had all happened when I was just a hatchling.

"It's a shame," Father had said once, clucking his tongue and shaking his head. "Revilo was a respectable dragon, but he was just too cocky for his own good."

"Aw, are you a scaredy-fool?" Cal taunted, bringing my back to reality.

"I am not a scaredy-fool and I'm not going," I said flatly. Hoping to divert his attention away from Jacques, I changed the subject. "Speaking of fools, why don't we go mess with them instead?"

Cal looked torn. I could tell he wanted to throw a tantrum for not getting his way, but he also did like to ram fools into the void. "...Okay," he finally said.

In case you're wondering what fools are, they're the local nuisance. As their name implies, they're foolish little creatures who run around the worlds and make trouble. I don't know why we keep them around; all I know is that it's pretty funny to see them go flying off the edge.

So we glided over to one of the medium-sized islands in our hunt. I surveyed the area; there were three fools and enough room to stay out of proximity of their attacks. Perfect. I grinned and charged forward, Cal by my side. The fools here, smart for once, figured out what we were going to do and began running around.

I laughed as I smashed into one. The female fool I had hit screamed and blubbered as she fell down, down, down until she had faded away completely.
I never liked the female fools. They were much more... vicious than their male counterparts, as well as a deliverer of a more powerful smack. Plus, they were literally pinheads and they just looked so stupid.

Meanwhile, Cal had also knocked a male fool to the ground, but was unable to drag him off the edge. He grabbed onto the grey robes that fools always wore and began tugging.

Suddenly, there was an exclamation of "Ow!" Cal had been slapped by the angry humanoid. He backed off, his face slowly turning red.

The fool, with his orange hair sticking up in mussed tufts (the males had the nickname of carrot-top for a good reason), began to stalk towards Cal. I backed up and dashed forward, hitting the surprised fool right in the stomach. With a cry, he flew over the edge.

"You alright?" I asked Cal.

"Uh-huh."

"Good. Come on, there's one more!" I said with excitement, turning. I wasn't concerned—this happened to both of us often. Plus, as long as we weren't dying, neither of us cared what harm befell each other.

The last fool was a female, clothed in the usual grey robes, but with a breastplate on. No problem; the armor wasn't that tough and it couldn't stop me. The most it could do is give me a little jolt when I hit it.

I charged towards her, imagining her falling into a big pool of water. But just as I reached her, something horrible happened. A beam of light sailed over me and hit the fool. I looked back and realized that I had forgotten all about the cannon; powered by fools, they shot out beams of light that changed the others' sizes. The fool began to transform, growing until she loomed over me. A look of smug glee was painted on her face.

I tried to stop running, but I was going too quickly. As soon as I was close enough, the fool raised her hand back and swung it with great force. I went flying through the air, tumbling head-over-heels, and I didn't stop until I had been thrown clear over the edge.

As soon as I realized what was happening, a great terror hit me. What would happen once I hit the water way down there? From what I had learned from falling off short cliffs above rivers, hitting water hurt. Plus, what if I never got out?

I flapped my wings frantically, but all that did was slow my descent, and barely at that. Though I was a great glider, as were all of the other Dream Weavers—living on a mass of floating islands required it—I was too young to fly. My wings just weren't big enough to support me.

I wanted to scream, but I couldn't make a sound. Silently despising the rushing feeling in my stomach, I scrunched my eyes closed. But he terrible feeling suddenly stopped. I realized that I was being carried, and when I looked up, it was my father who was carrying me.

Father was a dragon known for his kindness and good humour. His eyes were the color of the midnight sky, but their dark depths always twinkled, and he was a simple blue color with no special light or dark shade to him. He stood tall and strong, and often he was the one to resolve the occasional squabble between Cal and me. Mother just wasn't as good of a diplomat as Father was.

Father landed on the small island, set me down, and calmly kicked the fool off the island. They were really no match for an adult dragon, even when they were big.

"Now, now," Father said in that cheery way he spoke, "you shouldn't antagonize the fools."

"But they antagonize us," Cal pointed out. I didn't speak; I was so frightened that I was nearly shaking.

"Sometimes you just have to put up with fools, children, and not just the kind here. Morida, are you alright?" Father turned to me. His brow furrowed in concern.

I managed a shaky nod in response. "Yeah, just a little scared. I'm fine." I tried to act the part, straightening up and standing taller.

"In that case, it's just about time for school. Run along, now." Father smiled affectionately. I groaned good-naturedly and plodded off, followed by Calho.

All of the Dream Weavers lived in the large castle that stood proud and tall on the central island. On the island also were courtyards and streams and various flora, making it a very peaceful and serene place. Our destination, though, was the smaller castle located on the rightmost island. That palace was usually used as a rendezvous point if all of the dragons needed to meet, a guestcastle in the rare case that we had guests, and most notably as a schoolhouse for the only two pupils in the homeworld—Cal and I, of course.

It only took a few minutes to reach the castle. Cal and I briskly climbed the steps that led directly to the largest room. Lateef was waiting for us.

Lateef was a stern-looking dragon, although he was far from mean. He had a brown spike on his snout, and his scales were an elusive shade that were sometimes turquoise and sometimes the color of electricity. The color of his eyes perplexed me—they were bright green. My parents sometimes joked about how I looked more like Lateef than I did them. Lateef was thin and lean, and always squinted his eyes so that he looked like he was glaring at you. I asked him why he didn't get glasses and he humphed and told me he wasn't that old.

Although Lateef had a bit of a rigid personality, he did mean well. Plus, he was a friend of the family and he didn't have to be our teacher. And in a way, I kind of liked him.

"Alright, children," Lateef said once we had assembled ourselves in front of him, "today we're going to learn about the other dragon clans."

"Aw, you mean the Magic Keepers and stuff? We already know about that," I said flatly.

"That's Magic Crafters, young lady, and there's a lot more to it than knowing their names," Lateef said.

"Yes, Lateef," I grumbled.

"On with the lesson, then. Let's start with something familiar: us. The Dream Weavers. They call us that with good reason, for we quite literally weave dreams. Although we do not possess true magic, this is a magic of our own. We dispel the nightmares that plague the creatures of this world, and weave dreams for all."

I knew this already, but Cal didn't. "Lateef, how is it that we can weave dreams for everybody in the world?" he inquired.

"Good question. We can't. There are few of us... we are the smallest dragon clan, after all. Do you notice that sometimes you don't dream, or the dreams aren't as vivid?" Lateef asked. Cal nodded. "Well, concerning the former, we don't know who our dreams are sent to. It is completely random. Although a single Dream Weaver can produce hundreds, even thousands of dreams in a day, it just isn't enough. As for the latter, our mind can create dreams and—"

"If the mind can create dreams, then why does everybody need us?" I interrupted.

"That is also a good question. You heard me mention nightmares before, correct? Well, a long time ago, before there were Dream Weavers, people experienced nightmares very often. When the first Dream Weaver recognized his powers, he learned how to stop the nightmares from coming, and later how to weave dreams. He taught other dragons his secret, and soon the power went within them and became hereditary."

"What's hereditary?" Cal asked.

"Hereditary means that the power is passed from parent to child over the course of generations. Heredity is why you resemble the members of your family."

"Oh. I thought heredity was a spell the genies cast," I said.

Lateef stared at me for several seconds with a blank look on his face. Then, to my surprise, he burst into laughter. He laughed and laughed until he needed to lean on the wall for support. When this happened, I asked Lateef what in the dreamworld was so funny.

"Noth—" Lateef gave one last chuckle and stood up straight. "Nothing. Anyway, let's move on. The Artisan Dragons are among the most well-known, and they also are the most numerous. As their name suggests, they are skilled... artisans. In fact, a long time ago before even I was born, the Artisans built this very castle—all of the castles, actually, in all the worlds. They're a skilled and cultured race."

"How long did it take them to build the castles?" I asked.

"Five or six years," Lateef replied.

"Wow," I breathed, looking around in wonderment as if I could see the spirits of the dragons who had built this place.

"Now," Lateef said, "onto the Magic Crafters. The Magic Crafters live in seclusion, like us, in high mountain peaks. They are the most magically inclined dragons, and have an affinity for the arcane. The Magic Crafters, in fact, were the very ones who created the portals that link to other areas. But they leave the transportation between homeworlds to the balloonists."

"Are the other worlds, like Lofty Castles, real?" Cal asked.

"Some of them are, and some of them aren't. Most of our sub-worlds are the product of the combined powers of a Dream Weaver and a Magic Crafter, but this isn't the case for Sky Ruler and Icy Flight. Icy Flight is very far away from us, and Sky Ruler is just above us.

"Now, about the Peace Keepers. The Peace Keepers are the strongest dragons, as well as the most honourable. They live in a dry, desert region with almost no water. They're the defenders of the dragon clans, and have participated in many wars."

"What's a war?" I interrupted again.

"A war is a bad thing, Morida," Lateef said solemnly. "A war is when two or more sides disagree over something. The sides fight and hurt each other. The war is not over until either the two sides come to an agreement or one side is gone. Did you know that once the Peace Keepers and Magic Crafters once disagreed? There was a war then. The Peace Keepers would have surely defeated the Magic Crafters if the Beast Makers had not come to the Crafters' aid. As it was, the clans came to an agreement before the war could escalate.

"And speaking of that, let's move on to the final dragon clan: the Beast Makers. The Beast Makers, who live in a swampy region, are responsible for creating the creatures that live in the Dragon Realms, excluding the sentient species, like the mushrooms you often see hopping around here. In fact, they were the ones who created the fools."

"What? Why in the world would they do that?" I asked in disbelief. Fools were so annoying... how could anybody with sense create them?

"I think they created them just so we could have the fun of messing with them!" Cal exclaimed. I joined him in laughter, forgetting all about what had happened earlier.

"Don't kill too many of them," Lateef warned.

"Why not? It's fun!" I giggled. It was fun to see them go flying off the edge, to wonder what happened to them once they got down to the bottom of the abyss.

Lateef gazed at me sadly. After a moment, he said, "That's enough for today. Class is dismissed."

What's wrong with him? I thought to myself as I stood up. I turned and headed out of the room, down the steps, and out into the world. Lateef was just acting a bit sour, I guessed, so I let it go.

I turned my gaze to the sky. Were there really other worlds out there? I chided myself automatically. Of course there were. The dreams had to go somewhere—Dream Weavers didn't go through their intensive rituals just to make pretty colors, after all.

"We're home!" Cal and I chorused when we reached the castle, paws pounding against the coloured stone as we raced over it. We skidded to a stop in the kitchen.

"That was fast. How was school?" Mother asked, smiling and turning around.

"Lateef taught us our lesson quickly. We learned about the other dragon clans, like the Magic Crafters! Did they really make the portals?" I asked, as if I didn't believe Lateef.

"Oh, yes. I remember when they made the portal to Icy Flight. I was just a little girl then. You know, my sister is a Magic Crafter, and so is your cousin," Mother said.

"Because of what?" Cal asked with confusion.

"Cousin. A cousin, Calho, is the child of an aunt or uncle. Aunts and uncles are your parents' brothers or sister. My sister is your aunt. Conversely, you're her nephew and Morida is her niece. Her child is your cousin. If Morida has children one day, you'll be those children's uncles, and they will be your nieces or nephews. Your children will be Morida's children's cousins." Mother was trying to explain it so that we could understand, but she wasn't doing very well. My head was spinning. Why couldn't families just be... families, without all of the complicated names?

"Uh... can the because-in and our aunt come to visit?" I asked, unable to come up with anything else to say.

Mother turned her gaze out the window. Her face had suddenly lost some of its cheeriness and she seemed so much older just then. "Maybe someday, Morida. Maybe someday. Your aunt and I... don't keep in contact, unfortunately." She clapped her paws together and brightened again. "But no time for moping around. There's so much to do, and so little time to do it. Run along, children, and try not to bother your father. He's very busy." Mother smiled softly before turning back to what she had been doing before.

Cal and I exchanged guilty glances, thinking about the fool episode. I grinned sheepishly and led Cal outside. There was still a few hours of daylight left, and I was going to make the most of it.

~~...~~

The day had been tiring. Cal and I had collapsed into our respective beds, exhausted from all the playing. We had spent a good portion of the day tagging each other and laughing until our sides hurt and we could hardly move.

I heard a shuffling from the other side of the room and awoke halfway, still keeping my eyes close. The crickets that chirped loudly outside the window seemed to be singing just for me, a lullaby that nearly pulled me back to sleep until I heard the voice.

"Momo?" It was Cal. He didn't sound tired, but I knew he was; Momo was what he had called me when he was first learning to speak. Now, he only said that when he was sleepy or angry.

"Hmm?" I asked, opening my eyes and raising my head slightly. My vision wavered for a moment. Cal was standing in the block of moonlight the window cast through the panes and looked just like a little blue ghost.

"Can I sleep with you? I-I thought I saw something scary beside the door."

I nodded and backed up against the rim of the bed to make room. Cal walked over, collapsed beside me, yawned, and settled in.

"Mo?" he murmured, already beginning to fall into slumber. "What's a desert?"

I remembered what Lateef had told us. He said the Peace Keepers lived in a desert, but what was that? He might have mispronounced, but I didn't think it was possible for somebody to live in a dessert. Unless...

"He said it wrong. He means they're in a dessert," I whispered slowly. My imagination sprung to life. "The Peace Keepers live in a castle, like us, but the walls are made out of gingerbread. The clouds and made out of thick cotton candy that melts in your mouth, and the water there isn't water, it's chocolate syrup. Everything is so..." Too tired to continue my sentence, I stopped. Cal was already asleep.

Deciding that I would very much like to be a Peace Keeper, I drifted off into dreams of another world, a world made out of all manner of sweet things. And there wasn't a fool in sight.