Author's Note: Another 48-hour-early post, because I'm looking at another Saturday in which there's no chance I'll be able to put a chapter up. Lucky you? Or maybe unlucky, to possibly have to wait nine days for the next one. We'll see.
Beryl was just trying to think of some further reassurance he could give Valka, moments after it was decided that they couldn't go back for the Stormcutter right now, when some strange sound reached his ears, like yelling from far behind him.
"... kill you for lying!"
Even odder, it was a female's voice, and she sounded almost as excited as she was angry. Wait!
Even as he swerved midair and noted that Spark was already going back to their pursuers, Beryl inwardly berated himself for totally forgetting about the other possible prisoner they had come to find. Although it seemed Ember had found her, by the looks of it, so that worked out fine.
Ember. Beryl barked happily at Herb and Thorn. "Ember got Storm!"
With that, the entire party swung around to meet up with the rapidly approaching Furies, all three of them.
Odd, that there were three. The third seemed to be white, a new color Beryl had not thought possible. Trust Ember to somehow end up with more dragons than they had started with.
Relief turned to horror when Ember abruptly folded up like he had been struck, his momentum carrying him forward even as he plunged into the water below. The ice-cold, deadly water below.
Beryl could feel himself pushing forward and down with his wings, straining to reach where Ember had gone down. After everything, this could not be how he lost his friend!
He was a few seconds away, but the two Furies who had been with Ember, Storm and the other, did not hesitate to swoop down. Ember's body, limp and lifeless, had not sunk quite yet and was floating half on top of the surface. By the time Beryl reached it, the two Furies had latched on to Ember and were flapping mightily, barely keeping him from slipping below the surface.
"Help us!" Storm cried out frantically. "He is too heavy to lift!" The white Fury howled in frustration and agreement.
Beryl took in the situation in a heartbeat. Storm had the base of a wing, the white Fury the scruff of Ember's neck.
They could do it if they did it right. "Spark," Beryl barked, his voice stern, "grab his tail, Herb get under him when he's out of the water and push up! We head to the island close by." The newcomers wouldn't know that place in all likelihood, but they could just follow Spark's lead.
After he finished roaring out instructions, Beryl himself dove and latched onto Ember's other wing, just far enough away from the body that his flapping to remain in the air did not foul the wings of the others. Ember's body shifted, lighter. Not light enough to pull up, not yet. They could not hover like this for long, but they needed more lift to get anywhere.
Then Spark tried to grab on to Ember's tail. His first lunge missed the thin appendage drifting in the water, but his second caught on, and he awkwardly pulled up, joining them.
Four Night Furies struggling to lift a single one. It worked, if barely, though their uncoordinated flights made the movement erratic and slow. Ember's limp body emerged totally from the waves and began moving up and forward, though Spark was leading the way, meaning Ember was being carried tail-first.
Herb lunged underneath Ember once he was high enough and began pushing up with his back, lightening the load even further to a manageable weight.
Now the issue was not weight, it was unequal forces. Each Fury had a different grip, meaning a different angle to their flight. They were pulling Ember in slightly different directions, making it harder and harder for each other to keep a grip on him.
"Everyone! I'm going to let go and get a better hold! Don't let him fall!" Beryl did so once he heard growls of agreement, readjusting his hold so that he could fly at the same angle as Spark. "Now you, Storm!"
Storm had a harder time, missing her grab several times, but eventually did the same.
"White one, your turn!"
The white Fury carefully released a single paw, got a better hold with that one, and then did the same with her other paw, never fully letting go. "Done!"
That took a lot of the pressure off of them, though Ember was still heavy, and the flight still jerky and uncoordinated. Thorn flew anxiously nearby, visibly too weak to even think of helping but worried all the same.
"This is Ember?" Valka asked worriedly.
Beryl felt like groaning in frustration. He had known even as he had congratulated himself for cleverness that this particular evasion of the truth was going to cost him eventually. Now seemed to be the time.
"Where's Hiccup then?!" Valka asked frantically. "He must still be in the water!"
"He's safe and fine!" Beryl growled up at his passenger. "He was never on Ember's back." That should forestall questions.
"Then where is he?" Valka was not taking that as a full explanation.
"Storm," Beryl asked in a frustrated voice, "I am correct that Ember was not carrying a No-scaled-not-prey?" Storm didn't know the lie, did not even know him, but maybe if he phrased the question right...
"No, why would he be?" Storm huffed, as if it had been a stupid question.
Not a good answer. "See, he's not here, so he's probably fine," Beryl weakly warbled.
A cold hand poked Beryl in the back. "Something is not right here," Valka growled. "What is it?"
Beryl hung his head in shame. "I lied to you, though not very much. Hiccup is as safe as Ember is, and I can tell you the truth later when we are not carrying an unconscious dragon above the ocean."
"Ember is not very safe right now," Valka noted angrily.
"So we need to make sure he is," was Beryl's retort. "Spark, how far are we from the island?" Best to change the subject.
"You are asking me?" Spark continued as if he wasn't expecting an answer. "At the rate we are flying, an hour or so."
"Not good!" The white Fury whined. "He'll die of cold by then! He was soaked in freezing water and now we're dangling him in the cold air!"
Valka shifted. "I can warm his back if I jump down, but can you carry a little more weight?"
Beryl repeated the offer, though he didn't think it would do any good, but to his surprise the White Fury responded to Valka immediately.
"Not good enough! We need to set down somewhere now!" She was frantically looking around, presumably for somewhere to do so.
"There is a fairly wide sea stack to our left," Herb remarked from below. "That works."
Spark nodded, understanding. "Okay, I cannot see it," he admitted, "so guide us down!"
"Turn," Herb instructed carefully, "and keep turning to the left until I say stop."
It became very clear over several moments of struggling that four dragons lifting a Fury and therefore connected could not turn very well. Eventually, however, after many snarls of frustration from everyone involved, Herb said they were pointed the right way. After that, it was just a few minutes of slowly descending as they approached.
Herb finally yelled up that they were right over the sea stack, and everyone allowed themselves to descend... forgetting Herb was still below Ember. As a result, Herb had to drop and roll to avoid being pinned.
Beryl let go of his Sire's unconscious body and stood, waiting only until everyone had landed to issue the next set of orders. "Now everyone pile on!"
Body heat was all they had, given they would hurt Ember in flaming him directly, not to mention that they couldn't keep that up for long.
The white Fury practically dived on, snuggling up beside Ember even as everyone else did the same after a moment of hesitation, huddling around and in Thorn's case on top of him. Beryl sat on top of his Sire's tail, thinking as he did that to lose an entire tail to frostbite would be severely depressing, and one thing that might not grow back, even if individual tailfins did. Besides, he couldn't risk Valka, still on his back and still displeased, getting crushed or kicked by another Fury, which might happen if he sat too close to the others. Although that would delay his explanation...
"So," Spark began from his spot on Ember's outstretched wing, "that happened. Any idea why?"
Storm huffed angrily. "The idiot thought you all were dead, that is why!" She whined after a moment. "He told me you were all dead, and I believed him."
Beryl's heart froze for a moment. Ember had thought them dead. All of them. The only people he had left in the world. He couldn't imagine how that would feel, but his best guess was terrible.
"Why would he think that?" Herb asked anxiously. "Surely he would know we were just captured and sold."
"He told us he saw your cages loaded onto a ship, which was then sunk when one No-scaled-not-prey betrayed another," the white Fury supplied sadly. "He said he watched, but no dragon made it back to the surface."
"We were never on a ship that sunk," Spark said, his tone confused. He warbled happily. "So he must have seen other cages."
"He will be happy when he wakes up," Thorn noted. "Is he still..?"
"Still alive," the white Fury confirmed confidently. "I can feel him breathing from here, slowly but steadily."
"Good," Thorn relaxed, visibly loosening up. "And now that we have a moment, who are you? I do not believe we have been introduced."
The white Fury chuffed politely. "Pearl."
"I have not seen any dragon with that color before," Spark remarked curiously, his tail tapping Pearl, snaking over Ember's back to do so. "A white dark wing?"
"I am a light wing, or Light Fury if you prefer," Pearl confirmed self-consciously. "But there are quite a few of us, actually, all with the same general color."
Valka, who had been listening silently, spoke up at that. "Where? I have never seen your kind before."
"A secret place," Pearl replied. "I would say, but then Storm would know." That seemed to have some sort of hidden meaning Beryl could not decipher.
"You are going to take me with you," Storm growled threateningly.
"Yes, which is why I'm not letting you know," Pearl retorted slyly. "That way you cannot get impatient and go without me."
Beryl made the obvious assumption, but that did not feel right. Pearl had spoken as if it would be regrettable if Storm went alone, and their tones did not speak of such a light concept as finding Storm a mate among these many similar dragons. Something else was up.
A question for later. Especially as Valka was poking his back to get his attention. "Yes?"
"When are we going back for the Stormcutter?" Valka's voice was pained. "I can't leave him there!"
"I don't know how to free him," Beryl hummed sadly, "aside from killing the one who took him over, and I have no idea how to do that, or even what kind of dragon it was."
"You speak of the alpha who attempted to control our minds tonight?" Storm asked carefully.
"More than attempted," Beryl shuddered. "He took Thorn and another who did not come with us, but released them suddenly."
"Me," Pearl admitted quietly. "Sorry, Thorn. I didn't know that everyone would experience it, I just did whatever might drive him out."
Thorn stiffened, looking down at the Light Fury partially under her. "You?"
"She let it have a bad memory to drive it off," Storm muttered.
"So that was you," Thorn said in a tone of realization. "Oh," she whined, slipping down to wrap her wings around Pearl in an attempted hug. "You lived that, didn't you?"
"My life is not one to be envied," Pearl admitted, looking up at Thorn in surprise at the gesture. "If that alpha ever tries again, I have more and worse to fend him off with, though he might not be so stupid as to look at anything I give him again."
"We will talk more when I can see your face," Thorn asserted, returning to Ember's back. "And Storm, you also saw it?"
"Everyone the alpha had control of at the time did, I guess." Storm shuddered. "I will be there for that talk. I have things to say too."
"That means the blue one who is not the one I wanted to kill did too," Herb noted.
"And the Stormcutter, but he did not snap out of anything," Spark said sadly.
Pearl whined. "Second saw it too?!"
Beryl, who had been listening in confusion, trying to piece all of this together, latched onto that. "Second? Was that the name of the blue Night Fury?"
"Yes, it is." Storm growled. "The brother of my true Sire." She was not looking at Herb, which was easy given Ember lay between them.
Herb sighed and said nothing.
There were a lot of issues to be worked out here, Beryl noted sadly. But at least they were all together to do so. "Valka, Ember might know of something to help. He is smart, and experienced in fighting such things, both mentally," Beryl thought of Ember's entire mental state of existence as he said that, "and physically. We took down a Queen together, just me and him. It can be done."
"When he wakes," Valka repeated suspiciously. "And you will tell me of your lie?"
"It may be better if he does so," Beryl hedged, not wanting to have that conversation. Let Ember explain. At least Valka was not mad at him. "Ember knows better than any the situation, and it is a complicated one to start with."
"Fine. I am not happy you lied," Valka said, quite unnecessarily in Beryl's opinion.
"Everyone, we should try to sleep," Herb announced suddenly. "We are still a bit close to that island for comfort." The mountain was visible in the distance. "As such, we should move Ember the rest of the way tomorrow morning, if he will not wake then."
"Why wouldn't he?" Spark nudged the limp wing under him. "He is just asleep."
"He did have some issues with not waking up," Pearl added sadly. "And he slept for three days straight once. It might take a while."
Three days straight?! What in the world had happened there? Beryl yawned and resolved to get the full explanation later. For now, Herb was correct. They needed rest.
And so the odd pile of Night Furies drifted off to sleep. Ember may not have been aware of it, but all the family either side of him had left in the world was close nearby, hoping as they dreamed that he would return to them soon.
O-O-O-O-O
Pearl did not know why she was unhappy. Ember would be beyond words when he awoke, whenever that was, and she should be happy for him. She was, she definitely was, but...
Maybe it was the events with that bad alpha. Those two words would be totally linked in her mind if it was not for the alpha who had helped diagnose Ember, as every other alpha Pearl knew of was terrible in some way. She did not feel sorry for hurting him with her memory.
She did, however, feel terrible for inadvertently sharing that memory with Storm and apparently Thorn. Not to mention Second and some random other dragon the No-scaled-not-prey had been worried for, but those two were less important, if only because Second was not a friend, and she did not know the other. She had accidentally hurt Thorn and Storm in a way that she could not stand.
So, when Pearl woke early, still snuggled up against Ember's broad chest, it was with an oddly heavy heart, given the circumstances. She participated in the moving of the still comatose Ember after a quick meal, but did so silently, not feeling like talking. No one else did either. It was almost as if they were waiting to share stories, waiting for Ember. He was the lynchpin in one half of the story, and the one who needed to hear the other half. So they spoke, but it was of little things, avoiding anything recent or important. As if a collective breath was being held.
The island the others had spoken of was a bright, grassy lump in the ocean, a place where swaying green made rolling hills look like waves, hiding only more grass between hills and in small valleys. It was beautiful, if desolate.
They awkwardly set Ember down in one such valley. He had not stirred a bit on the hours-long trip there, though it was midday by now, the sun shining above, not granting warmth, but at least giving a cold light to the world. Winter still held on, though Pearl wondered if it would ever break here. She had only known this part of the world in Winter, to the point where she was surprised this island was devoid of snow.
Thorn took charge once they had set down. "Beryl, Spark, Herb, watch him and make sure he does not get cold." It was not windy in the valley they had set him down in, but the air was still cold. "Valka, I am told you understand."
To the surprise of all who had not seen it yet, Valka responded with her staff and her humming, managing an actual voice with the unrelated sounds. "Yes, and I speak."
That was a new thing, and one Pearl could not see in any other light than purely good and amazing. One solely positive thing, among all of these mixed feelings and grey areas.
"Can you watch him?" Thorn looked over at Pearl and then at Storm. "We have something personal to discuss, the three of us."
"I can," Valka nodded as she swung her staff. "I know sickness." With that she began to look Ember over, poking and prodding gently at his chest.
"Good. Follow me, both of you," Thorn gently commanded, and walked over the hills and through the valleys, crossing the small island. She stopped in another such valley, far from Ember and the others. A place of privacy, as long as they did not converse in roars and yells.
Pearl followed nervously, unsure as to what Thorn intended, though the gentle way the older dragon spoke to her made it unlikely that it would be bad. Storm followed behind, curiously silent. Thorn turned to face the two of them, and Storm stepped to stand at odds to both of them. They all settled down like that, through some unspoken agreement, three points of a triangle, looking inwards.
Thorn began quietly. "Thank you, Pearl, for what you did."
That was not what Pearl had been expecting. She jolted in surprise as Storm seconded that thanks. "But it hurt both of you! And in a way I want no one to ever be hurt." It had hurt her so badly, emotionally and physically, and yet they were thanking her for being forced to recall it when it was not even their burden to carry?
"I do not know what you remember," Storm supplied, "but while it was terrible, it is fading from my mind even now. You have not burdened me with it permanently, though I doubt I will ever forget entirely."
"And I know that feeling already," Thorn added sadly. "You showed me almost nothing I do not already know and carry with me."
"Almost?" Pearl asked, morbidly curious. She had heard Thorn's story, told by Storm.
"The feeling of one's loved ones sanctioning such a terrible thing is not one I knew," Thorn admitted. "That too was part of what you gave us in the memory. I felt that and the event itself."
"I know it all too well," Pearl admitted.
"We will be avenging her, Dam," Storm supplied with a snarl, soft and terrible. "She will go back, and I will back her up."
"We will speak of that," Thorn cut in sternly, "but now is not the time to think of restitution and vengeance."
What? That was what would make her feel better, or at least, Pearl hoped it would help the memories fade in time.
Thorn rose. "Now," she said sternly, "is time to show understanding and comfort." With that, she sat down again, now directly in front of Pearl, less than a claw's length away. "I understand what you went through, in part." She stuck her head out and nuzzled Pearl tenderly. "It was not right."
"I know," Pearl agreed, surprised.
"I do not know the whole story, but from what I could tell, some part of you probably believes you deserved it," Thorn whined softly, still close.
Pearl wanted to argue that, but some small part of her wasn't letting her speak. That exact piece of herself that whispered that Dams knew best, that she must have deserved it, or that it was best, no matter how terrible. The one Thorn had somehow pinpointed.
"It was her Dam," Storm growled helpfully. "Apparently, she was the one driving it, and her Sire stayed away."
Thorn flinched. "Then," she said slowly, "I can tell you honestly that no Dam worth anything would have done that." She shuffled a bit closer and set her head on top of Pearl's, a gesture of consolation. "As a Dam, I say that was horribly wrong."
Those words cracked something inside Pearl, a barrier she held for her own peace of mind. "But she did it anyway, and she was happy with it all!" It was a sad whine.
"I cannot say I understand her," Thorn admitted. "And maybe some twisted part of her thought it really was good. But you must know that it is her fault, not yours."
Another crack. "I didn't argue. I did as told, even when I didn't want to." Storm had brought that to Pearl's attention, and it was true. She did deserve all she got, for she had not objected.
"You did as told, and were not allowed to argue," Thorn countered softly. "Were you allowed to object? To state your own opinion?"
"No," Pearl whispered.
"Then you were raised without a choice." Thorn snarled, right in Pearl's ear, though the sound was soft enough that it did not hurt even at that range. "None of the blame for that is yours."
That barrier inside Pearl shattered, and she keened softly. "Then why did she do it? Why?"
"I do not know, I only know it was wrong," Thorn soothed. "I understand your side of this, and that is enough to know you were the innocent one, the victim. Never think otherwise, even if it means blaming the one who should have looked out for you."
Storm moved closer, sitting beside Pearl. "Thorn would never do anything like that. She would die before letting it happen." The words were sure, confident, audible over Pearl's keening. "She is what a Dam should be. Yours does not deserve the title."
That helped, a little, though it hurt at the same time. "I did nothing to deserve it."
Admitting that also hurt, in a strange way, for it meant letting go of any shred of reason Pearl had clung to that her Dam might actually have been acting justly, all that time.
"Nothing," Thorn soothed, tenderly licking Pearl on the forehead. "You are still a daughter, but she is not your Dam, not if you do not accept that she was just and right in what she did."
"She is my Dam, as she," Pearl faltered, searching for the reason she knew for fact, "she laid my egg." It felt hollow even as she said it.
"So?" Storm challenged. "That monster who attacked Thorn was never my Sire, though he contributed to bringing me into the world. Dams and Sires are the ones who care for you, which neither of yours did."
"Then I have neither," Pearl admitted after a moment, beginning to truly believe the kind but firm words of Storm and Thorn, no matter how it hurt. "I have no one."
Storm chuckled sadly. "As you are still trying to get close to Ember despite me telling you not to, I would say you are working to change that." There was no real frustration in her voice at that.
Thorn chuffed, nuzzling Pearl again. "I will take up your Dam's neglected responsibilities if you like, though I am too late to help you when you needed it most."
That made Storm laugh. "A good thing you are willing, as she is trying to get to know Ember." That was said suggestively and approvingly. "It is fun to watch now that I have set her on the right path, but she is serious, and if he ever notices, he might return that affection."
Thorn remained silent as she digested that. "Can he? He is hurt by the loss of his first mate, I recall."
"He had better," Storm growled in response. "And if he cannot, she can always get to know one of his sons."
Pearl barked in shock. "What?" The very idea felt wrong, even though Beryl and Spark were closer to her own age.
"Kidding," Storm laughed. "But are you going to leave my Dam's offer hanging?"
Pearl flinched. Something felt wrong. "No, of course not. If she wants to, that is fine." Her voice was flat.
There was a moment of suddenly uneasy silence.
"Pearl?" Storm sounded troubled. "What is wrong?"
"Nothing," Pearl lied. What was wrong? She really didn't know, but something was.
Thorn leaned back, staring intently. "Tell us."
A command. "I don't know!" Pearl admitted, her voice pained. Why did she feel so hopeless? Everything was good, Thorn was being kind, she knew what was best-
That had to be it, somehow. Pearl was grateful for the offer, but she really did not want anyone to take over for her Dam. She had thrown her Dam off, and now Thorn wanted to take her place. Benevolently, but still…
She needed to say something. They knew something was wrong; they would understand… but she could not speak. She found herself shaking her head numbly, denying that anything was amiss.
It was a strange, impromptu struggle Pearl now faced, her newly-developed will, the spine Storm had so lightly referred to, against some inbred submissiveness rising from a dark place in her mind, a place she had tried to purge in those months in a cage after being taken from her home.
But she was not alone.
"Pearl, look at me," Storm requested carefully. "You are fine. What is wrong?"
She was fine… she would be fine… "I…" she inhaled, forcing herself to continue. "Thorn, please don't take this the wrong way… but… I don't want another Dam. At all."
Thorn blinked, nonplussed. "Is that it? I am not offended. A friend, then?" She tilted her head, seeming to understand something. "One you are not obliged to obey or listen to at all if you do not want to."
"Yes…" she gasped, shaking from relief. That was better. "That is good."
"Then I am happy to call you a friend," Thorn purred comfortingly.
"And you are okay with me... pursuing... your son?" Pearl asked hesitantly. Thorn was not her Dam, but she was Ember's Dam.
"If he can love you in return, go for it. I would like to see him and you happy. But if he cannot, you will remain with us, and we will find you another, no matter how long it takes, if you want." Thorn cast Storm a glance. "Some of us are experienced in that search, and safety seems to fly with groups."
"I must go back to my pack to at least try and fix their customs," Pearl objected. "But... I will return, no matter how that goes."
"Good." Thorn pulled back a little to look Pearl in the eye. "I know some little of how that might go. What is your plan?"
"I'm not sure," Pearl admitted, glancing at Storm, "but I'll come up with something." Something, anything better and less cruel that Storm's fallback plan.
"Herb and I fled a situation of similar nature, bad customs twisting things," Thorn confided slowly. "I do not know if anything we did or said could have changed their minds. They did not see anything wrong with how things worked, and truly believed it best."
"Maybe my pack is the same, but I have to try." Pearl shook her head in defiance of that idea. "As soon as we are all good here." Whatever that meant. She would know when the time came.
"You mean, as soon as you've figured out Ember, and no one is in danger and needing to be rescued," Storm corrected in amusement.
"Or when he makes it clear he cannot or will not return my feelings," Pearl admitted sadly. "I will return, but that would be a good reason to go off on a journey. Distance might help that rejection not hurt so much." That idea was new, but she definitely did not want to leave these dragons permanently, now that she thought about it. They were far better than being alone or among her old pack. If they wanted her around, she would gladly take them up on that.
"It might," Thorn agreed pragmatically. "But do not take no for an answer right away. Ember has been stubborn in the past, even to his own regret later." She spoke deliberately, staring at Storm. "It is a family trait."
"I know that," Pearl muttered. Storm's refusal to even consider forgiving Ember when he needed exactly that came to mind.
"You say that with such vehemence," Thorn noted. "Storm, what did you do?"
Storm tilted her head, apparently thinking about it. As the moments passed, it became clear she was stalling.
"Storm?" Thorn chuckled knowingly. "It cannot be that bad, surely, but now I am curious."
"Well…" Storm began reluctantly, "I was a little out of sorts…" She trailed off into awkward silence.
"Storm." Thorn began to look disapproving. "You do not soften what you say, so you say nothing instead. I know you, daughter. Speak."
"I… I was pretty horrible," Storm admitted sourly, glaring into the distance, as if trying to avoid looking directly at either of them. "Pearl had to care for Ember without help at first because I did not care about him, and I was not good towards her either."
That was all true, though none of it was really stubbornness. It was almost impressive that Storm could be that frank in admitting her own wrongdoing to her Dam.
Thorn did not find it so impressive. "He had just saved you, but you could not be bothered to stir a claw in return?" Her voice was almost disbelieving.
"He told me you were dead and that it was his fault!" Storm objected. "Anyone would resent him after that!"
"Again with the grudges, daughter," Thorn sighed. "When will you learn to forgive?"
Storm hunched over and avoided her Dam's gaze. "I need a little more time, Dam."
"Maybe," Thorn growled, "or maybe you will not let yourself admit you have taken too much time. Do as you think best, but do not let reluctance rule. Herb hurts still, and it is cruel to make him wait."
They lapsed into silence, each with their own thoughts. The wind swept over the grass, caressing Pearl's scales with its cold touch.
"Thorn?" Pearl asked after a while.
"Yes?"
"How did you know?" She was referring to how Thorn had hit directly upon Pearl's buried issues, the contradiction that led her to blame herself, to some degree, for everything, in order to not condemn the ones who had raised her. The ones she herself had not acknowledged. Thorn had so little to go off of, but she had somehow made the exact leaps of logic necessary.
"Let us just say I know the feeling, and I know having parents who do bad things," Thorn growled. "It did not take too much evidence to put them together in your situation. Seeing things from your perspective, in a moment when only the most heartfelt emotions would be distinguishable, however terrible, was a large hint."
"But why did you help?" She was grateful, to be sure, but why?
"You were hurt, and I could. That is all the reason one should ever need," Thorn hummed soothingly.
This moment, peaceful, finally healing wounds in her heart she had not known festered, was a good one. Pearl found herself purring quietly, listening to the swishing of the grass. The sun did not feel so cold after all. She could feel a hint of warmth. Maybe Winter would not last forever here.
O-O-O-O-O
"He is healthy," Valka announced after a few minutes of clambering over Ember, listening at his chest, poking various places, and other such things, half of which Beryl did not see the point of. She spoke with her staff and vocalizations, for Herb and Spark's benefit. "Though he is the most scarred of all of you."
"Blame Vithvarandi," Beryl said without forethought, "as she caused all but the oldest of those." He winced as Valka stared at him.
"And who, exactly, can cut like a Nadder," Valka traced a scar on Ember's wing, "while also burning like a Monstrous Nightmare," another, more general paling of skin between scale on Ember's paws, "all while stabbing as only a Whispering Death can?" Puncture scars with ragged outlines.
"Vithvarandi could," Beryl growled. "Ember will tell you of her too."
"Some type of dragon I do not know?" Valka asked persistently.
"No, and yes. But mostly no." Vithvarandi was No-scaled-not-prey in the very end and had been No-scaled-not-prey in the beginning, it seemed. "Ember will explain."
"Because you cannot, or because you are too embarrassed to?" Valka was observant today. Beryl wished she was not.
"Because he is best suited to it, and you will understand why once he has spoken." Ember was not going to be happy with Beryl for this. Better his Sire than Valka, all in all, given Ember was going to be happy in general, which might offset the annoyance and awkward conversation Beryl was passing on to him.
"Fine," Valka huffed. "But you have lied to me, and that aggravates me."
"How can I make it up to you?" Beryl offered. Anything to rid himself of the lingering guilt.
"Let me look at you closely," Valka said immediately, "as I am hesitant to examine a dragon as I would without their permission, and your kind is new to me."
"How closely?" Beryl asked nervously. If Valka felt the need to ask permission, it might be too close for comfort.
"Not that closely," Valka laughed at his shying away from her as she approached, "but it might be uncomfortable when I look into your mouth and other such things."
"Curiosity is a strange thing," Beryl huffed. "Fine."
"Spread your wings," Valka ordered. She tapped at Beryl's wing joints when he did, muttering to herself.
What followed was an almost humiliatingly thorough inspection, though to Beryl's relief Valka passed over certain areas without comment or investigation. That would just be wrong. Still, she even stuck her head into his mouth to get a better look at his teeth! Now he knew why she asked permission first, and considered his willingness enough to cancel a debt he owed. It was humiliating, he decided as Spark and Herb watched in alternating astonishment and amusement.
A good moment occurred near the end when Valka was standing on his back and tapping at his spines methodically. That felt painful in a way he did not recognize.
He could not hold his silence after a particularly powerful twinge. "What are you doing?"
Valka sighed. "I have seen spines like this before, and I thought maybe yours split like the ones on other dragons do. But they don't seem to separate."
Beryl translated her spoken voice for Herb and Spark out of habit. He wasn't expecting a reply.
Herb chuffed. "Ember never unlocked that?" He walked over and stuck out a claw at the base of Beryl's neck. "It is a thing one does when one's fledgling becomes an adult." He pressed and twisted.
Beryl barked in surprise as what felt like an incredibly knotted muscle unwound. He flexed it curiously.
Valka laughed from up on his back. "There you go!"
Twisting his head around, Beryl could see his spines splitting and closing as he flexed. "Oh, cool!"
Spark bounded forward. "Me next!"
"I guess Ember wasn't around when you two became adults," Herb mused as he did the same for Spark. "Now is as good a time as any."
Spark spent the remainder of the time Valka was inspecting Beryl clapping his spines, entirely fascinated. Beryl had to stop himself from doing the same, aware of just how silly it looked thanks to Spark.
Still, it was good. He wanted to show Ember, and maybe tease him about forgetting. If only he would wake up.
Time passed. The females came back from whatever they had gone off to do, and Beryl noted that Pearl seemed far happier than before, if a bit more subdued, while Storm looked troubled. He wouldn't ask.
They all gathered around Ember after a while. Valka asserted again that Ember was healthy and just sleeping.
Pearl shifted. "I could try to wake him?"
"Why you?" Spark asked curiously.
"I was in charge of waking him up before when he would sleep more than he should," she explained, "and I know what does it best."
Beryl was all for that. He just wanted Ember awake to complete this strange reunion.
Author's Note: A fun fact: Ember is corrupting the language of dragons!
I'm exaggerating, but you'll notice the terms Light Fury and Night Fury being used by dragons, those who know Ember. He uses them sometimes, because they are directly translatable from one language to another, and thus does so without thought, and everyone else picked them up. Blame him for that.