Fennec stared nervously around at all the dragons milling about her.
"Um, I'm not so sure about this," Fennec whispered to the large SandWing beside her.
"Oh, c'mon, sis, it'll be fine. You'll love it, I promise. Just look at all these new dragons to meet! There's tons of them!" He responded cheerfully, bumping his shoulder into hers, making Fennec stumble slightly.
"I know. That's the problem, Tumbleweed," Fennec said, shifting her light yellow talons anxiously.
"Oh, don't worry about it. I promise, you'll love it. Whelp, I had better get going. I'll try and visit, I promise. Remember, have fun, and don't be your socially awkward self, got it?" Tumbleweed teased as he spread his beige wings.
Fennec felt slight panic rising in her chest.
"No, wait, can't you stay just a little longer?"
"Sorry, sis, but I gotta fly! Lots of things to take care of. Enclave stuff, ya know?" He said as he took to the sky.
No, I don't know! I don't know anything about the Enclave - you haven't told me a single thing except that you're a part of it! Fennec thought, slightly rebelliously, as her older brother began to wing away.
"Great. Now I'm all alone in a foreign place with foreign dragons. Now what?" She muttered to herself, twisting her satchel in her front talons. The small, camel leather bag was given to Fennec by her mother before she was killed by some SeaWings in the War of the SandWing Succession. Fennec herself had never met their mother - she was only an egg when Javelina had been killed. Tumbleweed had been twelve, and before their mother left to go fight in the battle in which she had been killed, she had told Tumbleweed to give the bag to Fennec, and to protect his younger sister with his life if anything happened to her.
Which Tumbleweed had done, since something had happened to Javelina. Fennec, who wished everyday that she could have at least glimpsed her mother once, carried the satchel around everywhere, and basically treated it like an idol. When she wasn't wringing it in her talons - which she did when she was upset or excited - she wore it slung across her pale sandy neck. In it, she had an agate stone and a spare piece of paper and ink, just in case she needed to write something down. She usually carried other knicks and knacks, but she had emptied it for school supplies.
"Oh, sorry, excuse me."
An alien voice and someone bumping into her pulled Fennec out of her thoughts. She turned her frilled head to see an aquamarine SeaWing dragonet walking past her. He was slightly plump, but in an eye-appealing, pleasant way. He had slightly droopy, lime green eyes and short legs.
"Oh, no, you're fine," Fennec replied after quickly assessing him.
"Um, do you, know where we go?" He asked, his voice slightly sheepish. "I've never done this kind of thing before."
"Yeah, this way," Fennec replied, acting like she knew exactly what she was doing. This dragon needs someone confident, she thought. His nervous voice and the way he held his head clearly showed that he was anxious about starting anything new.
Fennec led the way, following the crowd into a large cave. She curled her barbed tail into a tighter circle as the other dragons pressed in around her. She heard the SeaWing's flappy, wet talon steps behind her as she headed through the cave.
In the center of the cavern was a purpley-black NightWing. Fennec recognized her immediately from the white scales on her ankle and behind her eyes. Fatespeaker was pretty well-known throughout Pyrrhia. Not as acknowledged as the five prophecy dragonets, but still.
"Okay, everyone, if you'll just form a single-file line!" Fatespeaker hollered over the din of the chattering dragonets. After a few minutes, the thirty-five dragonets formed a loppy line. Not straight enough to be called a line, though, really.
Fennec ended with a spot near the back of the 'line', with the SeaWing behind her. She was just fine with standing in silence, but it seemed that the SeaWing had other plans.
"I'm Cuttlefish," he said, breaking the silence. "What's your name?"
"Fennec," she replied shortly.
"What do your parents do?" He asked her. "Mine are just commoners who own a fish marketplace. We're actually one of the best-selling markets in the Deep Palace," he boasted, slightly puffing out his sky-blue underbelly.
"My mother's dead, and I never knew my father," Fennec said flatly.
"Oh." He looked taken back by her reply, and little ashamed that he had brought that up. "I'm sorry."
"It's okay. My mother died in the war. She was killed by…" She trailed off, and suddenly realized who she was talking to. How had she forgotten her phobia of SeaWings? In Possibility, where she and Tumbleweed lived, she tried to avoid SeaWings as much as possible. Fennec was deathly afraid of the water dragons, especially adults. Tumbleweed constantly teased her for her fear, but Fennec didn't care. They had killed her mother, and maybe her father, and they could kill her.
But this dragon seemed so…harmless. His droopy features and quiet voice made him seem so innocuous.
"Oh." Cuttlefish whispered, looking down at his webbed talons. "I get it. She was killed by SeaWings, wasn't she? In the war."
Fennec nodded, feeling the somber mood penetrate all the way through her scales. Luckily, a dragon behind them saved her from saying anything else as the SkyWing hollered, "Hey, quit holding up the line! Move it!"
Cuttlefish jumped and scrambled forward, pushing Fennec along with his front talons. They caught up with the MudWing in front of them and stopped. Fennec peered around the sides of the dragonets - since she wasn't tall enough to see over them- and saw that there were only four dragons left in front of them: a glittery IceWing, a haughty NightWing, an excited RainWing, and the smiley MudWing ahead of Fennec.
"We're almost there," Fennec told Cuttlefish.
Finally, they made up to Fatespeaker, who was looking a little tired.
"This year's dragonets are really talkative, let me tell you that. I FORESEE that this is going to a rambunctious and crazy year," Fatespeaker said as Fennec and Cuttlefish approached her. "Ah, Fennec and…Cuttlefish, right? I've been practicing to memorize everyone's names. So far I've only messed up once - just on a SkyWing named Flare. Accidentally called her Pear. Anyways, here's your scroll, Fennec -" Fatespeaker handed her a crisp roll of parchment - "And yours, Cuttlefish. Fennec, your cave is the third on the left, and Cuttlefish, yours is on the right."
"Um, what one on the right? The first one?" Cuttlefish asked, swishing his tail nervously as he tried to understand the directions.
"Oh, the third on the right, silly. Isn't that just fabulous? You guys have caves right across from each other! I TOTALLY saw a vision of you two becoming friends - just ask Starflight, he'll tell you. Anyways, hope you all have a great time!" Fatespeaker hurried them along with that last sentence, and the two started down the hall.
"Well, that's kind of cool. Us having caves parallel to each other, I mean," Fennec said to Cuttlefish. He nodded in reply with a cheerful smile.
"Yeah. Well, see you tomorrow?" He said.
"Yeah, see ya, Cuttlefish," Fennec said in farewell before turning left to go into her cave.
Fennec walked into the opening, peering around with onyx eyes. The room was big enough to hold a gathering of about seven adult dragons, with just a little room to spare. On the left wall were three bookshelves, all of them mostly empty. Small blocks of wood were sitting atop of them, and Fennec walked closer to investigate.
The blocks of wood had names carved into them, assigning a bookshelf to each of the dragonets that would be staying in the cave. Fennec's bookshelf was in the middle. Someone named Quicksand - as the block of wood said - was on the right, while a dragonet named Hibiscus had the shelf on the left.
Hmm. Hibiscus - ninety percent sure that that's a RainWing. Quicksand could be a MudWing or a SandWing name, really. Guess we'll see, Fennec thought as she studied the names.
She continued onward, moving past the bookshelves and assessing the rest of the room. On the back wall were three beds. One was a pit in the floor that was filled with white sand. Fennec guessed that that one was most likely for her. Another one was a hammock that was hanging from two stalactites on the ceiling, while the third was a stone tub-looking basin that was top-full of steaming mud.
Well, that answers that question, then. Fennec was now positive that her third clawmate was going to be a MudWing.
Fennec walked over to the sand pit and stepped in. It went deeper than it had looked at first, and the sand went up to her elbows. But then again, Fennec wasn't exactly a big dragon, and quite small for her size, so it was probably intended to go half-way up the forearm.
She lay down, curling up into a ball and resting her chin on the outside of the pit. The warm sand felt relaxing against her pale scales, and Fennec sighed in content. Her eyelids began to droop, and a few moments later, Fennec was fast asleep.