Kah had been a little terror since she learned how to walk, often running around as fast as her little legs would carry her which wasn't very fast at all compared to the adults. Strun and Faad had learned very quickly that their daughter had a voracious curiosity for any little thing she could get her tiny hands on and no amount of scolding could change that. It had gotten to the point of them having to have a harness and tie made to go over her clothing just so they wouldn't lose her in a momentary lapse of focus.
Despite all of this Faad and Strun beamed with joy as they watched their little girl grow before their eyes. It only felt like a few days had passed when they were celebrating their daughter's eighth birthday. Kah being a child didn't care much about the celebration even if it meant gifts and sweet treats. She was bored of being cooped up in the big tower and wanted to be allowed to play outside with the other dragon children her age. She never liked it when her parents told her she couldn't play with them. They would always tell her that she was too young to play with them or that the other kids were too strong and might hurt her.
Kah had decided early on that she thought that this was stupid. She might only be eight but she was a Nadder. A proud and strong dragon! It only made sense to her that she should be allowed to play with the other kids and while she had respected her parent's wishes up to this point that she had enough of that. She wanted friends that were her age, not like her favorite nanny who was so much older then she was. Shiraav was a very nice old Nadder who would often take her for walks in the huge garden on her home island that was so much bigger than her parent's nesting chambers. She would often see other dragons there but she was never allowed to go over and play with them no matter how much fun it looked like they were having.
It wasn't fair.
She would often be forced to go with her mother while she stared at those big, heavy, dusty old books with no pictures in them. She would often just sit and stare at the easier books that she could read before she turned away with a huff. Reading was boring. She didn't know how her mother could do this almost everyday and not go crazy from boredom! She asked her one day why she liked it so much and she would always reply with, "because it is my job my little hatchling." Kah didn't quite understand what was so important about that but decided to drop the topic. Whenever she asked any of her family members she always got the same answer of "it is my job. Other dragon's depend on us to do these jobs so we must do them and give it our best effort otherwise we all will suffer for it."
She wondered to herself what her job would be. Every dragon that wasn't an elder worked for their place in the colony. The same thing was expected of her when she came of age but that didn't mean she had any idea of what to do. Her mother wanted her to become a record's keeper like she was but Kah never could sit still long enough to listen to the lessons being given to her. She had learned how to read by her mother's stubborn insistence but it was not something she wanted to do for the rest of her life.
In truth the things she really wanted to learn from her parent's like breathing fire or flying would only get her funny looks and be brushed off as something she would learn when she was older. Why wouldn't they teach her how to fly or breathe fire by now? From the brief times she had seen other dragons that looked her age she could tell that a lot of them could at the very least hop up to the lower tree branches in the garden which was as high as her father was tall. If the other's could do it by now then why couldn't she? She would often practice whenever she wasn't under one of the adult's noses by stretching and waving her oddly shaped wings, jumping as hard as she could in a desperate attempt to get off the ground for just a little bit longer. This would often end with her landing with a flopping thump as she tried and failed time and time again.
Maybe it was because she didn't have a tail? Most dragons she had seen flying had tails, maybe she would ask her parents if they could get her one. It was a funny thing now that she thought about it, she didn't look anything like her parents or even her annoying older brother. For some reason she was pink and didn't look like any other Nadder that she had seen before. Even the babies looked like their parents or at least that is what she had been told at least by Shiraav anyways.
She walked away from the book shelf she had been leering at and back to the overstuffed pillow that was laid out for her. She wanted to play in the garden but it was the afternoon and that meant that other dragon children would be out playing so her mother would never allow it. Maybe if she snuck out quietly she could go to the garden and just watch the others play. It would certainly be more fun than sitting on a pillow waiting for her father to come and get her and it's not like she would be playing with them so her parents should not have anything to worry about right?
She did not see any faults with her plan so while her mother had her nose deep in a book Kah snuck quietly out of the room. Once she was past the doors thanks to a Terror's entrance that she was still just small enough to be able to squeeze through, soon enough she would be too big to be able to use them. Kah had been careful to duck and weave around the carved stone statues and the gorgeous pillars that had gold and silver filigree being careful to avoid the tower staff. If she got caught then she would be escorted back to the library and would be in a lot of trouble for sneaking out.
While Kah was trying to carefully navigate the long winding hallways, one of which would lead to the tower's garden she didn't notice the sullen Ahvos who stood directly behind her. She about jumped out of her skin when she turned around, fully expecting to be dragged back to her mother but the Terror just stood there with a slightly far off look in his eyes. After a minute the Terror cocked his head in a silent question, Kah considered turning tail and running back to the library as coming back on her own would get her in less trouble then if she had been escorted back by an adult, but something stopped her.
"Do you know where the garden is?" She asked as sweetly as she could and gave him her most winning smile as the Terror silently mulled over the question. He squinted at her for a moment as if he was wondering if he should take her back to her mother or tell her what she wanted. A brief minute passed before the older dragon seemed to come to a decision, he stood and raised a leg to point at a nearby door with a smile tugging at his face. "Just through there, little one." He managed a small half smile before he continued on his way to wherever he had been going to before she bumped into him.
Deciding it was best to not push her luck she tried the door the terror had pointed to and found that he had been telling her the truth. The light that would filter in from the windows of the tower was nothing compared to the bright piercing light of the sun that shined down into the partially enclosed courtyard that the garden was kept in.
The colorful plants and sweet smelling flowers while a reward in their own right could not compare to the sounds and sight of several young dragons that looked her age playing together in the open courtyard. There was a cocky male Hobblegrunt, two Nadders that had to be brothers, a rather dumb looking male Scuttleclaw, a large but sweet sounding female Nightmare and most surprising of all, at the head of the group stood a grumpy looking male Skrill. Dragons in the colony were notoriously proud of their individual species but for the most part would work together when necessary, so it was unusual to see such a mixed group actually playing together.
Kah watched as they played a game where one of the dragons was 'it' while the others ran away. Kah watched as the other kids scattered, the brothers bickered and fought with one another heedless of the Scuttleclaw running towards the easy target, neither brother seeming to notice until he was right on them. When they realized their mistake the brothers scattered, one brother was running towards the rest of his group of friends, the Scuttleclaw following a few steps before being scared off by a short growl of warning from the Skrill causing him to turn around and chase the other brother… who was running straight towards Kah in her semi hidden spot.
Kah scrambled to get out of the way but she had waited too long, having been distracted by the Scuttleclaw giving chase that she hadn't thought to move herself to a safer position. She screeched in surprise along with the Nadder that tripped over her, the male wasn't much larger than her but he was much heavier. For the Nadder's part he yelped and flapped his wings in an attempt to catch himself but failed as he ungracefully flopped to the ground.
Kah was stunned by the blow but was otherwise unharmed, the Nadder got up and turned to glare at whatever he tripped over, likely suspecting a rock or a tree root, the look on his face when he saw the young human would have been quite humorous. It was that dumbstruck look that someone would have when looking at something but not really seeing it from sheer disbelief.
Before Kah could even think to run away while the Nadder collected his wits the rest of the group of friends had come over to see what was taking the brother so long to get up and return to the game. The Scuttleclaw of course being hot on the Nadder's tail was the first to arrive on the scene. He cocked his large head to the side clearly not understanding what he was looking at either but unlike the Nadder he was clearly much slower in the head than his friend was.
When the rest of the group arrived the Nadder that tripped went to his brother's side. The group eyed the young human with both curiosity and a little bit of ire for disrupting their game. Kah got to her feet and looked at the group curiously. She knew very well from her parent's constant warnings that other dragons would not easily accept her, they might get angry and could even hurt her. Right now they just looked at her, no one present having any idea of what to do much less how to react.
Kah knew that she needed to go back to the library, her mother would already be furious with her sneaking out and getting caught but she couldn't pass up this opportunity to at least talk to someone that wasn't her family. "I am Kah, daughter of Strun and Faad." She postured herself as her father would, tall and proud with her chest puffed out, this only seemed to confuse the group even more as the Skrill took the lead and addressed Kah. "Why should we care?" His tone was harsh and dismissive as he stared Kah down as if almost daring her to challenge him. None of the others spoke up, some choosing to wait and see how this played out while the others simply had better ideas of what to do.
The Skrill stood taller than her easily by a foot, he also was clearly the leader by how the others in the group both looked up to him while averting their eyes away from him at the same time. Kah had been learning from her father that some dragons were stronger than others in both character and presence, he had told her that sometimes the best course of action was to submit and slowly turn it to her advantage, take control by making others think they were in charge. This didn't really make sense to her, she was very proud but her father was the smartest dragon she knew so she supposed giving it a try would not hurt.
"I apologize for my rudeness, please tell me what your name is?" The Skrill chose not to answer right away instead he looked the human up and down as if he was trying to figure something out without any assistance. Finally he gave up with an annoyed grunt and addressed the human with a wary sort of confusion. "What are you?" The other dragons seem to perk up a little at the question clearly interested in hearing an answer as well. Kah scoffed at the question before recomposing herself, "a Nadder of course."
The sheer certainty and confidence of her answer threw the collected dragons for a minute as they processed the answer given to them; then they started laughing. Kah felt her face go red but this must be what it meant to not be in control, right? For now she pushed the anger down and waited for the others to stop laughing. She had no idea why they were laughing but she also did not want to sound like a fool by asking. Soon enough the laughter died down as the Skrill shook his head "you are not a Nadder." Kah felt her anger flare up again as she repeated herself a little more firmly, "I am a Nadder."
This time one of the brothers spoke up with a sharp bark of laughter "you may be as ugly as my brother but you are no Nadder." The other brother laughed for a moment until he realised what his brother said and swatted at him with a wing, "you are the ugly twin not me!" That quickly devolved into an 'am not', 'are too' fight between the brothers as they nipped and whipped at each other with their tails. This was ignored by the rest of the group as they turned their attention back to the now incredibly flustered Kah.
"Even the twins who are Nadders agree. So, what are you?" The Skrill leaned in as he egged on the shaking human. Kah was now gritting her teeth as she struggled to hold on to the last fraying strands of her patience. "My parents have both told me I am a Nadder so it must be true." Kah stamped a foot on the ground to emphasize her point, the Skrill huffing and rolling his eyes dismissively in return.
At this, Kah went completely still as she remembered something else her father had told her, 'Kah, you must always show respect to other dragons, especially when they have more power than you but no matter what; never be ok with them not showing any respect to you.' This was also something that had not made sense to her at the time but now she knew what her father really meant.
While Kah was considerably weaker than most dragon's her age she made up for it with a combination of a furious temper and a few dirty tricks from her brother about where a dragon's weak spot was. The Skrill shrieked in surprise as Kah lunged forward and sunk her teeth into the softer scales around his neck. An adult dragon would have nothing to worry about as their scales would be hardened with age but the same could not be said for a young child. Sinking her teeth into the Skrill's throat she shook her head wildly as she reaffirmed her hold. For the Skrill's part he batted at her with his wings as he tried to pry Kah off his throat with little effect.
The Skrill was too young to call a surge of electricity and could only try to swat at the human biting at his throat as she positioned herself in a way so that he couldn't pull her off or rip her to shreds with his sharp claws. He rolled several times to try and dislodge her but only succeeded in dirtying her clothing and further angering the human who lashed out with slaps, punches and kicks that weren't as effective as her clenched teeth on his neck but still painful nonetheless. The other dragons watched on in shock, none of them thought to intervene or to go and get an adult.
Suddenly a sharp roar rang out loudly through the garden causing all of the children to freeze. Kah let the flailing Skrill go and shrank back under her mother's livid glare. When Faad had realized that her daughter was missing she had gone tearing through the tower looking for her child only to find her fighting with a Skrill in the garden. None of the children dared to move, not even the Skrill who wanted to rub at his sore throat. The dragoness was so furious that she could not even speak properly for a minute, when she calmed enough to speak her words were heated and carried an authority that would make a titan winged dragon shutter. "I want an explanation." Her heated gaze turned to her daughter first.
The young girl looked like she wished for the ground to swallow her up rather than have to face her angry mother. "I am sorry, I just wanted to watch the others play." She shrunk more as Faad's eyes narrowed, that clearly wasn't what she wanted to hear. "I got too close and one of the boys", she pointed at the Nadder that tripped over her "had tripped over me when they were playing. Afterwards they asked me 'what I was'." She let out a low growl as she dared a scowl at the terrified Skrill, "they keep saying I am not a Nadder."
Kah expected her mother to growl at her for looking away but when she met her eyes she saw the briefest flashes of something she had never seen before. Since she had never seen it before she couldn't really tell what it actually was. After a second it passed and Faad had gone back to looking very mad. "Kah we are going home. Now." With that said Faad turned and made her way over to the doorway and waited for her daughter to follow.
Kah turned to follow her mother but dared a glance back at the other children who were either looking away from the furious dragoness or making sure that the Skrill was all right. The Skrill looked at her with an odd mix of expressions on his face that Kah could only ponder about as she ran to follow her mother.
She walked silently as her mother fumed and made little mutters in her throat that Kah could not hear. She knew better then to try and apologize right now so she settled on trying to figure out what the odd looks she had gotten from the others were supposed to mean. Clearly she was missing something that others clearly knew. The other dragons had rudely called attention to things she herself had only just been starting to notice.
Whenever she looked into a pool of water or a reflective stone the thing that stared back at her was wrong. She did look different from her parents and her brother, she was also missing many things that a Nadder should have, especially at her age. When she asked about it she would get different stories from her parents, mostly her father.
"Why are my wings not like yours?" She would lift her arms that she normally kept tuck by her side like her parents would. "Well my fierce little dragoness, you do not have wings really." He looked away from her for a moment before continuing, "They were stolen by a butterfly. I assure you my dear that I gave chase for many miles but your beautiful wings were simply too fast for me to catch up and it got away."
"Where are your horns? They simply haven't grown in yet. I do not know when they will grow in, some Nadders have this misfortune." He looked mournful for a moment before his face brightened up, "this does not mean you will be hornless, I will talk to Master Gelt and see if he can help us." Kah had no idea how that stern old dragon that always smelled like smoke and metal could help her grow her horns but she quickly grew bored with this and went back to the small toys in her room that used to belong to her brother.
"Why do you not have a tail?" This question actually gave the older dragon pause, "well I actually have no idea what happened to your tail." His face creased with thought but he shook his head and quickly changed the topic.
There was always an underlying tension whenever she started asking questions like those, a tension that was clearly radiating off her mother right now. Things weren't adding up and the only thing keeping her from asking was the fact that her mother was still mad with her about sneaking out and she really didn't want to temp 'poking the beast' as her older brother would say whenever their mother wasn't around to hear him say it.
After an indeterminate amount of time Strun walked through the doorway clearly tired from a long day at work only to be greeted by his agitated wife and his daughter who looked like she would rather be anywhere else. He took in the scene with a sigh as if he expected something like this to be waiting for him when he returned. Despite her mood Faad greeted her husband warmly with a nuzzle before her face settled back into one of frustration.
Strun walked into their living quarters and sat down on a large sturdy bench that Kah always liked to hide under when she was smaller and sighed tiredly. "I know that our daughter has snuck out already. Ahvos told me about it himself." Strun shook his head in mild disbelief before continuing, "he told me that he found her wandering the halls while she looked for the garden. Said it reminded him of when his hatchling Osley was that age, always sneaking out and causing mischief."
The normally sullen terror had been quite amused by the situation when he recounted it to Strun after he had found him. Even being council members who worked together quite often it was rather rare that they crossed paths much less spoke to each other. Nonetheless Strun knew from the gloomy Terror's lack of concern that his daughter was in no real danger and it would likely be only a matter of minutes before his wife went looking for their daughter.
Faad did not look as amused by the whole thing as her husband had and pointed to Kah with the tip of a wing. "She had gotten into a fight in the courtyard with Nos." This actually managed to catch Strun by surprise, he never thought that his daughter would actually pick a fight with a Skrill. "What happened?" Faad's annoyance dropped as fear crept into her face. "Apparently he had began asking her some rather, unsavoury questions, that our daughter took offense to. When I found them she was attempting to rip open a hole in Nos's throat, I broke it up and brought her back here."
His wife sidestepping the reason for the fight was immediately concerning but he took the cue and looked to his daughter who wouldn't meet his eye, he crouched down as much as he could to meet her on her level without being laid out flat on the floor. "Kah, I want you to be honest with me young lady so look me in the eye." Kah reluctantly did, her father took a brief pause before asking "did you win?" Strun laughed as his wife flicked at his butt with her tail but it seemed to lighten the mood of the room.
While Strun barked with laughter and Faad grumbled aloud until a soft knocking on the door had all the rooms occupants turn to look. Strun bit the bullet and opened the door to see who was there. To the dragon's surprise there was a small group of young dragons waiting. Nos looked reluctant to be there but the group behind him wouldn't allow him to retreat that easily. Seeing Strun standing there instead of the scary Faad helped the Skrill to gather his nerve. "Hello sir, might your daughter be home?" Kah poked her head around her father's legs to eye the Skrill a little incredulously but waited for him to say what he wanted.
He looked back at his friends before taking a deep breath, "sorry." The Skrill, Nos only looked semi apologetic and looked like he was resisting the urge to rub at his throat. Strun stepped aside and gave his daughter a gentle nudge with a wing. Kah straightened herself as she considered the apology before nodding and gave back an equally half hearted apology that earned her a small chuckle from Nos.
Kah fully expected that to be the end of things, she would be shuffled back into her room while her parent's considered what her punishment would be. Nos looked to Strun and Faad, the latter making him shuffle awkwardly on his feet for a moment before asking "can she come out and play?" Kah looked to her parents with wide pleading eyes begging for their approval.
Strun looked towards his wife for confirmation before nodding and shooing away the children to go play. "Thank you! I will be back in time for dinner." With that the young girl ran off to play with her new friends while her parents watched her go. Strun resolved quietly to call for Shiraav to watch over the children but for the moment the dragon could only sigh in relief.
That had been far too close. Strun and Faad had both known that this would come up one day, they had resolved to tell their daughter the truth early on but the years just flew past in the blink of an eye. While they both knew humans both aged faster and had shorter lifespans than they did, they never could find the right time to broach the topic with their daughter. Kah was smart though she lacked patients and focus to be immediately concerning but she was rapidly starting to catch on that something was different about her.
This incident was a harsh reminder that this was something that they would need to address soon if they wanted to cushion the blow. Neither had an idea of how to go about it which led to them wanting to put it off even more. The couple exchanged questioning looks before they shook their heads and decided to deal with it later after they came up with a plan.