Okay, I just wanted to say thanks for all the support and encouragement on the last chapter, you guys are all so nice owo! Also, I just wanted to say that in this story, the P.O.V, or point of view will be switching; hope that doesn't bother anyone. Oh, and by the way, this chapter is a bit longer, than the other one, just a warning~
Chapter I • Orken
If Orken could choose any way to spend the first day of summer, chances are he would not have picked as a petty thief.
Of course, it wasn't exactly in his top ten. Not even in his top five. If he actually could find someone who would want to spend the first day of summer something, he would either laugh in their faces or praise them. Either way, it wasn't exactly something he would choose to do, given the choice.
If he had a choice in how his life went, Orken would have found a bajillion dollars buried somewhere in the desert by now, and gotten himself out of the...say, financial pothole he was in. Of course, the universe was a dick, and had left him with nothing other than empty pockets and a choice: either have good morals and die homeless and hungry, or bend the law a bit just to survive. And personally, death didn't seem like a good thing to be on Orken's agenda.
While petty theft wasn't really how Orken wasnted to spend his day, it wasn't necessarily a bad day as far as days went. White strands of clouds lay dotted and speckled around the pale blue desert sky, reminding Orken of if someone had dabbed blobs of paint all over a piece of blue construction paper. The late afternoon slowly baked the streets of Possibility, the heat continuing to be unrelenting, not even as the sun slowly lowered in the sky.
The smell of cooking meat and fresh fruit filled Orken's nostrils as he lifted his snout up for a sniff of the air, and the young SandWing felt sharp claws of hunger scrape at his stomach. Having being used to empty plates, he never realized how hungry he was until the food was presented in front of him on a silver platter-or in this case, a group of merchants with carts looking to make a quick buck.
"Excuse me sir; can I interest you in some quality bear meat? Fresh from the Sky Kingdom!" A SkyWing merchant with coppery scales cried out, grabbing Orken by the shoulder. Surprised, Orken whipped around and gave a look of disdain; he had spent enough time in the markets to spot a con from a while away. The "quality bear meat" the SkyWing was supposedly selling actually appeared to be goat meat, something that Orken could get down the block for five coins.
"No thanks, I'm good," he said in a slightly resentful way, whipping around and rushing through the crowd. Orken wasn't too discouraged, though; the SkyWing was just another one of the merchants that the Summer Festival usually attracted.
Living in the city his whole life, Orken had almost come to think of the city as "his" city-he knew every street, every building, ever alley like the back of his own talon. So, altogether, the young SandWing found it hard to find anything wrong with his home, but over the course of his five years as a living, breathing dragon he had managed to find two things that could use some improvement: the money problem and all the dragons flying through.
To be honest, Possibility had never exactly been the "richest" city; most of the dragons who lived there were either poor or flat-out broke; the terms "rich" or "wealthy" weren't really used often. However, that part has never really bothered Orken; to be honest, there was only one thing in this city that really grated on his nerves, and that was the con artists.
Every city had a few, but the same thing happened every year around the Summer Festival; when dragons flocked to Possibility for the Summer Festival, they always brought loads of con artists trailing behind them, and this year was no exception. One time, Orken had made the mistake of bringing his youngest sister, Fennec, the Summer Market, and some MudWing had managed to wrangle 20 silver coins out of her just for some asparagus and a mango.
Kill or be killed, Orken thought as his glittering back eyes drew over the stands, his mind calculating which things he could take without anyone noticing. If dragons were going to con him, then he wouldn't get out of it by asking them nicely. If he were going to survive, he had to take a few things here and there.
Shoving his way through the surging crowd, Orken licked his lips as he gazed at the goods displayed before him, wondering which stand to take from. He could only take from one stand, because then the clerk would surely notice, and then Orken would be preoccupied with another problem: getting back to the house and losing them before they caught him.
As the young SandWing padded over the dirt roads, woven and eroded from years of talons, a flash of silver passed by his eye. It moved so fast that Orken almost missed it, but when he did see it, he stopped in his tracks, suddenly intrigued. Turning around, Orken craned his neck
However, it was the goods displayed that made Orken's heart stop—gems. Real life, authentic, 100% crystals. Rubies, emeralds, diamonds, pearls; all woven into necklaces, earrings, jewelry boxes, you name it. Orken knew for a fact that those kinds of things never showed up in Possibility, not even in the nicest stores on the east corner. To see just one of them here, even at the Summer Market, was a rarity. Orken realized that getting those gems now might be the only chance he would have to get anything that nice.
The SandWing's mouth watered as he imagined all the food just one of those stones could bring him, Fennec, or his older sister, Diamondback. As if hearing his thoughts, Orken's stomach gave a long, low growl, as if it wanted to make this come true too.
"Don't worry; I hear you loud and clear," Orken mumbled, patting his stomach as he remembered his meager breakfast of a single lizard. Putting on his best I'm just an innocent dragonet with a sackfull of coins face that he used every time he did this sort of thing, Often strolled as casually as he could over to the stand.
Right away he realized just how easy this would be. Not only was the clerk absently counting his money, not even paying attention to the product, he also had them just splayed out in the open without the slightest concern that someone might, oh I don't know, steal one.
Quietly as he could, Orken began looking around the gems, poking the stones with a single black claw, observing his reflection in a ruby. That would look great on Diamondback, Orken thought, stuffing the gem into the satchel that hung around his neck.
As Orken's talons glanced over the glittering rocks and gemstones, his heart leapt as he saw the large variety; there were stones that he had occasionally heard of here and there, like obsidian and diamonds, and even things he had never heard of, like something called "cactus quartz."
The clerk was so absorbed in counting his money, that a full 30 seconds passed before he noticed Orken was there. By then, Orken was rubbing his talons over something called "painite" when the clerk snapped to attention. "Hey! Just what do you think you're doing?" The SeaWing cried in a gruff voice, and Oren winced. He hoped he could get away quickly; this was not someone he wanted to get caught by.
Putting on his most innocent eyes possible, Orken reached into his satchel and pulled out a single brown pouch. "Oh, nothing sir," he said, using the innocent voice that he always did whenever he did something like this. "I'm just doing a bit of shopping."
Clasping the pouch in his talons, Orken shook it around, giving off the impression that there were coins inside. Scrap metal in a pouch—classic, Oren thought, but the clerk didn't seem amused. In fact, as soon as the words slipped past Orken's lips, the scowl displayed across the SeaWing's face only got deeper.
"Say, do you mind if I look inside the pouch?" He asked suspiciously, holding out his talons. "We've just been getting a lot thieves around here." Instantly, Orken felt the color drain from his face. Maybe this guy wasn't an amateur.
"Um...sure. Just take the bag," Orken said, the words coming quicker than he wanted to, his mind racing to come up with a suitable response. Maybe he had to come up with a better technique. With the clerk's eyes burning into him and the dragons who were now starting to stare, Orken found that his mind drew a blank. Panicking, Orken flung the bag onto the counter and bolted down the road, shoving dragons out of his way as he went.
It only took a few moments for Orken to realize how stupid he had been, and when he did, he practically smacked himself. He had just barely turned the corner when he heard a loud voice bellow, "Thief!",which was quickly followed by loud grunts and surprised cries, like dragons being shoved out of the way.
One time, after Fennec had just finished reading a fantasy scroll about dragons with superpowers, she had said she wanted to find out if Orken had super speed. To find out for sure, she said, she would light a fire behind him and see how fast he could run. Orken had then told his sister that if she ever did that, he would only shout "fiddlesticks!" and be burnt to a crisp.
Right now, Orken felt like he was being tested for superspeed, with the wildfire right about to burn him, only right now he felt like screaming a word very different from "fiddlesticks".
Racing through the crowd, Orken tried to spread his wings out to fly away, but as soon as he tried, he quickly found out that with all the dragons milling around, there was hardly any room to stretch his wings a little, let alone stretch them far enough to take off and fly. Adjusting the sack around his neck, Orken tried to run faster, but as he ran, he quickly realized something else:
Gems.
Were.
Heavy.
From the stand, the gems had looked delicate and fragile, like pieces of candy or stained glass window. But now that they were actually in his pouch, Orken realized that gems were just really shiny rocks, which meant that just like rocks, they were heavy as a word that Diamondback had banned him from saying a long time ago. However, Orken could now hear the SeaWing's furious cries, even though Orken must now be two whole blocks from the Summer Market.
However, as he got farther away from the market, Orken found the number of dragons thinning, slowly lowering from the large, noisy crowd in the market to strangled numbers watching the SeaWing pursue him from the sidelines.
Experimentally, Orken spread out his wings a little bit, and quickly realized something; now that he was away from the market, he could actually fly. A determined look slowly crept across the SandWing's face as his off-white, brown-speckled wings stretched to their full length, and Orken found that his talons were slowly leaving the ground.
He wasn't even a few feet in the air, however, when he felt the weight of the gems tugging on his neck. As Orken lifted into the air, he felt the stones pull him down, yanking on his neck. Dang it. Why had he gotten so many? He didn't need to be rich; he just needed enough to be able to afford some comforts for him and his sisters.
For the first time that day, Orken felt sharp claws of fear claw at his stomach. If the SeaWing clerk caught him, then he would certainly be turned in, and then what? He had never considered it, but he could actually go to jail. The thought in his mind, Orken spread his wings and tried to fly a bit faster, sweat beading on his forehead.
Just a little farther, and he would be home. Just a little farther...suddenly, Orken felt a sharp yank at the bag.
Startled, the SandWing felt the strap choke at his neck as he was yanked backwards. Glancing behind him, Orken saw that the bag had caught on a cactus, firmly planted on the prickles. If he had enough time, he might have gone ahead and carefully picked it off, but time was not a luxury that was available to him right now. Yanking fiercely, Orken tugged on the back until it came loose with a satisfying sound of it ripping away from the cactus.
Now that it was free, Orken spread his wings, and found that he suddenly felt lighter. A lot lighter, actually. Spreading his wings, Orken found that he could suddenly fly much higher and faster than he had been to before, which was a big relief, because he could hear the distant wingbeats of the SeaWing slowly gaining on him. With a burst of speed, Orken flapped his wings and sprinted through the air over the rooftops of Possibility.
Before long, the wingbeats of the SeaWing faded into the distance, causing Orken to give a sigh of relief. Finally. Lowering himself to the ground, Orken scanned the rooftops until he caught sight of the familiar mud brick roof and small desert marigolds that Fennec had planted outside that spring. Smiling, Orken lowered himself to the ground, landing at the front door.
Stepping forward, Orken reached out for the doorknob, then stopped. While it was basically the main way the small family got by, Diamondback had never approved of Orken's thievery, and the young SandWing knew that his sister wouldn't exactly be pleased to learn that he had stolen something as valuable as gems. Still, there was no way he could bring them back, not after he had successfully gotten away with them.
Taking a deep breath, Orken finally pushed open the door, into the same sight he had been looking at for the past five years. He, Diamondback and Fennec had never been the richest of dragons, and one look at their house would tell you exactly that. It was a one-room house, built out of mud bricks with small windows displayed all around the home.
Aligned against the wall there were two rickety old beds; one for Diamondback, and one that Orken shared with Fennec, and beside them sat a single scroll rack, though there were only five or six scrolls actually on it. A single stove fueled by dragon fire sat in the corner of the room, and in the center there was a large rug that Diamondback had woven, detailed descriptions of dancing SandWings and other dragons woven into the surface.
The rug was the only thing that brought any actual joy to the home, though to Orken's relief, the creator wasn't home. The only resident, at the moment, was a single small SandWing, sitting upon the rug and playing with two desert horned lizards.
At the sight of his sister, Orken smiled. Fennec was a young SandWing, not even a full year old, with white-gold wings that reminded Orken of the color of the SandWing palace. Small brown speckles wove across her body, most of them being centered around her snout in a series of freckles. As soon as Orken entered the house, the young SandWing jumped to her feet and beamed.
"Orken! Guess what I found?" She cried gleefully, bouncing up and down on her talons. Orken didn't even have a chance to respond before she went on. "After Diamondback went to work, I found these two lizards outside, and they are so cute; I'm trying to make them mate so I can have a bunch of baby lizards! Only thing is, I can't tell if one is a boy or a girl; can you help me check?"
Remembering what he had learned about lizard reproduction in school, Orken's stomach twisted at the thought of checking to see the lizard's gender. Taking out his satchel, Orken tried to change the subject.
"Well, that's pretty cool, but guess what? While I was at the Summer Market, I got you a present!" At the mention of a present, Fennec started bouncing up and down on her talons. "Really? You got me a present?" The young SandWing called, elated. Smiling, Orken reached for his satchel, peeled open the flap...and felt his heart stop.
"No. No. No no no, dang it!" Orken cried, banging his fists on the ground. Now he could see why the bag had gotten so much lighter; when he had ripped the satchel free from the cactus, a large rip had formed at the base, and apparently it had been large enough for most of the gems to fall out, except two.
"What is it?" Fennec asked, peering inside the bag, and instantly her face lit up. "Ooh! Pretty!" She cried, clasping the cactus quartz in her talons. As the held the purple-and-gold stone up to the light, her face got even brighter. "Why are you sad? These are so pretty!" She exclaimed, rolling the stone around on the carpet. Orken sighed, allowing his shoulders to slump, and peered in the bag at the other stone: a single ruby, the one meant for Diamondback.
"Yeah but...I used to have a whole satchel of them," Orken mumbled, and Fennec looked over at her brother, sticking her lip out. "Oh...I'm sorry you lost your pretties," she mumbled, and Fennec was so cute at that moment, Orken almost smiled. Suddenly, Fennec brightened up, as if she had suddenly remembered something.
"Ooh, wait! I know what'll make you feel better!" Racing over to the small, rickety table where the family of three ate their meager meals, Fennec scooped a single piece of paper off the table, and raced it across the room to Orken. As soon as it was closer, Orken realized that it wasn't a piece of paper, but an envelope the color of jade, held down with a single wax seal.
"It came today a little while after Diamondback left! Diamondback always says not to open any mail until she gets back, but since it's for you, I figured it counts!" Fennec cried, depositing the envelope in front of Orken. Deliver to any house in Possibility, it read, and in the corner, Orken saw the return address, a place called Jade Mountain Academy.
Curiously, Orken broke off the wax seal, where it crumbled onto the floor, one of Fennec's lizards tentatively dabbing it with it's tongue. As soon as he dumped the contents onto the floor, two things feel out: a piece of paper with a green frame, and a letter scrawled onto a piece of parchment in script handwriting. Curiously, Orken picked up the piece of paper first.
To the recipient of this letter,
Congratulations! Enacted a few days ago, you have been selected to participate in Jade Mountain Academy's new pen pal program! In this program, you have been chosen to become pen pals with one of our students, which could be anyone, from a SeaWing to a RainWing. You are kindly asked to respond to this letter as soon as possible, in order to keep the pen pals going.
-Sincerely, Clay of the MudWings, Teacher at Jade Mountain Academy
If dragons had eyebrows, Orken would have cocked his at that exact moment. Pen pal program? What the heck was that about? Out of pure curiosity, Orken picked up the other thing that had been in there, the letter written on parchment. Just who was his pen pal...
Auklet. Wasn't that some kind of bird? Whatever, it didn't matter. To be honest, this Auklet character seemed rather...interesting. For a princess of the SeaWings, she didn't seem to speak all regally and formally, as Orken had assumed most royalty would act. Instead, she seemed kind of like...and actual dragon, though in all honesty, she seemed like she was actually being forced to write to Orken.
Still, the whole idea intrigued him. A pen pal program, and with a SeaWing princess, no less. Maybe this was worth giving a shot.
"Hey Fennec, where's our paper?"
Dear Auklet,
Oh wow, I didn't realize how little writing I did...how do you even start a letter? While I'm writing, I might as well get it out there that I'm not exactly a NightWing or a RainWing, though I did meet a NightWing once, and they had some really nice scrolls...I mean, used to have some.
Anyways, hi! My name's Orken, and I'm a SandWing in Possibility. Not sure if you've ever heard of it; we're not exactly a usual town. We're actually right on the border of the SandWing and SkyWing kingdoms, so those two dragons make up most of our population, but we also have some IceWings and a few MudWings around, so that's pretty cool. I've only ever met a few NightWings and SeaWings, and I've only ever seen pictures of RainWings, so I can't even fathom what it would be like to go to school with so many of them.
Do you guys ever run out of food? How do they feed all of you? Sorry, I'm just really hungry...not that I'm always hungry! I'm not poor or anything, I'm just hungry AT THIS MOMENT; certainly not ALL THE TIME. Whatever, just ignore everything I just said. Anyways, I think this pen pal idea is pretty cool, so please write be back soon!
Sincerely, your new pen pal, Orken.
Hey guys! Sorry this chapter was so long; I had to cut the letter from Orken to Auklet off by a few paragraphs because this thing was getting so long; hope you guys still enjoyed it though!
