A/N:

And as promised. CHAPTER TWO! It was a bit late in the day, and for that I am sorry. However, I do partially blame it on leaving in the middle of the day to go shooting with Hacodeman. First time. Scoped myself… yeah. Anywho! I hope you all enjoy this installment!

Hacodeman: Yay, I sort of helped with this one :P, also watching Knock scope himself was pretty funny.

Well at least I took it well. Though damn, that hurt! Now the bridge of my nose is bruised! I just hope I don't sleep on it tonight. On a further note, Sseth did help me with this. He just wasn't there at the time of the authors note. Hopefully he'll be here for the next.

Hacodeman: Sseth is a smelly.

Yeah, he does stink of fry oil a lot of the time. However, I can't really blame him. Despite the fact! It's still nice to have his input. Though, when he was over this weekend, we did kind of fuck about more than actually edit, or, at least he did.

Alright enough of my rambling! Most people don't read these anyway. But regardless! For those who do! It's time to enjoy Snapple fueled, pizza powered, cupcake energized writing! Enjoy!

Oh, shit wait. Right. Disclaimer. I own nothing... save for my OCs. So you know, like Spyro, Cynder, apes/grublins, the world, and shit. Not mine. Everything else! Yeah, I guess I have rights.

Also

How do you know when you're badass? When you can make minute rice in 59 seconds!


Chapter 2: A Life With Few

The sun shone through a small hole in the wall, illuminating the dusty, dimly lit cave with its blinding beams. Slowly, it began to creep its way farther into the darkness, lighting up the stone floor as it went. Eventually, it gleamed upon a large patch of animal furs and soft moss, all piled onto a bump. During the sun's unstoppable journey, the light found itself blanketing the top of the mound, brightening the thick overlay of hair and plants.

The mound shuffled slightly before being pushed to the left and a low, muffled, groan could be heard. Abruptly, the hill of nature was thrown into the air, all of its furs gliding down softly as the moss bounced around the cave; coming to a halt within the second. In the middle of the now empty space, a black and white quadruped could be seen lying on its side; its tail curled around the rest of its body while the wings covered its legs.

Ellix, who was barely awake, stirred out of his dreamy state, opening his maw wide before letting another yawn escape. He sighed, having been awoken from a very pleasant dream, in which he was flying around Avalar, by himself, alone. These kinds of dreams came often, mainly because it was what he wanted the most. But sadly, he was confined to his part of the cave, with his 'fantastic' family, only getting out when he was hunting beside his father, and even that was more akin to a stealthy march.

The sun remained, pestering his closed eyes, following them no matter what direction he faced. Ellix slowly stretched his limbs, starting with the front left forearm. Once he heard a satisfying pop, he went to the next leg, continuing the process until all five appendages were unstiffened. He then cracked his eyes open, just to close them from the bright light. It wasn't until after a few more attempts to open them did they dilate to a comfortable level.

Ellix rolled onto his stomach, licking around the edges of his mouth to remove the unwanted salvia that clung there. Eventually, he stood up, once again moaning, but not before bending his back inward, giving him a cat-like appearance. Next, his wings, which were drooped lifelessly at his sides. Giving them a quick flap, he returned feeling to them while simultaneously blowing the remaining moss to the walls of the cave.

Still tired, he sat on his haunches, and with one paw Ellix wiped the remaining rheums from his eyes. His maw hung agape, and as he breathed through it, the morning air filled his lungs. Some of the particles of air filtered back through his throat and back into his nose, causing Ellix's already stuffy mind to be instantly filled with the scents of surrounding creatures. One scent in particular gained his interest, that of fresh meat. The smell of food was enough to snap him out of his daze. Apparently, his father had caught a few deers, somehow, and as usual they didn't openly invite him for breakfast. With an irked huff Ellix got to his feet, and proceeded to turn to the entrance of his portion of the cave system his family lived in. However, before he could progress, a loud, but higher pitched voice emanated from down the tunnel.

"Ellix!" His older sister, Cera, shouted with vexation from the dining area, "Get your tail down here before dad eats all of your kill!" Cera was only a year older than him, at eighteen, and was the only dragon who treated him like a prank toy. Because apparently, he was easily tricked and had the best reactions. She was also an absolute nag at the best of times, which didn't help her relations with him in any way.

"I'm serious Ellix, he's not too keen on sharing right now! About half of it is gone!"

As much as he wanted to use one of his many witty retorts, his stomach rumbled, annoyingly agreeing with his older sister. However, he could do something to get back at her, for no reason, of course, but hey, she's irritating. Luckily for him, it was at this point in which an idea, a cruel, but not too callous, idea came to his mind. It was simple, and he got to do his favorite thing, using his element.

Slowly, Ellix dropped into a crouch. His right hind leg scratching the rock as he 'revved up' in preparation to sprint. Springing from his crouched position, he burst through the tunnel at high speed; the scent of venison filling his nostrils as he got closer and closer to the central cavern. Once the light of the outside world bounced across the walls around him, Ellix used his elemental power, dipping into the realm of shadows.

From the shrouded silhouettes of the dark he could see his family, mother, father, and sister. Each one in their respective places around the reasonably fresh kills. He could vaguely hear them talking; it sounded as if someone had stuffed a pelt into their mouths and was lying on their chest, but despite these impairments, he could clearly understand what they were saying, having had years of practice.

"Whe- wil-… learn t-… ge- here fas-… -er?" Berated one of the three muffled blobs, which was sprawled carelessly on its side, therefore, he knew it to be Cera. Sadly, he had not thought out the rest of his plan, at least up to this point. Most of the time ideas would just come. However he had just woken up, causing his mind to be more lethargic than usual. He desperately wanted to pop up, drag her into the realm with him, and leave her there; hopefully teaching her to not shout at him. Unfortunately, taking another living thing with him would use too much elemental energy, so he devised another scheme.

"I don- kn-..., but… h- wan-...-s an- he- hav-...-e to get he-...-re so-," one of the other silhouettes replied, "or yo-... fat-...-er wil- ea-...-t it al-," his mother quipped, before the blobs turned to face the other, slightly larger blobby shadow.

"Wh-mphf?" His father tried to speak up, his face obviously stuffed with meat, making him much harder to understand in general.

Ellix heard muffled laughter come from the two females, and soon after it started he found himself snickering as well, no matter how much it went against his normal posture. Having used the short time to finalized a plan, Ellix just sat and watched; minimizing the amount of energy used while he awaited the proper time to execute.

"It- tw- aga-...-inst on-," his father lamentably stated, only causing more giggles from the other family members. "Ell- hurr-! I-... ne-...-ed yo… hel-!" The larger dragon finished shouting down the cave with gusto. His father wasn't young, but neither was he old. Somehow, he had found a way to get the perfect median, causing him to be incredibly light hearted yet serious and protective when he felt the need.

Ellix just listened to the chatter with a devilish grin, they had no idea that he was right there, which pleased him immensely, maybe a little too much. And not soon after his father's shouts, the family members returned to their meal. Which was exactly what Ellix had been waiting for.

Despite the fact that he had his intentions thought out, he had yet to actually prepare for them. Quickly, Ellix made his way to the left side of the Cera's deer; watching his sister's snout approach the meat. Ellix sat hunched down next to the stag, waiting until the last possible second to get his fill. His toothy smirk only expanding as her maw opened wide, allowing Cera to get a larger chunk out of the deer's hind leg.

Knowing it was the time, Ellix pushed off the the ground, launching himself like a ragdoll right at the dead animal. Just as the females dragon's jaw was about to chomp down, Ellix released his hold on the shadow realm, appearing right before everyone's eyes in a flash of darkness. The first thing he did in his state of flight was smack his sister's snout out of the way, causing her to squeal with surprise and recoil. Was it an accident? Yes. However, that didn't stop a small smile from tugging at his face. Unobstructed, Ellix barreled straight towards the half eaten deer. As he came in contact with the decimated animal, Ellix secured his arms around it, ensnaring whatever was left tightly. Once Ellix grabbed the stag, all of his momentum was transferred to it, causing both Ellix and the deer to somersault across the room before they disappeared back into the shadows on the wall.

The room was silent, the only thing that could be heard was the sounds of birds chirping outside and the not-so-quiet rubbing and mumbling of his sister's snout; all while everyone gazed at the spot where Ellix had disappeared. They all knew Ellix had the shadow element, or at least what he called it, and that he did stunts like this often. But every time it happened they couldn't help but be astonished. Finally, his father snapped out of his stare, shattering the silence.

"Yeah!" He shouted, obviously delighted that Ellix heard his call of 'distress', "I knew I could count on you!" He continued jovially before jumping up and running to Ellix's section of the cave system, leaving the two females to their umbrage. However, upon reaching Ellix's room, Joule found his son on his back with closed eyes; rubbing his gut, while all that remained of the deer was its head and bones.

"Aw," Joule pouted, picking up one of the femurs that had been stripped from its meat, his previous elation being replaced by a listless expression, "I thought you would have left at least a little," he ended, tossing the bone to the back towards the entrance.

"Nope," Ellix grunted, "because according to Cera you ate half of it," he rebuked, much to Joules chagrin; because in truth, he had only gotten maybe three-fourths of an average serving. Looking up to his father, he couldn't help but leer at his downcast look.

Joule was as lightning as one could get, his scales being a pyrite color while his chest and wing membranes were pine brown; his eyes closely matching the colors of his chest. Joule's chest scales consisted of a single vertically and horizontally centered diamond followed by arrows going up and down his chest. Joule's body was thinner than most dragons, clearly being built more for speed than bulk; this was also apparent in his muzzle shape, which was more feminine in appearance. He had three horns, one on the very tip of his snout, and the other two on the sides of his head. All three were shaped like curved zig-zags and the one on his nose was a brighter brown, making it almost yellow.

Two sets of spines ran down the middle of his head and were connected by a thin layer of brown skin. These frills met up into one set when they reached his wing joints and continued down until the start of his tail. He also had these spines on his shoulders, hips, and under his maw. Underneath said spines, many brown spots could be found, giving him a somewhat giraffe-like appearance. His tail spade was a barbed blade that held the appearance of three hooked teeth that stuck outward while the last tooth was much larger than the rest and was more inwardly curved, while also having a pointed tip, and as he sat there it twitched and swayed. These teeth barbs were also present on his wing tips, but were comprised of only a singular point. Joule's claws, tail blade, wing tips, and horns were all the same brown as his chest.

"Come on!" Joule blurt out suddenly, breaking Ellix out of his awkward stare, "Let's get this carcass out of here before some apes, or grublins I suppose, catch on to the scent," he concluded prudently. The apes were the whole reason they were living in this musty cave in lieu of the dragon city, Warfang.

They were disgusting. Matted fur, gnarled teeth, finger nails covered in rotted flesh, and the blood- splattered with blood. All of these things made their appearance menacing, regardless of the fact that they were smaller in comparison to his own size; or any dragon's for that matter, save for the higher ranking apes, which were somehow larger than the rest. The stench that followed them didn't help either, as one could often smell them coming from miles away. However, the worst thing about them was the way they fought. Swarms, swarms, and swarms of them at a time. Smallest cluster that he'd ever seen was about six apes, and that was just a scouting party.

Ellix shuddered at the sound of the word. Apes were one of the things he was trained to hate and fear. He remembered the last time his family had encountered the smelly, homicidal creatures. They had been forced to abandon their previous home for three months to take refuge in the ever frozen wastes of Dante's Freezer, and when they returned, the surrounding forest was burned down and their cave had been half destroyed. Of course, they had found another home, this one resting in the Valley of Avalar. However, all this happened over three years ago and since that time, there hadn't been one sign of a single ape. Instead, their family had to deal with a whole new form of enemy, grublins.

These creatures were just as vicious and disgusting as the apes, even their intelligence matched that of the mammals, which was rather depressing. The only differences between the two foul beings was that the grublins were made of earth and lacked the most basic senses, such as smell; also, the grublins came in many different forms, each one having its own very specific task. Ellix trembled again as he thought about the massive grublin troll that had attacked him and his father while on a hunting trip not long after the creatures started appearing, the thing took well over an hour of constant battle to defeat and even then neither him nor Joule came out unscathed.

Despite the fact that the apes had vanished, and the grublins couldn't track for their lives, his family still kept their guard up, not wanting to let even the slightest thing hint at their location, and acting as if both enemies were a constant threat. So, he pushed himself to his feet and padded over to his waiting father. They each took half of the deer's skeleton and walked out of Ellix's section of the cave.

Ellix was the first to come out of the tunnel; his usual frown could barely be seen as he carried the deer's rib cage in his jaw. However, as he rounded the corner, he was met by a blinding stream of frost, covering the whole front half of his body in a thin layer of snow. After a moment of standing there, Ellix dropped the deer carcass listlessly and shook his body violently; flinging bits of ice in every direction. A final flick of the tail later he looked up to his attacker with a deeply resentful scowl.

Cera only chuckled to herself as she watched Ellix shake the frost off, but once he turned back to face her, the look on his face was enough to send her into a fit of laughter. Luckily, she remained observant enough to duck under his tail blade as it came whirling at her face.

"Maybe you should save some next time," Cera choked through her mirth, which was only intensified after his failure to come up with a retort.

Ellix only sustained his scowl and walked to the entrance of the cave; sitting down and waiting for his father so they could go and bury the bones, still flicking off pieces of ice that had gotten stuck under his scales. It was at this point that their father came around the corner, chuckling conviviality to himself, with the other half of the deer between his wing joints.

"Maybe you should actually grab some next time," he chided as he walked past her over to where Ellix was sitting; taking the time to vigorously rub the top of Cera's head with his right paw.

"Hey!" She emitted angrily, nipping at her father's forearm, "I was about to but the ape hog over there stole the whole thing before I could get any!" Her tone dripping with venom as she hissed, turning to Ellix who returned the favor with a low snarl.

"Oh sure!" Ellix shot back belligerently, completely ignoring the bones as they fell from his maw, "It's not like you had the entirety of ours to eat!"

"Well Ellix, unlike some dragons, I am polite, and don't steal others food!"

"Alright you two," A cordial voice replied, cutting the growls off, "And you," it continued, seemingly aimed at their father, who had been facing Ellix and snickering.

Joule looked up just in time to receive a blast of snow to the snout, covering it in a thick layer of ice and effectively closing it. Recoiling from the abrupt cold, he looked down to see his nostrils covered in ice.

"Whmmmmy!" Wide-eyed, Joule began to scratch frantically at the ice with his claws, slowly chipping it away while two distinct giggles and a scoff could be heard. He looked up to see his mate walking towards him with a smug smirk on her face.

"Maybe you shouldn't eat more than half your fill, Joule," she said brushing up against his side then nuzzling under his chin. Sapphire was two toned, oyster shell teal and sapphire blue. Her eyes were another thing altogether. Unlike most, she had a different color for each eye; one color being a light blue and the other a pine green. Across her side, between her forearms and thighs, a sinuous streak of the turquoise could be seen, making it look like the waves of the ocean across her body. These waves also pronounced her body's curvature accurately, making her all the more stunning.

Her chest scales could be seen as multiple ovals, connecting vertically together to make curved triangles at the sides. The triangles were the deepest hue of blue, almost black, that could be found across her body, whiles the ovals matched the sapphire blue found elsewhere. This blue also followed up to her wing membranes, and surprisingly, she had no frills across her back or anywhere else on her body. Sapphire had three horns, they all shot straight back and bent back inward near the ends, making them look almost like falchions. Her tail spade looked like an elongated throwing star, with the tips facing outwards and each arrow having two spikes, one on the bottom and top, that also faced outwards; to put into a better perspective, it was essentially a buzzsaw with hooks on each blade. These stars were also on her wing tips, but only had three points and lacked the spines. Her horns, tail spade, claws, and wing tips were all silver.

Joule blushed, knowing she was right and attempted to hide it, though to no avail. Her smile deepened upon seeing his embarrassment.

"Now go and bury those bones, and clean yourselves up," she urged, "You know this is the day that Selic and Vinea said they would visit," Sapphire admonished, finishing the argument, before turning and walking back into the cave.

This was why Ellix seriously doubted that his family was in any actual danger. Sure they had been attacked, kicked out of their home, and forced to fight for their lives, but in all honesty, if the world was so ancestors-damn dangerous, why the heck would anyone even think of leaving the safety of their home to visit a friend? Even though this wasn't the first time they had visited, what the heck? Is everyone stupid or do they just not care?

"What?!" Cera shouted, taken aback by the 'unforeseen' announcement and completely ignoring the irony, "Why didn't you tell me yesterday?" She finished, kneading in ground anxiously. Selic's son, Mach, was the only one closer to Cera then her mother. In other words, her consort.

"I did, you were just too involved with pestering Ellix about who caught yesterday's meal," she stated, turning back to face the three of them, "and I still believe that you-," however, before she could finish Cera charged under her.

"No time for compliments!" She yelled from underneath her mother, causing her to yelp and jump lightly, then dart past Ellix and Joule. "Need to get ready!" And by ready, she meant polishing all of her reachable scales and sharpening her horns and claws. She quickly disappeared into the forest, heading towards a nearby stream to wash up in.

"Do you really think she caught the boar?" Joule asked right as his mate decided to turn back into the cave, again, "Ellix was the one to actually kill it, Saph," he reminded her, looking down as Ellix, who just raised an eye ridge in return, almost as to say 'Support? Two times in one day? Interesting…'

"That may be, but Cera was the one who wounded it enough for them to catch it," Sapphire retorted plainly, not even turning around to face them, "But that doesn't matter right now, you two need to clean yourselves or you'll stink up the place, and you know Vinea won't be very happy," she warned them, slightly yelling around the corner she had disappeared behind.

Joule knew Selic's mate had a more-sensitive-than-necessary nose, and the last thing he needed was her batting him around for being covered in the stench of a stag. He sighed, then looked down to Ellix who had the same look on his face, he too had been scolded by Vinea more than once.

"We better go." Joule mumbled before lacklusterly turning away from Ellix and towards where they had seen Cera run off too, "Both of us know how to appease that dragoness," Joule finished with a half-hearted chuckle, and with those words, both he and Ellix flew off towards a small river that flowed by the cave, with deer bones in their mouths and blood on their claws.

The cave they called home wasn't that much in the way of looks from the outside, seeming to be no more than a simple hole that was barely distinguishable from the cliff wall it sat in. A few patches of moss and grass clung to the side, adding a splash of natural color to the grey cliffs. A narrow ledge allowed them a way to land. However it took skill since it was quite thin and they had little time to decelerate before hitting the main chamber. A few trees stuck out from the cliff, making the visibility of the cavern even lower. All in all, the cave looked minuscule. However, the inside consisted of a large, seemingly endless, sprawling tunnel system that gave their family more than enough room to hold themselves and many guests, should they need to.

Sadly, guests were rare, since there weren't that many dragon families nearby, or really in general. The only other family they knew of was Selic, Vinea, and their children, Mach and Ria. Even then, they didn't see them often because of the clearly apparent dangers that were posed to them, and with the dark armies still roaming the surrounding land, neither family could travel through the forest without being cautious. But when one or the other family decided to visit, their stay was usually kept from anywhere to two weeks to a few months.

They landed on the rocky beaches of the river, dropping the deer skeleton on the ground. Joule glanced around to see if he could spot anything in the tree line, a grublin attack at this time would not be the most ideal thing, and since they were so close to their home, running back would only attract them there. After a thorough scan, he turned down to Ellix, who he found was doing the same thing, which he was rather proud of. Joule had been the one who taught Ellix about the surrounding forest and what to be wary of, having had experience in the war, as well as special training in the subject of survival.

"Ellix," he said to his only son, causing him to break his trance and turn to his father, "why don't you find Cera and wash up, I'll deal with the bones," the gold dragon concluded with an amiable smile. Ellix rested there for a second, almost wanting to be courteous and help him with digging the hole, since none of them were earth dragons, but eventually he realized how sappy it would sound and ended up just sharply nodded; striding off across the shoreline.

"But make sure you find her before doing anything else," Joule advised as Ellix advanced up the beach. Joule was more than aware that Ellix could hold his own against a grublin attack, but two dragons fighting is still better than one.

Ellix advanced up the shoreline at a steady pace, stopping every so often to scan the tree-line and sky, just in case any grublins or wyverns are skulking about. The oak trees that surrounded him were incredibly dense, providing the finest camouflage for attackers. Despite this overwhelming advantage, Ellix was unconcerned. The beach he was traveling on was lined with crystals, about every fifty feet. His family found out that these crystals only grew here, which was a stroke of luck by itself. Ever since the apes started to harvest the crystals for their magic they became less and less available. The sad part is that these crystals could only be used one time; his mother thought it was because they were newly formed and didn't have a proper base yet.

Eventually, the rocks beneath his paws started to turn into pebbles, which, as he walked even farther, turned into sand. His movement left indents in the beach, causing the tiny grains to lodge their way in between his paw and claws, making them itch unbearably. But luckily for Ellix, the sand abruptly stopped, leaving him on a large, flat slab of stone that stretched into the water and a good sixty feet across the beach.

"Well, this should… and she's not here," Ellix sighed subconsciously. This was the exact rock face that his sister used to wash off, knowing this because to he used it was well. The large, flat rock entered the water at a shallow angle, allowing one to pretty much be in the middle of the river and still be standing. The stone's surface was also coarse, not enough to cut their scales, but provided enough resistance to scrape any grime off them, and to top it all off the current around this area was extremely slow. Thus, in their minds, making it the best place to clean off.

He proceeded down the rock beach, still scanning for danger and his sister, as if there were much of a difference. Where is she? Ellix questioned, becoming more displeased by the second, There is no way! No way, she could have finished that fast, ending his little snit as he looked left and right; furiously searching for a sign that his sister was there whilst creeping towards the water. The suspense was insignificantly prodding at him; no sound, no signs, he could smell her, but that didn't matter much because he could also smell his own scent from previous trips, then finally, he broke.

"Cera!"

Silence. Waiting for what seemed like an eternity, he called again, only this time with more zeal.

"Cera!"

It was practically a scream of arrant frustration, but none the less, all he got back was the echo.

Now he was mildly worried, he began to shuffle around the beach, pushing loose rocks and bits of leaf about. This was not good, maybe; did something happen to her? What if she got attacked while she was alone? Did a wyvern sweep her off? Or maybe a grublin party just flat out killed her. Each thought was more entertaining to envision than the last. However, he doubted that a simple band of attackers would down her that quickly. Their dad taught them a good deal of things about combat, but despite the training and previous encounters he couldn't help but feel unnerved. At this point Ellix was standing over the water, looking across the shoreline, dreading to find some indication of his sister.

Up to this point, he only surveyed the shore and tree line, but as quickly as he realized this, another nondescript thought came to him. She's in the water, Ellix was, unfortunately, too late, and as he looked down, a cyan blob shot out of the water, knocking him into the air and scaring him despite the fact.

Ellix quickly began flapping his wings, regaining his composure in the air and balancing himself. Still breathing heavily, he peered beneath the spot in which he was hovering. He knew it was Cera, but the jump scare was enough to set him on edge. However, as he looked around, all he could see was the slab of stone. His sister was, once again, gone.

"Cera?" Ellix asked bellicosely, irritated that his sibling would act so daft when the situation could be hazardous. Unfortunately, his answer was one he could have lived without.

With the sound of a mighty flap, and a kick to the back, Ellix was sent sprawling into the river, landing belly first into the water with a stomach churning smack! Ellix struggled to the surface, the air having been knocked out of him upon entering the water. Luckily he hadn't hit the rock below, but it had still hurt, badly. He crawled out of the water, panting heavily and dragging his tail, spewing curses and sentences of revenge. Upon reaching the water's edge, he was met by none other than Cera, who was failing miserably in her attempt to stifle a laugh.

Her cyan scales glistened in the sunlight, an obvious sign that she had been cleaning them for an extensive period of time. She also shared Ellix's snow-white scales. Hers, however, were located on her underbelly and chest, going all the way back to the mid-point on her tail. Cera's muzzle was average for a dragoness; a pointed almost beak like shape with a curved upper lip. Her eyes were a lovely shade of azure, and they sparkled with a strange sadistic glee as she watched Ellix struggle. The secondary color of her hide was a deeper sky blue, which dotted her flank and neck in small splotches, accenting specific parts of her body more than others. It was hard to tell, due to her blinding colors, but Cera actually had a nicely shaped body, a pronounced chest with strong curves that ran all the way down to her tail. 'Like a descendant ancestor', according to Mach, but regardless, Ellix had to give the name some credit.

Cera's chest scales could be defined as bars, each one crossing her chest horizontally, making a prison grate like effect. Her wing membranes were a light blue, along with the film connecting to the frills that could be seen all the way from the back of her neck to the top of her rump. These frills were not connected to each other like Ellix's were, alternatively, each one flowed freely from the rest and looked like right triangles. Her horns also curved back, mimicking her mother's, but unlike hers, Cera only had two, and they angled back out near the end, making a smoothed out 'S' shape. The last prominent feature was her cone-like tail spade. It was shaped like a wooden spike with little, needle-like splinters attached to the side of it, acting as a morningstar and was ice white, like her claws and horns. She also had these deadly splinters on the main joints of her wings.

Once Ellix was aside his sister, he flopped down on his back, wings hanging loosely at his sides while he grimaced through his teeth.

"That," Ellix started glancing up to Cera with beady eyes, who in return, stared at him with a viciously happy smile, "was unnecessary," finalizing the statement with askance. He was about to say something snide in hopes of ending her joy but was cut off.

Laughter. Seriously? How could she not laugh, it was just too absurd to look away from. Ellix, lying on his back with his eyes now closed, heard his sister's chortling, or contained giggling, guffawing... snorting. Opening his vision to the world, he glared at her.

"That wasn't funny, I don't know why you think it was," he retorted still irate, "because it would have been awful if something had gotten to you. Me being concerned and all," he finished with a more than obvious amount of sarcasm. Upon getting no response Ellix her studied for a second, trying to figure out what was so ridiculously funny.

"Was that just some poor excuse of extended payback?" She nodded, causing him to scoff and turn away, not wanting to look at her hysterics.

"That's not why I'm… I'm laughing," she managed to blurt out.

Ellix raised a skeptical eye. "Then tell me," he demanded, the anger in his chest rising with each second. It was something wrong with him, obviously, because nothing else would be funny enough. However, he didn't know what is was, and it irked him greatly to see her just snorting and giving cryptic answers.

"Look at yourself!" Cera practically screeched, before covering her face with paws, making her fall forward onto her belly. Ellix stared for a bit, more peeved than ever.

"Oh! So I'm the issue! Yeah sure," he sneered with enhanced sarcastic abilities before slowly rolling back over and looking at his own body. "You're over here howling like dad just attempted a backflip, again, and yet somehow I'm the problem." Ellix gazed across his paws and tail, then his wings and back, he swished his head around to see if his horns were still intact, which they were. Nothing seemed wrong, maybe a little stomach pain but that was about it.

Then, Ellix rolled back over to inspect his stomach scales. The normally black plates now had a red tint to them, causing their color to be a dark maroon. On the sides of his body where the water had also impacted, his white scales were now pink, all in all, it made him look like someone had fun with an airbrush. Upon viewing his, Ellix's eyes widened in shock and he blushed, his face turning a deep red to finish off his transformation.

Cera could only watch as Ellix discovered why she was mocking him, and his expression made it hilarious another time over; which could be only described as shock, then embarrassment, then anger beyond recognition. Quickly, he covered himself with his wings before rolling over again, not wanting to give Cera the satisfaction of viewing her handy work. Ellix then turned back to her, seeing that she was still cackling at the whole ordeal. He was about to retort with a snarky comment he had been saving for the past couple weeks but was interrupted, again.

"So," Cera said, now recomposed, "what's it like to be a fire dragon?" She asked slyly with a hidden smirk.

"Shut up," he snorted irefully, then got up and turned away from her, heading down to the river to soothe his stomach and hopefully remove the redness. As he entered the water, the stinging pain from his belly flop was immediately removed. The cool water made its way across his chest scales before slipping in between them and touching his sensitive skin, causing a shiver to bolt it's way up to his head. Slowly, almost methodically, Ellix lowered himself every farther into the water. He was now wing joint deep, allowing it to flow around him peacefully as he waded with his eyes closed.

Cera watched silently, staring at Ellix as he stood unmoving in the water. The sounds of the surrounding forest battering her ears, along with the water lapping against the shore. She expected Ellix to try and get back at her, but instead, he just stood in the water, not even cleaning himself. He must have been pissed, after all, she just made a complete fool out of him, even if their was no one around.

But soon, her strangely necessary revenge was interrupted. Cera was the first to hear it; the sound of wings beating against the air. Snapping to focus, Cera whipped her gaze to the sky. Soon after, Ellix's glare joined hers; both pairs of eyes darting left and right, trying to identify the source. As the beats got nearer and more could be heard, Cera could see Ellix visibly tense up. She too, had received lessons from her father, though her training was mainly focused on survival in a hostile environments, such as tracking and medical skills, rather than about the creatures that dwell within it. On the other hand, Ellix had learned about the creatures that lived inside the forest, as well as the ones that wished to harm them, such as apes, wyverns, and grublins, and been told how to combat them.

Ellix began to shift in the water, backpedaling until he was at his sister's side. Despite their dislike for each other, or rather Ellix's dislike of Cera, they had been taught to fight together, regardless of how much they hated one another, and cover the others weaknesses. But even though they were grouped, the feeling of nervousness seeped into them, though Ellix less than Cera, but both expected to see a group of apes riding dreadwings burst over the tree line, or a pack of wyverns eyeing them hungrily with their insect like faces. However, since all of their focus was to the skies, and neither sibling took a certain gold and brown dragon into consideration as he approach them from down the beach.

"Apes!"

One simple word, yet ambiguous in meaning. The sudden cry from behind caused Cera to jump easily a few feet into the air, and out of instinct her wings flared open then locked, allowing her to hover for a brief moment before crashing to the ground, stomach first. Ellix, on the other hand was more than anticipating an attack, and was already in a combat stance. Swiftly spinning on his pads to face the possible threat, he whipped his tail blade around, swiping it against the rocks mere inches away from the paw of his father with a sharp clink.

"Oh, ho oh!" Joule chuckled in amazement, releasing his paw from the scrunched up position he had it in. He was happy to say the least, gaining the reaction he wanted from at least one of his kin. However, he was still impressed at how fast Ellix had reacted to his little 'attack', having almost lost a toe from it; at least the time it took to teach him wasn't a complete waste. His eyes darted between the two sibs. Cera was quick to recover from her little flight and was now standing again with Ellix, who was still in his combat stance. Though both were glaring daggers at him, watching as he sniggered.

"You both reacted fairly well considering you seemed preoccupied," Joule spouted, though hoping that maybe a compliment would help to placate their agitation.

Ellix just growled bellicosely before he turned away and scoffed; walking back down to the water. Both father and daughter watched him go in silence before turning to each other with slightly piqued expressions.

"What's eatin' him?"

"Well before you arrived, I kind of gave him a jump scare and knocked him into the river," Cera replied with a barely concealed grin.

"Oh?" Joule stated placidly, it shocked him at how much his children still acted like… well children, despite their age, "I assume he didn't take it well then."

"Yeah," she continued, her posture remaining the same, "the impact kind of turned him into a fire dragon." However, Cera's attempt at subtly abruptly fractured when she remembered Ellix face, "You should have seen it! All of his underbelly and sides were a bright pink!"

Then, Joule beamed deviously, "You mean kind of like the way you look right now?"

Cera's face visibly shattered, her quirky grin instantly vanishing as she looked down to see the extent of what her father was talking about. To her dismay, he was right, the only difference between her and Ellix's transformations was that she had no black scales to cover up the redness. Blushing deeply, Cera hid the sides of her body with her wings and waddled to the water were Ellix was cleaning himself. Joule stifled a laugh, it was these moments in time in which he wished he could capture the scenes that the two produced, just so he could mock them more effectively.

Pausing for a moment Joule shook his head, not wanting to waste any more time in his own little personal event capturing dreamland. After all, he had yet to even begin cleaning off, and from the looks of it, neither had his children. Maybe he could use this time to 'bond', since other than late at nights and in the early morning after everyone had eaten, he didn't get much of a chance. Joule smiled, watching Ellix and Cera in the water. In the short time he was thinking they had somehow managed to get into a splash fight, and from the looks of it, Cera was winning.

Nope, no bonding, Joule thought. With a cunning smirk and he quickly shot into the air with a mighty flap, positioning himself right over the fighting siblings.

Ellix had already had enough of this play fight. He was in no mood for joking, let alone getting splashed in the face with water and ice, repetitively, as in many, many times. All he wanted to do was get the deer scent off himself but apparently Cera would be damned before she would let that happen.

"Come on Ellix! I thought you were good at fighting!" Cera's teased, beating her wings rapidly, causing her to gain lift and splash water against Ellix, who was attempting to block the waves with his forearms.

"I am! You just seem to think that fighting is nothing more than arguments and pranks!" He retorted, before he broke through her attack and dove under the water, catching her off guard by grabbing her midsection and throwing her barely smaller frame farther out into the river.

"Why are you even doing this? Aren't you afraid of getting your prissy little scale dir- awk!" Sadly, his unfinished rebuttal was cut off when a wad of slush found its way into his mouth.

"Not really!" Cera countered, who had somehow created an iceberg and was now floating lazily on it, "Since we're- hack, still in the- hack, water- hack, can't exactly get dirty- hack!" She remained, continuing to pelt him with ice.

"For ancestors sake Cera, just stop!" He yelled in a feeble attempt to get her to see reason, using his wings as makeshift shields against the globs of freezing water. But soon thereafter his request was fulfilled, even if it meant he and to endure a tidal wave.

Joule landed between the two, breaking apart their fighting while gaining surprised yelps from both. The churning of water and the massive wave that had been produced by the twelve foot tall dragon was enough to send both brother and sister crashing to the rocky beach unceremoniously. The two sat there, coughing and sputtering for a good couple of seconds before turning their heads to see Joule resurface with a fountain of water.

"I believe… that I win," he claimed plainly, wading to the stone slab and crawling onto it. Ellix just snarled before standing up and shaking the excess water from his hide. Cera on the other hand was still panting too hard to reply and just flopped forward on the warm rock, a moment of silence falling between the three.

Sadly this peaceful time was ended when a low, robust chuckle sounded from behind the group. All three turned their head in surprise, Ellix being the only one to actually respond to the sound in a negative way, giving a low snarl and re-entering his crouched state.

"Calm yourself moron," a deep voice stated, clearly the same voice that had just been guffawing, "If you react that way every time someone talks to you it's a damned miracle that you haven't killed someone yet."

"And you, Joule!" An iceberg blue dragon with an arapawa underbelly yelled in a affable manner, "That was quite the display you pulled back there, despite the fact you almost drowned your own damn kin."

"Selic!" Joule chimed in, a toothy grin appearing on his face the instant he recognized his long time friend. Walking up to the old ice dragon with jubilation and sticking out a paw.

"It's good to see you as well, Joule," Selic replied before firmly grasping Joule's stuck out limb with his own, giving it a good hold and pulling Joule into a completely manly neck grab.

"And Vinea," Joule lingered his previous sentence as he glaced to Selic's right, "still looking lovely as ever." Hopefully she would not smell the deer that had barely been washed off. Because it would be 'unbearably' embarrassing if she called him out around all these people who cared.

"Thank you, Joule," the dell green and tallow dragoness replied, "but no thanks to him though," she continued flatly before turning to Selic and giving him a nip on the cheek. "By the way, you smell like deer gut."

"You bet!" Joule voiced loudly with a tad too much enthusiasm, though that didn't stop him from turning his head and smirking sheepishly, "But about that-." However, his attempt at an excuse was cut off by Vinea's ongoing speech.

"Nope, say no more!" She interrupted quickly, "However, I understand, besides it looked like you were preoccupied anyways."

Joule just stood in silence for a second, trying not to show his confusion; surprised at the fact that she wasn't beating him into the dirt. Something must have changed, hopefully. Passing it off, he looked down to the two young dragons at Selic's feet.

"And how are you two doing? Mach? Ria?" He asked, his eyes looking between them.

"Quite well, Mr. Joule," formally replied the shorter male dragon. Mach looked fairly similar to his father, including his muscular frame, the only exception being his scale color, which was a trinidad base and tan underbelly and chest that relatively copied his mother's. His chest scales consisted of simple boxes that connected all the way down to his underbelly, each on protruding slightly giving them a beveled look. The sides of his body are also dotted in blemishes of cumin, which are densely concentrated around his forearms and legs as well as underneath his newly forming shoulder, hip, and jaw frills.

Mach had an average snout, which consisted of a simple box shape that pointed at the end. Despite this, his cerulean colored eyes added emphasis to his face, causing is to be somewhat less ordinary. He had four horns on the top of his head, two directly on the sides of his head which stuck up before curving back down then up again, creating an elongated horizontal 'Z', and the other two just underneath the first pair, all four horns share the same length and shape; also, their colors perfectly matched that of his chest. He had frills all the way from the top of his head down to the middle of his tail, each one looking like a miniature fire and disconnected from the others. These frills were also present on his shoulders, hips, and the sides of his face under his horns, though they were smaller. His tail blade was an elongated arrowhead shape that ran a bit up his tail while also coping his base color. His wing tips also a half arrow shape to them, keeping the theme and hue.

"Come on now Mach, there's no need to be formal with me," Joule stated with merriment, causing both him and Mach to snicker, though both for different reasons.

Vinea then spoke up in her son's defense, "Well we don't want to him to have bad manners when this whole thing blows over now do we."

"Of course we fricking don't," Selic spoke this time, adding more unnecessary profanities, "What about you Ria? Don't you have anything to say to Mr. Laugh-and-Jokes here?

All eyes then turned to the lima green and cerise earth dragoness that sat off behind Vinea's right flank. Feeling the pressure from everyone's burning gazes Ria shied away, being the ever nervous dragoness she was, and hid behind her mother. At the same time, she unconsciously created a small patch flowers in the earth in between her front paws. Vinea signed and bent around to where Ria was hiding. Everyone heard a high pitched squeak before Vinea turned back with young female in her jaws and set her on the ground in the middle of their circle.

Ria was the youngest of all the children, being only fifteen. Her base scale color was lime green while her underbelly and chest was a bright pink. She was slightly more pudgy than most dragonesses her age, due to her strange spine scales, which added about two or three inches to her body size. However, one would guess, that if Ria didn't have these extra scales her appearance would be similar to Cera's, though still not as slimming.

Her flanks were completely bare besides the scales on her shoulders, no differing colors or frills to speak of. Ria's chest scales consistently matched a leaf's design, the middle vein being thicker than the off branching ones, therefore it was divided into proportionally sized rhombi. She had two horns, one on each side of her head, that curled back enough to look like a ram's, while simultaneously having another piece of bone protruding back towards her rump, creating a warped tree branch effect. Instead of having frills like a normal dragon would, Ria had larger scales that went from the top of her head down to her rump. These scales angled up at their tips, and were covered in the same pink that was present on her belly scales, making them look like flower petals. These scales were also found on her shoulders, thighs, and wing carpus. Her tale spade was flat and had narrow, hollowed out slits on the insides all facing outwards, essentially matching her chest's leaf design; her wing blades also shared the same leaf pattern though these were curved inwards down the main vein. If one word could be used to describe Ria, 'Natural' would be it.

Once again the center of attention, Ria clenched up again and curled her tail around her legs in an attempt to make herself smaller. Even though she knew Joule and his family, being around other dragons that weren't her family still unnerved her greatly. It also didn't help that she was the bright colors that she was and was pointlessly often called an 'attention whore' by her father. Clearly not getting out of the situation, Ria looked up to face Joule who currently had an encouraging grin on his face.

"H-hello," she stammered out, but when all Joule did was beam with glee, her resolve failed and she looked down.

"It's nice to see you too, Ria," Joule tittered at Ria's nervousness.

She looked back up and smiled at Joule only to see that he had turned back to face Selic. In response to this, Ria shuffled to the back of the crowd next to Mach, who bumped her in the side of the head with his snout, regaining a hint of happies.

"So, Selic," Joule asked making the old dragon look up from Mach and Ria, "what do I owe the pleasure today?"

Selic raised an eye ridge. "Don't play stupid with me, Joule. Don't you remember what day we said we would arrive here? Or has that damned memory of yours finally started to fail as well?" He finished with a snort, even though he wouldn't have remembered this day if his mate hadn't warned him weeks before. Joule was about to respond but was cut off when Mach spoke up.

"Excuse me, Joule," he started, in his always polite tone, "but could you tell me where Cera is?"

Joule smirked, happy to see that some things never change. So, in reply, he flicked his tail around and gestured behind himself. He didn't want to see what Ellix and Cera were bickering about right now, but he could tell it was happening because of the random shouts and slapping sounds that could be heard.

Mach looked around Joule to where had indicated and sure enough, there was Cera, who seemed to be in a heated argument, or slap fight, with Ellix at the moment over something that he couldn't hear. Though, since he had known the both of them for pretty much his whole life, it was a safe guess to say they were fighting over something completely pointless.

Mach noded then turned back to Joule, "Thank you, Joule," he acknowledged, before turning and walking off in Cera and Ellix's direction.

Ria, who had been hiding behind Mach for the remainder of the conversation, noticed that her 'I'm shy, protect me' meat shield was escaping. Therefore, she quickly stood up and ran after Mach. She knew that her brother and Cera were an item; that didn't bother her, what did was the awkwardness of the situation, or the soon to be. However, when she realized that Ellix was also across the beach, her gloom was reversed.

The three adult dragons watched the two young ones, namely Ria, make their way over to Ellix and Cera, who had yet to note them. This didn't last long and soon they all turned back wordlessly and resumed their conversations.

"I don't care, Cera!" Ellix roared with vexation, "I really, truly, don't freaking care about the boar!"

"You seemed to care earlier!" Cera retorted, jabbing her wing spike in his face.

"That's because it was the start of the argument!" He yelled back, slapping the appendage away from him.

"Still, it doesn't matter, I caught the boar more than you did," Cera stated egoistically. To her, Ellix was losing the argument so all she needed to do is force him into a 'corner' were the only way out was to admit she was right.

"I!" Ellix began, ignoring her rambunctious boasting.

"Ellix?"

"Don't!" He continued, oblivious to the voice.

"Ellix."

"Care!" Finishing his build up with his wings fully extended and his head raised to the sky.

"Ellix!"

"What!" Ellix pumping his wings down, doing the 'unthinkable', and blowing piles of sand in Cera's face. Snapping his head down with his teeth bared, he glowered at the dragon in front of him, but to his surprise Cera was no longer there, instead, Mach sat with his eyes closed. Behind him was Cera, who still had a small scowl on her face.

"Well it's nice to see you too," Mach huffed, knocking off the sand that had built up on his muzzle.

"Great!" Ellix said, his voice still raised, "Now there's sarcasm. I don't need this! I don't need this right now!" He yelled lamentably before spinning on his pads and stomping back down to the water. It was true, he didn't need this. If he did want to he screamed at, slapped, and sarcasm-ed to death then he would have done it himself. All he wanted was to get the deer scent off his body, but the world just seemed to not want that to happen.

Mach scoffed; turning around to face Cera who was now beaming graciously. "Are you alright Cera?" However, in lieu of words being the response, he was granted a soft nuzzle under the chin.

"I'm always alright when you're here," she cooed and leaned up against Mach's chest.

Mach smiled and wrapped his wings around her, pulling Cera into a loving hug. If it wasn't obvious that they were in a relationship, anyone who couldn't see it would need a dictionary to look up the term first. The best part was that their parents encouraged it, seeming almost eager to let it happen, though both knew why. They were just happy that in a world where dragons were more scarce than peace and quiet, they had each other.

Ria watched from afar, still not the least bit surprised at Mach and Ceras' predicted affection. After all, being his sister, she ought to know these things. She poked her head around the two cuddling dragons. Ellix was in the water, or under the water, rolling around on the stone slab attempting to clean himself. It seemed a bit rude to her that he was bathing right now, considering that her family just arrived, but none the less she still wanted to talk to him. Slowly, Ria made her way around Cera and Mach, arching her path as to not disrupt them. Upon reaching their other side, she began to back down towards the water, her eyes remaining focused on the two.

Ellix's attempted bath was interrupted by a shrill cry and the thrashing of water from behind. He sighed, half turning to see Ria, flailing around in the water, desperately trying to recover from what he could tell was a simple fall. Ellix lowered his head with another long groan, the world was hell bent on him not bathing.

Oh joy, he thought lacklusterly as Ria righted herself up in the water, Miss Sensitive has arrived. And with his immediate irritation out of his system he raised his head and looked at Ria.

"Can I help you?" Ellix said absentmindedly. If he ended the conversation quickly, then, and only then, would he be able to continue his oh so exciting time bathing. Which is what he wanted.

Ria looked up with wide eyes before blushing and lowering her head, "N-no, I just-."

"Well if it's nothing can you let me bathe? In peace?" Ellix shot, cutting her off.

"Well, I-I just-," she started again, "I-I just was wondering h-how... how you were doing."

Ellix raised an eye ridge, but despite his look he wasn't the slightest bit shocked. This kind of behavior was normal for Ria. The thing that was surprising though is that the only dragon she ever openly talked to was him.

"I'm fine," Ellix snapped, his tone unchanged, "but if that's all, I would like you leave."

Ria looked up to him with her maw agape for a moment before bowing her head with a frown, shuffling her paws in the water. "I-I'm sorry, I'll just go."

Seeing that he had struck the wrong chord and not wanting to come out looking like an absolute jackass, Ellix turned around and spoke.

"I didn't mean it like that," he said, letting an aggravated sigh escape his maw, "It's just that I've been trying to wash off all morning but every time I try something, or anything, interrupts me!"

"Oh," she replied, relieved that she didn't do anything majorly wrong.

"Yeah. I was just about to finish anyways," Ellix stated, still miffed; wading his way out of the water and past Ria, ignoring her.

Ria stood up as he passed and followed, the two making their way up to where Cera and Mach were sitting. Ellix stopped about halfway and watched in disgust as the couple exchanged affections. Ria stopped next and turned to face him, which he conveniently did at the same time. Looking him directly in the eyes caused Ria to blush even deeper and shuffle. Breaking the awkward stare with an exasperated grunt, Ellix continued up the beach with Ria close behind.

"- can't wait to get back to the cave!" He heard Cera shout excitedly, while she cavorted around him, "I've been practicing my 'Ice Fall" technique and I think it's almost ready!"

"Yeah," his ears picking up Mach's reply, "we just have to wait for the adults to finish their conversations. Then we can get going."

"Yay!" Cera proceeded in her childlike manner and began licking the side of his snout.

Mach chuckled at her. He loved how innocent Cera could be sometimes. She always was able to cheer him and everyones else up, save for Ellix. He had to admit that sometime she got out of hand and it was more annoying than fun, but like his father always said, 'Every good thing has its dark sides.'

"Okay, okay Cera," Mach said, half attempting to halt the never ending affections, "I get it, you missed me. I missed you as well, but this can wait, you know what season it is."

"Oh, alright," she replied ruefully, feeling rejected. Mach tried to comfort her a bit by wrapping his wings and a forepaw around her in a tight hug.

"Am I interrupting something?" A sudden, cold voice called out, causing the two to look up.

Both saw Ellix, standing in front of them with one eye ridge raised and a neutral expression on his face. After a second of silence, Ria poked her head around to see the three having a staring contest, getting nervous at the tension, she ducked back behind Ellix.

"N-no, I was just reminding Cera of what season it was," Mach answered, ending the silence.

"Yeah!" Cera cheered, jumping out from under Machs wing, "It's nearly the equinox!" At which Ellix deadpanned.

"Ah yes, Spring time," Ellix began in a sarcastic tone, choosing to use the more simple list name of the season, "host of the fantastic Courtship month!" He continued with a fake grin while bouncing on his paws. Then, his voice took a more serious tone and he started yelling.

"The only time of the year where it is apparently legal for dragons our age to-!"

"Ellix!" Mach interrupted feeling utterly scandalized after what had been said, "I can't believe you sometimes. It's like you're still a hatchling learning about it," he scolded. "Anyways, you know that's not what it's about, and you know that's not what happens."

"Yeah, more of a hatchling than happy-go-lucky over here," Ellix mumbled caustically, and walking off towards the adults, continuing to mutter to himself as he went. Mach could lecture him all he wanted, it wasn't going to change his view of it. This was, by far, his least favorite season for one reason, Courtship month. He seemed to be the only one not affected by the season change. Everyone else turned into 'hold me's' and pretty much every other type of mushy personality one could think of. It just seemed wrong to him, it was like dragons were being forced into this kind of behavior, having no option but to go with it. That it why he despised it so much and would not, for the life of him, be caught participating.

Halfway to his decided destination, he noticed something on the ground. A patch of brightly colored tulips. Surprised, he turned to face Ria, who he found, much to his dislike, was rather intently examining him. Caught staring, she jumped, creating another appearance of multi colored floret. However, when she became aware of this and realized why Ellix was interrogating her with his eyes, Ria concentrating a bit and flattening both patches of flowers out.

"Great, this again," Ellix commented, mostly to himself, before turning back to the adults. And it's happening more than last time, wonderful, he finished mentally. Suddenly, he heard Cera speak up in the background.

"Mach, were you the ones flying a couple minutes ago?" She asked, reminding Ellix of the wing beats they heard earlier.

"No," he started with trepidation, "we decided to walk the last few miles because we had been flying since early morning."

"Oh, well I suppose it's nothing-," Ellix walked away mid-sentence, failing to hear the rest.

When he reached the adults they were still deep in conversation. From what he could hear, it was about the flight over and what they were going to do when they all got back to the cave. As much as he wanted to butt in and say 'Hey! How about we actually get going!' He knew better when Selic and Vinea were around. So, he just sat there, waiting for them to notice and invite him into the conversation.

Unexpectedly, his thoughts were interrupted when he felt a minute rush of wind next to him. Snapping his head around, Ellix prepared himself for something unpleasant to meet his gaze. However, even though his assumptions were partially correct, it wasn't what he was anticipating. The first thing he saw was a pair of amber eyes, which were uncomfortably close.

Both yelped, Ellix surprised at the closeness of Ria, Ria surprised at Ellix's rapid turn. Each landed on their back, both hitting the ground with a thud. The sound of the younglings distress was enough to break the triangle of babble that the adults had created.

The sight of the two dragons sprawled over the ground earned them a few surprised looks from the parents. The confusion did last long though, because thankfully, Joule broke the silence.

"Ellix?" He questioned, his eyes darting between the two, "What are you doing?" Ellix opened his maw to respond, but Selic came up with a witty insult first.

"He's being his usual fool self that's what," the old dragon barked, somehow annoyed that the ever so interesting talk was ruined, "and what about you Ria? What do you have to say for yourself," he snapped accusingly, seeming to believe that they had committed a crime to conversation.

Once again in the spotlight, Ria looked down nervously, and shuffled under everyone's gazes. Ellix rolled his eyes, clearly Ria wasn't going to speak up soon, so someone had to say something. Ellix opened his maw again to speak, but just like before, was interrupted. This time by the last person he thought would cut someone off.

"W-We... were going to ask w-what t-time... we were going to leave for the cave," Ria said, choosing her words carefully making sure not to further anger her father.

Everyone was shocked that Ria had actually participated in a conversation and answered a question. Since the group stood in silence for the moment, Ria shied away behind Ellix fearing she did something wrong. Ellix watched her out of the corner of his eye then looked back to the still shocked adults.

"Yeah," he started, remembering his previous thought, "don't you think he should actually go to the cave rather than talking about it?"

"I'd have to agree with Ellix there," Mach's voice said from behind, causing Ria to jump and create another miniature flower and causing Ellix too sigh, while everyone else just turned to look. He was getting a bit tired of everyone just interrupting him constantly, since it seemed to always be because of him. Once everyone recomposed themselves, Joule spoke up.

"Yes, I suppose you're right," he then turned to Selic and Vinea. "How about we all head back right now."

Selic just gave a sharp nod. Vinea glared a bit, but Joule failed to notice. Instead, he turned to the four younglings and ushered them into position with a wave of a wing. Once they were all a good distance from one another each rose their wings in preparation to lift off. However, they were halted when Vinea suddenly spoke up.

"Not! You two," she said plainly, directing it at Joule and Ellix. "Both of you still smell like crap and I will not, have you stinking up the place we're all going to be living for the next month." Joule left eye twitched a bit while Ellix's reaction was more verbal.

"OooOOOoookaaay! That's just brilliant. Cause it's not like anyone else cares!" He stated, his tone laced with sarcasm, before whipping around and walking to the water while Joule rubbed his temples with one paw.

"Good." Was all that was said before the five other dragons lifted off and flew towards the sunset, leaving Joule and Ellix to wash off... again.


A/N:

And there you have it! I know this one might have been a bit slower than the last. Most likely due to the lack of action and the large amount of description and dialogue. However, I do have a very good reason for this! I needed to explain each dragon's personality in this chapter. Not entirely, but just enough so that you can determine what kind of person they are.

Hacodeman: Ya, if you survive this chapter then you'll probably like the rest of this thing.

Thanks Code. Though, it's still up to the readers if they like the story or not.

Hacodeman: nah, its not up to dem, its up to the tv people.

I... have no idea how T.V. would get brought into this. But I guess it's a good thing to strive for.

Hacodeman: cause poltergeist logic.

Damn poltergeist. WHY CAN'T THEY JUST LEAVE US ALONE! Seriously, go to the Haunted House PDX. You're needed there. Ugh. Fine, whatever. Alright! One last thanks! But before that, answer me a question. Why is it so hard to click the favorite button? And no! I'm NOT a hypocrite! I just don't favorite stories, or, not that many, on this account because it's not solely mine! But please guys, show me some lovin! I know you won't regret it!

Thanks friends!

MakeSureToKnock & Hacodeman (& nonexistent Ssethelis)