A/N: My apologies for the gap of time between postings. I didn't realize it was quite as long as it had been. Hopefully I will continue this further in the next few weeks until it's actually up properly. Possibly a little shorter than some of the other chapters, but I didn't really want to leave you all waiting while I tried to come up with something for it that could have waited until the next chapter.

Chapter 11

Nifasi sat in the central seat, nervous. This was his third overall meeting with the Elders. He was still rather unused to the duties of leader. Ever since he'd taken the position from his late father, Lixian, he'd never quite thought he was doing as good a job. Lixian had been their first leader. The founder of the clan. Who was he, Nifasi, to just take over?

"Oh my." Gusiti paused, she had been coming to check on her eldest son, and found him tying himself into knots. She put her paw on his jaw and turned his head toward hers. "What has you so worked up, my sweet?"

"Today is the meeting. With the Elders. I don't know if I can do it, mother."

"Do what?"

"Be the leader they need." He tucked his head under his wing. "I can't be like my father. I just...I don't know."

"You aren't expected to be like Lixian. You are meant to be like you. There are Elders that have been with us appointed by your father. Ask them for help if you need it. There is no shame. Your brother is already keeping a conversation with Elder Douyun."

"Ileari? Why?"

"He was chosen to take on the position of Priest of the Windsinger when Elder Douyun steps down." She nuzzled against him. "I'm so proud of both of my boys. One the leader, another an Elder? What mother could ask for more?"

"Of course Ileari would take Elder Douyun's place. He's the Elder's son. Makes sense to me." Nifasi slowly unwound himself. His mother's words always helped him feel better. Even when they weren't directly about him. Nifasi nuzzled her, relaxing into the seat. "I'll come find you again later. After the meeting is over."

"Of course." She brushed against him and left the den, heading back toward the Spiral den. Gusiti bowed her head to the various elders as they passed her on their way in.

The first elder to sit was Cahaya. Somehow they always naturally arranged themselves to travel in the same order as their festival days, though it was quite unintentional every time. They sat in order of light, lightning, fire, arcane, plague, earth, ice, shadow, wind, water, and then lastly nature. Nifasi bowed lightly to each one as they passed and sat themselves in the semi-circle.

"Thank you all for coming. I was told it was not an urgent matter, but that you all still wished to speak with me about something that could be important to the clan." He tried to keep himself from twisting into knots as he waited for them.

Cahaya smiled, "It's nothing you need to worry about that much. It has just come to the attention of the clan that perhaps it would be wise if we were to consider relocating to a more…suitable country."

"What did you have in mind for that sort of place?" He'd not considered moving them anywhere else. The Windswept Plateau had been their home for so long that it was practically impossible to think of them living anywhere else.

"We were thinking, what with our clan's natural predilections, that it would make the most sense for us to go to my homeland." Kistai flexed his frills, proud of his judgment. "The best place for a bunch of dragons as concerned as we are with books and knowledge? The Starfall Isles!"

Nifasi nodded. He'd thought of that once himself, but hadn't the courage to be able to bring it up to anyone, so he'd let it go. He still didn't trust himself as a leader after Lixian. He curled over his chair. It would definitely be a change from the normal. Did they have what it took to even become members of another Flight's country?

"It shouldn't be difficult. We've already appealed to the gods and gotten their green-light to move. All we would really need to do is just figure out where it is we're going to move to. I've taken the liberty of compiling a document that I think would prove helpful. It details one of the places that would accommodate a clan of our size, and would fit our nature." Kistai nodded and Heruli, the newest head of the Historians, brought out a sheet of parchment paper. "This is a map of the Starfall Isles and the various clan territories within."

The Council leaned over the paper, looking at the various lands available to the clans. It showed a lot of bright pinks and lavenders.

"You're sure that this is the place we should move to? Starfall Isles?" Mylona quirked up her brow ridge, light catching in the blackberry opalescent scales around her eye. "Why? Simply because you're an Arcane Fae? I could make just as much argument that we should move to the Tangled Wood!"

"No. It's not because I'm an Arcane Fae. In fact, if I thought it a good plan to move to the Wyrmwound itself, I'd be just as quick to suggest that. This is simply because we fit in best with the ideals of Arcane dragons."

"Enough. Enough." Nifasi sighed, putting his paw up. "That's enough arguing. In the end, the final decision is mine, as clan leader, isn't it? Whether we move or not? Give me a few days to think about it and I'll let you know my decision. Anyone who has concerns can come see me. Privately."

* line *

Anaire drifted along the air stream, eyes out for whatever caught her attention. She had been sent out to scout the local terrain to see where the best place to set up a Familiar habitat would be. So far she'd discovered a few likely locations, but nothing particularly stood out to her. The clan had moved out an area just beyond the archives a few weeks back, and they had been sending the scouts out to, well, scout.

The voices of dragons drew her attention. So far as she had known, there weren't any clans in the immediate area and they hadn't heard word of roaming dragons recently.

"I already told you we couldn't go that way, there's a ledge with a bunch of sharp crystal points at the bottom. Do you want to get us killed?"

"And I told you that you're thinking of the far side of the ridge. Down here is nothing but glowing moss and sage!"

"Doesn't matter! It's my turn to be in charge and I say we go this way around the rocks!" The voices sounded almost identical to one another, perhaps it was a set of twins that she was hearing argue?

Anaire landed on the outer edge of the outcropping itself. The second voice was correct, this side held nothing more than a few straggly sagebrush and one little purple flowering plant that she couldn't actually identify. It could have been anything from lavender to mana weed, to sugarmelon flowers for all she knew. She wasn't really the best with plants. Her cerulean blue eyes scanned for the source of the voices she'd heard. Peaking just up over the edge of a sagebrush bush was a bright green and magenta looking set of wings. She crept closer, curious about the dragons that she could hear arguing. The voices sounded similar to one another. Possibly a sibling pair had gotten lost in the woods.

"This is what we get for letting you decide where we go. Next time it's my turn." A head appeared above the brush, horns curled around the head in a pattern she'd never seen before. It certainly startled Anaire. Then another head lifted. Nearly exactly the same as the first only instead of the horns curling around the jaw, they were pointing back and up. This dragon had three eyes. Same deep red of the Plague flight. "You were the one who thought this was a good idea. I'm not letting you destroy us over it."

"Oh shut up Bel. You know we'll be fine. We can fly."

"Ati, I will hurt you."

"You wouldn't. That would mean hurting yourself as well and you know it."

"Wait! Stop...your..." Anaire couldn't take it any longer. Even for Plague dragons, no one should be arguing like that. Ever. She jumped out, intending to land between the fighting sisters, to break up the argument before it lead to blows. She was not expecting to be staring directly at one singular body. "Fighting?"

"Hmm? Oh! Hello there." One of the two heads dipped down. The one with the curled horns. "I'm Bel, she's Ati. We tend to go by Belati. What brings you out here?"

"Bel, do you really think we can't explain...well, us? She's a single-head. Probably never seen one of us before. You need to be more sensitive!"

"Right, right, sorry, Ati. So...we are an Aberration. Don't be upset if you've never heard of us. Most of the species haven't. Except maybe Banescales and Gaolers. They've been around as long as we have!" She giggled, bringing the right-side paw up to cover her snout. "Anyway. We were on our way back to the Wandering Contagion, but got lost. Dunno how we got here. Don't really even know where here is."

"Starfall Isles...you're in the very outside border of where my clan just moved to." Anaire looked at the considerably smaller dragon. She'd never heard of Aberrations before. They were either a very new or very old species. She leveled her gaze with the one who had called herself Bel. "Are all Aberrations like...you? Do they have two heads?"

"Most do. We kind of liken it to when your kind become Emperors, only we're still fully conscious and in control of the body. We just share it."

"And are there others? Here?"

"Oh, just our mate. Aetevi. He was out looking for something for us to eat. Not much here. We sent him to see if he could find anything on the far side of the plateau." The two heads lifted and looked out over the brush. "Here he comes now~"

Another of these strange dragons appeared on the horizon, something clutched within the forepaws. The forest green dragon landed and held up a black ram toward the leaf green female. "This was the best Aet and I could find."

"Thanks, Evi. You did your best. Ati and I will enjoy it." She took the ram from him, grinning. "This is our new friend, um, I didn't catch your name?"

"Oh! I'm so sorry. My name is Anaire." She dipped her head in greeting, trying to not go too much lower than the dragons before her. She suddenly felt quite awkward with her length compared to them. She was easily six or seven times as long as the longer of the pair. "I'm looking for a place to set up a nesting ground for my clan. Have you two, um, four, seen anything that would work? Somewhere with plenty of grass and maybe some formations we can use to shelter the young?"

Belati glanced over at Aetevi, "Over on the other side of that ridge there is a little hidden alcove of sorts. There are large tufts of grass and some like, indents? Looks like long ago another clan may have used it as a nesting area for their babies. You could check it out?"

"Mhm. Belati and I were considering it for a nest of our own. We are currently hoping for some young before making it all the way home to the Contagion." His own eyes sparkled the same cerulean as Anaire's own. "Even though I'm technically not even a Plague. I'm Lightning. I still like going to the place of my whole species' origin."

Anaire tilted her head, "Why not spend some time with us? We can help each other. You show me where the den space is, and we will allow you to use one of the nests we set up for yourselves to have your babies. The nests are always guarded by specific dragons dedicated to it, so you wouldn't really even need to worry about that. All three are Skydancers. Which is weird come to think of it."

"Why is it weird?"

"Well...exactly one other group is made up of the same species. Our clan Guards are Guardians. They are the only ones that have the same specie for the entire grouping."

"Why are they grouped off like that?" Belati glanced quickly at Aetevi. They'd never heard of grouping off dragons. "Is it important?"

"I suppose not in the long run. It just makes training easier? It would be better if I just showed you. Come. I'll take you back to my clan so you can meet them and see for yourself why we do what we do." She took to the sky before they could protest, leading them back in the direction that she had originally come from. Back toward her new home. Anaire wondered idly if they even had the room to house two new dragons. She was sure they did. There had been plenty of spaces when they had left. It had even seemed like they'd opened up more with the new clan space. That was a later problem. Not a now problem. Now she just had to remember the way back home.

"So, what made you guys move out here? You said new home before."

"Oh, I have no idea truly. I think it was because our clan was getting too big for where we were, and we didn't really fit the ideals of our old home. Fit more in with Arcane dragons. So it just made sense to move out here." She landed on the edge of her clan's space, taking them in toward where the council of elders had set up their den. Anaire knew she had to introduce them to the clan. Perhaps they would allow these strange new dragons to live among them. It was worth a try.